New Years 2014

Happy New Years!!  Are you excited?  A new year is not that exciting to me especially when so far nothing has been going right.



I had lots of New Years plans.  Kid friendly ones because I have anything but a wild fun party life. It would however be nice to go out to a fun over the top adult New Years Party before my husband is in the nursing home.

But none of my plans worked out, none.  It was frustrating.

We did go to Burger King and got some ice cream.



I had to talk the kids into it.  The weather was so cold in the 20's and expecting winter storm Hercules tomorrow.  Ice cream was not the easiest sell but we had coupons and they expired that day so we had to go.





However once there in the very busy restaurant, the kids were happy for their ice cream.  And the lady who was so sweet and patient with my family and the 3 orders we had to split it up between to be able to use the coupons let me know they would except them past their expiration date.  Good to know.

We came home and still plans kept unfolding, nothing that I had planned was done, nothing.  I gave up.  The older 2 stayed up and watched the ball drop the tiny team went to bed and I fell asleep on the couch.

You can try to be the perfect pintrest mom planning fun things to do great food to eat and memories to make but when you live in the real world you kinda have to take the ups and downs and changes as they come and life rarely ever mimics the perfect ideal you want.  And I would not always believe the ideal you see of others online.  They put forward what they want you to know, not what is always constant.

Over the next few days we did end up doing most of the things I had wanted and I made some of the wonderful meals I had planned.  If I can say one thing about this year so far is all the meals I have made (2)  (well two new ones, adult ones, I did feed everyone every meals plus some.  But one even my girls were the main eater of ) are over the top.  That is good news.  I go in swings with meals some weeks everything is awesome and others like the turkey lasagna are left 90% uneaten in the fridge until they start smelling bad.  So here is to the good ones why they are working out.  And not just good ones but GreaT ones that I copied from

Pioneer Woman
Chicken Parmigiana



this is the one the girls devoured wine, garlic, onions and all.  YES!!  I love when they eat the same things as us.  And you cook the alcohol in the wine out so no worries.

Half Baked Harvest
Crockpot Carnitas



Oh my heavenly goodness this was AMAZING!  We loved it, not for kids it is spicy, but we loved it!  It will be on the regular go to menu.  Yum.

I did doctor this one slightly.  Only by adding black beans and lime to the rice.  Monterrey Jack cheese instead of cheddar, chicken broth instead of beer because we just don't drink beer and it sucks when you walk into a bar and order just 1 beer to go, for cooking.  They laugh at you and to prove then you are not a sissy you have to stay for a real drink.  It is just so much easier to use chicken broth and it tasted great.  But I wonder what it would be like with the correct beer, maybe next time I will up stain the laughter and get the beer, I will let you know.  At least we are not sissy enough to buy the overpriced non alcoholic junk at the grocery stores, now that is for real wimps.  I mean really does anyone every buy that?  Oh and sour cream instead of guacamole.  I would have preferred the guac but I am allergic to it and I know without a doubt if you are not allergic to it go with the guac it would be better.  I wish I could...

And neither food picture are mine.  No plating was pretty enough nor lasted long enough for a picture.

Another great highlight for 2014 was I thought I started back to school on Thursday.  I could not sleep the night before and was up way to late laying there in bed staring at the clock.  Still I woke up to my sons stupid alarm playing what does the fox say so loud.  His room is down stairs mine is up and he slept through it.  I got up got ready and went to school.  I sat there by myself and waited, and waited.  No one came.  My school does not start till Monday, it was the boys were the ones who started back.  I did actually know that though and got them to school on time but only with the school sending us continually texts that they might not have school or close early because Hercules was getting closer.  And he sure did.  They did end up staying the day and luckily made it home before the worst came.



But school was canceled the next day.

