A Day Off

Usually Thursday is my break day where we go on an outing or do something just for fun. 

But our neighbor friends (and favorite babysitters) invited my girls to a dress up tea party and gave me a few hours to relax.

The girls were in heaven.

Dress ups.

Snacks.

Mini photo booth.

And playtime with the Barnharts.

Since this was happening and I knew a full day of school would be hard to fit in, I took today as my day off this week.

We went to Penguin Park.

Relaxed.

Played with friends.

It was fun.

Tomorrow real life begins.

Experimental Foods

Sometimes when Tyson is working late, Eden will ask me if she can make dinner for us.

She likes to experiment.

Today, I said yes.

Say hello to the meatless sandwich.

She couldn't see the lunch meat right off the bat, so she used her creativity and put a slice of baked potato in its place. 

It was a potato, tomato, and lettuce sandwich.

Not gonna lie. I kind of liked it.

She also made a side dish of toast sticks with a peanut butter banana dip.

We also experimented for dessert.

We made brownies and threw leftover candy in the middle. Whoppers, Snickers, Twix. Butterfingers, Charleston Chews, M&Ms, and whatever other random chocolates we had around. Turned out good as well.mthe Charleston Chews rose and puffed up out the top. The Whoppers hardened. The colors of the M&Ms melted out. But it tasted good. I may leave out the Whoppers next time.

Then we shared the brownies with a few neighbors. One for Grandma Helen next door. A few for our awesome neighbor friends up the street, the Stanleys, who came down to the park. The Barnharts, our all time favorite babysitters and overall amazing family. And the Seastrands, who almost always get part of our desserts that we have extras of because we love them and live only a few houses down.

Parkville Nature Conservatory Hike

Tyson found out about a little hike nearby.

It was beautiful and perfect for little kids

After the hike, we returned for lunch and deep cleaning the house.

And we were worn out by the end.

And as a side note, today was better than yesterday.

I'm still in a funk but I'm trying to do something about it.

Tyson and the kids helped to get some big cleaning done.

And I'm also working on getting a school schedule put together for the rest of the month.

Homeschool PE

Homeschool PE.

In your PJs (or naked).

Instructed by YouTube.

That's how we do it around here.

I even joined in (with a pause to take a couple pictures).

I admit that it is probably the most exercise I've done since the Dirty Dash.

My life is still not in full working order since vacation.

One day I want to get back to working out at th YMCA and have my kids take their PE class again.

...when I can figure out how to fit it into my homeschool, house cleaning, grocery shopping, meal planning, and keeping children alive schedule.

One day I would like to sign the girls up for gymnastics or dance again.

...when my budget stops appearing on our spreadsheet with a negative sign in front of it.

One day...

I'm struggling with a bad case of the "one day"s, "some day"s, and "never gonna happen"s.

I'm grateful because I have enough, my needs are met, and I am blessed.

But there's a list that keeps growing that I can't seem to figure out how to deal with. I am doing OK. I wish I was doing fabulously or even good at this point. Nothing seems complete, in order, under control, routine, satisfactory, peaceful, non-chaotic...

I'm in a rut where I'm surviving, but I feel like I'm always ending the day with an incomplete.

The chores were forgotten.

School was minimum requirements.

Didn't make to the grocery store like planned.

Kids were crying, fighting, and there was at least one running naked across the street.

I dunno. I keep thinking "someday" but I'm kind of tired of it not being today.

At least Tyson's off work tomorrow and there is not school on Saturdays...

But he works Sunday, that's a drag.

So Much Candy

The past few years I've had a system with dealing with all the Halloween candy.

This year has been a little different.

For a few days I let them have at it.

They made daily trades and even made a vending machine from a cardboard box.

"Three for one deal!"

"I'll give you this Almond Joy for your sour worms."

And I almost just let them keep going because they were so nice to each other.

"You can just have this one."

"That's ok, I'll just let you have that because you like it."

"Did you see what she gave me for FREE!?!"

But I decided to put an end to it because they were eating lots of candy, wrappers would be found here and there, and Paige was often a recipient of charity which caused me sticky everything issues.

This year I tried something new to see how it worked out.

I collected all the candy (which they knew would happen at some point so they were OK with it.)

Separated them into groups of least exciting to most exciting.

Then I gave them a dollar to use to spend on candy.

There were six groups:

5 cents

10 cents

15 cents

20 cents

25 cents

and a dollar for the big candy bars

They could also take whatever money they didn't spend and keep it.

They went shopping.

Leila and Eden bought some treats and kept a quarter for themselves.

Molly's method was quantity over quality and banked on all the 5 cent candies, including the few bigger (but less sugary) 5 cent items like pretzels and the granola bar.

I did this yesterday.

Today I gave them 50 cents and said if they were really good about doing their chores (because the house was in need) I'd give them a dollar on top of that.

It has worked out well so far.

Not sure what I'm going to do tomorrow.

School has been struggling...so I think I'm going to let them choose any candy (except the big candy) for every subject they complete in school. If they want to do extra school for more, I'm ok with that.

Marty's Birthday Party

Marty is a Martian.

He is the mascot of our public library.

And today was Marty's birthday.

Hats, balloons, cookies, and juice boxes...

And Eden won the drawing for a free Marty plush toy.

And this is a random pic of Leila trying to be an alien from outer space.

She may be a zombie from outer space.

And this is Paige giving Buddy the bear a hug....

Because it was a happy birthday, hug your neighbor kind of day.

Back to the Dentist

The dentist still gives me anxiety every time I go.

I've had plenty of work done over my life.

The are still working on my implant.

I had another little surgery to prep.

And I think the next one is the last step.

But I never know.

I love and trust my dentist....

I really do.

But he and his staff lack in the communication department.

After getting home, Tyson let me hang out in bed.

And I did get a visitor at one point.

That was me moving my mouth as much as I could.

But today was an overall good day.

The girls got along really well.

They shared candy back and forth, giving freely to those who had less and just to be nice.

They did school, though we still aren't up to speed...

They did their chores with minor complaining.

It was a nice day.

The only new and scary development is that Paige now knows how to get out of her pack n play by herself....that is definitely scary