Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Wordless Wednesday






Monday, August 22, 2011

Bad Bunnies!

This morning was a crazy Monday morning. I think I am gonna qualify this one for a "NOT ME MONDAY".

First off, it started with a 2 hour search for Fireman's keys. But we are not going there... I instead will start off with what happened AFTER the mad and crazy house tearing apart key search.

I was awakened around 9:30 to the sounds of my Bug running out into the living room telling me that the babies from her litter escaped.

No! I did not think it was a dream. Nope not at all. I really did not just lay around and think "Oh what a funny dream!".

Then it was like all of the sudden I woke up thinking to myself all along watching the clock "How in the hell am I gonna tackle THIS situation?" Thinking okay, I have Gracie's teacher coming at 10, it's 9:30 now, I just don't have the time to get over there and take care of getting this buggers back to their cage - a cage in which after the advisers in charge of the barn caught these rambunctious rabbits and put them BACK in the cage, only for them to wiggle through the wire cage and back out again.

Wonderful. Before finding out that they were caught and taken care of; I remember thinking about the fact Not only did two of our litters survive, but now we have raised jail birds that we have probably lost for good and will have no litters for show.

Texts to and from our Club adviser. They caught the grass rats. HA HA!!!! Now they have been moved to a cage they cannot escape from!! Life is good.... At least for the moment!

Oh what children do to their Mothers, as well as the Advisers! These little stinkers had their Momma so stressed out! Thank goodness they moved the Momma in with the babies and hooked them up with food and water too.

Thank goodness for the assistance of the advisers!
We are hoping this is the last of all of the problems....


Truly, I am not ignoring you!

August is so full of interesting and fun things for us. My nephews as well as my son all share their Birthdays in August. My son Steven just turned 14. I honestly think he sometimes hates his birthday in August because his birthday usually gets mixed in with all of the happenings associated with our local fair. It's usually ending up right at the crazy lets get everything together part of fair at the beginning, or during fair, when all of the commotion is going on.

The commotion? Simply put... 4H. All three of our children will be showing rabbits at fair this year. Brianna is actually old enough to show a live rabbit instead of one that she has made in the past. Yes, she has graduated from a Cloverbud to a real live "Member". It is exciting. The two girls will also be showing their cats as well.

With fair coming up, we do a lot of meetings and getting the animals ready... not to mention the kids have to feed, water, and care for their animals all year long. They have books with information and we go into July knowing that they have to participate in "skillathon" - in which they all compete at their levels by answering 100 questions regarding rabbits. Questions can include the body parts, skeleton, rabbit breed, the body type, along with questions about diseases and feed.

With us taking last year off from fair due to Gracie's birth, I am curious as to how the kids did. They studied hard with other 4H'ers from our group and I certainly hope that all of them did well. They will announce who had the highest scores in each division right before the 4H Jr. Fair rabbit show that will happen the first day of fair.

Katelyn owns a chocolate otter Holland Lop who kindled 3, with 2 surviving. Her litter has a solid black which is as adorable as can be, and another chocolate otter. She loves those little buggers! Brianna owns a broken black otter Holland Lop which had a litter, but was not born in a kindle box but on the floor of the cage and did not survive, therefore she will be showing only her doe. Steven's rabbit is a black otter Holland Lop who also kindled a litter, but again was born in the corner of the cage and did not survive, though momma really tried to pull fur and keep them warm. He will also be showing his doe. Steven's sometimes has the temperament of her Momma, and can be quite nippy so we are praying it does not bite the judges!

With so much to do at fair, I am hoping to keep everyone updated as to how the kids do. There are other events all week long, but I will keep those for another post. I of course will be taking the camera to try to catch the kids in action while they are showing!

Best of luck to all of the 4H'ers who have worked hard to bring the best animal they can achieve to fair!!

Monday, August 15, 2011

Smelly Front load washer?

One of my friends used to sell front loading washing machines. When I told them mine was starting to have a smell inside the unit, I was told to run a hot cycle of water and add CALGON bubble bath to the load INSIDE the tub. It worked for me! Try it!

