No Average Mom

Potty training our youngest son has seemed like a never ending process. Just when I think he really has a handle on what all in involved in using the potty he does an about face and takes a few steps back. Yesterday it seemed like I was going to need to invest in pond supplies because every time I turned around there was a new puddle somewhere on the floor. Then for some reason the dog decided to join in and out of the blue she decided to pee on the floor. I really had thought she was house broken and beyond the point where this would be an issue. Thank goodness we have taken all the carpeting out of our house and cleaning up after my two piddle puddle maker’s was pretty straight forward.

Typically by this time of year I am nearly done with my Christmas shopping. This year everything seems to have gotten away from me and I have literally nothing done. It gets harder every year to decide what to buy for my children. My older son has reached an age where he is not happy with traditional toys. His interests are now leaning towards more technology based gifts. These are so expensive that it seems like the pile of gifts under the tree shrink and shrink. The decision comes down to either buying two gifts that he really wants and several that he may only use a little bit. I guess this is just one of those coming of age facts that all kids needs to face. If you want big gifts it is going to be a short and sweet time of gift opening.

Along with so many people out there I am now worried about the swine flu. It was declared a national health emergency today and that is only adding to the fear and concern out there. This is one of those things that you just can’t get away from by packing everything you own in shipping box and moving. Swine flu is everywhere now and seems to be hitting harder than initially predicted. I want to keep my children healthy and safe but it seems that there isn’t a great deal you can do to really prevent yourself from getting it. Hopefully the vaccination programs do something to stem the rampant spread of this illness.

My mom has has everything and really needs nothing. The BEST gift that my siblings and I ever gave her was the year we each wrote down a few childhood memories, slipped them in page protectors and placed them in a binder. She cried as she read them.

It took some time in writing and editing, but it was so much fun! I served as the editor to by siblings, and that was fun too reading about their experiences. It was over ten years ago that we presented Mom with her memory book, but she continues to ask for memories every year. We still give her other presents, but nothing is a treasured as those little notes and thoughts.

Last night we had our first snowfall of the year. It seems much too early in the year for this to be happening. The site of snow just doesn’t sit right with me when it comes so many weeks earlier than we are used to having it. My children could not be any happier. My older son has been bouncing around like a ball on one of those ping pong tables. He is already planning his first sled riding outing and what type of snow fort he is going to make. We don’t quite have enough snow for that but his enthusiasm is not dampened in the slightest. I only wish I could feel the same way about it as he does.

We were visiting the different hardware stores in our area (Lowes, Menards, Ace, and The Home Depot) last night to price windows. We don’t have the money to hire a company to do it, but they need to be done, especially in the kids’ rooms. We first went to The Home Depot because it is closest. We hardly ever go there. We are walking through and I see a big two shelved card with a bunch of light fixtures on it. There was a recessed lighting kit sealed in the box but totally dirty. We are almost to the point of putting in the shower, so we are going to need one. There was also a track light that has the coolest globes on it. Everything else had a price on it, but they were mostly sconce lights and we don’t need anything like that. They end up calling the manager over and he rings up the recessed lighting kit. It’s so old, it’s not even in the system. He says, “I’ll give it to you for a dollar.” He then picks up the track light and says, “I’ll let you have that for a dollar too.” The track light was obviously a display light, but there was a totally different, but not near as pretty track light in a box right next to it and the clearance price was over a hundred dollars. So we get to the register. It was late and no one else was there. She tells us the manager already told her about us, but then she can’t figure out what SKU to put them under. She called the manager. He says he doesn’t have the generic SKU on him, but to go over to hardware and see if she can get theirs. She leaves and comes back a minute later and says, “You are okay. Go ahead.” My brain immediately says, “We haven’t paid yet.” She said the manager told her that if it was going to be to much trouble, just to let us have them. So I guess she decided that she has spent two minutes on it and that was enough. As we are walking out, dh looks at me and says, “Watch the alarm go off as we go through the door.” Yep!! The alarm went off as the cashier is telling us, “Don’t worry about it. You really are fine! Go ahead.” For once, the alarm really was correct!

We love The Home Depot now!

This weekend my husband is once again cleaning out the garage. I have posted previously about how he seems to have to clean out the garage just about every weekend. This time he took everything out and sorted it and moved it to areas of the house better suited for each item. He found everything from a missing Logo usb drive to a set of keys that we have been hunting forever for. What is going to be nice is that I can now park the car in the garage. I am looking forward to not having to sweep and scrape the car each time I have to head out with the kids this winter.

This year I decided to try something new and make applesauce. My boys absolutely love the stuff and I believe that half of my grocery budget goes to buying it. There is a produce stand down the street from our house which makes getting fresh fruit really easy. A bushel of apples is about $18.00 around here. The apples I chose to use are McIntosh. They are really easy to cut and cook down very quickly. So far I believe I have gotten about 12 quarts of applesauce from one bushel. I don’t know how much money this will save but at least I know exactly what my kids are eating.