She turns off my computer, constantly

Trying to get work done at home is a challenge to say the least.  The kids are always interrupting  they are making messes in one room only to break something in the next while you are cleaning up the fist mess.  Anytime I sit to try to read or write it is the signal for them to come ask me for something or to take them to the potty.  It can takes hours to write a paragraph.  I wish they understood if they gave me 15 minutes then I could get so much done and have time for them too.  But when the interrupt me every minute of those 15 it takes all day to do three things and frustrates mom very much.

The kids are always gravitating to the big computer so I am stuck using my stupid falling laptop.  It makes a funny sound and the "c" no longer works.  I have to go back and force the c in every word, just more added time.  And I don't have the office suite on here so as I should be making a power point right now I will have to wait till they are eating dinner.

But there is one good point to the laptop.  It lets me be with Faith. She is in a stage where she does not want to be in the room watching her dad play video games or brother play computer, I can't blame her.  And she does not want to be left alone in the other room by herself, she wants her mommy to cuddle with her and read to her.  She loves pointing at pictures and saying what they are.

However Faith can be dangerous.  Everyday she pushes the glowing power button on my laptop.  No matter where I am in my work.  I try to save frequently but to many times I have lost it all.



Nope never a doubt who did it.



Candy covered princess.

Flu Season

The inevitable happened, the flu it our family.  It started out with me last week and it was horrible but I pushed through because I had to much school to do and I still had to take care of the kids.  But as the week went on I was no longer able to keep on going, I still had to though.  Moms do ever get a sick day.  Heck I could I have used a night to go to bed early or sleep in even a nap but no.  In fact I got even less sleep than normal because it seems I passed it along to all the kids.  Every night I woke up by kids crying, puking, running 103 fever, they were miserable too.  We all sat and suffered taking Tylenol, playing wii, watching tv, and doing school.



Yesterday we luckily had another rain day and school was canceled   Yup canceled again for rain, 4th time this year.  But the rain was ice in the morning and the roads weren't safe.  However Friday  they did let the kids out early because of SNOW.  Luckily it was a rain day so they did not miss school, I would have kept them home yesterday regardless   Today I sent Evan back to school, we will see how long that last.  But he was doing better yesterday from noon on.  And he seemed to be fine this morning.  The other 4 are not.  Gregory is leading the pack with 103 temps and Tylenol gives him a break to 102.  Poor thing the other are burning up as well.  They are so hot to the touch and feel miserable.  They are not looking to good either.  They have glossy runny eyes you can tell how unhappy they are.  But I am hopping this is the last week.  At least it is all at once and not one after another.


Faithy before she started feeling bad




This is one of my faces, it is funny when I see her acting like Mommy.

Backyard Football

Before the weather turned cold, and before the sheets of ice started raining we had a pretty mild weekend.  It gave us a chance to get outside and play in  much needed fresh air.  The big kids got footballs for Christmas this was a perfect day to try them out.  They were so happy to play.  Now none of us have a clue how to play football so I set up 3 boxes on one side of the lawn they stood on the other and tried to throw them in the different point boxes.

They threw them in the boxes, Gregory kicked them towards the boxes.





Faithy tried running it in.



After Smiley got hit by the ball he retreated to playing with his littlest sister.



And giving her kisses.







She just sat there so these two were the easiest to get pictures of the others were running everywhere.



But after Gregory kept accidentally kicking the ball at his brothers, or accidentally throwing it at them.  They pulled out and I played.  I played kiss tackle   He tried to tackle me, and I would kiss him.  I would tackle him and then kiss him.  I don't think he was having any fun playing with mom ;0





It was our last day outside.  We need for the weather to turn good again SOON.

A few 4 month pictures

I have had all of my kids pictures took when they were roughly around 3 months old in a nautical outfit.  All of these pictures are hanging on the wall.  I love them and the kids do too.  They point to the pictures and tell me who is in them.  They like seeing each other as babies.  And really they are the only pictures that they realize are different babies than just Grace.  Any other picture of a baby if you ask them who it is the will say Grace.  I remember when I hung Faiths picture up they felt now she is part of our family and we are going to keep her.  It is funny how they relate such things.  But it is time we add our Gracie to the wall.

