Round two ...

It was only a matter of time and now, time is here.

Our house is going back up for sale this evening.

We were in quite a bit of a financial jam this time last summer and ended up putting our house up for sale. We left it on the market for the entire contract of six months, but did not sell it, obviously. We had some interest and some offers but none that we could accept. They were quite a bit lower than our asking price and we couldn't go very low and stay in the black, which was the goal.

The sale of our other house plus our income tax refund last spring bailed us out of the jam and so when the realtor's contract expired we didn't renew. We knew that we would come to this point again and felt deep down that we should keep the house on the market, but frankly, we were tired.

We have come to the realization that not being able to make our mortgage payment is more of a permanent situation than a temporary one. In light of that we must make another valiant effort to reduce our monthly housing expenses, and we start by selling our current house.

The housing market is no better, probably worse. But we must give it another try. I did discover an interesting and very helpful piece of information today in talking with the mortgage company. No one shared this with us before because we evidently didn't ask the right questions, and a mortgage company or a realtor isn't going to volunteer this information because no one makes money like this. There is something called a short sale that can be done when you cannot make your mortgage payments and must sell your home, but cannot get the value of the loan. Your realtor submits some paperwork to the mortgage company and you submit some detailing the family's income and expenses. The mortgage company may or may not approve the sale for less than the value of your loan and your debt will be considered paid in full.

Now, this information, as helpful as it is, would have been more helpful last spring. We had a very interested buyer who made us a sincere offer, but it was a few thousand dollars less than what we owed on the house. We couldn't come up with the difference since we had just forked over quite a bit to prevent foreclosure (another lesson we learned last summer) so we had to pass on the offer. If we had known about this short sale option, we would have most certainly tried to get that approved.

Maybe this time we can stash this information away and use it if we must.

I didn't expect the house to go up for sale so soon and now I have all manner of cleaning to do. My husband called our realtor yesterday and they set up an appointment for this evening. He'll be coming by with paperwork and a sign for the yard.

We'll be going back to living in a bare bones house and a lot of hurried house cleanings for showings. It's not easy living in a house you are trying to sell when you have five kids in the house all day long every day!

We are hoping that we can sell the house and find other, less expensive, quarters. Things won't be any easier on us financially but we would like to at least be able to meet our bills each month. We've pared down to about as little as we can expense-wise and no one is able to take on any more work. My husband is already working two jobs and I am doing the best I can with mine.

We may have some changes on the horizon soon!

Again ...

We are getting ready to put our house up for sale, again. We had it for sale from August to February of this year and took it off the market after our contract with the realtor expired. We had some offers but we couldn't go as low as the offers and still come out in the black.

We could have either renewed with the realtor or put our own sign out in the yard and kept it on the market, but frankly, we were tired. We were able to get ourselves out of the fix we had been in, albeit temporary and we knew that. Reality is hitting and before it gets too bad, it is time to try to sell the house again.

It's not something we want to do, not something we wanted to do before, but it's getting to be a bit much and there's not any real relief ahead.

I'm running some lists of a few minor improvements we need to make to the interior of the house through my mind right now, and will post them in a day or two. I also have to make lists of what I need to do to each room to make it presentable, and then there are the lists of things to do to the house before each showing. I still have the showing lists and will post it later on when we actually get the house back on the market.

Now the memories of getting the house in order for a showing, four kids ready for school (well, two actually come ready), and all of them plus a baby out of the door by 7:30 a.m. headed to school are coming back to me. Not that I could forget them!

New house in the family

My sister-in-law finally got tired of crazy neighbors, nutty office people, AND her rent going up so she is moving out of her apartment in to a house! She started the move today and will have it completed the first of next week.

It's a great house, much bigger than her apartment and is the same price per month as her apartment. She really likes it and the kids do too.

They are still about the same distance away from us as they were (five minutes maybe) and in the same part of town.

The house has a huge kitchen, a good-sized living room, a bathroom, and two bedrooms. There are big closets everywhere and a laundry/storage room to die for. She's also got an outside storage shed/garage and a nice backyard. The area is right beside the interstate but it is quiet without a lot of traffic and people walking up and down the streets.

It's got us to thinking about trying to sell our house again to find cheaper living quarters. We love our house but the payments are consistently too much to handle these days with no change in sight. The last time we tried to sell our house we couldn't go low enough on the price to get rid of it because we hadn't been there long enough to pay all that much on it. We have briefly discussed either getting our same realtor back or putting it up for sale by owner.

