Day 3 or 178 or any other number in between

Well, today was definitely not as pleasant even with the promised reward. The kids bickered and fussed over having to clean. But, we've got to put the house in order for our home visit on Monday! Even with the promise of a new play station (our old one is finally giving out) they couldn't pull together to get the playroom clean before my friends came over for the evening. But, for the kids sake, I will say they went beyond just picking up. They wanted space on the shelf for displaying their lego creations. So, I said they had to get rid of something. And rid they did. Keilah decided that we should send some toys to Haiti since we learned that Daddy will be making contact and working with some local orphanages (more of that when we get the info). So, they went through everything. Throwing away broken toys and bagging up the good ones. They all had to agree on the toys to send away and I was really impressed with how much they all agreed on. Of course, they have an ulterior motive as well. I told them no new legos will come into the house if something doesn't go out. I think they are expecting new legos now. Of course all this cleaning didn't go smoothly...there was plenty of bickering to go around and several threats from mom that if it didn't stop there wouldn't be any toys to bicker about. Towards the end I got in there too and weeded out some of the books. Amazing, they all fit on the bookcase now! And straightened my end of the room (the craft shelves). I hope to have everything moved from those shelves to the downstairs closet in a few weeks. Since they actually did get the room clean before our friends arrived and they did such an excellent job I decided I'd take all 6 out after dinner to get the playstation. Only to discover that the PX here closes at 8 not 9 like at Ft. Knox. Oops. They handled it OK and we came home to play Life instead. That's a fun game to learn about your kids. Justus hates debt so he refuses to go to college and start life with a loan and always chooses the "safe" route.

While the kids were cleaning upstairs, I was sorting through cabinets in the kitchen plotting my tupperware makeover. If I get a camera in time. I'll have to do a before/after shot. I'm actually quite excited about it. I hate shoving things into the cabinets or worse, fearing something falling out when I open a cabinet door!

Mom will be glad to know I no longer have any packed boxes sitting in my kitchen or living room. They haven't all been unpacked, but they've all found a tidy home either in a closet or attic. And yes, I can still open closet doors without fear! Yeah! I have a goal of having all the boxes emptied by and put away or sent away by the time Mike returns.

Oh, we did have a minor crisis at lunch time. While Tom and Julie were here visiting Keilah did a dip your own candle at Yankee Candle. She made one for herself and one for the boys. About a week ago she made candle holders for each of the candles. Finally today I turned on the oven to bake them. Justus noticed that the oven was on and asked why. I said "for the candleholders will you stick them in for me?" Sure mom. Again I promptly forgot. But, before Justus turned up the heat to make pizza's for lunch I asked him to take them out. Keilah happened to walk in and saw that some of the clay had liquified. Doh! We'd forgotten that some type of non-bakable clay had gotten mixed in with our sculpey. Oh well, we'll just remake them. Then Justus says..."what happened to the candles?" Double Doh! I fogot that the candles had been sitting in the unbaked holders when I told him to put them in the oven! My poor Keilah she was instantly upset that her work was GONE and Justus was heartbroken that he'd had a role in the destruction. I quickly promised Keilah to take her to make new one's and explained to Justus that it really was my fault, since he just followed instructions. Keilah was equally quick to forgive us all, even though it always seems to be her creations that end up broken or destroyed around here (she has the worst luck with paint-your-own pottery creations) and after a group hug we were all good again. Then they all remembered how mom got upset when a here unnamed child used her expensive stampin-up paper for drawing and how she had to ask forgiveness because a child is way more important than replaceable paper. yeah, I'll be living that one down for a long time it seems (it happened a few years ago). Goes to show that God gives us kids to raise us as we raise them.

OK, well, I had to post something to keep things going...(if only I'd do this well on the eliptical!) It's supposed to snow tonight so I guess I'll know in a few hours if I'll still have to run all over town for basketball. Of course, even if it's cancelled I'll still go out. I've got a playstation to buy!