The Year of Living Martha-ly

"Single White Female" much?

2011-03-26T21:33:00.005-04:00

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.

Day #120 (Wed 11/04/2009) - Day #133 (Tues 11/17/2009)

2009-11-18T08:54:00.003-05:00

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

Day #108 (Sat 10/24) - Day #119 (Tues 11/03/2009) (I'm BACK!)

2009-11-04T09:40:00.002-05:00

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

Day #103 (Monday) - Day #107 (Friday - today) (Here, piggy piggy)

2009-10-23T20:43:00.005-04:00

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.

Day #102 (Sunday) (MYFA Football Season is FINALLY Over)

2009-10-19T23:18:00.002-04:00

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

Day #101 (Julia's Homecoming Dance is FINALLY Here)

2009-10-19T22:57:00.002-04:00

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 ticket
$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

GRAND TOTAL: $244

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!)

2009-10-19T22:25:00.004-04:00

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

Day #87 - Day #94 (Saturday - Saturday)

2009-10-10T21:08:00.003-04:00

It's getting harder and harder to find time to write a blog... maybe I'll just go back to little 2 or 3 sentence posts on a more frequent basis.

The past 8 days have been chaotic, as usual. "Stalker Boy" finally seems to understand what no contact means but now my niece (who has been gracious enough to accompany Julia home on the bus every afternoon) is having trouble with an ex-boyfriend who keeps calling, trying to get her back. What is in the water here, that teenage boys just can't understand that relationships usually end for a reason and that most girls usually don't want to revisit those reasons?!?

I've been on Martha-lite lately, as the weather has been really dreary and rainy. (For those who don't know, I have major depressive disorder - just one of several other mental health issues - and the weather is making it harder to function most days.) I've been baking and cooking lately, as a way to distract myself. Not that my family is complaining - as of today, I've made:

brownies
snicker doodles
chocolate chip cookies
cornbread
buttermilk biscuits
cheesecake

Today was sunny but cool, so I made homemade chicken soup. It was Martha's regular chicken soup recipe and I even made the stock from scratch, per her instructions. It sounds WAY more impressive than it actually was, as it didn't really take that long. I was very pleasantly surprised. : ) I served the soup with the homemade cornbread and buttermilk biscuits, and it really was a nice way to start the beginning of "Autumn in Northeast Ohio" weather.

I spent the past week, also, putting away all the summer clothes (Space Bags make this so easy!) and pulling out all the autumn clothes. Now if I could find what bag I stored my favorite brown sweater in, I'll be very happy. It always amazes me how much new clothing the kids acquire during each season.

Amelia has discovered the joy of wearing cotton knit tights (she hates the feel of nylon ones), so it looks like she'll be wearing more dresses now. Yea!

This coming week is "Major Cleaning Week." No more dragging my butt, I need to get all the end-of-summer cleaning done. The added incentive is that my ex in-laws are coming to visit the weekend of the 23rd. I would love to have all the housework done this week, so I can relax next week and not be stressed out when they arrive. (Yeah right.) I'm planning on switching the screens for storm windows, cleaning all the windows, wiping down the walls, vacuuming and scrubbing all the floors, applying liquid floor refurbisher to the hardwood floors (it covers the scratches and makes the floors extra shiny), clean the stove and oven (and even the oven racks), wipe down all cabinets, etc. Maybe I'll even have the energy to tackle the kids' bedrooms again. I know I should make them do it on their own but I'm just sick of yelling at them.

Now the hubby and I are going out with a couple of friends for a quick nightcap (well, a nightcap for him and a Diet Pepsi for me) and then it's off to bed. Tomorrow is "Football Sunday", as Maura's team is in the first round of playoffs. Go Falcons!

Mary

Day #82 - Day #86 (Mon - Fri) (Another week...)

2009-10-02T22:31:00.000-04:00

This week involved yet another call to the school regarding Julia's stalker. I'm pretty hopeful it's been resolved for good. Somehow the threat of suspension and expulsion FINALLY sank in to "Stalker Boy".

Julia is finally starting to feel OK. Granted, it took a trip to her therapist and several fitful nights of sleep, but she's doing much better.

I, on the other hand, could use some serious sleep. Between Sunday and yesterday, I managed eight hours of sleep - total. Last night, after knowing the school was yet again speaking with "Stalker Boy" and that this was the final straw for them, I managed to relax enough to really zonk out and got nine hours of solid, uninterrupted sleep. Ahhh... But I can still use a few more hours. I swear, with the size of the bags under my eyes, I have enough "luggage" there to spend a month in Europe. lol

Being that I was a zombie (due to lack of sleep), I really didn't do anything extraordinary this week. Just my regular daily "routine" of doing dishes, laundry, and general tidying up. Now I get to spend tomorrow really cleaning, to make up for my lack of Martha-izing this week. It's amazing how fast things end up messy. And I'm curious as to why everything is messier faster now that I'm Martha-izing the house than when I was in regular housecleaning mode?

Oh, one HUGE thing for me though. Our main bathroom shower head wasn't working. Water was coming out of the bathtub faucet but when the shower switch was "flipped" for the shower, nothing came out. Patrick told me to get a handyman in to fix the shower head. Well, after reading about basic plumbing on Martha's website, I decided to take the shower head off and take a look. Turns out, the washer for the fixture was lodged in the opening where the water from the pipe goes into the shower head. Quick, easy fix that saved us some money! And I got to feel all macho. lol

Of course, the money saved is now going towards Patrick's car instead. He called me he had a flat tire when he was leaving work and, upon taking off the tire, he discovered it was flat because a spring popped off the car and the spring slashed the tire. Nice. :( It had to be towed to our mechanic (lucky for us, our auto club membership covered this) and we'll hear in the morning how much we're looking at to fix this. I'm really hoping it won't be more than $250 or $300. Otherwise, I'm doubting if it's worth it to put more money into this car (it's over 8 years old) or if we should just see how much of a trade-in we can get. Uggh. Can't we get ONE week without any drama of any kind?!?

Time to get some sleep. Maybe all this week's crap will lead to a better week next week. I hope so, as I really need one.

Mary

Day #81 (I was MARRIED to that d-bag?!? Really? WHAT was I thinking?)

2009-09-27T22:10:00.004-04:00

At the end of the day, all I can say is: I was MARRIED to that d-bag?!? Seriously? Really? No one forced me?

This morning started off totally crazy. Patrick needed to stay after church for a meeting, so we had to take 2 cars. No problem. I decide to take both the little girls with me, allowing Patrick some time to enjoy Sunday morning NPR without the kids talking over it. My ex-husband, His Royal Highness is supposed to be driving Julia & Frankie to church. Well, he decides they're too tired (he kept them out until after 11pm last night) and that they'll just have to miss regular Sunday school but he'll have them there in time for their extended class (which doesn't start until 11:45am.) Great.

I needed to be to church early, as it was my Sunday to deliver the pre-service morning announcements to the congregation. Keep in mind, I don't really like speaking in public. To me, I'd rather be getting a root canal without anesthetic. Uggh. So, we left 20 minutes earlier than usual and got to church just in time. *phew*

Patrick arrived about 10 minutes after we did but he didn't get to enjoy much of the sermon, as he had to run out and help set up for the "new member" class. Our church hosts these a couple of times a year. People who are thinking of joining our church (or already have, in some cases) get together with the minister and several members of our various committees (and Patrick is on the membership committee), and they discuss Unitarian Universalism, our particular church, their anticipated "gain" from joining us, etc. We supply lunch and snacks for this meeting, and Patrick was in charge of picking up the food and helping set up tables and chairs in one of our meeting rooms.

Around 11:30, His Royal Highness shows up with the girls and immediately has something to say about our church. Nevermind that everyone he met was nice to him, all he focused on was that he thought they were staring at him. Uhhh... maybe it's because we've been going there for 5 years and this is the FIRST TIME he's ever set foot in the place? Or because his parents join us for services approximately once a year and people wanted to see if the pompous jerk who walked in was really related to them? Anyway, he was obviously not going to try to get along with anyone. *sigh* I wish he would realize he isn't hurting me by not being nice, he's just hurting his kids.

Because Maura had to be to cheerleading at 1:30 and Julia & Frankie were in their meeting until almost 2pm, HRH decided to join me. Joy! He's normally a backseat driver and makes even the most patient driver want to leave him on the side of the road. This ought to be fun. NOT! So, off to my house so Maura could get in her uniform, then off to my sister's house (Amelia didn't want to go to today's game), to the high school football field (he had some obnoxious comments about how our high school's football stadium is nicer than some colleges he's seen and it must be nice to see our tax dollars at work - too bad he didn't listen to me say how the entire field was paid for by private donations) to take Maura to the game, speak with Coach about her watching Maura until I came back with Frankie (she was OK with it), then back to East Shore to pick up Frankie and Julia. During the trip back to East Shore, HRH discovered he lost his ATM card. This was after we stopped to pick up sodas for the trip back out to Kirtland. Great. Naturally he didn't have any cash on hand and wanted to know if I could loan him $60 or $70 to get back home. WTF?! I wanted to smack him and say, "Dude, you're seriously asking me to loan you money when you owe me over 10 years of child support?!? Seriously? Are you stupid or delusional?" (Of course, I'd probably have just given him the money if he'd just go home by this point.)

We made it back to the game right after the half-time show, which made me sad. I love watching the girls dancing on the field. They work so hard and it really shows. HRH spent the rest of the game just texting and reading email. Finally he looked up and saw how the girls respond to Frankie and not Coach and he said (loud enough for some other parents to hear), "Doesn't the coach ever get off her fat a$$ and do anything? Does Frankie have to do everything?" *facepalm* Nice. First, the coach isn't fat. Just because she isn't anorexic doesn't make her fat (he called Julia a fat a$$ earlier this weekend, as well.) Second, yes, the girls do respond better to Frankie but I really think it's because she's closer in age to them and they kind of look up to her. And, third, could he maybe not cause any more problems between Frankie and Coach? One of the parents who I'm sure must have heard him is awfully close with Coach and I can almost guarantee that parent would relay his comments along.

After the game, we all went back to my house and Patrick was home by then. He's been amazing about not losing his temper with HRH being around this weekend, as HRH knows how to push his buttons. That's when HRH decided to "visit" with my friends who live across the street. He saw the girls go across the street to play and decided he'd introduce himself. And hit on a couple of my girlfriends. Both of whom are married - happily, might I add. Real classy, huh? The general consensus after he left tonight was, "What the hell were you thinking back then, Mary? Holy crap, he's a d-bag!"

Luckily his father called to tell him that he wired enough money to get him back to Chicago, so I wouldn't have to loan him any, and that required him to leave for a while. After retrieving his money, he invited himself to stay for dinner. Yeah, that pretty much killed Patrick's appetite. I thought because I was cooking, HRH wouldn't want to stay. All I heard the entire time we were married was what a lousy cook I was and, quite frankly, I haven't learned to cook any different over the years. Plus, dinner was whole wheat pasta with homemade spaghetti sauce, garden salad with chickpeas and vinaigrette dressing, and garlic bread. Kind of healthy, right? HRH is the KING of junk food. Not only did he eat, he actually had the nerve to say that it's about time I learned to cook. (By this point, I actually lost time the number of times Patrick had rolled his eyes at the table. I was beginning to worry he might be having a seizure but, no, he was just trying to keep from saying something obnoxious right back to HRH.)

He finally left around 6:30pm. I spent the next hour hearing my friends and neighbors tell me what a class A jerk he was and how he shouldn't really trash Patrick and me around them because we're all friends.

Then it was time to do dishes, straighten up the house, get kids into showers and/or baths, get all kids into bed, and then to update my blog. Now I'm ready to collapse. Monday morning cannot come fast enough. Of course, it'll be crazy enough on it's own but at least HRH will be 2 states away.

Mary

PS: He's also planning on ruining Halloween for us. He thinks that Julia & Frankie are too young to go out with just their friends and no adult supervision. Uhhh... they're in 9th and 8th grades. Quite frankly, I think they're too OLD to go out. Oh, did I mention that Patrick's brother is planning on being here that weekend? He's purposely not coming the week before because my ex's parents will be in town to celebrate Frankie's 13th birthday (it's on the 27th) and he wanted to let them have her all to their selves. He figured coming the weekend after would have been good. Why can't HRH come out when his parents visit? Oh that's right... they'll expect him to actually ACT like an adult.

Day #80 (Raining on Saturday? Figures) (From Saturday)

2009-09-27T21:49:00.002-04:00

It's raining... on Saturday. Figures, right? I mean, what else does "His Royal Highness" do with the girls when he's in town? I mean, God forbid he spend time just talking and interacting with them. No, no, no! He takes them out to whatever carnival, fair, festival, etc. that happens to be going on. This weekend was the Grape Festival up in Geauga County. Normally that would be fun but (1) it's raining and (2) the girls just wanted to hang out in his hotel suite and "visit" with him, not have to drive an hour or so away, then spend 4 or 5 hours wandering around looking at stuff. Oh well, that's something they'll have to work out eventually.

Since it was just me and the two little ones (Patrick had to work), we decided to run a few errands first. After a quick trip to KMart (they had a huge "super coupon" sale going on and I decided to take advantage - 3 bags excluding the bags with 2 liters of soda and I only spent $13!), we stopped at the library to get some books and DVDs. Also, Patrick had a fine and he asked me if I would pay it while I was there. I figured it would be *maybe* $20 at the most. Nope, he apparently lost a book (some huge 1,000 page history book) and owed a bunch of little fines. Grand total came to just under $90!!! YIKES! From now on, I'm demanding that I return ALL books taken out by our family. That's just an insane amount and I don't ever plan on writing a check that big to our city library unless it's a donation to their non-profit organization.

After spending a little time with Maura & Amelia (they each took out a DVD and a book), we grabbed lunch at Wendy's and came home. Once we got home, I decided that it would be a great day to cook and bake. Mind you, it's been pouring rain for a couple of hours at this point. So, I canned 5 large Mason jars of homemade spaghetti sauce, a batch of blueberry cheesecake muffins, and snickerdoodles. And, because it was so dreary, I lit a bunch of candles in the kitchen and dining room (don't worry - I have an "open" floor plan and there is only the snackbar that separates the kitchen from the dining room and nothing separating the dining room from the living room) to "brighten up" the place. Plus the scents were great. I found some soy candles that are supposed to smell like "clean linen" but, to me, smelled more like "newborn baby head" (well, I guess that would be "Johnson's Baby Shampoo" but I like my description better.)

When Patrick came home from work, he was happy to see all the baked goods and the candles and smells made him almost immediately relax. I think I should do this more often. :)

It was, also, my ex father-in-law's birthday, so the little girls and I left him a voice mail message, wishing him a happy birthday. Then I spent the next hour hoping His Royal Highness remembered to have the girls call him, too. (I know they sent a card because I mailed it earlier this week.)

Then it was an early night to bed, as Sunday was promising to be a totally logistical nightmare (church, extended Sunday school for Julia & Frankie, getting Julia & Frankie to church as His Royal Highness isn't a fan of any organized religion, getting Maura to cheerleading, getting Frankie to cheerleading after extended Sunday school, etc. etc. etc.)

Mary

Day #79 (A Royal Visit) (From Friday)

2009-09-27T21:30:00.003-04:00

Ahhh, yes... a "royal" visit is due today. My darling (insert eyeroll) ex-husband is coming to visit. Oh joy! NOT! He decided that, since he was off this weekend and Julia was having issues with "Stalker Boy", he'd deem us worthy of a visit. Uggh.

A few words about my ex-husband: he's a control freak, he's hyper-critical, and usually is a general pain in the butt. There's also the issue of his previous lack of interest in visiting our children (he famously went TWO YEARS without seeing Julia & Frankie - on TWO separate occasions) and his lack of paying child support (but I'm really not going to go into this today - trust me, if I didn't love his parents and all they do for my daughters, I'd have his rear end parked in the Lake County jail.)

For once I actually felt ready for one of his visits. You see, he lives to find that one little speck of dust on a counter or a ripped corner of the newspaper sitting on a table, so he can say, "You missed a spot." He's an absolute slob himself but that doesn't matter to "His Royal Highness" - he doesn't have to be neat and organized, just you.

Thank you, Martha, for making me want to scrub the floors much more thoroughly (honestly, I didn't regularly vacuum the hardwood floors... ever... before this project), clean windows and mirrors every 2 or 3 days (instead of when the fingerprints started to annoy me), de-clog drains with baking soda and vinegar (well... that's more for my entertainment, but whatever, my drains run faster and smell better), etc. Because I've been doing this now for 79 days, I was actually able to take it easy today. The majority of the house was ready for royal inspection.

Since Amelia didn't have school, we were able to work in a trip to Giant Eagle, as well, for some last-minute groceries.

Yep, I was ready and when he showed up an HOUR early, I didn't freak out. I was ready! I think he was secretly annoyed that I wasn't frazzled and/or still cleaning when he arrived. Ha-ha!

Again, THANK YOU, MARTHA STEWART!

Mary

Day #78 (A little better) (From Thursday)

2009-09-27T21:16:00.002-04:00

Thursday, things started getting a little better. Julia's ex (a/k/a "Stalker Boy") is leaving her alone - although he did tell a friend of hers that he wants to apologize. Julia told her friend to relay the following message: Leave me alone. (I'm so proud of her for being so strong.) You see, the last time he tried to apologize, he took her acceptance as being a sign that they were dating again.

I spent the day doing more Martha crap, getting ready for the impending visit by "His Royal Highness" (my ex-husband, Julia's & Frankie's father.) He is overly critical of anything I do and generally is a total pain in the butt when around. Between laundry and vacuuming hardwood floors, I managed to get more than half of a full "Martha annual cleaning" list done in one day. Whoo-hoo!

Cheerleading was canceled tonight and, starting next week, we're down to once a week. *whew* Frankie is thrilled, as it's allowing her more study time (although her grades are impressively high, considering how busy her schedules has been.)

Mary

Days #75 - 77 (Monday - Wednesday)

2009-09-24T11:41:00.002-04:00

Sorry I'm being remiss again in my postings; however, things have been crazy the last couple of days. For once, I'm glad that I'm home, so I can deal with all this and not have it affect my work.

Monday was a typical "Martha" day. Sweep & vacuum floors, wash dishes, do laundry, cook dinner. Regular day, nothing special.

Tuesday was a day that hopefully I will not see repeated. The day started off normal: I took Amelia to school, ran Frankie to school (she needed to work on a project at school and had to be there early), went for my annual "review" visit with my chiropractor. Then, when Julia was returning home from school, I noticed she was very pale and shaking. Julia's stalker ex-boyfriend (they dated in 7th grade, she ended things with him after about 3 months because he was controlling and it made her scared, then he started stalking and harassing her) is back. We hoped he learned after being suspended in 7th grade for harassing her and, because he left her alone all last year, it was easy to believe he was over her. Guess not. Earlier this week, Julia heard rumors around school that they were dating again. She made every effort to make it clear that they weren't and that she would not go back to him. As she was leaving school on Tuesday, he charged out the school building right after her, screaming that he was going to "get" her, and lunged at her. Because of his past behavior, she was terrified. Luckily for her, a good friend of hers was with her and she went after "Stalker Boy".

Now Julia is afraid to go to to the homecoming dance. Keep in mind, at the Valentines' Dance in 7th grade (about 2 months after they broke up), "Stalker Boy" cornered Julia between a water fountain and a wall and tried to force her to kiss him. God only knows what would have happened if one of the chaperones didn't see this and break it up. He's about 5 inches taller and outweighs Julia by at least a good 50 pounds. He was suspended because of this.

Julia and I spent yesterday morning in school, meeting with the 9th grade principal. The principal made it clear that they will not tolerate this, especially based on his past behavior. Julia is now to not make eye contact with him (much less speak with him), and he cannot ever approach my daughter. If he does, or if he shoots her menacing looks in the hallways (or does anything to creep her out), she is to find the nearest teacher or staff member, tell them (the principal was sending notices to all 200 teachers and staff members at the high school) what was going on, and they are to keep her in their classroom until after the bell and then walk her to class. After that, they are required to notify the office. If he were to actually approach her, touch her, or threaten her, he's expelled. Also, as he lives in our neighborhood (he's about 8 blocks from our home) and rides her bus, he is being forced to sit right behind the bus driver. They're trying to work out a way to kick him off the bus (how stupid is this - he harasses my daughter on school grounds but because it didn't happen on a bus, they can't throw him off right away?!?) but that might not happen. Lucky for Julia, his parents usually drive him to and from school, so he won't be there every day.

Thankfully the school is taking this very serious, except for the bus status.

We're upset because we hoped this was in the past. Apparently not. My niece and nephew (she's a junior, he's a senior) are taking turns walking with Julia to class and checking in on her during the day. Julia's friends are all rallying around her. She's still not feeling safe but she seems to feel a bit better, knowing he can't hurt her.

All this makes the whole Martha project seem silly. However, it does give me something to focus on and keep me from dwelling on all of the "could have", "would have", "might have" issues and questions.

Mary

Day #74 (Sunday was supposed to be for rest, right?) (From Sunday)

2009-09-21T14:51:00.003-04:00

Isn't it always said that Sundays are days of rest? Yeah, about that... I'd love a chance to have a restful Sunday just once. lol

The morning started off with Patrick taking the older 2 to church (they had "extended Sunday school" this week and had to be there until 2pm) while I took the younger 2 to football (Maura's squad meets up half an hour before each game - in this case, the game started at 11:45am so she had to be there by 11:15am) at Memorial Middle School. I hate games held at MMS. The girls cheer on the track, which runs on the outside of the football field. However, the track has this loose, black tar-like "dirt" (not sure exactly what it is) that totally ruins sneakers, socks, uniforms, etc. Luckily Maura managed to keep it all off her uniform this time (last year, I practically bought stock in the company that manufacturers Carbona.) We won the game (18 - 0) and the conversations with Coach went REALLY well. I guess the director spoke with her. All I know is that she didn't single out Maura, didn't complain that Frankie wasn't there, and was really nice. What really sucks is that she is generally a really nice person. I'm thinking she's just in way over her head and doesn't know how to cope with the pressure, etc.

After getting home, it was time for weekly cleaning, more laundry, and cleaning out the fridge. Yuck! But I do have a bit more room now.

Maura wanted to have "breakfast for dinner" and it just sounded really good. So, I made Martha's buttermilk pancakes and bacon for dinner, with fruit on the side. While Martha's pancakes tasted awesome, the batter just seemed really runny to me. It was almost like crepe batter. The pancakes didn't come out even sized, or even round for that matter. But, like I said, they tasted so good. Maybe I'll add a little more flour next time and see if we have better results.

Then it was time to do more dishes, put away laundry, get kids into baths/showers, load up backpacks, etc. I missed the Emmys last night but Patrick, bless his heart, DVR'd them for me.

