A Wild Couple of Weeks at the Hive!

Just after that last post about my wonderful kids, we got hit with the tummy bug. It started with Esther, then spread through most of the rest of the family over a week. It was a strange bug... not very severe, but lingering. A child would go 8, 10, or more hours without using a bucket, then all of a sudden need one. My Valentine's day here was spent running a bucket brigade.

Thankfully, Dale, myself, Isaac, and Josiah never got it, and it has been almost a week since the last "episode" so I think we are in the clear.

After everyone was done with the buckets (you'll notice I am refraining from using the crude "throwing up" phrase!) I took a couple of days and washed ALL bedding including matress covers and pillows, along with all the quilts, blankets, sheets, pillow cases that were near or used by the sickies. I also sprayed and scrubbed the house like crazy, in hopes of preventing any relapses. Whew!

Then a very good thing happened. I know I am weird, and most ladies wouldn't be happy about this, but Dale was put on lay off. The reason I can be happy is because first of all, I know God is in control. Also, it happens around this time every year, and I look forward to it. Knowing it is coming, we can plan accordingly. We also know he will be going back to work in about 4 weeks or less, so it isn't indefinate.

I love Dale, so don't get me wrong when I say that having him home has been a distraction to say the least. A good one, to be sure. Monday we ditched school in the morning to go out with the kids to do the errands. We all needed the fresh air anyway, so it was a good thing.

Tuesday was a somewhat "normal" day, whatever that means.

Wednesday I had a little "straw that broke the camel's back" episode. I just couldn't stand it anymore. I had to do something about the pig stys that masquerade as the kids' bedrooms. We spent the day sorting, decluttering, cleaning their rooms. I helped the girls go through each and every one of their drawers and sorted clothes. It is amazing how much room was left after sorting! I also helped (aka.. took over much to their chagrin) with throwing stuff away. There were TONS of little peices of paper.. trash.. everywhere! Like jumbo sized confetti. We cleaned out their toy bins. We sorted, decluttered and threw out whatever I could get away with.

Benjamin, at 13, is on his own. As long as it passes inspection, I didn't care what he did. Ah, the advantages of being the oldest!

The little boys are continuing their endeavors today. They assure me they don't need my help. Personally, I think the girls told them about my throwing away spree, and they are too apprehensive to have Mama go in and help. Chickens.

Meanwhile, I have no finished projects to post about, but am close to finishing a couple. The "Just Because" quilt has been slower getting finished that I thought. The back is almost done, just a couple of final seams then it will be all pieced. Then I will set it aside until I can get some batting. I can't wait to get it quilted and finished. I REALLY like how it is coming out.

I did manage to get our slip on blouses cut out the other day, so after I finish the back today I'll start sewing those up.

I have been knitting in the evenings after the kids are in bed and am almost done with a BSJ for Isaac... er, or Jerusha. I upped the size on it by using bigger needles and I think it was a little overkill. It could very well fit Jerusha before Isaac grows into it. I have also started a soaker using the Curly Purly pattern on Ravelry. It is my first time knitting in the round and I feel like I am all thumbs! Of course, it helped after I realized I was knitting the thing inside out, instead of the the right way. Doh!

We are having some winterish weather today. There are certain people in our church who always makes me laugh because when the forecast says "snow" they go into a near panic over the "big storm" that is coming out way. What the weather thing online says is 3 to 5 inches of snow. It will be wet and heavy because of warmer temperatures, and winds builiding up to 20 to 30 mph, with possible gust over 40. So, the "big storm" I heard about from "someone" at church was presented last night as lots of snow, with hurricane winds of up to 60 mph, and we'll probably lose power, and oh how nasty it is going to be.

Ha! Where we used to live, this was a common occurance. The snow, winds, and the power outage happened quite often. Just be prepared, and ride it out. We are making extra bread and I'm making a huge pot of ham soup, and we have water drawn for drinking etc. We have the woodstove for heat. At the very least, if we don't lose power, at least I won't have to cook for a few days. LOL

Put your big boy pants on and deal with it people. It's winter for crying out loud! (imagine me giggling wildly here, because I love it!).

Okay, back to work for this mama!

Blessings!