You know you have been pregnant a few times when during the course of preparing lunch you can lean over the kitchen sink - gag - and go right back to fixing lunch.

The Question has already begun being asked. What is The Question you ask me? In my case it is "Is MB going to public school next year?" The answer as far as I am concerned is No! Sending a child to school, especially my oldest will do nothing to reduce my stress. I learned that one when I was pregnant with EM and MB was in preschool. That was awful. Additionally I am able to take a lot of strength and ideas from all of you out there these past years that have had children and kept right on going. When I grow up I want to be like you.

One a side note: I find having an infant in the house much less stressful than say having a 14 mos old who is bound and determined to explore, open, take apart anything and everything they can get their hands on.

Yesterday was a nice, quiet day. After I had finished running some numbers trying to figure out an offer on the house and talking to the agent, we decided not to submit one yesterday. Nothing else has been submitted. We are going to make a decision later today about whether or not to submit an offer.

What is holding me back is this sense that although this house is great and it meets all our needs and many of our wants, that it isn't the one. I can't put words on why I feel that way, but I just do.

The girls were great. In the morning they played dress up and put on dancing shows for me. Even little EM. It is so neat watching her fit right in with her big sisters and try to do what they do. They did free writing and free drawing and then lunch time.

MB chose to watch HP and the Chamber of Secrets for lunch. So, after eating and putting EM own for her nap my eyes were all but slamming shut. I laid down to watch the movie with the girls and promptly fell asleep. I slept for about 30 minutes put it was all I needed to re-charge my batteries.

We did school work during the rest of EM's nap. The girls did some arts & crafts, and then cleaned up after themselves!!! As a reward we headed out to the park for some play time. It was not all that warm, but manageable. The girls had fun. Found other kids and organized a game of hide & seek/tag. EM and I spent most of the time in the sandbox. She loves the texture of sand and can spen hours in there.

The rest of the evening was good, except for bath time - otherwise known as flood the bathroom time. The girls were all in their bedrooms by 9:30 and I know I fell asleep to the background sounds of 24 - so it was before 10.

I am off to enjoy today.

Peace,

Amy

Timing Is Everything

As if we needed further conviction that moving is the right thing for us at this time - We found out today that our family will be growing again. I am not very good with any sort of cutsey announcement. So, here it is: We are expecting bambino or maybe bambina in October. Yeah it is still earlier, and as one who has lost a pregnancy late in the 1st trimester I always worry about announcing it before 12 weeks. But, I know that I also can't keep anything like this to myself very long.

Even though we thought that EM would be our last, DH and I are really okay with this. Our families think we are crazy - but then that was determined a long time ago.

So, hopefully we will get the move all done before I am too big and lazy to be of much help.

DH and I went back to look at the house I went to on Friday. He really likes it. We are trying to figure out some sort of contigency offer to make on it tomorrow. I am not totally sure that we will be able to get this house. We know that there is one other family that is also interested in it and are trying to decide whether to make an offer or not. Considering that our family size has increased in theory since Friday, I am also not sure that God might not have other plans for us.

We will probably make an offer because it is too nice to not try for. If it doesn't work out, then I know that there is some other plan for us right now.

Finding out that I am expecting has just really put everything into perspective for me, at this moment. There is just so much that under the weight of it all I have just had to let go - God can have it and take care of it for me. I will do my part by taking care of the kids and keeping the house neat. I can't spend my time worrying about this house or any other house.

I am off the get some sleep while I can.

Peace,

Amy

I found THE HOUSE today!

This house has the size and layout that we have been looking for. It felt so right. I can totally see our family living in this house. DH still has to see it this weekend, but it has all the particulars that is has been looking for. The only drawbacks are that it has no fence and a lot of wallpaper. Fortunately the wallpaper is not totally tacky and is something that I can live with for awhile. The fence thing is a bummer, but most of the houses we have looked at do not have fences either - so we are getting used to that idea.

The house is so perfect for us that the 2nd bathroom is already decorated with dragonflies and butterflies.

So -- now just get rid of our house. We have had one viewer so far this week. Which, I understand isn't that unusual for the first week on the market. Hopefully after this weekend it will start picking up.

