Locked Out

So, today started out abruptly. Nick woke me up at 6:15 to see if I could take him to work. The tires are bald on his car and he didn't want to drive it in the snow...me being the wonderful wife that I am....I rolled over and went back to sleep. He bundled up the kids. I finally peeled myself out of bed and took Nick to work. It was kind of nice being up before the usual scheduled time, Chloe and Ethan were ready to go to school early. So, we bundled up again and I dropped the kids off at school. I decided I needed to get the Christmas presents out of the van and wrap them while the kids were at school. Bailey and I ran to the store, bought some wrapping paper and made it back home. I grabbed the three rolls of paper and the bags full of presents....Bailey, in the meantime, had pulled off her hat and mittens and was out of the van playing in the snow! I locked the van and struggled with all the bags to the door. Bailey then started to cry because her hands were hurting from being too cold....I rambled off something about "that's what you get when you leave your mittens in the van" but really, I'm starting to panic...where are my keys? I check my pockets, no keys. I drop the bags and go back to the van....locked.....no keys on the ground....oh no....it can't be....I go back to the front of the house.....Bailey's still crying, I swoop her up and look in all the bags, check my pockets again and no keys! What the heck am I going to do? Now, remember, I drove Nick to work, he can't come home and let me in....Luckily, my brother has a spare key....I called him at work and he laughed at me and said he would be on his way.....So, I decided that Bay and I need to go to the garage since she has no hat or mittens (neither did I, but that's what you get for leaving them in the van). We stomp down the sloping yard and both fall flat on our backs.....now we're all wet, head to toe......we make it through the gate and then to the shed.....I'm looking through the Halloween tubs to find a Halloween blanket, can't find it so a table cloth will have to do....Bailey and I finally make it to the garage. We cuddled up in a patio chair with a Halloween table cloth to comfort us and told each other stories....probably 20 minutes later, Super Luke arrived, he let us in and we were safe-the first thing Bay said when we walked through the door was, can we get ice cream? Really? Anyway, still haven't found my keys....ugh! Tomorrow is a snow day! We are not going anywhere!!!

I Love Me Some Dollar Tree

"Works For Me Wednesday" is a themed edition today.....do it yourself gift ideas...head on over and check it out. This is only my second time contributing, however, I don't have any homemade gift ideas, but I'm offering a gift tradition that involves Dollar Tree. I L-O-V-E Dollar Tree. Why? Because everything's a dollar silly! One of our family traditions is to take the kids Christmas shopping there. They each get to pick out a gift for each member of the family. They can get anything in the entire store, obviously it's only $1. It gives them such a huge choice and they get to put a lot of thoughtfulness into their decision without any limitations. It has been a great tradition. You never know what you're going to get. I have received gum, toy trucks, little figurines and stuffed animals......it's priceless to see the look on your child's face when you open your $1 gift because they got to pick it out themselves!

Mornings Bite

Mornings at the Shepherd house can get pretty ugly. I am not a morning person. Every morning is a battle! It's a fight for me to peel myself out of bed.....then the dreadful walk up the stairs.....first is Ethan, piece of cake! He's up, he's starving, he wants cereal......2 or 3 bowls of cereal. Next is my bed head, Chloe.....I start off kind and sweet even though I want to go back to bed myself....ugh, she won't budge.....she won't open her eyes.....then I move on to "my stern voice", nothing....then the threats come.....1/2 hour earlier bed time, no dsi, no tv time, no computer time (I switch them up each day)...... Slowly but surely she emerges from the stairs.....Ethan has already eaten, gotten dressed and moved on to his chores. Breakfast for Chloe is always a battle....she's not hungry in the morning...she hates all cereal. I've tried making bacon or eggs or sausage, which she loves, just not right when she wakes up. I make her gag something down and then she's off to get dressed......where her clothes are even laid out for her....she then lays on the couch staring off into space.....once again, I move on to "my stern voice", nothing....then the threats come.....1/2 hour earlier bed time, no dsi, no tv time, no computer time...... I give her five minutes to get dressed.... Finally she's dressed, barely brushes her teeth, (her hair is another story that I wont get into) there's no time for chores (she has those to look forward to after school). Her behavior has put me into many rages of screaming and yelling, then guilt while she's at school feeling bad for the way we left each other...until recently I realized she's just like me in the morning! Duh. I should be more understanding.....not wanting to get out of bed, not hungry in the morning, tired, just plain tired....eventually, we come out of our morning funk and go about our day....it's not that big of a deal. Once I realized she's not always being defiant, this is just how she is, things have gotten better. She's always been this way, she would sleep until 10am when she was an infant and toddler (which I loved) We're night owls and not morning people...However, this morning, privileges were lost because she didn't get dressed in five minutes, well, not even ten minutes, but I only lost it a little bit.....it's definitely a work in progress!