Oh it was so cold the high was supposed to be 3.  Yup that is right.  And with windchill it stayed in the negatives.  I kept all the kids upstairs where it is the warmest and bunked them up together and with me to stay warm.  We do not have forced air, central heat.  We have a pellet stove and a propane fireplace.  Which is inefficient except for the 1 room it is in.  And wouldn't you know we are having trouble with both.  Most nights except for in these extreme cold temps we have no heat.  I turn everything off and we stay in bed under our blankets if we get cold we add another blanket or cuddled up in bed with someone else.  The house upstairs does not drop down past 60 because it was heated up all day so typically this works.  But just not when it it in the single digits or negatives then I leave the stove running all night as I did Thursday night.  But it was not working.  It kept cutting of and on repeatedly for nearly an hour.  I was very worried.  I prayed and prayed please don't let us have no heat on the coldest day of either year.  I went down stairs and monkeyed with it removing built up ash and seeing how high the flames were getting, not good.  It filled up with smoke and did not work.  I thought I would be gathering the kids and spending the next few days at my parents, where it is even colder but they have good heat, but have not been able to get up the driveway for the past week or so because of the snow.  I unplugged it let it power down and then started it back up, this seemed to work and thank God it has been working since.  Even though it runs and heats off pellets the augers are powered electronically so no power no heat.

Now on to the fireplace.  Oh the room it is in get so very cold that room easily drops in to the 40's maybe lower.  (Our thermometer stops at 40 in there)  Each morning we have to warm up the room, them warm up the LCD tv we have in there before we can even use it.  And the fireplace that is in there too  has been acting horrible all winter.  I have nothing good to say about it.  It rarely starts and most of the time you have to do so by hand, it constantly smells like gas, and often makes a hissing sound that even my oldest now knows how to run and shut off.  That Friday after dealing with the stove through the night I had to deal with the fireplace in the morning.  I could not once again get it to start.  I went to the fireplace and bent down leaning towards it with my long hair you see in the first picture when suddenly it poofed put and started in big bellowing flames.  Imagine when you ignite your grill or have a flame up on it.  It is quick, hot, won't hurt you but is not good.  Well it singed my hair pretty good.  the ends were all burned, black, crispy, curly and it smelled horrible.  It got a little around my face but since I still have my eyebrows it was not that bad.  But I could not even brush my hair it was burned.  So an emergency trip to the beauty salon.

They cut...



They chopped...



They layered, and it is different lengths on each side..



And they curled it.  Not that I can ever duplicate this.



But even today with out there help it still looks real pretty.

But not according to my kids.  I came home and my oldest says "great you got the quintessential mom hair cut".  Ugh...brat.

I still like it well enough and it is long enough for me to pull back in my labs.  It will grow.  But please 2014 lets stop with the mishaps.

Today was no winner either, but at least without tragedy.  Tomorrow we are expecting an ice storm.  Monday everyone back at school.  January is tough in PA so is February and March.  The weather is bad the kids stay home and the bills keep coming.  Oh I don't want to mention my sweet hefty energy increase for having 4 trees.  OUCH!!  They had LCD lights I don't understand but it was just another lesson learned from 2014.  If I don't have a job don't spend and extra $100 on electricity.

So here is to tomorrow a new day and the hope it can only be better, please.

Managing lots of littles in crowded spaces

Wrapping up my 4th of July posts is the anticipated finally, the fireworks.  My 5 were so looking forward to going out at night to the fireworks.  We had seen some in our town a week before and they were more than happy to go see more.  But it is late, dark, there are lots of people and at times like this I feel I have lots of kids.

Keeping track of 5 plus often more, I try to fill my my small suburban :)  no really it is just to small for me.  We only have 1 extra seat in it and there is always a trade off of what can I bring or how many groceries can I squeeze in.  It is times like that when I realize I have a slightly bigger than average family.  However we still do not consider ourselves large.  And we are not at least for out here in Amish country.

Back to the fireworks.  Taking 5 young kids out in to a dark event can be stressful if you are not prepared.  I have learned some steps/ tips to make your life easier.

1st dress your kids in glow lights.



They might not necessarily stay on  them but they will hold and play with the lights.



You can spot your glowing kid running away.



Or making glowing spinning circles.

I do this at Halloween too.  But it is still not enough.  Halloween where they are running for candy in costumes is tough.  Especially since they often look like other kids and take off so fast, even a seasoned mom like me does not do Halloween with out many extra adults.  I pay them in candy.



The kids are so used to wearing glow sticks they ask if I have them pack in our check list out the door.  For them it is fun, for me it is safety.