By the time all the kids went to bed, I decided I'd watch a DVD (Easy Virtue, a film from 2008 based on a Noel Coward play) instead of watching the Emmys mid-show. The movie was really much better than I thought it would be (I would cut off my right arm for that wardrobe.) Then again, anything with Colin Firth and Kristen Scott Thomas has to be good, right? Even if it stars Jessica Biel? lol

Mary

Day #73 (It's Better in Mentor... really) (from Saturday)

2009-09-21T14:12:00.003-04:00

This morning, I was willing to sell all 4 of my daughters BEFORE 9:00am (aggh!!! None of them are capable of waking on time for school without multiple wake-up calls from mom. But, of course, there's no problems with waking EARLY on the weekend - when NO ONE has to get up!)

Around 9:30am, we headed out for the annual "It's Better in Mentor" parade. IBIM is a 3-day event, celebrating our community. It starts on Friday and ends Sunday. The parade, which lasts upwards of 2 1/2 hours, is Saturday's event. The kids love it because they get to see friends march (Girl Scouts, cheerleaders, band, orchestra, etc.) Oh, and the people in the parade all toss candy to the kids. Each girl had one of the reusable-type grocery bags, so we came home with 4 bags filled HALF-WAY. Yikes! Way too much candy for us. Especially since most of it, Julia & Frankie can't eat because of their braces. So, they bagged up a bunch of candy and gave it to our various neighbors. Nice to see the girls "share the wealth."

After surviving the parade (we didn't get home until 1:00pm), Amelia announced she wanted macaroni and cheese for dinner. Hmmm... I had pasta shells on hand, a pound of cheddar cheese waiting to be shredded, a can of evaporated milk (much lower in fat and calories than using heavy cream). Okay, sounds like a plan. My recipe is really filling, we tend to serve it as a main course. To bulk it up a bit, I added half a pound of cooked ham. With biscuits and a garden salad, it was such an easy and extra-yummy dinner. (Thanks for the suggestion, Amelia.)

Then it was time for another couple of loads of laundry. Eventually, I just collapsed for the night.

Mary

Day #70 (Wednesday), Day #71 (Thursday), Day #72 (Friday)

2009-09-18T22:09:00.004-04:00

Okay, since I last posted, the problems with cheerleading appear to FINALLY be resolved. I spoke with the head of the program and she has received the same complaints from TWO other parents, and she promises she will handle all of the complaints (two practices a week during the school week, continuing practices well past sunset, singling out Maura when she does something wrong - and not doing it to anyone else when they make mistakes, taking her issues with me out on my kids, etc.) We're switching to one practice a week (a fair compromise, I think) and, if I feel it's too dark out and/or Maura is too tired to continue, I'm welcome to pull her of practice at any time without the threat of reprimand. Let's keep our collective fingers crossed that this all works out the right way.

The past three days have been me doing my best impression of Baking Martha. I made sconces (surprisingly easy), two batches of double fudge brownies, chocolate cupcakes, and lemon poppy seed muffins. It's amazing how much I enjoy baking when the weather starts to turn cooler.

Wednesday, Julia and I went shopping and bought her gown for the Homecoming Dance. I can't believe how grown up she looks (see above.) As you'll note, she didn't go with the retro 50's design she was obsessing over last week. The dress comes with a matching red satin/taffeta wrap. She just tried this one on and told me to put back the other 4 dresses we took into the dressing room with us, as this was "the one". Keep in mind, Julia is the kind of person who usually takes 15 to 20 minutes to decide whether she wants a muffin or a bowl of cereal for breakfast every morning. She doesn't just make quick decisions, so she must really love this one. I hope so! A good friend of mine who makes custom designed jewelry is making her necklace, and we're hopefully going shoe shopping this weekend (so we can get the dress in to be hemmed to the right height.)

Amelia was OK with going to school on Wednesday (*whew*) and went off without a hitch on Thursday. Of course, Thursday was the day that Patrick took her. She couldn't let Daddy see her cry and carry on about everything. *grr*

Today (Friday) was spent packing up summer clothes and putting them in Space Bags (I love these things!) or, if Amelia has outgrown them, into bags for The Salvation Army. It's amazing how much room I now have in the closets. Too bad it won't last.

I, also, got a nibble on my job search. A position I submitted my resume for about two months ago left me a voice mail message earlier this afternoon. Hopefully it'll at least end up with an interview. I really miss working (and the paychecks - lol.)

Now I'm off to warm up a bit. We went to High School Football tonight and froze our butts off, watching our team lose 47 - 7. Ouch. At least we can console ourselves on the fact that we were not the favorite to win. Still hurts, though. Oh well, Falcon football on Sunday should be pretty good. Gotta keep thinking positive.

Mary

Day #69 (Stick a fork in me, folks, I'm done)

2009-09-15T21:29:00.004-04:00

This morning started off so well (insert sarcastic eye roll). Maura & Amelia didn't want to go to school. Amelia was complaining so loudly in the car that I lost focus and ran over her tricycle in the driveway (her smart ass comment after I said that's what I did: Don't worry, I have plenty other bikes to ride.) We get to school and Amelia threw an even bigger tantrum than she did yesterday at the door (according to her teacher, she calmed down and started playing as soon as I left the classroom *grrr*.) I managed to get back home before Maura's bus picked her up and she yelled at me for hitting Amelia's bike. Maybe if Amelia put it away last night like she should have, I wouldn't have run over and crushed the back wheel, hmm?!?

Then it was time to do the dishes, throw on some laundry, fold and/or hang up the load of clean laundry Patrick left in the clothes basket in the laundry room, and get back to pick up Amelia from school.

While out, Patrick called to tell me that there was either a leak or drain backup in the laundry room, as we had a little flood on the floor. AGGH!!!! Turns out, it must have been a drain backup (the drain for our washing machine is exposed and if there is anything on the drain cover, the water doesn't go down right and can cause a little flood.) I guess that's a good thing, as all I had to do was mop up the inch-deep puddle and clean out the drain. It could have been MUCH worse.

After doing that, Amelia and I did some grocery shopping (well, I did some shopping while Amelia went to play in the staffed play room at the store). Then it was back home to clean up the pantry and straighten out the cabinets with the pots and pans. Tomorrow, it's the cabinets with the dishes and bowls. You'd think that Patrick & the kids wouldn't have a problem with putting things back where they go... considering I labeled ALL the cabinets and pantry shelves with P-Touch labels saying what goes where.

Then Mr. UPS Man delivered a box from Nonna (my ex mother-in-law, who spoils all the kids rotten.) She returned from Italy last week and decided to ship the girls a box of all their presents from her. There were clothes galore for all 4 girls, 2 new Louis Vuitton purses for Julia & Frankie (seriously, WTF?!? I didn't get one until I was in college!), a vintage Louis Vuitton for me (SCORE!!!), and some Swiss chocolates for us all (ahhh...sublime.) She complains about being broke but she's able to afford over $1,200 worth of purses for Julia & Frankie. Granted, her family was obscenely wealthy back when she was younger and her idea of broke is VERY different from mine. Still, if you're that worried about money, you don't spend that kind of money on teenage girls. Naturally, the girls were all kinds of excited and bouncing off the walls, when they saw all the cool stuff she bought them.

Time for a quick dinner (leftover pasta and chicken from the other night) and it was time, yet again, for cheerleading practice. According to Other Mother (see previous posts to understand who that is) and Frankie, all practices are now to end at 7:30pm because it's getting too dark. Even the boys are ending their football practices that early and they have lights on their practice fields. Coach showed up at 7:20pm (again) and decided to keep practice running until just after 8:00pm. This was after telling the girls that she didn't care what time it was, they weren't leaving until they were able to complete the half-time show perfectly. Uhh... they'd probably know the routine perfectly if you didn't keep making changes every week, Coach. DUH!

She really doesn't seem to understand that this is an INTRAMURAL league. There are NO competitions, it's all about having fun. The girls get on the squad because Mom and Dad write a $25 enrollment check (and $35 for mandatory raffle ticket sales and $50 for uniforms and pompoms), and that's it. I don't think there is more than one girl out of the seven on the squad who is still having fun. That's sad.

I'm calling the head of the cheerleading association tomorrow and complaining about this. I don't know how parents who work do this. In our case, Maura gets home around 3:30pm every day. She has to finish homework (yes, first graders do have homework nowadays) and eat dinner before practice. And, in my opinion, she needs some free time to run around and play. If I was working, she would be at an after school program until at least 5:30pm. With practice starting at 6:45pm, it doesn't leave much time for eating. Since practices are still going until 8:00pm and Maura's bedtime is 8:45pm, when exactly would we fit in homework? As it is with me being home, it's still a tight fit to get everything done and still allow 30 minutes of "free play" on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'd hate to see how messed up this would all be if I was still commuting home from Cleveland (usually 30 - 45 minutes by car.)

After returning home, it was time for baths for the little ones and homework review for all the kids before bedtime. Now I need to do the dinner dishes and go to bed.

Stick a fork in me, folks, I'm done.
Mary

Day #66 (Saturday), Day #67 (Sunday), and Day #68 (Monday)

2009-09-14T21:39:00.003-04:00

It's been a LONG weekend and, go figure, I didn't have time to post an update. Oh well...

Saturday morning was spent with Amelia, getting blood work done. Lucky for us, unlike the nurses on Friday, the one there Saturday was able to get all the samples necessary with ONE needle and in less than 5 minutes. Of course, Amelia was terrified going in but, when she saw how quickly we were able to be "in and out", was easier to console at the end.

The rest of the morning was spent getting Julia & Frankie ready for their church "camp in" (all the teens of our church were getting together to camp in the church, as a kind of retreat and to help them get ready for another year of Sunday school.) And we, also, had football and it was our friends' son, Billy's 5th birthday party. Maura did an awesome job cheering and, as soon as we were done with football, Patrick drove Julia & Frankie off to their "camp in" and I was off to Billy's birthday party with Maura & Amelia. The party was very fun, even if I had to watch both Notre Dame and Ohio State University lose. :(

Sunday was dominated by East Shore UU Church. First, Patrick was "greeting" (working the front door and welcoming everyone who came in), so we had to be there early (like 10:00am ish.) Then, after the service, Membership Committee had a "welcome back" pizza luncheon for the members and, since Patrick's a member, we had to stay for that. Then, Julia & Frankie had OWL (Our Whole Lives) class and *that* didn't end until after 2:00pm. After going home for a bit, I had to return back to East Shore for the monthly board meeting at 6:00pm. As it was my turn to supply appetizers/snacks, I had to be there early (5:45) to set up and, of course, I forgot that I was supposed to bring food, so I had to run out around 4:30 and pick up stuff. When I came home at 9:00pm, I couldn't wait to crash in bed so, naturally, nothing Martha-esque was done this weekend. :(

Today was an easier day than expected. After getting all the kids off to school (even if Amelia did throw a temper tantrum when getting dropped off at school), I ran a couple of errands and was able to relax a bit. After picking her up, I decided to get rid of my lovely grey roots (it's sad how much grey hair I have... and I'm not even 40!) so it was time to drag out the hair dye supplies. I feel much better now that I look like I'm still in my 30's. lol

I decided to make a nice autumn-themed pork stew (roasted pork, carrots, onions, apples, garlic, a pint of Guinness) with egg noodles and biscuits for dinner. So, I dragged out the crock pot and started cooking that after lunch. BTW... it was YUMMY!!!

All the kids came home and homework was done. Then it was time to eat my yummy pork stew (which none of the kids liked *grrr*.) After dinner, my niece came by and wanted to use Maura & Amelia as "models" for a photography class assignment. She got some really lovely ones of Amelia, dressed in her Cinderella costume from Halloween last year, having a tea party on our front lawn with 3 of her teddy bears. And then she had me take a bunch of her making chocolate cupcakes with Maura & Amelia. They were adorable but nowhere near as cute as the tea party ones. I can't wait to see how they'll look when she's done Photoshopping the backgrounds (the tea party ones are having an "Alice in Wonderland" theme 'shopped into the back and the cupcake ones are having some airbrushed techniques done to make them look painted.)

Now I'm done with laundry, cleaning dinner dishes, and cupcake baking dishes. I'm ready to collapse. *whew*

Here's to a slower tomorrow.
Mary

Days #64 & 65 (meh... just meh)

2009-09-11T20:57:00.002-04:00

Didn't post last night, as I just *meh*. Not in a good mood then and not in one now. However, I do need to post or else I will completely fall out of the practice and this will have been for naught.

Yesterday was Mia's last day of preschool for the week. Joy! (sarcasm) I'm really liking her being in school. Other than the fact she enjoys school, it forces me to get motivated and do things, so I can have the afternoon off with her. So, while she was at school, I did two loads of laundry and dishes. Then the water went out. Aqua Ohio is fixing water mains about a block away from our house and we had "dirty" water coming out of the pipes (had to rewash and rebleach the whites load of laundry), so they shut everything off and worked on the pipes. I guess it could have been worse... they could have shut the water off while the laundry was still washing or while I was in the shower.

After picking Amelia up from school, we ran some errands, rented her a new DVD (I swear I love RedBox so much - $1 per day DVD rentals!!!), said "hi" to Patrick at work, and came home. We were home about 30 minutes when she walked up to me and said: "I'm having a bad day. I need a chocolate milkshake." I'm still LMAO over that one. She's not even 4 yet and she's discovered the healing properties of chocolate.

Then it was time to make "shell-less" taco casserole (ground beef, taco seasoning, refried beans, black beans, tomatoes, chilis, corn, and cheddar cheese baked in the oven) and brown rice. Yummy and very filling.

Since I wasn't feeling well, I had Patrick take Maura & Frankie to cheerleading. You think I would have enjoyed the time off but no, I ended up doing more stuff around the house. *sigh* I wish the house could stay clean for more than 30 minutes.

Today, I woke up to NPR discussing the anniversary of 9/11. Not a very pleasant thing at all. I'm still dealing with my own issues on it (I had quit a public accounting job about a year before; if I hadn't, I would have been at my regular Tuesday client whose office was at 150 Broadway. So, I would have either exiting the subway in the World Trade Centers when the first plane hit or I would have been walking the 2 or 3 blocks from the parking garage down there I used there at that exact time.) I spent the day trying to avoid all mention of the anniversary; that lasted about 2 hours. :(

As I had no energy today, I just did what I had to today. So that meant washing dishes, taking out the trash, and taking Amelia for some bloodwork necessary for her preschool physical. I'm ready to kill the nurses at the blood lab for what they put her through. They had a tough time finding a vein to use but that didn't stop them from jabbing her with the needle 3 times. (I say "them" because 3 different nurses tried.) Needless to say, she was screaming and inconsolable the entire time. Too bad we have to go back tomorrow as they couldn't get a sample. So she sat through 3 complete strangers poking and prodding her arms and sticking her with needles for NOTHING. She gets to go through it all again tomorrow. GREAT. *grrr*

All she wanted for a "reward" for being such a big girl about everything was chocolate milk and pizza for dinner. DONE!

Now I'm off to tuck the girls into bed and relax. And I'm going to shoot the person who made me laugh by reminding me that today was, also, the 8th anniversary of my mother's infamous "My Daughter is Alive Because She's Lazy" speech. (After watching the towers collapse, my mother went on about how I was only alive because I was lazy and didn't want to commute from Greenwich into NYC anymore, and that was why I took a job less than 10 minutes from my house.)

Good night.
Mary

Day #63 (How quickly little girls change...) (From yesterday)

2009-09-10T09:52:00.004-04:00

My, how quickly little girls change. Tuesday, Amelia clung to me and was afraid for the first half hour of preschool. She was clingy that the teachers and I discussed how to handle today's drop-off. Mainly, they wanted to know if I was OK with leaving while she was crying and if, after half an hour, if she was still upset, they'd call me and I'd come back to school. Well, today was the first day and... She was fine. Great, actually. She woke up half an hour earlier than necessary, ate a "huge for a little girl" breakfast (a bowl of Cheerios, cup of milk, AND 2 waffles with syrup!), got dressed by herself, and when dropping off at school, she told me I could leave now. Of course, I went to the car and cried. I'm thrilled that she wants to go to school but part of me is sad that she didn't need me.

After leaving school, I came home and was just in time to see Maura off (Amelia's school starts at 8:00am and Maura's bus doesn't pick her up until 8:25ish). Then it was on to doing dishes, sweeping floors, straightening out bedrooms.

Lucky for sad lil' ole me (lol), 10:30 came about rather quickly, and I needed to pick up Amelia. After getting her from school, we returned a DVD she rented Tuesday, rented another one, saw Patrick at work (she had to tell Daddy how much fun she had at school), dropped Frankie's orthodontic wax off at school (she called home, complaining that the brackets were irritating the inside of her cheek and, of course, she didn't bring any wax to school with her), came home, ate lunch, and watched the new DVD.

Next thing I knew, Julia was coming home from school and it was "After School" mode. I pulled together some snacks and drinks, made the dining room quiet and it was time to start homework. I'm amazed at the quantity of homework Frankie has each night (hers easily outweighs Julia's) and that Maura has one worksheet every night plus a reading log she needs to complete daily (and she's only in first grade!)

Then we started discussing homecoming. Julia wants to go to the dance, she is probably going with a group of friends instead of with a date, and needs a dress. Granted, it isn't until October but homecoming is HUGE out here. My best friend is a jewelry designer and has offered to make Julia a necklace to match her dress. Of course the dress Julia has fallen in love with is a vintage 1950's aqua prom dress with crinolines, etc.

Yeah, that'll be easy to find. NOT! So I'm going to check out all the vintage, thrift, and costume rental shops and see if there is anything even close. If not, I'm not sure what we're going to do. Hopefully she'll find something else that she likes. I'm, also, emailing the picture to my friend and my ex mother-in-law. They both live just outside NYC and they can check shops there, as well.

Dinner was quick tonight. Garden salad with balsamic dressing, chicken alfredo over whole wheat pasta, and garlic bread. Very yummy and didn't require too much planning/thinking. Oh well.

After dinner, it was time to get everyone ready for bed, read bedtime stories, and watch President Obama's speech to the joint session of Congress.

Gotta run now. It's getting late.

Mary

Days #61 & 62 (Busy, busy, busy)

2009-09-08T21:23:00.003-04:00

Sorry about not posting last night but things have been hectic and, well, life goes on.

Yesterday while Patrick worked, I had to deal with 4 kids bouncing off the walls... thanks to rainy & overcast weather, keeping them inside. Labor Day was truly a day of labor for me. Because of the rain, all the barbecues and picnics that we were invited to were postponed. So, I spent the day doing laundry, cleaning the house, and cooking. No rest for us "stay at home" moms, huh?

Today was Amelia's first day of preschool. That was fun! Since today was parent/student orientation, we were allowed to be with the kids the entire time. Amelia clung to me for the first half hour we were there and then, when it was time for us to leave, she threw a temper tantrum worthy of her big sister, Frankie. (Frankie was the Queen of Tantrums when she was a toddler and preschooler.) Tomorrow will be fun, as we're not allowed to go to class. The teachers will be waiting in the "drop off" area, and they walk the kids down to their classroom. I'm figuring there will be some crying (and not just from me. lol)

After preschool let out, Amelia and I grabbed lunch, rented a DVD from RedBox (I love those things! $1 a day per DVD and I can return the movie to ANY of their sites), and then dropped off the replacement medical and dental forms at the doctor and the dentist (these are to replace the ones we turned in at registration back in March that the school cannot find.)

Based on the fact that I'm tired, not feeling all that well (I have the first cold of the school year starting), and I needed to run some errands, Maura & Frankie didn't go to cheerleading. At this point, I feel like saying "Who cares?" because most of the girls only attend practice once a week.

I started crocheting an afghan for my niece, who is expecting a baby this winter. She's having a girl, so I picked pale pink, chocolate brown, and winter white for colors. It already looks beautiful. I hope she enjoys it! Especially since both her cousins, Julia & Frankie, want to steal it for their bedrooms. I guess I'll be making more blankets in this color scheme later this winter.

Dinner tonight was just steak with fried peppers and onions, mashed potatoes, and biscuits. Nothing fancy but really good on a yet another rainy day. I'm thinking tomorrow might be a pork roast in the crock pot. I'll have to see if Martha has any good recipes for pork cooked in slow cookers.

And I feel like I have a major accomplishment, in that all laundry is washed, dried, pressed, and folded or hung up. Ta-da! It's an amazing feeling. Too bad it won't last, as I just spied the amount of clothes Julia just dumped down the laundry chute. I'm still not sure why she must change clothes as soon as she comes home from school, then change again when it's time to get ready for bed. If my washer didn't cost as much as it did - it's a high efficiency front loader - I'd make her do her own laundry. However, I do know that she tends to overload everything and I'm confident she would manage to break my machine. And, being unemployed, I don't have the money to replace it. *sigh* I'll continue to bask in the afterglow of having all laundry finished for tonight and start all over again tomorrow morning.

Now I'm off to crochet some more and then, off to bed. I'm really spent. Hopefully everyone settles back into their school schedules pretty soon. It's annoying that I can't get them up on time on school days but on weekends and holidays, they're up earlier than they need to be on school days. *grrr*

Mary

Day #60 (Summer returns for the day)

2009-09-06T21:50:00.002-04:00

I guess Summer realizes that it's Labor Day weekend, as it decided to make a return visit. It was in the mid 80s, sunny and gorgeous. Too bad the community pools all closed last week. : (

After having my weekly phone conversation with my ex mother-in-law, who is in Italy for a few more days, it was time to get the kids off to church and Sunday school. They were excited to go because today was "Games Day" (a/k/a "we know it's a holiday weekend and NO ONE is around, so we're just gonna let the kids have some fun" day). We got to hang around for an hour and a half after service, as Patrick had a committee meeting. The kids were outside (older ones were hanging out, younger ones playing on the playground) and I sat in the glorious sun and crocheted. Nice!

Returning home, I had no desire to do anything other than cook dinner. So, feeling inspired, I made Chicken Piccata with angel hair pasta, fresh garden salad, and garlic bread. Took a bit longer than planned but it came out wonderful.

Other than cooking a Martha-worthy dinner, I didn't do anything -- and I don't feel guilty. It was so nice out today that I just wanted to laze about. I read to the younger kids, "hung out" with my older kids, and spent quality time with the hubby. All in all, a great day. But just not too Martha-y. Oh well... I've survived 60 freakin' days on this quest, I think I'm entitled to a break for one day.

Tomorrow being Labor Day (and Patrick has to work all day), I'll be doing tons of Martha things like laundry, cleaning the bathroom, washing the floors (if I feel inspired), and getting things ready for the school week. Oh, and I need to take Amelia to buy a folder for preschool. I'm really not ready for her to go but it's all she's been talking about all weekend. She's SO ready.

Good night. I need to rest up, as I feel tomorrow will be a LONG day.

Mary

Day #59 (Karma can be somethin'!!!)

2009-09-05T20:18:00.002-04:00

Today was another "rush to do everything because it's Falcon football day!" I spent the morning washing dishes, scrubbing the bathroom, doing laundry, and sweeping. All this so I could get the girls to cheerleading on time, at 5:00pm.