Provided we can sell it, we are much more familiar with the area now to know where to look for quality but economical housing, and we have a sister/SIL who is obviously wonderful at it who we can get to help us! ;)

In the meantime the girls are going to enjoy riding their bikes around out in the new backyard. It's flat and so is the road behind the house!

Nine years ago on this day ...

My first child was born.

It's hard to believe that I have a child who is nine years old and that I've been a mom for nine years.

Those first couple of years with her were really rough but she mellows out with each passing year.

Now of course she has a six-year-old sister and a 14-month-old brother!

Nine years ago today ...

I was at the end of my first pregnancy and ready to have my first child! My due date (the day before, July 7) had come and gone with me lying on the couch to prevent another blood pressure spike like the one I had experienced two days ago, on July 6.

At 4 a.m. on the morning of July 8, my water broke! How exciting! I went back to sleep for another couple of hours and then got in trouble with my husband when I told him two hours later. We got ready to go and headed to the hospital an hour away. We stopped to help some stranded motorists on the way, a story that is funny now but back then seemed perfectly normal. I wasn't having any contractions and my husband always stops to help people on the side of the road.

The day progressed slowly at the hospital and finally at about 7 p.m. the doctor and my mom thought it might be best for me to receive a small amount of Pitocin. This would stimulate my contractions and get things progressing, which really needed to happen seeing that my water had already broken. I was very hesitant but I trusted the doctor and even more so, my mom.

Boy, did things ever get going. That was a really long and painful labor but that child still wasn't born nine years ago today. She was born nine years ago TOMORROW! She was born at 12:41 a.m. on July 9.

Before I was a Mom

(This was on one of my favorite message boards and I just love it.)

Before I was a Mom


Before I was a Mom
I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby,
I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous,
and I never thought about immunizations,

Before I was a Mom I had never been
puked on
pooped on
chewed on
peed on
I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts
and I slept all night

Before I was a Mom
I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests
or give shots,
I never looked into teary eyes and cried,
I never got gloriously happy over a simple smile,
and I never sat up all night watching a baby sleep

Before I was a Mom
I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to
put them down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I
couldn't stop the hurt,
I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much,
I never knew that I could love something so much,
and I never knew I would love being a Mom

Before I was a Mom
I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body,
I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby,
I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child,
and I didn't know something so small could make me feel so
important and happy

Before I was a Mom
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to
make sure all was okay
I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the
wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom

Most of all I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much, before I was a Mom

Another ear infection (Saturday morning doctor run)

The baby has another ear infection, the doctor has just declared this Saturday morning.

This is the third one he's been diagnosed with in his short 14-month-old life.

He's to take an antibiotic for 10 days, ear drops for pain a few times a day, saline and vapor rub for stuffy nose. The doctor made all of that sound so very easy to administer. I think I'll call him when it's time for the medicine fight. ;)

I'm not really surprised with this trouble (ear infections, etc.) When he was born I had the feeling that he'd have allergies and eczema, and I started looking for them right away. Sure enough, they happened.

His eczema was officially diagnosed at five months of age. He uses a one-percent hydrocortisone cream and lots and lots of petroleum jelly for that!

Looks like we are going to have lots of trouble for the next few years. One of his older sisters had eczema (she grew out of it thankfully) but still has allergies.

So cute!

The baby signed "I love you" to his dad last night! It was so cute and unexpected. He was waving "good night" to his dad when I put up the "I love you" sign and he actually copied it! He held his middle finger down with his thumb, which is really quite similar to how his six-year-old sister signs it!

He knows several signs — Momma, milk, more being the main ones — but very rarely uses them. He also knows how to say a lot of words but again he rarely speaks. When he does, it is usually a word he hasn't said before and it's very clear. He just prefers to communicate in "caveman." As you can imagine that involves a lot of grunting, screaming, and hitting.

Recipe collection (more cooking in store)

Since I was griping and whining about all the cooking that I am now doing on a daily basis in my previous post, I thought I'd point out that I'm keeping an online recipe collection/blog called I Hate the Kitchen. (Yes, I really do hate the kitchen.)

It's got a lot of really easy recipes that I've either made up, have tried, or am planning to try in the near future.

This is working out better than my paper collection, and I do use the term "collection" very loosely.

I've also subscribed to a daily newsletter from All Recipes that has good ideas.

Posting on the Internet does seem to make the daily dreaded chore of cooking a thousand times (okay, it's only three but it seems like a whole lot more) slightly more pleasant.

Summer break (is it over yet?)

This morning I was hit with a stunning revelation as I woke up. It was both good news and bad news, but mostly bad.

Being as it was the first day of July, that meant that I had survived ONE WHOLE MONTH of summer break. That's the good news.

