The Queen Comes Out of Hiding

Yes, that's me. I'm back. I really do miss blogging, but it took a lot of time away from other things in my life. Mainly housekeeping, child rearing, exercise, spending face to face time with important people in my life, etc. I guess I need to find a happy medium. I am not the best time manager. We'll see how it all goes.

You may wonder what's been going on around here. I'll try to sum it up for you.

The King of my castle is busy, busy, busy. Always on the road, it seems. When he's home, he's on the phone with work...I guess I shouldn't complain. He has a large family to provide for, and it takes a lot of provision to keep us going. He doesn't get a lot of free time, but his new hobby is trying to create the perfect pie. You'd think I would like it, but I don't. You should see the scale when I step on it. He's sabotaging me.

I can't remember what I called this kid. Squire? He's 14. He is busy with school and activities. Track is happening now, and only 35 days left of school. He has big plans to take Driver's Ed this summer. (Lord, help me!) That way he'll be ready to drive when he turns 15 in September. He would like us to move to South Dakota so he could be driving now.

I'm pretty sure I called this one Scribe. He's 13 and up to the same stuff as his closest brother. It's frightening to me, but his voice is changing. I hear men in my house all the time now. He's a comedian and makes me roll my eyes and shake my head many times a day.

Jester. Not so much anymore. The laughter he brought to our home is no longer here. He decided to disown the family. This is one of the last times I saw him, which was on his 19th birthday in October. It's sad. It's hard. I'm trying to deal with the rejection, but not doing so well. Some days I cry. Other days I am just plain angry. Angry with him. Angry with my husband, because I so badly want to blame someone. Angry with me, because I didn't see it coming. I feel betrayed. I miss him.

Prince Charming. What can I say about him? He makes me smile every day. I look at him in awe and wonder. As a mother I can brag about his brilliance. He's four and is starting to read. Seriously. I haven't even taught him how. The other day he said to me, "Freak is like free. Free is F-R-E-E. I can spell freak. F-R-E-E-C." I was very impressed. Of course, I didn't correct him. He'll be home another year so he should have the correct spelling down before he starts Kindergarten in 2012.

My Jouster. Not so much a fighter with me anymore. (Whew!) Though we do compete from time to time. Here we are doing a push up contest (he beat me because he's only 20 and the sun was in my eyes, but I gave him a run for his money). He is making great strides at turning his life around. He still lives at home and is my right hand man when The King is away. He's working at Hardee's while he waits to start construction work the end of May. He's looking forward to making some real money so he can get a place of his own. I'm not so sure I want him to go, It is really nice having another adult around all the time. He has a girlfriend who has a one year old son. I adore that little guy. I love it when they come to visit so I can get my baby fix.

Maiden and Duchess. Two years apart and toothless together. Isn't that fun? I love my girls. One looks just like me, one acts just like me. So, I guess I have two Mini-Me's. I don't know if that's good or bad. I guess it depends on who you ask. They are doing well in school, and sadly for The King, love to spend time at the mall (which I have no problem with).

Well, that's it for today. I'll have to let you know in the next few days what I've been doing for myself. I am heading down a new path...

My December

Hello my friends! Did you wonder what happened to me? I am sure your daily thoughts were consumed with "I wonder what Michelle has been up to since her last blog post on December 4, 2009." Am I right?

It's time we get caught up, don't you think? Let me fill you in:

The King turned 46 years old. Can you believe I am married to such an old guy? That is a homemade banana cream pie he is proudly displaying. (I admit it's not totally homemade. The crust was purchased. But the pudding--from scratch!)

The Royal Family spent many a night partaking in a game or two or three or six of Farkle. We are addicted.

We did our fair share of shopping. Duchess and Maiden are my personal shopping assistants. I don't know how I ever shopped before girls. They have quite the opinions when it comes to purchasing gifts!

Plus, we did a little baking...this isn't really baking, but it was something Duchess could do. These pretzel rods were originally intended to be given to the neighbors as part of a Christmas treat package...but they didn't make it that long.

