I don’t know about all the other moms out there, but I tend to take care of all the kids and put aside myself.  I’ve been feeling poopy for awhile.  Dylan got a cold, gave it to Shelby, then gave it to Ethan and in turn passed it to me.  Last weekend turns out Dylan and Ethan had ear infections.  Thankfully Shelby still has tubes in her ears, so things have been smooth with her.  Now to me… Thursday I started to feel pretty bad, by Friday worse yet, Friday afternoon I was pretty sure my head was going to explode, lol, but opted to “wait it out.”  I spent my night on the couch watching QVC, coughing and holding my head begging for the throbbing to stop.   The begging didn’t work and daylight came, along with it the realization that I needed to see a doctor.  Crap.  In the end I left with an antibiotic, sterioid, and a nosespray… ear infection, sinus infection and bronchitis, oh my.

Now just to give those of you that don’t know Denny and I well or how we get along, (which generally is very well), here was his response….  “Does your face hurt?  Cuz it’s killing me!”  All I could do was stare at him.  And no, he didn’t come up with that clever bit himself.  He got it from me, and I got it from my Dad, lol.  So really, all I could do was take it and grin.  Denny seemed pretty pleased that he got one on me, and considering he was going to be picking up the slack around the house cuz I’m sick, I decided to let it go. 

The point of this story, and a lesson I need to take to heart, is that I need to take better care of myself and not just the kids and husband.  Now I’m so sick I can’t go see my Dad as he rests at home, and frankly, I miss my Dad. 

It’s now 6:27 PM and I still don’t have my use your stash challenge layout for January done.  Nice huh.  Such a small goal and I got nuttin’.  I still have time, but I just don’t see it.  Send me out some good vibes people….

~j

OH… and a Happy Birthday to Miss. Madison!  She turned the ripe old age of 7 on the 29th.  And I was at the hospital with my Dad that day, so I missed my chance to send her a shout out.  So again, Happy Happy Birthday to you Madison.

Thank you to everyone who called and emailed yesterday to check on my Dad.  Everything went great and he should be coming home today.

I’m so glad yesterday is over, but now I’m playing catch up for the day of work around here that I didn’t get to.  Today my day will be spent cleaning up after everyone, wrapping up the laundry, (which I am happy to report is just about done already), getting some stuff mailed and preparing dinner, and cleaning up the bathrooms.  Oddly enough the MAN BATHROOM is gross and my bathroom looks just fine.  Gee, I wonder why that is???  At any rate, I need to clean them…

Poor Ethan has a math test today and even up to this morning he was still having a bit of a hard time.  I worked with him on it last night and before school.  I hope it pays off.  Math is my Dad’s department and he wasn’t available yesterday, obviously.  I’m crossing my fingers that I was a good enough fill in for my Dad.  Another day or so and I think Ethan would have had it down no problem.  He he does poorly it’s both of our faults.  Ethan wasn’t good about getting the study guide done.  He pulled a “no I don’t have any homework” line so he could go over MiMi and PaPas and play Wii.  Apparently, in his opinion study guides aren’t homework because they don’t have to be turned back in.  On the other hand, I wasn’t all the available to him yesterday to help him with it like I would have been had I not had the other stuff going on.  So, cross your fingers…

I also have a goal to get a layout done today.  Tomorrow is the last day for the use your stash challenge I’m particpating in.  (Nothing like procrastinating.)  I’d really like to get something done and handed in.

I’m off to get crackin’ on my chores for the day and drop something in the crock pot for dinner.  No idea what, but I’ll come up with something.

Enjoy your Friday.  Personally, I’ve never been so happy to see one!

~j

I’ve been waiting all day for it to come and it has finally arrived… my Couponizer system that is.  (Funny how excited this makes me isn’t it.)  I had been looking at my mess of coupons on my desk that I left there from organizing for my last grocery trip yesterday.  I was going to pick them up and thought… oh no, wait for the couponizer, lol.  Ok, yes, it was an excuse not to pick up, but a good one if you ask me.

At any rate, there were a lot of them scattered all over the place and using the “system” I got them all put away in the right spots in record time.  There is a “mat” you can use to help in sorting accurately, and then folders for each category.  There is even a spot for receipts and rebate stuff.  Things like that I always seem to loose, so this is going to work out great for me.

Here is a more details review.

Now that my coupons are all put away, I suppose I have no excuse for picking up the rest of my messy desk!

Oh and for those of you that have asked… skating went well yesterday.  I made my Dad go with me, and made him go first, lol.  I didn’t land on my butt and I’m not sore today.  It will take some time to break in the new skates, but it was sooo nice to be back out on the ice.  I need the exercise regardless.

I’ll probably be late in posting tomorrow, if I post at all.  My Dad has surgery in the am so I’ll be keeping my Mom company at the hospital.  Send happy thoughts his way!

~j

Sundays is “post you stuff for sale” day on one of my scrapbooking yahoo groups.  I decided, spur of the moment really, to take advantage of it yesterday.  I spent part of my day cleaning out and got a small pile of tools that I don’t use anymore out of the drawer and listed for sale.  I’m not trying to make a fortune, really selling it all pretty cheap I think.  I just want to find it a new home.  Time for me to let go of things I’ve had for ages and either never used, or used once.

The other part of the day was spent at the Edsel Ford Estate taking a tour with the kids.  We checked out two free passes from the library so we didn’t have to pay very much and it was something different to do.  (We had planned to go Saturday, but Ethan woke up with an ear infection.)  As we were just about finished Dylan tugs at me as says, “I don’t feel good.  My tummy hurts.”  All I can think is historical home and vomit on the floor… basically oh crap!  Thankfully Denny was able to distract him until we left and once we got outside he said he was hungry.  We go out to eat and moments after he orders he falls asleep in my lap.  Slept the rest of the afternoon until about 5 when we woke up crying asking to go to the doctor.  When you’re six and want to go to the doctor, that’s never normal.  So I spent the last part of my day at Beaumont Urgent Care.  Now there are four large bottles of Amoxicillin in my fridge.    Poor Dilly stayed home today with me as he still has a fever.  It’s gonna be a long day.

