What Do you DOOO all day

Ok if anyone reading this is a stay at home mom, I'm sure they have heard this line before. Frankly stay at home mom's seem to get a pretty bad rap, like we are lazy or just couldn't work outside of the home or something. But really some of us actually signed up for this job and LOVE it. But let me tell you what a "mommy sick day" is like. See there is no such thing as a mommy sick day, I wish! I woke up at 5 with a terrible sore throat and my body felt like it had been hit by a truck (I do say this last part was self induced as I started a new program in my workout schedule yesterday but that is besides the point) I took some Tylenol and prayed this was one of those days the kids would sleep in. But by 7 20 (and I know some of my momma friends will see this as sleeping in but when I'm wanting a sick day... it's not. I heard a crying baby and I walk into her room and she's once again standing up and she looks at me crying and says momma. Ok so it's early but she just called me momma for the very first time so I am TOtally not mad. So I take her into my bed and by 7:40 here comes Justus. The problem with letting Justus into the bed is he has not figured out that self control is important when one is crawling over someone in the bed, after a few knees to my head throat and chest area he is finally in the bed. Then by 8:01 (she knows she has to stay in bed until 8) In comes big sister and thus starts the fighting over anything and everything for the day.

I still don't feel good but I know the kiddos must have breakfast, but this morning Kiah has decided she wants a tea party. So I tell her she can take care of the details (like using the fridge water and ice machine to make the "tea and sugar" no problems there until I hear her shouting "Justus spilled his tea!!!" Now these cups are tiny when I walk into the kitchen I'm not sure how he spilled at least three cups worth out onto the floor and all over the table and yesterday's mail that never got put away.. but he does. Luckily the rest of breakfast goes off without a hitch.

Next step is getting the kids dressed which used to be easy until Karis refuses to lay still during a diaper change. I thought it was boys who liked to wiggle but I have gotten pretty good at keeping a diaper in tact when I have half of a baby facing me and a little booty staring up at me instead of the nice calm collected child I thought I was going to have! I can no longer use the changing table to change her clothes but rather have to sit on a chair holding her and trying not to let her wiggle out of my arms.

The next hour there was peace, ok I admit it, Tinkerbell and her little fairy friends helped the older two and a nap helped the youngest but I had a letter I had to get out to someone and had to find my wallet before our 11 o'clock drs appointment.

We actually made it to the dr in Fowler with 15 minutes to spare. I guess we are always so late anymore I wanted to make sure to get there on time. So we stopped into the post office to see my mom for a couple minutes and then went over to the clinic where Karis tipped the scales at 18 lbs 11 oz for her 9 month old checkup. Did I mention this was her first baby check up since her 6 week one, yeah but number three it's just harder to get to the doctor. (she is up to date on her shots though we can do those at the health department) I think over the sound of Kiah and Justus screaming like banshees and whacking as hard on the keyboard they brought into the room and throwing each other on the floor and all that stuff. I found out that Karis probably has allergies, the words tubes in her ears, zertec, cat-scan, Vaseline, antibiotic all came up but yeah I don't remember much of what happened because frankly I couldn't hear over the roar.

Then I got a couple minutes break by taking the big kids do the park so I could nurse Karis in the van. We then proceeded to Neon 57 which I love but today I was not a huge fan. When you walk in at 11 45 and are not able to get out of there until 1 o'clock it's just not that much fun. Not too much happened in there just a few melt downs by Kiah because she wanted an ice-cream cone and.. ooops I said NO.... Rushed back to Meade dropped Kiah off at school and was excited for a little bit of a relaxing afternoon until I started smelling something. Knowing that one of the kids had a dirty diaper. Well the good news was it wasn't Justus. The bad news was when I got to Karis I picked her up and her jeans squesed I know this isn't a word but that is what they did. I knew I was in trouble. I knew I was about to see what three days without a bowel movement looked like and frankly I was wanting my sick day just about then right then.... please.... Got her to her room without incident but then realized the poop had spread up her onsie. Thank the GOOD Lord that I had put her in a button down the front onsie and this mess wasn't going to have to go over her head. However it didn't matter by the time I had gotten the jeans off of the little one there was poop all over her room. I got her and her poopy diaper into the bath got the diaper off then ran some water. It took ten minutes just to get the water clean so I could run it there was poop everywhere. And now I had it all over my shirt.

