Yesterday felt great.. I had a list of like 27 things and I managed to accomplish all but 1.  Lesson planning.. sigh.. but hey.. it was a huge list.  One of the things was to clear out my google photos.. turns out it was the videos.. after deleting all the videos I had only 10% full.. amazing.  I was also trying to figure out if I should keep my xanga or move everything here to blogspot where I am also blogging.. however I discovered while google photos holds 1g of pics.. xanga holds 10.. huge difference.. of course I pay for Xanga but the last 6 years of my life is on here!  I just can't give that up.. moving it all over would be a huge chore so I have some things to think about. 

Today my goal is to go through the lessons plans, finish folding rest of the laundry then we are all caught up.  I would like to work on a video the girls did .. they like to put on performances but each one is like 10 min long.. so I would have to go through and clip out pieces and make a movie out of it.. which sounds like fun to me!  If only I had the time for such a project. 

Yesterday my goal was simple.. Regroup.. get everything in order.  For the last week my nieces have been here.. so there has been a whirlwind of activity.  Two mattresses in the living room at all times, games being played, bags with clothes and whatnot sitting in the living room.. and 3 not so tiny any more, girls running around.  I loved it!  However, they left on Sunday and it is time to get back on track.. so yesterday, I worked however, it didn't seem to be enough.. I didn't get everything done.. I had over 400 emails to catch up on.. and over 1000 blog posts to read.. (email done as of last night, blogs about half done).. I did get the Christmas stuff down and get alot of areas back in shape.. but only put a small nick in the laundry.. whew.. and forget about school planning.  We were supposed to start back up today.. but I don't think so..

Daddy found the latest episode of Doctor Who.. and being Doctor Who fans in this house.. had to watch it.  So we did.. it was 2am before it finished.. Yikes!!  Annaleah loved every minute but hello.. 2am!  So needless to say, school isn't happening today.. we just crawled out of bed.. yesterday I made a committment to read my bible and bike every day at 6am.. sigh..

Although Doctor Who was very good.. It was so incredibly sad to see David Tenant leave his role.  I remember being so angry when Christopher Eccleston left the show..

It was an interesting day.  Last night we aimed to ring in the new year playing games.. but it didn't happen.  Ethan was a ball of energy.. He was enjoying the girls tremendously.  Finally he came to me and asked to go to bed.  He then grabbed his book and went off to Anna's bedroom and waited to get into the playpen.  wow.  After reading and kisses.. I came out to find it was 11:45pm.. how did that happen?? 

After the ball dropped.. David walked in from work.  Jade convinced him to play Life with us.. So Abby, David, Jade, Anna and I, played Life til 2:30am.  Kate went to sleep quickly after the ball dropped.  At around 2am.. the game progressed quickly because we started to rush everyone along.  Anna was extremely tired and was snoring between her turns.  The night almost turned bad when Anna lost her job due to midlife crisis.  I told her to pick a new career and she started to say something half asleep that was totally not appropriate.  I quickly scolded her and then attempted to move on.. but she had this shocked look on her face like she had no clue what she was being scolded for.. half asleep and all.. I ended up in tears and laughing (a normal side effect from lack of sleep).. after excuses myself for a bit we quickly finished the game and headed the girls off to bed.  As we woke anna (who won).. she got really upset proclaiming "but I wanted to pull and all nighter!"  .. while Jade announced.. "I never want to try to pull an all-nighter again!"..

This morning was hard.  Ethan woke at 9am, which meant I had about 6 hours sleep.. however my body did not like that and I just became emotional all day.  First a friend insisted that we had to get on the scale and get back on track.. I cried while walking to the scale.. I was mortified at what I could discover.  Thankfully it wasn't that bad at all!  Then later, I found myself running my fingers thru David's hair.. something I had not done in years!  While doing that I had memories of his childhood and me running my fingers thru, etc.. and I just started tearing up again.. Which meant another trip to the bathroom .. oh so not a good day at all..

Ethan was such a good boy.. but I was tired.. so every bathroom trip, or diaper change.. trying to feed the girls.. just left me exhausted.  Abby had offered to watch the girls so I could go with David to see Meadow.  I decided to go ahead and do that.. Shortly before I leave we discover that Anna is sick.. she had a headache and a small fever.. oh boy.  She still stayed with Abby and slept alot. 