Cheers to Monday getting over as quickly as possible!

~j

For those of you that know me well you know I’m a big coupon clipper and sale shopper.  I don’t think I pay full price for anything.  :p  It’s like a contest for me to see how much I can get off my grocery bill and such each time.  With that I got starting thinking about how much we spend on laundry soap.  There are five of us in the house and that equals a lot of laundry.  Not much I can do about the amount of laundry, but I can cut the cost of the soap we use!!  Yesterday night I started my own batch of laundry soap for which I found the recipe online.  I finished it up today, and I’m please to report that it went very well.  When you break down the cost of the recipe it comes out to around $2.00 for 10 gallons.

Here is the recipe:

Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap- Front or top load machine- best value

4  Cups hot tap water
1  Fels-Naptha soap bar
1  Cup Washing Soda
½ Cup Borax

- Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.

-Fill
a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing
soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to
top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.

-Stir
and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and
then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)

-Optional:
You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap
has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.  (I didn’t do this as I really liked the smell of the Fels-Naptha soap bar.)

-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.

-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)

-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

You should be able to find all the ingredients at your grocery store, or probably even Target.  I had the washing soda and borax already on hand though.  I use the washing soda to polish my silver and I’ve always used the borax as a laundry booster anyway.  So at least these items will have other uses when you aren’t making soap.

I went to Lowes for two 5 gallon buckets.  You need one to make the recipe, and I’ll be using the other to split the recipe in half and store it in it’s diluted state being I don’t have a ton of empty detergent bottles on hand.  Plus its just easier to store in the big bucket till I need it to fill on of my empties.

Off to do some laundry!!

~j

I’ve been slowly adding photos and such to the photo spinner I started.  Here are some photos I took today of my work so far.  It still needs some more photos (mostly of myself and Denny).

Happy Saturday!

~j

I’m a moderator on a Yahoo group called Metro Detroit Scrapbooking Oasis and on that group we are having a Use Your Stash Challenge for January.  We need to complete our layout(s) using only stuff we already have on hand, then upload them to the gallery for a vote to win a prize.  I’m not big on contests, but this is one I’m going to do.  I’ve been saying for awhile that I could use only what I have and probably scrap for a year.  I’ve been pretty good about it really.  I did make a trip to Archivers the other day with my mom.  But she made me do it, lol.

Dylan and Ethan stayed home sick from school yesterday.  Ethan and Shelby have had a nasty cold and Dylan was compalining of a headache.  By the end of the day I think I was the only one with a headache.  Needless to say, I’m happy that everyone was well enough to go back today!    Shelby, (who is still sleeping), wanted to go shopping today.  She’s all girl, what can I say.  So if she’s better we are going to Partridge Creek to “cash in” my free Victorias Secret undies certificate that I got in the mail.  (See prior post about customer service if you don’t know what I’m talking about.)  Partridge Creek allows dogs.  Maybe I should try and take Rocky, our foster dog, for a little walk. 

Before I forget… today is my blogoversary!  WOO HOO.  I’m not 100% sure on how accurate it is, but it’s pretty darn close if it’s not exact.  Now I can’t get that song, “Anniversary” by Tony Toni Tone out of my head.  Yes, Sarah, it’s “before you time.” lol  I was going to post the video here, but I’ll spare you the cheesy early 90’s video.

Happy Friday!

~j

We got our foster dog over to the groomer today to get cleaned up.  The little guy is practically naked now so Shelby and I went today to pick him out a sweater.  After all, I’m cold, I’m sure he’s pretty chilly too.  Shelby had a very hard time picking a sweater.  The girl loves pink and all things that sparkle so shopping for a boy was a switch.  A fur trimmed hood was the best compromise, and the studded collar she picked was too big, lol.

As you can see from the photo he seems to be in love with Shelby.  The feeling is entirely mutual.  He’s a good little dog.  It took him awhile to not want to eat me alive when I got near him, but he’s all good now.  He and I have made major progress, lol.

Anyway, I promised a photo and an update…

~j

I saw this posted someplace else in my travels some time ago and thought I’d save it for a special occasion, lol.  Really these little tidbits are something that could benefit everyone at some point or another…

I’ve seriously had about as much of this cold and snow as I can take.  As I type this it is 15 degrees outside, which I suppose I should be grateful for because well, it could always get worse.  It’s MLK day today so the kids are off school and Ethan has a friend over.  I don’t imagine they will be going outside to play anytime soon!  I had planned to take them all over to Colors in Clay to make mugs, but I didn’t get a chance to ask the other mom, and I don’t want to take Ethan’s friend out without permission… So we’ll have to figure out some other source of entertainment for the afternoon.

Starting tonight we’ll be fostering a dog for an aquaintance in the middle of a housing issue.  The family of course wants their dog, but doesn’t have a place for him right now so we’ll be taking care of him for awhile.  I’m looking forward to it.  He’s just a little dog… all of 7lbs, so hopefully Molly dosen’t fall asleep and roll over on him, lol.  I’m not sure how long we’ll have him for, but it’s my good deed for the year.  I know if it happened to me, I’d hope someone would step up and help me out.

Over the weekend a freind of mine, Linda, asked if I’d step up and help moderate her Yahoo Scrapbook Group.  I agreed and now I’m dong that too.   I know, I was so bored before, lol.  It will be fun and give me a little extra shove to get more involved.

Ok, off to do laundry… and make a couple cards.

~j