Thursday, October 31, 2013

Scaaaaaaaaaaaaaary

Tricky tricky Halloweeny!

Apparently this is what the kids in Tommy's border town used to say when he was growing up.  I mean, he didn't own his own border town or anything.  He just lived in it.  And he didn't say "tricky tricky Halloweeny!" because English was his first language.  Although he DOES say it now.  So maybe he did and he's a big ol' liar?

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

*EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW* and a review. What more could you want?

If you've been meaning to get back to reading real books and not just buzzfeed posts and blog entries (guilty), I'm telling you...Pope Awesome is the place to start.  If you're accustomed to reading real books all the time, like Jessica of the awesome book-reviewing skillz is, make this book the next on your list.  Just move aaaaaaaaaaaaall the other books down a notch and wedge this one right in there.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

I'm fixin' to get good at math!

Maybe you remember my curriculum post at the beginning of the school year.  See, sometimes I like to put on this tough-gal front and pretend that I don't care about stuff or that it's my way or the highway.  Makes for funnier jokes, ya know?  But the truth is that I DO care about things and am always looking for what's better.  This is working, but could it be better?  In this case what wasn't working was Lizzy's math curriculum. 

She has never loved math.  She struggles.  She comprehends the concepts but when it comes to putting pencil to paper, numbers end up in the wrong place or there are the wrong number of zeros or the decimal point isn't where it should be and the whole thing falls apart even though she GETS the overall concept.  And forget memorizing facts with flash cards.  I mean, just forget that scene altogether.  For a while I thought maybe she was a bit dyslexic, but she can read with no problem. 

Friday, October 25, 2013

Los Siete Take-os de Quickitos

(1)
Have you ever had one of those days....yes, I'm pretty sure you have...where everything just seems blah?  When I don't have something to look forward to, this happens.  Or when the weather first turns gross, this happens.  Or when I'm being a moody bword, this happens.  So this happened on Saturday and it was raining and not even 50 degrees out  and all of a sudden I says to my husband I says "Clearly this is the ideal time for me to force everyone into complementary outfits and put the timer on on the camera and get that elusive family portrait we've yet to achieve since the birth of our 5th child."

Except I didn't say it like that.  It was more like "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, I am so boooooooooooooooooooooored.  We don't even have any family piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiictures.  It's gonna be Christmas agaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain and we won't even have doooooooooooooooooooooone it and then it'll be, like, snowy and junk and everyone will be in snowpants and hats and complaining that they're coooooooooooooooooooooooooold."

I am pleasant.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Not pre-teen angst after all!

Last night I was kissing the big girls goodnight (when will we stop going to their rooms to tuck them in?  I hope never) and Lizzy asked me how she could get an annoying song out of her head.  "I've already tried replacing it with a different song and it just won't go away! Ugh!"

Sunday, October 20, 2013

The Story isn't Over

How are you?

Things have been a little quiet...

Are you okay?

After a few of these kinds of sweet, concerned emails, I'm starting to realize that maybe I've unwittingly gone into hermit mode.  I do this.  Maybe some of you do this too.  It's the mark of the secret introvert I think.  The barely extrovert.  Where we are go out there and talk to all the people and say and do all the things and stay up late and have the fun and go and go and go until we are tired and done and can't manage even a single sentence.  And we turn off our computers and we stare at chickens out the window and wonder if it would be as wonderful as we imagine it would be to quit the internet forever.

Thursday, October 17, 2013

What happens when you change the aperture? TT: Orange

One of my very favorite treats this year was being able to get my hot little hands on a big girl camera.  Yes, old.  Yes, used.  Yes, totally worth it.  It's like I get to be artistic without getting messy.  A neurotic girl's dream!  But I haven't really been experimenting with it much lately.  Just taking photos "in the usual way" and moving on.  Today for the orange challenge, I decided to take a few precious moments and play around with the little numbers on the screen. 

So first, here's the photo I would use if I were just posting one and not experimenting:

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

5 fave sites for saving dinero + DISASTER BABY

Several (many) weeks ago, a friend suggested I put all my fave online money saving places in one spot.  And then I forgot. But I just remembered!  So here ya go.  For pictures of cute baby, skip all the yammering and scroll to bottom.  Enjooooooooooooooy!

Monday, October 14, 2013

Attack of the Killer Baby

So last night I was up way too late because correcting a 6th grader's math work is about as exciting as getting a dental exam.  Except when you're getting a dental exam you can sit in a squishy reclining chair and close your eyes and enjoy slightly modified versions of to "Love Lift Me Up" or "When a Man Loves a Woman," so yet another a strike against boring dumb ol' responsibilities and clearly reading about the Whole 30 was a reasonable thing to be doing instead.  Because hello: procrastination

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Ten on 10

A picture every hour for ten hours on the 10th of the month....

8:something

Paul sets up shop in the utility room.

Wednesday, October 09, 2013

5 Faves- Laundry Room Edition

When I posted the laundry room reveal, there didn't seem time or space to talk about all the little details.  Not so much that there are extravagant details in the room itself, but rather the little things that do so much to make our lives easier, to make them better.  Because what you all gave to us was so much more than just a room we could successfully wash our clothes in.  No.  Besides giving us hope and happiness during such a difficult season in our lives, you gave us peace.

And that right there is my first favorite about the best room in our house...

Monday, October 07, 2013

5 Tips for Stretching the Food Budget

So.  My husband gets paid once a month.  Now, I know a lot of grown ups have been budgeting this way for years but for me it took a while to get used to waiting sometimes 31 days between paychecks.  Oh, and when you get paid every other Friday, you sometimes get a month with three paychecks instead of two, ya know?  I always loved those months.  Pero no mas para nosotros.

Anyway, it's now eight days until payday, and this is when I always have to go on a spending freeze because basically I'm a child who spends as much as possible for the first 23 days of the pay period so that I can Mr. Krabs it up for the final week.  So in the spirit of said cheapskatery, I'm going to try and spend just $50 at the grocery store tomorrow for enough groceries to last us until the following Tuesday with no eating out budgeted in.  Eek. 

Thursday, October 03, 2013

A Little Secret

Wanna know a secret? Sometimes my kids are a red. hot. mess.  See, usually I go through the seventeen thousand photos I take and try and post the cleanest ones- no food on the face, no stains on the clothes, charmingly mussed but not insane hair...you know, basically trying to convey a sense of "real" life without actually damaging my imagined reputation as a responsible mother and homemaker.

Welp, that all changes today.  Sorry, Mary.  The baby always gets the embarassing posts.  Says so in the bloggy manual.

Wednesday, October 02, 2013

My Kids are Obsessed with Monster Headphones


If you have a kid with sensory issues who gets jumpy and overloaded at weird textures and loud sounds and just too much stimulation overall, you'll know what's going on in this picture.


I didn't ask the boy to vacuum and those aren't even technically those headphones you buy for noise cancelling but Imma tell you...the minute he put those Monster N-tune headphones on, he was a happy little camper.  He wasn't even listening to music!

Tuesday, October 01, 2013

Hey, you in the t-shirt

Hey, you in the t-shirt.  Yes, with the curly red beard.  Hi.  You look like the kind of guy who likes going to Bell's brewery downtown and you're totes excited about the Arcadia that's going in down by the river.  Now we can have a Michigan craft-brew smackdown every weekend, amiright?  Su-weeeeeeeeeeeet.

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