Sorry, it's been ages since I posted. However, I did complete The Year of Living Martha-ly and it damn well near killed me. Seriously, there is NO way anyone can do what Martha recommends without some sort of household help.
Anyhow, that is not the subject of today's post. No, it's dedicated to Ms. C.J., from the suburbs of Chicago, IL:
When my ex-MIL told me that you, my ex-husband's girlfriend, was obsessed with me and my former marriage, I honestly thought it was a joke. And a not funny one, at that. For years I heard about your focus on it and how you hated me (someone you only met once or twice.) Fine, whatever. I don't particularly like you, either. Granted I hardly knew you. I do know, however, that the way you treated my kids when they wanted to see their dad was deplorable. Not wanting them to stay at the home you shared with their father (which their grandparents so generously helped you make the down payment on) was low. Talking trash about me, when you don't know a damned thing about me, was pathetic. Finding out you avidly read my posts HERE, when I didn't advertise my blog anywhere except to my friends, proved your unhealthy motives. It meant you had to be searching for me online to find this page.
Oh, how do I know about this? My ex-MIL told me today that, when you and my ex-husband broke up, you sent her a package of documents. You, apparently, read my online posts, printed out any pages that referenced his family, and took the time to highlight the sections with said references and mailed them to her. You really didn't have anything better to do with your time? Time that you could have spent with your kids or with friends or even working was spent searching for dirt on me?!? HOW. F*CKING. SAD.
I could have been an ally to you. I know how difficult my ex can be and I could have provided a good "been there, done that" perspective to situations. And this could have allowed my daughters to better bond with their younger siblings and their father's ex-significant other. Instead you chose to try and destroy the relationship I have with his family. Why? Just because I am close with his family does NOT mean I ever wanted to be back with him. Our relationship ended for some very personal, solid reasons and no amount of time, discussions, etc. could EVER change my decision. Never mind that I am currently married to the best damned man I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. He's everything my ex isn't (and everything I need in life.) I was never any threat to you and your relationship with my ex, honey.
So, Ms. C.J., to sum everything up: You are obviously unhinged and paranoid, obsessing over someone you've only met once or twice. That's pathetic and sad. Get over it and leave me alone. (I've disabled comments on this page. Friends of mine who read this know and wish to comment will know how to reach me directly.) Seriously, get over it.
I feel for your children.
Mary
PS: Not only did my ex-MIL tell me about your package during a conversation today, she made a point of telling me that she NEVER EVEN READ IT. How funny is that?!? She tossed it into a storage box and the only reason she even found it today was because she was looking for photographs to help one of my daughters with a school report. After laughing about it and you, she said she has no interest in reading it. Wow.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Day #120 (Wed 11/04/2009) - Day #133 (Tues 11/17/2009)
To say the past 2 weeks have been hectic would be an UNDERSTATEMENT. And my Martha-izing the house totally came in handy. :)
My ex-husband's parents came to visit. Together. Keep in mind, THEY have been divorced for over 12 years. It's cute that they're still best friends but still kinda creepy. Oh, and I can't forget to mention the fun fact that my ex-mother-in-law hated me the entire time I was married to her son. I divorced her son over 11 years ago and now I'm the best thing since sliced bread. I really don't get it. I guess I wasn't good enough for her son but I am good enough to raise her grandchildren (who she totally dotes on), or maybe it has to do with the fact that her son repeatedly started fights and arguments between the two of us and now that he's out of the picture, everything is fine. Who knows?
Oh, did I mention that my ex-mother-in-law is Jewish Italian? Yeah, that's a great combination! Her favorite saying to me and my ex-sister-in-law's husband is: People say an Italian mother-in-law is horrible. And a Jewish mother-in-law is worse. We're the "lucky" ones to have an Italian Jewish mother-in-law and everyone should pity us. (She seriously says this all the time.) Oy! And when she left Italy in the early 1960's, she moved to New York City. That should say it all. lol
Well, thanks to following Martha's cleaning schedules, my house was totally ready for her inspection... I mean, visit. Instead of running around like a chicken with my head cut off, scrubbing floors and wiping down walls and polishing furniture, I was able to wait until the day before they arrived and spend an hour getting ready. Talk about an amazing feeling! Plus, they commented on how relaxed and calm I seemed, and that living in the Midwest really agrees with me. I haven't told them about my Martha plan because I want them to think I'm making all these changes on my own and not because of some stupid challenge. And I really enjoyed hearing them say how great the house looked and asking if I had the hardwood floors redone. I didn't, I just changed how I was washing them and stripped off all the product build-up that was on them. It was just a really nice feeling and one of the nicest visits we've had in years. :)
I then spent their entire time in Mentor (they stay at a local hotel and come over every day) cooking and baking for them. We decided to celebrate Frankie's 13th birthday late with them (we, also, had a small celebration with our little family on her actual birthday 10/27), so I baked Frankie's favorite cake - a cannoli cake. For those unfamiliar with it, a cannoli cake is a VERY rich, dense butter cake sliced into 4 thin layers, filled with cannoli filling (ricotta and marscapone), covered in freshly whipped heavy cream, and decorated with shaved chocolate. I won't even consider how many calories go into something like this, as I'm pretty sure it would blow an entire day's Weight Watchers point allowance. Either way, it is AWESOME and totally rocks. However, I was disappointed that Martha doesn't have a recipe for cannoli filling in either of the 2 Martha Stewart cookbooks I have. The recipe I used was the one from Sargento cheese's website and I substituted 1/2 of the ricotta with marscapone, as that's the way I remember my grandmother making cannoli filling. (Yeah, I might have one of the most Scotch/Irish names out there and I definitely look Scotch/Irish, but my grandmother was 1/2 Italian.) A nice bonus for me was hearing my ex-mother-in-law say how beautiful the cake looked and how incredible it tasted! IMHO, the only thing that would have perfected it would have been if I had served gelato instead of ice cream, but oh well...
