Treats and Sacrifices

The boys opted to get ice cream and have hot fudge sundaes at home last night after the Priesthood Session of General Conference instead of going out for ice cream.  There are two bonuses for that.

1) Ryan and I got to have ice cream last night with them and listen to their recap of the evening.
2) The left over ice cream allowed for some After Conference P'zookies today.  Steven and Ryan even made them.  All Greg and I had to do was show up.  Sweet!

Thanks for teaching my kids all about these, Christie.  Thinking of you this evening.  Sisters are awesome!

Basic P'zookie recipe: Make a batch of the chocolate chip cookie dough of your choice.  Bake in a pan until half done.  Remove from oven and top with ice cream.  Eat right out of the pan while hot.  Enjoy.  (Tip: Let your kids eat part of your share or you'll be asking yourself what you could have possibly been thinking as you run or walk about 20 miles a day for the next several weeks to counteract all the calories.)

Tomorrow we're having popcorn and apple slices dipped in caramel sauce for Family Home Evening treats while we talk about what we learned this weekend.  Good thing Conference only comes around every 6 months.  It's going to take me until October Conference to calorically recover from April Conference! 

(I guess we all have to make sacrifices sometimes!)

Monday

It's 1:30 (in the p.m.) and I should be taking a shower, but I'm allowing myself to be slightly distracted for a little bit.

My day started out just fine. I even got up a little early to read my scriptures before everyone else was up and the noise level increased. The idea was that when I got back from walking my boys to school and getting some exercise I could come right in the house and get busy cleaning my bathrooms. Today was my day to do a complete Houseblessing. (If you've never heard of a Houseblessing, click here and scroll down to "Basic Weekly Plan".)

I was thwarted. Trying to be a cool mom and remember what it's like to be 16 with a freshly minted drivers license, I finally agreed to let Erica drive the van to school. Her Auto class will even wash it and change the oil for practice today. (Good deal, if no one dies and nothing gets munched in the parking lot. I've driven in that lot and others like it and am not totally sold on the idea.) The idea being that Erica can drive and I have to be home with my house blessing because I can't let a little errand- like that stamp I need- distract me.

I left the house with my boys right on time. We walked down to our friends and were just leaving their house when Ryan informs me he forgot his backpack. Not a big deal, except that it's a bit of a walk back up to our house and would require running all of the 3/4 of a mile to school to be on time. I'm all for exercise, but not so much for killing myself. I contemplated making him go to school without it and dealing with the consequences but today is "Penguin Parade Day". I had to get up at 7:30 (the only day to sleep in last week, mind you) on Saturday morning to help my 3rd grader make "clothes" for a paper penguin out of material scraps. I'll be darned if they don't get to parade! I didn't have a car to make the clothing run later or to drive Ryan to school. I probably should have just made him run and/or be late.

Deborah, my friend and hero of the day, offers to drive me back home, then to take the kids to school. (She's the best, by the way.) I thought I'd go for the drive so we could visit a little bit. Still trying to make Ryan somewhat responsible for his actions, I gave him the house key and sent him in to get the backpack. He did just that and very obediently locked the door with my keys still sitting inside on the chair. AHHHH!! Deborah added "Drive Shannon to Greg to get a key" to her list of things to do today and even managed to not laugh at me too much. Greg did, though.

Deborah and I visited for a while- longer than we would have on our walk- which was way more fun than cleaning bathrooms. I grabbed a midmorning snack and got going on the bathrooms. I got 1-3/4 done. The second just needs a floor job. I did get the floor in the laundry room washed, too. That's amazing in and of itself. The third bathroom will just have to wait. The rest of the houseblessing? Maybe next week, or later this week if the stars align.

So, here I sit with dry skin on my hands and the rest of me in desperate need of a shower. I need to leave in an hour to get the kids so that I can have at least a little exerecise today. My to-do list was hardly scratched today, but I'm thinking the following. It's sunny and almost 40 outside. If I don't look up, I can even ignore the terrible air quality from the inversion. The cleanliness of the house is a notch above what it was this morning. I have a family who fills it with love (and sometimes other stuff!) whenever they're here. They all love to be home and have their friends here. I have friends who are willing to help out at a moments notice and like me even if I haven't showered. I am blessed and wouldn't have it any other way. I'll clean the bathrooms and whatever else when I get to it. Someday my days and house will be quiet and empty much longer than the current school day. For now, I'm happy and in 30 minutes I'll be clean. What more can I ask for?

Simple Math

Tonight is one of the top favorite nights of the year if you are female at our house. The level of favoritism if you're male probably depends on who you are and your age bracket, but enjoyment is usually expressed by all (especially if it's not cold and everyone sleeps!). It's Father & Sons campout weekend. Know why it's the female favorite? It's very simple math, really.

Normally it looks something like this:
1 father+1 mother+1 daughter+4 sons = Our Family Most Of The Time (and I'm glad)

However, during Father & Sons campout it's more like this:
Our Family Most Of The Time-1 father-4 sons=1 mother + 1 daughter (and it's fun!)

See, simple.