Since the weather has been "hit or miss" here for the past week (some days, it's mid-afternoon and only 60 degrees, others it's low 80s), I decided it was time to dig out Maura's long-sleeved shirt for under her uniform. Then I remembered that Coach decided she wanted the girls to wear white shirts under their uniform instead of the black shirts the girls have been wearing for 4+ seasons. Wonderful. Time to find one for Maura. Of course, none of the long-sleeved shirts in her closet were plain white. And, naturally, it took 3 stores for me to find one - and that one was in the BOYS department at Target. Actually, what I found was Champion's version of the Under Armor shirts (it's nylon based but wicks the moisture away from the body) and I think that actually might be nicer than the Capezio leotards I usually buy. Plus, no one seemed to have a white long-sleeved Capezio leotard in stock.

Frankie really wasn't sure she wanted to go today but I told her she had no choice, as it was Game Day and her girls needed her. So, she went in with the intentions of just doing what Coach requested - she was going to make sure the girls were doing their cheers, lead them when necessary, help with dance moves but just be the "Fun One" and not discipline any of the girls.

All I can say about that is summed up in my blog title: Karma can be somethin'!!!

We got to the game 45 minutes early as requested and the only others there besides Coach was Other Mom and her daughter. I dropped the girls off, as I wanted to make sure I didn't unfairly influence Frankie. I wanted her to handle this by herself - and she did so, beautifully!

During the game, Frankie did exactly what she was told to do by Coach: she lead the girls in their cheers (she was off to the side, so the girls could watch her if they forgot a move), she was smiling, and made it seem like so much fun. She didn't tell the girls to do anything. And, boy, did it show! Out of the 6 girls there (one girl was out sick), at least 3 of them (Maura included) needed "reminders" to stay on task and to keep smiling and cheering. They had trouble with remembering to yell loud, so people could hear them. And, even with Coach begging and pleading with them, none of the girls listened to her. They kept going to Frankie and Frankie kept telling them they needed to listen to Coach, that she's not in charge.

By the end of the game, Coach couldn't wait to get out of the stadium. When Frankie and Maura asked if she wanted to talk to the girls after the game (like she usually does, for 5 or 10 minutes), she said, "No." and practically ran to her car. She looked tired and frazzled, basically the way Frankie usually looks when leaving practices and games. Because she never really did any sort of discipline with the girls in the 6 weeks she's worked with the girls (she kept leaving that for Frankie to handle), the girls ignored her pleas.

I know I shouldn't enjoy this but, after the scene she made on Thursday night, I am. She kept going on and on about how Frankie needs to stop being so bossy and that she's more than capable of handling the girls. That all the girls need is an occasional "Stay on task, girls" reminder. Oh, and that you don't need to yell to the girls so you can be heard over the crowd. Yeah, today really proved all that. *eye roll*

When I asked Maura why she didn't listen to Coach, she said she couldn't hear Coach and when she tried to leave the cheer line to find out what Coach wanted, she was told to get back in line. So, Maura didn't do what Coach wanted her to do because she couldn't hear the instructions. Okay.

Well, all I know is that:
(1) Frankie was more relaxed at this game than she's been all season
(2) Maura and Frankie both were pretty happy at the end of the game
(3) Maura can't hear Coach give her instructions over the crowd noise

Tuesday's practice ought to be fun. Frankie said that, even if Coach says that she'd like to go back to the old way of doing things, she doesn't want to. She had way too much fun today just being "the fun one" for once.

After getting home, it was a quick dinner of pasta with homemade, jarred spaghetti sauce. Now it's time to wash dinner dishes, get Maura's uniform out of the washer and hung up to dry, and put Amelia into bed (she's asleep on the couch.) Then I think I'm going to crash myself. That is, after I tell Frankie how proud I am of her for handling this whole situation like an adult.

Karma indeed.

Mary

PS: The game was a tie (19-19.) Our league only has tie-breakers when it's a playoff game. Regular season, ties are OK.

Day #58 (Pizza & HS Football Night)

2009-09-04T22:10:00.004-04:00

After the drama of last night, I decided to take it easy today. Started off the morning with some clean-up, laundry, refreshing the "keep the bat away" bait (it's this awful smelling powder stuff - looks like kitty litter - that repels pretty much any type of animal; I've put bowls of it in the basement after the last bat visit and, because I couldn't smell it, I decided to empty and refill the bowls "just in case"), etc.

Then, because I needed to get outside, I called and made an appointment to get my hair cut. So, it was off to the salon with Amelia in tow. I only cut off about half an inch but it looks so much better. Since Amelia was so well-behaved at the salon, I treated us to lunch at her favorite place - McDonald's. Not only did she sit at the table and not run around the restaurant, she ate her entire lunch! I was impressed. :)

Back home to more dishes and relaxing. Then I heard that tonight's Mentor High School football game was honoring all the returning alum who graduated in the 1980's. Since I attended Mentor Public Schools from kindergarten thru 8th grade (9th grade, we moved to Leroy, OH and in 10th, we finally moved back to Greenwich, CT), I thought it would be a fun night out. So, in addition to today being Pizza Night, it was also Football Night.

Julia had her first Drama Club meeting after school today and, when it was time to be picked up, she discovered her cell phone wasn't working. *grrr* I had Patrick look at it and he found out that she somehow managed to screw up the programming, so we ran out and bought a new one. I'm at the point where if either Julia or Frankie mess up/lose/destroy another cell phone (this is the 3rd phone they've either lost or messed up in 2009!), I'm not getting them replacements until they have after-school jobs and can afford to pay for the phone and service themselves. I'm sure they'll complain to my ex and he'd buy them new ones but I am sick of it.

By the time Frankie came home at 4:00pm (she's the last one home on Fridays), I ordered in the pizzas and started getting everyone ready for tonight's game. I had Julia buy Frankie's and her tickets in advance, so they could sit in the "student section" (think: a ton of rowdy, loud middle and high schoolers with no parental supervision for the 2 hours or so the game lasts), so all we had to do was buy the tickets for Patrick, Maura and me (Amelia was free.)

The game was awesome - our team won, 17 to 10, and the win was in part to an impressive interception in the end zone during the last minute of the game. You see, though, that's the problem with Mentor High School football. We have awesome seasons, make it to the state championships and end up blowing it (this has happened something like 2 or 3 times in the past 5 years.) Hopefully we'll do it right this year. If we keep playing like we did tonight, it could finally happen.

Now I need to rest up and *hopefully* get my voice back, as tomorrow is this week's Falcons game. I, also, need to remind Frankie that she is to do NOTHING other than the "fun" stuff. Any reprimanding of the girls, etc. is no longer her responsibility. Let Coach and Other Mother handle that crap. And, if they don't, it doesn't look bad on Frankie because, like Coach said, it's not her problem.

Good night.
Mary

Day #57 (Is cheering season over yet?)

2009-09-03T20:40:00.002-04:00

Today started out uneventful enough - a full day of Martha-sanctioned cleaning and organizing. In other words, all the dishes were done, laundry washed, dried, folded or hung-up, floors swept and damp mopped, beds made, slipcovers fixed, etc. The house looks good. :)

Heck, I even made brownies for the kids' after-school snack. (Yes, they were awesome!)

After our weekly chiropractic visit, we rushed through homework and dinner, so the girls could make it to cheerleading practice. And that's where my uneventful - and fun - day ends.

We arrived 5 minutes early to practice (which Frankie was supposed to be leading), only to find out that one of the other mothers started it. Hmmm... Frankie jumped right in and started leading the girls in their drills. When the girls started misbehaving, Frankie yelled for them to "Pay attention!", the Other Mother told her that she can't yell at the girls. What? She didn't yell at the girls, she had to raise her voice for the girls to be able to hear her instruction to "pay attention" over the noise they were making.

Finally, after 35 minutes, Coach showed up and took over "practice" (I use that term loosely, as it wasn't structured at all and she was making MORE changes to the half-time dance routine, which just confused the kids even more.)

When practice ended, I asked to speak with Coach alone. I addressed Frankie's frustration at Tuesday's practice and how stressed she felt because the Other Mother took charge, was making changes, and telling Frankie how to run the practice. According to Coach, she asked Other Mother to do this. I asked why she didn't tell anyone. She said she told all the little girls and asked them to tell their parents. I pointed out that Maura, being a typical 6 year old, probably relates 75% of what she hears back to me because either (A) she's not paying attention to hear the remaining 25% or (B) she doesn't think the remaining 25% is important and decides to "filter" it out. And I asked why wasn't Frankie let in on this, as it would have eliminated the majority of her stress and confusion. She said she though Maura was going to pass along the information. Hmmm... you're having an adult "fill in" for you when you aren't there and you don't think it's worth the extra 5 minutes of your time to relate this information directly to your Junior Advisor (who you already told was to be in charge of running the practice while you were gone) or to the parents (who are there at the beginning and end of every practice) directly?

Then Coach dropped the big one on me. Apparently several parents have complained that Frankie yells too much. What? I'm at ALL the practices. Frankie yells "Pay attention!" or "Louder!" if the girls aren't paying attention or if they aren't loud enough. That's it. Granted, she'll pull Maura aside at breaks and lecture her about the importance of paying attention but she doesn't yell at or reprimand anyone else. Well, the parents feel it's inappropriate for her to tell their children what to do and that she needs to stop.

She said she wants Frankie to be "the fun one", the one who demonstrates cheers and dance moves, who motivates the girls to do their best, and have fun with the girls. All yelling, discipline, etc. should come from her. (And, if Coach was doing this all along, Frankie wouldn't feel the need to do it.) So, I've instructed Frankie that, from now on, if the girls aren't paying attention or if they're goofing off, she is to just ignore it and turn away. It's not her job to tell them to knock it off anymore. And, should someone ask her why she's not getting the girls in order, she is to tell them that, per Coach, it's not her job. (Normally I hate that line but feel it's entirely called for in this situation.)

Coach, also, suggested that, if Frankie has too much going on between school and cheerleading, she could step down as she could get others to help. WHAT?!? Excuse me, first year Coach, if it wasn't for MY DAUGHTER, you wouldn't know ANY of the cheers (you even admitted this during the first practice and said if it wasn't for Frankie helping out, you would have had to to watch some of the other squads practice, so she could learn them.) You wouldn't know ANY of the "unwritten rules" about performance (such as, cheering the entire game and not just during every 2nd or 3rd play, and that during the half-time show, you cheer to the opposing team's fans. Oh wait... you ignore that rule anyway.) And you wouldn't have ANY control over your practices because you're too "busy" doing God knows what with your notes. When I asked her if she wanted Frankie to step down, she got really defensive and said that her comment must have came out wrong, as she loves having her there and really needs her but, if homework gets to be too much, she'd understand if Frankie needs to miss some practices and/or games.

At this point, I tell her I needed to walk away before I say something that could be offensive (like, listen you stupid bitch, my daughter has gone above and beyond the description of "junior advisor" as per the MYCA guidelines. Maybe you should get your act together and actually be there on time before you judge the work of a twelve year old volunteer.) I made a point of saying we'd be at Saturday's game, and that we'd be 45 minutes early as per her request.

After a long discussion at home with Frankie, we've decided that we'll take each day's practice by ear. If she feels that she can't do it without being stressed or if she's overloaded with homework, she's going to email or call Coach and let her know she won't be there. But, once this season is over, she will not be Junior Advising for Coach's team next year. Not that it would have happened anyway, as Maura is moving up to the older squad next year (she's keeping "in step" with the son of some of our good friends, and he's moving up next year) and I refuse to have to do 2 different sets of practice and game schedules.

I'm really disappointed that this is how the season is going to end. My cheer-happy Frankie, who has been attending cheerleading camp since she was 5 years old, has decided to quit after 7 years. She just doesn't enjoy it anymore. My "not quite as cheer-happy" Maura isn't sure she wants to cheer anymore after watching everything that's happening with Frankie this year. Either way, I've pointed out to the girls that there are about 6 weeks left in the season and they both made commitments to their squads (and the football team) that they need to honor. I've decided that I'm done helping the squad at all. No more making signs, no more providing snacks for their 3rd quarter break, no more using my car's stereo system to blast their half-time dance song during practices (because no one seems to have a CD player they can use.) I will help my daughters cheer. I will root on the team and the girls. I will not, however, do anything to support the cheerleading organization, in general. In other words, I will do exactly what 75% of the parents are doing right now. Let someone else volunteer with projects. I'm done. I was never reimbursed for the cost of making and laminating the signs made to spell out "Falcons" but I'm just writing that off as my final donation.

Now that my girls are all in bed, I'm going to crash myself and try to relax. Let someone else worry about this crap.

Mary

Day #56 (School Daze...) (From yesterday)

2009-09-03T09:44:00.003-04:00

Sorry about not posting last night, but I was bone tired and just crashed.

First up, a friend needed a ride (drop her kids off at her mother's and then off to work), so... wouldn't you know it? I woke up to a dead battery and Patrick had already left for work. Nice. Luckily a friend of ours who lives across the street was on vacation and could give me a "jump". It was funny watching his little Chevy Cobalt trying to jump my large 7-seat Ford Explorer (it took about 10 minutes for there to be enough "juice" for my engine to turn over.)

After getting that done, Amelia and I ran some errands (WalMart, trip to the grocery store, car wash) and came home. Then it was on to doing dishes, laundry, and general clean-up.

Once Julia came home, it was the rush to finish homework, cook dinner, and get ready because yesterday was "Meet the Teacher" night at both Maura's and Amelia's school. Great. Maura's started at 6pm and Amelia's at 7pm. And their schools are about 15 minutes apart. Honestly, I would like ONE night with no cheerleading, no parent/teacher stuff, no nothing. Just a lazy night at home. Probably not going to happen for a few years. :(

Found out at Amelia's school meeting that they can't find all the medical forms we turned in when we registered her back in March. Uggh! They're going to search their files again and, if they don't find them, I have to have our pediatrician refill them out. Double-uggh! I'm sure they're going to love that. (insert sarcasm)

By the time we got home, all homework was done but none of the kids wanted to go to bed. Well, too darned bad. It was a school night. Maura decided to run and chase Amelia, insuring they both were too wound up to sleep. Julia was, as usual, glued to the computer. I think letting her get a Facebook account was a stupid decision, as she's on there ALL THE TIME. And Frankie was blasting the stereo. I need to get the girls back into their school night routines (no TV or computer after 8pm, etc.), however I think that might be an argument for next week.

After yelling and threatening to take away the TV and computer for the entire weekend, I was able to get kids into bed. I hate having to do stuff like that but sometimes you have no other choice.

Once everyone was asleep, I was able to log on and prepay for Julia's school pictures (being taken Thursday 09/03/2009.) I really hope they come out nice. Maura and Frankie - no problem (they both are pretty photogenic) but Julia's are always "hit or miss", either she looks great or horrible - no "ehh.. that's OK I guess" types.

Later,
Mary

Day #55 (Other parents SUCK)

2009-09-01T21:48:00.004-04:00

Today started off OKish - everyone got off to school on time, no one missed the bus - but it was cool again and I just felt "ick" and all I wanted to do was sleep. Too bad THAT wasn't going to happen today. Oh well, I just dragged through.

Spent the morning running errands with Amelia. We found the patches and appliques to add on to her precious blue backpack. I've got to admit, it does look better than the licensed apparel stuff. Oh well, it took a little more effort than just buying a pre-decorated one but she loves it and I like it. :) Then it was off to lunch at Steak 'n Shake, where Amelia and I both had chocolate milk shakes with our lunch. Yummy!!

Came back home and cleaned up the house. It's so much easier now that I busted my butt following Martha's weekly cleanup list.

Then everyone started coming home from school. Frankie was the only one with homework (thanks to 2 study halls, Julia hasn't had to bring home ANY homework) and she had a ton of it. She was really struggling with the difference between latitudes and longitudes (I tried explaining to her that the lines that stretch "long" are longitude and the lateral ones are "latitude" but it took a while for her to catch on.) Anyway, she was panicking about getting it all done because she had cheerleading tonight.

We broke from homework for a quick dinner (breaded pork chops, macaroni and cheese, and green beans) and got to practice a few minutes early. The coach told us that she would be 20 or so minutes late and that Frankie should just start practice without her. Okay - I'm not sure how comfortable I would be leaving a TWELVE YEAR OLD (even though Frankie is in 8th grade, she doesn't turn 13 until the end of next month) in charge of 7 girls with an average age of SEVEN, but Coach didn't seem to mind. Being who I am, I naturally was concerned that, if a girl got hurt during this part of practice, we didn't have her emergency contact card and the team's insurance information. But it was only supposed to be 20 or so minutes, right? Well, Coach showed up 40 minutes late.

But that wasn't the part that really ticked me off.

One girl didn't show up. According to one of the other moms, her mom is still mad that my husband called her out for forgetting to bring the juice and snack for the girls during Sunday's game, so she decided to "punish" us by not having her there. I can't really follow her logic but, then again, this is all second-hand from another mother. But my husband was surprised that this is the first time in the 4 years we've been involved with the cheerleading organization that one of the parents forgot snacks and juice. Oh, and rather than run out to WalMart (less than 2 miles away from the stadium) and grab some juice boxes and snacks, this mom just gave her daughter $20 and had her buy candy at the concessions stand for the girls.

But what really ticked me off was one of the other moms who decided she would "help" Frankie. Normally I don't think this would have been a problem, except she kept trying to change the choreography for some of the cheers and the halftime dance show (which the girls have been working on for the past month.) Uhhh... you can't change anything, especially with the coach NOT being here to approve it. Stop pressuring my daughter to change something that she CAN'T. Also, you better not EVER let me hear you berate my daughter again for not following your "suggestions" during this practice because she doesn't want to confuse the girls.

Then another mom made a comment about Maura being treated "special" because her sister is the junior advisor. WTF? If anything, Frankie is harder on Maura than the other girls because Maura is her sister.

All this, plus still having homework to finish and practice not scheduled to end until 8:00pm had Frankie in near meltdown mode. When the coach did arrive, Frankie was almost in tears, explaining to her that she still had homework and she was freaking out about getting it done before bedtime. Coach told her to relax and take a "homework break" (Frankie brought her backpack and books with her just in case she got 10 or so minutes.) When practice finally ended at 8, we headed home and Frankie lost it in the car. She told me how she felt about the mom who "helped" and being berated not making changes or for supposedly giving her sister special treatment.

She then said, "It's not fun anymore, Mom" and my heart broke. This is a girl who has been cheering since she was 5 years old and has always loved it, even the hard practices, being dropped by her spotters (back when she was in stunt cheering), working hard and not making her school squad, all of it. Tonight was the final straw for her... and for me.

I'm so angry right now that I'm purposely not calling the coach tonight because I would tell her that, if she's going to leave my daughter running a practice alone, I'm pulling her off the team. She's supposed to be having fun and helping little girls have fun learning to cheer. And that's what she wants to do. She shouldn't have to supervise them for 40 minutes (out of a 75 minute practice) and deal with bossy, overbearing, obnoxious parents who obviously feel comfortable making a (almost) teenager squirm.

I'm planning on calling the coach before Thursday's practice and telling her what's going on. If she wants to have the other parents involved in practices now going forward, fine. BUT she needs to tell them to leave Frankie alone. Frankie was only doing what she was told to do by Coach (and the way the girls have been practicing for the past month) and it's NOT OK for them to yell at her because she's not doing things their way. And God help either of those 2 mothers if I see them before I speak to the coach because I WILL give them a piece of my mind.

Thankfully another mother on the team keeps thanking Frankie for all she's doing and tells her that she's doing a great job. I think that's the only thing that kept Frankie from crying at practice and me from slugging someone.

Another thing that sucks about this is that Maura feels in the middle, as she's friends with the cheerleader daughter of this "rhymes with witch" mom. They are in different classes but play together at recess. But Maura loves her sister and started crying when she saw how upset Frankie was (Maura's a really sensitive kid who hates seeing anyone upset.) Heck, Maura wanted to be a cheerleader because Frankie had been one. She idolizes her sister! And to see how upset her friend's mom made her sister just made her sad.

Once we got home, the promise that I would be talking to Coach and straightening all this out (combined with a mug of hot chocolate with whipped cream, a heated neck wrap, and a hand/arm massage) made Frankie feel better. She fell asleep about an hour ago. Hopefully she'll feel even better in the morning.

Now I need to relax a bit and get to sleep myself. 5:15am comes around really quick. lol

Okay, rant off.
Mary

Day #54 (Peace and Quiet... ahhh...)

2009-08-31T21:29:00.002-04:00

We survived the first day of school! Of course, Julia managed to miss the bus in the morning, Francesca came home with another list of supplies needed (this is in addition to the list her teachers had posted online - why can't they coordinate this stuff?!), and Maura's "meet the teacher" night is Wednesday - the same night as the parent orientation meeting at Amelia's preschool. Argh!!

At least everyone got up on time (Julia just took forever getting out to the bus stop), so that made the morning much less stressful. Oh, and Julia was able to do the homework she had during a study hall. That was nice.

For breakfast, I made cinnamon rolls (very Martha!) from refrigerated dough (very Mary!) The girls really enjoyed them. I hope they aren't going to expect them every morning. It's just that it was the first day back and, to boot, it was pretty cold for August as it was 52 degrees when Julia woke up and the temperature never got about 70 degrees for the day.

After everyone got out the door for school, I was able to clean up the breakfast dishes, do a quick load of laundry, then I spent the morning shopping at the Aurora Factory Outlets with Amelia. We didn't find her blue backpack there (that was found later at WalMart) but we did find a VERY cute pair of hot pink floral high-top sneakers at The Children's Place outlet ($16) that Amelia fell in love with, along with a pair of jeans ($5) and a really cute pink long-sleeve t-shirt with butterflies ($7.) Then, we just walked around for another hour afterward before heading back home. Naturally that would be when Amelia fell asleep and of course she was wide awake and refreshed when we pulled into the driveway.

Feeling slightly inspired by it being the first day of school and Martha in general, I made the two of us turkey and ham wrap sandwiches for lunch, and served them with cheddar Goldfish crackers and a dill pickle. Amelia said "Lunch rocks, Mom!" I'm still glowing about that one, as she is a very picky eater and it was so nice to not have to fight her to eat a meal.

Then it was time to start cooking dinner's main course (barbecue pork ribs slow cooked in the oven, as they wouldn't fit in my Crock Pot.) Letting them slow cook at 275 degrees for the afternoon was so simple, and left me free to finish cleaning up from lunch.