One perk of their visit was that it inspired me to clean out my crafting closet. I tossed out any sheets of craft paper that was less than half the original size and sorted it by color in file folders which I put into a tall hanging file folder Rubbermaid box, I organized my stampers by season/holiday and put them into Rubbermaid shoe boxes, I stacked my ink pads neatly in a separate Rubbermaid shoe box, etc. I really let my OCD fly on this one. Now I'm actually feeling inspired to make my holiday cards this season. Usually I kind of dread doing them and last year I used photo cards (we had an awesomely funny picture of the girls with Amelia in mid-tantrum and the older girls trying to get away - it was the last picture taken when we had family portraits taken earlier in the year. The cards were printed with "Peace on Earth" under the picture and when you opened the card, it said "May there be peace in YOUR household this holiday season. I've gotta post a pic one of these days.)
In addition to surviving their visit, we had the last 2 cheerleading functions of the year - the roller skating party and the year-end banquet. Yes, I said roller skating, not roller blading. It was hysterical watching all the girls who probably have never seen roller skates in person, trying to figure out how to skate on them. There were only 2 problems with this - one of Maura's friends from her cheerleading squad fell and fractured her wrist and (why am I not surprised by this?) Coach didn't show up even though this was an officially sanctioned MYCA function. The best part of the night was having all the other mothers come up to Frankie and apologize for giving her such a hard time during the season, that they didn't realize that Coach did nothing all season and that Frankie was managing as best she could. That made both of us feel good. Then there was an announcement over the PA system, asking for a parent from Falcon Red Cheerleading to come to the information booth. A bunch of us went over and found out that, while Coach picked up the hoodie sweatshirts that the girls "earned" for cheering this season, she left behind the trophies and one of us needed to take the box of trophies and make sure they get to the banquet. WTF? I was ready to lose it but 2 other mothers blew up about Coach before I got a chance to say anything. The cheerleading association better have a new coach lined up for this squad next year or there will be a mutiny. I, personally, don't care as Maura is moving up to the "big" squad, as our friend's son (who Maura cheers for) is moving up to the "big" team and she is following him.
The banquet was great! Other than the fact that Coach was seated at our table and decided to sit next to Frankie. I was impressed with the amount of restraint Frankie showed, as she was polite and cordial to Coach. I would have told her off. lol Anyway, we had a lovely dinner, the girls were presented with their trophies and sweatshirts, and the Coach acknowledged Frankie and all her work. She actually said that there was no way they could have survived the season without Frankie, as she taught everyone (including Coach) all the cheers, ran great practices, and really motivated the girls on game days. I was surprised to hear her do that, then she presented Frankie with a gift basket from Bath and Body Works. Very nice surprise. However, when Coach saw that the team present to her was a bouquet of flowers, a beautiful key chain engraved with her name, the team name, and the year, and a "thank you" card from the girls, I guess it wasn't enough. She finished up the presentation and when the rest of us were getting ready for the football players' presentation, she packed up and left... without saying goodbye to anyone. Classy, huh?
Now I need to bake a chocolate cake for my niece's birthday. She knows about the challenge and when my sister asked her what kind of birthday cake she wanted (she turns 17 tomorrow, Thursday 11/19/2009), she said she wanted one of my famous chocolate mint cakes. To make those, I bake chocolate cakes in mini bundt pans, ice them in white buttercream icing (with peppermint extract added instead of vanilla) and decorated on top with crushed peppermint candies. As the stores have been ready for Christmas for at least 2 months now, I should have no problem finding candy canes to crush instead of using Brach's starlight mints. With the recipe I'm using, she'll have 6 mini cakes to enjoy and I'll earn tons of "free babysitting" credits. lol
Gotta run, as I want to get the cakes started before I have to pick up Amelia from preschool.
