March Melt

Looks like we're losing a lot of snow this week, unusually warm weather today! We went to visit Acorn's family for a few hours today and the girls were outside almost the whole time. They'd used the snow blower to make a huge pile. Then they dug tunnels and caverns into it. Perfect winter playground!

Then we had a little picnic on top of it Who doesn't love a little winter picnic in the warm sunny weather. Judging by the amount of soaking wet clothing I brought home,  a great time was had by all! Which reminds me,  I have laundry to do!!!

Oh, bad news on the laptop fund. There's been some dissension among the ranks! Honey changed her mind & has bailed on the plan and pulled her funds back out. Then Lovey & Sweetie decided they needed new Beanie Boos and pulled a further $11.30 out. This project could take awhile! and they can't seem to finish any paying job I offer them so income earnings are a bit limited!

A Sleighing Song Tonight!

Well now!!! You don't hear that song often in March now do you? Well if you are with my kids on a sleighride you do! (at least 47 times at that!) 

The multiples group had a sleighride Monday night and the weather turned out perfect! It really was lovely weather for a sleighride together! They had a great time, horses & snow followed by hot chocolate and cookies and staying up late!

On the way home the staying up late thing caught up with Honey. There was some squabble in which she didn't get her way.

Murray: Sorry Honey, you're outvoted, 2-1

Honey: I HATE that!

Murray: Well if you were a dictator, there'd be no vote. You'd decide what to do and we'd have to do it.

Honey:  That would be great.

Poor Deprived Kids

yeah right! They don't know how good they've got it around here! But they will when they're older, right? and then be appropriately grateful for the loving and enriched childhood we bestowed up on them during these years, surely?

My darling daughters are hooked on online gaming. It's a little early in life to be dealing with this but why wait? Let's get into the hard stuff right away! Dang you Disney! They have a wonderful website and you can play for free and have access to mediocre characters, accessories and watch the "members" shop for new hairstyles, clothes, pets, home furnishings and what not. However, this "member" status costs $6/month which we're not willing to invest in (times three at that!) and they can only become members when they have money of their own they want to spend on it (and even then I try my hardest to delay, distract & deter). They love it and want to be able to play together but Murray's craptop is not getting any younger and already has missing keys, a cracked screen and the monitor is detached from the base and only connected by a couple frail looking wires. (but hey, it still works so why would a fella want to upgrade a classic piece like that???). This leaves them with only 1 computer available. mine. Their solution to this problem is that they "obviously" need their own computer. I'm pretty sure Sweetie spearheaded this campaign.

They gathered allllllllllllll their money (except Lovey, she needed to keep $6 so she could become a member!) and put it together in a bucket. My aunt out west just sent them $20 each. Grandad gave them $5 each last week and they had other money from previous savings. Then they counted it all up and they're at $108 which, let's face it, couldn't even buy them Murray's craptop on ebay! So far they're very keen and dedicated to this shared savings project and asked for a job to earn money. I offered them $1 each to wash down walls in the kitchen. They snapped that up in a hurry.  However with distractions and disagreements, it took most of the day (off and on, of course!) to actually finish the job. At one point, Honey felt much too tired to continue and needed to "rest". I found her downstairs playing on Murray's workout bench and told her I was going to dock her pay if she didn't finish. The other two offered to pitch in to finish her section so she could "rest" which was ok with Honey. I said that would be fine and applauded their teamwork approach and using their fruits of the spirit. Then I sent Honey to really rest, in bed, in her room, fighting, whining and arguing all the way. (which only confirmed that she really did need a rest!)

So the "laptop" fund now stands at $111. Any bets on how far they'll get before it all goes to crap??? Oh and there's no way of knowing who started with what. Before I knew what they were doing, they'd already dumped all the existing funds together. In the meantime, I'll enjoy my clean kitchen!

So So Sunday

Yesterday seemed to start off ok, no one had any trouble in the morning so we got up & headed out to church. All went well and we had another nice bland meal for lunch! We took the rest of the afternoon easy and I caught some more of my online workshop and was enthralled at this chick's speed at editing and the images she's able to create. wow. I've got one volunteer to try out this style of portraiture already and can't wait for her shoot! I may be looking for more testers, look out, I may be coming after you! :)))

Despite our incredible germiness and questionable state of health, Grammie & Grandad weren't willing to pass up our Sunday dinner plans so we headed their way and tried not to breathe on them too much. 

When we arrived, Baby Pinecone was breaking a trail for Max that went around the house. He needed some assistance in getting it packed down nicely so we all did a few laps and voila, instant smooth trail!

As a rare occurrence, everyone ate their supper and qualified for the dessert round! I think that was the first desert I'd braved in a few days but it didn't cause any damage so I guess I'm pretty much recovered. We'll see how long my new snackless habit lasts now that food doesn't instantly give me nausea at the thought of it. I've only snacked once in the evening in over a week so that must be some kind of record!

On the way home, we stopped in to check out Grandad's curling game but could only stay for one end since it was getting late. We got home, got everyone tucked in and then, close to midnight, the yelling started. Honey had unloaded what appeared to be about three times what she'd eaten at dinner, all over her bed. Soooooo the flu's not entirely gone from our house yet. She had a lot to holler about and her bed was in no shape to return to and that was not an acceptable state of affairs for Her Royal Spewiness! Finally I gave her a blanket and she fell asleep on the bathmat. While waiting for her to conk out, I covered the couch in a waterproof sheet, put sheets on top and when she was out of it, I transferred her over and covered her up & hoped she wouldn't notice til morning! (it worked btw, whew!)

Swamp Time!

We went o  visit my cousin Jane & her family recently in their home, affectionately known as the Swamp. The girls and I went last summer and had so much fun! There was supposed to be a snowstorm so we were looking forward to lots of sliding and skiing and all sorts of outdoor fun!

Then it rained all night instead and our plans went right out the window! We still went outside but we didn't quite have as much white stuff to work with as we'd planned. The sliding hill there is nice and long, not overly steep but it goes forever!

Murray decided to use his cross country skis and they worked pretty well til the dog got in his path and didn't appear interested in budging. Murray tried to ski around him and it didn't go well. He ended up doing a face plant into the rough icy snow just after the dog sauntered off of course. When he came up the hill I thought he'd broken his nose, there was a lot of blood on his face from all the tiny cuts! He cleaned it up and had some bad snow rash for a couple of days but nothing broken!

The sliding was fun and Kevin gave the kids a tow back up the hill on the snowmobile so it was a win win for them! The cousins all had fun playing together and we had another great visit!

Movie Night!

Still suffering effects of the flu here! No major meals this weekend, sticking with bland as much as possible and had pancakes for supper last night.Then the girls decided to live dangerously and have popcorn for a snack but ran into a snag when Murray went looking for the microwave popcorn and came up empty handed. I had to be called in. Stovetop popped corn is beyond his area of expertise, he's never done it! He saw it for the first time (that he remembers anyway) a couple weeks ago when I left the pot on the stove for a minute and ran to grab a towel or something. He came to find me and asked "are you making popcorn on the stove?" I thought maybe he was annoyed about something and then I realized he was incredulous! I cracked up right then and there. My darling rocket scientist husband didn't know how to pop corn without an electronic gizmo!

Sweetie and Honey thought this whole thing was hilarious and insisted on making the popcorn themselves (everybody likes to feel smarter than the resident genius once in awhile!) Lovey must have been deeply engrossed in her video game or she'd have been all over this too.

We watched an old movie from the 80's, The Goonies. I saw it in high school so that's going back a tad! They liked most of it but found some of the parts a bit scary but it all worked out in the end so there weren't any nightmares luckily!