I guess this is the appropriate time to say, "It's the thought that counts." Next year we'll make more, or deliver them before they are devoured.

We did a little decorating...

And found that a star makes a cute hair accessory.

I wrapped a lot of gifts.

The King read Bartholomew's Passage to the Royal Offspring.

Ever dream of doing this as a child? I always wanted to. This was the favorite spot to lay when being read to in the evenings.

Finally. Gift opening time arrived. It was great fun to watch Prince Charming with his gifts. Every one he opened he said, "Thank you." Such good manners that boy has. Our ever grateful Duchess said, "This was my best Christmas ever." (She says that every year after Christmas.)

Can you believe that Santa came to our house one day? During daylight hours. In a gray t-shirt and jeans. He had the three youngest children sit on his lap and had a little chat with them. They were all happy to hear they were on the nice list. Poor Santa, I don't think he was feeling the greatest that day. His taped on cotton balls mustache and beard kept falling off.

I had all my children under the same roof one night before Christmas and was able to snap a photo for our Christmas card. If you remember, Jester moved out in September. He has not had much to do with our family since. It's not been easy for me as a mom. I thought I still had another year with him since he's still only a senior in High School. Maiden has shed a lot of tears over her big brother. She was really close to him and his leaving affected her the hardest.

This is Jester and his girlfriend. I am very hopeful that we are on the road to restoring our relationship with them. As of now, things are looking better. They were here on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year's Eve. I am thankful that he has made an effort to be somewhat involved with his siblings again.

On New Year's Eve we had a large group of people over. After doing a head count, I determined there were 52 people in this old house my castle. It was a fun night. Lots of little ones running around, lots of food, lots of good conversation.

Which reminds me, I saw the blue moon that night. Did you? If not, don't worry. You can see it again in 19 years. I actually left my guests to walk out past the tree cover to check it out. It didn't look very blue to me. It looked like any other old full moon but now I can say I saw it.

I rang in the New Year doing one of my most favorite things ever, holding a baby. I honestly believe the most satisfying times in my life have been when I was able to rock a crying babe to sleep. There is no better feeling in the world. Isn't she sweet? I could have rocked her all night, but her mama thought it was best to take her home. Oh well, I got my baby fix.

Onto the next big question. What's my New Year's resolution? I usually don't make any because I feel guilty when I don't follow through. But this year I made some private ones in my mind and haven't spoken them aloud to anyone. You heard it here first folks. I want to blog more often, make sure we get school done every day, catch up in my journal (and stay caught up) and exercise more often. So far the blogging thing is working for me.

Until next time,

Planting Bulbs

I finally got around to planting bulbs. I hope it's not too late. I figured if I could still dig in the ground I was okay. We put in some tulips, daffodils and crocuses. My girls love flowers and I thought this would be a fun project for them.

Duchess told Maiden, "We are going to plant them, then it will snow. After the snow melts we can see our flowers come up. Isn't that exciting?"

I put the crocus bulbs in random places in the yard. I can't wait to see if they come up or not. this is my first bulb experience, so I'll let you know in the spring.

Blessings my friends,

Family Fun

Some of the perks of homeschooling include following The King around to his conferences. Last month he had one at the Kalahari Resort in the Wisconsin Dells. He was able to join us in the water park for the first two hours of the three day trip and then spent the rest of his time working. I called it school. The Kalahari is an African themed resort, so we learned a little about Africa and it's Geography, animals of Africa which counted as Science, Health (why we shower before and after and don't pick up used bandages) and the rest of the time I penned in as Phy Ed (great exercise). Yes, as a homeschool parent I have the freedom to decide things like that!

I didn't think it would be a problem for me to have five kids in the water park alone, but I was sorely mistaken. First of all, the three little ones were too small to go on most of the water slides without me (or one of the older boys) and on most slides there was a two or three person limit. The math doesn't add up for me plus three. Secondly, Prince Charming didn't really like climbing the 90+ stairs to the tops of the slides, so I had to carry him. (Good exercise for mom.)