I can probably be considered a slow learner - but it is really nice to have a clean house. To know that I have to keep it clean and keeping up with all the clutter. It is actually kind of relaxing. It sounds like such a paradox - but to not be surrounded with all these half done jobs. When I sit down to relax, I can actually relax. I grew up in clutter, I have always lived with too much stuff in too small of a place - this is like a whole new world to me.

The other thing that is relaxing right now - MB has gone skiing with her aunt! We only have two kids this weekend!! Ahhhh - peace and quiet.

Off to see if I can do some knitting, in my clean and quiet house.

Peace,

Amy

And for the rest of the day...

We made it out of the house and to the store during one of the breaks in the rain showers. We went to Target today. I really love Target - the prices and the styles and even their store brands are better than average. The problem with Target, for me, is the amount of $$ I can spend in there without thinking about it. These past few months I have been really good about sticking to a list and not wondering around too much - but today the stars must have been aligned a particular way. I had some extra money, thanks Uncle Sam, a list of items we have been putting off getting and three cooperative girls - which meant I spent more than I had planned to.

While wondering around the sporting goods area I made a fairly large impulse buy. It has been suggested to me to begin doing some exercising to help with the stress level in my life. I just can't fathom going to a gym - not to mention it just doesn't fall into our budget right now. Walking with the three girls is really just more stressful - I just can't relax while trying to keep MB in view and alternately persuade K to keep moving or prevent her from darting away suddenly. I have been thinking Yoga. Start it here at the house and see how it goes, if I like it I may do a class or something. So today I purchased a "starter" set and a couple of DVDs. I even bought a set of DVDs for Children's Yoga, as I have heard that it can help them with focus.

So after we got everything else done this afternoon, and EM was down for a nap, I tried it out. I laid everything out in the den and told the girls to find something to occupy themselves. I went through one of the 15 minute beginners routines. I really enjoyed it. MB joined me about half-way through, but she did really well not interrupting and joined me in doing some of the moves. She enjoyed it so much I pulled out one of the kid yoga dvds and we went through that. K ended up joining us for that one. They liked it and thought it was fun - I really thought that it could be a good way to get MB to relax a little and for both the girls to work on their flexibility. For myself - I have felt really good all the rest of the afternoon and evening. Just kind of in the moment and at peace. I am getting things done without being stressed about it.

So, Yoga is going to be added into our morning routine. I am going to try to do a 15-20 minute routine every morning before the girls get up. This will probably eat into my morning internet time, but I need the de-stress/meditation time. I don't know if we will do the girls every morning, but I would like to start of most mornings with a quick little Yoga warm-up. I will have to see how it goes.

This afternoon MB was supposed to start her soccer season. Unfortunately the weather had other ideas and we found out this afternoon that it was post-poned until Saturday - which also doesn't work for us as MB is going to the mountains to ski with her aunt. She will have her "first" practice next Wednesday. She was so disappointed, especially since she had been wearing her soccer stuff around the house since we got back from the store. I gave her the option of going skiing or staying home to go to soccer practice. She decided that she really wanted to go skiing.

Tomorrow we will have our first house showing. YEAH!! The time is even a time we are normally out of the house. The only thing is, well, are the dogs. I am going to have to take them with us. I am not sure how well that is going to go. I am already imagining Ginger eating one of the seats in the van. The dogs only get to ride in DH's car.

I am off the walk through the house and see if there is anything I can go ahead and do tonight that will not be undone tomorrow morning.

Peace,

Amy

Our house has been officially listed on the market for more than 24 hours now. I received the notification of it yesterday morning. We have not received any calls to schedule viewings yet. (Desire of Instant Gratification) So, in those moments I break with reality I just *know* that the house is never going to sell. That everybody *hates* it from the pictures. And this is all because I am such a *bad* person.

Then I shake my head, return to reality and realize that it has been less than 24 hours. (Yesterday when this was going on)

So I got out and left. We stayed gone from 10:00 until 3:30. The weather was great. We made it to a meeting, a reminder to myself of what is important. Ran errands, meet a friend for lunch and went to the park. Both lunch at McDs and the park were madhouses. The schools had yesterday as a teacher workday, so the kids were off for their 2nd day. But the girls had fun. Got right into the mix. Although had something funny happen at the park that really reminded me of Jess' story from the other day.

