Friend makin Monday #1

This looks like fun so I decided to play along. You can link up to friend makin monday here. This week is a Q&A:

1. Do you cook every night?

I generally cook Sunday – Thursday. Friday is pizza night. Saturday varies depending on what we are doing that day.

2. What kind of laundry detergent do you use & why?

Right now I am using a “green” detergent I got from Shaklee. Why? Because I went to a Shaklee party and bought it. It seems to work well enough. But I mostly have used Tide HE.

3. Do you do laundry every day or loads at a time?

Depends on how ambitious I am, but generally I do a few loads twice a week.

4. How often do you eat out per week?

Generally no more than once a week.

5. Where do you usually eat out?

Since we usually have the kids with us, noisy family-friendly restaurants (like Red Robin) prevail.

6. What is your favorite retail store?

Target

7. What's your favorite thing to drink?

Coffee/Water

8. Do you take vitamins? What kind?

I take a multi vitamin in the morning, sometimes with an additional vitamin D.

9. What percentage of the household chores to you do?

I probably do 95% of the indoor chores and about 5% of the outdoor chores, so it works out pretty well.

10. Do your children do chores? {Or will they, did they, etc}

Yes, especially my 16 month old. I really make him work for his meals!! ;-) My kids WILL do chores, but right now they mostly “help” mommy.

11. Do you go to church?

No, but we keep talking about it.

12. Do you have a housework schedule?

No. The problem with schedules (for me) is usually when the day comes I don’t feel like doing whatever is on my “schedule” for the day. Sigh…

13. Do you keep a working budget?

Not as much as we should.

14. What do you do at night as a family?

By the time my husband gets home and we eat dinner it is usually around 6. Then it’s just bedtime routine stuff as my son is in bed at 7 and my daughter by 7:30. After the kids go to bed we usually watch tv.

15. How do you prepare yourself for a new week?

I try to have all the laundry caught up and most of the groceries purchased for the week by Sunday evening.

16. What do your mornings look like?

5:20 am: Up

5:30 am: Computer time.

5:50 am: Work out at home on our elliptical while watching some sort of valuable educational program such as Drop Dead Diva or Tori & Dean.

6:50 am: Shower & get ready

7:30 am: Eat breakfast and send my husband off to work. My “day” job begins (which is the same as my night job and my weekend job: full time mommy).

17. What time do you get up in the mornings?

5:20 on weekdays, 6-7 on weekends.

18. What time do you go to bed at night?

9:30 or 10.

19. How do you manage all of the paperwork that floods into your household? {bills, school work, magazines, ads, etc}

Not very well!

20. How do you keep your household organized? {calendars, charts, etc}

I use a calendar to keep track of dates/appointments. When my step-daughter is here we add the chore-chart so she knows what she can help do around the house.

my new bff

3:00: “Hannah, time to go to the barbecue.  There will be lots of kids there!”

Hannah: “I’m not going to be friends with the boys!”.

3:30: “Hannah, this is Madison”

Hannah:  (complete silence, goes off to play on her own, but eventually starts playing with Madison and some other girls)

5:00 “Hannah time to head home!”

Hannah:  “Awwwwww!”.

5:30:  “Hannah, what’s wrong, why do you look sad?”

Hannah:  “I MISS MADISON!!  SHE’S MY BEST FRIEND!”. 

order, please?

You know, I’m not just another pretty face.

I also make coffee.

What would you like?

Enjoy, compliments of the Mighty M family.

You see, pretend coffee is always “on the house” around here. 

With my barista shift done it is time to resume my other job of being cute. 

It’s a rough job, but somebody’s got to do it!

wordless wednesday

my good side

He kids, he kids!

We got my MIL a digital picture frame for her birthday.

My hubby naturally had a shot of his own he wanted to make sure we included:

And no, dear sister-in-law, it will never end. ;-)

Of course this is the guy who once convinced his sister that it was poisonous to eat dry cake mix and nearly had her on the phone with 911, so I guess by now she expects this kind of treatment.

Happy Birthday, Grammy!

PS: It may not have been cake mix, but it was some other sort of unprepared food item like that. You get the idea.

photo op

Lately my daughter has begun informing me when there is a great opportunity to take a picture. 

Of course, this never occurs when I actually have the camera out. 

That would be too easy.

But, not being one to deny myself a chance to get my daughter to happily smile in a shot, I willingly oblige. 

This first one was recently published in another post, but repeating here because I am proud to announce:

The bracelet is gone!  The bracelet is gone!

And by “gone”, I mean it is in her room as she felt she should save it so she can look at it and remember how much fun they had at the water park. 

But it is no longer on her wrist, hurray!

Here is a shot Hannah wanted me to take of her and our cat Tessie:

The cat looks less than thrilled.

What is special about this next photo request?  See it?

Ah yes, Hannah and the bird. 

“Take a picture of us mom!”. 

A baby bird crashed into our door stopped by for a visit last weekend.  He stayed for quite a while because he was stunned from hitting our house so hard  and Hannah enjoyed watching him.  After about 15 minutes the bird didn’t die  decided he was done visiting and was able to fly away and return to his nest. 

Sooo glad we didn’t have a birdie death on our hands!

And the most recent photo op request:

Hannah and her “seal” (it’s actually a manatee). 

Hope you all have a nice weekend, we are heading to our local county fair this evening.  And thanks to everyone on Facebook for all the wonderful fair food suggestions, although I think I am in for a tummy-ache if I actually try to eat it all!! 

wordless wednesday

happy boy, happy monday

at the playground

At the playground, you can plan on spending some time on the swings.

In fact, you might want to have a snack while you wait.

This could take a while….

At the playground, once you coerce them off the swings, you can plan on some time spent exploring.

These tires will do.

At the playground you can plan on working on your balance.

At the playground you can plan on running.

And sliding.

At the playground, you can plan on a splinter or two.

At the playground you can plan on attempts at self-portraits.

At the playground you can plan on hitting the swings one last time before you go….

Where did she go?

Some of you are wondering why I posted a goodbye to Macy.

So, just to clarify, Macy is my step-daughter.  She lives with her mom, step-father, brother, and sister in San Diego most of the year.  She sees us whenever she can and the summer is when we get to spend the longest amount of time with her. 

She is now back in sunny California and getting ready to start the 8th grade next week! 

And, since I feel the urge to include a photo, here is a recent one of Hannah who was “posing” by holding her hand under her face.  She then said “this would make a nice picture mom, go get your camera”, and held still until I complied. 

And the “bracelet” on her wrist is from a recent trip with dad and Macy to a water park/resort.

And by “recent” I mean well over a month ago.

wordless wednesday

thank you…

Dear Macy,

Thank you.

Thank you for being such a good sister and daughter.

Thank you for playing and helping so much with your siblings (and cousins).

Thank you for being a good sport.

Thank you for witnessing first steps with me.

Thank you for your yummy desserts. 

Thank you for giving our Wii some play time.

Thank you for almost always doing your chores without reminding.

Thank you for always asking, even if I say you don’t have to. 

Thank you for evenings on the couch with us, watching nothing but HGTV.

Thank you for some parting shots.

Thank you for a wonderful summer! 

xoxoxo