Natural Disasters

I just got this from the FEMA website.

The Different Types of Disasters and Hazards:

Chemical
Dam Failure
Earthquake
Fire or Wildfire
Flood
Hazardous Material
Heat
Hurricane
Landslide
Nuclear Power Plant Emergency
Terrorism
Thunderstorm
Tornado
Tsunami
Volcano
Wildfire
Winter Storm

For some reason, it doesn't list "four children." I'm not quite sure why. In my experience, they can cause quite a bit of damage. My house is proof of this. I've taken a few pictures to prove my case.

This is a picture of my living room right now. It was spotless before they came home from school.

This is a picture of Abbie's high chair. It's been wiped up a little, but will need its nightly bleaching soon.

And, finally, this is my older boys' room. It is a sty. I have informed them that as of right now, "Nice Mom" has gone away and her replacement, "Mean Mom" will be here until the house is spotless. We cleaned out Abbie and Campbell's room yesterday and found a small smorgasbord under Cam's bed. DISGUSTING! The food was beyond recognition. Did I ever think that was possible in my house? NO!!!

Children are amazing little creatures. They are so much fun, but such little savages at the same time. I never thought that kids could be so time-consuming! Being a mom really is like working two full-time jobs. They keep me hopping.

Another thing missing from FEMA's list is "husbands." I have a hubby with a little bit of a clutter problem. I go through piles of crap weekly trying to weed through them to find the stuff we actually need and get rid of what we don't. Bless his little heart he just can't throw things away. He comes from a family who saved EVERYTHING. I came from a family with very little sentimentality. The two worlds do not mix well. Clutter makes me nuts. I find myself lying awake at night thinking about ways to attack the craziness without making him think he's married to a psycho. (He might very well be.) I've come up with some great ideas, but I haven't implemented a single one of them.

Here's a picture of the computer desk right now. The pictures on the desktop are mine from my facebook addiction problem. The rest is stuff that hasn't made it to its place in the file cabinets or bookshelves.





This is a picture of Lain's side of the bed. I'm sure you're impressed with our dinky little laminate side tables. Our room is so gigantic that these are all that will fit on the sides of our bed. Don't worry, though, we are maximizing our space there. Check it out.




As much as I'd like to blame every disaster in my life on everyone else, I can't. My procrastination should make it to the top of the natural disasters list. I have a number of unfinished projects throughout our house and seem to start new ones all the time. It's a little insane. This is my to do list as it is written on my white board right now:


To Do:


Stain shed/swingset

Trim ceiling paint

Fix closet doors in boys' room

Fix drywall in bathroom/ paint bathroom

Hang towel bars

Fix sink (I should erase that because it's done. However, it should be replaced by, "fix garbage disposal.)

Paint range hood white

Paint basement

Prune fruit trees before spring


That list has been up there FOREVER!!! I have been putting Lain to work on it a little since he's been out of work. Here's what our bathroom looks like right now. It's progress, but who knows how long it will look like this!





So as I sit here typing away on my blog, I have 27 loads of laundry piled up, pee on the floor around the toilet, and my sink looks like this:




I guess I had better get busy before any other natural disasters come my way. Why can't someone take me away from all this and put me up in a hotel for a couple of days while a cleanup crew comes in and takes over? Just kidding! What else am I gonna do?

Valentines Fun- Late again!

Valentine's Day was kind of crazy at our house. We have all been sick for a couple of weeks now, so the usual cookie decorating and valentine making didn't happen. We were able to get a couple of little things done, however, and I actually remembered to take pictures!

I volunteered for Campbell's kindergarten class Valentine's party this year. I was in charge of the craft. It's harder than I thought to find something easy enough for little 5-year-old fingers yet hard enough to take up the time that the kids were in my rotation. I found this little flower on MarthaStewart.com and added the pipe cleaner stem to hold the flower up. It was really fun and the kids loved making them! The sad thing was that Campbell couldn't even be there. He had strep AGAIN! (Our whole family is on antibiotics because of this, BUT that's another story.) I saved some for us to do at home. Didn't they turn out cute?

I'm assistant room mom in Adam's class and helped with the snack in there. My friend and I did a healthy snack because the kids were already decorating sugar cookies in another rotation. She made some yummy dips and apples. She also cut cheese with a heart-shaped cookie cutter. I made breadsticks shaped like "X"s and "O"s. We're supposed to bring store-bought stuff, but it's really hard to find healthy store-bought things. We cheated. I did buy the canned breadsticks, though. I think that should count. Adam said the kids liked it all. I couldn't stay because I had to take Preston to the pediatrician. (He had pinkeye.)

The kids had a lot of fun eating candy and reading their valentines. Hopefully next year we will be healthy enough to do some more fun stuff at home!