My friend an I were sitting my one of the sand areas watching her little and my EM. K was playing on the slide with a friend she had just made. MB came up to me and said that there were a bunch of girls and boys chasing each other, but that the girls had started kicking at the boys, and my friend's son was a little upset. MB wanted to know whether or not she could kick back to defend her friend.

Of course, I said "No" and that if she didn't like the way the boys and girls were playing with each other then she and her friend needed to go play one of the other play sets (its a big park). That wasn't the answer she wanted to hear, because she wanted to play with these kids, the way they were playing, the way they were talking - they were advertising themselves as the "cool" kids at the park.

We talked about it, rather quickly as MB's attention span warranted. But she went back, did not kick, and apparently they worked it out.

Honestly the behavior of the boys and girls out there did not shock me. It is the way that they tend to play together now - Not that I agree with it at all. It just is. MB cannot change the social interaction structure for K-3rd children, but she is figuring out how to run her own course through those mudy waters. I "appluaded" her for coming to me and even asking whether or not it was okay to kick. She *knows* I don't like that behavior, yet she saw all thee other kids with parents watching them do it. She needed to check and see if this was okay behavior in this setting. And she asked me, she didn't depen on her peer group to tell her what to do.

This was my reason for homescholing. MB as a preschooler was too dependent on her peers to tell her what to like and what not to. I wanted to give her a chance to develop her own opinions and internal rule set before she was allowed to become a feral animal of the public school system. And to see a level of success like that yesterday reinforced to me that what I am doing is not just about the reading, math and science - but it is about playing on the playground, making friends and still being able to be one's own person.

Today I become a soccer mom. MB begins practice for playing on her first team sport. She is very excited. MB loves soccer and since she took that class last fall she has been asking when she can play on a team.

We, of course, have errands to run to finish getting all her gear. And, as beautiful as yesterday was today is low-50's, rain and fog. YUCK! I hate going out in this weather. I really hate taking the kids out in this weather.

Have a great Wednesday --

Peace,

Amy

Breath In, Breath Out

The pictures have been taken. I am so happy that it is over. I stress for 2 weeks over someone to take pictures of my house, and it takes him 20 minutes to do the job, sigh.

In honor of my house being the neatest that it has probably ever been and probably ever will I give you a picture tour of our house.

The Outside



Our Entry



I LOVE my door. I will miss this door!

The Den as part of the den/office combo



The Office



My Desk



Notice that one can actually see the top of the desk ;)

The Kitchen



The Eating "Nook"



Family Room



Hall Bath (aka Girls' Bath)



EM's Room


MB & K's Room



Master Bedroom



I hope you have enjoyed this tour of the house. Now sell house! SELL!!

Peace,

Amy

Quiet Sunday Morning

This is nice. It is quiet as I am the only one up, other than the dogs who are outside playing.

I thought that I would give a quick "school" update, as some really neat things are going on.

K -- I have not been doing any particular program with K. We just play and of course I have all our learning toys scattered around the house. Thanks to various Leap Frogbrand toys her alphabet skills have really jumped over the last couple of months. I would say that she recognizes more than 20 letters, but not all 26 consistently. She can give the name of the letter and the sound it makes. The other day I caught her sounding out some words with these skills. She could not quite put it all together and say the word, but she has figured out part of this skill. And, she does it on her own.

She counts to twenty now. And can count to 10 in spanish, thanks to her sister, Dora, and Diego.

Puzzles, which a few months ago did not interest her at all, have suddenly become a favorite. She loves to put together the six and ten-piece puzzles we have. Now, if I can just convince her that doing it at the table instead of the floor will save her frustration over EM.

K, is very creative and has always loved to draw. She is very detailed and takes her time with her art. In the last few weeks she has been drawing picture books for us. These have been as small as three pages and as long as 10. The pictures tell a story (but you have to have her tell you what it is, and then you can totally see it) in sequence. She will disappear for a long time to her room, to the point I begin to wonder what she has gotten into, to draw. This is her time and she is very clear that she wants to be left alone by everyone while she is working on them.

