Weight Gain

This past weekend, a friend and I went to a homeschool convention (a different blog post) and we decided to just eat out instead of trying to pack in a cooler and food. Needless to say, it wasn't the healthiest weekend. So, Tuesday morning, I weigh in 2 pounds up from last week. I am, of course, bummed and come downstairs and am telling George about it. Levi hears me and says, "2 pounds? That's hardly anything at all!"

That boy just totally made my day:)

Busy!

So, here is what I have been doing lately. I read a post on my friend, Emily's blog, that pointed me to this other blog entry and I decided to do what she was doing (though not for Lent, as we are not Catholic or Lutheran:) But I loved the idea of having a deadline and having a goal. Her idea was 40 days of Lent, 40 bags of clutter. I didn't know if I could do that exactly, but I liked her idea. So I split my house into 38 parts (see above pic) and went to work. It was so much easier to declutter the bill holder than to feel like I had to declutter the whole kitchen all in one big swoop. This has been so great! I have gotten rid of 5 large bins of stuff to sell\give away and tons of trash. Seriously! Trash?!? Where does it all come from?

Anyway, for some reason, dividing up the house like this really did it for me. I could just do a small chunk at a time and have even KEPT IT CLEAN for two weeks now! Yay! It truly is liberating! I LOVE this kind of stuff. And thanks to the girl at the Clover Lane blog-it's been a great run for me. I now have about 15 spots left, but some of them are REALLY big and will take a few days to do ( I am sure this is why they are still left:)

One of the hardest things to do will be decluttering school stuff, which I should do now, before I head down to the Homeschool Convention in Cincinnati. I never want to get rid of any of it! What if a kid needs it later on? But, it does get a bit ridiculous. We'll see if I tackle that one before I head to Cincy.

Other than decluttering, school is going well...we are liking dinosaurs a lot better than States! We bought our plane tickets to Taiwan last week! SO exciting! I did the Pinewood Derby and didn't die. I don't know why Scout stuff causes me SO MUCH STRESS, but it does. And I think that's about it. Oh, we had our first play date of the year at the park last Thursday. C'mon Spring, you can do it! Happy Days!

PS I know why I like to declutter at this time of year so much...it's almost garage sale season. Time to buy other people's clutter!! :)

A child's perspective:)

Any guesses as to which child took this picture? Your guess is as good as mine!

Here's some fun winter pics!

The snow tunnel in the backyard:)

Seth on the huge mound of snow from the plow

Sam in his winter get-up. He's just so cute!

The snow was a little much for Nat, I guess:)

Me:)

Back from the flu and pneumonia!

I think this will be another random blog list of things that are going on. It's quicker than trying to figure out how to pull random things together in a coherent entry:)

• We have gone back to diapers. Isn't that HORRIBLE? I bet I am the only parent in the world who would admit this! I think we killed it when we all got sick and couldn't take Seth to the bathroom and he had to go back into diapers. He just hasn't gotten it since then (and perhaps before that!) He always says, "Mom, I have to go potty" right after he has made a big mess. Argh. George and I got tired of it. Plus, every bathroom visit was a huge fight. Fight to get in there, fight to get the pants down, fight to get up on the potty, fight to get off, and fight to get the pants back on! It's been awful and we are all happier now:)
• I am having fun pulling together our Taiwan trip. So exciting! We now have a place to stay, passports, and even luggage (thanks to Linda!). The kids are even looking forward to being with Grandmas and Grandpas then. We're all excited!
• We are finishing our study about US States this week. It's going much better this week than last. Last week's school was not good. I assume we were recovering from being sick the previous week or something? It was awful! I also had time today to plan a dinosaur unit. I found a fabulous book at the library that has 4 weeks of dino activities and I am going to use almost all of them. They are perfect for my group! I am hoping to find more books by this author to use in later studies.
• Kids have missed so much school around here that they are going into the middle of June. Wow! It's kind of nice though, because we will be in school until June 24th. This way, there won't be so much time with the neighbors knocking on the door and us still doing school:)
• I'm excited that it's March already...or it will be in about 28 minutes:) I am happy to see February go, but most excited to start lots of fun things that will happen soon. At the end of this month, I am going to a homeschool convention in Cincinnati. Later, my sister comes here from Baltimore as well as my brother from Seattle and the new niece that we haven't met yet. That will be so much fun! Family reunion! Soon after that, we are going on our Taiwan trip:)
• I started Weight Watchers again. I quit around April of last year and have slowly gained back most of the weight. I guess this happens to lots of WW people, because I got a mailer right when I was starting to feel really bad about my weight. How did they KNOW?? So, they waived my sign-up fee (aren't they so nice?) and put me back online. I hope it works this time...just kidding. It worked last time, it's just that I don't do a good job of keeping it off. But I would say, of the weight loss programs that are out there, this is a good one. And that fad diet that George and I went on, not so much:)
• I got out of doing the Blue and Gold Banquet that I was so worried about. Which I must say, was kind of nice. Except that now, I still have to do it. It would have been nice to have been done with. Ah well, Pinewood Derby this month, B & G in April. The life of a Cubmaster:)
  

Well, there's some of our happenings. Things are really looking up for us...we are especially grateful to be healthy! Bring on Spring!

Happy Valentine's Day!

To everyone! I am sick and very tired and have a million things to do, but this is such a great day! And, it's beautiful out! Loving the sunshine and the warmer temps. Spring will come, I just know it!

Here are my random thoughts for the day:

• I wish I could get back into school. I was there for a while and then out again. I just need to be better prepared. We did some Valentine's stuff today and watched a History Channel special called "America: The Story of US". Very interesting, but the 2 parts we watched were called "Rebels" and "Revolution" and it may have been a tad violent for my young people. Riveting, yes. But very dramatic!
• Wishing I would have gotten sick on any week but this one. Blue and Gold at the end of this week and still much to be done. How do people do this? How do people homeschool, fulfill church assignments (big ones), do family life, and be sick? It's too much for me right now. So, I think I will scrap it all and just blog:)
• I also need to prep for Thursday's Enrichment night. I volunteered back in September. Too bad, I didn't remember that and planned the Blue and Gold banquet for the same week. Not smart on my part.
• Kids are sick too. Whatever we got is fast and furious. Seth and Sam were both fine this morning, but this afternoon a little like zombies. Plus, I didn't know we were getting sick, so the family that watched my kids while George and I went to Columbus also got infected. SOOOO sorry about that.
• George surprised me with a dozen roses on Friday and a yummo box of chocolates. The kids were trying to keep me out of the garage and the kitchen and I thought they were doing something wrong and trying to cover it up. I kept asking all these questions. Finally, they got exasperated at me and said, "Nothing is wrong, mom. Everything is OK!!!" So, I left and came back to a vase of roses on the table next to the chocolates. Mmmm...

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!!!

Riding the Potty Train

Continuing the saga...

We didn't PT on Sunday, but Seth woke up wanting to "get on the potty train" on Monday morning. We've been doing fairly well ever since. All day today he told me when he had to pee. Yippee! Poo is another story, but we'll get there. We just may run out of underwear first:) And I am sure I am not helping matters any as he off and on wears a diaper (when we are going out). The ride on the potty train may be bumpy, but it will get you to where you want to be!