Lee-la May, It's Supper-time! Your mother's calling you!

Please tell me that I am not the only person who, at 5:00ish, wonders "what am I fixing for dinner?". I am completely out of ideas tonight. Seriously... nothing at all is coming to mind. I can't do the old "lean to" (pizza) since we started Pizza Night Fridays a few months ago. Truly--no ideas whatsoever.
There are days that having a paid full-time job look appealing; only for the benefit of having someone else responsible for meal time. Today is one of those days. Maybe it would be nice to be obsenely wealthy so that my personal chef could decide what to have for dinner. Perhaps I could find a MWDKWTF meeting. You know the one: Moms who don't know what to fix. I could stand up, introduce myself, and confess that I have no idea what to prepare for our evening meal, and haven't for the last week. I've fallen off the band-wagon and am seeking support from moms who know what their families are eating! Then, one day when I'm on top of things, I could say "I'm Stephanie, and my family's eating ___________ tonight." That'd be great.
Meanwhile, the following is a list of what we're NOT eating for dinner:
1. peanut butter and jam sandwiches
2. tuna anything
3. dog food
4. pizza
Okay, that's all the food I can even think of. Looks like cold cereal wins.

Welcome to the Zoo!

My darling kids are motivated to get more flexible for varying reasons; Dot, for dance, the boys for baseball. We've been doing push-ups, sit-up, stretches, and such together just about every day for a while now. Well, Wakko (shocked?) thought it would be great to learn how to do head stands, too. So now, we've got three crazy monkeys in our family room doing headstands, tripods, and such. I should charge admission... we could get rich selling tickets to watch the craziness that is our home!

Rolling, rolling, rolling...

Is it just me, or has the month of February just bolted by like a flash of preverbial light? Yamba. As I'm checking out the calendar and realizing that it's the 20th, I simply cannot account for where the month went. I see the squares on the calendar full of things we did: the Blue and Gold Banquet, activity days, library trips, talks in Primary, Valentines Day, nights out... but it just seems like the month has gone by too quickly.

Some great highlights so far include:
1. Porter (our nephew with CF) kicked psudenomas' butt! (excuse the language)
2. The biggest teddy bear I've ever seen.
3. Dot totally getting math, and averaging 2 novels a week.
4. Wakko typing 18 words per minute.
5. Yakko studying the bones in the body ON HIS OWN TIME!
6. Going "out on the town" with Stan, Adam, and Christine.
7. Seeing Cody after 13 years.
8. Talking with Melissa... and missing their family so much.
9. Seeing grass.
10. Scheduling our trip to Disneyland.

Okay, I guess a few things have been accomplished.

Happy Valentine's Day

For the last 10 years, I have had the blessing of spending Valentine's Day with my True Love. My life has been so richly enhanced by everything that my Sweetheart has brought into it. My Sweetheart is my Handsome Prince, my Knight in Shining Armor, my Love, my Heart, my Joy.

We weren't going to buy gifts for each other this year, but rather spend the evening at a nice restaurant over a quiet dinner. My Honey, however, did get a gift for me:
I love that I have a venue for which I can proclaim to all the world--

I LOVE MY HUSBAND!!!!!!!!

Wakko's First Primary Talk

Sunday, February 3, 2008 was a day that will go down in our Family history; Wakko gave his first Primary Talk. Yes, he's 6 and 1/2. Yes, he's been asked to give talks in Primary before. This, however, was his first time actually doing it. He was great! Wakko was very nervous, but did a wonderful job. He read his talk all by himself, and with confidence. We're very proud of him! *oh, and he looked so handsome!!!

Peasant Day

We're in the middle of our Middle Ages unit for Home School. Each day this week, we've "experienced" aspects of life, according to social class in that era. We're calling it "Medieval Mornings". Monday was "Peasant Day". The kids learned how to bake bread, and actually made a batch themselves. They mixed the ingredients, kneaded the dough, formed the bread, baked it, and enjoyed them as soup bowls. It was loads of fun.

Tuesday was "Nun/Monk Day". They had to spend the morning studying in silence. They thought they were going to die! After a morning of scripture study, they were extra excited to play outside in the snow.

Today is "Merchant Day". We talked about daily life for the merchant class, books, shopping, etc. Each child has a task to accomplish and teach to our family. Dot's in charge of all the cooking and cleaning, while Yakko and Wakko are learning a skill. It should be fun to see how it all comes together!

Happier Me

Dear Reader,
I apologize for sounding so grumpy this morning; I needed to vent, and this was a dandy of a place to do it. I do, I must admit, feel better. As the morning has worn on, the day seems a bit brighter. I learned some things today:
1. you can pay your bills online, and it isn't the end of the world
2. yucky laundry washes up just fine
3. the more grumpy people there are in the house, the funnier grumpiness looks
4. homemade granola makes for a delicious lunch
Thank you for your patience!

Since When Was Friday Monday?

Already today has been "one of those days", and it's not even 9 a.m. I've been greeted by each member of my immediate family with either bad news or a fight--not one "good morning", not one "I had a great dream" like usual mornings we enjoy. Am I living in the Twilight Zone where Friday is now Monday, or what?
I went to pay bills and there were no checks. I went to unload the dishwasher, and it's broken; oatmeal crusted bowls and dirty glasses galore. A load of yuckier than normal laundry found its way into my morning. I didn't even get a good kiss good-bye this morning. There is a virtual blizzard outside.
I want to go back to bed. Maybe that stash of forbidden Valentines day chocolate can join me.