Justus starts getting naked and the two take a bath together, I go and grab the changing pad off out of Karis's room so I can clean that while watching the kids. Had to scrub it three times with two different cleaning supplies before most of it came out. Finally get the kids out of the tub (unwillingly ) dressed (unwillingly) and laying down for a nap (unwillingly) put a load of laundry in and then decide instead of taking a nap and letting all these things run through my mind I should post on my blog because frankly I haven't and also no way no matter how sore my throat is our how much my body aches I can't nap because I don't want to miss Kiah when the bus comes.

So if you ever ask me (which doesn't happen anymore with three) or you ever think of asking any stay at home mom "What do you Do all day?" and they just smile at you, and move on. Don't get offended they probably would have much rather slapped ya in the face and said, "how was your last sick day?"

Not making this my new year's resolution

So last year I decided to keep track of all my survey rewards and all my fun freebies. I think I did almost 100% on documenting my rewards for my surveys but with the move to Meade I totally fell off the bandwagon as far as recording my freebies. I think it's because I leave my laptop upstairs and forgot to log in. So I hope to do that this year but I thought maybe I would put my freebies in on this blog. We will see if that happens.

I have also done great with getting rid of e-mails from some companies that I had gotten on a mailing list of or even some of my surveys. I discovered I had WAY. Too. Many. For the last week I have been able to go to bed and have no new emails which is a first in a very long time so I think I am on track with that. Now I just have to refigure into what to do with that time. And there was a LOT of time on the computer. I am hoping to read more books this year. Attempt a new workout program. Which I did ten minutes of today and the only good that came out of it was a HUGE appetite. So that part wasn't helpful. In all actuality I'm not sure how much more free time I will receive as we just purchased a house. Kind of made for a crazy Christmas break trying to plan all of that, thinking we had lost the house and then getting told we had it and needed to hurry and secure a loan and want to close on Feb 14th. Kjell really liked the house, I really liked not having any debt but we had both said if the right house came along and it was priced where we thought it should be we would go forth. (I should have known Kjell could find something so quickly so I could have saved a bit more for a down payment but that is in the past now!) After he refell down the stairs yesterday we are all ready to get out of this house! lol not really but the stair are scary.

So today I've been working on getting all of our paper work in. We found a 30 year loan that is locked in on an interest rate for the first seven years and then it can change so it's a fairly low rate, but I plan to have the house paid off in seven years. Yes Kjell and I and the kids are entering into a seven year spending freeze. Not really but close enough. I was very excited with the loan I found until I started reading reviews today and there were a LOT of complaints but mostly about people trying to refinance. Our rate is low and I have no interest in having the loan long enough to refinance so I hope this all works out..I just pray that God gets us through this. Everything else happened so smoothly I'd appreciate this going smoothly as well!

The kids are growing up so fast. Kiah is going to learn to read this semester at school she is totally ready and has been making attempts already at home. We still do our four preschool papers a couple times a week at home we are supposed to do them everyday but life is too busy for that! Justus and Kiah fight like cats and dogs, Kiah is a great tattler too. I saw her the other day throw Justus to the ground and then he hit her in retaliation and he told on her. I have to be very careful and very patient with these two. I am reading a good book on raising children biblically I don't remember what it is called and it is upstairs and if I walk up the stairs I risk waking up Justus. I am also reading a book called Money, Possessions and Eternity. By Alcorn. Another very good book. I should have had this book read through before the house purchase and allowed Kjell to read it but it's too late for that now! :)

Justus is finally starting to talk more. This morning he asked me where daddy was because it's his first day back to school. Justus also tries to get on the bus with Kiah so he can go to school and even kisses me goodbye. Next year will be hard when Kiah is gone all day.

Karis is working on teeth and thinking she is big enough to sit up but her body hasn't allowed her to yet. It will be very soon. She is the smiliest child I have ever seen. She just makes everyone around her happy. She rarely cries and is content to sit in her swing (and actually perfers it to almost everything else ) during the day.

No you didn't get a Christmas card from me, but yes you should have. My pictures got "lost in the mail" The company gave me my money back but of course I got a great deal on them so they are out nothing today I asked them to resend the pictures we will see if it happens.

Oh and for today's freebies. I got a Kids' Pork Cookbook from the national pork board, and a tour wrap for my gold clubs, because I have golf clubs (nope) anyways that was from golf digest. Plus I cashed out one of my surveys and received 20 dollars in my pay pal account.