Next thing I knew, kids were coming home from school and I needed to sit and fill out all those emergency information cards. I wish they made these in "fill in the blank" PDF format, so that I could fill out all the "carry over" information (my cell phone, my husband's, which people to call for emergencies, etc.) ONCE. Then I would just fill in the appropriate kid's information, print them out, sign them, and return them to school. Heck, we even get report cards and interim reports via the school's online "Infinite Campus" system. Oh well, I can always dream. In the meantime, I'll deal with the writer's cramp that always occurs on the afternoon after the first day of school. :)

Dinner went off without a hitch (I quickly whipped up buttered noodles and a garden salad, to join the ribs) and ran off to finish the "new" supply list for Frankie. While out, I found Amelia's blue backpack that she's been talking about for the past week. I know it doesn't sound too difficult but she wanted a PLAIN royal blue backpack. No flowers, no appliques, nothing. Plus it needed to be small enough to not overpower her (she's not even 4 yet.) WalMart had it on clearance for $3! After getting her approval, I fabric painted her name on the zipper pouch on the front. Tomorrow, we're going to Jo-Ann Fabrics to buy Dora the Explorer and Go Diego Go! patches to iron on. I'm still not sure why we couldn't just buy a Dora or Diego backpack but, considering she's hypersensitive and OCD (I'm hoping she starts to grow out of SOME of this by the time she starts kindergarten - therapy helped Julia when she was younger), I guess she just needed to feel "in control" of the situation. Oh well, it's going to be a fun Mom/Amelia project. Plus, customizing a backpack sounds like a very Martha-esque thing.

Then it was time to cover Frankie's American History textbook. We couldn't find ANY fabric book covers, so I got to teach her about making them from brown kraft paper. That was pretty fun. Plus she had a blast decorating the plain brown cover with my rubber stamps, picking out her favorite patterns and ink pad colors. Now she wants to do this to all her books, as she gets them. I don't mind because (A) I get to recycle paper bags and (B) it's much cheaper than $1 a book cover.

Now that all the kids are in bed for the night, I am ready to crash. I've been running since 5:15am.

Good night.
Mary

Days #52 and 53 (The final countdown)

2009-08-30T19:50:00.004-04:00

This weekend was one big blur. Between rushing the girls off for haircuts (well, 3 of them got their hair cut - Amelia still won't let anyone near her with scissors), last-minute "back to school" shopping (yes, I caved in and bought the damned antibacterial cleaning wipes for Maura's class - even though I still think it's BS that they are expecting parents to pay for something the school should supply), getting to church, getting to cheerleading team pictures, and getting to the game, I'm lucky I had the 10 or so minutes needed to get this post up and out.

Saturday was all "Back to School", all afternoon, after spending the morning cleaning. Like I said, we did the haircuts (Julia just trimmed her hair, Maura cut almost 2" off, and Frankie took about 4" off - and doesn't look the same at all!) in the afternoon. Then, it was back to the house, so I could bleach all the sneakers we bought earlier that the girls insisted on wearing before school started (and got dirty and/or scuffed up.) Then, back out to pick up last minute things needed for Monday morning. And, by the time I finally finished laundry (spray treat all stains, wash, dry, iron, fold or hang up on hangers), I crashed and didn't wake up until 8:00am this morning.

Today we had to get to church early, as Patrick was handing out orders of service (a/k/a church bulletins.) After service, we needed to rush home, get Maura into her uniform and run her to Mentor High School for her team and individual cheerleading pictures. By the time the photographers finished shooting the squad, there was about 30 minutes until her game started, so we just hung around the stadium, watched the last quarter of the game before us, and got settled in (while Maura & Frankie stayed and practiced with the rest of the girls.) Unfortunately our Falcons lost today but it was still a great game. They played their hearts out - and the girls cheered their lungs out. Oh well, we'll get 'em next week.

Dinner was... well, as Martha would say... a good (and easy) thing. It's amazing how, on a cold rainy day (it never got above 65 degrees today - and it's AUGUST!), pasta with homemade sauce (that I canned myself a week ago) can taste so good. It was the perfect way to end a stressful weekend.

Now I need to get children into showers and off to bed. Tomorrow is a school day! I'm hopeful that, by applying Martha's tips for avoiding morning stress (i.e. backpacks are loaded up and stored in the foyer, clothes are already selected and pressed, etc.), it'll be an easier start to a good year.

Mary

Day #51 (3 more days until school starts)

2009-08-28T21:15:00.003-04:00

This morning, I finally managed to finish all the laundry from the past week. Again, I'm not sure how the kids go through this much during the summer. It's not like they're changing outfits multiple times (unless the little ones got really dirty - the older ones are pretty good about keeping clean) a day. Oh well, c'est la vie.

Then it was on to the grocery store. Today was a rather impressive run - between the bonus card, coupons, and double coupons, I knocked 40% off my grocery bill! Whoo-hoo! And I actually bought all stuff that we needed and will use (no "well, I have a coupon for it so I should buy it" type of shopping today.) To celebrate, I rented 2 movies for the kids (Race to Witch Mountain for all of them and 17 Again for the older 2.)

On the way home from the grocery store with Frankie, she wanted me to stop at the Mentor Kia dealership. Her favorite radio station (Q104 in Cleveland) was there with their prize van and she wanted to stop by. She ended up winning the CD soundtrack for 17 Again and I won a four-pack of tickets to see Post-Grad (with Alexis Bledel from Gilmore Girls.) Pretty cool! I've called 3 of my girlfriends and we're going to have a "Mommy's Night Out" in the next week or two. Honestly, as long as the movie isn't total crap, I'll love it just because I get to hang out with my friends without kids or husbands tagging along. lol

Then it was on to cleaning up the house and reorganizing the pantry. Uggh. At least everything is clean, organized and put away.

After Patrick got home from work, we took the kids to Maura's school for new student orientation. No, she's not new there but all students are allowed to walk the halls, drop things off in their new classrooms, and meet their teachers. That was a lot of fun. Julia & Frankie got to see teachers they haven't seen since they moved up to middle school.

One thing though, and maybe I'm just being a bit sensitive as we're on a tight budget due to me being unemployed: All first grade students are required to bring in - in addition to basic school supplies - a 40 count box of Ziploc bags, a large box of Kleenex (yes, the school did specify what size boxes), and 2 containers of antibacterial wipes. And they are looking for the Clorox-type cleaning wipes, not Purell pre-moistened hand wipes. I'm all for making sure Maura has all her school supplies and I'm even OK with sending in a box of Kleenex, as Maura has allergy problems and needs tissues pretty frequently. But Ziploc bags for storing classroom materials and cleaning wipes for the classroom? WTH? The schools don't clean the classrooms enough or provide the teachers with these kinds of supplies? And, no, I don't think the teachers should be paying for these things either. The school really should provide them if they aren't cleaning the classrooms regularly.

So, now I need to run out to WalMart and grab 2 containers of something that I don't even use around my own home. (Sorry but I'm not a fan of antibacterial stuff. I'd rather use actual cloths, very hot water and vinegar. With all my allergies, I'd rather stick with "natural" stuff instead of more chemicals that will either cause my skin to either break out in rashes or crack, bleed and/or peel off.)

Mary

Day #50 (Exhausted!)

2009-08-27T20:15:00.002-04:00

I cannot wait until the kids get back to school next week, so things might slow down a bit.

This morning started off with yet another visit to the orthodontist. They ended up removing the remaining blue "bumper" from Julia's brackets. And, today was Francesca's day to get her braces put on. I'm impressed that it only took an hour (Julia's took over an hour and a half) to get everything installed. She picked hot pink rubber bands and is now showing everyone her silver and hot pink smile. :) She's, also, handling it MUCH better than Julia did.

Then we were home for lunch and back out for Julia to visit her therapist. Julia is really starting to stress out about starting high school Monday and she's now having anxiety attacks. :( Luckily her therapist was able to talk with her and she suggested we temporarily increase Julia's anti-anxiety medication, to help her get through the first 2 or 3 weeks. I know it's just a temporary setback but it still sucks watching my baby go through all this.

Returning home, it was time for laundry. I swear the laundry never ends in this house. I know I have 4 daughters but they aren't the types who change their outfits 2 or 3 times a day. Patrick's theory is that the dirty clothes multiply as soon as they are put down the bathroom laundry chute. Ha, ha.

And back out we went to chiropractic. Thankfully our doctor was able to work on my neck (adjustment plus massage) and helped curb the massive tension headache I had forming. It's been 3 hours and the headache is pretty much gone. Thanks Dr. Morris!!!

Back home for a VERY quick dinner (pasta alfredo, garlic bread, and garden salad), as we had to get Maura & Frankie to cheerleading practice. By the time the pasta finished cooking, we had 15 minutes to eat before we had to be at practice (and the practice field is 5 minutes away from our house.) I'm beginning to look forward to the end of the season - and it's only week #2!

At least I was able to get in an hour of crocheting. I'm making a set of 4 really pretty striped placemats and I finished off the second and started the third tonight. I was going to give them as a present but I really like them, so I think I'm probably going to keep them. Oh well...

Now that we're all home, I guess I should start dishes and yet another load of laundry. All I really want to do is crochet and go to sleep. Not going to happen yet.

Good night and good rest to all.
Mary

Day #49 (RIP Senator Kennedy)

2009-08-26T21:31:00.004-04:00

Another day, another thing to make me crazy.

But, first, I would like to take a minute to offer my condolences to the Kennedy family on the passing of Senator Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy. It's weird to think of a Senate without the Senior Gentleman from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Now, on to my day. After waking up at 5:30am to the news of Kennedy's passing, I spent a while listening to the coverage on NPR. They were very fitting and didn't shy away from discussing his negative problems (i.e. Chappaquiddick, alcoholism, womanizing.)

Then, it was time for cleaning up and getting ready for the day. Tomorrow's going to be an insanely crazy day (orthodontist for Julia & Frankie, therapist for Julia, chiropractic for the entire family, and cheerleading for Maura & Frankie), so I tried to do as much today as I could. Still doesn't feel like a lot, as the floors still need to be vacuumed and washed. Oh well, it'll have to wait until Friday.

To get ready for tonight's finance committee meeting at church (where I was presenting an update on our commitment & bridal show), I had to print out a bunch of information on potential vendors and competitors. Well, stupid me thought it would be easier to send the files over to Staples (via their website) for printing, 3 hole punching, and collating. DUH! That would have been too easy. First, I sent the documents over via their website and that took forever (their site is SO slow.) Then, I had to resend part of the order as they were unable to open the files. Not sure why they couldn't, as all the files were PDF documents and I was able to open them on my laptop using their own ordering system/program. Whatever.

Then, I was able to finally pick them up at 1:00pm. Great. I get there, pick them up, pay for them and a soda and a bag of Lindor truffles and go out to my car. In the car I decided to open the truffles bag and, wouldn't you know it, they were all melted - to the consistency of Hershey's chocolate syrup. YUCK! When I went back into the store to return them, the cashier seemed confused about why I wanted my money back. Uhhh... the chocolates are melted beyond being edible and they didn't have any more for me to exchange my bag for.

After getting home, I discovered that they didn't 3 hole punch my documents. So I called the store, made sure it wouldn't be a problem with getting the items punched or drilled or whatever. Nope, the guy I spoke to said that there would be no problem as I already paid for it and to come over whenever. Okay. Since I didn't need them until my meeting later tonight, I figured I'd go to Staples, get my documents punched/drilled/whatever, and go on to church. Fine, right? Well, when I get there, the woman working in the copy center decided I needed to wait for the guy I spoke to on the phone to come back from his break, so he could help me. WTF? After waiting for 5 minutes, I told her that I already paid for the job, it wasn't done completely, and I just wanted it finished; why did I have to wait longer. She told me in a rather snotty voice, "Don't get all bent over it." Well, that just about set me off and I told her to NOT tell me what to do. She then GRABBED the 50+ pages of pages out of my hands, muttered under her breath something I couldn't understand, took the pages over to the 3 hole punch and punched the pages 2 or 3 at a time, stretching it out as long as possible. When she finally finished, she THREW the stack of pages on the counter at me, fanning them out on the counter, and turned her back to me and walked off. No "Here are your pages." No "Sorry it took so long." No "OK, is that all you needed?" NOTHING. When I said "Thank you" and she turned and glared at me. So, I made a note of her name and grabbed the manager's business card. While driving to my meeting, I called him and made a point of telling him that he should expect to receive a letter from me (with copies going to Staples corporate offices and the local Better Business Bureau) explaining that this is not how you work with a customer who does a lot of printing with this particular Staples copy and print department. The frustrating thing was his general "So what do you want me to do?" attitude. Way back when I worked in retail, this kind of attitude would get you written up. I'm getting a feeling I'll just get a "thanks for letting us know" letter and that's it. At least, though, I'll know I let them know us little people are sick of crappy service!

I know I've noticed that this store, in general, has had problems with not having merchandise in stock and not having enough staff to keep lines from forming down the aisles. Combine that with today's experience and I guess, from now on, I'll be doing my printing at Kinko's and buying my supplies from OfficeMax (which is better stocked and staffed anyway.)

The good news is that my plans for the commitment and bridal show went over really well and we're scheduled for Saturday March 20, 2010! Some good came of tonight after all.

Now I need to finish the dinner dishes and fold a load of laundry. Then I'm crashing because tomorrow is going to be a VERY long day.

Good night.
Mary

Day #48 (High School Flashbacks)

2009-08-25T23:11:00.003-04:00

Today wasn't nearly as ambitious as yesterday. While I did get trash & recycling out, wash dishes, and straighten up the living room, the rest of the day was spent running the final (I hope) errands necessary to send the older 3 girls off to school next week. After 2 trips to Office Max, a trip to Staples, a trip to Wal-Mart, a trip to Dollar General, and a trip to Michael's (for stickers to decorate the girls' plain folders - it was MUCH cheaper to do that than to buy them character-licensed ones), I think I might FINALLY be done. Yea!!

Of course, by the time I got home and finished "crafting" their notebooks and binders, I totally lost track of time. So, it was off to KFC and we tried out their new grilled chicken. It wasn't too bad (I've had worse), so dinner wasn't a total bust.

Then, on to parent orientation at Mentor High School for Julia. Wow, sitting in the fine arts auditorium, I had major flashbacks to when I was in high school (although, as nice as Greenwich High School is, their auditorium sucks compared to MHS)! I'm finally starting to come to terms with my first baby being in high school - even if she's now scared about getting lost. I know things will be OK soon but it's still nerve-wracking.

Now I'm finishing up some research for a church fundraising idea I had (a bridal fair that caters to not only first time brides but to remarriages and GLBT commitment services), then off to bed. Tomorrow night I have a church finance committee meeting, where I'm presenting my ideas for approval. Wish me luck!

Mary

Day #47 (Monday already)

2009-08-24T21:16:00.004-04:00

Today, I made a conscious decision to get back on track with my Martha project. I've been letting little things slip (like, not making the bed every morning) for the past week and it was getting WAY too easy to find other things to let slip. So, today was that day. And my arms, back, and legs are paying for it.

I started off with laundry (does it ever end?), making beds, cleaning the bathroom (uggh!), and cleaning the kitchen. In between, I managed to get Julia to school for student orientation, wash the car (I need to remove the "GO FALCONS" stuff off my windows), stop off at the Italian market for some goodies (pancetta, provolone, roasted peppers, and tiramisu), a side trip to the post office, and finally home to make (and can) 4 jars of homemade spaghetti sauce. *whew*

Since I had all that homemade sauce, I thought today would be an excellent day for baked ziti, so I needed another quick trip to the grocery store for ricotta and mozzarella.

Cheerleading started late tonight (7pm instead of 6pm), so I was able to not only make a nice dinner, but we were actually able to sit down and enjoy eating. So, after a thoroughly enjoyable baked ziti with garlic bread dinner, it was off to Mentor High School for yet another practice. As much as I love football (and cheerleading) season, I can't wait for it to be over so we can go back to normal dinner times.

Oh, while cleaning the bathroom, I cleaned out the slow-running drain in the bathroom sink. I really do love the power of baking soda and distilled white vinegar. Both of these, combined with a kettle of boiling hot water (after letting the baking soda and vinegar "sit" for 15 minutes), managed to dissolve the build-up of soap, tooth paste, shaving cream, etc. : )

Now I need to make sure all the kids are in bed, as we are now back to our "school nights" bedtime schedule. Plus, I'm about to collapse myself.

Mary (signing off very tiredly)

Day #46 (The Last Block Party Before Amber Heads Off to College)

2009-08-23T21:41:00.003-04:00

This morning, I decided I was taking the morning off. Patrick took the girls to church and I stayed home. Ahhh.... a couple of hours, alone. It was a little bit of heaven! As I haven't had more than 15 or so minutes without ANY kids all summer, it was time to recharge. I went out for a toasted onion bagel with butter and came home to read my Sunday newspaper. It was so nice to read without the constant interruptions that usually occur. I even found time to take a nice bubble bath! :) After about 2 1/2 hours, everyone came home and I was ready for the day.

Today was the last weekend day that our good friends' daughter, Amber was home before leaving for college. So they organized a Sunday afternoon family & friend block party (they live diagonally across the street from us.) We spent several hours playing cornhole and volleyball, the kids went swimming in their pool, and everyone had a great time. Amber is the first on our block (and the first out of our group of friends' children) to go away to college - most attend locally - so, while we're excited for her and her new adventure, we're all going to miss her terribly. It was, also, a subtle reminder that Julia will be following in her footsteps in 4 short years. I can guarantee I will not be taking it as well as Amber's mom, Lisa.

One HUGE thing that happened at the party was that Amelia was able to work through some of her sensitivity issues. Amelia is hypersensitive to touch and really cannot handle the sensation of ANYTHING on her feet, and she usually walks with socks and shoes (sandals and flip-flops don't offer her enough protection.) Today, after leaving the pool, she walked from our friends' pool deck, across their yard, onto the pavement of their walkway and driveway, across the street to our home BAREFOOT. I am so impressed with her for being able to do this. As someone with sensitivity issues, I know how difficult it can be (and how many people just don't understand how difficult this can be for an adult, forget about a child.)

After leaving the party around 6pm, I headed home to do some cleaning and laundry. I, also, needed to cook something for dinner. Since it's one of the last weekends before all the kids go back to school (8 days and counting!), I decided we should have one last cookout. So, hotdogs and pasta salad it was. Plus, my pasta salad rocks - little pasta shells with bacon, tomatoes, peas, carrots, and ranch dressing. Very yummy. Not very Martha-like but I (and my family) think it's a good thing. lol

After dinner, it was time to start getting ready for tomorrow. Julia has a 4 hour orientation at the high school tomorrow, starting at 8:30am. Uggh.

Now I need to research some local handymen, as my main bathroom's shower head isn't working and I figure it would be better to just have a pro come in and look at it. Again, not very Martha but I really like the fixture and I'm afraid I'd end up breaking it. (And Patrick really doesn't have time to do it himself until Thursday - his next day off.)

Good night.

Mary

Day #45 (Are you ready for some FOOTBALL?!? Yeah!)

2009-08-22T21:13:00.002-04:00

Today was spent rushing through Martha chores, as it was the first day of MYFA Football!!!! So, I swept, did laundry, washed dishes, put away toys and shoes (by the way, need to make a mental note to figure out why there are at least TWICE as many pairs of shoes on the hallway shoe rack than there was last week), straighten up slipcovers, and clean off counters/bookshelves/buffet.

Then, it was a very early dinner (homemade taco salads, made with ground turkey) and off to Mentor High School for some Falcons football. It was an amazing game - the score was Panthers 18 - Falcons 13 at the end of the first quarter! The Falcons ended up kicking some serious butt and won the game 35 - 31. Very exciting game. And I nearly cried during the half-time show, watching Maura and her fellow cheerleaders completely, totally nail their routine. I guess 2 hour a day practices, 4 days a week, for a month really paid off. They made the other team's cheerleaders look like they'd never cheered before. I need to make a point of thanking Frankie and Coach Lauren for all their hard work because it really showed tonight.

Another highlight of the game was watching the son of some of our very good friends play. He took down a player twice his size! He's improved so much from last season, and it's awesome to watch... and watch the other players, who remember him as a "so-so" player from last year. What these other kids don't know is that he's been practicing solidly since the end of last season. lol

Now I'm watching my beloved Browns and shaking my head. Is this the same team that I watched last week?! Being up 20 points in the first quarter?!? Whoo-hoo! It's the start of the 3rd quarter and the score is now Browns 20 - Lions 3. Here's hoping they'll be able to keep it up all season.

Time for me to focus on the rest of the game, so I'll wrap this up for tonight.

Mary

Day #44 (Crazy days)

2009-08-21T22:06:00.003-04:00

After the quickest Martha-approved housecleaning I've ever done (took me 45 mins.), my house was presentable. Ta-da! The best part of this whole experiment is that no longer have "can't have anyone over"-itis. The house is presentable in a very short period of time. Granted, I still need to wash the floors and scrub the sinks but, other than that, just about everything else is good to go.

This afternoon, I thought I was just babysitting my friend's 2 sons. Turns out, I also had her daughter, her nephew (who lives across the street from me), and 2 of my children's friends over. Yep, I had 9 children in my house... and I remained SANE. Whoa! I'm surprised, too. Plus, they didn't destroy my freshly cleaned house!! Whoo-hoo! So, what was supposed to be a couple of kids over turned into a neighborhood playdate, they didn't make a mess, AND everyone got along without fighting (or pushing me over the edge.) I'm still speechless - and everyone went home at 6:00pm. Of course, 7 of the children were here for dinner (Friday night pizza night) but it wasn't that bad. Not that I'm looking forward to doing this again anytime soon.

Because of the rain, last night's cheerleading practice was rescheduled for 6:30pm tonight. It's amazing how well the girls are doing. Tomorrow night (5:45pm) is their first game, and I think the girls are really ready. They have their cheers down, they nailed their half-time performance, and *best of all* they look like they're all having fun. It was so sweet to see them all "get it." Such a big change, even from as recently as last week. My only gripe is with the Cheerleading Association in charge of our league. We have 7 girls on our squad, and 5 of them are new. Even though these girls' parents enrolled them before the deadline, 3 girls still haven't received their uniforms. I have an extra that I can lend (Frankie's from the last year she cheered) but that still leaves 2 girls without. I've put in calls to some of the parents I knew from prior years, to see if anyone has 2 uniforms they can lend our girls for tomorrow but, other than one who told me that her daughter's old uniform is in storage and she can't get it out by tomorrow afternoon, no one else has called back. Normally I'd let the coach handle this but she's brand new and none of these parents would have any idea who she is. I'm sad because our girls have worked HARD and deserve to have their uniforms in time for their first game, and it's not gonna happen. In the morning, I guess I'll continue calling people on rosters for prior years and hope something comes up.

Now I need to finish my crossword puzzle (my reward for getting through today) and go to sleep.