EM -- EM is now 14 months old an is doing all the normal toddler stuff. Her daily activities are generally exploring the world around her. This is not a lot of fun for me when I am running around trying to clean the house, but is very exciting for her. She is so happy finding all these new things. She is really communicating with us, although the number of words we understand is still small. She is as into her books as the other two were at that age. She will bring me one of her board books and sit down next to me while I read one or two pages, then she takes the book an goes off to "read" it to herself.

MB -- School is going okay for her. We have days that we are really on, and other days that it is kind of hit and miss. Math is going much more slowly than it had been. We have hit telling time to the quarter-hour and fractions. We are having to spend more time reviewing and working together on this. I don't mind, but MB is used to quickly getting a math concept and running with it. So, she is a little frustrated. Which really is a good thing - she needs to learn how to be frustrated. And we have talked about that.

Reading/Language Art skills. We are doing so many different things here. In January we began a spelling program. It is basic words and weekly word families. She takes a test on Monday morning with the words for the week. She likes taking these tests and so far has spelled out every word correctly. Later in the week we do one or two corresponding worksheets. We are still doing ten dolche words each week. She is still doing well with learning the sight words on the flashcards and doing some fill-in-the blank worksheets. The transferring this knowledge over to actual reading skills is just now starting to happen.

And the reading is beginning to click. Every night she reads to either myself or her daddy. It still surprises me the small words she struggles with and the big words she can figure out with context. She confuses words words like: it/to; I/A; like/look; saw/was; on/no and so forth. These are the same words she was having trouble with several months ago. I am figuring that maybe she will grow out of it, and I just keep reminding her of the right word. At the same time the constant sounding out of every single word has stopped. She does not do it very often!! It has made reading time much more bearable for me. The other night she shocked me by reading the words teacher, invented, impressed and candy with no help and not sounding them aloud. I was impressed!!

We are using the Dragon Slayer Academy books as comprehension practice. We are reading a chapter then she will tell me what is happening. The next day she has to give me a quick review of what has happened and then we read on. Doing this with a book she finds interesting and funny is so much easier than trying to get her to give narrations for science and history right now.

History is slogging along. More from just not having the time to really delve into it as much as I would like. We have come back around to the Egyptians again, but are moving on. MB does not show as much interest as this fall, and we spent a lot of time on them then. We both want to get to the Greeks where we will spend alot of time. When we get there MB may be just about ready for the Odysseus series by Mary Pope Osborne that she really wants to read.

Science is fun. We are doing the human body. Which, she is really enjoying. A different body system every few weeks. Everyday we have a new question to google for her. Her retention for this science unit has been great. Every now and then I just give her little pop quizzes, and she is remembering the info - Where is the smallest muscle (the ear), What type of muscles are in your legs (stripped muscles), etc.

I wish that we were all a bit more organized and focused around here. But, this does seem to be working for us. Some days we are really good about doing this "organized" reading and work, and other days it is very much child-led, but generally within the parameters of what we are studying. It is becoming a nice blend of parent-led and child-led. I give some focus and direction and they run with it.

The troops are stirring. Have a great Sunday!

Peace,

Amy

The Home Stretch

Monday is L-Day. The day our house goes on the market list. We are down to doing the piddley things around the house. It is looking nice, but not much like our house. I am kind of missing the clutter that makes it feel like my home.

We still have not found our future home. Ones that we like have already sold and I guess we are kind of waiting for the next batch to come on the market. I am being reassured that we will find something and that it will be worth the wait. God has His plan for us.

I never have gotten my V-day present - the cleaning crew. I mentioned it to my husband the other night and he said that he would call his mother and have her come over because she can clean with the best of them. WTH - his mother is over 70 and I really don't want my MIL to come over and clean my house, you know what I mean. So I have been on my hands and knees scrubbing crevices with a toothbrush and wiping down all the molding, and so on. Oh, well I am keeping my eye out for something when we get into the new house. Maybe a new bedroom set (the cleaning crew would have been cheaper for him).

I went to Wally-world yesterday, mainly to buy new shoes for EM. But found two really nice laundry baskets to hide our laundry in. One for us and one for K & MB. EM already had a nice basket that slides under her crib. I have spent today trying to catch up with the laundry so that we can only have to do two loads each day and keep the amount in the baskets to a minimum. I am a bad one for skipping a couple of days and then having to have a marathon laundry day.