My front loader actually only uses 21 gallons of water at a time. I always make sure to have full loads to run because if not I cannot adjust the size of the load to run less water. Since I have switched over to the front loaders, I have seen approximately $75.00 difference in my electric bill for my all electric house.

Make sure you leave the lid open in between loads and wipe out the rubber gasket around the opening. I have also heard that it helps to not use the same detergent over and over as it will build up.

Also, if you have a water softener, you won't need to use the recommended amount for each load. Cut it in half and you will actually find that the clothes are much cleaner. I have seen that there is a test for how much detergent you actually need in your loads, I will see if I can find it and add it onto my blog.

I have started making my own laundry soap and I love it. My husband loves it too. he said he loves coming home and walking through the laundry room and smelling the homemade detergent! That will be another day...

I have also read of some things you can do to help with fabric softener. I haven't tried the tips yet, so after some trials I will let you know what I think.

These tips will help you reduce your laundry bill if you try them. Hope it helps!


Friday, August 5, 2011

I wish

I wish I could write a blog that is interesting and full of life like some of my blogger friends..

A blog that is not down on my kids, and how much I deal with them.

A blog that is informational. A blog the peaks interest. Something that people would die to read when I post.

I have blog envy going right now. I am not sure how they come up with their topics. I just guess I am not a good blogger.

I choose to write about my dealings with "Not me, I didn't do it, and lil pea because I know that there are others out there going through the same things.

Did I mention I am envious?

I totally don't know what else to write about.

blogger mind cramp going on? I would hope I could call it that. I just think it's better to have it known as Blogger envy.

I don't think I will ever be able to come up with what every one else does.



Thursday, August 4, 2011

Getting down into the nitty gritty

I named this post Getting down into the nitty gritty because I feel that I have been really doing some deep thinking on this.

In a family of 6, there is always seeming to be some kind of argument going on. With having an Asperger Son; it seems like there is even more arguing and fighting going on. Some days I just feel like going to my room, closing the door and letting them fight it out. It's not helping their situation though.

God has determined that I could handle 4 children, or he would not have given me 4 children. It's either that or he has a really crazy sense of humor. They are all different and they all need parenting styles for the four different children that they are. Steven who will be going on 14; has the maturity of that of a 7 year old. Katelyn who is 12; seems to have a higher maturity of a child who is older than 12. Brianna I can say is probably right on target with the maturity of a nine-year old. Gracie, well Gracie is just doing fine and dandy as the baby at one.

I often times have to choose my battles. It depends on what my battle of the minute is. Whether it is who won't play with who, who is eating what, who wants what for dinner, who is getting into what, well, the list goes on and on.

But a reality check came into play today. Steven needs to be held to a higher standard than what he is. Unfortunately there is no way around it. With me not holding him to a higher standard it is creating a whole new battle in the home front.

This is a revelation that I have known all along, but just did not want to totally face it head on. I have dealt with his antics long way long enough. If I want the family to calm down things need to happen.

For instance, yesterday was such a challenging day for me. No one wanted to help out around the house. Everyone has a set of chores to do on a 3 week rotation basis. When Gracie gets older, it will become a 4 week rotation. I heard Steven yelling and screaming at me for 3 hours that he was bored while I was doing what I **absolutely** needed to get done with cleaning the house. I refused to give in; that is until he came up with a manipulation around it.

He ended up having to 7 year olds come over, one bringing a WII game to play in which I allowed a 1/2 hour on the WII for. After agreeing to this I was angry with myself because this was just another way for him to get what he wanted... More time on electronics. I started hating myself and feeling over-bullied by my own 14 year old son. It's not that I don't care for the kids that were here, it's the fact that we just went through 3 hours of hearing that he was bored (while **I** am cleaning the house for the 6 of us alone) and for him to bring over his friends (after I told him no friends over because I was in the middle of cleaning a destroyed house earlier) after it was cleaned up and he finally found a way for him to get his payload... the WII. My other concern; and once again I want to emphasize that I have no problems with the boys that came over, is that these boys are SEVEN. My son is almost FOURTEEN. How is he supposed to raise his maturity level if he is hanging around seven year olds?

