happy birthday AJ!

I am still around, just trying to tweak my schedule here and there to accomodate the million and two things on my "to do" list. Just when it feels as if I have all my ducks in a row, something new pops up and I have to fix it again!

So far my little "one room schoolhouse" works pretty well. The kids all have their own work areas now. Tristan works at the bar (a.k.a. the kitchen counter) with my laptop. Heaven is in the corner on the credenza with one of the school-loaned computers, and the second graders share the other school computer at the table across from me. My three wiggly kindergarteners, share a bench at my desk. A place of for everyone and everyone in their place!

Chad began a new position at the same company. Kind of a Sales/Admin position in the office. It's a bit of a pay cut but there is more room to promote, guaranteed forty hours a week, and behind a desk so not very rough on him physically. Which is good news because he injured his knee and will be going in for minor surgery in October.

As for me, I am hanging in there. I work my butt off teaching the kids and then try to find a little peace working on my afghan in the evenings. Since I made them for everyone else I decided it was time I had one for my bed. I am a little over halfway finished with it. When I am done I will be making some ornaments to sell for Christmas.

Last but not least, AJ had a birthday! My baby is six!!!! waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Here are some pics from our quiet littl celebration and our Diamondbacks adventure. We made it though six innings on an evening game before the kiddos got really cranky, but for the most part we all had fun.

Aidan's car cupcakes. Dad forgot to buy decorations so mom had to improvise. Chad did bake the cupcakes though!

Love and hugs,

Mary

Still here just insanely busy!

I have survived a few weeks of school with the kiddos. We decided that the room we were using as the office was far too small for all of them so we switched with the dining room. It was a pain but now we are much more organized!

There are a few pics of my monsters hard at work!

I actually have a schedule now that I do my best to follow. I have failed miserbaly the last couple of days but hope to get back on the ball tomorrow. I think that the holiday weekend followed by park day and the first speech therapy all in one week threw me off. Oh well, tomorrow is another day!

This is going to be a pretty full month for us, we seem to have something planned every weekend (don't ask me how it happened!) and one of those is Aidan's birthday! We have free tickets for all the kids for a Diamondbacks game that day so I think that is what we are doing. We got them by doing the reading contest for the library over the summer. fun fun fun!

The park day was a lot of fun. AJ was mesmerized when the fire truck showed up and sprayed the kids and then he got to check out the truck up close and ask the fireman questions. He told him that he wanted to be one we he grows up. Out of all my kids, AJ is definitely the one who could be running into burning buildings (down the road of course) he has no fear!

Today Ash met her speech teacher, a very nice lady who Ashleigh seems to really like. She even comes to the house so I don't have to tow all the kids with me for therapy, YAY!

Here's proof that some of my kids can at least act like they like each other.....I couldn't resist!

Love and hugs to all,

Mary

Catching up!

Well we spent a better part of the weekend dealing with the tree. I am happy to say It didn't harm the house or the block fence, just raised our blood pressure a bit and made us work a lot in the crazy heat. We have most of it down except for the trunk, which is still crooked. Chad is looking for a way to knock it down without taking out any walls but I think it would look great as a totem pole, if only I could find someone to carve our faces in it, yeah it's crooked and imperfect, but it totally fits my nutty family!

In all the lumberjack fun we thought it was a great time to buy a fire pit (we have all this wood now!) Well, we have fired it up twice and had the police called on us twice. Apparently our neighbors don't want us out making smores! Each time the police were very nice, even cracking jokes about all the wood we have on hand and how much better the neighbors satellite reception must be! They saw that our little fire was contained and attended and went on their merry way. I have to say though, karma is probably gonna bite our grouchy neighbor in the rear!

I survived the first day of school with all seven!!!! It was a little rocky at first (mass chaos is a better word!) but by lunchtime, Chad was home and having all kinds of kindergarten fun with the three little ones! I did get a little sad when I realized I have no babies anymore, all my monsters are school aged:( but we had fun and got quite a bit accomplished!

Love and Hugs,

Mary

A very awkward way to introduce yourself to your new neighbor.

On the day after a particularly rough monsoon thunderstorm; "Hi we are your neighbors and that's our tree on your roof!"

Mother nature has a cruel sense of humor sometimes!

Mary

Here is Heaven's Birthday cake. This year she wanted to make and decorate it herself. She did a great job and had almost as much fun making it as eating it! She turned ten and is growing up way too fast!

And here is five months of my life! Chad's friend found out I could crochet and asked if I could make an afghan for his bed with his college logo on it. It was quite an endeavor as I have never used more than one skein of yarn at a time and I can't count how many times I frogged, but it's finished, it's huge, and I am really proud of it! He was really happy with it when he got it!

In light of our economy

Well I have been thinking a lot about the state of our economy and the affect it has had directly on my family. I have been brainstorming ways of saving money and eliminating waste (trying hard to be ecology friendly too!) So here is what I have some up with so far!

