Balancing the books

I was balancing the books tonight and can't figure it out. I am off by $9.06! I know some of you are smirking and snickering. But that is a big deal to me! I used to just sit there and hope and pray all the checks cleared. I rarely checked the balance. I was too afraid. I got the program called my checkbook and I have done pretty well with it. I caught quite a few mistakes with it and probably saved us bounced check fees too. Haven't bounced a check since I got it. So seeing the $9.06 is freaking me out! Where is it? What did I miss? Oh I know I missed something! And tomorrow I am printing everything out and going over it with a fine tooth comb! I am going to find where that 9.06 is. Or go crazy trying!

Working on conquering the house!

Doesn't that sound better than "cleaning the house"? I love it. I feel like the warrior when I say I am conquering my house. LOL. This weekend we'll be doing the livingroom and then next week is the bathrooms and boys room.

I am trying to follow flylady but I find it hard sometimes. The concept is great, but the shoes are a huge turn off for me. You'd find me sitting on the couch for amount of foot pain I was in if I actually wore shoes all the time. I did find an alternative to it though. Putting on make-up. Even a little bit, like lip gloss, makes me feel better about myself.

I am trying to get my household notebook together but I really need to do it my way. The Before Bed routine and the morning routine are okay, but the zones miss a lot of my house and there is no "yard" zone either. But I am tweaking it again to make it work for me. I am not sticking to the zones as much anymore... my livingroom needs more attention than a few days a month. It needs a whole week of it's own too.

I am starting over again since I want to "spring clean" without traumatizing the poor house. I really do like the declutter advice she gives. I can handle that!

SOOOOO, next week the boys and I will be on AO week 4 and getting ourselves on a semi-schedule. Since I am home now, I can see a schedule working. But nothing too rigid. I panic and freak out if I am on set schedules. I can handle "after breakfast do this" and "before dinner do this" schedules with flexible hours, but I tried the schedules that have set times just make me feel like crud when I don't stick to it religiously. If I stray off it by 5 minutes, I feel rotten.

Well, I am going to go get bags ready for Meigs Ministries Thrift Shop and numb my mouth with ambesol and try to get to sleep. Why can't dentists just pull the teeth? Why does every last one have to be saved if you just want dentures? Why? Is it so wrong to want a pain-free mouth for once? To have the headaches, mouth pain, seering, blinding, throbbing, buring pains to stop? Is that too much to ask? I guess so.

This weekend feels so lazy

I guess it is because it is nearly 80 degrees in the house. I opened all the windows and actually FEEL like spring cleaning. I just have to remind myself to not get carried away with it like before. I tend to do that y'know. Miles has a friend staying over for the day. They are out in the woods playing right now. I can still see them. They watched a movie this morning and I am working on cleaning house. The heat is making me groggy so I am trying to remember to drink plenty of water but that gets hard to do sometimes. I'll try to get more pictures uploaded this week and put on the blog.

Still waiting

We're still waiting to see if dh's orders get extended or not. I am getting a case of nerves over it. I want the house to be perfect when he gets home, even though I know it won't be. I am getting worried about money issues and trying to get a positive outlook but it is hard when you are worried about money, house, hoemschool, etc. I am going to concentrate on the house though and try not to think about it. Is that possible?

There is a God! And She LOVES ME!

She must have heard my cursing in the laundry room today :) With the dryer on vacation, I haven't been able to keep up with laundry. I can do 1-2 loads a day and it takes about a day and a half for them to dry! I hate humidity! This is one of the few places I have lived where you can't line dry clothes becaue they DON'T... or take days to.

Anyway, I was in the laundryroom pulling out the deep freezer to check the breaker switches (which BTW, Mendel, it is attached with a jumper, they aren't seperate... POO!) so I was grunting and sweating and swayering up a storm. As I cleared off the dryer to put everything back, something made me take notice of the dry setting (which I took the KNOB OFF b/c people couldn't leave it alone!!!) and lo and behold! The dry setting was on "fluff, no heat".

What is that setting for anyway? And who put it on that setting? So I borrowed the knob for the start button and turned it back to heat and I now have a load of clothes that are DRYING as I type, as you read this too... Because I am SO far behind on laundry that I will be washing clothes for DAYS to catch up! Oh, I am so glad to have my best friend back! Now, if only the dishwasher would spring back to life. Anyone have a dishwasher I can buy? Or a slave I can buy? Hire a maid for me? I only need the maid to wash dishes and put away folded clothes. I'll let her sleep in my bed and I'll sleep on the floor. Please? No? Okay, then, I'll go wash the dishes. Just so you know, I want chinette for Easter.

Hollywood Boys

This is a pic of the boys in Hollywood, CA when we went on the great road trip of 2005. This was a background for my cellphone but my cell phone broke and I had to get a new one. I wanted to save this picture though b/c it is one of my favorites :)

Sugar High!

Well, I think Mendel will do better with his Byetta in the morning. This morning before lunch his blood sugar was 171. Way too high! Especially considering he only had a PB sandwhich for snack, and an egg for breakfast. So we are definitely going back to morning shots. I remember those better anyway. Easy to do, easy to remember, gets it out of the way and we can go on with other stuffs.