But there is another MONTH and a HALF of summer break left. That is the bad, awful, terrible news.

I have felt terribly overwhelmed this summer, especially on Mondays. My husband has been home on the weekend and so has helped with all the kids. (By all the kids I mean our three and our two nieces.) I'm left by myself with all of them on Mondays so I guess I struggle to get back into the swing of things at the beginning of each week.

I feel like I've been blindsided by the constant cooking, sweeping, fighting, somersaulting, mess-making, more cooking, and more sweeping that goes on continually and my inability to control any of it.

The funny thing is, I'm surprised by these feelings I'm having because I had planned on a very nice summer with the kids. I had planned two or three workdays for myself (Monday-Wednesday, of course very flexible) during which time they would do quiet activities around the house and play outside. We'd take one of the last days of the week and do a fun "field trip." We made a list of fun (and free!) things we could do around town and all looked forward to doing our activities.

We got off to a late start on our trips, sad to say, and still haven't caught up. I do feel like I'm getting a little work done, although the house looks like a tornado tore through every single day.

This summer has been a disappointment for me for all of those reasons and because last summer was so nice. I made my mind up last summer that it was just going to be awful, what with three more kids than normal to take care of all day long (the new baby plus my two nieces had just moved over by us). I made plans for friends to drop their kids off at our house, and the kids had fun with their friends right here. It worked wonderfully. We also did some visiting ourselves on the weekends when my husband was around.

So I figured if last summer turned out nicely then this summer surely would. How wrong I was. I just don't seem to be able to get a handle on everything going on.

Every day is just a big mess of cooking breakfast, cleaning up from that, trying to do a few minutes of work, cooking lunch and cleaning up from that, trying to work awhile and clean up the house before figuring out what to cook for supper. In the meantime I'm sweeping the floor 10 times, wiping up spills, dealing with all manner of whining, crying, tattling and tending to the baby. I'm tired of it. I don't have the energy to think much about our field trips or even my errands I need to run.

I've been trying to get the kids to help me clean up and take care of the baby but sometimes it's so much trouble. I expend more energy trying to get them to help me than I would if I just did it myself.

Well, to be fair I know that most people deal with a lot more than this every day, and there are some things I could do to make things easier on myself.

But honestly I am not looking forward to the rest of the summer. I know that's awful but it's the truth. *sigh*

Free labor (not really that free)

Here's my little son, willingly sweeping the floor. He likes the Swiffer too.

His sisters are not as willing to help with housework, but I just announced to them that they must participate. They are folding towels right now and are going to have the laundry presented to them for folding all week, I'm afraid. Between trying to work and take care of them and cook and clean and ... well, I just don't have the time to do everything that needs to be done.

Although right now I expend more energy trying to get them to complete a task than I would if I just did it myself, they need to know how to do housework and I need the help.

Big day (or two) of fun

My kids had a big day (really two) of fun last week. We started off the day with a trip to the humane society for a new program they have called "Smarty Cats." It involves reading to their cats, of all things. When I heard about it I thought it was so crazy and I just had to submit the idea for a story. It was approved so off we went to read to the cats. Just as I expected, cats are not very good listeners but the girls had fun playing with them anyway.

After playing with the cats we went down to a worm farm to check that out for a story. We found out how to run a worm farm and we also saw his day lilies, organic garden, and a pond that the man built himself. The girls had great fun looking at the goldfish in the little pond.

That night we took them out to the river to see a screening of "Happy Feet." They show movies for free every Wednesday night in the summer on a huge screen right on the river. The movie was stupid to me but the kids liked it.

They walked over a new bridge after the movie and then all the girls went home together to my husband's sister's house. Oh boy, a slumber party for them, and some peace and quiet for us!

After everyone finally woke up and got around the next day, the kids and their auntie/mom went to the store for picnic stuff (I ran into them there and ended up with two of them) and then everyone came back to our house for a back porch picnic. They followed that up with a dip in the new pool their auntie/mom got for them.

Wow, now that was a lot of fun packed into two days.

Baby's walking!

The baby, who is now 13½ months old, started walking this past Sunday! We were all sitting around dressed waiting on time to go when he just started toddling around. He's been working on getting ready to walk for some time now and this past Sunday afternoon he was finally ready!

He's so cute because he holds his arms up and out and plods like a zombie. Now he's even more destructive than ever with the new world that walking opens up to him.

He's been able to climb up the stairs for some time now, but with him being able to walk we have to put the gate up at the bottom of the stairs if he's downstairs and at the top of the stairs if he's upstairs. He was walking around upstairs yesterday and got frighteningly close to the stairs. His balance is still a tad off, of course, and it would take nothing for him to topple down the stairs.