I took these pictures of her in early December   She was 4 months old.  I have not had a chance to edit them till last night.  Plus I still want to retake them and dye the dress pink.  But time flies and now she is 6 months so it is really to late but I think I might anyways.  I have two favorites and I think I know which one I am going to hang but here they are.











I love them all.  I love her smile, her happiness.

Six month check up

Evan and I took Gracie in for her check up today.  SIX MONTHS yes all ready, but it fells like she has been here forever.  Although I still do look back in the car to make sure I did not forget her, if she is being quite.  Grace is doing great!  She is growing big, and healthy not to meantion beautiful.



She is 28 inches long and 17 pounds.  She has grown quite a bit from her birth of 22 inches and 8.15 pounds.  She is also a lot more sturdy now.  The kids are able to play with her and I don't worry as much.



She had to get 4 shots today, she was not happy.



But at least Mama was there with.



It was a little more than Evan could handle so he left the room when the needles came out.  But that is still far better than Faith.  I did not bring her.  She just screams and it starts in the lobby.  She stayed home being her beautiful self.

Dora Lincoln and wii

What do you get when you mix President Lincoln and Dora the Explorer?



Faithy

Dora looks kinda creepy here, hands folded over faith food.

My oldest and my youngest both G's, both July babies



Gregory and Gracie.  She loves to be with him.  He loves her, she just wishes he would let her play too.

Unproductive

That describes today pretty well.  I have been battling to get school work done but it is just not happening.  Our day got thrown off in the morning.  I went to bed last night under  a weather watch so first thing I did this morning was look out the windows check facebook.  That is right, that because it is where you get all your news from now days.  And sure enough the second post down on it I saw school is having a 2 hour delay.



I promptly walked back upstairs to bed.  Two hours later we woke up well the kids did I never truly was able to get back to sleep, I hate it when that happens.  The funny thing is they did not even notice the time.  They though the felt great and really rested.  HA, I should just put them to bed at 6:30 each night.

Apparently there was ice on the roads.  I saw no snow and none was reported.  It was just another day off for rain.



That is 3 this year.  Three rain days we have had.  And it has not been anything more than an occasional drizzle since we woke, it is just wet.  The first two were for hurricane Sandy and this one for Winter Storm Helen.  Why do they name EVERYTHING now days?  It used to be just hurricanes that were named and now it seems any weather pattern has a name.

I guess we are sorta weather watcher tough.  One recently we payed close attention to was Cyclone Evan.  It was a terrible event for Fiji.



This time last year some friends of ours moved to Fiji so the boys know all about it and set up skype and email with them.  When we heard through them of cyclone Evan we watched it for them annd Because Evan is my middle sons name.



Maybe I can get some work done now before they get back from school at least maybe a nap.

Perogies

I made a bunch of mashed potatoes  that left me with a good amount of extra.  More than I wanted to eat today or in the next few days so I thought it would be a good time to make perogies.  You can freeze them for months solving the problem of  my large amount of extra mashed potatoes I have.

Perogis are an Eastern European staple.  I made them for my sons for their international day celebration this year.  Although mainly found in Eastern Europe they are very predominant here in Pennsylvania too.  As a matter of fact:

Pierogi are also commonly associated with Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where there is a "pierogi race" at every home Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game. In the race, four runners wearing pierogi costumes race toward a finish line. 

Ingredients:

• 4 cups flour, plus extra for kneading and rolling dough
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 large egg
• 3/4 cup sour cream plus more to serve with the pierogi
• 1/24 cup butter, softened and cut into small pieces
• butter and onions for sauteing
• ingredients for filling of your choice (potato & cheese filling recipe below)

Directions:

Pierogi Dough

To prepare the pierogi dough, mix together the flour and salt. Beat the egg, then add all at once to the flour mixture. Add the 1/2 cup sour cream and the softened butter pieces and work until the dough loses most of its stickiness. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes or overnight; the dough can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Each batch of dough makes about 20 some pierogies, depending on size. Mine are big.

Prepare the Pierogies

Roll the pierogi dough on a floured board or countertop until 1/8" thick.

 

After the dough is rolled out place spoonfuls of filling on to it and cut out shapes around it.  Most perogies are semi circle but you can make the what ever shape you want.



I used a pizza cutter to cut around the perogies and then you fold the dough over and forn in to your chosen shape.  Pinch the side together so the filling does not come out and you get the "look".  If they wont seal well add a touch of water to the edges and it will seal much better.

