I am thankful for...

• heat in every room of the house (we used to dress in winter coats every time we went out of the playroom)
• a hot shower (which was WAY overdue!)
• clean laundry
• no extension cords running through the house
• family and friends who open their house and hearts to help
• all the conveniences i normally take for granted

We got our power back on at 11PM last night - it is HEAVEN! The two little kids are now going around the house turning all the lamps and lights on and off / enjoying the novelty of electricity again ;-)

games, games, games

It's the day to entertain kids in our small playroom; the rest of the house is FRIGID! The kids don't even want to come up to eat because it's so cold in the kitchen - i'm thinking we might start picnicing in the basement ;-)
Today we have played cars with the old fisher price garage, we have played trains with our thomas the tank engine. With the older munchkins, we played two different math games i had gotten from scholastic. We've played War and Ol' Korihor (Old Maid) with our new Book of Mormon playing cards. And we're getting ready to play Labyrinth and our Tumble tower (generic Jenga.) It's been fun to actually PLAY games with the kids, and offers me a nice excuse to avoid cleaning in the rest of the house seeing as how there isn't any electric. We might have to head out soon though,... i'm getting pretty desperate for a shower and some clean clothes (laundry is WAY behind! ;-)

Ice Storm and Electric out

So, we had an ice storm move through the area - The roads were vicious yesterday morning, and M's boss called him and told him not to come in. We were SO excited to have him home, and the kids were rarin' to go for an awesome day with dad. However,... the power went out in the late morning, and they haven't gotten it back up yet - a day and ahalf later. M went and drove up to Winchester to buy a generator (Berea and Richmond were out of them.) I was SO glad he did! Normally the electric is off for only a couple of hours at the most, but it looks like it'll be much longer than that! We set the kids up in the basement playroom with the space heater run off the generator - and got it set up so we wouldn't lose any of our venison in the deepfreeze. Today I requisitioned the extension cord from the fridge so i could check e-mail and update on the blog. It's so cold in the house that the burger i got out to defrost is still frozen solid just sitting on the counter-top; so i'm not concerned about pulling it off the generator for a half hour or so. You know, in hind sight,... maybe i should have let marke get the wood burning stove this past holiday season rather than encouraging him to wait a year ;-)

C - my budding artist

C was drawing just this morning,... and she brings me a picture, saying, "it's my girl picture." At first i didn't believe that SHE had drawn it! But i went around to all the older kids, and they were all doing something else and hadn't helped her at all! I thought it was an incredible job for a just-turned 3 year old!

D's secret hideout

D just LONGS for his own 'space.' He gets frustrated with having to share with E and having the little munchkins get into his things while he's at school. He has asked me to build him a tree house or shed that he can live in out in the back yard so he can have his alone time and privacy. I told him we'd look at that possibility this spring. Well,... he got a little tired of waiting,... went ahead and made his own secret hideout in the closet. I was quite impressed with his imagination and ingenuity.



On side wall:

• 1 hanging folder for comics, complete with transformer-man protector.

Randomly Hanging:

• Battery-run emergency lamp in case of loss of electricity or bulb-burnout.
• Wrist utility hanging bar - complete with 3 ben 10 watches, 1 bakugan shooter, 1 case - full of bakugans , 2 mini-staples (you never know when they might come in handy;-), and electric tape for fixing random wires.
  
• 1 insulated hanging battery case (has: AA, AAA, and D)

On back wall:

• Pockets for secret notes.
• 1 combination calculator/alarm clock, conveniently located hanging from the hole D had kicked in the wall last year. With mini-emergency water bottle rested on top, and rest of hole taped over with napkins
  
• 1 picture of tree - a gift of fine art from A ;-)
  
• 1 guitar hanging on the wall, located above the wrist utility hanging bar.

On ground:

• 1 electric lamp, with energy saving bulb
• Book of Mormon, and set of scriptures.
• 1 portable DVD player
• Massive DVD collection to play on the player.
• 1 mp3 player to jam out to music when the urge hits
  
• 1 Blanket to lay on and snuggle in.