Second I go to the same spot every year.  Each event we have "our" spot.  Whether it is for our town fireworks, a different cities fireworks, picnics, Halloween, whatever we have "our" spot that we always go to.  This gets easier each year.  As the kids get more familiar of where to go they know if we get separated to go back to that spot and I will come get them.  And as we unloaded from the vehicle they automatically walk there helping me carry the stuff, another big help.

Stuff.  With kids comes stuff.  Bring it.



I bring a blanket to say this is our spot.  I expect you kids to stay on this blanket or at least only be running and jumping around it.  And to make them further comply I bring food and drinks.  Yes, just like cats if you feed them they won't go away.

Toys and ipods.  I try not to bring toys or ipods unless we are going to be there for an extended period of time because it is just something they can lose and if they did I would be furious with their lack of responsibility for something so expensive.  Instead I try to bring things that are disposable.  Often I bring bubbles or sparklers.  They have a great time with them, they stay fully occupied, they are inexpensive,  I throw away all the waste and don't have to bring anything home.



Most importantly have fun.  You need to remember these are the times the kids remember most.  Repetitive fun events and traditions.  You want to make it a good experience not a stressful one.  But learning from year after year you will find out what works best for your family.  By preparing ahead of time you can reduce stress.  So have fun and enjoy, as I had another great night enjoying the fireworks with my kids.



Yes a bit sun-burnt from earlier in the day.




And Babycakes it was a nice first 4th of July for her.  We had fun too and fun showing her what 4th of July is.

Family pics on the Forth

Last year the 5.9 of us took some pictures on the 4th of July.  And in other years other amounts of people combinations.

2012!!

2011!!

2010!! Boy does Smiley remind me of Gracie

2009

But it is something I like would like to keep going, portraits on the 4th.

After the morning parade, some food truck lunch, and playing games at the jubilee we were dripping hot.  I would be happy to say I sweated off a few pounds due to the heat and our few mile hike but after that lunch I think I might be +1.  Oh well.  It was so hot the kids started crying when they climbed into the bouncy houses. Ouch, ouch ouch it what I kept hearing and Faith just refused.  They were hot and cranky, and hungry again.  We went home to take some showers and cool off.

Afterwards we got ready for our backyard pictures.



This was the best I could get with the heat and squirmy kids.  Maybe I will do a post of the outtakes or just keep them and laugh.

And then we have my five firecrackers.


Gregory 10


Evan 8


Smiley 4


Faith 2


Gracie 11 months and 2 weeks.  Her first 4th!

I love dressing my little girls.



They are so dainty and pretty and their clothes, their over abundance of beautiful clothes are so sweet.  I wish some of their most special outfits they could wear more than once.  I really loved their 4th of July outfits here (because we all had 3! outfit changes that day)  I was speaking with another friend of mine and she said who cares they can wear the outfit more than once.  I was convinced by the end too but I kept think when can you wear a 4th of July outfit more than once?  Memorial Day maybe? But I saw no problem with letting them all wear their outfits this Sunday to church.  I washed them put them aside and got up early today to showered everyone.  Only to find out....church was Cancelled this morning! Yes.  A water pipe broke overnight and they had a mess on their hands.  What a way to start a busy Sunday.  That means notify the 800 some regular attendees every Sunday morning and a urgency to clean up and dry because tonight Phil Keaggy is there for a concert.  Oh well, so they did not get to wear their outfits again.  At least not today.  I might just have to find another time and place for the kids to look patriotic.  I have a few ideas.

The morning parade

Everything in our house has an eve, last night was no exception it was 4th of July eve.  Which meant I had to have our outfits ready, water in the freezer, bags packed, little preparations took care of because we had to all be in line for the parade at 9:30 AM.  And to move, dress and feed all 5 kids plus myself takes time.  A secret I have learned is start the day before.  Yes it is not really a secret and yes it is that simple.  If I have outfits ready and shoes found and together, plus my purse and diaper bag packed and by the door, we have got a good shot at going  and making it on time.

I set my alarm clock to wake me up on time and guess what we had a power outage last night!  No alarm ever went off except for the internal one from me and the tiny team.  We still were up by 7.  We had breakfast, got dressed and made it there by 9:15!  Whahoo!!

