Burnin' Down the House

I nearly burnt my house down on Thursday am. No actual fire, but serious smoke from eggs on the boil for over an hour. Kids had a two hour delay, I put eggs on right before they got on the bus, then scooped up my 3 year old and packed recyclables into the van and took them to the dump, went to the grocery. Piddled around because I only needed a few items, and then picked up a carton of eggs and remembered the eggs on the stove. I immediately called my neighbor, who ran over, went in my back door, and couldn't see the kitchen ten feet away. She totally expected flames, but there weren't any (thankfully).

So, we've got nearly every scrap of fabric out of the house at a cleaner, and a team of people cleaning every inch of our house and every item in it. It is insane. We stopped by today(Saturday), and it still smells. We're likely to be here through Monday morning, and things won't be entirely done even then, not to mention every item in the house rearranged. I saw a few cabinets and shelves while we were there today, and we will definitely have plenty to do to bring things back to normal. Not to mention, all of our laundry in boxes with minimally helpful labels on them. The cleaner delivered about nine boxes to our room all marked "misc. laundry," and, miscellaneous it is...One box with a sheet, some underwear, some socks (not necessarily in pairs). Hopefully, the later stuff that wasn't "ASAPed" will be more organized...

Anyway, we are grateful to still have a house, that people are assuring us that whatever has to be done to get rid of the smell will be done, and that we have so much damned stuff to deal with, LOL. This will be the spring clean of a lifetime!!! So maybe I've asked too many times for motivation to get things organized! It's all got to be reorganized when we get back, everything will have been wiped out and washed down, upholstery and carpets cleaned, everything, top to bottom. They will likely even have to take our refrigerator apart and clean out the motor. INSANE!

Paleo Diet

Posting this here as much for my own reference as anything. May be of interest to other low-carbers.

Forgot to add...

Reagan is always asking for a pony tail (or piggy tails) "with lots of hair." Sorry, baby.

Ben and Killian went shoe shopping last night. Killian came home with size 8 shoes. That means that he and I have the same sized feet (yeah, and my feet aren't little, mind you). He is about up to my nose in height. Pretty hard to believe. I try not to notice his cousin Jeff 's(2 1/2 years older) height. Killian will be as tall as us (or taller) before we know it. (Jeff already is!) What has become of our little baby boys??!

Toad! Toad! Wake Up! It's Spring!

We've broken 40 degrees here and the snow is melting away.

Reagan is a silly girl. She is usually happy and cheerful, but she can put on a show if she's not happy about something. She will usually storm into another room and cry. She is also prone to kicking things around the room or throwing them. I honestly don't know where she got that idea, because no one else really does that here. She and Molly love to make up songs and sing. Reagan is always telling Molly, "You are my bestest friend in the whole world." This morning, she came down to the entryway, telling Molly, "Bye, my stister." And, she kept saying, "Bye, Molly!" out the door and to the bus.

Dressing girls is a completely new experience. The boys really usually would put on anything I set in front of them. Well, there are caveats. Killian hates jeans (though has recently started wearing them now and then) and will not wear long sleeves. Liam isn't a fan of button pants, and his t-shirts must fit properly; they cannot be too long. Molly, until the last year or so, probably, was willing to wear most things I gave her. Recently, she's become rather more particular. Some things have seams that don't feel right. She'll only wear certain kinds of socks. She's not a fan of jeans, but I think if they fit right, she's OK with them. Mostly, it has to be cute. And, I'm afraid, her definition of cute pretty much escapes me most of the time. It usually takes about 3 tries to find an outfit to which she will agree, and even then, it's usually not one of the three options I show her; it's the pants from this outfit and the shirt from this one. Reagan, on the other hand, is all about the pretty. Cute isn't good enough. She's all about the tights and dresses. I try to put leggings on under her dresses, and she won't have that. It must be tights. Or, today, she's wearing a leotard with an attached skirt and tights over the bottom of it (not under). I suggested that we get dressed to run errands, and she says she's wearing this. *sigh*

My dear, sweet boy

Liam stayed home today because he says his throat is sore. Liam is not a miserable sick person, so I never quite know whether he's really sick or not, unless he's running a fever or throwing up or something.

He wanted to ask me something, but couldn't bring himself to say the words, so he told me that he could write it down. He wrote the note, not wanting me to look at it, and then turning it over on the kitchen counter, running upstairs, and then telling me, "You can turn it over now."

This is what it said:

Mom i want to make a difference

i want to take away half my blood and restore it with birds blood i know it could make changes that i don't like but I just want to be able to fly and forfill my dreams.

I want to scan it, to save his precious handwriting, but I'm having trouble with that. Don't you just want to scoop him up and hold him tight? I hated to tell him it wouldn't do what he wanted to do such a thing.

If you have read this, please don't share it with him, as I know he would be devastated.

Oh, my precious boy. I love him so.

BTW...

My lack of weight loss should not be attributed to my following a traditional food diet. In fact, it should primarily be blamed for my not following one. In the past year, especially, there has been far too much junk in my diet. So, while I have strived for a traditional foods diet, I didn't really eat one...

Sickies

Liam and I are the only ones that have so far dodged the nasty cold that has taken hold in our house. Hopefully, we're not next. Killian just came down with it this morning. Reagan and Molly have been sick for a couple of days. Ben, sadly, has been sick for longer, but he just keeps plugging away.