Keeping track of the three littles ones was a tad bit hard in a 125,000 square foot water park. I lost maiden four times. Once I had to call a code Adam. (Don't worry, I found her every time...she said she was never lost, but I was certainly panicked.)

A few times I forced talked the middle boys into taking the girls around the park so I could play with Prince Charming. His favorite place to be was anywhere water would shoot up out of the floor. He also liked floating down the lazy river with me. (I liked it too.)

This is where the boys took the girls when they were in charge. Yes, I freaked out when I saw my five year old on this. Then I got over it and pulled out the camera to document the fearlessness of my sweet little girl. I could not believe my little Maiden got on this ride.

And Duchess, well I had no doubt she would try it. She thought it was 'the best ride ever'!

Apparently Scribe is now an expert boogie boarder. I lost the pictures of Squire on this ride, so I'll share this one:

This was one of the times he was in charge of his little sister. I was thankful the middle boys were with me to help out with the girls. I don't think they were as thrilled as I.

Oh, and did I mention we had not one, not two, but three, TV's in our suite. Our kids were in TV heaven! Here they are enjoying cartoons by the fire in the living room area. Don't you love how all their necks are cranked up?

We upgraded to a Combination Suite so I would have a kitchen. This was taken our last morning there...yes, I was EXHAUSTED! (I don't like to post morning jammie photos of me--it's a pride thing--but I wanted you to see the kitchen.) I made breakfast burritos so the children would have full bellies for our last day of water park fun. I know, ideally we should have eaten out the entire trip, but it is really not fun for me to take five kids to a restaurant alone. This was so much more convenient. I had prepped most of the meals so I only had to pop them in the oven and serve in the room. Way easier than trying to keep the little ones contained at a restaurant.

Oh, and if you've followed my blog, you know my kids love arcades so they can redeem their coupons for cheap plastic junk. Maiden got purple (her favorite color) vampire teeth. (Don't tell her, but they have since disappeared from our home.) Scribe got these great sunglasses. I think they only cost him about $15.00, but who's counting? Can you really put a price tag on fun?

Have a blessed day my friends!

A New Blog Post

Okay, it's been 15 days since my last post. I have been informed by friends and family they are not impressed with my inability to keep up with my blog. No excuses. I just got out of the groove. I didn't think it was that important to people, but now that I've been informed it is, I promise to try harder.

My camera is acting up so I don't have any updated photos to share. I am a strange blogger. I have a phobia about posting without photos, so here is one for you:

This is when we were infected with H1N1 (we were some of those 'unconfirmed' cases because I don't believe in running to the doctor for every fever, cough, and body ache). All but two members of our family came down with the bug, and we all survived. I have never slept for so many consecutive hours in my life, and we were all pretty miserable.

I know. Random photo. Random info. But I am being pressured for an update, and this is all I can think of right now. A new blog post, hooray! Like I said, I promise to try harder in the future.

Have a blessed day!

I'm Coming Back...

Really, I am. I promise. Just give me a few weeks to enjoy the last days of a very short summer.

Here is what is on my agenda in the coming weeks:

Swimming at the local pool as much as possible so we get our money's worth out of our season pass.

Camping with our nephew and his family.

Las Vegas with my hubby :-)

County Fair

Camping at Prairie Village with my Mother and Father in-love.

State Fair

Our second annual Labor Day camping weekend with King's Twin and family.

Not to mention:

I am still working on SEO stuff.

I have a garden that needs tending and produce that will need attention.

I NEED to get my house a little more organized before we start a new school year.

I MUST establish a daily household schedule so our upcoming school year goes smoothly.

I have a child going to college who needs my 'motherly input' even though he doesn't believe me.

As much as I hate to, I'm trying to exercise every day!

And:

I really wanted to build a deck on the back of the house.

I wanted to landscape my yard and make it prettier.

I had great plans to paint my living room.

I hoped to get new counter tops and a new window in my kitchen.