Except I got the time wrong and we did not have to be there till 10:15!  Ooops!!!!

It was hot too.  The kids and I dressed as cowboys to promote our churches vacation Bible school theme.  They looked so cute!  In all that spare time I should have got a picture of me and all the kids cowboyed up but they were so excitied they were everywhere.  I might try to some other  time.  Because the pictures I did get you can not tell the true cuteness of our western wear.

The parade went well once it finally stared.  I pushed the cowgirls for miles.



I should have decorated the stroller like a wagon but that was more time and energy than I had this week.  It has been busy.

The cowboys rode on the float.... Mostly



Evan





Gregory and Brendan.

I say mostly because when Smiley went to through candy out, at one point he through his whole body weight  throwing himself off the float through the side banner on to his forehead right on the street!  I was on the other side pushing the girls and waving, I did not even notice.  I am thankful I did not see it.  He was fine it happened so fast and surprised him he was not to worse for ware except that goose egg smack dap in the front of hi fore head.  Ugh.

The older girls around him quickly grabbed him and loved him.  He was okay.  I am so glad they were there to help.  They help ice to his head the rest of the parade and he went on still throwing candy, eating some too.

After the parade we went to a magic show and the jubilee where it was even hotter.  So hot the kids did not want to play on the bouncy houses.  They climbed in the first one and started screaming hot hot hot.  Poor babies.  It kinda went down hill from there.  They were hot, tired and hungry, so much that they started eating baby feet.



Time to take my sun burnt babies home for a little air conditioning and sprinkler time.  After all there is still a lot more to do today.

Happy 4th of July everyone.

happy Fastnacht Day 2013!

A year I have been waiting to celebrate this glorious day.  And it is finally upon us again   It Fastnacht Day in Pennsylvania and anywhere else you celebrate it.  I enjoyed it thoroughly last year being pregnant.  They tasted better than ever.  They are still great this year but when you are eating for two they have double the goodness.

For those of you who don't know or don't remember Fastnacht Day, is a fatty doughnut treat served traditionally on Fastnacht Day (Shrove Tuesday), the day before Lent starts. Fasnachts were made as a way to empty the pantry of lard, sugar, fat, and butter, which were traditionally fasted from during Lent.

Basel, Switzerland conducts an annual fasnacht festival. The Pennsylvania Dutch territory surrounding Lancaster, Pennsylvania, celebrates the custom as well. Most chain supermarkets in the eastern Pennsylvania offer fasnachts.

In parts of Maryland, the treats are called Kinklings, and are only sold in bakeries on Shrove Tuesday. The German version is made from a yeast dough, deep fried, and coated or dusted in sugar or cinnamon sugar; they may be plain or filled with fruit jam. Pennsylvania Dutch fasnachts can often be potato doughnuts, and may be uncoated, powdered with table sugar, or dusted with confectioner's sugar.

Welcome Fat Tuesday!  These are not your normal doughnuts because they have so many more times the fat, which = oh so much more delicious.  My favorite are the glazed.

No more left here.

I had bought 2 dozen fastnachts on Monday, yes you would think over kill but as it turns out...Nope!  The 7 of us devoured them.

Yes all of us even Gracie.  She LOVED her first Fastnacht Day.







Faithy she was all about stealing them.



Ahh you caught me!



So you caught me with two.



Sure I am not supposed to be eating them in here.



But MOM!



I am hooked I tell you, I can't stop.



Shall we talk about all of your hang ups now?

A Rough Morning

The kids did not stay up on New Years eve, none of us did.  Why?  They wanted to but it would have just made things so much tougher the next day.  Gregory would have been the only one to make it and the rest would have been up far to late trying.  They did stay up a little later than normal and the next morning they looked rough enough.







Maybe when they are old enough to understand the ball drop they can stay up to watch it.  Solo, I need rest.

last of forth pictures

Just a few extra from the forth.



The way we try to act in public



more like the truth.



Me taking a mid day break due to the heat



My little princess never missing a photo op or chance to sit on moms lap



Gregory 9 years old my firecracker kid



Sweet Evan and his goofy photo smile