All the comforts of home,... and privacy too!

Monkey Bread

I happened to get a package in the mail. It was too big for the mailbox, and i'd requested them NOT to leave packages on the porch - so i went to pick it up at the post office yesterday. It happened to be a belated birthday present from my dear hubby's dad & his wife. Now, knowing me for the sugar-freak that i am, they picked the perfect gift! It was a pottery mold for making monkey bread. So,... of course we HAD to try it out the minute that the kids got home from school. I used one of the recipes off the box - similar to what i normally make, but with egg and milk (i used soy) in the dough, and pecans added in with the sugar and cinnamon. It was absolutely delectable! I LOVE the way that stoneware cooks. AND,... there are actually some non-sweet recipes on the box for Garlic-parmesan Monkey Bread and Sesame-Herb Monkey Bread. Although i'm sure the favorite for the kids will remain standard sugar & cinnamon monkey bread, M and I will LOVE to try out the others!

A GOOD breakfast!

Every once in a while, i will take time for just ME! And i tend to do this with food as well; there are mornings that the latest breakfast cereal with cold milk does not cut it for me. Today was one of those mornings! And,... seeing as how i had to get up early to switch around cars with my dear hubby ( last night he pulled all the way up our hill - skidding and sliding the whole way; i chose to park at the bottom and WALK up!) - it was a perfect morning for it!

I chose to make myself an open-face veggie omelet. Outside of a nicely spiced veggie-full soup or stew,... and omelet is my FAVORITE way to get my veggies! I used one small onion, 1/2 green pepper, 1 carrot, 2 mushrooms, a generous handful of green onions, spiced it up with salt, pepper, cayenne, and a pinch of curry powder. And then topped it all with a light sprinkling of pepper-jack cheese. It was delish!!

Oh,... by the way,... just ignore the playdoh that looks like it's been on the table for 3 days. This was the morning for a GOOD breakfast,... not the morning to stress about how badly my kitchen needs a cleaning. ;-)

Movie night!

Yesterday, I headed up to Richmond for piano lessons, and dance lessons for A (which ended up being canceled.) We hadn't done much all day except for play in the snow, so we figured we'd head the rest of the way up to Lexington and hit the dollar theatre for our first movie out with ALL the kids! We went to see Madagascar 2; They were SO excited!! D and A had gone to movies with my dear hubby, but E and C hadn't ever been to see a show on the 'big screen.' M got off work at about the same time the movie started, so he came in late halfway through. Knowing i was going to be alone with the kids - i paired them up in the buddy system - D with E, and A with C. We got there a little early, and they were still cleaning up the theatre from the earlier showing, so we were stuck hanging out in the hall for a while; NOT a good situation for 4 munchkins. C was ALL over the place, and A was just not capable of keeping her 'with' her. D would run after her and haul her back to us. I finally ended up lining them up sitting against the wall in the hallway until they were done cleaning.

It was nice being the ONLY ones in the movie for the first 5 minutes. I let D and A use the camera to take pictures of each other and the room. I ended up confiscating the camera though after A started taking pictures of other people coming in. *doh!*

The kids LOVED the movie, and did MUCH better once it had started! E was just captivated! C was pretty engaged for the first 30 minutes, then started wanting to run around some more - but did better after i gave her the puppy dog we'd gotten in the happy meal for McD's,... and did incredibly well after I told her i'd take her out if she didn't stay in her seat ;-) she KNOWS i'm serious!

Sledding!

The kids were SO happy that the weather finally gave them a decent snow! And, luckily enough, they weren't missing yet ANOTHER day from school - it was already a day off due to Martin Luther day. By the time i forced myself to get out of bed, D had already laid out his clothes, hat, gloves, and boots to go outside. I had to do a little more scrounging through hand-me-downs and sibling clothes before i could come up with enough warm stuff for the other munchkins. We managed though, and I sent them all out after a good warm oatmeal breakfast (which half the kids didn't eat because they were so excited to get outside!)