Plus, if there happened to be extra time:

I had five 'just for fun' books I wanted to read.

I wanted to get all my photos in photo albums.

I would have like to have finished one of my five hundred trillion quilting projects.

See? I've got a lot going on. I can't wait to get back to the blogosphere, check in on all my blogging buddies, and tell you all about our summer. I'll see you after Labor Day. Don't forget about me, okay?

Blessings,

Mind Bender

What do these items have in common?

Our BEST sleeping bag.

Jouster's ONLY pair of flip flops.

Duchess' FAVORITE pair of mud boots.

Prince Charming's NEW pair of flip flops.

The King's MOST COMFORTABLE pair of knock around shoes.

Our HIGH QUALITY garden hoses.

Maiden's BRAND NEW golf bag.

And no, the answer is not the adjectives in the sentences.

The one thing that all of the above have in common is:

Our beloved Pooch. Doesn't he look innocent? He puts on a dumb act when I ask him how things got chewed up...like he can't understand Human. He won't answer, he just perks up his ears, cocks his head to the side, and gives me the sad puppy dog look. It's as if he's saying, "I'm sorry. I have a problem. It's an addiction I can't control. I need help." It works. Instead of being reprimanded, he gets a pat on the head with encouraging words, "That's okay Pooch. We still love you. Just try harder next time." He agrees with a paw shake.

Then I yell at everyone in the family, "Don't leave your stuff outside. Don't kick your shoes off under the trampoline. When you hang anything on the line, keep it out of Pooch's reach. Don't pull the garden hose near Pooch's house. It's your own fault if Pooch chews up something that's important to you." The blame gets shifted from the dog to the kids. Pooch likes it that way. Needless to say, he has me wrapped around his little dew claw.

And just in case that innocent face makes you question whether or not I am telling you the truth, I have proof:

I'm Back!

Hello my blogging friends. Oh, how I have missed you. I didn't intentionally want to take such a long break from the blogosphere, but somehow it 'just' happened.

This morning I checked in on all my friends. Wow! I have missed a lot. My friend Katie just adopted a new baby and recently found out she's expecting. Far Side of Fifty is in the hospital. Allison and Meredith are taking a break. Julie is not on her way to Ethiopia yet. Kimmie's little one is as beautiful as ever...and I feel so bad that I didn't make any skirts for her daughter to take on her mission trip. Chris, Sheri, and Jodi I can keep up on through facebook, but it's still fun to go to their blogs. Weaver Mom--are you still out there :-)? Did I miss anyone?

I'm still trying to learn the SEO business. I got a little overwhelmed with the idea of work, homeschooling, family, etc. and nearly threw in the towel. But I am over that and diving in head first this week. I am ready to optimize my first website. Tomorrow is the big day of making my initial changes to the site I've been working on. I am a little nervous and apprehensive. What if I am not good enough? I have a perfectionist attitude and would rather do nothing at all (in all areas of my life) than to try and fail. Anyone else like that? I suppose I need counseling, but paying someone $125/hour really messes with the 'perfect' balance I like to see in our bank account. I know. I have a problem. Enough of my emotional issues. Let's talk about fun stuff.

I want to show you what I made for my niece before we went to Colorado. I had made some HUGE bibs for Prince Charming out of hand towels and decided my sister needed some for her little one.

Here is Prince Charming modeling one of his. These bibs are great. They lay over the lap and keep the pants clean.

Since I had to make them for a little girl, I decided to embellish them and make them a little more feminine.

The "M" stands for me. Just kidding. Her name starts with an M too. I used the blanket stitch on my machine to applique the fabric onto the towels.

I love this lavender color with the green. But my all time favorite is this one:

My friend Rapunzel has an embroidery machine and we got together to make this personalized one. Scribe's (age 11) comment when he saw it was, "Don't you think that could be vanity, mom?" I suppose it is a little vane, but she's my niece, and my goddaughter, and I like to think she looks like me.

What do you think? I'm pretty sure she loves her vanity bib as much as I do!