Dear Flylady,

I’ve never written before, and honestly never thought that I would. Today though, I have to let you know how wonderful you have been for our lives!

I’ve been flying for about 3 years now, with many crashes, but luckily no burns. We have a 2 year old, and a 10 month old.

A few months ago, my father started having difficulty walking, and in the last month it really came to a head. He was falling and could no longer be alone. So, he started coming over here first thing in the morning when my mom went to work, and staying with us all day.

Then a week ago, he could no longer walk at all. Because of house layouts, it was decided he would simply stay with us, as he wouldn’t have to battle stairs.

Obviously, things here have been a little crazed what with a toddler, a baby, and now a non-mobile adult. So yesterday he went in for surgery and today, my in-laws are coming into town to help out.

Well, my goal has always been 10 minutes from company ready, just like you say. And, after the complete insanity of the last few weeks, today we were not only 10 minutes from company ready, but only 1 hour from Mother-in-Law ready! And that includes time to wash the guest room sheets, and remake the bed since my dad left yesterday!

Thank you Flylady!

I’m beginning to think that I should just not make a plan for Saturday night. Somehow, it always seems to get thrown by the wayside. Last night, instead of having the planned tacos, we picked up fried chicken and took it over to my folks house. So, tacos need to get moved to a night this week.

Also complicating this weeks plans, Friday is my mom’s birthday, Shabbat, and my father is having major back surgery that day. How do I make a Shabbat meal, that is birthday celebratory too, and that can be eaten at whatever time my mom and I get back to the house from the hospital? Do I ask my husband – who will be home with the kids that day so I can be at the hospital, to make Challah and the rest of dinner? Ack!

Oh, and my inlaws are coming in this weekend too. I love them and they are coming to help, but it makes meal planning even more “interesting”.

I guess the jist of all this prefacing this week is that the plan for this week will probably get thrown out completely due to all the complications, but here goes anyway.

Sunday: Pizza (probably will just pick one up at Costco today)

Monday: Tacos, beans, and rice

Tuesday: Dinner with my folks, which will probably actually be here, but I don’t know what yet.

Wednesday: Baked halibut, rice, veggies

Thursday: Split pea soup (week 3 split pea soup night wound up being 11 bean soup instead), homemade bread

Friday: Challah, salad, and lasagna

Saturday: Gumbo

Before going to bed last night, I made my husband help clean up. We got the living room all clean. The rug was vacuumed, the toys were all put away, floor swept, sofas straightened out, etc. It didn’t look like a spread from Better Homes and Gardens, but it did look reasonable. I was pleased.

90 minutes after the children woke up, this is what I’m looking at.

It’s snowing like crazy and 16 degrees outside, too cold to take my monsters out.

Anyone know if Calgon still answers?

Well, we did it! We managed to stick to the meal plan for the week with only one change! And that is today, because I forgot to take the chicken out last night to defrost.

So, for the coming week, here’s the plan:

Sunday: Roasted chicken, pasta, and veggies (held over from Saturday due to memory error)

Monday: Chili and cornbread

Tuesday: Dinner at my folks. (who knows?)

Wednesday: Fish (what type depends on what is on sale), rice, steamed veggies

Thursday: Butternut squash soup, homemade bread

Friday: Shabbat dinner – chicken soup w matza balls, Standing rib roast, roasted veggies , potatoes, challah, and a dessert of some sort.

Saturday: Beef stew with carrots, parsnips, potatoes, and Guinness.

Sorry about the long absence, life kinda gets in the way sometimes. Just a quick update here.

For Chanukah, we got Miriam and Asher a play kitchen! Miriam thinks it is the best thing, ever. It may even be a better toy than her Uncle N, we’ll have to see when he comes over for Shabbat dinner.

Anyway, DH and my dad put the kitchen set together last night and the kids only got to play with it for about an hour before it was bedtime. So, this morning I got Miriam up, made her breakfast, and handed her a sippy cup of milk, just like normal. She took one sip of the milk, and then went and put it in the play fridge! She was so proud of herself!

I think we’re going to have to be checking the play kitchen for real food regularly.

My husband and I are very careful with our money.  We eat out occasionally, but we rarely purchase “stuff”.  We cloth diaper our kids, and I breastfeed – so no formula or diaper expenses.  Our kids wear a lot of hand-me-downs, kids grow so fast and our kids don’t care about their clothes anyway.  I think grand total this year, my husband and I have spent under $200 on clothes for ourselves.  Our debt (non-mortgage) is very very low.  One of our cars is completely paid off, and the other will be soon.  Otherwise, we keep our credit card and other debt to a level that we can pay off every month.

So, why do I obsess so much about what others think about how I choose to spend our money?  Because when I do buy something, I generally buy something expensive.