Mary

Day #43 (Even the best laid plans sometimes end up scrapped)

2009-08-20T20:51:00.003-04:00

OK, I didn't get to make Patrick's birthday cake. Instead, he wanted to go to the Lake County Fair and said he'd rather go there than stay home while I baked. So, to the fair we went. After the kids went on all the rides (today was Kids' Day - free admission and $8 ride wrist bands - NICE!), we spent the afternoon viewing the animals. (Viewing the animals counts as a Martha-ism, right? She's always going on about the animals on her farm. Not my fault that I live in a very suburban area and my city has bans on most livestock living on any property in the city that's less than 1 acre. We only have 1/2 acre.) The kids in 4H do an amazing job with raising these animals. While I loved looking at the draft horses (they are seriously HUGE), the kids seemed to enjoy the pigs and sheep. And Amelia really liked the turkeys. Luckily, none of the kids asked what "to market" meant on the signs above the pens/cages/arenas. That wouldn't have been too pleasant to discuss. One of these days, I think I'd like to try to raise a couple of chickens, like Martha though, I'd only use them for the eggs. No eating anything that I spent so much time and attention on!

Afterward, we came home and ordered in Chinese, like we do every year for Patrick's birthday. Granted, this year we were a day late in celebrating but he was off work today (he worked until 8:00pm yesterday), but it was still our little family tradition. After eating at (and ordering take-out from) this particular Chinese for the 5 years we've lived here, we just discovered we could save quite a bit of money if we order their "family meals". You tell them how many you're feeding, select a soup and fried rice or white rice, pick from Column A and another from Column B, and you're done. They include in the price: egg rolls, fried coconut shrimp, and Chinese barbecued ribs. Oh, that's the best part, the price - $12 per person! What's awesome is that the 4 girls and I don't really eat much. We were able to get the Family Meal for 2 plus an additional order of fried rice and potstickers. And we had a $5 coupon, so we only spent $30.75! I almost feel guilty for spending so little on Patrick's birthday dinner, but with me being unemployed, this was just another "bonus" birthday present.

Thanks to the thunderstorms that hit at dinner time, cheerleading was canceled tonight. So, for the first week night all month, I spent it online, getting caught up on email and Facebook. Ahhh, a little bit of heaven. lol

Now that I wasted the evening doing absolutely nothing, I need to sweep up the floors, finish the last load of dishes and put away a laundry basket of clothes. Tomorrow, I'm babysitting a friend's 2 young sons - that ought to be fun! I get my "boy fix" for the day!! Plus, Patrick gets out of work at 2:30pm, so he can hang out with me and the 6 kids that will be in our house until 4:30pm. I'm betting he finds plenty of errands to run on his way home from work. Ha, ha.

I'd better get my rest, so I can keep up with the kids all afternoon (I'm babysitting from 1:00 to 4:30).

Mary

Day #42 (Happy Birthday to my Hubby, Patrick!)

2009-08-19T21:02:00.003-04:00

Today is my husband's birthday, but we're celebrating tomorrow. Which means, I get to dig out Martha's recipe for devil's food chocolate cake with mocha filling and buttercream icing. I made this a couple of years ago and it ROCKED! Hoping for a repeat performance.

It seems our little winged "friend" is visiting again. So I spent today researching ways to get rid of bats. UGH! Patrick gets to spend tomorrow working on plugging any holes in and around the house, to close up our "friend's" entryway into our house. Because, based on everything I read online, all the chemical and sonic noise remedies don't work. Of course, I found this out after I spent approx. $50 on this stuff. Oh well...

I finally made it to the grocery store. YEA! But I ended up taking the 4 kids and both ignored my grocery list and went over budget. BOO! However we did end up getting enough stuff for lunches that I think the girls may not ask for McDonald's every day. *fingers crossed*

I connected with my ex-husband's sister on Facebook earlier. Apparently, someone hacked into her Facebook account and sent requests for money to her friends earlier this week. Scary stuff!

Now I'm off to put together menus for the next week's dinners, based on my purchases from earlier. Hopefully I'll be able to get some advance prep-work and cooking done tomorrow, so I can have "real" dinners next week.

Goodnight!
Mary

Day #41 (Give me an "F"!)

2009-08-18T22:19:00.003-04:00

After driving Francesca to her school, to pick up her schedule for the year, at 8:00am, it was back home for yet another trip to the orthodontist (who joked that he's putting in a "reserved" parking space for me - lol) with Julia. She finally has her braces! She handled it MUCH better than anyone would have thought. As a reward for being so calm, she was allowed to have her own Facebook page. Yikes! Now I really need to watch what I put up on there.

Then, it was time to head home and clean up the disaster that Francesca made, while babysitting her 2 younger sisters (Patrick had to be to work at 11:00am, and we got home around 11:30am.) I don't know why I'm constantly amazed at the amount of damage she is able to do, but I am. Wow! I think they used every dish (with the exception of my good china) in the house.

A quick Martha-clean happened next (sweep floors, wipe down tables, change towels, wipe down appliances and counters, etc.), then it was time to get dinner done so we could make it to cheerleading *yet again*. I cannot wait until this is all over in October, so I can have my nights back. Frankie "volunteered" me to make letter signs that spell out FALCONS for the girls to hold during some of their cheers. Fun, fun, fun for me. So, after cheerleading, it was on to making the signs. The only good thing to come of all this was the contact high I achieved from the smell of black and red Sharpies. lol

And now that I'm feeling all sorts of good (thanks, Sharpie marker company!), I think I'm going to goof off for a while and go to bed.

Mary

PS: Oh, and I totally called it yesterday. I started writing my grocery list but didn't finish it nor did I make it to the store. So, I guess I get to start again in the morning. I don't care what happens, I MUST get there tomorrow. I'm starting to run out of basics and Martha definitely would not approve. lol

Day #40 (Home, at last!)

2009-08-17T20:40:00.004-04:00

Today was another fun day of running. I think I spent more time in my car than I did at home.

First up, it was off to the pharmacy for Julia's medication;

then, off to Sam's Club for frozen waffles and one of those huge cans of crushed tomatoes (I'm making spaghetti sauce this week and one of these cans is MUCH cheaper than 3 of the large crushed ones in the grocery store);

then, today was Frankie's turn at the orthodontist;

then, to pick up a movie from RedBox at Wal-Mart, because I promised the girls they could watch Hotel for Dogs;

then, home *finally* to make an obscenely early dinner (4:30 is just too early to start eating but today there was no other choice);

then, drop Frankie & Maura off at cheerleading;

then, Julia to the library for her volunteer work;

then, back to cheerleading with Amelia, who SO didn't want to be there (she whined and cried the entire hour we were waiting for Frankie & Maura to finish);

then, back home for a few minutes;

then, back to the library, to pick up Julia;

and... FINALLY, back home for the night. *whew*

Somehow, I managed to get 2 loads of laundry done during all those 5 to 15 minutes of being home in between errands.

One of these days, I'm going to finish writing my grocery list and get shopping. Knowing my luck, it will be Thursday and my list will be outdated (our grocery stores start their weekly sales on Thursdays - don't ask, I'm not sure why.)

Now I need to get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a LOOOONNNNGGGG day. Julia gets her braces and before I take her at 9:40am, I need to get Frankie to her school, to pick up her school schedule. I'm aiming to have Frankie there when they open, at 8:00am. Wish me luck in getting a teenager up before 9:00am during the last couple of weeks of summer vacation!

Good night.
Mary

Day #39 (It's been a LONG day)

2009-08-16T20:51:00.002-04:00

Started the day off with a quick clean-up and off to church, where I was delivering the morning announcements before the start of the service. That went surprisingly well, considering I really don't like talking in front of groups of people. Then, thanks to Patrick's committee meeting and a meeting of Julia's & Frankie's religious ed. class (to talk about plans for fall and winter), I didn't leave East Shore until almost 2pm! (Keep in mind, I needed to be there early because of the announcements, so I got there around 9:45am.)

After coming home, I decided to take an hour nap. What a delicious little part of my day! Then, it was off to WalMart for a quick trip to pick up some snacks, children's vitamins, and a replacement newspaper (mental note: contact the Plain Dealer about not receiving a paper this morning.) Returned home and read while we had 2 little thunderstorms (each lasted approx. 15 mins.) Then, family dinner. That's one thing I miss about the days when Patrick works nights, as we otherwise have full family dinners (no one is allowed to eat away from the dining table, unless they are away from home.) Oh well, I'll adjust.

It's amazing how easy it is to clean up the house since I started this project. Even on days like today where the kids destroy the house (which they did during my nap, while Patrick was playing Lord of the Rings Online.)

Following Martha's general suggestions about reviewing tomorrow's schedule tonight, I feel ready to accomplish tomorrow's schedule - taking Frankie to the orthodontist, dropping Julia off at the library (she's volunteering with the children's ice cream social), Maura & Frankie to cheerleading, grocery shopping (Wednesday is Patrick's birthday and he wants a chocolate cake with mocha filling, so I need to pick up the ingredients for it), and - hopefully - time for a manicure. I doubt I'll get the manicure in but, hey, a girl's gotta dream, right? lol

Now I need to get kids into the showers, in pajamas, and into bed. Then, I'm going to do the same myself.

Mary

Day #38 (Sixteen more days until the kids go back to school)

2009-08-15T18:32:00.002-04:00

I had a really bad night sleeping last night (kept dreaming that my little bat friend was back in the house), so I wasn't too perky this morning. Like I ever am? lol Once I got my butt in gear, it was back to laundry, dishes, general housecleaning, etc.

Ended up with a quick trip to the grocery store and, thanks to the bonus card, coupons, and double coupons, I managed to knock 38% off my bill. Nice! (And that included a free pint of Starbucks mocha java frappucino ice cream. Very nice!) Another nice thing about our grocery store is they have a fully-staffed children's play room, so I got to shop without Maura & Amelia (Julia & Frankie stayed home) and that definitely cut down the amount of the bill. As Martha would say, it's a good thing.

Back home, I decided to make the chicken with grainy mustard sauce again (I made it a couple of weeks ago and it's SO good!), this time with mashed potatoes and steamed green beans in lemon-butter sauce. Since Frankie was hanging around and pestering me to let her help, I let her wash, peel and dice the potatoes and clean and "snap" the green beans. It was so easy to make dinner with my own personal "sous chef". I now know why Martha makes so much from scratch. If I had a sous chef and/or assistants in the kitchen on a regular basis, I'd do it too.

I'm posting the blog early today because I'm having my color done (time to go from the strawberry blonde I color my hair all summer to my natural chestnut color I am the rest of the time) and then we're going out for drinks with some of Patrick's old work friends. It's going to be a fun night!

Mary

Day #37 (Just another day in paradise)

2009-08-14T22:28:00.002-04:00

Yep, just another day in paradise here. The sun was shining, temp. was in the mid-80's with low humidity, and it's Friday. Very nice all around.

Started the day with basic Martha-isms, like making the beds, running out for bagels and cream cheese (well, butter for me as I may be the only person I know who doesn't like cream cheese; however, I do love cheesecake and it's made from cream cheese. Go figure.), wash breakfast dishes, toss in a load of laundry, etc.

After the stress of the past week, I figured I'd enjoy myself today. So, I took time out and gave myself a really good pedicure. Ahhh... I would have given myself a manicure, too, except all this Martha-inspired cleaning caused my Cosabella pink rubber gloves to die today. I shouldn't complain about the gloves getting a small tear in one of the fingers, as I've had them since around Thanksgiving. Then again, for what they cost, I'd hope they would last about as long as they did. I replaced them with a cheaper brand I found at WalMart. I'll be happy if these cheapies last a month.

Then it was time to gather up my kids (Frankie and Amelia were watching movies and playing on the computer in the family room, Julia was swimming at the civic center pool, and Maura was swimming at her friend, Billy's house) and Patrick (this week and next Friday, he gets out of work at 2:30!), and we had pizza night. Usually we just order in pizzas and garlic breadsticks. This time, however, I decided I really needed to Martha-ize the meal. So, while the pizzas were takeout, I made a fresh green salad and garlic bread. Very nice meal, although I guess it would be closer to a Sandra Lee "Semi-Homemade" meal (yuck, I hate that show!) than a Martha show (sorry, but I was relaxing today and making my own homemade pizzas was too much work.)

Now I need to iron Patrick's clothes for work tomorrow and get ready to go to bed.

Goodnight.
Mary

PS: I know I don't need to iron my husband's clothes, but I actually want to. He's working hard and I feel like I should do something to make his life a bit easier. Plus, they need a little starch and he has NO idea how or why to use it.

Day #36 (...and I got it.)

2009-08-13T22:05:00.003-04:00

Wow... yesterday, I wished for a day without excitement and, today, I got it. No stress, no anxiety, no nothing. Very pleasant. :)

Today started off with yet another visit to the orthodontist. Between this week and the end of August, we'll have logged 5 visits to Dr. Lawrence. Today they had to create the mold of Julia's palate, so they can make her metal separator for the roof of her mouth. It went REALLY well. No drama or whining from Julia (a first!) They even received the deposit check from my ex in-laws before we got there! Nice.

Then, it was back home for a quick clean-up. I say "quick" because it was. Frankie asked me if she could wash the dishes (whoo-hoo!) and Julia picked up the living room without being asked. WOW! All I had to do was finish some laundry, put it away, and clean up the bathrooms. Easy stuff.

After a trip to Wal-Mart (to finish back to school supply shopping for Maura & Frankie, still need to do Julia's) and getting caught up on emails, it was time to make dinner. The kids set the table, again, without being asked. I'm seriously wondering what exactly they want. Then, again, maybe I shouldn't look this gift horse in the mouth.

Then, it was off to cheerleading practice. The coach had EVERYTHING together today. I was very impressed, as it was a much improved practice from any this week. The girls worked hard for 2 hours, ran through 22 different cheers and sideline chants, plus they worked on their half-time show. I can't wait until next Saturday, the first game of the season!

Returning home, I decided to create a sign for Amelia to hold in the stands at the games. It says "Falcon Pride" and it's cute. I definitely channeled my inner Martha, as everything is perfectly centered on the poster board and all the letters are the exact same size (2" block lettering, with 1" of blank space between each letter and a 4" margin on each side.) Amelia loves having something to hold up in the stands... for the first quarter. Then, either Julia ends up holding it or it ends up sitting on the bench next to us. But it does make Amelia feel important, like she's doing something special for the team. Julia usually is taking pictures of the game or is looking for friends of hers who little brothers play on the team, to hang out with. Or she's hitting me up for money to buy snacks at the concession stand. lol

Now that the house looks pretty good (thanks to my girls) and everything is done for the night, I think I'm going to crash.

Here's hoping tomorrow is just as good.
Mary

PS: I, also, bought a $1 "scratch-off" lottery ticket and won $6! How come I can't have a return on investment like that when I'm in Atlantic City?

Day #35 (One day without excitement... that's all I want PLEASE?)

2009-08-12T21:51:00.003-04:00

It would have been just another ordinary day... except for the flying BAT in our house this evening (more on that later.)

This morning, I got up and (after sending Patrick off to work) spent the day doing all sorts of Martha things - changed bed linens, fluffed and Febrezed mattresses and pillows, washed/dried/put away laundry... the whole nine yards! I was impressed. Of course, there's still more to do. But, for today, I'm happy.

Around 3pm, Frankie "reminded" me (I still don't remember her telling me before) that there was cheerleading practice at 6 tonight. Huh? I thought it was just Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, and the occasional Wednesday if necessary. Apparently the coach did schedule a practice but didn't tell any of the parents, just the kids at yesterday's practice. WTF? Oh, and she still hasn't handed out print-outs of the cheers for the girls to practice. And schedules, so we parents know when/where/what time games are. I know the coach is new and she's young, but she has to realize that parents need to work around this stuff, and it helps if you actually email the schedules and print-outs like you said you would last week. Right now, I know we have a game a week from Saturday because a friend of mine's son plays football for the team Maura is cheering for (and Frankie is junior advising for) and she asked if we wanted to meet up at the game.

So, dinner was shelved to after practice (with Frankie and Maura downing a couple of granola bars before practice) and off to Mentor High School's soccer fields (a/k/a cheerleading practice grounds) we go! I decide that, since we would be having such a late dinner (practices are from 6pm to 8pm), it was probably best for me to drop the girls off at practice, come home, cook dinner, pick them up, and everyone eat when we get back. And this would have been a great plan if I didn't get a call from Frankie at 7:15, telling me that practice was over. Huh? I was just getting dinner - bacon and cheddar frittata - out of the oven. AGGH! So, all this rushing for 1 hour and 15 minutes of practice?! Double AGGH!

All day, I had to keep reminding the girls to keep the screen doors closed. We had the A/C on and I didn't want to pay to keep the outside cool, know what I mean? Well, I think they finally learned their lesson. Around 8:30, as I'm starting to get the girls ready for bed, a BAT flew in and around our house! Since the main floor of our house is an "open" floor plan, the little sucker kept flying in circles trying to get out the open doors. Patrick managed to trap him in Julia's & Frankie's bedroom but, because they piled boxes from Build-a-Bear behind their door (and I'm still seriously annoyed at this!), it was hard to get our little friend out. I'm not sure what happened after that because I went downstairs into the family room with the kids and let Patrick handle it. Sorry but I hate all flying animals, bugs, etc. and was on the verge of a panic attack with one being IN MY HOUSE. After getting him outside and all was clear, back upstairs we came. Only to discover, our little friend left a "going away present" in the girls' bedrooms - he/she pooped on Julia's comforter and peed on Frankie's. GROSS!

So, before I can go to bed, I need to finish washing their duvets and bed linens. It's times like these that I wish I still drank because a good double shot of vodka would ease my nerves.

Mary

Day #34 (OMFG! HOW much was that, again?)

2009-08-11T20:54:00.003-04:00

Today I started back into my kids are in school wake-up time. Well, I had to take the older 2 to the orthodontist for their initial check-up and their appointments were 8:30am and 9:30am. Uggh! Plus, it was Patrick's first day back at work (when I was working, he left optics and became a "stay at home dad." Now that I'm unemployed, he went right back to work. I'm jealous at how quick he was able to go back to work.)

So, after picking up my niece who was babysitting Maura & Amelia, I was on my way to Dr. Lawrence's with Julia & Frankie. Great staff, excellent doctor, all-around good experience. Everything was perfect... until the final price. For 2 kids in braces (Julia needs hers for about 18 months, Frankie for about 24 months), the all-inclusive total is... wait for it... $10,532! And this includes a 5% "family courtesy" discount. OUCH! Oh, and even though my ex-husband was so sure his dental insurance had orthodontics coverage (he thought it was around $1,000 to $1,500 per kid), turns out there is NO orthodontic coverage at all. Double OUCH! At least he gives the kids (and their parents) an ice cream before they leave the office. The ice cream helps numb the kids' mouths after an adjustment and he decided to not exclude the parents. Maybe he realizes that, for over $5k a kid, the parents might need to be numbed, too.

After we got home, I spent the afternoon speaking with my ex father-in-law, as he and my ex mother-in-law promised they would cover the cost of braces. I swear, I think I just pushed this guy one step closer to a heart attack. I even called around to friends with kids who have/had braces to see how much they spent. All were around $5,000 to $6,000 per kid, so I guess we're in "the range." Alas, they all had a little insurance coverage and only one kid in braces at a time. We have no orthodontic coverage and two kids getting them at the same time, so I'm sure that's part of what's freaking me out.

Then, off to the chiropractor (family adjustment night - yea!) and cheerleading practice. Two more hours of crocheting (I finished a scarf for Frankie that was loosely based on a pattern I found on Martha's website) and I'm home. Of course, I would love to relax but that's not happening. I need to iron Patrick's lab coats, finish washing the dishes, sweep the floors, and iron & hang up the last load of laundry. *sigh* I sense all this Martha stuff will be much easier when the kids are in school and Patrick's at work.

Now I'm off to look up Martha's chapter on ironing clothing, so I can get to bed.
Mary

Day #33 (OUCH!)

2009-08-10T21:48:00.003-04:00

Thanks to the crappy weather, sleeping last night was pretty bad. Even with the A/C and the ceiling fan going, it was still muggy and gross in the house. :(

This morning, after doing dishes, making the beds, and throwing on a load of laundry, I decided to laze around for a bit. It's still hot and humid today, but it only hit 92, so that's tolerable, right? lol

This afternoon was spent at The Foundation Center in Cleveland, where I did some research on funding and grants for my church (East Shore Unitarian Universalist Church in Kirtland, OH.) There's a lot of stuff out there, it's just tailoring our needs and wants to match what's out there. THAT'S the difficult part. After last night's board meeting, though, it's a bit more clear. Now I need to focus and get to work.

After a rushed dinner (with a homemade, healthier version of Hamburger Helper's cheeseburger macaroni - 2 lbs. of ground turkey breast, browned and added to a pound of homemade macaroni and cheese - easy and good), I had to get Maura & Frankie to cheerleading. However, I managed to pop something in my left ankle and it HURTS! I'm not sure what I did but I had to ice and wrap my foot first. While at cheerleading, I was able to fit in 2 hours of crocheting and that was the most relaxing part of my day. I just feel bad for the girls, having to cheer outside in the heat and humidity. I guess I should take some comfort in knowing they take water breaks constantly and practice is from 6pm to 8pm (it could be much worse.)

Tonight, I need to finish getting ready for tomorrow. It's Patrick's first day back at work and Julia & Frankie have their first appointments with the orthodontist - at 8:30AM. YUCK! It should be about 2 hours of x-rays, exams, and consultations. Fun, fun, fun! I'm afraid to see how much this is going to cost. But I am very thankful that I have former in-laws who said they would cover the cost, as they fully appreciate how much orthodontics will help the girls as they get older. Actually, I'm just thankful to have my former in-laws in our lives - they're really great people! Maria is funny and sweet and means so well, and Jerry is just one of the coolest people I know. Between the 2 of them, they've been just about everywhere (with the exception of Antarctica) and always bring back some souvenir or artifact for the girls to enjoy. Plus, they make no difference between my 2 daughters that were fathered by their son (my ex-husband) and my 2 younger daughters that were fathered by Patrick (actually, they really like Patrick.) They just refer to all 4 of my girls as their granddaughters and treat all 4 the same. It's awesome. :)

Now I need to get some sleep, so I can be up and ready to go "full steam" tomorrow morning.

Mary

Day #32 (Had to open my big mouth...)

2009-08-09T22:16:00.002-04:00

You know how I was complaining about yesterday having a high temperature of 72 degrees? Yeah, about that... today hit 94 and it was HUMID! Yuck. I really need to not look a gift horse (like 72 degree days in August) in the mouth.

Today started off with the typical rush to get to church (wake up, wake up kids, take a shower, get dressed, get kids dressed, make beds, get dirty laundry down to laundry room, get kids into the car, stop off for Sunday Morning Donuts, get to church by 10:30am for the sermon.) Of course, this week was different. Today I was both running the after-sermon coffee hour (for which I was baking this past week) and donating blood at East Shore's blood drive. The nurses at the blood drive seemed impressed that, once hooked up to the blood donation machine, it only took 5 minutes and 6 seconds to get a full pint of blood out of me. Then I had to take my American Red Cross-ordered "juice and cookies" break. Luckily for me, Frankie wanted to help with coffee hour. I managed to get everything ready to be put on platters and set up on the tables before I started giving blood. Frankie put everything on platters (rather nicely, too, I must say) and moved everything out in time for the start of coffee hour - which was about 5 minutes after my mandatory break. She better be careful or else the women who typically run coffee hour will steal her every Sunday, to help out. lol

Then it was home, where I quickly did some dishes and spent some time doing research on grants and fundraising for East Shore. "Some time" turned into the rest of the afternoon. I had to return to church for my Board of Trustees meeting at 6pm, and that took up the rest of my night.