Later,
Mary
My ex-husband's parents came to visit. Together. Keep in mind, THEY have been divorced for over 12 years. It's cute that they're still best friends but still kinda creepy. Oh, and I can't forget to mention the fun fact that my ex-mother-in-law hated me the entire time I was married to her son. I divorced her son over 11 years ago and now I'm the best thing since sliced bread. I really don't get it. I guess I wasn't good enough for her son but I am good enough to raise her grandchildren (who she totally dotes on), or maybe it has to do with the fact that her son repeatedly started fights and arguments between the two of us and now that he's out of the picture, everything is fine. Who knows?
Oh, did I mention that my ex-mother-in-law is Jewish Italian? Yeah, that's a great combination! Her favorite saying to me and my ex-sister-in-law's husband is: People say an Italian mother-in-law is horrible. And a Jewish mother-in-law is worse. We're the "lucky" ones to have an Italian Jewish mother-in-law and everyone should pity us. (She seriously says this all the time.) Oy! And when she left Italy in the early 1960's, she moved to New York City. That should say it all. lol
Well, thanks to following Martha's cleaning schedules, my house was totally ready for her inspection... I mean, visit. Instead of running around like a chicken with my head cut off, scrubbing floors and wiping down walls and polishing furniture, I was able to wait until the day before they arrived and spend an hour getting ready. Talk about an amazing feeling! Plus, they commented on how relaxed and calm I seemed, and that living in the Midwest really agrees with me. I haven't told them about my Martha plan because I want them to think I'm making all these changes on my own and not because of some stupid challenge. And I really enjoyed hearing them say how great the house looked and asking if I had the hardwood floors redone. I didn't, I just changed how I was washing them and stripped off all the product build-up that was on them. It was just a really nice feeling and one of the nicest visits we've had in years. :)
I then spent their entire time in Mentor (they stay at a local hotel and come over every day) cooking and baking for them. We decided to celebrate Frankie's 13th birthday late with them (we, also, had a small celebration with our little family on her actual birthday 10/27), so I baked Frankie's favorite cake - a cannoli cake. For those unfamiliar with it, a cannoli cake is a VERY rich, dense butter cake sliced into 4 thin layers, filled with cannoli filling (ricotta and marscapone), covered in freshly whipped heavy cream, and decorated with shaved chocolate. I won't even consider how many calories go into something like this, as I'm pretty sure it would blow an entire day's Weight Watchers point allowance. Either way, it is AWESOME and totally rocks. However, I was disappointed that Martha doesn't have a recipe for cannoli filling in either of the 2 Martha Stewart cookbooks I have. The recipe I used was the one from Sargento cheese's website and I substituted 1/2 of the ricotta with marscapone, as that's the way I remember my grandmother making cannoli filling. (Yeah, I might have one of the most Scotch/Irish names out there and I definitely look Scotch/Irish, but my grandmother was 1/2 Italian.) A nice bonus for me was hearing my ex-mother-in-law say how beautiful the cake looked and how incredible it tasted! IMHO, the only thing that would have perfected it would have been if I had served gelato instead of ice cream, but oh well...
One perk of their visit was that it inspired me to clean out my crafting closet. I tossed out any sheets of craft paper that was less than half the original size and sorted it by color in file folders which I put into a tall hanging file folder Rubbermaid box, I organized my stampers by season/holiday and put them into Rubbermaid shoe boxes, I stacked my ink pads neatly in a separate Rubbermaid shoe box, etc. I really let my OCD fly on this one. Now I'm actually feeling inspired to make my holiday cards this season. Usually I kind of dread doing them and last year I used photo cards (we had an awesomely funny picture of the girls with Amelia in mid-tantrum and the older girls trying to get away - it was the last picture taken when we had family portraits taken earlier in the year. The cards were printed with "Peace on Earth" under the picture and when you opened the card, it said "May there be peace in YOUR household this holiday season. I've gotta post a pic one of these days.)
In addition to surviving their visit, we had the last 2 cheerleading functions of the year - the roller skating party and the year-end banquet. Yes, I said roller skating, not roller blading. It was hysterical watching all the girls who probably have never seen roller skates in person, trying to figure out how to skate on them. There were only 2 problems with this - one of Maura's friends from her cheerleading squad fell and fractured her wrist and (why am I not surprised by this?) Coach didn't show up even though this was an officially sanctioned MYCA function. The best part of the night was having all the other mothers come up to Frankie and apologize for giving her such a hard time during the season, that they didn't realize that Coach did nothing all season and that Frankie was managing as best she could. That made both of us feel good. Then there was an announcement over the PA system, asking for a parent from Falcon Red Cheerleading to come to the information booth. A bunch of us went over and found out that, while Coach picked up the hoodie sweatshirts that the girls "earned" for cheering this season, she left behind the trophies and one of us needed to take the box of trophies and make sure they get to the banquet. WTF? I was ready to lose it but 2 other mothers blew up about Coach before I got a chance to say anything. The cheerleading association better have a new coach lined up for this squad next year or there will be a mutiny. I, personally, don't care as Maura is moving up to the "big" squad, as our friend's son (who Maura cheers for) is moving up to the "big" team and she is following him.