Boil the perogies a few at a time in a large pot of vegetable oil. A few minutes on each side till they have a nice color.  Then set them on a paper towel to dry off any extra oil. Do not boil any you are going to freeze.  Place those ones in a freezer for a few minutes until they are just a touch frozen mostly cold but most importantly not sticky, once they will not stick together place them in freezer bags and they will be great to cook from frozen whenever you want them.

Serve with a side of sour cream and enjoy!

The first and only

We had our family picture took the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  Believe it or not, even with the thousands of picture I take this was the first time all 7 of us had our picture took together.  Two months later it still remains as the only picture of all of us.



It was supposed to be here in plenty of time for Christmas to be included with the cards but did not come till a couple days before.  I never shared it because it was also a gift for both my parents and Jay's mother.  Now that they each received it.  I am happy to post it.  It is not my favorite again I always find flaws but I like it enough.  I just think I will have another more informal one done this summer.

For Beth

I saw my friend Beth the other day  and we were talking about the babies.  I told her (she is a mother to four that range from 20 - 14) about how Faithy  is climbing on everything and a little more of my frustrations.  She laughed and said : Did you get it in pictures?" I told her yes, and I did.  We both laughed.  So Beth this one is for you.

Faith found a new and fun way to play piano and to prolong bedtime.

Guess what I made a video too.  That is right before I said NO FAITH get down!

We laughed about that to as she has done the same.

The past week or so.

So much has been going on I am busier than ever.  Luckily we have all avoided the flu.  It is taking people out in droves.  You can not get flu shots anywhere around here, I imagine that is probably widespread.  Stupid me I turned down a free one for me at school and one for my oldest daughter at the doctors because she was all ready having a traumatic day there.  My oldest is the only one who got it.  Lets keep praying for good health.

Everyone has returned to school.  The boys were happy to go back.  I started a new course just for 3 weeks in January and it is kicking my butt.   I am spending 6-8 hours a day on it!  Laundry is backed up, everything is.  I can't believe how much it is taking from me.  It is a normal semester course crammed into 3 weeks.  So much information is being thrown at me I do not even have the chance to process it, and it shows.  I am hoping and trying so hard for a B this time.  It is Ancient Athenian Democracy.  Sound not to bad but it is hard.  It is a 270 level class so it is in between on the difficulty scale.  But I am struggling with the names, translating, the time periods and everything else that goes with it.  Agh, I don't think I will do another January class again.

The kids are doing good.  The unusually warm weather we had this weekend, it was in the 60's, let us enjoy time outside that we have very much been missing.



My daughters hair has finally started to grow.



i can't tell you how happy I am about that one.  I chase her around with barrets that she proceeds to pull out.



Wyatt is still here.  Evan continues to enjoy her.  She continues to endure it.  Faith runs after her and kicks her yelling move again my mini me.

The kids opened up their presents from their cousins.



They got bears and guns they loved them thank you.

The only problem is sharing.



She is not into sharing any toys with her sister at the moment.



But luckily there is momma to help Gracie out.



I will share more soon as time is nowhere to be found right now.  I am counting down to spring break!

Chicken and Broccoli Braid

The tiny team was hungry I had to find something they would like, something they would eat, and is easy for them to cook, because they wanted to me my cookers again this day as with most days.  My flying cookers.



Gather up all ingerdients.

Ingredients:

1+	cup  chopped broccoli florets
1	cup chopped cooked chicken breasts
1/2	cup diced red bell pepper
1+	cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/2	cup mayonnaise
1	garlic clove, pressed
1	tsp dill
1/4	tsp salt
1	pkg refrigerated crescent dough
1/2	egg white, lightly beaten Directions: Preheat oven to 375°F. Combine broccoli, chicken, bell pepper, cheese, mayonnaise, dill , pressed garlic and salt and mix well. Unroll one package of the crescent dough.  Let the triangles fall open its okay as long as there is a solid base unto which to put the filling.  Plie the filling on the dough and start wrapping the ends up on to the filling. Spread filling evenly over center of dough. To braid, lift dough strips across filling braided each stip.  An eaiser explanation than that is just wrap it to make sure the stuffing will most likely stay inside.  Some breathing holes are okay.  Tuck ends up to seal at end of braid. Brush egg white over dough.  Bake 25-28 minutes or until deep golden brown. Yumm.  Eat and enjoy!