SOOOOO HAPPY

well I am offically done with checking in on two survey spots. FINALLY. getting 20 + emails a day from one company and 15+ from the other was way too much and I just could never get caught up. I ended up cashing out with a $10 check coming and a $25 walmart gift card. But SOOO not worth me spending all my time on the computer. I will keep recieving the emails until my prizes get here and then I am totally deleting out of them for good it feels refreshing to see new ones come and just send them straight to the trash. Will more sites follow? I don't know yet a couple of weeks to see if this works is what I plan to do first!! SOOO excited though

the sites you may ask? Surveyspot.com and rewardport yes you get money but it takes way too much effort

so I've been purging

So I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off since we have moved to Meade. I'm not sure what it is, the extra child, the super large house, more laundry, having more distractions in town i.e. a TON of family, my intense new Bible study, or my best guess a combination of all the above but I can't get caught up. When I started this chapter of my life as a stay at home mom I started doing online surveys to make a bit of extra money. I would devote about an hour a day to the cause and every once in awhile I'd make some money. It got to where I'd make about 300-400 dollars a year with some good other good things thrown in there some rewards or gift cards plus getting to try products out and I was hooked. So over the years I've started added more and more survey companies. Oh yeah and I should say I discovered google reader and several sites where they would post ways to get freebies, by just entering some mailing and general information about myself. All this was good, but all of this took time. But the reward (money, free stuff) was so thrilling and fun (I admit I do enjoy money, I like months where we out +s are much more than our -s and I felt like I was adding to this. But there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.Well this last year I think I just got too much of a good thing. I would find myself not able to get online for a day or two and end up 300 to 400 emails behind. So I started being on my computer (and will admit right now I still am on it too much) WAY TOO much. So I felt convicted to spend less time on the computer. It was a hard decision to make as for the last several months I've been making about 200 bucks a month in "cash and prizes" but at what cost? So that I'm too busy to spend time with my kiddos, that I don't do things I see as more important, spending time with Kjell (sad thing is we are both addicted to our computers) spending more time with the kids, writing in their journals, reading books or reading a magazine. So a couple weeks ago I just said I'm done no not even close to all done but I have decided to drop two companies I do surveys with. I didn't go cold turkey I waited until I could cash out of them and so far I've only been able to cash out of one. I had 500 unread e-mails and when I went to delete the new ones from them I had 57 the other company I can cash out of at 7500 points and I am waiting, right now I'm at 7413 so not very far off. I get roughly 20 emails a day from them. I also deleted one of my google reader things I subscribed to, I never got anything out of that one that one of the other freebie sites didn't talk about so I felt ok.

Do I think I will ever quit all my surveys? No. Will there still be a couple days where I'm online more than an hour? Yes, but that's ok I do consider this a part time job but when it becomes my life it's too much. I want to be able to take a day off and be able to get caught up. What have I done with my "free time" (which still isn't much because i just deleted the one company yesterday and I have a few days left before the other one will be to 7500) I've been praying, it might not be anywhere near what my great grandma used to do, she was a true prayer warrior and I have a long way to go yet but when I found out a friend's parent got cancer, a friend had heart surgery, several of my friends not living their lives for God instead of being too busy to do anything I pray. Such a powerful tool I have to use. Oh yeah and I can't forget praying for my kids and my husband.

We will see if I delete more but I feel so much relief just from these three "small" things I dropped see I had time to update my blog which I haven't done in forever and I feel that is important :0) I will keep you updated on if I delete more. I want my surveys to be a fun thing to do not a chore.

Oh yes today my little boy turns two. I can't believe how big/little he is! Justus and Karis both got dedicated in church today and I also have a new book to read, I don't remember what it is called but it shows us how to parent using scripture can't wait to start that book.

for my audience of not many

Good grief so I have totally let blogging slide. That's not really true but I think my priorities have changed slightly. Since the last time I wrote we have had a baby (July 23rd 2010 at 7 47 in the morning she weighed in at 8 lbs 2 oz ) we named her Karis (sounds like Paris) LouAnn (my mom's middle name and Kjell's mom's middle name) A week after that we moved to Meade to a house we thought was smaller than our last one but soon realized it is larger just hard to find places to store things in (ie no unfinished basement to just send castoffs into) Kjell started a new job, he is now an English teacher not a Social Studies teacher (don't tell him that though). Kiah started a new school as a peer model for an at risk class and now goes to school Monday through Friday from 12:10 to 3:10 and gets to ride the school bus. She LOVES it mommy still misses her old preschool and the fact that they could have Jesus time and I liked all the kids in her class. With being in an atrisk class Kiah is around students whose parents lead slightly different lifestyles from ours so she is seeing more of the world than I would like my little four year old to see but I pray not only can she be a school peer model but a spiritual peer model.