The banquet was great! Other than the fact that Coach was seated at our table and decided to sit next to Frankie. I was impressed with the amount of restraint Frankie showed, as she was polite and cordial to Coach. I would have told her off. lol Anyway, we had a lovely dinner, the girls were presented with their trophies and sweatshirts, and the Coach acknowledged Frankie and all her work. She actually said that there was no way they could have survived the season without Frankie, as she taught everyone (including Coach) all the cheers, ran great practices, and really motivated the girls on game days. I was surprised to hear her do that, then she presented Frankie with a gift basket from Bath and Body Works. Very nice surprise. However, when Coach saw that the team present to her was a bouquet of flowers, a beautiful key chain engraved with her name, the team name, and the year, and a "thank you" card from the girls, I guess it wasn't enough. She finished up the presentation and when the rest of us were getting ready for the football players' presentation, she packed up and left... without saying goodbye to anyone. Classy, huh?
Now I need to bake a chocolate cake for my niece's birthday. She knows about the challenge and when my sister asked her what kind of birthday cake she wanted (she turns 17 tomorrow, Thursday 11/19/2009), she said she wanted one of my famous chocolate mint cakes. To make those, I bake chocolate cakes in mini bundt pans, ice them in white buttercream icing (with peppermint extract added instead of vanilla) and decorated on top with crushed peppermint candies. As the stores have been ready for Christmas for at least 2 months now, I should have no problem finding candy canes to crush instead of using Brach's starlight mints. With the recipe I'm using, she'll have 6 mini cakes to enjoy and I'll earn tons of "free babysitting" credits. lol
Gotta run, as I want to get the cakes started before I have to pick up Amelia from preschool.
Later,
Mary
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Day #108 (Sat 10/24) - Day #119 (Tues 11/03/2009) (I'm BACK!)
Okay, turns out we weren't ANYWHERE near done with Swine Flu in our house. :( Amelia came down with it for 4 days and, even though I was sure I was over it, I apparently wasn't and ended up in bed for 4 days myself with fever, chills, aches, and all that jazz. Uggh!!!
One good thing is that I managed to get the house FULLY Martha-ized right before I got sick. Between scrubbing the hard surfaces of the house with baking soda, flushing out drains with baking soda and vinegar, and mopping all the floors with hot water (according to Martha, using cleaners is unnecessary, as it just causes things to build up and make the floors dirtier, faster), my house looks great. It even survived staying clean through my "round 2" of being sick, my brother-in-law's visit, AND Halloween. Ahhh... it's nice when the kids realize that Mom really did work hard and it's probably not a good idea to totally trash everything.
The kids survived Halloween. Well, I guess it's probably better to say my husband and his brother (who has no children of his own) survived taking the younger 2 out trick-or-treating. lol I'm sick at the amount of candy 4 kids were able to collect in less than 2 hours. Luckily for us, Julia & Frankie's orthodontist has a candy "buy-back" plan: He'll buy all the candy they're not supposed to eat for $1 a pound. He, then, makes a matching donation to the local food pantry. And he ships the candy to the service men and women overseas. It's a win-win-win situation.
Monday, I started feeling well enough to get back to cooking. We made a really good homemade apple crumble for dessert. Amelia wanted apple pie but I didn't feel like making pie crust, so we found a Martha recipe for the crumble instead. It was sublime! Plus, the apples cook up enough that Julia & Frankie can eat them without damaging their braces. I, also, went grocery shopping. Giant Eagle was having a HUGE buy one/get one free sale on meats. I managed to save 40% on my bill. SCORE!!
Yesterday, the kids were off from school for Election Day. Maura helped me make homemade beef stew and, being as it was in the high 40s all day, it was the perfect meal. I swear, I love autumn just for the great comfort foods I get to cook (and eat.) Then, we cleaned out my crafting supply cabinet. Tossed out a bunch of scraps, reorganized all the stampers, and now I feel inspired to start making our holiday cards. :)
Now I'm off to finish grocery shopping. Not that there is much room in my freezer at this point, but I promised I'd take my nephew (the college kid) shopping for stuff other than ramen noodles.
Mary
One good thing is that I managed to get the house FULLY Martha-ized right before I got sick. Between scrubbing the hard surfaces of the house with baking soda, flushing out drains with baking soda and vinegar, and mopping all the floors with hot water (according to Martha, using cleaners is unnecessary, as it just causes things to build up and make the floors dirtier, faster), my house looks great. It even survived staying clean through my "round 2" of being sick, my brother-in-law's visit, AND Halloween. Ahhh... it's nice when the kids realize that Mom really did work hard and it's probably not a good idea to totally trash everything.
The kids survived Halloween. Well, I guess it's probably better to say my husband and his brother (who has no children of his own) survived taking the younger 2 out trick-or-treating. lol I'm sick at the amount of candy 4 kids were able to collect in less than 2 hours. Luckily for us, Julia & Frankie's orthodontist has a candy "buy-back" plan: He'll buy all the candy they're not supposed to eat for $1 a pound. He, then, makes a matching donation to the local food pantry. And he ships the candy to the service men and women overseas. It's a win-win-win situation.
