Eau d'chienne

I finally bathed the dog today after 2 months.  I'm a bit horrified by how long I let that go, but my dog hates it, and I hate how cold she gets and how much she shakes water everywhere.  She's now on a heating pad covered by a bathrobe in a patch of sunlight on the floor.  She keeps shivering and looking at me accusingly.  I still don't feel like she's entirely clean, but I can't really trim her because she needs lots of fur in the winter.  The priority, however, is to keep her dander out of the air so that I-M stays healthy. 

Cozy Days In

I like snow days much better than delays and early dismissal because we don't have the stress of getting kids out the door.  I like them even better when I've cleaned beforehand.  Another "snowstorm" has hit Ohio County, WV.  This one is kinda bad, with snowmelt that froze solid, topped with 5 inches of fluffy snow.  The Jedis had an early dismissal yesterday, and their school is cancelled today.   Dr. O's university is also on a delay today, but he went in at the same time, opting to leave me the car in case of an emergency.  We have a load of clean diapers, plenty of milk, plenty of pizza ingredients, plenty of snacks, and plenty of energy on their part, which I'll put to good use keeping things from getting out-of-hand here.  The Jedis are going to earn privileges today by putting away their laundry and doing tasks as they become necessary. 

Things started out a little nutty here with someone sassing Momma and the Jedis trying to sneak breakfast into the living room.  A-man spilled Cheerios with frozen berries and milk on the living room hardwood floor, and I was tempted to get really angry.  I kept my annoyance in check and helped him clean up, thankful that I had put half the berries back in the bag before serving it to him.  I talked to the boys about how much easier our days at home will be if we all take care of the house, and I think they took it to heart.  I-M had pronounced our home to be "immaculate!" yesterday, and I told them that an immaculate house isn't important, but keeping things neat will keep the yuckiness from taking over! 

Early dismissals and making the most of my time

So my house was pretty clean yesterday, at least on the surface.  After I went to Bible Study last night, not so much.  On Wednesdays I make dinner for Dr. O', enough to last him for Thursday and Friday lunches, and he makes some kind of kid-friendly dinner for the kids. Then he does homework with them, and I get home in time to help with bedtime.  The house, meanwhile, is mysteriously trashed.  I blame the Dog & Baby Show at least partly.  The dog chewed several crayons yesterday.  M-girl is typically involved in the random depositing of objects throughout the house. 

I woke up this morning and got the Jedis and Dr. O' off to their respective institutions of learning.  However, the Jedis will be coming home at 1pm today as part of an early dismissal.  I was quite tempted to let my Jedis stay home and play rather than make the effort to get them out the door and later get M-girl up for her nap to get them from the bus stop.  Freaking hassle. 

I decided to make the most of my morning and do a deep cleaning to mitigate the damage done last night.  I started my iPod with the Flylady Weekly Home Blessing podcast and got to work.  I made beds, gathered and emptied trash, wiped sinks, tables, counters, mirrors, a few grimy windows, and electronics.  I dusted, dust mopped, vacuumed, ran laundry, and put away toys. Now I need to have the Jedis check their bedroom floor (dark green carpet) for LEGOs, and then I'll vacuum it.  After that's done, they can watch a movie or play Wii.  M-girl can take her nap, and I can fold laundry and watch my Mad Men DVD that should be in the mail today!  I'm just starting Season 2, so don't tell me anything.  I've seen 1 & 4, so I mostly have it figured out, anyway. 

I feel good having fueled myself with a great berry, yogurt, and green tea smoothie this morning.  For lunch, I think I'll have some leftover Roasted Red Pepper and Sweet Potato Soup and a slice of bread that Dr. O' made last night.

(too) calm before the (snow) storm

I have a feeling there will be a delay or cancellation of school tomorrow.  Wet roads and snowfall will almost certainly make for conditions that are too icy.  This alternation of frenzied days with everyone home followed by too-quiet days like today is messing with me.  I cleaned a lot yesterday, so my house is really quite clean with some clutter here and there, and now I'm bored.  THIS is why I wanted to take a class, but the school & winter weather issue is why I can't.  Also I have a lot of stuff to figure out for I-M and a lot of appointments to take him to that would surely interfere with taking a class.  But on days like today, I'm bored.  M-girl wants my attention only when I'm engaged in something else, so even reading a book is difficult. 