It's really neat to see him walking around and the entire family is getting a huge kick out of it!

First comes love ...

Then comes marriage. And then, along with your guy with a baby carriage, is the problem of how to stay that way. Married, that is.

Here's a little something I wrote earlier this year. It pertains to marriage but of course living the mom life usually requires living the wife life!

Top Ten Ways to Have a Long Marriage
By Michelle Wallace
2008

(My David Letterman-style list)


10. Learn to love your father-in-law's face. Your husband will look just like that in a few years.

9. Be sweet to his mother. She knows what's really going on but he's just happy the two women in his life love each other so much.

8. Just accept the fact that his friends are weird and there's nothing you can do about it.

7. Don't argue about money. It's pointless to argue about something that doesn't exist.

6. Pick up his dirty socks and underwear. He certainly doesn't care that they are lying there stinking up the place.

5. Speaking of cleaning, if he cleans, that's just wonderful. If he doesn't, you do it since you're the only one who's bothered by all the junk anyway.

4. Don't talk during the ballgame.

3. Have lots of ***.

2. Since you're having lots of ***, there'll probably be lots of babies. Because of that, you can't ever get away from him anyway so you may as well stay married.

And the #1 way to have a long marriage ...

NEVER, EVER SHARE A CLOSET. :-)

First week of summer break is over!

Whew, the first week of summer break is finally over. That was one long, hard week. I'm already looking forward to school starting back.

In honor of getting through the first week of summer break, my husband took me on a date tonight! Before he got off work he asked his sister to take all the kids (the baby included) and told me to decide where I wanted to go to eat. All the kids went home with my sister-in-law when she got off work. Everyone was excited about going roller-skating and bike-riding in the park.

I had planned on spending the evening in front of the TV watching back-to-back episodes of my favorite show, "What Not to Wear," but since I'd been given other instructions, I put on a nice outfit and some makeup. I couldn't decide where I wanted to eat but developed a taste for shrimp and alfredo pasta somewhere along the afternoon.

After my husband got home we hopped in the vehicle and headed out to the "restaurant strip" in town. I suggested Carino's but didn't really care, so we decided on Applebee's because the parking lot was not as full as Carino's.

Afterward we went to Best Buy to buy an Ethernet card for the desktop and went home! We made it home just in time for the start of an episode of "What Not to Wear." Not very romantic, I know!

The kids were still skating so their auntie brought them home when they finished. Our two girls were really excited because their auntie had just bought them some new skates! That gives us something else to do this summer ... go skating in the park some and even go to the skating rink.

Summer reading program at the library

The girls are excited about getting started in the summer reading program today at the local library. Registration begins today, but I registered my older daughter online this past weekend with her library card. We're heading up to the library this afternoon and will get my older niece a library card. We'll enroll the two older girls along with the two younger girls and check out some books for everyone, too.

We got a jump start on checking out the books this past weekend. My older daughter got bored and asked to read some of my books, so we dashed up to the library to check out some books. I told her to pick out three or four thick books, so maybe that will keep her occupied for a while.That also gets her set up to start reading for the summer reading program!

Everyone who enrolls in the summer reading program gets a bag, a button, a pencil and a reading log to record the number of books they read! My older daughter will have a good time writing down all the books she'll be reading. They can also report online or call the library once a day with the number of chapters they've read.

They'll get a sticker (displayed on a sheet at the library) for every three chapters they read, or for each book a younger child has read to them. There are special incentives in store every week for the kids who report the number of chapters they've read! I'm expecting the two older girls to stay busy with their reading and reporting of chapters to the library every day or pretty much every day.

Kids' websites

Summer break is now upon us and my kids will be having to spend some of their time quietly indoors while I work. They'll be busy reading, watching TV, helping me with the baby, playing school, doing crafts, and playing on the Internet.

I'm on the lookout for some good kids' sites for playing games, doing crafts, printing worksheets, etc.

Here are some sites we love:

www.pbskids.org (their favorite)

www.schoolexpress.com (my favorite)

And a few new ones I want to check out ...

www.freekidcrafts.com

www.janbrett.com

There is a wonderful list of kids' sites at Mommy Jobs, my favorite Work at Home Mother site, that we will be making use of as well.

Now that I have a laptop along with the desktop I can work on one and let the kids have the other for playing games or getting on the Internet.

What are some of your favorite sites?

Glad that's over (well, sort of)

These last two weeks have been exhausting as I've been constantly on the go end-of-the-school-year activities, appointments for the kids, and my normal three-times-daily trips to the school for drop-offs, pick-ups, and to tend to my niece's meals/insulin shots.

