This is it!!!

I have found a website that will revolutionize my life!! Yes this is it!! It is called e-mealz and it is amazing!! Dinner is one of my biggest obstacles each day. I never know what to make, and I am so sick of saying, "do you want spaghetti, tacos, or sloppy joes?" Then repeat that sentence the next day. This website gives you a weekly FAMILY FRIENDLY meal plan along with a corresponding grocery list. The bonus to this is that you can choose your grocery store and they will coordinate your meals with what is on sale!! Your meal plan is complete with recipes and your grocery list is broken down by AISLE and lets you know what items are for which meal. So if you want to skip meal 2, you can skip all of the ingredients with a 2 next to them. PERFECTLY BRAINLESS!!!! They also give you options of low-fat, low-carb, or points. I don't even know what points is:)

I have already printed 2 weeks worth, yes they are printable so you can save them to reuse, and each of the 14 meals are things my family will eat. The highest cost of the 2 is $77. That is only if I have to buy all of the things, some of them I have on hand, and if I only go to the store I chose. I could just as easily take that list to aldi and get what I can there and probably save quite a bit. I already spend more then $100 just on dinner stuff for us each week. This is also the meal plan for a family of 6 so smaller families would definitely cost less. I am so excited about this. If you want to check it out click here E-MEALZ Easy Meals for Busy and Frugal Families

I said I would NEVER do it!

I have one very important rule, one that I broke last week. "Thou shalt never bring 4 boys into anyone's place of business by myself." It is the 11th commandment, and I have sinned against it! I took all of my boys into the store and let me just tell you the wages of sin really is DEATH!!

I was heading to a weekend long conference at my church, and on the way to taking the kids to my parents, I had to run into CVS. It is not a big store, very few toys and such, so I justified my rule breaking. They actually did pretty well at first. We charged through the store, quickly, grabbing exactly what we needed. Diapers for the baby. I hightail it up to the counter and a very nice 12 year old boy begins to check me out. Halfway through the transaction, the computer freezes!! Ok I decide to remain calm. He looks dumbfounded, not exactly sure how to handle this problem. I suggest calling a manager or trying another register. His first life-saving maneuver was acting promptly on both of my suggestions. Manager arrives just as he is attempting to re ring me, there is no drawer in the register. The manager calls to the "back"(I can't imagine where that could be the whole store is about 500sq ft!) to get a drawer for the new register. I say don't even worry about it I will use a credit card then we have no need for cash. Apparently the register won't work without the drawer so it doesn't matter how I pay. Right next to the register is one of those "can't find the price, find it here" things. Here starts the fun stuff for my boys. While I wait, Camden is crying because his is sitting in the reason why we needed diapers so desperately and my bigger boys are roaming the store to find the coolest stuff to scan! After a 15 minute wait, they finally have the register situation worked out, the counter is full of random items they now need to reshelf. By the way, coolest item scanned that day, Dr. Scholls corn removers. Don't ask me why, the tribe has spoken.
After paying for my diapers, I head to the car. As we approach the automatic doors, Sam slams right into them. They would not open! Many people had come and gone while I waited, but when we tried to leave they wouldn't work!! We were trapped!! In what might be my own personal hell! I am starting to sweat and all of the walls are closing in on me. That store never seemed so small! After another 10 MINUTES, they get the doors working and I burst out to the free world. I was only moments from dropping to my knees, tears flowing down my face and kissing the sidewalk. I have never felt such sweet freedom! I had an overwhelming need all of the sudden for a GRANDE white chocolate mocha. Which I got, but this time I used the drive-thru!! PRAISE GOD FOR DRIVE-THRU'S!!!!!!

Don't eat the big white mint!

Apparently this applies to more in life than just urinals. Yesterday afternoon, my children were enjoying a swim in our pool/over sized bathtub. I could hear them playing and laughing and just plain having a wonderful time. As I watched out my kitchen window, I took a minute to thank God that they get along so well, how they love and protect one another, and what a blessing it is to have brothers. Fast forward 5, only 5, minutes. I ran to the laundry room to switch the loads of laundry when I hear, " MOM, HURRY!!!!!" I bolt up the stairs, breaking a toe on a rescue hero, to find one of my brilliant children puking in the backyard. I rush to his side to find out what the problem is when what to my wondering ears should I hear. The uninvolved brother was quick to report that brilliant child A was dared by brilliant child B to eat the chlorine tablet!!! I paused for only a moment in utter amazement before dashing in the house to grab my cell phone. Thankfully with four boys, poison control is on speed dial in my phone. I call and a much calmer person answered the phone. Child A is still puking and crying that his throat and tongue is on fire. I am borderline hysterical at this point so calm poison control guy is just another blessing. He is happy to hear that I have a yard full of vomit and instructs me to have him wash his mouth out with water. Then have him try drinking some milk. He will call me back in 1 hour to see how he is. Once the vomiting subsided, we all calmed down and after about 10 minutes he was able to drink something. His throat was still burning most of the night, but calm poison control guy told me that would happen, as long as he could swallow he was going to be fine. How wonderful of God to create us with a quick gag reflex. Never actually thought I would find myself so grateful for it, but hey with each new day comes new stupidity. Needless to say, child B BIG TROUBLE, child A probably punished enough by the natural consequences of trying to impress everyone. Good times, good times!!