Tomorrow I have a very short list. DH's is a little longer. We have a guy coming by to clean out one of trees in the afternoon. It has ice storm damage from 3 years ago. I have also promised MB that I would take her to a college gymnastics meet in the evening. That should be fun. It is just going to be the two of us.

My plan is that the house will be 95% ready when we go to bed tomorrow night. The guy from the agency is going to be here at 11 am Monday morning to take the pictures. So I have to take the girls to their grandmother's house and then rush back to hide all the morning clutter. Once that is done we are on the market. The sign will be placed with a lockbox for our key. After that it is really out of our hands.

The good news is the our agent told us that he already has a couple of people interested in our house and that they will be by early in the week.

MB is ready to read to me. (Wait a minute did I actually just write that??) Next week I definetly need to do a school catch up blog - what there is to catch up on.

Peace,

Amy

Belated Valentine's Day

I hope that everyone out there had a nice Valentine's Day - celebrating however it makes you happy. Personally, I have never really enjoyed Valentine's Day - and that isn't because of my husband, as he is really good about remembering. I guess it dates back to middle and high school where you had to paired up with someone on V-day or you were just a really big loser. So everyone would run around for a few weeks to get a bf/gf, regardless of if you really liked the person or not. The bigger the "status" the better. Then right after V-day, everyone would dump each other. It was just such a cruel and emotionally cutting period in adolecence. I guess I just developed this whole - what is so great about the day - attitude that has carried over to my adulthood. I don't want one day to be the only day that I show or tell the people I love how much I care for them.

All that being said, I have two little ones that believe V-day is the tops. It is for them a day filled with pink and red hearts and lots of candy. I want them to enjoy the day, so I put away my prejudices about it and try to figure out how to make it nice for them.

After the electricians left, and yes we now have working lights in our garage and the wiring is done to code, we sat down and made valentines. MB wanted to make one for the mother of the two boys that she plays with. It was just very sweet and even more so because I know this mother is not in the best of spirits right now. She made a few others and then we all made ones for daddy. While working on them I had the idea that DH commuted toay, doesn't have his car and will just have someone bring him lunch today (hamburger or whatever). So we packed up the valentine's and the girls, stopped by the store to pick up some cookies for his co-workers and this really cute dancing/jumping dog that sings "Hot, Hot, Hot" for me to give him, and drove down to where he works. We totally surprised him and were all able to go to lunch together!!

In the evening, when he got home we went right back out to the store and brought home two big packages for the the big girls with a balloon, teddy bear and small box of chocolate. MB and K were in heaven. And it was perfect because earlier in the day when we were riding back from DH's work MB had made the comment that she never gets anything for V-day, which totally isn't true, but this made her day. EM got a small squishy bear and an opportunity to play with the balloons all she wanted. And, moi, I received a large bag of M&Ms - mmmmm.

So it was a good V-day for us even if I did opt out of all the V-day craft and card sharing groups going on.

Oh, and there was more blah, blah, blah cleaning and more blah, blah, blah organizing, and more blah, blah blah moving furniture.

Peace,

Amy

Committed

Yeah, I should probably be committed.

Today was a bipolar day. At 8:30 this morning I was ready to write a post about how awful I just knew today was going to be - it is Monday after all. And the girls had woken up before I did - grumpy and all. I was not ready to face the day.

I began the day by calling electricians, expecting to hear the same thing I heard all last week - either nothing or weeks before they could get to me. Instead I lucked out and the first company, one I had worked with at a previous company I worked for, were able to come right out today, in the morning. Forty-five minutes later there were men working in my garage. They will be back tomorrow with our new light fixtures to finish the job!!!

While they worked I tried to get started with school. That was a downer. MB fought me on everything until I told her that we would burn this "surprise" candle someone had given me in college and I found when packing up all the junk. When the candle burns down you are supposed to find some type of stone or gem inside. Anyway, I used it as incentive for her to get her work done. As it was it took us nearly twice as long as it should. The good thing is that we did get everything done for today and even did some kitchen science - making root beer - from a science kit she had received as a gift.

For our free time I looked through 45 home listings our agent had emailed me. Only three really looked okay for us - price, size, location. But that seemed to take me forever because my computer decided to work very slowly.