The kids' last day was yesterday, and I'm glad the running back and forth is over. The official last day of school will be Monday, but I think I might oversleep that day! ;-)

of course the end of school doesn't mean there's any time to rest! It means I'll have five kids (my three all the time and my two nieces when their mother is at work) to care for, feed, entertain, etc. five days a week!

Reading together

We've always loved reading with our kids. Our eight-year-old third grader now devours books like I used to, and our six-year-old kindergarten child is doing very well. For a class assignment this year she has written down all the books she's read each month. Her list is usually pretty long. All the students who have read 10 or more books for the month get a prize, and she has always gotten a prize. This month her list is not as long but each book title has several marks beside it, because we've read the same ones over and over to her!

We are going to get them signed up for the summer reading program at the library next week, so that's exciting.

Here's a good article about the benefits of reading with your kids:

The Benefits of Reading To Your Child

By: Rhonda Gales

To prepare your child for academic success, expose them to books early. Studies have shown that reading is one of the keys to academic success. My daughter loved for me to read aloud when she was a child, especially at bedtime. She loved Strawberry Shortcake, The Berenstain Bears, and any classic bedtime story. As she got older her interest would change, but she continued to read for hours. At age 27 she still loves to read. She follows Oprah's book club and she is a member of Walden's Books as well. One of my fondest memories will be our book fair excursions. We would plan a day where I would meet her at college and we would spend hours at the local book fair. Later we would discuss our finds as well as the latest happenings on campus over dinner. I do believe that our mutual love for books helped to create a strong mother - daughter bond.

My daughter was an honor student, a member of Who's Who in America, and a member of the Spanish Honor Society. I believe that her early exposure to books helped her to excel in her academics. Start reading to your child at an early age. It' never too soon.

Benefits of Reading to Your Child:

·Reading together creates a bond.
·Reading helps to build a child's vocabulary. If there was a word that my daughter didn't understand she would ask what the word meant. It's a perfect opportunity to expose them to the dictionary and read the definition to them.
·Your child will learn to follow a story from beginning to end. (You won't be able to fool them if you try to skip pages. If it's one of their favorite stories, they will know it by heart).
·Your child will have an appreciation for writing as well. My daughter decided to create her own stories. She would sit for hours writing, drawing pictures, and later reading her stories to me.
·Strong academics.

Reading Tips:

·Start reading to your child as early as 6 months. Children this age will usually want to eat their books. Vinyl books would be appropriate for this age group.
·Select reading material that interest your child and is appropriate to his/her age group. Toddlers love bright colors and books that are simple (without a lot of illustrations). Board books are perfect.
·Use different voices and pitches (vary your tone) when you read. Young children usually prefer to hear the same story over and over.
·Purchase a personalized book for your child. They love reading about themselves.
·PBS has great programs where they focus on words, spelling, and their meaning. Check out your TV Guide for time slots and programs.
·Have your child turn the page when you're reading. This gets them involved.
·Allow your child to ask questions, and be sure to ask your child questions about the story.
·Introduce them to book stores early, and allow your child to select books from his or her age group.
·Take them to the local library for story hour. Be sure to get them a library card.
·Set an example. If your child sees you reading, they will follow.
·Don't substitute books on tape. The true bonding experience and benefits come from you taking the time to read to your child.

Article Source: http://www.mommy-articles.com

About the Author - I'm the mother of a beautiful daughter and owner of an on-line business, Rhonda's Fabric Gift Baskets. For unique baby gifts, visit us at www.fabricgiftbaskets.com. We feature diaper cakes, onesies, hand-crocheted dresses, sweaters, and christening gowns for infants. Gift baskets for all occasions! Be sure to visit our blog, Mother 2 Mother, at www.mother-2-mother.blogspot.com.

Summer break getting closer

This is the last week of school and it's going to be a busy week! We (that is, the girls do) have a song/dance group performance one day and a field day/talent show another day.

The performance will be on Tuesday at their school. It's the last show of the year.

The field day and talent show will be Thursday, and children whose parents attended parents' night last week can come to school out of uniform! The kids are so excited about not having to wear a uniform that day. The field day part of the day will be full of outdoors activities, and the talent show will be that afternoon.

I'm not really ready for them to be out of school but it's here whether I want it to be or not. I'm certainly not looking forward to all their yelling and arguing and all the cooking and cleaning up after them that I'm going to have to do. Oh well. I'm still hoping for a good summer.

We're going to get things going next week by getting all the girls signed up for the reading group at the library, and we've got several other trips to local places planned for the summer.