Monday, I started feeling well enough to get back to cooking. We made a really good homemade apple crumble for dessert. Amelia wanted apple pie but I didn't feel like making pie crust, so we found a Martha recipe for the crumble instead. It was sublime! Plus, the apples cook up enough that Julia & Frankie can eat them without damaging their braces. I, also, went grocery shopping. Giant Eagle was having a HUGE buy one/get one free sale on meats. I managed to save 40% on my bill. SCORE!!
Yesterday, the kids were off from school for Election Day. Maura helped me make homemade beef stew and, being as it was in the high 40s all day, it was the perfect meal. I swear, I love autumn just for the great comfort foods I get to cook (and eat.) Then, we cleaned out my crafting supply cabinet. Tossed out a bunch of scraps, reorganized all the stampers, and now I feel inspired to start making our holiday cards. :)
Now I'm off to finish grocery shopping. Not that there is much room in my freezer at this point, but I promised I'd take my nephew (the college kid) shopping for stuff other than ramen noodles.
Mary
Friday, October 23, 2009
Day #103 (Monday) - Day #107 (Friday - today) (Here, piggy piggy)
Well, turns out Frankie wasn't "just sick". Definitely flu and comparing her list of complaints to the CDC's list of symptoms, looks like it's H1N1 (a/k/a swine flu.) Uggh!
Naturally, Frankie felt better in time for school on Monday, and that's good. She, also, shared her germs with the rest of us and we're all droppin' like flies around here. Maura started feeling sick on Sunday night and by Monday morning was definitely sick. She missed school Monday and Tuesday. Then Julia, and she missed school Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Maura started running another low-grade fever Thursday night, so she missed school on Friday. Oh, and I started getting sick on Thursday (fevers are so much fun!)
Needless to say, there has been NO Martha-inspired tasks completed this week. Booo!!! Hiss!!!! It's amazing how fast my house falls to pieces when I'm too busy and/or too sick to do anything heavier than washing dishes, sweeping, or laundry. I'm actually pretty sad and hope I start feeling better enough this weekend, so I can start back up.
Due to my house becoming "Ground Zero" for the flu, my ex in-laws postponed their visit for this weekend. :( I was actually looking forward to them being here but, considering their ages and the fact one just got a flu shot the other day and the other isn't scheduled until next week, there was NO WAY I was going to let them be around all us. At their ages, any form of the flu can be dangerous and I don't want either of them to be sick.
So, for those keeping score, we have: 1 parent and 3 children either had or currently have some strain of the flu (possibly H1N1 - our doctors can run the test to see if it really is but it's $700 per test and our insurance doesn't cover ANY of that cost because it's considered "elective".) Patrick and Amelia are both still healthy, and I hope they stay that way.
Oh, and the ironic thing? Our school district is offering to all students (even Amelia's preschool class, as it's held in a regular elementary school building) and staff free H1N1 vaccines next week. If it was last week instead of next week, we could have avoided all this. Frankie seems to be the one who brought it home the end of last week. Oh well... I think I'm still having the girls get vaccinated, just in case this was just a bout of the regular flu and not H1N1.
Keep healthy!
Mary
PS: Eight years ago today, my mother passed away from a heart attack, while sleeping. I can honestly say I miss her just as much today as I did then. Feeling sad when you have the flu sucks. Especially when she made the best damned chicken soup ever, and I know it would have made me feel better on a day like today.
Naturally, Frankie felt better in time for school on Monday, and that's good. She, also, shared her germs with the rest of us and we're all droppin' like flies around here. Maura started feeling sick on Sunday night and by Monday morning was definitely sick. She missed school Monday and Tuesday. Then Julia, and she missed school Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Maura started running another low-grade fever Thursday night, so she missed school on Friday. Oh, and I started getting sick on Thursday (fevers are so much fun!)
Needless to say, there has been NO Martha-inspired tasks completed this week. Booo!!! Hiss!!!! It's amazing how fast my house falls to pieces when I'm too busy and/or too sick to do anything heavier than washing dishes, sweeping, or laundry. I'm actually pretty sad and hope I start feeling better enough this weekend, so I can start back up.
Due to my house becoming "Ground Zero" for the flu, my ex in-laws postponed their visit for this weekend. :( I was actually looking forward to them being here but, considering their ages and the fact one just got a flu shot the other day and the other isn't scheduled until next week, there was NO WAY I was going to let them be around all us. At their ages, any form of the flu can be dangerous and I don't want either of them to be sick.
So, for those keeping score, we have: 1 parent and 3 children either had or currently have some strain of the flu (possibly H1N1 - our doctors can run the test to see if it really is but it's $700 per test and our insurance doesn't cover ANY of that cost because it's considered "elective".) Patrick and Amelia are both still healthy, and I hope they stay that way.