Kjell and I started helping with the Trek program here just like we had in Atwood only instead of like 5 total girls we have about 35 each week. We aren't in charge and I am super glad for that. It has been fun the two weeks so far. Our house also sold, and once again we got to see the hand of God and his perfect timing in our life.

We had planned to go to Colby for my 6 week (only we went at 5 since six would have been Labor day) appointment so I could finish all my bills out with one doctor and get cleared so maybe I can get some insurance now that I'm not pregnant. As we were on our way our realitor called and said she had an offer on our house. Now that just doesn't happen houses in atwood tend to sit, and sit and sit. Some of the house we looked at three years ago just recently came off the market we were hoping and praying for maybe a years worth of waiting at best. The offer was a lot lower than we wanted but after some haggling we got it sold at a very resonable price for everyone involved. So since we were on the way there we got to sign all the preliminary paper work that weekend sleep in our house one last time (and shed A LOT of tears we did so much to that house !) We will probably close by the end of this week. So the house is already being lived in by their stuff we only had it on the market one month that we didn't actually live in it. So very amazing. God is so good!

Three kids is a HUGE difference to me than two kids. I have felt like I just can't get everything done. But I did go from cleaning 7 rooms in the old house to 12 so that makes some difference. I just feel like I can never get everything done. As we speak I have 223 new messages in my google reader and about 500 e-mails. I haven't written in my blog in forever I guess I just don't get on line as much as I had been I just spend more time with the kids and what will really matter when it's all said and done is them. I'm just glad one of the biggest messes in my life (my email and google reader) is something no one else can tell how cluttered it is.

We have found a new play group and gone to that once, it meets every other week and there were a TON of people there last time. We really enjoy our church already and now with living in Meade and Kjell working in Minneola we are adjusting to trying to be involved in two communities. Oh and probably where a lot of our time is going. My parents live here it has been so nice to have that I think we we didn't Kjell and I would both think we had two very horrible children. It's sad to say but Kiah and Justus bring out the worst in each other. several times we have taken one of them with us along with Karis and gone somewhere. And they act great but when you put those two together oh my they sure do love to fight! I'm also probably going to get fat living in Meade. The first weekend we were here my mom and dad took me to an orchard and made me pick 100 pounds of peaches. just kidding we all picked! They were the best peaches I have ever had you could eat them while you picked. Mom and I made about 24 peach pie fillings to freeze and several cobblers and crisps Kjell thought we were going to be cooking every night we lived here! Mom also likes to give us her cast off desserts so she doesn't eat them all.... so then I eat them all ... lol.

I could write for about an hour more but I forgot to mention I am also doing a Bible study on the book of Hebrews and that's exactly what it is IN Depth study I feel like I'm taking a master's college class. I also worked out for the first time today since before Karis was born... I miss that feeling I used to get from being done and feeling good.. and then going in to the kitchen to grab a cookie..... so for my audience of maybe two... hope you enjoyed :)

Time line

Here is our next few weeks
Tomorrow Going away coffee for me 9:30 -11:00
Friday Kiah goes to Bible School
Saturday Kjell's championship swim meet in Lexington NE (no I will not be going)
July 23rd Baby is BORN
July 24th Kjell takes the test to see if he will be certified to teach his new subject ENGLISH... has to drive to Hays the day after baby is born... no pressure
Aug 2nd Moving day
Aug 9th Kjell starts his new job

naw we aren't busy or stressed.............................

quiet house

I'm not sure what I expected when Kjell told me he planned to go to Topeka right before the baby came. He wanted to take Kiah but I said he had to take both kids. (Kiah is the very enjoyable one who can self entertain.) Justus is still at the age where he needs to be watched A LOT and follows me while I'm cleaning and undoes the work. So I made a list of what needed to be done (besides hosting a basement sale on Saturday) and already my list is finished, my email is caught up no small feat for me because I average 45 a day with my surveys and freebies stuff. I got all the boxes packed I said I needed to, I've watched WAY too much tv and I scrapbooked 14 pages. I'm so glad they are coming home on Tuesday. Any longer and I think I would go crazy. It's been nice to get some things done but I miss them! It's funny Justus and Kiah sound the same on the phone. I know them apart though because Kiah uses words and Justus doesn't but their voices sound the same. Tomorrow I have a coffee with a group I joined when we first moved here. They are doing it as a going away for me which I think is really nice. As long as I don't forget about it, I've had to remind myself four times I have plans in the morning. Oh and I've even wrote in the kids' journals if I didn't have kids and I didn't have a job..... wow I would be bored out of my MIND..... I guess the good thing is I still have the little one karate chopping my ribs to remind me I'm not alone :)