You Don't See That Every Day

Do any of you remember this little ranting post I wrote a little while ago? I had some frustration about the post office and their lack of communication within their own branch and company. Today, just a few minutes ago, I received a phone call from this branch. Someone -a manager of some type I suppose - called to let me know my mail keys were in for my mail box. I really, really tried not to guffaw as I told him I had picked those up OVER 2 WEEKS AGO!

Monday so far has been a typical untypical day. While I was on my run this morning, the kids - at home with dad - had some fun with cereal. Well, the youngest did. " Just trying to get some beppast, Mom " The girls like to get out of doing schoolwork by playing with their littlest sister. Sometimes that excuse works for me. I cooked up the last of the apples for sauce this morning. A delicious bowl of warm applesauce and home- made crackers for my after lunch appetizer. This is where our dogs like to sleep most of the time. There have been occasional squeals from the dogs when chair legs came down on them unintended. It's noon and so far some school has been worked on.Some chores down. Some bills paid. Some food cooked and eaten. Some exercise gotten. And yet so far to go in the day - naps, basketball, crock pot dinner, meetings, and all the stuff in between. .

How can it already be Friday? It went by fast. Maybe because I was not home very much. I put a lot of miles on our truck this week. But here are some photos from when I was home: Little K in the basket, one of her favorite things to do - climb into things and gather her toys around her. My Christmas gift for G finally came in the mail. A very dear friend who went to Europe helped me out by getting this drink over there and mailing it to me - much cheaper than if I ordered online. When G went to Austria a few years back he had this drink and really liked it, so I hunted it down... and then surprised him in the middle of January with a Christmas gift! We did a few "push-ups" with Little K. And look what else came in the mail: woohoo! K gave us a lot of good ones this week. She sat in the doll stroller to eat her breakfast at a makeshift table. The Boy had a lot of basketball this week. 2 games and a scrimmage game and practices. His team went to O...

I threw a party and people actually came! It helps that they are all related to me, and that the party wasn't for me. My sister's birthday is today, and I have not been very good in the past about celebrating her day. She however is Always good for the kids' birthdays and other celebrations and babysitting. So I thought it was high time I got a party going for her. I only asked if she was available Sunday afternoon for cake and ice cream. No mention of other party goers. And thankfully she said yes, so I could get on the phone and invite all those local siblings to come on over. She was a little surprised when she got here and there were already a bunch of others here too! Instead of cake - because really, who can figure out how much people will eat?? -- I made cupcakes. Easier, faster, and nicer to serve. There was one party-goer who didn't want to wait for the party to eat the cupcake: But I made her wait anyway. She did get into the swing of things ...

In my corner of the world this week ... * there has been a lot of weather here. We had snow, lots of slushy snow. And now we have lots and lots of rain, and more on the way. We had a little scare of water reaching the garage, and the insulation sitting there waiting to be installed. Thankfully it did not reach that far. There are roads closed and many creeks and rivers flooding. * School was cancelled for all students in our area. My son spent the day today filling sandbags with other friends downtown. He really surprised us, wanting to go, and wanting to stay as long as he could, even while cold wet and hungry. Made me proud to see the glimmer of growing up shining through. * There hasn't been much progress made on schoolwork around this house. Since the Boy had Monday, and today, off from school, the girls did not get anything done either. And for some reason we spent more time learning in the kitchen, or playing in the front room this week than we did in the actual books. Bu...

Have you heard in the news lately about the possible shutdown of some post offices around the country? When I first heard I thought, no way, we need those places. But now I am not so sure. Here is the saga we have been living through the past month.  One day my kids went to get the mail from our box, which is one in a cluster of boxes, a neighborhood unit. The door would not close. The lock would not latch. Our mail was open to any who walked by and looked. So I called the post office - the local one - to report it. The manager said he would send someone out to look at it. I don't think anyone came, because nothing looked different at all. This was a Friday and of course they are closed over the weekend. So my husband went out to try and tighten the screw and see what he could do to keep our mail to ourselves. And the box lock worked fine for a couple of days. Then my kids went out again towards the end of the next week and could not open the lock. It was stuck tight and would...

( Written on Monday, finally posted today. Sigh. It's that kind of week. ) I had time to work on some fun stuff today. Since there was no school for the Boy, the girls and I decided to make it an easy day also. Which gave me time to bake! I tried pastries on Saturday, so today was my attempt at cheddar goldfish crackers. But I didn't have a fish shaped cutter so I used a small heart instead. The consistency probably should have been finer, and the dough rolled thinner, but overall they aren't too bad. They are more like cheddar biscuits than crackers. So I will have to play with that recipe a little. Doesn't seem to stop the small fry from eating them. We also stirred up some graham crackers and then dove into the banana bread mix my daughter received as a gift. Good stuff! Watching the snow fall, eating warm banana bread in front of the roaring fire - a beautiful afternoon.

For awhile now I have been following a certain blogger - Mavis. I try to read her blog regularly, not just for the great couponing hints, but she has the kind of humor I can relate to. ((Although I think she thought I was kidding when I suggested her next giveaway should be her coming to clean someone's kitchen. I thought it was a brilliant idea (wink wink))) So Mavis writes about how. she was able to feed her family of 4 on only one hundred dollars a month last year (hence the name of her blog ). Now there is probably no way I could feed the 7 of us on that amount; but reading her blog has made me more aware of my spending and grocery buying habits. AND THEN - cue the drum roll -  This morning I opened a wonderful email I had received from her. It made me hoop and holler and do a happy dance! The kids came running to see what was going on. Can you see why I was SO excited? See that word WINNER? Woohoo!! I did the happy damce because: A. I never win anything. Or so it see...