Oh, and the ironic thing? Our school district is offering to all students (even Amelia's preschool class, as it's held in a regular elementary school building) and staff free H1N1 vaccines next week. If it was last week instead of next week, we could have avoided all this. Frankie seems to be the one who brought it home the end of last week. Oh well... I think I'm still having the girls get vaccinated, just in case this was just a bout of the regular flu and not H1N1.
Keep healthy!
Mary
PS: Eight years ago today, my mother passed away from a heart attack, while sleeping. I can honestly say I miss her just as much today as I did then. Feeling sad when you have the flu sucks. Especially when she made the best damned chicken soup ever, and I know it would have made me feel better on a day like today.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Day #102 (Sunday) (MYFA Football Season is FINALLY Over)
Well, even though we shouldn't have made it as far as we did, it was still sad to see MYFA red division Falcons lose today. The kids worked so hard and were so good about handling the defeat (even though if the stupid refs, umpires, and line judges had called the 3 false starts by the other team, who knows? We could have won.)
It was cold & rainy... again. Just about as bad as Saturday, which wasn't good because Frankie was sick (made getting Julia ready for homecoming THAT much more fun) and Maura spent the whole day, outdoors, at Girl Scout camp (Daisy Scouts aren't allowed to spend the night at camp and have to be picked up at 9:15pm.) So, Frankie ended up feeling worse and Maura started coming down with the same thing as Frankie. :(
After getting home, my friend's son, Patrick, came over for a play date. I felt so bad for him, as we was a player on the Falcons team. I know he worked hard all season. So, to make him feel better, we broke out all the stamping and crafting supplies (he really enjoys that stuff) and I made a HUGE batch of brownies. That made him smile.
Dinner was homemade French toast (Martha's recipe but with pumpkin pie spice instead of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, etc.) with homemade cinnamon apples (Rachael Ray's applesauce recipe, but it's more like Boston Market's cinnamon apples than like applesauce) and applewood smoked bacon. Double YUM!
Then it was off to our minister's house for coffee and dessert, as he and his wife were hosting a party for the 12 new members we've had join our congregation (since February!) As I'm on the board and my husband is on the membership committee, we both kind of had to be there. It was a very enjoyable night.
Getting home, I put all the kids to bed and just collapsed. I'm afraid to see the amount of laundry needing to be washed in my laundry room.
Mary
It was cold & rainy... again. Just about as bad as Saturday, which wasn't good because Frankie was sick (made getting Julia ready for homecoming THAT much more fun) and Maura spent the whole day, outdoors, at Girl Scout camp (Daisy Scouts aren't allowed to spend the night at camp and have to be picked up at 9:15pm.) So, Frankie ended up feeling worse and Maura started coming down with the same thing as Frankie. :(
After getting home, my friend's son, Patrick, came over for a play date. I felt so bad for him, as we was a player on the Falcons team. I know he worked hard all season. So, to make him feel better, we broke out all the stamping and crafting supplies (he really enjoys that stuff) and I made a HUGE batch of brownies. That made him smile.
Dinner was homemade French toast (Martha's recipe but with pumpkin pie spice instead of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, etc.) with homemade cinnamon apples (Rachael Ray's applesauce recipe, but it's more like Boston Market's cinnamon apples than like applesauce) and applewood smoked bacon. Double YUM!
Then it was off to our minister's house for coffee and dessert, as he and his wife were hosting a party for the 12 new members we've had join our congregation (since February!) As I'm on the board and my husband is on the membership committee, we both kind of had to be there. It was a very enjoyable night.
Getting home, I put all the kids to bed and just collapsed. I'm afraid to see the amount of laundry needing to be washed in my laundry room.
Mary
Day #101 (Julia's Homecoming Dance is FINALLY Here)
Saturday was Julia's first formal high school dance... Homecoming 2009! Needless to say, there was NO TIME for anything Martha-related. Instead, the day was spent getting her hair done, giving her a manicure and pedicure, perfecting her makeup, etc. Oh, and her cousin was going to the dance, too, so she was getting ready at my house. Unfortunately, she didn't have the money for having her hair professionally done, so I did my best to give her an updo (by the way, it came out AWESOME!)While she was getting her hair done, I quickly "did the math" on the number of formal dances. If Julia were to go to every Homecoming dance, Winter Formal dance (these are in February), Junior Prom (her Junior year), and Senior Prom (her Senior year), she's looking at attending 10 separate formal events. She, naturally, seems to expect that she would go to all these AND have new dresses for each one. When I realized that, if all 4 girls felt like this, I would be shelling out for 40 - count 'em FORTY - formal dresses over the years. YIKES!!! Please pray along with me that the girls will be similar sizes and will be able to share dresses with each other.