My friend Peggy from church was so helpful yesterday in taking A-man during I-M's appointment!  He played trains and then fell asleep on her couch.  I also talked to the mom of one of A-man's classmates about doing some childcare swapping. I could take her child when there's a delay or cancellation, and she could take A-man if I-M has an appointment.  She couldn't take him yesterday because she was working from home with her boys, but she's interested in playdates and coffee.  : )  I met her in the early fall, and she seems really nice. 

The allergist's has a very busy office, and things were chaotic enough with M-girl not having a nap and sprinking Cheerios everywhere we went and yelling at the top of her lungs for a "LOLLY!!!".  The tests showed that I-M is allergic to dust mites, cats, many local weeds, many trees, and a few things spelled out only in initials that I can't decipher.  He's on Xyzal, which is similar to Zyrtec and is ridiculously expensive, even with insurance.  He woke up without shadows under his eyes, so maybe I need some! He really was quite brave, and I was impressed with how the testing procedure has improved since I did it as a kid.  All the scratching gets done at once, so it's much easier to keep the child calm.  Hooray for calm!

Monkey Wrench + The Works = Complicated Day

I-M has allergy testing, or at least the consult for it today at 1:15.  I have the paperwork filled out and stored in my purse all ready to go.  I was hoping not to take M-girl because this is during her nap, but Dr. O' has a class during the appointment.  No problem, my daughter without a nap is like A-man was all the time at that age, and I lived through that.  The difficulty?  A call came from the school corp at 5am about a 2-hour delay.  We had some snow on the ground, which was then rained on, causing icy conditions.  Fine, I figured.  I just wouldn't bother to take I-M to school at all since he'd be there for fewer than 3 hours.  At 7:35, they called again with a school cancellation.  So now I have 3 monkeys, one who will be without a needed nap, to take to the allergist on icy roads today.  Dr. O' says the cancellation is legit, but oh my flippin' heck (To use the Utah expression)! 

I also had an appointment at school at 8:15 this morning for I-M.  I was to sign a form to initiate occupational therapy services at school, but I got a call yesterday to cancel that because someone forgot he doesn't qualify.  His low working memory kept him from getting a gifted services IEP (not sure if this is accurate; we're having him retested by more qualified practitioner; glaring errors on first test), and he doesn't qualify for special ed. services because his IQ is too high. I worked with him on his speech when he was three, so he doesn't need speech, which would also get him an IEP.  I'm fine with him being average, but I'm really irritated that he doesn't qualify for occupational therapy for coordination because he doesn't have an IEP for gifted or special ed.  So too bad if you're average?  Apparently Easter Seals offers OT services, but I was really hoping to not have another round of appointments to go to with 3 monkeys!

Lost Keys and Procrastination

If you know me on Facebook, you are aware of the complete freak-out I had over lost keys today. I appreciated the offers of prayer for a relatively minor but very stressful issue! Because of an ankle injury and a depressive lull, I didn't go anywhere last week from Tuesday to Saturday, so I didn't need them that whole time.  I used Dr. O's keys yesterday and Saturday on errands.  Then we couldn't find his keys this morning.  We found them on the floor behind some furniture thanks to M-girl.  That got me worried about my keys.  I dug through the frozen trash from Wednesday through the weekend with a pair of rubber gloves.  I searched every low cabinet, shelf, nook, basket, and box. I spent a whole morning looking for my keys on a day that I would rather have spent playing with the kids!  I ended up finding them in a box on the dryer when I decided to move on to other housework.  I figured I'd find them when I stopped looking.  That's always how it is, right?  With my obsessive nature, that's hard to do.

Once the Jedis were out sledding in the back yard and M-girl was napping, I had the time and the motivation I needed to get out the drill and put up a hook for my purse and my keys.   I can see at a glance if they are put away, and M can't get at them!  While I had the drill out, I found the motivation to put up the bulletin board I bought 6 months ago and the mail organizer where I keep my grocery binder and my other organization stuff.  Makes me wonder what other projects I can get done.  I always curse my own procrastination when I'm tearing through the house looking for some critically important item.

I-M is having fun decorating the bulletin board with photos and drawings!

I love this machine!

http://www.amazon.com/Wondermill-WonderMill-Grain-Mill-110V/dp/B000CPJKWC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1295226664&sr=8-1