Freedom....sort of

Finally C has started school and I am learning to enjoy my 2.5 hours of quiet time, alone.  With that said, I am making lists of things I can tackle "sans kids".  The list is long, but easy projects that can be done in the amount of time I have. 

The list continues as will my clean out areas...I am tackling the basement currently.  A dear childhood friend and her hubby are visiting us next weekend and staying with us.  We do not have a guest room (boo!)  so they will be taking over the basement and I want to make it clean and private for them to have a place to relax "sans kids".  I am deep cleaning this weekend, then adding finishing touches to the quick decorating I have done.

Our family room and the boys playroom are down there so there is plenty to clean out.  The toys need to be gone through (without them) to add batteries where needed, ditch any things that have snuck into bins and art work needs to be hung (there is a pile!!)  The family room side is quite clean and organized so there is little to be done but add some things for our guests to make them comfortable.  It is kind of exciting to have guests coming!!!

Next on the list is painting a bathroom, and then I will start to tackle our master bedroom.  Since I have limited alone time it will take some time, but I can do it. One wall at a time!  The budget is ZERO so I need to re-purpose items and get crafty.  I am now addicted (honestly!) to Pinterest and cannot believe the ideas I am finding there for so many things!! I love it!  I have made boards to organize them on the site and can mindlessly look at things, and "pin" them to a board.  It is so easy!!  Kids crafts, fashion, food, decorating...All the things I love to get ideas for! 

Off to take C to school and then get back here to work in the playroom...Its a rainy day here, but we have plans with our dearest friends here in town.  Pizza nights are back now that school is out.  This is our family time with them and we love our monthly dinners together.  Happily our kids love pizza night as much and M and I do! 

Raffle Mania

Happily J's school Raffle is almost upon us! (36 hours and counting...literally!) Between the baskets, the packaging, the descriptions, the volunteers, and the little "things" that need to be done, me and my faithful friend / co-chair are seeing a light at the end of the Raffle tunnel.  Our biggest goal for this event is to make sure everyone has fun and we raise a lot of $$ for school!

With that said, the family has been warned of the chaotic week I have, and have been patient and supportive (thank goodness!).  They get to enjoy the event while I work it so there is fun involved for them at the end of all of this chaos!  J is armed with a list of things he wants to win, C wants to run around in the indoor obstacle course and M, well he gets to be the chaperon for the kids since I will be busy.

These are just some of the things that have been residing in my living room for weeks!

 The DSi XL

Ipod Touch

I can happily announce that dinners and household chores have not been neglected.  Dinners have been on the easy side, and no new ones have been tried this week, but that is OK.  It's our week of favorites or the ones that I know are fast and easy with little prep time!  No one has gone hungry! Even laundry (which I would easily forget if I could) has been done and put away (the worst chore EVER). 

As much work and griping I give this event (and this is the 2nd year I am co-chairing it) at the end of it, it is fun. I enjoy the creative side of making the baskets and the signs. I love to see the students at school get amped up when they see me deliver another load of prizes. I like the fact that I am helping out at J's school getting to know all of the staff and teachers.  I never did this to become "that over involved mom", I did it to be a part of something that could help the school my kids will attend.  I believe helping the school is important for my kids and the kids that will attend there one day.  This is my last year chairing this event, but not my goodbye to helping out.  Between the Wizards event and being the VP of fundraising for the PTO for one more year, my active role in the school will still be there.  But it is time to let something go for me and my family.  I cannot imagine not doing something, but scaling back is a must for us.

Hello Friday, what took ya so long?

How come when your on "break" for two weeks, that the first week back to real life seems to DRAG?  I swear I was stunned when we hit Christmas and I was still living in November!  Now we are in full on slow motion and well, I do not like it one bit.  

The weekend has little "fun" planned.  Sadly Mommy has some volunteer meetings to attend for Jack's school on Saturday so my afternoon is really shot.  But I suppose I could say it will be great quality time for my 3 boys to have together.  I do have a new dinner planned with it's leftovers being straight to my non-cook friend T around the corner.  She does not cook...AT ALL....I mean her middle son actually asked her this summer "if she could pour? Like Milk mom?  Can you even pour milk?"  She can pour, she can even warm up, but ask yourself to dinner at her house, and her hubby J cooks it all!  And as a rule of thumb we NEVER, and I mean NEVER, pass up a dinner invite when J is cooking.  He is amazing!  Hell, we will even cancel on you if they invite us over!  

But I went off topic.....My new dinner is short ribs.  I told T about it and her response was "Oh, I do not eat food that I have to eat with my hands".  I told her these are not "rib RIBS" these are cooked in a wine sauce, the meat will fall off the bone etc.  She does not buy it.  So today while buying the short ribs, I bought one extra, just for T! Then she'll understand and want me to make more for her!

The rest of the weekend will be me, cleaning up, perhaps sanding more and priming even more than I did yesterday.  Home Depot was a bust as they had no sample sizes of the paint colors I wanted. I will try another Home Depot this weekend. I did not have it in me.  There is plenty to do, but with this Chicago weather, I would like nothing more than a cozy movie day / weekend on the couch.....Since I have children, I have not done that is well, 6.5 years to be exact....Oh to dream about it!