Oh, then, after taking her to the dance, I really "did the math":
$13 for the ticketGRAND TOTAL: $244
$60 for the dress
$53 for alterations on the dress (they only had to shorten it but, because the crinoline is attached to the dress, they had to shorten that, too, and that part cost some money)
$53 for hair styling (including tip)
$25 for shoes
$24 for corsage
$16 for portraits at the dance
And it would have been MORE if I didn't do her mani/pedi, facial, and makeup myself, and if I went with a larger portrait package instead of taking a ton of pictures myself. Otherwise, we would have topped out well over $300 for a freakin' dance! Insane!!! Mental note to self: We are NOT going all out for winter formal and she can "recycle" the purple and black cocktail dress we had to buy her for last year's 8th grade dinner cruise.
Another plus was that Stalker Boy didn't go to the dance, so Julia could really have fun. And did she ever! She danced all night, hung out with friends, and made time to dance and hang out with a boy who has some developmental disabilities, even though she barely knows him. She just didn't want him to be alone all night (gotta love that girl of mine!)
While it was a crazy day (and night) it was; however, I wouldn't trade the look of sheer happiness on Julia's face for anything. And at least she didn't ask for a limo or anything like that.
Mary
Day #95 - Day #100 (Sunday - Friday) (What a week!)
Last week was chaotic, to say the least.
I started my Martha-inspired fall cleaning regime. Yikes!!! Thanks to a week with temps in the high 40s plus rain every day, it was hard to get my depressed rear end in gear.
Sunday was spent at football (somehow, we managed to WIN our quarter-final game) and it was cold and crappy the entire game. Uggh... Then it was home to cook dinner (homemade chicken noodle soup - very good but the kids weren't into it), try to clean the house (impossible with all 4 kids AND Patrick home), then to church for my monthly board of trustees meeting. I managed to drag my tired butt home and collapsed on the couch.
Monday was the first "real" day of the cleaning regime because when Patrick and the kids are all home, the house just doesn't stay clean. Oh, but the day started off with Amelia's first school disappointment - they were supposed to go apple picking but someone at the school bus office didn't record the right date (she put down the 21st instead of the 12th.) So, since they didn't have transportation, the trip was postponed until Wednesday. The look of sheer disappointment on the kids' faces was too much. I actually broke down in the car. The kids were so looking forward to their first "big kid" thing - field trips - and to have it canceled the morning of because someone had "dyslexic fingers", it was too sad. So, to make it up to her, I made Amelia her favorite lunch (bologna on white bread with mayo, cheddar Goldfish crackers on the side, and a glass of chocolate milk with a "bendy" straw) when we got home. Then it was quick clean-up time.
Tuesday was just gross. Patrick has been drinking tea for a little while now... which is odd. He's usually a "pot of coffee every morning" type of guy. Why wasn't he making coffee? Better yet, why was he running out some mornings and buying cups of coffee instead of using his $100+ coffee maker and his $40 coffee grinder? And don't get me started on the cost of his specialty Kona beans. Well, I decided to do a little "work" and see what was wrong. Turns out, he didn't clean out the coffee maker last time he used it and there was BLACK MOLD growing on the old, used coffee grinds. EWWW!!! I guess I couldn't smell anything because the coffee grinds kind of work as a deodorant. Either way, as a non-coffee drinker and a Martha warrior, I was beyond disgusted. So, I spent a good part of the day scrubbing the carafe, the coffee grinds basket, and the whole interior of the coffee maker. Amazing how well baking soda, hot water, and distilled white vinegar work! Then I took straight vinegar and ran 2 full cycles on the "clean" mode. The first round produced taupe colored vinegar (gross) but the second round was clear. Then I ran regular water through a couple of times, to make sure the vinegar was gone. All in all, I used a GALLON of vinegar on cleaning this thing. Best part is when he came home and I told him what I did, he said thanks but that I didn't need to do that because he was either going to do it himself or buy a new coffee maker. WTF? This maker is fine (gross but fine), it's fairly new, and it was expensive. As we're on a tight budget, I couldn't see spending $100 or more on a new one when this one would be fine after a proper cleaning. Oy!!!
Wednesday, Amelia had her field trip finally! She was beyond excited when the bus arrived to pick them up at school at 8:30am. I was so happy for these kids! They all brought home apples they picked and Amelia was more than happy to tell me about all the things she saw (including an apple washing machine and a refrigerated storage room that was the size of the main floor of our house.) We did some grocery shopping that afternoon, and I cleaned out the pantry. Also, I gave a ton of leftovers to my bachelor nephew. Gotta make sure he eats something other than ramen noodles. Ha, ha.
Thursday was fairly easy. Kids all got up on time and made the bus (except for Amelia, who doesn't get a school bus so I drive her.) No one complained about anything. And they only partially destroyed the house when they came home. I managed to get about 50% of the windows cleaned, I cleaned the oven, and cleaned Maura's and Amelia's bath tub toys with a 50/50 solution of distilled white vinegar and water. For dinner, I took the leftover chicken soup, added a jar of chicken gravy, and made mini pot pies with refrigerated dough. Patrick and I were the only ones to eat them and that just makes me sad. I love pot pies, they're the perfect cold weather dinner. And individual ones were cute, damnit! But no one wanted to humor Mom.
