Roller Skating

Today I took all 4 kids roller skating-- by myself. It was a little crazy, but lots of fun. They let me take A out in the umbrella stroller. J held onto the back of that and skated between my legs. The boys either held onto my arms, back pocket, or the wall. It was the first time we've taken them, but by the end of the two hours, they were doing really good. I had forgotten how much fun rollerblading was, especially when J and T wanted to sit and pretend to drive the car video games on the side of the rink. I could see them the entire time, but could actually skate fast! The kids were very excited when I won the adult race as the fastest girl and won a free pop they all shared. The only minor casualty was when they convinced me to try the limbo. I made it under just fine, but crashed on my way back up and ended up with a nice goose egg on the inside of my knee. I iced it when we got home, and now it only hurts if I squat down. I can't wait to go back next month. Homeschool skate is every third Thursday from 10-12, or we'd be game to go in the afternoon if anyone wants to join us.

Then this afternoon they went to co-op and sewed aprons and played while I went Easter shopping with just 2 kids! I even had time to browse the clearance racks and found some great new shirts for under $2 at ShopKo. I remember when the boys were little it seemed hard to take both of them to the store, now just 2 seems like a piece of cake!!!! Will 4 ever seem that easy?

Cereal, Cereal, Cereal

Albertsons is having an awesome cereal sale this week. It worked out to about $0.29 a box with tax. A store near my sister let us preorder, so I called my mom and sister-in-law and ordered some for them too. When we went to pick it up at 6:30, there were still lots of corn flakes and frosted mini wheats, so we added an extra 42 boxes for the food bank. Between us we ended up buying 161 boxes of cereal for about $50 (only 30 are for me). This will last us until the next big cereal sale. The kids were SOOOO excited. T kept running around yelling, "We're rich, we're rich!"

And of course, they begged to have cereal for dinner, and since Stephen was gone to mutual, I had leftovers and let them enjoy pigging out on cereal!!!!

I love couponing and finding good deals!!!!

Writing on the walls

This past weekend we painted a wall in the kitchen with chalkboard paint. We also did the back of the boys bedroom door and one of J's closet doors. The kids are loving it, and it's fun to have drawings that they know we can't keep. We had a fun St. Patricks Day party this afternoon and the chalkboards were a hit with a lot of the kids. They would split up, draw something and run back to see what the other kids had drawn. It was a nice day and we enjoyed all the green treats and a casual afternoon of visiting.

Genealogy-- a breakthrough

I am super excited. I think I finally made a break through on a line of genealogy that has had us stumped! I made contact with a lady who sent me copies of the death certificates for my 2nd great grandparents. They had moved to Canada, not stayed in Minnesota. She said she also had pictures of them and of their graves in Canada and lots of other information. I have pictures and stories and documents back quite a ways on most of my other lines, but this one was just stuck!!!!

I think my dad and I may fly up to Washington to meet with her and get copies of the stuff she has. He also has an uncle up there I would like to talk to that is probably in his mid 80's. So my time to hear his stories is getting really limited.

YEAH, YEAH, YEAH!!!!!!!

Temple Time

We had an awesome Stake Conference this last weekend. I especially love the Saturday night adult-only session. President Costa of the Presidency of the Seventy was visiting-- he is an amazing speaker. The first two speakers talked about food storage and budgeting, so I was feeling pretty good. Then Pres. Costa talked about temples and challenged us to go as a couple ONCE A WEEK!!!! And I had thought we were doing good going once a month! He issued the challenge in all 3 sessions, priesthood, adult, and the general session. And he also made several promises of really good things that will happen if we do make the temple a priority.

At first I admit I kind of baulked. The hardest part for me is finding a babysitter for the kids. If I swap with someone, that takes 2 evenings of the week, and if I pay a babysitter, that gets expensive. Plus, Stephen isn't the best at taking me on dates as it is. I'm still waiting to go out for Valentines Day-- we were on our trip, but it's still been almost a month. Hint, hint.

Anyway, we talked about it and decided that we are going to do it. We went last Thursday right before Stake Conference, then we went again last night. And it was really nice. So if anyone wants to swap kids, let me know.

Favorite household helpers

I was tagged to share my household tools that I love and couldn't live without.

First is my KitchenAid. I use it at least once a day. I have the big professional one and can make 6 loaves of bread at a time.

Second is my Nutramill wheat grinder. I love it. In the time my yeast is proofing, I can grind all the flour for a batch of bread. Fresh bread with fresh flour, YUMMY!

Third is my big upright freezer. I would be lost without it.

Fourth is my Dyson vacuum. I've only had it a year, but it stills works just like when we bought it. I was tired of cheap vacuums that fizzled and stopped working good after 6 months. And a good vacuum is essential with a little one who eats EVERYTHING!!!! It's another tool that gets used at least daily.

The other tools that comes to mind, are the little nylon scrapers from pampered chef. I think they are only $1-2 each, but they are wonderful, for dishes, and scraping playdough off the table, for cleaning counters. . . . I bought some for my mom because I hated visiting have having to clean the kitchen without them.

And my Silpat, a flat pan liner thing that nothing sticks too. It makes clean up great.

Oh, on the cleaning side of things, I love Magic Erasers too.



Okay, anyone who read this all the way through is tagged. What household tools do you love? What ones were a waste of money?