Well, I'm home, it's hot and humid (even with the A/C going), and I'm too tired to do anything else. Martha-ism will have to wait until tomorrow.

Mary

Day #31 (When is it going to be SUMMER?!)

2009-08-08T22:00:00.002-04:00

Another dreary day here. Seriously, it's AUGUST and the temperature outside didn't go above 72 degrees. WTF?!? Also, it was overcast and drizzly all day. :(

Today was Martha's weekly housekeeping schedule. I wiped down the counters and washed the sink basins in the kitchen and bathrooms, swept the floors, dusted all the hard surfaces in the house, did more laundry, made the beds, took out the trash, sorted the week's mail, gathered old magazines and newspapers for recycling, fix the slipcovers on all the furniture, straighten out the bedroom closets, clean the mirrors throughout the house, clean the toilets, etc. I didn't get around to washing the floors, vacuuming the family room area rug, vacuuming the upholstery and fluffing all the cushions and throw pillows, flush the sink drains with boiling water, etc. Sorry, Martha, but I have a LIFE outside this project.

I managed to squeeze in enough time to take Frankie to her friend's birthday party and hit Sam's Club for some stuff for tomorrow's coffee hour at church.

Oh, and I put up the "princess" themed wall decorations in Maura's and Amelia's bedroom. I didn't get the painted "under the sea" stuff up yet, just the removable wall stickers. Their room looks so cute! Even though it needs to be painted, to cover up Maura's attempts at wall decorations (she went through a phase last year where she drew on EVERY wall imaginable in the house! *grrr*)

Now I need to pick Frankie up from her party and get ready to go to bed. I'm tired and I need some rest before I give blood tomorrow morning.

Also, it's supposed to be sunny and HOT (like mid 90s) tomorrow. Whoo-hoo! Can't wait to see the sun. :)

Mary

Day #30 (It's Friday!)

2009-08-07T21:49:00.003-04:00

It's Friday... in my house, that makes it "Pizza Night"! Whoo-hoo, no cooking dinner for me!

After starting today in the usual fashion, I took Frankie out to buy a birthday present for her girlfriend, Alexis. The party is tomorrow afternoon and I totally forgot to go shopping - even though the invite has been on my refrigerator for almost a month. After a quick trip to the mall, we decided on a cute hoodie sweatshirt from Aeropostale and some bangle bracelets from Charlotte Russe. Very appropriate for a 13 year old girl, and thanks to back-to-school sales, we saved almost 50% off the original prices. :)

Then, it was home to start baking for Sunday's coffee hour after church. However, being that I am not Martha, I was distracted by fighting kids and forgot to set the timer when I put the lemon poppy seed mini-muffins in the oven and managed to burn them. *grrr* At least the fudge brownies turned out really good. Tomorrow I'll try making Martha's recipe for lemon pound cake to replace the muffins. Also, there are plenty of cookies, etc. in the church kitchen that I can raid. All I'll need is some cheese, grapes, and Goldfish crackers and I'll be done.

There was, also, more laundry to be done and dishes to wash and put away. And I dropped the two oldest noisemakers in my house off at the Civic Center pool, for an afternoon of swimming for them. The youngest two had computer and TV time, and I managed to find an hour to crochet. Score! I came across some gorgeous wool from Italy that matches Julia's favorite winter hat, so I crocheted a scarf for her. Yeah, yeah, I know it's August and I'm thinking about winter; however, it barely cracked 72 degrees today in Cleveland.

After a quick pizza dinner, I painted some really cute little "under the sea" plywood cutouts for Maura & Amelia's room. We have a whale, dolphin, light house, crab, star fish, beach umbrella, sail boat, palm tree, and seahorse. I figured that, since they love Disney princesses and I already bought a bunch of "princess" and tiara removable wall stickers, we could add these and make the room a "Little Mermaid" theme. I'll post pictures of the walls when I'm finished. I still need to paint their room (heck, I need to paint the entire interior of our house, as it's been 5 years since that was done), but since this stuff is all removable, I can deal with the painting later.

I am now off to take a shower and crash. I'm beat today!

Later,
Mary

Day #29 (Good to be home, FINALLY)

2009-08-06T21:04:00.003-04:00

Today was spent running errands instead of baking. First, I forgot that Julia had an appointment with her neurologist and remembered about 30 minutes before the appointment start time. We live about 20 minutes away from his office and, lucky for us, he usually runs about 15 - 30 minutes behind schedule. So, it was off to the doctor's office. We got there exactly at the time of our appointment and waited for almost 30 minutes, which gave us both time to catch our breath and relax.

After that, I was home for all of about 30 minutes when Frankie decided she wanted to go out and make copies of forms she uses when babysitting for a new family (it's a bunch of worksheets, covering stuff like family rules, parents' contact information, etc. Can you tell she's OCD as well?) What was supposed to be a quick trip to Kinko's turned into a 2 hour school supply shopping trip. She's decided that the assignment books we buy from the school office are too small, so she wanted a teacher's "plan book" to record her assignments in. After 3 stores, we found one for under $20 (Holcomb's Knowplace has them for under $6!) and bought that. Then, I finally found out why I'm constantly running out of my shampoo and the kids aren't - apparently, Frankie has decided that she would much rather use MY stuff than what I buy for the kids. Naturally, the one with long hair would think that Pantene isn't good enough for her hair and that my salon-purchased stuff by Artec would be better. *grrr* Lucky for me, I found it at Ulta and it was ON SALE (regularly $11.99 a bottle, on sale for $4.99.) Score!

Then it was home for a quick dinner of barbecued beef ribs (cooked in the crock pot since earlier this morning), steamed brown rice, and corn. Again, not a Martha recipe; however, I did get a nice, home-made meal on the table at a reasonable hour (5:15ish), so I'm sure she would totally approve.

And, time to go to Maura's cheerleading practice. TWO hours of practice outside in the humidity doesn't seem too bad until you realize that this is a group of kindergartners thru second graders! Whoa! This new coach really takes this seriously, and that's good. However, Maura collapsed as soon as she got into the car. I think she's going to have NO problems with sleeping tonight.

I never got around to taking Amelia to visit her school today and she really let me hear it. I need to make sure we go by there tomorrow.

Oh, I managed to have all the beds in the house made this morning, after Julia's doctor's appointment. This is the first time in I don't know how long that all the beds were made and looked nice. : ) I guess all my Martha/OCD stuff is rubbing off on the kids because all I had to say was that beds needed to be made... and they were DONE! I'm still amazed. Of course, it will probably be a long time before this happens again (unless I make the beds myself.)

I should, also, enjoy the fact that I managed to get all my errands done in a logical order (Julia's doctor's appointment was on one end of town, the errands with Frankie were in the middle, and Maura's cheerleading was about 2 miles from our house.) Martha would like that as well, I think.

Now I need to find my sewing box, so I can fix a loose button on one of my shirts. Tomorrow is "iron the laundry day" and I need to bake some muffins and brownies for Sunday's coffee hour at church.

Good night!
Mary

Day #28 (I refuse to feel guilty)

2009-08-05T21:17:00.002-04:00

Today, other than doing my basic Martha-sanctioned morning routine (make beds, quick straightening of house, sweep floors, etc.), I did NOTHING Martha-related... and I refuse to feel guilty.

I started out by doing a "dry run" of getting Amelia to preschool. Granted, she doesn't start until the beginning of next month; however, she is really nervous about going and wants to "practice" going for a while. So, we did that and ended up with a quick trip to Michael's (for some arts and crafts type projects, to keep the kids entertained this week) and the dollar store (for stuff to organize Julia's & Frankie's lockers when they go back to school on the 31st.) While at the dollar store, we ended up buying some removable wall decals for Maura's & Amelia's bedroom. Amelia wants a "princess" room, so when we found some pink and lavender tiara decals, we decided we'd grab them.

Then it was off to the grocery store, to finish up my grocery shopping for the week. I'm still surprised at how much we got (at least a week and a half's worth of meats and produce) for how little we paid (under $80!)

After we got home and I repacked everything into one pound quantities in freezer bags (maybe that counts as a Martha-ism, but it does help a lot when cooking to have exact quantities readily available) and reorganized my freezer.

Then it was a very un-Martha dinner - leftovers from last night. Oh the horror! lol Seriously, the sausage and peppers were better tonight than they were last night.

And then we were off to Maura's first cheerleading practice of the year. Frankie is serving as the team's Junior Advisor and she kept volunteering me for projects, like making the team ribbon hair ties and helping design team t-shirts (by taking plain t-shirts and decorating them with fabric paint.) Thanks, Frankie. It's the coach's first year with the league and, out of 7 girls on the squad, 5 are brand new, as well. I guess it's the least I can do. Plus, I'm pretty sure Martha would help - if not take over entirely. lol

After an hour of orientation and parent info., the coach decided to end the practice for the day. Looks like this coach is really taking it serious, as Maura went from one or two practices a week last year to 2 hours a day, every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. And there may be a Wednesday practice or 2 thrown in before the first game. Wow! It's going to be a lot of work, and this is a team of mostly kindergarteners and 1st graders.

Now it's time to make the kids go to bed (I really need to start enforcing the regular bedtimes pretty soon, so they're all adjusted before the first day of school.)

Good night!
Mary

Day #27 (Another day in paradise)

2009-08-04T21:07:00.002-04:00

After a typical Martha start to my day, I started yet another round of laundry. I swear, I don't ever remember doing this much laundry before this project started. Maybe I did but because it was all crammed into one day a week, it just didn't seem like as much. Not sure...

Anyway, I decided I needed a break from cleaning, organizing, labeling, etc. in the kids' rooms. So I decided to tackle the bookshelves in our living room. Before this morning, they were overloaded and just crammed to capacity with books, manuals, software boxes, etc. Two grocery bags of books cleared out (and all the DVDs and computer stuff moved to the family room bookshelves) and it's done. Looks pretty nice, too, if I do say so myself. ;P

Then I took a break from all things Martha and spent a good chunk of the day convincing Amelia that she really is a big girl (she's 3 1/2 years old) and that she's ready to start preschool next month. We've decided that, if I use fabric paint and paint butterflies on her "big girl" underwear, she's wear them instead of Pull-Ups. HUGE accomplishment there, trust me! And, starting tomorrow, we're going to practice driving from our house to her preschool every morning so she can practice "getting ready" to go to school. All this for a 2 hour a day preschool class. But, if it works and she actually goes every day, it's worth it. Amelia even asked if she could pack her favorite two toys (her grey "Bezu" bear and a Diego doll from "Go Diego Go!") in her backpack, so she can carry it with her on these practice runs.

Dinner was homemade but not a Martha recipe. Sorry but sweet Italian sausage, peppers, tomatoes, and cavatelli just sounded REALLY good tonight. Plus, it's pretty rare that I actually have the ingredients for all these on-hand and defrosted. This plus a fresh garden salad and garlic bread made the meal almost perfect. (It would have been perfect if it had been prepared by my late mother - everything she cooked just tasted soooo much better.)

After dinner, we did bath time and started getting the kids back on their school-time schedules. They go back on the 31st (except for Amelia) and they need to start back on their regular bedtimes.

Now I'm going to finish the dinner dishes and go to bed myself. Wish me luck with getting Amelia up and out the door "like a big girl" in the morning.

Mary

Day #26 (Mom's not a happy camper)

2009-08-03T21:10:00.003-04:00

After doing my regular Martha routines this morning, I planned on an easy afternoon. WRONG! I asked my older 2 daughters when they planned on cleaning their room and was told, "You said we had to do it by Friday, so we're gonna wait until after lunch on Friday to start." WTF?!? I said it had to be DONE by Friday, not started on Friday. I swear, teenagers must have selective hearing. So, after a rather heated discussion with them about the importance of cleaning their room, I gave up talking to them and figured the wall would provide a more thought-provoking conversation.

As if you haven't already guessed it, I started cleaning their room. I say "started" because I need another day to fully finish it (washed floors and everything.) I am stunned at how bad their room became. Apparently all the times I asked them to clean their room, they've just been dumping things into their old toy box or shoving things onto their bookshelves. Today, though, the room got a thorough cleaning out. Out went the broken toys left over from when they were in preschool (honestly, I thought we already tossed this stuff when we moved from CT to OH 5 years ago. Guess not. I can't believe we PAID to move some of this stuff 500 miles.) I reorganized their bedroom closet and put the clothes that don't fit them into a large Space Bag for my younger 2 daughters to "grow into". And the books. Oh my God, I really didn't realize they had THAT many books. Pat the Bunny to the Twilight series, and everything in between. I moved the books that they're too grown up for into Maura's & Amelia's bookcase, tossed out the old, completed school workbooks (Julia thought she had to keep them because her teachers told her that it might be a good idea to review them during the summer.... in 5th grade! She's starting 9th grade later this month), and sorted the books by genre (Julia loves Anime and Frankie loves anything else.)

While I was doing The Big Clean, the girls were required to work on their summer reading projects for school. Julia needs to read and write a 5 paragraph essay on Tuesdays with Morrie and Frankie is working on an extra-credit project based on October Sky. I figured if I was working, so were they! Actually, they made great progress on their school projects and I'm really pleased that they seem to be enjoying these books.

After a quick dinner of pasta alfredo, I dropped off 5 bags of old toys, books, clothes that I'm not planning on saving for the younger 2, and old but still good backpacks to Salvation Army. Here's hoping that they can help someone else less fortunate start the school year.

Now it's time to write up a list of what I need to properly update and finish their bedroom (i.e. new shoe racks and a second clothes rod for the closet, under-the-bed storage boxes for off-season clothes, etc.)

At the rate I'm going, the entire house (except the basement storage areas) should be fully Martha-ized by the end of August. Now THAT would be a pleasant treat, as everyone ends up at my house for all the fall and winter holidays, and to not have to worry about doing a massive clean up would be very nice. :)

Regards,
Mary

Day #25 (I love a lazy Sunday)

2009-08-02T21:12:00.003-04:00

I woke up earlier than usual today and enjoyed just lazing around in bed, listening to NPR for an hour before having to get up and about. Now THAT was heaven!

And, between the hours of 8:30 and 10:00am, I needed to get 3 of the 4 kids dressed (Frankie spent the night at her father's), load the car up with newspapers for recycling at church, grab a bag of non-perishable food for "Food Donation Sunday" at church, drop Julia off with Frankie and my ex-husband for the day, pick up our family's "Sunday Morning Ritual" breakfast of donuts and juice for the remaining members, and get to church. Today's service wasn't a typical one - it was all music, poetry, and skits. Lots of fun and very enjoyable! It was a great start to the week.

Next Sunday, not only am I donating blood at our quarterly blood drive but I'm also responsible for the coffee and snacks/treats for coffee hour after the service. I'll get to put my Martha baking skills to work as I make muffins, cookies and coffee cake for my fellow members of East Shore Unitarian Universalist Church to enjoy.

After returning home, I put together our grocery list and went grocery shopping for the first "real" time (I'm not counting quick trips to pick up 3 or 4 things at a time) in almost a month! I didn't do too bad, either, keeping within my estimated budget. Of course, I still need to load up on meats but I'm hitting another store for that. Hopefully that will be tomorrow or Tuesday.

Then it was back home to unload the groceries, plan a quick dinner, take a very nice, leisurely one hour nap, and back to organizing Maura's & Amelia's closet. Two trash bags of toys for Salvation Army later and their room is finally done - with the exception of washing their floor, which I plan on doing tomorrow morning while they are outside playing. While it's nice having hardwood floors, sometimes it's just easier to vacuum instead of mopping. Oh well... I'm giving Julia & Frankie until the end of tomorrow to have their room done before I go in and do a full clean job/closet reorg. on their room. THAT ought to motivate them (for some reason, teenage girls just don't want their mom going through their room - go figure. lol)

Dinner was an easy one - kielbasa, potato/cheese/bacon pierogies, and steamed green beans. In other words, a meal that the kids would eat without complaints. I really need to get back into cooking "real" dinners this week. I'm sick of quickly thrown together stuff. In other words, I want pot roast cooked in the crock pot soon. I love comfort food like that.

After dinner, my ex-husband brought Frankie & Julia home, stayed for an extended chat (lovely! NOT), and headed on his way back home to Chicago.

Now I need to get kids into pajamas and the younger 2 into bed. Only 29 more days until school resumes.

Mary

Day #24 (That's it - NO MORE TOYS!)

2009-08-01T21:57:00.003-04:00

Today's Martha-ly project was cleaning up my youngest daughters' bedroom. All I can say is... Oh. My. God. Eight, count 'em, eight bags of clothes they've outgrown and toys they no longer play with were donated to Salvation Army's drop-box an hour and a half ago. I swear, this year, I am forbidding ANYONE to buy them toys. Even after the Salvation Army bags, they still enough toys for 4 kids - and it's just the 2 of 'em. Wow.

But this morning started off with babysitting my friend's son. He was the best behaved 4 year old I've ever seen! Really scary stuff, coming from a mother of 4 kids. lol Seriously, it was kinda freaky how quiet and polite he was. This morning, we (Jacob, Maura, Amelia, and I) colored and drew pictures of racetracks to race Matchbox cars on, blew bubbles outside, ate a snack, baked chocolate cupcakes, played outside for a bit, ate lunch (apparently pepperoni pizza and strawberry-kiwi Capri Sun juice pouches made me the "cool" babysitter), ate cupcakes, and watched Bolt - all between 9:00am (when Jacob arrived) and 1:30pm (when his mom picked him up.) Pretty busy morning. Plus, it was great getting my "boy" fix.

Then, I decided to work on Maura's & Amelia's bedroom. I'm still amazed at the amount of crap they can cram into that bedroom. Plus, I now need to add a second clothing bar in their closet because they have WAY too many clothes (but all are in excellent condition and fit them, so I can't justify giving all of them away.) It felt cathartic organizing their toys into labeled storage bins under their beds. Of course, this time next week I'll be complaining about how they've wrecked their room. But, for now, it looks good. Tomorrow, I'll finish their closet (and probably come up with more bags of toys and clothes for Salvation Army.)

When Julia & Frankie stopped by with their father (who has them for the weekend), I told them that if they don't do their room this week, I'm spending next weekend doing the exact same thing to their room. It's amazing how fast they both confirmed it would be done before Friday. lol

I'm exhausted from a very full day.

Regards,
Mary

Day #23 (Getting' There... This was Friday 07/31/2009's post, which I didn't get posted in time.)

2009-08-01T08:07:00.003-04:00

Spent yesterday finishing up laundry, reorganizing closets and the laundry room, and I'm almost done... gettin' there. Of course, it doesn't hurt that I was stressing out that my ex-husband was in town for the weekend. I do some of my best work while stressed out. lol

Although it was a great feeling, knowing that all I had to do to get ready for his visit (to pick up Julia & Frankie) was fix the slipcovers on the couches and sweep the floors. Thanks to Martha's schedules, everything else was DONE!

A great thing about reorganizing the laundry room? I'm finding a bunch of things that went "missing" while I was working. Turns out they were just misplaced and stored in the laundry room (where NOTHING is supposed to be stored.) So I'm really happy that we didn't really lose 10 bath towels. My linen closet looks full again. Oh happy day!!!

During the afternoon, I received a text from a friend, asking if I could babysit her son for the morning on Saturday. That ought to be fun. Seriously, folks. I have 4 girls and I always wanted a boy. Saturday morning, I get to live out that little fantasy. : ) (Thanks, Cristi.)

Later,
Mary

Day #22 (The never-ending story)

2009-07-30T22:14:00.003-04:00

Today involved yet more laundry and bedroom organization. It has to end sometime, right? How is it possible to have more laundry after a vacation than you did before vacation, and you didn't go clothes shopping?!? I think it multiplies in the laundry room. (Too bad it's not my wardrobe, I just keep finding more and more kids' clothes.) Still didn't make it to the grocery store for a full grocery shopping trip. I swear, I need to write down a daily schedule for tomorrow and see if I can actually stick to it. I was only gone 6 days but my entire internal schedule is all screwed up. AGGH!!

After taking a break from doing laundry and cleaning up the car from vacation, I went to chiropractic and, let me just say, our chiropractors (it's a husband/wife practice) are the absolute best! If anyone reading this is in Northeast Ohio and looking for one, let me know and I'll happily pass along their information. I feel so much more relaxed and calm after a good adjustment. Plus, I've been going regularly since September and haven't had a migraine since then (and I used to be a chronic sufferer.)

Almost forgot that I had to work in getting Julia & Frankie to the library because they were volunteering to work at the "lunch and a movie" event in the little kids' section. I'm glad they're getting into volunteerism now as they are required to have 40 hours completed and documented between grades 9 and 12 (and Julia starts grade 9 the end of August.) Better they start this now instead of trying to cram it all in during senior year. Plus it's just a good thing to seem them doing things to help others without a monetary reward tied to it. :)

For dinner, Maura and Amelia wanted hot dogs, macaroni & cheese (but not Mom's homemade mac & cheese, the Kraft "blue box" kind), and frozen corn. Uggh. So, instead of just tossing the dogs on the grill, I decided to make some as giant "pigs in a blanket." I discovered that Martha's recipe for buttermilk biscuits is delicious but sucks for wrapping around hot dogs. They didn't rise very much but, again, were really tasty and very easy to make. Oh well, can't have everything. However, I probably will keep the biscuit recipe marked for future use.

And, tomorrow, my ex-husband is coming to visit Julia & Frankie. He's seen them more in the past 3 months than he has in the past 3 years combined. Fun, fun, fun. Also, tomorrow is my late mother's birthday and, combined with The Ex's visit, I ought to be a ton of fun to be around. NOT. Maybe I'll spend the weekend doing Martha-approved yard work and burn off some of that anticipated stress.

Now I need to get back to matching socks (I'm shocked at the amount of socks in the wash, as my girls practically live in flip flops and NO socks are needed for those) and straightening up the house before The Ex arrives and critiques my house. He's not known for his tact and seems to think if there are shoes by the front door that are not on the shoe rack, that my house is a disaster. Whatever. Maybe HE should try having his kids live with him for a while (Julia & Frankie seem to wear at least 4 pairs of shoes EACH per day and NONE of them ever make it onto the shoe rack unless I put them there.)

Goodnight,
Mary

Day #21 (Scaling Mt. Washmore)

2009-07-29T22:26:00.002-04:00

Why does it always seem that there is monumentally more laundry to do after a vacation than before? I swear, even with all the washing, drying, ironing, folding, packing, etc. to get us on vacation, it seems I do more loads of laundry upon our return - and we don't go clothes shopping while away. Anyway, I'm still doing laundry (if you haven't already guessed.)