1. Our electricity: living in Arizona, I find myself dreading the monthly bill! This month we topped out at over $400 for energy use! In all fairness we did get hit with a stomach bug last month so I was doing laundry around the clock and trying to keep the temps extremely comfortable but here's the new plan.

a. We are gonna keep the thermostat at 80 and run fans in the rooms that we are in.

b.We are gonna unplug our cell phone chargers and anything electric that draws power when not in use (this will be especially hard for dh as he is so used to the convenince of not having to bend over and plug something in! tee hee).

c. I am gonna line dry everything except towels and big bedding during the warm weather. In all honesty I could line dry everything but I love the feel of a fluffy towel warm from the dryer! But for everything else, it seems a little crazy to me to ignore the fact that the 100+ degree temps outside could dry the clothing (and even make it last a bit longer) just as efficiently as my dryer can. This should cut down on the dryer by about 3/4. (just a heads up, i actually dry it all on a rackin my garage, just as hot but doesn't sunbleach or bake your clothes and give them the "crunchy" feeling!

d. Am phasing out incandescent bulbs in the house and replacing them with cfl's!

e. Turning of lights when they aren't in use (the kids thing the closet monsters need light even when the kids are somewhere else....this MUST be remedied!

2. Our groceries: as I am sure you can imagine nine people need a lot of things. Food, personal care items and pet essentials alone are enough to make anyone cry when they see the receipt!

a. COUPONS, COUPONS, COUPONS! I am gonna strive to work harder in this area. I have become a bit lax over the years with less time to dedicate to clipping and such. But it can easily become a good lesson to the children on good stewardship and being smart with your money. Am proposing a coupon club with a few of my friends where we all clip coupons and share with each other what we don't use.

b. Catching the sales! I use to have a shopping list and I bought what was on it no matter what it cost us. No more of that! Gonna shop the sales and just get creative with recipies (which can also be a good lesson to my kiddos, home ec, anyone?)

c. Garage sales. I know this doesn't fall under the heading of groceries but 7 kids can do a number on you clothing budget! So I am gonna hit garage sales to keep my kiddos in playclothes and then replenish undies, socks and dress clothing a couple times a year from department stores.

d. How does your garden grow???? With the price of groceries being what they are, I am learning how to turn my thumb green! Gonna spend fall and winter prepping our yard and in the spring a new garden is going in! I have done a lot of reading about urban homesteading and victory gardens and realize now how much freedom there is in being able to provide at least some of your own food!

3. Holidays: I have to admit it, I am addicted to holiday cheer! I have been known to get out of hand with my spending and that tends to make a very grinchy dh!

a. Start early! I already have a few things tucked away for the kids! I send away on line for freebies for things like lotions, lip balms, etc and those will be collected for stocking stuffers. I also double up on school supplies and keep some for those stockings later.

b. Nothing says love like hand made! I am a firm believer that there should be something handmade under the tree!

c. Read emails for gift cards! I belong to mypoints and get at least five points for every email I click through. When I earn enough points I send for a $25 gift card to a department store of my choice. The cards don't expire so I save them until the holidays and it's free money to christmas shop with, if you watch the sales you can save even more! An added bonus is to use the gift cards for online purchases and schedule to pick them up at the store so you beat the crowd, spend the time at home shopping, don't have to pay for shipping, and earn even more points for shopping through the mypoints site! If you are interested in this let me know and I'll refer you!

That is all I can think of for now, I will keep you all posted on how all of it works!

Love and Hugs,
Mary

Doctor Visits and beating the heat!

Yesterday Chad took our three youngest to get a checkup. We were kind of fed up with the pediatrician we had been using, they kept me waiting for hours and ignored my concerns! So we decided to try the GP that Chad and I have been seeing for the last year or so. Apparently, Nathan is far behind on development and Speech (HELLO! I have been saying that forever, the doctor just kept passing it off as a phase!) and Raven is a little behind on speech. So we are waiting for our referral for a speech eval for both, next year should prove to be a very interesting school year. I am starting to feel intimidated, just a bit!





So today we decided to go out and get our minds off of all of it. Took the kids back to the splash pad at the park and even dig out the supersoakers and we all chased each other around with them. It was fun and a nice chance to cool off in the 112 degree heat! Tomorrow is supposed to be 114 so I think we are staying in!!!!





I am in the process of getting court stuff mailed off (gotta update the court once a year per the guardianship agreement) and getting my three youngest enrolled in the virtual academy. I am hoping this new doctor's concern will get the school to pay attention when I ask for him to be evaluated. I don't want Nathan to have to deal with the frustration that Ashleigh did!





Totally off topic, the mom that hosted the slumber party last week that the girls attended, sent me some pics. Here is one of me picking up the kids, wouldn't you know it, Mack was closing her eyes!!!!

Love and Hugs,

Mary