Well, the kids and I dropped dh off at the airport on Friday.  Life without my man began.   We started out the evening by going to the biggest used bookstore in town!  We had a lot of fun, and found some good books to take home with us.  Then we headed out to my parents place, where I dropped off the older two boys to spend the weekend with them.

I made my way home, stopping to pick up a few things, but it is amazing how long things take sometimes with three little ones.  Between changing diapers, nursing, getting food for I and N, taking them potty, etc. it really adds a *lot* of time to shopping!  We drug into home pretty late.

The next morning, I woke up in a fright!  I looked at the clock, and it was 8:07am.  Oh, no!  I thought I was late for leaving for church!   We have to leave by 8:30am in order to get there in time.  I jumped out of bed and was heading down the hallway to wake up the kids when I heard N coughing on the couch.  I went out to her, scooped her up, and was carrying her down the hallway, before I realized that it was only Saturday!  Doh!  I must have really been paranoid about being late on Sunday!

After running some errands around home for most of the morning, I spent most of the day putting an illustrated scripture book together for my friend T's “Mommy” shower, which was Monday night.  I had the best time working on that!  I think I will keep adding more verse cards and make one for myself!  They turned out so cute!

It turned out that my MIL's company was having their Community BBQ on Saturday night, so the kids and I headed up to Talkeenta for that.  I invited a friend of mine to come, picked up my MIL from work, and we went down the the boat dock.  Free dinner!  It was so nice not having to fix dinner just for the three of us!  My BIL B took I and N out for the free boat ride, and then I was coerced into going for the second one.  M stayed awake for most of the trip, but when the driver started sharing his expertise by demonstrating how to do a 180 in the water, M promptly fell asleep!  LOL!  I told Steve (the owner) that he had bored M to sleep.  Steve got a kick out of that.  After that, I took the kids and my friend and her kids down for ice cream cones in town, then drug our tired bodies back home.

I started off the morning talking to a wonderful dear friend of mine in Canada.  She is such a beautiful person.  She has been helping me to get my life back on track.  She inspired me so much!

I got the kids up (a little late though) and after they had done their morning routines (get dressed, make beds, put pjs away, eat breakfast, do chores) they helped me start cleaning the house.  A is doing the dishes this month, so he unloaded and reloaded those, and cleaned out the microwave.  A just finished the dishes and came up to me and asked, “Now what would you have your faithful servant do?”

B wipes the tables and stove and does the laundry this month, so he did those and scoured the stove down.  It looks so nice!  Then he disappeared and I figured he was in his room devouring a book, but when I called him, he said he was in his sister's room cleaning it.  He had started cleaning his room, but when he put something away in his sister's room, he realized how messy it was, so started doing that instead.  After he finished with her room, he practically begged me to help him start the lawn mower for him, and I was actually able to start the old rusted thing! (It used to belong to my in-laws.)  Well, he got the lawn mostly mowed and then A took over for him, after he picked up rocks and sticks that had migrated to the lawn over the winter.

I started out the day wiping down the Toyo stove (heater).  He did a great job on it, wiping down all of the little slats where the heat comes out, the sides, the front, and the base.  Then he helped N wipe down the school bookcase and they decided they needed to wipe down my copier too.   After they finished that, he asked what else he could do, so I had him take out the burn trash to the burn barrel and sweep off the steps.

N started out by wiping down the school bookcase followed by the copier.  Then, she took all of the baskets off of the shoe rack and wiped the shelf off.  When she put the baskets back, I had her empty all of the winter hats and gloves out of them, and shake the dirt out.

Meanwhile, I emptied out the dining room and swept out from under my desk, in front of the Toyo, under the table, around the school cabinet and shelves, and between the diningroom and livingroom.  Then I sorted out a bunch of papers and magazines, throwing a bunch in the garbage, filing several others, and now have a few things to put away with the school supplies.  After that was (mostly) done, I swept up the entryway and shook out the front mat, started a roast in the crockpot, and helped B start the mower and pick up rocks and sticks.  Oh, A and I also moved the picnic table so B could mow under it.

I also nursed the baby twice, and made peanut butter and honey sandwiches for the kids for lunch.  And it's only 1pm!

B is now getting the laundry going again, I is wiping down the school cabinet, A and N are (supposed to be) cleaning the boys room, and M is sitting here “helping me” type.

Better get going and fold laundry, clean my room, vaccuum all the carpet, and sweep the kitchen and diningroom.  Maybe we will get it so clean that I will take pictures!

Somehow a post I spent several minutes typing out, disappeared.  Must have been something in it I shouldn't have said! 😉

Well, all I was saying was that the next two weeks are going to be crazy.  We will be camping on our new property for Memorial Day weekend, starting on Friday morning, with the exception of Saturday night which we will spend at my parents house so we can bathe everyone and attend church on Sunday.  We will come home on Monday, and then Tuesday is N's appointment, so back to town we go.

Dh usually spend Wed/Thur in town for work, so he will be gone, and possibly the rest of us as I may have something to attend on Wednesday night.  Then on Friday, dh leaves to go on a business trip (to Orlando!) for 10 days, until the night of the 11th.  We will probably stay in town that night so we can attend church on Sunday morning the 12th, which is my 32nd birthday.  So much for the first half of the month of June.  Then there is Father's Day and my eldest's birthday on the 21st (Summer Solstice baby), on which he will turn 10!  Ack!  Can I be the mother of a 10yo?!?!