What a week...

A wild week at home indeed. To busy to even blog. The fun started Saturday when we realized we had an unusual amount of water in out basement. Now we generally have some water due to our house being really old, and all the rain we have had. It was really bad this time though. We spent most of Saturday (late evening) cleaning the basement sucking up water and dumping it, using the squeegee, bleaching etc. The good news is we didn't lose much as we know it floods and we are the cautious type. Now if you have a really old house like ours you don't just get water you get mud and muck. Oh it was certainly one for that TV show "Dirty Jobs" we where such a mess. I sent my husband off to the shower first. While me and my oldest finished up, Then utoh.... its a pluming issue all the shower water went right back onto the basement floor. NOOOOO oh I was mad. We where doing a big basement cleaning as we where having issues with our dryer and wanted to clean up to get the new vents done. We where also having the gas company out on Monday to move our indoor meter outside. That little project has been the death of me they have been working on the lines since September and countless times we had no gas and our yard dug up several times. My foyer looks like it went mudding on a daily basis as our yard is mostly mud and gravel at this point. So they finally get everything moved and are ready to turn the lines back on just to tell us they have to turn it out apparently our furnace has a gas leak. Like "sorry but your house might explode" oh joy. We finally get the plumber, heating people etc. all over at once. My basement looked like a village people Reunion. I spent most of the day keeping water away from the gas people waiting for the plumber. Clean up after the line was fixed was pretty easy it all sucked down the drain. I just had to bleach some more. Now the good news here is that My furnace is fixed and wont explode, My basement is the cleanest it could ever possibly be, and my dryer actually drys clothes now. I have been in laundry heaven. The basement is also dry enough that the kids can ride their scooters inside. So after much stress God brought us right on through it. He protected us from the gas leak and put all the right people in place to get all the work done on one day with not to much trouble. I still have a lot of little things that need done amazing how when you cant use your water for a few days because you don't want to flood the basement over and over again can make the mom work pileup. So hopefully next week I will be blogging a bit more.

Save My Saturday

This Saturday is kinda a dud. My husband is working 3-11 so My Saturday needs some saving for sure. I don't know what it is about Saturdays that make the kids nuts. The school week is done, Chores are done(ish), and now They need an activity or it will be wrestle mania in my living room. Yes, Moms of all boys girls rough house and wrestle too lol. We need a way to get all the energy out. It's a little too cold to go outside without a an hour bundle up-a-thon which lets face it defeats the purpose of a restful Saturday. So indoor obstacle course it is. Now we have a decent sized house and I don't have many breakables so I allow jogging/ruining for this at their own risk. I set a timer on my ipod and I give them each a color of ruberbands, this is how we mark that they went to each spot in the course, they also have to retrieve certain items.
Todays course looked something like this.
Start at the front door
tag the back door (hang your band on the door knob)
give the dog a treat
hop scotch across the living room (we have a hop scotch carpet)
Go to the bathroom and get a roll of toilet paper
Get a pencil from the schoolroom
put the in your hand above your head and put the toilet paper on the pencil
hopscotch back across the living room
put the pencil and toilet paper away
tag your bedroom door
tag the mailbox
tag mom
and your done.
I do call out the steps as they go as that is a lot to remember
then we see who had the best time. It's pretty funny too because the dog usually chases them and the 3 year old is very territorial with the hopscotch carpet so they have those little obstacle too lol. We may do a few more courses after wards or sometimes they ask to do the same one again to try to get a better time.

Our puppy..

We Got a Puppy back in Aug. First bit of advice. Wait until your youngest child is at least 5. It's like having 2 toddlers in the house. We love him and boy has he grown. Here is a pic taken with in the first month we had him.

and here he is now.

His favorite new sleeping spot is under the tree on one of the girls bean bags.
Showing off his triple chin lol

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Top Ten Tuesday

Frist of all, I want to make it clear that this is for entertainment purposes only in the spirit of my own sense of humor. While I realize it could make me sound ungrateful It was a conversation between my husband and I that led to this list. Based on some of the terrible gifts we have given each other, given to others, or that family has given us over our 11 Christmas' together.

So without further ado the top ten worst Christmas gifts ever.

10. Fruit Cake
9. Ugly Christmas Sweaters
8. Make your own ___________Kit
7. Gift cards to places that are not local
6. Clothes that don’t fit
5. Chia Pet
4. Memberships to places you will never go
3. ___________of the month club
2. Books or Music that do not interest you in the slightest
1. Christmas themed items that you will be packing up the following week because you can’t enjoy it till next year.

Number 1 always gets me. I refuse to buy a Christmas themed item and give it to someone on Christmas day. I always feel like why give something to someone that they can't enjoy year round. I'm not talking about an ornament or something sentimental but please don't give me a potholder with a Christmas tree on it, I'm not going to see it again for another 360 days. Please tell me I'm not alone on that one lol.

Holiday cards and Potatoes

Yippee, it cyber Monday. I'm making Holiday cards today. I missed the boat and haven't finished setting up my Etsy store. Who would of thought that the life of a stay at home homeschooling mom of 4 wouldn't lend itself to much free time for crafts and hobbies.

this snowman image is only for personal use and can not be used for custom cards sorry for the inconvenience
(if your looking for custom cards email me)

Yesterday however, I did manage to get a fun activity done up for my preschooler. I downloaded a Mr. Potato Head printable. I pulled it into psp and digitally colored it (yeah I like to let my young ones color but sometimes the ocd in me needs something to look a certain way) I had to "draw" my own potato but that was ok with a lot of cutting to get it down to size. I then laminated all the pieces and attached Velcro so my little one could build her own Mr. Potato Head while we do school work. I of course ran out of Velcro so its an unfinished project but she enjoyed playing with what was done. I am thinking when my new file folders arrive I will set it up to be a file folder game or a busy bag and maybe use good old Mr. Potato Head for some lessons on the 5 senses.

On another note, I also added a new Printables section to the blog. I have just a few up right now but will be adding more as I make them. Check them out I'd love to hear what you think of them.

Shopping Sunday

Did everyone survive Black Friday? I did, my oldest and I hit walmart around 8:30am picked up a few things and stopped for breakfast while the rest of the family slept in. I did most of our shopping online this year, poor hubby has a lot of assembling to do. He said because of this I have to take over wrapping. Poor kids, I have one wrapping method and it involves newspapers and duct tape. I can't wrap to save my life and dh has a "no gift bags" policy. Hopefully we will all survive it. So now on to "Cyber Monday" wondering what if any good deals I will find. I don't research Cyber Monday nearly as much as Black Friday but rest assured I will be doing my cyber Monday homework tomorrow while we watch football. What good underground cyber Monday deals are you scouting out this year? And did you battle the crazies on Black Friday?