Then a homeschool friend called and was in the area and wanted to come by and play. This was very nice to sit and talk while the four children entertained each other. I had been wanting to talk with her anyway because I am beginning to work through some things that she had already been through, so it was nice to kind of talk about what to expect. Plus, I needed someone to come over and make me sit down and relax.

After they left I sent the girls out to play while I started touching up some paint areas - unfortunately the 'new' can of paint (which was mixed at the same time) was lighter than the other can. So, my touch-up became repainting an entire wall, including all the cutting in. That was so frustrating!!!

Then while I was cleaning the family room and mopping the floor, the girls went into both EM's room and their room and trashed them. How am I ever going to keep it together while this house sells??

But, tonight we signed the final papers to put our house on the market. We are Committed Now! We will be on the market mid-next week. They will come to take pictures Monday morning. This gives us one more weekend to clean, move more stuff to storage and tidy the yard. I also made an appointment to go look at two houses on Thursday. This is actually going to happen!

Randy has finished putting the crown molding up in the two bedrooms. We still need to tidy them and then paint. But - YEAH they are done! This also means that it is time to round up the kids and put them to bed.

All in all today was good, with some really frustrating periods. I just felt like I was up and then I was down... all day.

Peace,

Amy

It Really Shouldn't Have Been That Hard

We started putting up crown molding today. Well, hubby started the crown molding I just came in to hold the pieces up when needed. We have a grand total of three pieces and one corner done. Not bad for a days work - hehe. So, what took so long. Well, DH and MB slept in until after 10 this morning - which wasn't too bad as the other two little ones slept until 9. I was up a little before 8, and enjoyed my hour.

It took DH and hour or so to wake up, drink coffee, etc. Then he had to go to his parents house to borrow their miter box. He took the two big ones with him and they had to visit with the grands and go have their Saturday lunch out. So, it was 3:30 before I saw them again.

Then he figured out that his old, old hand saw was rusty and dull. He needed to go buy a new one. About this time I figured if I wanted to get out of the house I better do it - so I grabbed K and EM and we headed out to the store. Two hours later I returned home to MR. Grump. He had gotten his hand saw and had been trying to cut the corner angles and it just wasn't working.

So being the helpful wife I got online and googled directions. I found some good ones and figured while he was trying to "cool off" I would try my hand at it. I did have directions with pictures even, after all. Yeah, right.

My mind cannot work in reverse and mentally put two objects together. Left - Right, inside - outside. It was decided that I could be a much more helpful wife by coming inside and cooking dinner.

A few hours later - Eureka! He finally put the directions together and figured out what we had been doing wrong, or actually the several things we had been doing wrong. So we get three boards up and it is 9:30, bedtime. Hopefully we will remember what we need to do tomorrow.

My day wasn't all filled with thrilling things like crown molding. After DH woke up, I started cleaning out the bedroom and scrubbing the Master bath. I know I am supposed to have a cleaning service come - but I can't have them come with the house looking like this ;) I have organize our clutter in the bedroom and bath. Sprayed noxious poison in the shower stall to get rid of the shampoo stains from DH's medicated shampoo. I have been tasting those fumes all day.

After that I figured I could use some computer time and started following rabbit trails on home searches. Found three more I want to at least walk through. So, today when I went to the store I did some reconneisance(sp?) on the neighborhoods. One neighborhood/yard I liked, the other two I am kind of ho-hum about, but I will at least walk through the houses. The best house - layout wise is right now on the edge of a development - which means construction going on around the house. The other two, even the one with the nice neighbrhood are smaller than what we have looked at before.

Tomorrow I am doing nursery at church. I am not really looking forward to it this week. I need to do it, I need to provide service to my church family. And, I generally do not mind nursery as a service - but I am just not in the mood for it. After that I am hoping that I can clean out the kitchen of clutter, clean the laminate wood floors in the family room and touch up paint here and there. I am sure I will also be holding crown molding while it is nailed into place.

Off to get some sleep.

Peace,

Amy

What I Meant To Say...

I was re-reading my post from earlier today. It just doesn't fit. I want to be all cheery and happy about what I am getting done and all that is going on. Yeah - I am working and things are getting done.