The visit to see Meadow was really sweet.. However, I didn't try to get too close.  It has been too long and I really wanted her to bond with David more.. so I stayed on the other side of the table.. snapping pics and playing peek-a-boo behind a menu.  She gave me lots of smiles.  I will do my best to remember to share those pics here tomorrow maybe.  The girls leave on Sunday so who knows how busy we will get tomorrow.  I can't believe the week has ended already! 

I am totally exhausted and ready for bed.  Anna will be joining us so I can keep an eye on her.. I really want to do a better job keeping this site updated.. so I should be around more.  I leave you with a pic..

You just have to check out the site!  It is truly a fantastic computer! 

http://daddyforever.com/2009/12/21/multi-touch-600t-600xt/

I think this would be an incredible addition to our home.. especially homeschooling Anna.. we do alot online and this would just make things so much easier, not to mention fun! 

Here's a little video about the computer

It's been a crazy 2 days.  Yesterday, I woke up at 3am and laid in bed for about 30 min before deciding  there was just no point in staying there.  So I got up, and did the usual chores.  I saw instructions for a driedel game after reading someone's blog.. It looks easy and fun.. sounds good to me.. so I printed it out and we tried it out.  Angel is really interested in playing the game with the girls when they come.

After everything was done, everyone was still asleep.. so I watched The Biggest Loser Finale online.  Oh my word.. just amazing and inspiring.. what they have done.  I am fascinated with Shay right now.. She has come a long way and still has a long way to go.

The rest of the day was a mixture of decluttering magazines, boxing up resource materials so we can actually use the fireplace.  Seriously, I made a huge mess before it even looked better.. actually, it never did look better yesterday.. just progressively worse.

And the worse part was that I had hurt my back somehow.. so I was in a bit of pain.  Last night I enjoyed watching a show with Angel while using a heating pad on my back. 

A funny - During my de-cluttering and sitting when the back hurt too much.. Ethan came over and climbed on my lap.. He gave me this look and said..

E - Meemaw, don't be sad, be happy!
M- Meemaw is frustrated
E - Why?
M- Because of all the clutter
E - (kicks the air), I kicked that clutter for you
M-(laughing) are you my clutter kicker?
E - Yes!  (then looks puzzled for a few min)  what is clutter?
M - It is a pile of mess
E - (looks at me with those eyes of his).. well, clean it

at this point I am just laughing.  To him the solution was so easy.. if it is messy, then clean it.  I just love that boy!

I finally crawled into bed after midnight (was shocked I was still even awake at that point with very little sleep the night before).. and woke after 6 hours.. Then it was a rush to get all the trash out.  I had two boxes of magazines, newspapers and random papers to get to the road.  We also finally took out all the boxes that had accumulated on the deck.

Today I managed to bring two boxes of magazines to the basement. I recheck them during the holidays but wasn't actually able to find them becasue they were just thrown everywhere.. the boxes are now labeled and I can easily find them when I need to.  We also have not renewed to any magazines so I will not worry about accumulating more.. thank goodness.

I also sorted thru Anna's three school crates.. and brought down a bin of our pumpkin decorations and the christmas decor we are not using.  I put up the window lights.. and of course.. because I had to move some things to get to the window,.. and I made a huge mess decluttering.. I had to vac.. vac'ed all main rooms and bathroom, and then washed the floor.. wow.. I am just stunned.

I did also color with Anna today.  We didn't actually do any crafts together however, she decided she wanted to finish her book today so she read 3 days worth and we worked on the questions.  So she is done with school til January.  Tonight I want to go through some books and magazines and get some ideas with her.

Right now Ethan is looking at a book, Christmas cd is playing in the background, ground beef is browning on the stove, Anna is talking to Bri on the phone in her room.. and I just put 6 bags of Amish Friendship Starter into the freezer.   I am kind of sad that I can not make bread for others this year.. just don't have enough oil, milk, pudding,etc.. but at least it will not go to waste.

Excuse me a moment please...

Ethan just begged me to read this..  twice!
It is one of his favorite books here.. along with the Biscuit books.

 Ok.. now beef is cooked and simmering in sauce (well, half of it anyways) and water is started for the spaghetti.  Almost time to eat.. but I must say.. the place is looking pretty good.  Praying I have a productive day again tomorrow.

Annaleah needed a trim.  I had told her it would only be a little bit and she wouldn't even notice.  Anna was dead set against it. 

On Friday, Abby was here relaxing and looking at pics from past years and we came across one with Anna with shoulder length hair.  Abby loved it  and told Anna it would look great on her again.  Anna decided that it would be awesome.  So she begged.