Working on quitting

Today I have not had ONE cigarette! I'm not turning on the TV or radio either b/c everytime I try to quit, I do GREAT! for about a day and then I turn on the TV. And I am sitting there watching something fun. Then, inevitably, some commercial for the patch (which costs WAY too much!) comes on and starts out with "We know how hard it is to quit smoking..." Well, up til that point it was easy... A little Goody's powder, a cup of tea, a bit of yoga... but then I turn on the radio and they just HAVE to remind me that it's supposed to be hard to quit. WHY do they always have to remind me it's hard? I do fine with distracting myself. My goodness, we have done 3 days of homeschool in one trying to keep busy, I've been washing dishes and laundry like crazy... so WHY do they have to bring it up? It must be a marketing ploy. Wait until Dotchi is having a good quitting day and then play EVERY quit smoking, anti-smoking commercial THAT day! It's a conspiracy I tell you! Or maybe my nerves need another calming cup of coffee extract...

What a week

This week Mendel and Miles are getting sick. Mendel had a temp of 103.3 yesterday. He seems better today. Miles sounds like he is about to cough up a lung. We've been taking it easy the last few days. We took yesterday to rest and the house went downhill from it. But I felt bad and so did the boys so it was worth it. Today and tomorrow we'll get it back together.

OFFICIALLY UNEMPLOYED

As of yesterday, I am officially unemployed! It feels so good to be able to stay home with the boys, but kind of saddening that I no longer have a job. I'll try to ebay some things to try and make extra money on the side. I am also going to order catalogs and try to sell some of the items. I would like to try and start a business at the Flea Markets but I don't really have enough to start out. Hopefully soon I will.

Next week

This coming up week we'll be working on the house and yard again. I have our assignments printed out of what I would like to get done. I already printed out the science plans for next week. It's ecology week! I even have a fun experiment making a wacky water filter. I found an American History book that will go well with our Book of Centuries and I bought two books for natural Science. One is about TN birds and the other is about TN wildflowers. We'll start with the birds and then in spring we'll move to the flowers. Summertime will be insects. We're really excited about this and I can't wait to start!

The House

I am going to clear out the boys bedroom and re-do the walls. I think it will look great when we are finished. If I can't find wall paper and wall strips for the top, then I'll just paint it. They are wanting a cars theme. Race cars mostly. I guess that will be easy enough to find. They want the divider wall out of their room. I am hoping that in teh future I can find loft beds with desks underneath for them. But for now the walls getting done will help immensely.

Some more of what homeschoolers do

To add to the post from the other day about how we homeschoolers actually go out, a friend emailed me this:

To answer your question of what *do* homeschoolers do besides sit in the house all day.... Tuesday morning- dance 3 hours- 4 yo and Mom play at park or go home and readWed- karate 1 1/2 hoursThursday morning- dance 2 hoursFriday- HS meetings/playdatesSaturday- 2 hours dance- soccer for 4 yo-and that isn't including the trips to the Aquarium, museums, swimming, ect we do spur of the moment....
Monday is the only day we truly *do* school in the traditional sense. We used to have Saturdays, but since Spring is a big dance time, she now has practise then too... And both my kids are way ahead of school kids their age. So I guess I am doing something right! Plus my 8yo is getting to live her dreams of dancing....We will be in Atlanta all weekend because she is taking classes and performing at a big DanceFest down there...

Geez! You are busy! And all that while locked in your house LMAO! Sorry, I couldn't resist.

What a day!

After the walk to the creek and a misbehaving cat who thinks he owns and is entitled to all the food in the house, I am just wiped out! I get rid of him, but he eats mice! Sometimes he eats them in the livingroom in front of us *gag* which is how the boys know that cats can slurp mouse intestines like noodles. There's a graffic description for you HAHAHA!

From the desk of Miles:

HI! I'm having a good day. I'm reading a chapter book called "Don't Sit On My Lunch!". I'm on chapter 4. It's a good book. It's about a kid that goes to school with a bully. I've been working out to build up my muscles. It's really hard. But it can be fun when your brother isn't stepping all over your feet. I can't think of much else to say, because I am really tired after a day at the creek.

HELP! Pictures!

I am trying to post a picture to this blog. I uploaded it. To where is beyond me! Could some blogger savvy person tell me how to post a picture on here?

Bummed out Day

I thought all was going well with the finances, until I balanced the checkbook! It turns out that one of the credit cards we had paid off was not actually paid off. This was the last payment to come out. Between the mortgage, land taxes, insurance, dentist bills and medicine... we'll have $124 left over for food gas and whatnot. I'm giving most to my wonderful hubby in CA because he needs it. I only need $68 by the 11th of the month to pay for Angel Food Ministries boxes. And I might just plan to do 1 box and 1 special so it's only $43.

But let me be grateful

At least we have enough food in the house for 3 weeks (I think, might be two), we aren't going anywhere since the van and truck are messed up and we'll have plenty of time to get things done. We'll at least have Spiral Scouts on Friday night this week and Saturday night the next week. Besides, I've needed a good long cry!