Updates and Blessings

I know you are all wondering how I can go from multiple posts in one week to no posts in well a long time. I felt that we all needed to linger on Farve's greatness for just a bit longer. That and it has been crazy busy around here lately. Camden has begun to travel. He began with a type of army crawl some months ago, quickly progressing to a full on crawl. With in days of the crawl, he started pulling up and walking around furniture. He is now 9 months and will let go and stand alone and just yesterday he climbed up the stairs. Well only 2 before falling backwards. So needless to say he is keeping me on my toes!! Aside from all of this mobility, he puts EVERYTHING in his mouth! With three big brothers, keeping all of the chokables off the floor is a full time job. He is still as sweet as can be and he is loving being outside. We can put him in his walker in the driveway and he just laughs as he watches his brothers play. It is too cute!!!
The rest of the brood is doing great. Jacob and Tyler have 25 days of school left, and I couldn't be more excited to have them home again. The are both doing EXCELLENT in school but I love when they are home. So does Sam. He is so bored without his brothers. All day long he asks me when they will be home. I will not miss that question!! Sam and I have been enjoying our spring weather with lots of trips to the park and lately lots of garage sales. We love those!
Speaking of garage sales, I am having a massive one tomorrow. That is if the weather cooperates! I have so much stuff it is sick. 18 bins of boy clothes, 5 strollers, 4 swings, 3 car seats, 2 bouncy seats, a bassinet and too much other stuff to even try to list. On top of that my cousin is joining me with ALL of her stuff too. It has been a lot of work to put this together so we are praying for a decent day so I can get rid of as much as possible!!!!

Today is a great day. Today I have been married to the love of my life for 9 years! I can't believe it has been that long. I love him more today than the day I married him, and 9 years ago I didn't think that was possible. He is an amazing husband and father. He works so hard for us and then comes home and loves us all with every ounce he has. I can't imagine my life without him. We had a very rough first couple of years, so each anniversary I get the privilege of looking back on the goodness of God in our lives. It is ONLY because of his grace that we made it this far. And only his grace that will see us through the rest. I am so thankful that the Lord gave me Jay and I can't wait to see all that awaits us. Each day has been an adventure, one that I would DEFINITELY do again. I love you Jay! Thank you for all that you do and all that you are!

Football will never be the same again

The sport of football will never be the same again. Yesterday came the announcement that the greatest quarterback to ever play the game of football has decided to retire. I am not saying that I am upset by this, it is probably time, he is 38 years old. I would rather see him go out on top. I am simply sad to see the end of an era. The bar has been set, the bar is high. Every single quarterback from pop warner to the NFL wants to be him, but all are looking at his back. His records are the ones to beat, his integrity is that to be modeled, his dedication is unmatched, his ability undefinable.
I will leave you with just a glimpse at his greatness.
He has started in the NFL for 16 of his 17 seasons. In regular season W-L he is 160-93, he has had only 1 losing season, he has made 11 playoff appearances with a W-L record of 12-10, he has won 7 division titles and appeared in 2 Super Bowls.
He holds the record for most TD passes at with 442, behind him Dan Marino with 420; He has thrown for 61,655 passing yards, with Marino behind at 61,361; He has the most QB wins by a starter with 160 with Elway behind him with 148; He has 5,377 completions in 8,758 attempts.
He has started in 275 CONSECUTIVE games. He is football at its finest.

You may hate the Packers, most of my Chicago readers do. You may hate Farve because his skill caused your team to lose many times. But you cannot deny great football. He is what makes this sport the greatest ever. He is the Michael Jordan of football. He is Brett Farve!!

What I learned from a GSN marathon

What else can you do when you are down for several days other than a non-stop marathon of Game Show Network? I don't know.