Thankful............

Our Thanksgiving weekend is coming to an end. We had three Thanksgiving dinners this year and my pant size has increased! Today, we celebrated Thanksgiving with my grandparents who have had a pretty tough year. My grandma was diagnosed with Alzheimers and had to move to a nursing home and my grandpa had to adjust to living alone in a little apartment. They have been married for 68 years! 68 YEARS!!! I thought Nick and I were doing good at 11 years. It's been really tough on both of them. My grandpa visits her everyday, sometimes twice a day. Some days are good and some are bad. Occasionally on Grandpa's daily visit, she'll be angry with him because she thinks he hasn't been in to see her for days. That's really hard on him. My grandpa and grandma have seen a lot in their long life, but they have always stood firm in their faith. I know my grandpa's faith is what gets him through each day. He knows that someday he will meet God in Heaven and his wife will be right next to him with no alzheimers! I am so thankful to God to have them in my life and I am so thankful for the example they have set for me in my faith and my marriage!

Quality Time

Due to busy schedules, running here and running there, I've noticed my children are growing up before my very eyes. It is just so true when people tell you "they grow up so fast" I tried to come up with something special to do with each individual child on a weekly basis, just to reconnect. So, we came up with M & M Nights (Mom & Me). Wednesday nights are with Chloe and Thursday nights are with Ethan. (Bay gets me all day so we haven't added her into the schedule yet) All we do is head to their room 1/2 hour before bedtime and we read, have devotions, pray or just talk. Just the two of us. It has been great! I think they really look forward to it and I do too!

For More Great Tips, Head Over to We Are That Family.

I Loathe Laundry

Please tell me I'm not the only one who can't keep up with laundry....I can not! Laundry is for the birds! I Hate It! Everyday of my life there are mountains of stinky laundry to do. One of the reasons I love my house is because of the laundry room. It has lots of cupboards and drawers and counter space. When we moved in my mom said, "Now you can keep up with your laundry" sorry to say but that hasn't been the case. I'm good at washing and drying, it's the folding and putting away.....I shudder at the thought. I put it off and put it off......So, every morning I have to dig through these mountains of clothes to dress the kids and then of course, they're wrinkled so I have to throw them in the dryer and wait while the kids are running around half naked while I'm trying to find a purple sock and a green sock....I considered taking a picture to show you the mountain I have today, but it would just be too humiliating!
My question is, how do you do laundry, how do you keep up? any tips? Or maybe you're like me, if you are, let me know, it will make me feel better :)

Movie Monday

So, here I am again allowing Bailey to watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory....she loves this movie!! I love this movie too, it's probably in my top ten, maybe top five favorite movies. Although, I have seen it 100,268 times......it's a daily request from Bailey. I'm just amazed how kids will pick the same movie over and over and over and over. We have a whole cupboard full of movies, and this is what she picks when we have movie time. Chloe did the same thing with Beauty and the Beast and Ethan with Nemo. All tolerable, I guess. At least she hasn't requested cabbage water for supper.....yet.