I love my family dearly but sometimes it's nice to have a change of scenery. The males have a new sleeping arrangement for the night and the scenery at home changes a bit. Erica and I have a fun evening together and I don't have to pack a bag or sleep on the ground. What's not to love?!

We'll return the favor for the second year in a row when Erica and I head of to girl's camp later this summer, only we'll have to pack a BIG bag and sleep on the ground for 5 days instead of just one. Last year the males had a great week and Dad was the fun-meister. I don't see that changing at all this year.

Tonight we took it easy. Since camp is so close to home (we can pretty much see the canyon from the front yard) Greg thought it would be better to just eat dinner at home and not haul it all to camp. I agreed because I didn't have to shop for anything extra and then help pack it all. So, Erica and I didn't go out for dinner, but we did go get ice cream and stay up late watching movies. Just to let you know how wild and crazy we are- we stayed up late watching "Nativity" and "Mobsters and Mormons". Whew, bet you could hear the noise all the way at your house!

Now, I'm writing this post and Erica fell asleep on my bed. She can stay as long as she stays on her own side. Sleeping soundly and comfortably in my own bed is one of the perks of this particular night, after all, and I'm not giving it up. Sweet dreams!

Post Pre-Birthday Camp Out

This is what I found last night when I went to check on everyone:
(Sorry, but I can't figure out how to turn of the underlining. This must be REALLY important stuff!)

What an amazing amount of rest is going on!


This is the result this morning:

The only thing that got any one out of bed today was the promise of Joseph's presents and donuts and juice. Good thing there was no school today. I thought they'd crash at some point, but they made it all the way through. Bed time was pretty welcome, though!

Pre-Birthday Camp Out

9:00-ish-Tomorrow is Joseph's 12th birthday and the school district was nice enough to give him the day off for a Teacher Quality Day. It also might snow for the first time in several weeks, so we can pretend it's a snow day, too. So, to prolong the birthday excitement as long as possible, Joseph asked if he could sleep on the bean bag tonight. I don't know why that is such a treat as I would take my bed any day over the bean bag, but it is. Well, one thing led to another and right now all 5 kids are in Spencer and Joseph's room for a pre-birthday "camp out". I won't say "sleep-over" because judging by the sounds floating up from the basement there is no sleep going on at this point. I'm not bothered, though. They are very happy, friendly voices and no one is bothering any one else (minor miracle, but not one of the "everyday" variety, unfortunately!). They are talking and laughing and having a great time. It's a smiling heart moment for me.

10:55- They are still talking and laughing and having a great time, though it has slowed down considerably. The suggestion to make this a birthday tradition has been tossed around. I am all for spending quality time with the siblings and making some fun memories. Memories at 11:00 p.m. are the #1 reason we don't do these things on a school night, so a huge line will be drawn there! For now, the rest of the lights are going out and the boring grown-ups are going to sleep.

Happiness in Fries and a Calendar

Tonight was Spencer's band concert. It was also Erica's orchestra concert. Since they were basically at the same time, Greg got to go with Erica and I got to take Spencer. Since Spencer's started first and had a higher probability of shortness, the other boys all decided to accompany me. There were only 8 songs between 3 bands, but the boys were getting a bit antsy by the end- especially since I wouldn't let them play the DS during the concert. What a mean mom I am. Then, magic. The last song of the night was "Carol of the Bells". Someone, somewhere (probably a McDonald's commercial) taught our children a different version which they love. I was suddenly surrounded with a small chorus of "Ding, fries are done. Ding, fries are done." and "Would you like an apple pie with that? Would you like an apple pie with that?" This particular version and many extra "Ding, fries are done" stanzas, but the boys just sang right along (quietly, so the neighbors couldn't hear) Turned out to be the best song in the concert for our boys. And since said concert was now over, they were free to play the DS while waiting for Spencer to come find us. Double dose of Christmas cheer.

The tradition for the past several years is that Greg would order a new calendar for my birthday, but this year it never happened. I've been using the calendar sold on the Flylady website, but this year wanted something different. I looked and searched and finally decided to go back to the More Time Mom's Calendar that I used to use. It arrived yesterday. Not a big deal except that I ordered it 31 days before. Chalk it up to my amazing online ordering skills -which I'm finding are somewhat deficient. Once again, I managed to order something online and have it sent to the wrong address. This time it went to our last house in Arizona. In my defense, this calendar was ordered from Amazon.com. Two semesters worth of books for Greg have been successfully ordered and delivered to our current address since August. I thought nothing at all about having Amazon send the calendar to their address on file. Somehow that address on file was suddenly in AZ. After waiting for two weeks I checked online to find that it had been delivered to our old house. This time I had a phone number because our landlords had moved in after we moved out. Sure enough, they had it and said they'd mail it. I waited two more weeks and then called them again. It was still at their house, but I was promised it would be mailed the next day. It was! And, it arrived here, at this very house, just yesterday. Hooray! My life now exists after New Year's Eve! I am very happy and am doing all of my shopping this Christmas at brick and mortar stores. Some things just can't be late or otherwise diverted.