Tuesday's Tackle: musical bedrooms

My niece is arriving tomorrow to stay with us for the next 2 1/2 months. It will be a missions "internship" of sorts, but mainly being a "mother's helper" during the time that my husband is away in the States reporting to our churches and looking for some new support. I am soooo ready to have another adult in the house. OK, she is 23 so I understand that she is of another generation than me but I am very excited to get to know her better and I think we will work well together. I am hoping to get some projects done around the house with her help ..... mainly purging some clutter. One thing that needed to be done before she gets off the plane tomorrow is to deal with the bedrooms. #3 son and Princess have been sharing her room all summer because they could share a fan that way. Since he wasn't using his bed, it became a dumping spot for everything we had no other home for. Ditto for his floor and under the bed (aka the man cave). The other side of the room has been our storage spot but we needed to take down some of the Ikea shelves to make room to move a dresser into the room for Princess's clothes. She is moving over to big brother's room so her cousin can use her room while she is here. Today I totally cleared out the top of the bed, cleared out the underbed and turned the "man cave" into the "girly den". There is still a pile of boxes that needs to be gone through and dealt with but that will have to wait for another day. Tomorrow morning I will finish up the last straightening up of Princess's room and then head to the airport at noon to pick up my helper. I can hardly wait.









Check out 5 Minutes for Mom to see what others are tackling today.

Internet Woes

Wouldn't you know it, just after I blog that I am going to try to blog more regularly again, my internet goes crazy. First another ISP hijacked our line and left us with no option but to continue service with them for the next month or two since it will take at least a month to switch us back to the company we had. We got our router configured to work with the new company and then our new antivirus and firewall program decided to go Nazi on us and block all internet access from our desktop computer. The laptop still works plugged into the router so we know the router isn't the problem. However the laptop was supposed to be leaving on a two month trip with my husband the day after tomorrow. It may end up staying but that will put a crimp in his connectivity while he is away and will leave him doing all his work in longhand or borrowing someone else's computer. What a pain in the neck!

Who knows when I will get it all figured out. I will do my best to post whenever I can.

Tuesday's Tackle: Back To School, Back to Routines

The neighborhood pool closed Sunday. I broke down and wore pantyhose to church Sunday instead of sandals. The elementary school started yesterday. Summer is officially over here in my little corner of the world. Actually, I guess it ends tomorrow as my eldest doesn't go back to school till tomorrow. I have seriously neglected the blogging world this summer but now it is time to get my new routine down and I do hope and plan to include some blogging in that. (it is my quick creative outlet and a fun way to keep the family and friends informed)
Here's the threesome that headed off to kindergarten, 3rd grade and 6th grade Monday.


One way to get back in the groove is to jump back into some of my favorite weekly memes. Since I missed the chance to do Monday Meanderings and Menu Plan Monday yesterday, I will jump in with Tackle it Tuesday. However, one of the things I absolutely MUST DO is get back into the habit of weekly menu planning. I tackled that on the bus yesterday on the 45 minute ride downtown for my twice weekly torture sessions with the physical therapist and chiropractor. You can see the plan for this week here.

As always, laundry tops the list of things to tackle. Oy! It makes me tired just to think about it. We got behind on it and have let several days go by without throwing a load in so now the hampers are overflowing.

My niece is coming to live with us for a couple of months. She arrives in 2 weeks and we must get Princess's room ready to turn over to cousin Jenny and then get #3 son's room ready to share with Princess. Currently he and Princess have been sharing her room because his room became a dumping ground for all the stuff that no longer has a place in mom and dad's room when we got rid of a big piece of furniture that was overpowering the room. Unfortunately there was a fair amount of stuff being stored in it. Sooooooo, the main tackles for the next two weeks are:
1. Create a reasonable daily routine in the home and stick to it.
2. Get the two bedrooms ready and get rid of or find new storage homes for the extra stuff in N's bedroom.
3. Catch up on laundry.
4. Help my husband get ready for his big trip coming up next week. He will be out of the country for 2 months.

Check back next Tuesday to see my progress .... I will post pictures if I dare. Ü
And head on over to 5 Minutes for Mom to see what others are tackling today.

Menu for the week September 15-19

This week's menu was planned while I was on the bus for 45 minutes heading downtown to the chiropractor and physical therapist. At least something productive was accomplished on the drive. The weekend is still up for grabs.

Monday 9/15
Breakfast: Oatmeal, milk, juice
School Snack: peanut butter and crackers
Lunch: Spaghetti with meat sauce
Dinner: frozen "fried rice" with vegetables, scrambled eggs and leftover chicken added in


Tuesday 9/16
Breakfast: cold cereal, milk, juice
School Snack: cheese and crackers
Lunch: BLT's
Dinner: canned soup

Wednesday 9/17
Breakfast: cold cereal, milk, juice
School Snack: homemade spice cake or peanut butter cookies (whichever I feel like making Tuesday)
Lunch: Chicken parmesan, mashed potatoes
Dinner: left over spaghetti

Thursday 9/18
Breakfast: scrambled eggs, milk, juice
School Snack: fruit (whatever good deal I get at the outdoor market Wed.)
Lunch: cream of zucchini soup
Dinner: tuna melt sandwhiches

Friday 9/19
Breakfast: Spanish oil bread (toasted bagette topped with olive oil and crushed tomatoes) milk, juice
School Snack: tortilla roll-ups
#1 Son's birthday meal HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FIRST TEENAGER!!!!
Menu for the meal as per family tradition is up to the birthday child
Meat still to be determined .... either ribs or maybe baked ham
Cheese raviolis
corn
brussel sprouts (can you believe he chose this for his veggie??????)
Chufi Maestro horchatera horchata (a Spanish drink made from the tiger nut)
dessert -- flan

Chocolate cake with chocolate icing.
Neopolitan ice cream (or as we always called it in my family growing up ... van/choc/straw ice cream.)