You know it's time to go grocery shopping when...

the two year old and four year old are fighting over the baker's chocolate. GROSS!!!

Home Alone

Ok, not really ~ quite the contrary. I have all my little kiddles, my MIL, but no husband. He had school this morning, then after school he had to take care of registration at his new school, then he has volunteer hours at the hospital, and finally he will be taking Bryce to wrestling practice. I may see him at 9 pm ~ but that's wishful, probably later. I'm keeping myself busy, though. I found some old tapes in my MIL's things ~ one of the only things she has left from her life pre dementia. I put her in the living room so she could look at the water and put one of her tapes on. I noticed her tapping her toes and during the same spot in the chorus of one song she hummed along. Little things, but it makes me feel like all of this effort is worth it.

She's HOME

We brought my husband's mom home yesterday. One really awesome side effect is that she brings with her such a calm spirit. The kids were content to play quietly last night before bed and then slept in this morning. It was SO nice (although Halea made a lot of noise ALL night ~ now that she's back in our room)!

I have a lot to do with her, feeding, changing, positioning, etc. but I'm finding that I'm more productive than I normally would be. Hmmm...

Spring Cleaning

I feel like I'm nesting ~ like before a baby comes and the mom gets a burst of energy right before delivery. Only I'm not having a baby, I'm have a 65 year old woman move in to my house. The care will be much like having a newborn, though. We moved everything out of Halea's room, back into our room and I steam cleaned the carpets. While I was at it I did the rest of the house, too. Then I did the windows inside and out. Now I'm bracing myself to tackle the bathrooms (the boy's is especially gross). We should get her on Monday. I'm excited! I've always wanted five kids, so now that's essentially what I will have.

Dying Wish

Ryan's mom is dying. We've known this day would come, but I don't really think you can be prepared for it when it happens. And we're not supposed to be dealing with this sort of thing for another twenty to thirty years. We have decided to bring her home and have hospice care come in and care for her part time ~ keeping her as comfortable as possible.

Ryan and I were talking about what our wishes would be if we were dying (more rapidly like she is, because we're all dying one day at a time). Ryan listed off all the beaches, baseball games, etc. that he would like to visit ~ normally that's how I would respond. But my dying wish would be to have a bright, quiet room with soft music playing and have quality time talking to my friends and family. That's it!

V-Day treats = realization

Last weekend I had a horrible experience when I doubled a recipe to make heart shaped cookies for a mops fundraiser. I made two batches so I could have some left over for my family. In order to finish and get my kitchen put back together, I opted to stay home from church. My sweetheart took the two oldest boys with him, and as the door shut behind them, I dropped the 9x13 pan that was holding the extras. Lesson learned: don't blow off church.

For some reason, I was REALLY wanting cookies today (probably because it's time to go grocery shopping, but I'm just not up for it today), so I decided to try the heart shaped goodies again. I still had most of the ingredients, only I used up all the bleached refined good tasting, but SO bad for you flour, last weekend. I used my whole wheat goodness flour instead. I dyed the dough pink, so the brownish look of the whole wheat would be kind of disguised. I was frosting the cookies with pink frosting and I wanted to taste my work, so I bit into a cookie. All of my childhood memories came flooding back ~ the baked goods my mom would make, whether it was burnt cookies, or something with weird molasses ~ I could never understand why my mom wouldn't just buy us the regular cookies from the store. I realized then that my mom was trying to do something loving for us, but her health ingrained conscience wouldn't let her put those white devils in her children's food. I have a new appreciation for the kind of mom my mom is. And I think I'm going to throw away my gross Valentine's Day cookies.

Sick babies

All three of my little ones are sick right now. It's the hardest for Halea because she has a hard time breathing and sleeping. Hopefully she and the boys will get better soon. Someone is always sick at our house.

ZUMBA

I was sent this group photo yesterday after taking the zumba training. Roger is the guy (the only one) in front and he's the one that trained our group. He's great! At the last zumba party that I was involved in, we had 175 participants! I love being part of Zumba!