C wasn't too enthused to go outside initially - but once she saw the older kids out sledding, she asked for her shoes and hat. And of course, being the little rough and tumble kid that she is - she loved it, and didn't want to come in despite freezing noses and fingers.

A was her cautious self when it came to sledding:



And D was the dare-devil sledder, and loving older brother who took down the little kids. E did NOT want to go on his own! C would have loved going on her own, but i doubt she would have held on, she would have ended up body surfing ;-)



We had an awesome time, and the kids and hoping it snows again soon!

Cincinnati

D has been learning in school about minerals and gems, caves and such. So, he just BEGGED us to go to the Museum of Natural Science and History. And,... being the loving parents that we are,... we 'caved.' Since we'd already bought the membership up at the Cincinnati museum, we called up D & H, and subtle-ly invited ourselves over for the night, and offered to watch the munchkins for the evening so the parents could have a much-needed break. We had an awesome time with the niece and nephews that night; and our kids LOVED playing with the cousins! I got to play nice-mom and tell bedtime stories with the girls for our 'sleep-over.'

The next day, M got to learn to solder/weld on plumbing pipes. My brother has done an impressive job with his plumbing down in their basement. When we finally made it to the museum (after taking the scenic route into downtown cincy) I sent the older kids and their cousin J with my dear hubby. They spent the whole time in the Natural Science and History area - they explored some 'caves,' they saw REAL bats, D got to touch one and hold it. They explored a glacier cave with dripping water. They saw dinosaur skeletons (E REALLY wished he could go to see them!) There were microscopes to examine different types of pollen. They learned about bodies, and got to go into a 'time machine' - to go to indian times and poineer day, learning stories on the way. A really had a fun time exploring it all with her cousin, J - otherwise, she would have totally been outnumbered by the 'guys.' D LOVED exploring with his dad, but said that next time *I* get to go with them! All in all, it sounds like they had a really good time. I meant to send the camera with them,... but got side-tracked, and it ended up staying with me.

I took the younger two munchkins down to the children's museum, and they played in some of the areas they missed last time. E enjoyed the steel drums area, and C just liked hangin' around like the monkey she is. They were having an African Culture Fest throughout the union terminal, and so we got to watch a school ensemble play African marimba pieces. I really enjoyed it and got a bit nostalgic watching them - but the two little kids thought it was a bit loud, and they just wanted to go play more - so, it being 'all about the kids,'... i catered to their desires. Ah,... the things we do for our kids ;-)

We had an awesome dinner that night with D&H&family before heading home; Thanks for letting us visit! We had a BLAST!!

Yeah for Playgroup!

When i didn't have kids in school, i used to LIVE for playgroup! The opportunity to get out and let the kids play with other munchkins, and for me to chat with other adults at the same time.

Well, it's a bit different now; i do enough running around AFTER school, that sometimes i'm content just to stay at home in the mornings. Yet, i wonder if i'm not depriving my younger kidlets of the chance to socialize, and myself of the opportunity to form some new friendships, or renew some old ones.

Anyway, other parents in the area have been feeling somewhat the same, and have also been getting a little stir-crazy with being cooped inside with the winter weather - so the Branch has finally RE-started up playgroup on wednesdays. It'll work perfect with us having moved our presidency meeting to thursday. We had a small little group there, and will likely have more next time (word wasn't publicized well.) Still, C had a BLAST playing with the ponies and tea-set with her friends - and E enjoyed making and playing with the homemade playdoh. I think the biggest hit though was the bin filled with cardboard brick-blocks. The kids would dump the bricks out, crawl into the bin, have the other munchkins cover them all up, and then 'POP' out to 'surprise' everybody; and all the kids would just crack up laughing. I love how little it takes to entertain a toddler ;-)

It was actually really nice to talk with the other sisters - i've been out of the loop in primary, and so haven't gotten the low-down on how people are doing. I found out about 2 different pregnancies and also heard that the Richmond ward primary presidency is doing a total change- over due to the president moving. That will affect who i have to call to plan for cub scouts, activity girls, etc. note to self: don't be so caught up in your own world that you forget other people are out there!