I have enjoyed the classics and grown to enjoy some new ones as well. I have cracked up at the outfits and hairdos of the 70's and 80's and wondered how being a contestant on Lingo effects your "chick magnetism." From Lets Make a Deal, to Press your Luck, to Card Sharks, Who Wants to be a Millionaire (original Regis version), How Much is Enough?, and many others there has definitely been a progression of what is considered a "Grand Prize" over the years. In 1963 on Lets Make a Deal, a GRAND prize was a 22 inch console tv valued at $400. People went nuts over this. Also entire electric kitchens ( in avocado green, I might add) worth a whopping $2000. Even a brand new car, a 1964 Pontiac Tempest, was valued at $3,927.

Then it was on the the 70's and 80's when I enjoyed Card Sharks and Press your Luck. Nothing like a bunch of middle aged men in one piece leisure suits with bad comb-over's screaming NO WHAMMY to brighten spirits. Big bucks was $1000 ( and a spin:) and the host of the show was a quick wit with his poetry about the whammy. The trivia portion of the show was ridiculous and has anybody else noticed that the whammy bears quite a resemblance to hmmm Satan??
Card Sharks was one of exceptional difficulty. Not only did you have to answer a mind boggling trivia question such as," we asked 100 Catholics are you offended by football commentators using the term hail Mary to describe a last-second desperation pass. How many said yes?" then you had to determine if the next card was higher or lower than the top card. The skill involved in making the high low determination really impressed me. What also impressed me was the incredibly intelligent women they found for that show. These poor ladies didn't even seem to know that every one was laughing at them. And while on the subject, the level of sexual harassment dished out to all women on these shows would certainly have put Wink Martindale behind bars now a days.
All in all though these shows seemed to be so innocent, you know other than a vacuuming satan erasing your $1400 cash and wicker furniture. People got genuinely excited over what seems to me to be small amounts of stuff. Their grand prize was what most people make in only a week or 2. Flash forward to the shows of today. Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Greed, How much is Enough?, Deal or No Deal. Enough is never enough. So many contestants leave these shows with NOTHING because it was never enough. How sad I say. Or how spoiled I say. Our idea of a blessing has changed from anything to anything significant. Are we blessed with a dollar even though we already have 10? Or is it only the $100 that blesses us? Or more than that? I want to jump for joy over an avocado green electric kitchen and not always be so willing to trade it in for what might be better. I want to be a grateful person, content in any and every situation.
That my friends is what I learned from GSN!

My kids learned to share this week!

I guess at this point I have about one reader left ( thanks mom) and the rest of you have probably given up on me. I really do mean to keep up with this blog, my intentions are good, but like everything else in my life, good intentions don't seem to get the job done.

I survived my week of 9 kids. Really it wasn't as bad as I expected. They were all really well behaved and the best part of all is that they all slept well at night. I can handle anything before 10pm and after 7am, but in between those times I cannot be held responsible of anything! Thankfully they are all great sleepers! Which is a good thing because they will all be back for a few days this month when their mom has her baby.

On Sunday of last week, Tyler got a fever. No other symptoms really, just a fever. He missed school on Monday and Tuesday and went back finally on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Samuel got a fever. Again no other symptoms, just fever. His lasted until Friday or so. Wednesday night I was playing cards with my girls. This is an event I look so forward to each month. We play twice a month, hopefully if nothing else gets in the way. It is so much fun to just play and hang out taking with me only the child whose meals are served from my body. On these card nights I am usually out pretty late. Well 10:30pm is pretty late for me anyway. This week by 8pm I was yawning so much that before 9pm I had to quit and head home. I was just so tired I could not keep my eyes open. I awoke on Thursday morning with.... A FEVER!!!! After all the moments of teaching my kids to share, now they decide to:) Now when my kids get fevers the might slow down a bit, but a little tylenol and they are good to go. I felt like I had been run over by a truck. Thankfully my mom was off work on Thursday so she came over to help me so I could take a nap. On Friday I woke up feeling a bit better so I went on about my business as though Thursday never happened. Bad idea. Better only lasted so long before I was down for the count with a high fever again. This flu is no little cold. It is "knock you on your butt and don't even think about getting up" bad. Fever lasted all day Saturday and Sunday and I woke up with it again this morning. I think Jay was probably pretty excited to get in the car and drive to work this morning after spending the weekend caring for all five kids alone and his big baby wife! He did wonderful though. Never complaining just getting my drinks, medicine, doing laundry, feeding everyone, changing everyone. I am so blessed to have him!!!!!

Well I am starting to have a headache again and I am feeling my fever going back up. I better find my way back into my bed. Hopefully I will be back with you before April!!!!!