For whatever deranged reason, I thought that - in addition to doing all this laundry - today would be an ideal day to Martha-ize my youngest 2 daughters' closet. I pulled out all the clothes, sorted everything by size, and paired up outfits for the girls, then divided their closet in half (right half is Amelia's, left half is Maura's.) I've decided they need a second clothes bar in their closet, and that will be a purchase made later this weekend or sometime next week. While I'm at it, I should buy one for my older 2 daughters' closet, as well. (Yes, my 4 kids share 2 bedrooms. I think it's an important way to teach them how to get along with a roommate, in the future.)

After that, it was straighten up the kitchen, sort a week's worth of mail, and panic at 4:00pm because I hadn't even thought of dinner and I didn't make it to the grocery store today. It's amazing what you can come up with for a last-minute dinner just based on things you have that are in the fridge and are still fresh after a week. Eggs, bacon, ham, cheese, and onions because a really delicious "breakfast for dinner" frittata! I swear, I could live on eggs and bacon alone. lol

Well, I need to head back to the laundry room, so I can finish up the last 2 loads of laundry. Then, all the vacation laundry will be done. Whoo-hoo! (Yes, even the empty suitcases are already stored back in the storage part of our basement and not in the middle of my living room, waiting for me to trip over them.) Yeah, this may have been one of the least stressed-filled returns from vacation I've had as an adult. Too bad I still feel like crap. Hope this cold goes away sometime soon.

Mary

Day #15 - 20 (Vacation!)

2009-07-28T21:24:00.003-04:00

I've survived our family vacation! 500 miles each way, by car, with one husband and four kids! Now it's time for me to let you know how I managed to vacation Martha-style.

First, because I prepared so well the day before, we only left 30 minutes behind schedule (mainly because my husband forgot to bring his sneakers and we had to turn around right before we got on the highway.) Thankfully, the "Travel Gods" were with us because there was almost NO traffic and even with all our stops, it only took 9 hours. :)

Once we got to my brother-in-law (who was our incredible "Host with the Most" for this week), Terry's house, I started to get us in order. I unpacked our bags, made sure everything was put exactly where it should, and generally made a seamless unpacking. Then we had dinner and Amelia spilled spaghetti bolognese sauce on one of his white upholstered chairs. And I finally found a stain that Martha's standby cleaner, white vinegar, did not remove. And, apparently, you cannot buy Carbonna stain removers in Stamford, CT. :( The stain remover I did find didn't do a great job but took most of the stain out. I need to send him a bottle of Carbonna with my thank-you note.

Friday, we took Julia & Frankie to Brooklyn for a weekend with their grandfather. Then, left for a birthday celebration dinner with Patrick's family. We managed to only get lost once (maybe twice) between Brooklyn and Jericho. And we probably wouldn't have gotten lost if we didn't need to stop for gas before we left Brooklyn. lol A great thing about living like Martha is that I didn't need to run out for a card before arriving at the restaurant because I bought one before we left Ohio and brought it out with me. YIKES! I kinda like feeling prepared. Then, after a dinner that went on much longer than I thought (dinner started at 7:30 and we didn't leave until after 11:00 - and we had the two younger daughters with us.) And, somehow, somewhere, we managed to lose our digital camera between the restaurant and getting back to Terry's house in CT. The restaurant said it wasn't there and no one turned it in, and I'm still pretty bummed about this.

Saturday, I drove up to Ikea in New Haven with my bestest friend/adopted "sister by choice", Gloria. All I can say is... Thank God there isn't an Ikea within 50 miles of my home while I'm doing this project or else I would be bankrupt. I forgot how much I love this store, and I kept finding more and more things that would have been great for organizing. Lucky for me, Patrick, and our budget, I didn't have a lot of room to bring things back and couldn't shop too much. However, Gloria found an incredible deal on a dressing table, which she is using for her jewelry designing business. It was originally about $180 but she bought it for under $20!!! NICE! Then, after spending a nice day with Gloria, we met up with Patrick and headed out to Davy Byrnes in Port Chester, for a great night out with lots of old friends (most of whom we haven't seen in close to 5 years.) It was such a great night that I don't feel bad about blowing off my 20 year high school reunion (which was going on about 5 miles away, at the Greenwich Hyatt Regency.)

Sunday, we recovered from Saturday night and spent the day hanging out at Terry's house. We, also, celebrated Maura's birthday again - this made 3 separate celebrations (once at home, once on Saturday afternoon when she was with Patrick and his family while I was out with Gloria, and then Sunday.) However, Sunday's celebration was extra-special because Maura celebrated with Grandma Patty (Gloria's mom and my "second mom"), as Maura was born on her birthday! Very nice day all around.

Monday was just doing all the last minute things and going to visit the graves of my mother, Patrick's parents, our grandparents, and other relatives. The horrible thing about not staying in touch with cousins is that I found out one of my favorite older relatives (my great-aunt, Lena) passed away in 2007. :( She lived less than 5 minutes away from us in Glenville and we ran into each other once or twice a month around town. However, over the years, I lost touch with her children (who are around my mother's ages and I was not too close to.) She was a great lady, lots of fun, and I'll miss her. (And feel horrible about not staying in better touch. Maybe this project will help me do that better.)

Then, today, was a LONG day. We decided that, thanks to NYC traffic, we'd hold off on leaving until it died down a bit - we figured 9:30 or 10:00. I spent the morning repacking our bags, cleaning up our room (I had been tidying up all week and made the bed every day, so this was a pretty easy part of the day), corralling all the kids' stuff - it's amazing how much they can accumulate in less than 6 days - and getting it into the car, a last minute trip to Wal-Mart to pick up snacks and drinks for the trip, then getting on the road. TWO traffic jams related to car accidents added to our trip, and we made it home in 10 hours.

Also, Martha always talks about taking a cashmere blanket with her on trips. I used to laugh because I doubted I'd ever have enough disposable income to invest in one. But, back in June, my ex mother-in-law gave me a silk and cashmere wrap which is large enough to cover me from shoulders to elbows. This trip, I decided I'd give it a try. I now know why Martha swears by them! Granted, I only had the wrap and not a full-size blanket, but it was lightweight, the fabric didn't wrinkle, it was warm enough to keep the A/C from being too cold (and I'm always cold), and not for nothing, this was the most luxurious thing about the entire week. Plus, the wrap went perfectly with the dress I wore out for dinner on Friday night. That's it... I'm sold!

You know what the nice thing about coming home was? Not just being back in my house with my family and our stuff. It was... coming home to a clean, organized house! I took the Space Bag with the kids' sleeping bags to the basement and unpacked all the toiletries bags in the bathroom. Tomorrow morning all I need to do is bring the suitcases downstairs to the laundry room and wash the laundry - and THAT'S IT! Of course, I also need to grocery shop but that's expected (Wednesday is my typical grocery shopping day.)

I'm now exhausted, need to eat something, and go to bed.

Good night everyone.
Mary

Day #14 (Almost ready, I swear!)

2009-07-22T22:40:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, we survived the birthday party. Today was all about getting ready for the vacation.

The day started off with packing. But, since I've been Martha-ized, my regular way of packing just wouldn't do. No, no, no. First, I had to pull out all the clothing we were taking - and enough clothes for 4 kids and 2 adults for a 5 day trip, it was A LOT. Then, I had to scrutinize everything. Was it OK? Does it need repair? Does it need to be ironed? And, the answers to those questions were: yes, everything's fine; one item needed a new button, one needed a loose button tightened, and one item needed a ripped belt loop mended; and yes, just about EVERYTHING needed to be ironed.

But, first, the car needed to be cleaned out. It's amazing how much crap can accumulate in one Ford Explorer (with third row seat.) After pulling out enough broken Happy Meal toys, empty juice box containers, and old coffee cups to fill two garbage bags (YIKES!), it was off to the self-serve car wash so I could facuum the car. Sorry but I'm not stressing my vacuum that much. Twenty minutes and four dollars in quarters later, and my car looks great!

Upon returing home, I decided to follow Martha's methods for ironing all those clothes I pulled out earlier. According to Martha's Handbook, page 403, I have never ironed creases into pants correctly. I used to just grasp the pants leg by the cuff, fold the leg I was ironing in half, with the seams in the middle, and iron. No, that's only half of the job. To properly iron creases into pants, per Martha, you need to:

Lay the pant legs lengthwise along the ironing board with all four seams aligned so that they are in the middle of the legs; this will put the creases in just the right spot.
Fold the top leg bavck, and iron the exposed part of the bottom leg; go right up to the center seam, but don't iron over it. Fold the top leg back down and flip the pants over (keeping the legs together); now fold back the already-ironed leg, and press the exposed part of the second leg. Bring that leg back down.
With both legs together again, iron the top, flip the pants, and finally, iron the top of the other leg.

Then, it was onto ironing shirts. Let's just say that Martha Handbook page #405 reassured me that I never learned how to iron anything.

So, after playing "pants origami" and remembering to sprinkle my dry shirts with water until thoroughly damp before ironing (and dealing with my husband's puzzled "Why are you doing this again?" looks), I took a well deserved break for a very late lunch.

After lunch and sitting down for what felt like the first time in days, I got my second wind and started folding and packing everything into the appropriate suitcases.

A quick bite to eat for dinner, and it was off to the Finance Committee meeting at my church (I'm on the Board of Trustees and I was presenting some information to the Committee tonight.) An hour and a half later, I was back on my way home.

Once home, it was back to getting kids into showers, packing toiletries bags, and finding sleeping bags that didn't go to summer camp with Julia and Frankie, so the kids would have something to sleep in (we're staying with family and the kids are all "camping out" in sleeping bags.)

Now it's 11pm and I need to finish packing the cooler with snacks and drinks. Our goal is to leave Ohio by 6am tomorrow. Wish us luck on THAT one!

A very tired Mary signs off. I'll post about the "trip that never ends" across the great state of Pennsylvania via Route 80 tomorrow night.

Day #13 (The birthday party)

2009-07-21T21:45:00.007-04:00

Maura's 6th birthday "Birthday Princess" cupcake tower.
(There was, also, another platter of cupcakes. 4 dozen baked, only 6 left!)

Today started with a rush. Maura turned 6 today and, like any other 6 year old, she was a bit excited.

So, after taking a shower, icing and decorating all the cupcakes, wrapping presents, etc., I got ready for "The Big Event." I "Martha-ized" for the party - namely, I overprepared and I prepared early.... and I'm thankful I did! It seemed that, even though the party didn't officially start until 7pm, almost everyone came over by 6:15 and joined us for our Birthday BBQ (grilled hot dogs, potato salad, and a tossed green salad.) By 7:00, everyone was here and the party was in FULL swing. We played party games (including a rousing round of "Pin the Spot on the Ladybug" - which I made from red poster board and black markers. Definitely a big hit with the kids!), we ate "Birthday Princess" cupcakes, and just had fun. No electronics (other than the camera), no music (other than the kids playing with their party horns), no crap. Just an old-fashioned birthday party, and all the kids had a great time.

By overpreparing for the party, cleanup was a snap. In fact, I had all the cleanup done (including all dishes and glasses) in half an hour! Impressive... if I do say so myself.

Now I need to sleep, so I can pack tomorrow for vacation. I'm really looking forward to being a Martha-friendly houseguest for a couple of days. I'm sure it's much less stressful than this week has been. lol

Good night.

Mary

Day #12 (I Will Survive)

2009-07-20T22:09:00.002-04:00

Today was a particularly busy day. In fact, it would have been busy without all the extra Martha stuff. Between getting ready for Maura's birthday and getting ready for vacation, I'm about to collapse. Lucky for me, I get to relax by spending 500 miles in the car with Patrick and the kids on Thursday. lol

After getting up, doing all the basic morning stuff, Maura got sick. (She fell off her sister's bed right after finishing breakfast and that did not agree with stomach.) So, I had to give Maura and Amelia (because she wasn't going to let Maura get bath time alone) baths first thing this morning. Good thing, too, because I remembered that I hadn't disinfected their bath toys since the first/last time I did.

Then, it was off to Wal-Mart and Walgreen's, to pick up some last minute party stuff and things to take on the trip.

Coming home, I finished getting lunch ready for the kids and tackled cleaning/organizing like NO ONE'S business! Martha would have been proud. I moved and cleaned behind furniture. I swept and vacuumed my floors. I mended the 2 slight tears in the living room slip covers. My house looks great! Tomorrow I'll finish up the kitchen and wash all the floors AFTER all the kids leave and my kids go to bed.

I'm figuring that I'll spend tomorrow just doing stuff for Maura's birthday (I still can't believe she's 6 already!) and Wednesday is packing/trip preparedness day. We've decided we'd like to try to leave Thursday morning at 6:00am - which means we'll get out around 8. lol

Right now, my oven timer is about go off and I need to get out of the oven the last of the 4 dozen cupcakes I'm baking for frosting/decorating tomorrow. Oh, did I mention that, with the exception of the cupcake pan in the oven, all the dishes from baking (mixers, bowls, etc.) are already washed and put away? Scary stuff!

Then, it's off to bed. I'm exhausted.

Mary

Day #11 (Prep Day)

2009-07-19T19:55:00.002-04:00

Woke up this morning and laid in bed, listening to Liane Hansen and Will Shortz (the crossword puzzle guy) and forced my foggy, Sunday morning brain to figure out the puzzles. After speaking with my ex mother-in-law, who is in Italy for the summer, I got up and got the kids ready for church (great sermon, btw...)

After coming home, I decided that I needed to get ready for our vacation by following some Martha-isms. First, I planned a list of everything we'll need to pack (with 4 kids, the list is quite large.) Then I started working on a list of songs that I want to add to my MP3 player, for areas where we cannot access NPR (yes, I've pulled together a list of local NPR affiliate stations for the trip.) Tomorrow I'll start baking snacks to take on the trip (sorry, but I really do prefer homemade blueberry buttermilk muffins to ANYTHING we'll find on Route 80.) Hopefully we'll only need to stop for gas, restroom breaks, and lunch (Francesca will be thrilled to hear that we're stopping at her favorite restaurant on the entire route - Iron Skillet.)

I still need to wrap Maura's birthday presents, so I might do that tonight.

Patrick is sad to hear that Frank McCort passed away this afternoon. Frank's brother, Malachy was friends with Patrick's parents, and from all I've heard, Frank was a great guy. He'll be missed.

Well, I need to get started. Kids need baths and showers, the clean dishes from dinner need to be put away, the house needs to be straightened up (before it becomes a disaster again) and I need to actually get some sleep tonight.

Bye for now.
Mary

Day #10 (a/k/a Mamma mia, thatsa good!)

2009-07-18T21:27:00.003-04:00

Today started off with my regular morning routine. It's really becoming routine at this point. However, Patrick did say it's creeping him out that our bed is being made EVERY DAY. lol

After a quick stop at the salon, to get my hair cut (in anticipation of our upcoming trip back East!), I spent the day shopping for Maura's birthday on Tuesday. When I got home, I decided to unpack all the goodie bag supplies and made those immediately. Mainly, it was to keep the kids from attacking the chocolate drizzled Rice Krispy treats I bought. (Yeah, yeah, I know... I could have made them from scratch. But isn't it enough that I'm making all the cupcakes myself AND I'm hosting a party less than 2 days before I leave for vacation?)

Once that was done, it was back to the crafting stores. This time, it wasn't stuff for me... Patrick has decided he wants to make homemade candles and he wanted to check out wax prices. After buying a "starter kit" of candle supplies, we headed home - and Patrick swore that'll be the last time he pays retail prices for this stuff, as it's SO much cheaper online, even with freight costs.

Suddenly, it was dinner time and I didn't have anything defrosted. Time for the old stand-by: pasta with jarred sauce (alfredo this time), tossed green salad, and garlic bread. Nothing homemade, unless you count the salad - which I don't. :(

After dinner, I got the bright idea to make a batch of homemade spaghetti sauce (no, it's not a Martha recipe... yes, I'll share if anyone is interested) and "can" it. I've followed Martha's canning instructions before, when making raspberry with orange zest jam, and it's pretty easy. So, after whining to everyone that I didn't have ANYTHING cooked for dinner, I proceeded to make something from scratch that I would normally have served for dinner. *facepalm*

I've now learned that my recipe for spaghetti sauce now makes enough for 3 and 3/4 large canning jars. The 3 full jars canned perfectly. The 3/4 full jar didn't really can right but I put it in the fridge, so we can have it for dinner before we leave for vacation (or I can give it to either my niece or my nephews, all 3 who live on their own.)

I've, also, learned that Martha was totally right about cleaning as you go when cooking. For the first time, I didn't have to scrub tomato stains off my stove. :)

Now it's time to get all the kids into bed and get ready for tomorrow.

Good night!
Mary

Day #9 (It's gonna be a long weekend)

2009-07-17T21:05:00.002-04:00

It's Friday but I already know that it's going to be a LONG weekend.

Tuesday is my daughter, Maura's sixth birthday and we decided, "Hey, with the house looking so good (except the playroom but that's this weekend's project), why don't we have a little party for Maura?" So I get to spend the weekend getting the house in order, cleaning up the family room/playroom (which is a chronic disaster) and yelling at the kids to tidy up their bedrooms. Oh, and I need to bake and decorate at least three dozen cupcakes (I'm figuring that's the minimum we'll need, especially since most adults eat more than one.)

Did I mention that I still haven't bought anything for Maura's birthday? No presents, no groceries for the party, no party favors.

Also, we're leaving for a five day vacation on Thursday. Laundry still needs to be finished, I need to pack our bags, and get the house ready for us being gone. So far, the only thing I did was stop the mail. Actually, this wasn't originally planned as a vacation. I was supposed to be attending my 20 year high school reunion on Saturday the 25th. However, thanks to being unemployed, I cannot justify spending $100 each for my husband and me to attend. But since I will still be in the area (we're staying with my husband's brother in Stamford), we're planning on going to Davy Byrnes in Port Chester, NY for drinks and darts. Let me know if you're in the area and would like to attend.

So, to any readers of this blog who graduated with me (Greenwich High School, Class of '89, Greenwich, CT), I apologize for not being there. : (

So far, the only Martha-ism done today was what is becoming my regular morning ritual (get up, get dressed, make the bed, straighten up the house, make breakfast, and do the breakfast dishes.) I think I'm going to crochet and try to relax. It may be the only time I get to, until we arrive in Connecticut on Thursday night (we're driving there, 500 miles each way with 4 kids. Thank God for portable DVD players and third row seating in our SUV.)

Good night for now.
Mary

Day #8 (Wok 'n Roll)

2009-07-16T23:24:00.002-04:00

After waking this morning, making the bed, doing the breakfast dishes and tidying up the bathroom, I decided to tackle a Martha task that I'd been dreading... cleaning the top of the refrigerator. Things seem to end up there "for safe keeping" and then either disappear or the pile they are in multiplies in size. In all reality, this needed to be done months ago.

So, armed with little organizer boxes (like the ones that fit inside desk drawers), file folders, a brand new Sharpie, a step ladder, a spray bottle of vinegar and water, and some cleaning cloths, I started on my massive task.

Hmm... wonder what those keys are for? How did my deceased mother's final driver's license end up here, instead of with all the estate paperwork in the family room file cabinet? So THAT'S where I put the card with my sister's new address! Why are there 3 bags of bread open, all with only 1 or 2 slices left? When did THIS letter come in?!?

After removing everything, I cleaned the top with the vinegar and water solution and scrubbed off all the dust, dirt, and grime. Uggh!

Now, time to put everything back. New file folders were created for all the papers up there, and these files were added to the red open-top wallet pocket folder that holds all my current mail. Cell phone manuals were put in files in my file cabinet, in the family room. All misc. batteries, etc. were put into the little desk file drawer organizer boxes.

It's amazing how much stuff accumulates up there! And now, thanks to Martha and me being inspired to not suppress my inner OCD, it's all put away!

Tonight's dinner was just a quickly thrown together Kung Pao Beef (seasoning from a dry mix) with white rice and broccoli. Nothing fancy (trust me, it sounds WAY more impressive than it actually is) but still very satisfying. Since tomorrow night is Pizza Night in our house, I'm thinking I may follow Martha's recipe for pizza dough and make homemade pizza, from scratch. Depends on how tomorrow morning goes, I guess.

Now, with all the kids in bed and Patrick playing Uno on Facebook, I think I'm going to go to bed. Living like Martha is exhausting work!

G'night!
Mary

Day #7 (It's Harry Potter Day!!!)

2009-07-15T22:28:00.002-04:00

Spent the morning at a grant/fundraising proposal writing course, which threw off my entire Martha-ality.

After coming home, I ended up fighting my ex-husband's insurance company while attempting to fill a prescription for one of our daughters at the pharmacy. After finally getting all that sorted out, the husband and I decided we should have our first "date night" in over a year. So, I got to see Harry Potter!!!! Great movie but not too crazy with the slight changes they made (but, then again, I'm never completely happy when a movie is made based on a book I love.)

Before leaving for the movies, I did a quick Martha-approved clean-up of the house. Again, since I've been doing this for a week, it went by really quick. However, I'm still dismayed at the amount of crap that accumulates in less than 24 hours!

One good thing that's happened because of all this... my older 2 daughters are voluntarily tidying up their bedroom every day. WOW! For anyone who knows Julia (the sloppy one) and Francesca (the disorganized one), you understand why I'm so happy at this change. Now to get Maura and Amelia onto the band wagon, although Amelia likes to help me dust and clean windows. Hmmm...

So, since we were going to the movies right after dinner and I was late getting home from my afternoon errands (thanks to CIGNA), I ended up making whole wheat pasta with a really good jarred vodka sauce and bacon (since I didn't have pancetta), which I cooked yesterday and had in the fridge. I know Martha has said that sometimes good things can come from "convenience" products (like jarred vodka sauce), and I agree. Plus, I'm sure "date night" would definitely be a good thing.

Tomorrow, I'm back onto a full day of being Martha-ly. Tonight, I'm just too tired and jazzed up from being out to really do anything more than what I've already done.

Sorry! lol

Regards,
Mary

PS: The naughty, naughty things I'd do to Alan Rickman (a/k/a Snape), if given the chance. Yowza!

Recipe for Chicken with Grainy Mustard Sauce (mentioned in Day #6's blog post)

2009-07-14T23:27:00.000-04:00

Chicken with Grainy Mustard Sauce

Serves 4

(from The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook, page 311)

4 skinless chicken breast halves, bone in (NOTE: Can also substitute chicken thighs)

2 carrots, scrubbed

2 small onions, cut in half

2 celery stalks, cut into 3” pieces

1 dried bay leaf

10 sprigs fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 C dry white wine

1 Tbsp. whole black peppercorns

¾ C dried apricots

2 C fresh pineapple, cut into 1” cubes

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

½ tsp. chopped fresh tarragon

1 tsp. grainy mustard

4 ounces baby lettuce, such as mâche

Place the chicken, carrots, onions, celery, bay leaf, parsley, wine, and peppercorns in a stockpot. Add cold water to cover (about 3 quarts); cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat so the liquid is at a bare simmer. Poach, adjusting the heat to maintain a bare simmer and skimming any foam off the top, until chicken is cooked, 20 to 25 minutes.

