Snow again? March in like a lion out like a lamb! phew!

Snow snow snow! Excuse me it is MARCH do we really need this much snow? I had already put the shovels on the hooks in the garage, winter was over and sailing season starts, well today actually was our first practice, CANCELED!

Well I went outside to start shoveling with my broken shovel. I could see the neighbor snow blowing thinking I need one of those….my dad drives up to drop off a few things the kids left at their house and he even said, looks like you need one of those!

Dad leaves, neighbor says, hey you want to use the snow blower? AWWWWW yeah! He told me he would do it for me if he had time, he was shoveling out to go to work. He gave me the breakdown on how to use the machine….and in a matter of minutes i was covered in snow and the driveway was clear!!

Thanks Neighbor!!

Say what?

So today was a stay at home day, SNOW DAY!!  well my kids think it is cool because they can watch TV but little did they know that only baby TV is on.  So TV off and they played.  I puttered around the house…kinda bored…like the kid left out….no big deal i tried to catch up on some of my DVR.

After lunch, we suited up to shovel the driveway.  I gave everyone instructions on get dressed and come outside.  Nathaniel was first…happy as a clam to help me shovel.  Than Jordan, not so inot shoveling.  Then Raymond, out he came, suited up, but he still had his pirate PJ pants on.  Shocked I asked him to go back in and get some pants on!!

He told me to, “Chillax mom”  …SAY WHAT??

where do these kids come up with these things? He is 8!! What will he be like when he is a teenager?

Happy Snow Day!!

Memo listed as: Urgent Message….. your month has just raced by and this week is Christmas

Oh my  it has been days!  and you are still here! MY my my goodness. what a roller coaster of a month. I can hardly believe this week we will be celebrating christmas!

So my dad had a “man to man” talk with the boys.  He just could not take it any more.  He told them there was no Jolly old fellow climbing through anything eating and drinking your cookies.  That it was the spirit of giving.  A time to be with your family.  Unbenonst to me, i said a week after their little chat, so have you written a letter to santa.  i am sure he does not know what to get you unless you tell him.  Honest “Abe” aka Nathaniel, tells me in his quiet voice, “mommy, we know”  My heart did sink a little.  WHAT!! first thoughts were to hang on to it, then Raymond got into the mix.  trying to “shh” his brother.  I knew something was up… i calmly asked what they knew, Raymond pleading with Nathaniel to keep his mouth shut….well here it came.  the true story, grandpa had told them a week or so ago on the way to school.

I must say i felt a little relieved.  Finally this lying to the kids was over. phew. and they were very excited to keep the secret.  they understood what that meant! Hell two years ago, my dad told them about buying my mom a phatoen and they did not breath a word!!  I parked up the street, and when she walked down the stairs she could see her license plate on that new car!!  it was such a cool christmas and the kids were in on the secret!

Speaking of my mom she was devastated that the kids knew about santa, i think she wanted to hang on a little longer.  so we told teh boys that nana still believes and we need to keep believing for her!  they agreed and though it was cool they were in the back of the car hatching a plan on how they were going to make it a great xmas for nana!

well you all be proud to know i DID buy a christmas tree this year. Okay so it has been about six years maybe more since i have bought one! but my brother would always bring me his. I am just not a christmas person.  i will explain someday…..but i went with the boys, some road stand, with a fire pit, only reason we stopped.  I found the coolest tree.  it is about 5 feet tall!! i know it is small, i really wanted one that i could have planted in the ground, but they no longer had any. so i settled with this one.  (you know ecomonic hard times now, who knows where we will be next year i could have chopped it down for a second use!!) next time…..

Raymond decorated it!! with some help.  but lets face it he was in charge!!

Okay so the tree was finished and Raymond is so proud of it!  this makes me happy!!  Now how long will it stay up is the question??  we shall see….

oh did you get hit by the snow storm?  YEAH SNOW!!! BOOO SHOVELING SNOW!!  here are a few pictures from my house before i started to shovel us out!!!

Ahhhh well i am sure i have a few exciting stories to tell.  so rants to let go but tonight i am going to bed.  in hopes that my hand will be better in the morning. i feel on the ice while walking around mystic.  UGH i just do not have time to have it looked it.  we shall see….

You want to see what 14 loads of laundery looks like?

Okay so cleaned the house! phew, this 15 min clean up that i talked about last weekend, well it still WORKS! i must say my house was a lot neater this week as well!  YEAH!  well i just could  not bring myself last weekend to do laundry.  enough to get by, ie underwear.

So this weekend LAUNDRY! OMG did i have laundry, the pile in the basement was up to my waist it was so big, awful actually.  a couple of times i though perhaps i should just package all this up and bring it to the laundrymat and have them do it.  but NO MONEY.  so what to do, spend the weekend washing it! OMG did i was it.  ALL OF IT TOO!  16 loads of laundry.  You see i just hate folding a load of laundry just for another one to be done. i want it all to be here and just fold it all!  that is what i did! baskets overflowing upstairs by the couch.  so i settled in this morning, with a glass of ice tea and the remote control (raymond)  watched a few shows on TV for a couple of hours and presto 14 loads folded, one load of sheets i just put back on the bed, no need to fold them if they were going to be used and the last load is in the dryer (todays clothes)

Fear not we went out today and went bowling.  that was fun too. but coming home to put all that laundry away was a good feeling! and fresh sheets, the organic a billion thread super super soft, on a feather bed ummmmm what a wonderful comfortable bed (to bad i sleep in it alone

whole lot of laundry!! I am goign to bed!!

Chore chart

Alright, I have had it! Enough of me being the maid, these boys can make a mess they can help clean it! How am i going to do this? Well repeating myself about a hundred times does not work! Yelling about it does not work, threatening to throw every toy away is not working! So i took a deep breathe and thought there has got to be an easier way!

CHORE CHART AND STICKERS! YES!!

Tonight i had to go to STAPLES, to buy some card stock to print recipes out for xmas, (we celebrate xmas at thanksgiving with one side of the family….it is a long story i will have to tell you another day…)

Anyway, while at STAPLES i found CHORE CHARTS! it was like a light was shinning on them saying “pick me pick me” so I had the twins with me and they thought it was a great idea!

While eating dinner, the boys rushed through talking about their days, they wanted to set up their chore charts on the fridge! We made a list they all helped and now it will be a competition on who has the most stars! I will let you know how it works! Fingers crossed!