Views of our weekend: I attempted my first try at homemade pop*tarts They turned out de-lish-us! The head of the house commented more than once that they were a hit! Next time I am going to try and make them a little thinner, and smaller. Although eating a large one wasn't much of a problem. We woke up to snow this morning. All last evening, weather reports were predicting the snow. My own local weatherman - aka. G.man - kept checking the radar and his bookmarked weather website(s) while keeping us updated on the progress. Just another reason I love him Strangely, the kids did not wake up squealing with delight at the snow on the ground. Was it because there wasn't enough for sledding? (Which they did make plans for as we drove into town.) Or was it because we needed to get ready for church and they knew there wasn't time to go out and play? Or maybe they have outgrown it? I sure hope not. I think they are just waiting for some more pile up so they can real...

Just another day in paradise- loads of laundry to finish folding while chasing a runny-nosed toddler who would rather not wear clothes. I wouldn't trade it for anything!

It's time for Upward basketball again! This year is the first time our son is not playing in this league. It ends after 6th grade, so he is on to middle school ball now. But we have another child in instead. Our 6 year old started on the kindergarten team, with her first game this past Saturday. It was quickly obvious that she didn't know what the game was all about. But she was very, very good about what she was supposed to do - and that was to stay on her person. Each player gets a color tag, and they have to stick to the same color tag on the opposite team during defense. But our girl played defense the entire time. It was pretty fun to watch her 'dancing' with the opponent. The photo is a blur, because that's what she was,. moving back and forth playing good defense the entire time. Even when her team had the ball. I think we'll spend a little time this week talking about what offense and defense mean.

From the day we got her to almost 2 weeks later, to another month past, this puppy is growing. She was smaller than our black dog when we brought her home. And now she outweighs her and is taller than her. But black dog is still in charge and they both know it.

Today I was very thankful that I married the man I did. He is quite good at helping me make my way through this confusing world. Yes, I am a blond, and yes I see the world a little differently. I went into a bread outlet store in our town hoping to find some good deals. We go through a loaf a day and with prices the way they are now, I was looking for some good bread at a good deal. And I found it! These loaves I bought are usually about $2 on sale at the grocery store. I found them at the outlet for $1! I piled almost a dozen loaves in my cart - I was pretty excited to see that price; but a little voice inside said, "Why? Why are they so 'cheap'?" I couldn't see anything wrong with them. And I looked! I overheard some of the stockers talking about 09 and 10 ... so I decided to check the little tag, knowing there was expiration info on it. When I saw the 09, I thought .. well, they don't look old. I went ahead with the transaction, and brought them hom...

When I tuck my kids in to sleep at night, I often tell them, "Go to sleep. Big day tomorrow!" Well today was actually a 'big' day and I wasn't aware of it. I got a phone call from our Boy tonight. G. had just picked him up from basketball practice and they were getting something to eat before they had to head back to the gym. My son sounded pretty upset, like he was crying. And like any normal(?) mother, I started to get choked up also. Especially when he told me that they made the cuts for the basketball team today. My mind raced ahead, along with his emotional state, and I was trying to figure out how to encourage him, how to keep my own sadness out of my voice, and what do I say now? running through my brain. So I tried to find out a little bit more about what happened. And then he started laughing, and said, Mom I made the team! My brain screeched to a halt. I couldn't even think! I just hung up on him. Because he was such a skunk! Getting me all up...

It must have been a good holiday season! I stepped on the scales at my parents' house and saw that I have an extra 20 pounds hanging on. I saw the fudge in one spot, the nightly ice cream all around and the cookies in another area. Good thing I am running, or it might be an extra 40 overstaying their welcome. I went home and wrote down my weight on several sticky notes and stuck them in the snack cupboard, on the refrigerator, and on the top of my secret stash (banana chips covered in chocolate.) I went to reach for some chips just a few minutes later, and thought about that not-so-little number there. And I realized I just wanted a new taste in my mouth. I wasn't really hungry. So I brushed my teeth. Now, I'm not going on a 'diet'. I'm not going to starve -hahahaha, no way, not how I like food! But I am going to try and make better choices this winter, and especially as I train for a super upcoming race in April. I'll probably be brushing my teeth a lot...

My run this morning was not going as well as I wanted it to. I've gotten up to 4 mile runs in the past week; I thought I might make it 5 today, but then my running partner chickened out turned around and headed home, so I changed my plan and kept it at 3 miles. Even then I felt like I was trudging. The downhills were hard on my lower legs, and the uphills - well those actually went ok. At one point after tying my jacket around my waist, I started running again, and a bicyclist on the other side of the 4 lane road, shouted to me, "You can do it!" What a boost that was! What a way to make me feel better and actually smile as I run! I had a little burst of energy after that. A few months ago, when I was running another trudging-kind of run, another man drove by and yelled out the window, "Go lady go!" which startled me at first. And then I saw who it was - that very sweet husband of mine, and that made me smile, and keep going. I was thinking of just turning in...