Remove chicken from stock; use a sharp knife to remove the meat from the bones. Place in a dish; add enough stock to just cover. Return bones to the remaining stock; simmer until very flavorful, about 1 hour. Pass the stock through fine sieve or a cheesecloth-lined strainer; discard the solids.

In a clean saucepan, return stock to a boil. Reduce heat; bring stock to a simmer. Add apricots and pineapple; poach until tender, about 10 minutes. Remove fruit with a slotted spoon; season with salt, pepper, and ¼ tsp. tarragon.

Raise heat to high; cook the stock until reduced to 1/3 cup, about 45 minutes. Reduce heat to low; whisk in the mustard; season with salt, pepper, and remaining ¼ tsp. tarragon. Divide the lettuce among plates. Slice chicken; place on greens. Pour sauce over chicken, and serve with the apricot-and-pineapple mixture.

Recipe for Lemon Meringue Tart in a Macadamia Nut Crust (mentioned in Day #4's blog post)

2009-07-14T23:25:00.000-04:00

Lemon Meringue Tart in a Macadamia Nut Crust

Makes one 10" tart

(from The Martha Stewart Cookbook, page 474)

MACADAMIA NUT CRUST

10 oz. finely chopped macadamia nuts

3 C unbleached all-purpose flour

1/3 C granulated sugar

1/2 lb. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Grated zest of 1 lemon

LEMON FILLING

1/2 C cake flour (not self-rising)

1-1/4 C granulated sugar

4 egg yolks

1-1/2 C water

Grated zest of 2 lemons

1/3 C freshly squeezed lemon juice

MERINGUE

3 egg whites

1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

3/4 C superfine sugar (reserve 1 Tbsp. for dusting)

Lightly butter a 10" tart pan.

TO MAKE THE CRUST, combine the nuts, flour and sugar in a food processor. Add the butter and process until just combined. Add the egg, vanilla, and lemon zest. Process until all the ingredients are well mixed.

Press half the mixture into the prepared pan. (Freeze the extra dough, well wrapped in plastic.) Chill for at least 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake the crust for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the shell is golden brown. Let cool on a rack before filling.

TO MAKE THE FILLING, in the top of a double boiler whisk together the flour, sugar, egg yolks, water, and lemon zest. Heat the mixture, stirring constantly, over simmering, not boiling, water until thick.

Remove the mixture from the heat and whisk in the lemon juice. Allow the filling to cool for 15 minutes, then transfer it to the cooled macadamia nut crust.

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

TO MAKE THE MERINGUE, in a large bowl beat the egg whites with a balloon whisk or electric mixer until frothy. Add the cream of tartar. Continue beating the eggs until they hold soft peaks, then gradually add the sugar, 1/4 cup at a time. Beat until the mixture is stiff and glossy.

Heap the meringue on top of the filled tart, and then sprinkle the top of the tart with the reserved tablespoon of sugar.

Bake for 30 minutes or until the meringue is a light brown color. Allow the tart to cool before serving.

NOTE: This recipe also makes twelve 3" tartlets.

Day #6 (Bonjour mes amis!)

2009-07-14T19:19:00.003-04:00

In honor of all my friends of French descent (and of the 5 years of French I took in junior high and high school), bonjour et Joyeux Quatorze Juillet!

We finally finalized our plans to go to Connecticut (to visit family and friends) next week. From Thursday the 23rd to Tuesday the 28th, I'm going to have a difficult time "living like Martha" but I'm going to search for articles, etc. that she may have written (or published in Martha Stewart Living) regarding being a good guest. Should be fun anyway.

Why does it seem that, whenever the weather is gorgeous (like today), I can't get my kids outside? Today was perfect - mid 70s temp., low humidity, low pollen count - yet my kids wanted to either watch TV or go to the library. Yeah, yeah, I know I shouldn't be complaining that they want to read but COME ON! In 15 or so years, when they're working and stuck in the office on a day like today, they're going to feel regret. Mark my words.

I got to spend the day inside, cleaning. I swear my house seems messier NOW than it did before I started the project. Maybe I'm more aware of the little messes that flare up all the time, or maybe I'm just being sabotaged by kids. Who knows? After cleaning up breakfast dishes, lunch dishes, emptying trash, recycling, etc., I didn't have time to fully enjoy today. And tomorrow I'm spending the morning in a seminar on grant writing, so I won't get to enjoy the sun then either. :(

In my "try a Martha recipe every day" challenge, today I made Chicken with Grainy Mustard Sauce. It's listed as a "fit to eat" recipe, so it's healthy. And everyone here loves chicken and mustard, so I thought it a good fit. Yeah, it was a good fit and it was delicious... however, any dish that requires almost 3 hours of prep time isn't going to cut it as a weekday main course. Either way, this recipe is now highlighted in my copy of The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook as a great dish for when we have company. With the exception of dried apricots and dry white wine, I had all the ingredients already on hand. Since Patrick isn't a big fan of apricots and I don't cook with wine too much, we were "good to go." Like I said, there was a lot of prep work with this recipe but it wasn't all "hands on" work - like, you need to poach the chicken and that takes approx. 20 to 30 minutes, make homemade stock to use in the mustard sauce with the water used to poach the chicken and that takes approx. 60 minutes, etc. I served it with steamed green beans and buttered noodles with oregano. Satisfying, filling, and delicious. Plus, I don't feel bloated and actually feel like I cheated on Weight Watchers because the mustard sauce on the chicken was really creamy (but there was no dairy in the sauce.)

Even the clean-up was easy - of course, I was "cleaning as I go" per her suggestion. Nothing got a chance to dry up and become hard to remove.

Now that everyone is done eating, I need to clean up the dinner dishes.

I may post more later; however, for now, I'm going to finish cleaning up and go outside to blow bubbles with Amelia.

Regards,
Mary

Day #5 (It's Monday again?)

2009-07-14T00:44:00.002-04:00

This morning started off great (insert sarcasm). Amelia woke up with a sore tummy and wanted to snuggle all day. I hate when the kids are sick. :(

So, after she started feeling a little better, we moved to the living room so she could watch a DVD on my laptop. That gave me enough time to run back, make the bed, straighten up my room a bit, and tidy up the bathroom. I'm hopeful that, one day, my girls will remember to rinse the toothpaste out of the sink basin instead of leaving it for me to do. *grrr*

Next up - having the girls clean their rooms. Yeah, THAT was fun. After listening to Julia come up with 100 reasons to not work, they finally started doing something. According to Martha, everyone in the household should take personal responsibility for cleaning up - and I agree. So, what could have taken the girls all of about an hour to do turned into an all day affair. *sigh*

With Amelia being sick, there wasn't too much time for accomplishing a new Martha-ism. I just worked with things I've already mastered (i.e. making the bed, tidying up as I go along, etc.) and the house really does look pretty good. Well, every room except for the family room/playroom which is buried under a foot of toys (as usual.) I'm planning making the clean-up and organization of this room a full family project - no exceptions! It really ticks me off that I even need to do this as I don't even USE this room myself. I'm lucky if I watch a hour of TV a week and this is the only room in our house with a TV. (Can you tell I hate TV?)

In addition to doing what I've already accomplished, I spent the day folding and putting away laundry. *groan* I hate laundry.

Oh well, it's been a very long day and I really need some sleep.

Chat more later.

Mary

Day #4 (I thought Sundays were a day of rest?)

2009-07-12T22:41:00.003-04:00

Woke up this morning, made the bed, got the kids up, talked to my ex mother-in-law (who is currently in Italy for the summer), yelled at the kids to get dressed, hurried everyone into the car, grabbed donuts for breakfast, drive 8 or so miles to Kirtland, OH and attended services at East Shore Unitarian Universalist Church. Oh... all this was before 10:30am!

On the way home from church, I decided that I should make Martha Stewart's lemon meringue tart with macadamia nut crust, to take with me to my first Board of Trustees meeting later at church (it was a pot luck dinner and I was responsible for bringing a dessert.)

Drove to three stores before I finally found macadamia nuts ($6.99 for 6 oz., and I needed 10 oz.! Insane!) Everything was progressing smoothly (even though the recipe called for a food processor and I don't have one, so I needed to grind the nuts with a manual hand-held grinder and use a pastry blender to combine the tart crust ingredients) until it was time to take the finished tart out of the oven. Oh, and I was using a springform pan as a tart pan (according to the manufacturer, it was an option.) It seems that my kids are like every kid the world over, where as soon as they sense something has to be done immediately (in this case, removing the pan from the oven when the timer went off), they need to run around, yell, and generally act like little maniacs. Naturally, they distracted me enough that the pot holder I was using to take the pan out of the oven slipped and I ended up popping the latch on the springform pan! Lemon curd went everywhere. So, almost two hours of prep work and cooking was for nothing. I managed to salvage about half of the pie and ate a rather large slice (it was delicious!) and am saving the rest for our dessert tomorrow night.

I guess I'm lucky I made the blueberry buttermilk muffins, because those are what I ended up taking for dessert. They went over fine but, somehow, I think the lemon tart would have been better.

My meeting ran a bit late but I'm now home and need to clean up the dinner dishes (Patrick was home with the kids and made whole wheat pasta with garlic Alfredo sauce.) Then it's on to check email and go to bed. I'm exhausted!

Later,
Mary

Day #3 (a/k/a I need a rest!)

2009-07-11T18:26:00.002-04:00

Woke up this morning and just felt exhausted, so I decided to try to take it easy, Martha-style. After making the bed, cleaning up after breakfast (thanks, Patrick, for getting breakfast ready for the kids), and getting myself ready for the day, I decided I would take Maura to get new earrings (she got them pierced in June and it is finally time to change from the piercing earrings to "regular" earrings.) And, because I realized that I forgot to get to recycling yesterday, I added that to our trip.

Naturally, it had to start downpouring the minute we pulled into the recycling center and didn't let up until after we left the mall with Maura's new earrings. Uggh!

After coming home, I took ground beef out for dinner. Since I hadn't really done anything Martha (other than making the bed and getting the breakfast dishes cleaned), I thought, "Hey, maybe Martha has something on grilled hamburgers in one of her cookbooks." Sure enough, she did. Of course, I'm not in the mood to make hamburger buns from scratch, nor am I interested in making homemade spicy ketchup. Her "recipe" for hamburgers just included adding salt and pepper, then grilling. Easy enough!

Then, I decided that I needed to do something with the blueberries I had in the fridge. Homemade blueberry buttermilk muffins! They were super easy and SO good!

So that's it for now. I'm sure I'll come up with some more Martha-isms to follow (drive myself crazy with) later.

Mary

Day #2 (a/k/a Man, do my arms ache or what?!?)

2009-07-10T20:24:00.003-04:00

It's Day #2 of living like Martha. I woke up this morning with muscles hurting that I didn't even know I had!

Immediately after waking, I made the bed with hospital corners, throw pillows, and everything. Then I spent the rest of the day, keeping the kids out of my room and off my bed. They seem to think that, because it's pretty, they MUST play on it.

Because I was sore, I decided I would take it a bit easy today. All I planned on doing was organizing the double cabinet above the stove, sweep and damp mop the hardwood floors, "freshen" the drains in all the sinks, and wash out the inside trash cans. Who knew Martha could make such mundane tasks last all freakin' day?!?

The double cabinet above the stove is where I store spices, seasonings, teas, etc. I know Martha says to not keep spices above the stove because it gets too hot but I honestly have no other place in my kitchen to put them. I took everything out of the cabinets and couldn't believe all the duplicates I found. Do I really need 3 bottles of cinnamon? And what's up with garlic powder and garlic salt, when I don't cook with either? Time to toss stuff out and recycle the bottles. Whoo-hoo! Normally, I'd be freaking out about the amount of money I wasted because of all these duplicates. Today, however, I decided to rejoice in the fact that I was streamlining my cabinets, making it easier to prepare recipes from Martha's various cookbooks. (More on that later...) After an hour of scrubbing shelves, labeling bottles and shelves, and general cleaning, I now have a cabinet that I'm actually excited about using.

Next, I decided that since I was tossing various extracts down the drain, I should "freshen up" the drains. Actually, I couldn't stand the combined smell of vanilla and lemon extracts. According to Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook, you can (and should) freshen the drains in your sink regularly. All you do is dump a half cup of baking soda down the drain, then add half a cup of distilled white vinegar. Plug the drain, let it sit 10 minutes, then pour a full kettle of boiling water down. (At this point, I've made the decision to see if Martha owns stock in companies that make baking soda and distilled white vinegar, as they are her magic cure-all for everything.) I was afraid that the smell of vinegar, combined with the stench of vanilla and lemon would be too much. Luckily, I didn't even notice it. Must have been the odor absorbing properties of the baking soda. Also, my sinks are now draining faster (because the baking soda and vinegar are dissolving the build-up from soap and other cleaners.) Because of the success I had in the kitchen, I decided to do this to the bathroom sinks, as well. Worked just as well there. At this point, the only sink that has not been "freshened up" is the sink in the laundry room. Maybe next week.

The garbage cans were up next. Usually it's just "take out the trash, put in new bag, wipe down the cans every week or so." Not today. Starting with baking soda and vinegar, I cleaned the interiors out with a scrub brush. (No, Patrick, it is not time to call my therapist... yet.) Then I took a Magic Eraser to the outsides of the cans. I honestly think the cans are cleaner now than the day I bought them.

At this point, Maura (my almost 6 year old) decided it would be cool following Mom around because watching the baking soda react with the vinegar is "soooo cool!" (her phrase.) Yeah, nothing like a little "grade school science fair" volcanic action to impress a kid.

Finally, I decided the floors needed a Martha-authorized treatment. Normally I would sweep them, then mop them with Murphy's Oil Soap. Well, Martha subtly hints that this isn't acceptable. Apparently, after sweeping, one should vacuum the floors, using the "bare floors" setting, then damp mop the floors using water only (no soap.) Huh? Vacuum hardwood floors? Now I have no problem with using the attachments and vacuuming the baseboards and corners of my floors (using the "bare floors" setting.) But running the actual vacuum across the floors? Wouldn't that damage them? And just damp mopping them? Don't they need the Murphy's Oil Soap to clean them? Nope, if your hardwoods are sealed, the soap doesn't do much to clean them (unless they are really, really dirty.) Otherwise, they just leave a slight sticky residue, which makes them more prone to collecting dirt. Hmmm... OK. So, after following her suggestions, my floors really do look good. My arms and back hurt like heck because you have to scrub harder, since you don't have the soap to loosen up the grime. But they do look good. Let's see how they look after a day or two of kids running across them.

Apparently all this is starting to get to Patrick, as he voluntarily cleaned the windows (both inside and outside) on the front half of the house. I hate doing windows and he did it without me even asking. God, I love that man. THANK YOU, HONEY!!!!! : )

Now that I'm starting to get into my newly domesticated groove, I think I need to expand my cooking abilities. Starting tomorrow, I am going to make at least one Martha Stewart recipe a day. And I'm going to go outside my comfort range on cooking. The whole point of this experiment is to become a better homemaker, and cooking is a big part of it.

Good night!

Mary

End of Day #1

2009-07-09T21:55:00.001-04:00

So, after taking a relaxing hot shower in my nice clean main bathroom, I took a well-deserved rest. Then, it was on to tackle the kitchen. Uggh. Martha devoted a whopping 113 pages to this ONE room!

Not sure exactly where to start, I decided to go with the cabinets under the kitchen sink. Martha suggests that you make a "cleaning kit" so that, on cleaning day, you can just "grab and go." With four kids (ages 14, 12, almost 6, and 3) in the house, I'm always looking for stuff to clean up yet another spill. This sounds like a really good idea.

Forty-five minutes later, I was amazed at what I found:

Cleaners that promised so much but did so little.
Four half-used bottles of Murphy's Oil Soap (one of my all-time favorite products!)
Seven aerosol cans of air fresheners - keep in mind, I'm allergic to this stuff and don't remember buying more than one.
A half-dozen cotton dish towels that I didn't realize I still had.
Eight - count 'em, eight - chandelier bulbs. The only lighting fixture I have that they fit is a small chandelier over my dining table and it only uses ONE bulb. As I don't remember buying that many and Patrick swears he didn't, I'm pretty sure they multiply under there.
Pet grooming supplies. We haven't had a pet of ANY kind since Bucky the Cat "found" a new home almost 3 years ago.

So, I proceeded to combine bottles, empty old products down the drain and recycle bottles. (By the way, I need to remember to go to recycling tomorrow because the bin is almost completely full and recycling doesn't pick up again until Tuesday.) Using some of the little plastic totes I bought earlier at Dollar General, I decided to make TWO "cleaning kits" - one for the kitchen and the other for the rest of the house.

Almost immediately after I finished making my Martha-approved "cleaning kits", low and behold, one of the kids made a mess in the dining room and I needed to "grab and go". It was.... AMAZING! I had all the stuff I could possibly need right at my fingertips. I think she might be onto something. :)

Next was time to clean and organize my kitchen utensils. Martha recommends that you store like things together (all wooden spoons in one spot, etc.) Makes sense to me, so I started. Again, totally amazed by the amount of stuff I've accumulated over the years. Granted, I used to be a Pampered Chef rep. and had just about every kitchen tool, utensil, and gadget in their product catalog. Still, pretty scary that I had enough "crap" (Patrick's word, not mine) to fill two drawers and one huge utensil holder/sorter. Even scarier is that I'm pretty sure I have even more stuff stored in storage boxes in our basement. However, I'll deal with that stuff when I get to the basement pantry reorganization. When organized and stored following her directions, I was able to

Then, it was on to reorganizing my pots and pans cabinets. Not only are they in order and easy to access, I found two cutting boards that I thought were lost and that I was looking to replace. Sweet!

Oh, and I found time to hit the chiropractor and make a family dinner that for once everyone ate. (Amelia, my 3 year old, and Julia, my 14 year old, are picky eaters.) Nice way to end the night.

So, at the end of the day, I am looking back and discovered that:

My bathroom is the most organized room in my house, and my kitchen is slowly becoming the second.
It only take a couple of minutes to make my bed in the morning, so I have no excuse to not do it. (Oh, I learned how to fold hospital corners on my sheets by reading page #291. It really does makes the bed look nicer. Who knew?)
My arms still ache from scrubbing the bathroom this morning.

So, I guess that's all for tonight. Tomorrow, I'm planning on cleaning and organizing my pantry (shouldn't be too hard, as I've already P-Touch labeled all the shelves - I'm OCD, remember?) and the spices/baking cabinet above my stove. And I need to clean off the snack bar in the kitchen. Maybe a trip to Staples or OfficeMax for some organizing supplies? Aren't you envious? lol

Mary

Half-way done with Day #1...

2009-07-09T13:16:00.001-04:00

I've survived the first half of Day #1 in The Year of Living Martha-ly and discovered:

1. Martha uses the word "myriad" WAY too much. Seriously, someone needs to buy her a thesaurus.

2. The dollar store is my new favorite place for cheap plastic storage bins. They have them in every size imaginable and the colors! I just bought a bunch in a really bright lime green (almost matches the color of a typical green highlighter) and they work as well in my pale green and white kitchen as they do in my lemon yellow and white bathroom!

3. Using just a gallon of hot water and 1/2 cup of distilled white vinegar will clean and sanitize children's bathtub toys better than anything I've ever tried. Per her instructions, I left the toys soaking in this solution in a bucket for 10 minutes. Unbelievably easy, and much safer than trying to clean them in the microwave (yes, I realize a dishwasher works too... no, I don't have a dishwasher, otherwise I would have been doing that all these years.)

4. Hard water stains definitely earned their name! By following Martha's suggestion on using distilled white vinegar and a soft rag, I have worked up more of a sweat than I did the last time I did Pilates. And my bathroom isn't dirty! I think if I ever have to do this again (but I'm hoping I'll never because I'm following her suggestions to keep them at bay), I'm going to cheat and buy Lime-Away (something else she recommends but only after trying the vinegar method.)

Right now, I'm going to take a shower in my immaculate bathroom. Then, on to the kitchen!

Ladies and Gentlemen... Start Your Engines

2009-07-08T18:34:00.000-04:00

Okay, tomorrow is Day 1 of my experiment. I'm excited and a bit nervous. When I told Patrick (my husband) my idea, he laughed nervously and asked if I expect to survive the next year. He thinks it might be a good idea to put my former therapist on speed dial. Ha, ha. Of course I'll survive. I have OCD on my side - my P-Touch label maker is one of my most prized possessions. Then again, I also have ADHD, which can totally sidetrack even the most precisely planned day.

Well, I'd better get going and finish dinner. Martha certainly wouldn't approve such a late dinner when it's just Mexican turkey and rice casserole.

Mary

Welcome to my Blog!

2009-07-08T18:07:00.001-04:00

Welcome to The Year of Living Martha-ly, my personal challenge to spend one year living and breathing the Gospel According to Martha Stewart!

Earlier today, I was wandering around Williams-Sonoma and came across a Martha Stewart book from a few years back, Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook, and thought it might be interesting. Having been raised by a working mother who, while an excellent cook, was not one for formalities, I grew up in a house where you were more likely to see paper plates than ironed tablecloths, and you certainly wouldn't see formal placesettings or perfectly organized pantries. I thought maybe I could learn something from Martha's book, especially since I've learned much from her cookbooks, magazines, and TV shows over the years.

What more could I learn from her Handbook?

After reading the first hundred or so pages, I realized that I am woefully unskilled in homekeeping. Of course, my husband and kids might disagree. But the fact is that I don't even begin to measure up. Reseal the grout in the bathroom? I've never done that, but according to Martha, I should do this every spring! And don't get me started on knowing the PH levels of basic cleaning supplies (sorry, Mr. Sleath, this is one part of high school chemistry I don't remember.)

Of course, Martha has a staff to help her - I understand that. However, I have a "staff" of one husband and four daughters, I'm sure I can get them to help (the husband already does the laundry.) Heck, she even states that everyone who lives in the house should help (see page 23 of the Handbook!)

So, in a fit of inspiration (or it could be boredom, having been unemployed for the past month), I have decided to Live Like Martha for the next year. I will follow her Handbook when keeping house, I will no longer rely on frozen or prepared side dishes to accompany meals (following her cookbooks and magazines, naturally), and I will attempt to do it with the same pleasant grin that she always wears. The only thing I will concede to (and this is to keep the kids from a full revolt) is continuing our family tradition of "Friday Night Pizza", but now I'll be challenged to find a way to "Martha-ize" it.

Wish me luck!

Mary