Friday, the kids were off from school because of a "staff development day." It was, also, the day of the high school's homecoming parade and football game. If it wasn't raining and cold, we would have been there. Instead, we ordered in pizza and hung out at home. I, of course, spent the day on damage control, trying to limit the amount of destruction that 4 kids, home from school on a rainy day, can accomplish.
By the end of the day on Friday, the house was a mess. *sigh* One of these days, I'll be allowed to have a clean house. I'm just dreading, thinking it will be the day Amelia goes off to college.
Oh well...
Mary
I started my Martha-inspired fall cleaning regime. Yikes!!! Thanks to a week with temps in the high 40s plus rain every day, it was hard to get my depressed rear end in gear.
Sunday was spent at football (somehow, we managed to WIN our quarter-final game) and it was cold and crappy the entire game. Uggh... Then it was home to cook dinner (homemade chicken noodle soup - very good but the kids weren't into it), try to clean the house (impossible with all 4 kids AND Patrick home), then to church for my monthly board of trustees meeting. I managed to drag my tired butt home and collapsed on the couch.
Monday was the first "real" day of the cleaning regime because when Patrick and the kids are all home, the house just doesn't stay clean. Oh, but the day started off with Amelia's first school disappointment - they were supposed to go apple picking but someone at the school bus office didn't record the right date (she put down the 21st instead of the 12th.) So, since they didn't have transportation, the trip was postponed until Wednesday. The look of sheer disappointment on the kids' faces was too much. I actually broke down in the car. The kids were so looking forward to their first "big kid" thing - field trips - and to have it canceled the morning of because someone had "dyslexic fingers", it was too sad. So, to make it up to her, I made Amelia her favorite lunch (bologna on white bread with mayo, cheddar Goldfish crackers on the side, and a glass of chocolate milk with a "bendy" straw) when we got home. Then it was quick clean-up time.
Tuesday was just gross. Patrick has been drinking tea for a little while now... which is odd. He's usually a "pot of coffee every morning" type of guy. Why wasn't he making coffee? Better yet, why was he running out some mornings and buying cups of coffee instead of using his $100+ coffee maker and his $40 coffee grinder? And don't get me started on the cost of his specialty Kona beans. Well, I decided to do a little "work" and see what was wrong. Turns out, he didn't clean out the coffee maker last time he used it and there was BLACK MOLD growing on the old, used coffee grinds. EWWW!!! I guess I couldn't smell anything because the coffee grinds kind of work as a deodorant. Either way, as a non-coffee drinker and a Martha warrior, I was beyond disgusted. So, I spent a good part of the day scrubbing the carafe, the coffee grinds basket, and the whole interior of the coffee maker. Amazing how well baking soda, hot water, and distilled white vinegar work! Then I took straight vinegar and ran 2 full cycles on the "clean" mode. The first round produced taupe colored vinegar (gross) but the second round was clear. Then I ran regular water through a couple of times, to make sure the vinegar was gone. All in all, I used a GALLON of vinegar on cleaning this thing. Best part is when he came home and I told him what I did, he said thanks but that I didn't need to do that because he was either going to do it himself or buy a new coffee maker. WTF? This maker is fine (gross but fine), it's fairly new, and it was expensive. As we're on a tight budget, I couldn't see spending $100 or more on a new one when this one would be fine after a proper cleaning. Oy!!!
Wednesday, Amelia had her field trip finally! She was beyond excited when the bus arrived to pick them up at school at 8:30am. I was so happy for these kids! They all brought home apples they picked and Amelia was more than happy to tell me about all the things she saw (including an apple washing machine and a refrigerated storage room that was the size of the main floor of our house.) We did some grocery shopping that afternoon, and I cleaned out the pantry. Also, I gave a ton of leftovers to my bachelor nephew. Gotta make sure he eats something other than ramen noodles. Ha, ha.
Thursday was fairly easy. Kids all got up on time and made the bus (except for Amelia, who doesn't get a school bus so I drive her.) No one complained about anything. And they only partially destroyed the house when they came home. I managed to get about 50% of the windows cleaned, I cleaned the oven, and cleaned Maura's and Amelia's bath tub toys with a 50/50 solution of distilled white vinegar and water. For dinner, I took the leftover chicken soup, added a jar of chicken gravy, and made mini pot pies with refrigerated dough. Patrick and I were the only ones to eat them and that just makes me sad. I love pot pies, they're the perfect cold weather dinner. And individual ones were cute, damnit! But no one wanted to humor Mom.
Friday, the kids were off from school because of a "staff development day." It was, also, the day of the high school's homecoming parade and football game. If it wasn't raining and cold, we would have been there. Instead, we ordered in pizza and hung out at home. I, of course, spent the day on damage control, trying to limit the amount of destruction that 4 kids, home from school on a rainy day, can accomplish.
By the end of the day on Friday, the house was a mess. *sigh* One of these days, I'll be allowed to have a clean house. I'm just dreading, thinking it will be the day Amelia goes off to college.
Oh well...
Mary
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