He is a master at pulling the wool over my eyes too. he will say things like "Mom, how am I supposed to make friends if you don't let people over?" or "Mom, how can I show you I am responsible enough if you won't let me try?" but in all honesty, I have given him chances to prove this time and time again and he will not be able to. Yesterday for instance, I was very clear with my instructions, that he could go out and play in the front yard and at the ball court but that is IT. The next thing I know he was at three different neighbors houses and not following my direction.

I have a serious problem with those who treat and bribe their kids to do what needs to be done. I am myself trying to get away from it. If I allow him to get away with things, what am I teaching him? I am certainly not teaching him to become the mature teenager that he needs to become. I am not holding him to the standard that he needs to have implemented in his brain.

Just because ASPERGER is what he is titled with does not mean that he can just get what he wants all the time. He needs to learn how to live also, not just how to do what he wants to do. These are life skills we are talking about and he needs life skills. People sometimes look at me funky because of the way I talk to him, but I can't sugar coat my words to him or just don't get it. I have to become as strong as a wooden board for him to actually learn simple life skills.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

A Blah kind of day

The whole house slept until 11:00. That's right. ALL of the kids and me. Poor Hubby... he had to get up and go to work at 7:00. I think that the weather has a lot to play into sleeping in. Thank goodness we are on school break!

Even Gracie slept, because I got up to turn on her baby monitor, and she was still sleeping. I heard her wake up at 11 when I heard her babbling and talking in her crib while playing with her violet dog.

Now that I am up, trying to wake up, looking at the house and trying to come up with a game plan for getting it cleaned. It's still going to be the same game plan for cleaning... Just hoping that Gracie will follow me around like she normally does!

It's all nice and gloomy day out, rain beating down on the roof top basically all night. I love sleeping in the rain.

Five kids in the house, wii is on and it's gotten pretty loud here.

It's time to start cleaning..... Maybe I can ignore how loud it is?

Monday, August 1, 2011

Getting lost in your ancestry can lead to peace... and nightmares

Lately I have been dealing with a whole lot on my plate.

No... Really.

I know, just a stay at home mom, 4 kids, the house should be cleaned, gotta run here, run there, yadda yadda yadda.


But when I get really stressed out I find that researching my ancestry is kind of calming. Yes, like putting a puzzle together, there's always pieces that "look" like they will fit, then you also have pieces you are sure will fit- but then you find three or four other pieces that seem to fit too.

That is, until you actually start digging in and doing the research. Then you find others research and you are not quite sure how they found what they found. What can you do? Contact the researcher.

I am finding a boat load of questions within my research. I am finding answers to some of the ones that I am not working on, and too many different answers that don't match up through their findings.

For me, it's important to know where I come from. It's part of who I am, and how I do things. It's a big part of some of my questions that I have for myself. I know how I feel, but is it part of my raising? Part of my passed down beliefs from one generation to the next? At this point I don't know if I will ever find out. While I have found some information others are amazed to learn about, I still have vague memories of past stories.

There are questions out there as to who are the parents of whom, who are brothers, sisters, grand children- Well you get the jest of the whole question deal.

Some things just cannot be answered. Some things you are looking for you just may not know where to find. Some issues you are looking for the answers to cannot come to a close.

Documents can be ruined through water damage, fires, and lack of writing them down.

It is important for me to find the information I am looking for so that we can pass this information down to the next generation- and yes not only my kids, but for other family members who have inquiring minds of their roots too.

Some are also looking for an insight into their health.

My question is if this informational knowledge is found, will I actually feel like I am complete? Or do I need to just focus on the here and now so that I can learn how to be me..... Until then I will continue to do the research and deal with the nightmares. It's the peace that counts after all.