Miriam’s high chair is a TripTrap chair.  Yes, I spent $250 on her high chair, and plan to do the same in the next few months on a chair for Asher.  It’s a solid wood, well constructed, adjustable chair that doesn’t have a tray – so the kids sit at the table with us.  It will work for them in their rooms later on as desk chairs, but until then, they’ll each have thier very own chair at the dining room table.  The chair holds up to 300 freaking pounds!

$250 for a chair that will last their entire lives doesn’t seem like a bad decision to me.

So, now I am in the market for a kitchen play set.  The library purchased one recently, and Miriam LOVES the thing.  However, I don’t want plastic, and I want something that is durable enough to last two toddlers (and friends) the entire length of “kitchen set play”.  It would be even better if it’s something I can put away when they are done with it for when they have kids.

When I was little, my dad put together a kitchen playset of us made of sheet metal.  He cut his hands up really bad making it.  If I were skilled, or if DH had time, I’m sure we could make one that would meet our wants and needs, but neither of those are true.

So, the play kitchen that I’m looking at is $200.  I know I could pick one up much cheaper at target, made of plastic or plywood, and have to replace it in a year or two.  Instead, I’m going to lay out the money once, and be done with it.

Terry Pratchett wrote a great explanation of wealth.  To paraphrase it, a poor man buys a cheap pair of boots because it is all that he can afford, and has to replace them every 6 months.  A wealthy man buys a pair of boots that costs 4 times as much, but never has to replace them.  They last forever.

I believe that the path to true wealth is to buy quality, not quantity.

So, I’m not going to apologize for spending a fortune on a high quality toy which will be a combination birthday and hanukah gift for my child instead of buying 9 seperate plastic toys which require batteries and will be broken within the year.

This is the right decision for us, and anyone who judges me for it can take a flying leap!  Especially that little voice inside that always judges me.  She can just shove off! 

We are home, and glad to be so.  It’s a lot of fun to visit family and friends, but it is also very, very nice to be home.  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and are so far past tired that we are approaching it from the other side (whatever that means).

Traffic was decent, but not insane.  The weather was fairly cooperative for the drive home, and there is nowhere near the 10+ inches of snow on the ground that we were hearing about this morning.  In fact, I don’t think there is any at the moment.  Tomorrow is another matter though.

We are tired.  Did I mention that?

Oh, and I think that if we try to put Miriam in the car seat again, she will run away.  Seriously.

Love and hugs to all.  Hope I didn’t miss anything too important over the last week.  I’ll try to get caught up, but it may take a while.  For now, I’m off to bed.

I was working on dinner last night. Wait, no. DH and I were both working on dinner.  We were making tacos. Miriam was already in the highchair, and we were getting things ready to go out to the table.  Guacamole, check. Lettuce, check. Salsa, still in the fridge, let me grab it.

Yes, we eat Gringo tacos.  We are Gringos, so it’s okay.

I opened up the fridge to grab the jar of salsa, and then was suddenly seeing stars. Lots of stars. Oh, and pretty birdies too. They were dancing with the stars.  Hey, isn’t that the name of a t.v. show these days?

I was telling a story, right.

So, stars. And birdies. Then a “thunk”. There is a glass vase on the floor at my feet.  Wait a second. Doesn’t that vase live on top of the fridge for when my darling husband buys me flowers?  Yeah, it does.

So why is it on the floor?

DH started laughing, and quickly stopped himself when he saw my dazed expresion.

Apparently, the vase fell off the fridge, bounced off my skull, and then landed safely on the floor.

I got quite the headache. This morning there is a pretty lump, and still a headache.

Somebody come pamper me today.

I have completely fallen off the wagon. The FlyLady wagon that is.

My sink is full of dirty dishes.  My hotspots are buried under so much assorted crap I can’t even see them anymore.  I have no idea what dinner will be tonight.  I was up for over 2 hours before I got dressed, and I had to go down to the laundry room to even find a shirt.  My shoes are on the other side of the room.  I don’t even know where my control journal is.  Oh, and I have dust bunnies the size of tumble weeds!

How did I fall so far, so fast?  A large combination of things could take the blame, but blame doesn’t matter right?  I should just “jump right in where I am now”.  Ugh. Just the thought of setting my timer for 10 minutes and clearing my hotspots makes me want to cry.

How about my fairy godmother comes and rescues me with a flick of her magic wand.  Please?  I don’t even know where to begin, and I don’t have the energy to try.

Nope.  The remnants aren’t scheduled to reach us until Sunday.  This flooding of our entire street, and basement, is brought to you by a regular every day storm.

Needless to say, the sump pump is going nuts trying to keep up with the water pouring through the basement windows.

Ughh.

Photos do not do the amount of water justice.