The truth is.... I am totally stressed. I am either all wound up in this or totally ignoring the work that lays around me. I just want to get the house on the market - cleaning and repairing be darned for right now and see what happens. At least it will be better than this merry-go-round of cleaning and organizing only to go back an re-clean and re-organize because (1) I have 3 children, 2 dogs and 1 husband; and (2) My cr*p is obviously reproducing itself when I am not looking. I swear I keep packing boxes and stuff keeps showing up in areas I have already cleaned out.

This afternoon I actually braved walking out in my backyard. Recently it just hasn't been a place I have ventured very much. And what did I find.... bricks that had been so very neatly laid out as boundaries for our planting areas all dug up, laying this way and that. That was just what I wanted to do in February - re-lay all those bricks. There are some really nice trenches that have been dug out - like a crazed doggy maze throughout the backyard.

It just keeps coming - and I want out. Before anything else could possibly go wrong.

I have a question for anyone who has ever had their house on the market - as I have never done this or even lived in a house that was on the market to be sold. Dirty Laundry! We do not have a laundry room and generally keep baskets in each of the bedrooms for the dirty laundry. In the master we have room in the closet to have our laundry basket, but not in the other two rooms. Where are how do you hide dirty laundry from people who are touring the house?

All this being said, I am calling the real estate agent on Monday to put the house on the market. We will continue working on the more major stuff - but we want it out there before the interest rates go up anymore. Wish us luck in getting things done this weekend.

Peace,

Amy

Now That I Have A Minute

This week I have been so busy. DH was out of town and with my mom here full-time I took advantage of the time to do some work on the house. The girls' bedroom has turned out so nice. It is a beautiful shade of lavender, that looks like a light gray in some lights. It is neutral, yet gives the room some character and hides some of the wall flaws.

Other things I have accomplished have been changing out some door knobs and door pulls. reorganizing toys in the girls' room and cleaning out the black hole beneath my bathroom sink.

I don't know if we will ever get this house on the market. The more things I do the more things I see that need to do. At some point I am just going to have to put it on the market and then keep working on it. It will never be "perfect" so I just need to get over that now. I can put off putting it on the market for ever if I keep this up.

I found out that for valentine's day, DH is giving me a cleaning crew. I was wondering how I was ever going to get that deep-down-grimey cleaning done and chase the kids and keep up with the clutter. So, we are going to have a cleaning service come and do that for us. It almost makes me feel giddy.

The troops are back from having the hair cuts. I need to get back to work.

Peace,

Amy

Quickie

It has been busy around here, but kind of a boring busy. Life has just been moving along an we have been working on this and that in the house. There just hasn't been much for public consumption or that isn't eye-lid shutting boring.

When I have gotten time to jump on and check in blogger is down :(

My mom is in town this week and so we are trying to finish up the painting and some of the cleaning. We are still hunting an electrician to re-wire our garage from the lightning strike nearly 6 years ago ( we have just lived with it).

Later this week we are going to a museum for a "brain" exhibit. I am looking forward to that. It looks really interesting and it just happens that we are studying the human body for our science unit this winter.

My mom bought the two big girls new Leapster games that have been entertaining them while we are trying to work on the house. I have to say that I do love these games. Thankfully, my girls are so naturally active that they do not sit like stumps and play on the Leapsters all day long. But the games are fun, interactive and I can get a variety of games to enhance things like writing and drawing (small motor skills) with K, or for MB a Spider-man reading interactive adventure to help build her reading skills doing something fun and somewhat active.

MB's reading is progressing. No major jumps but every few weeks I can see her becoming more and more comfortable. This winter she has moved from the "Frog and Toad" type books, to "Amelia Bedilia" and now somewhat harder early chapter books. I have found a new series that although is too difficult for her to read alone, she is finding interesting enough to work through with me. The series is "The Dragon Slayer Academy" and there are oodles of books in the series.

It has been difficult for me to find the stories that interest MB, because she is into magic and knights, wizards and dragons -- not many early reading books for this genre. Even the picture books use advance language. So, I am excited to find something that is perking her interest a little in the reading area - because I am sure that is what it is going to take for MB to make that leap into comfortable reading.

Well, I need to get back to getting our day's work started.

Peace,

Amy