Being an Adult Stinks

Being an adult stinks.  All the house, job, daily garbage that you have to deal with as an adult just isn't very much fun.  Well, some of it is.  But a lot of it comes into our lives and I swear is there just to stress us out. 

Wonder what I'm talking about?  We just found out our renters are moving.  I can't blame them.  They found their perfect place with the financial arrangement that works very nicely for them.  They gave us more than the 30 days requested too so I really can't fault them at all.  They've been great self-reliant renters that have been more house sitters than renters.  Thank goodness for them.  The part that stinks is that the house hasn't sold yet.  That means we are paying two mortgages.  That hurts the pocketbook big time.

So at any rate that means that now my week will be figuring out what we are going to do with the place and how we are going to do it.  That gets piled onto the other normal day-to-day living stuff that we get to do as adults.

Running kids to school, cooking, cleaning, and figuring out when the kids are going to the doctor to get the school physical that is required.  Planning the un-birthday party, figuring out if we are going to another birthday party, when we are going to take treats to school for the un-birthday, and the other many things on our plates. 

Like I say, being an adult can stink.  But then again it is pretty great to do mostly what you want when you want to.  I don't have to do the dishes right now.  I can let them pile up.  Of course then it is me that gets to deal with the pile later but I really don't have to do it right this moment.  I could have candy for dinner if I wanted too.  I know though that will make me sick to my stomach.  So, I think I'll pass on that one.

All in all though I would much rather be me now than the me of years past.  Especially the teen and early twenties.  Ugh.  My 30s are much better.  I know who I am so much more than I ever did.  I'm so much more comfortable with that now too.  What a difference a few years makes.

Oh, I need to explain the un-birthday.  Bear has his birthday in the summer and really wants a birthday party.  My problem is that I won't know how to get a hold of the kids in the summer so we are going to do an un-birthday party before school is out.  I think we'll just do cake and ice cream and a park with a play ground.  No big thing but something for him to get to participate in the birthday party stuff.

Kids

We discovered last night that Bear is quite the teacher.  The kids were both trying to sleep in Bear's room.  Mia has a thing about sleeping on the floor lately and the last several nights they have wanted to hang out in his room.  Fine with us so long as they are actually quiet and end up sleeping.  Last night it wasn't happening.

Mia was playing with Bear's little computer so Tom went in to take it from her.  Pretty soon he came out and says, "You have to come see this."  I wasn't sure what was going on but he told me that she had it set to a letter game where she had to find the letter and type it in.  He said she had just gotten four in a row with no help.  Of course I had to go see.

So we go in there and Bear was sitting on the floor with her.  The computer would ask her a letter and she would look for it.  If she didn't know the letter or was having a hard time finding it she would say, "I don't know," or "I can't find it."  At this point Bear would say, "She needs help."  We'd give the okay and then he would tell her, "The S is next to the T."  He wouldn't just point it out or push it for her.  He would still make her find it and make it so she was learning other letters too.  He's a natural.

And she didn't need much help.  I'm not sure when she learned letters but she needed very little help from her brother.  She is barely older than two and can recognize most of her letters she can consistently count to 5 by herself and to 10 with help and is a serious chatter-box.  Most people do not expect her to be only two.  If we are in town I get asked if she is about 3 all the time.  Of course it must run in the family because everyone thinks Bear is about 6 and he isn't even 5 yet.

Bear is working on reading.  He does pretty well with the simple books like Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss.  The three letter words are great right now.  Both kids love books so much that I don't think it will take either long to learn to read.  I'm pretty tickled about their love of books.  Even if there are times I wish they didn't have so many out and scattered all over the house.

Let's see, what else?  Bear is working on learning to ride a bicycle and Mia is working on learning the tricycle.  Mia is more or less potty trained.  She still wears a diaper at night since she doesn't always wake up.  Of course there are a few accidents here and there but she hasn't worn a diaper during the day for quite awhile.  Even during naps she's usually good.

Snow

It is snowing again.  I'm beginning to wonder if it is Spring or Winter.  It is making me very glad we don't have animals to feed right now.  I'm not excited about getting bundled up to go feed in weather like this.

This stuff can really make me think about whether or not we want the critters.  Then again I think about the eggs, possible pork, and the wool that I want from those critters along with the wonderful companionship that comes from having animals.  Maybe it is worth it.

These two-legged critters of mine are fighting naps.  They have a blanket fort pile that they are supposed to be napping in.  They have at least simmered to a dull roar in there.  I have the heat cranked in the hopes that it will zonk them.

Winter weather

We just came through a big old snow storm.  We got somewhere around 10-12 inches of snow.  In April no less.  I love snow and I love that we had a couple of freebie days at home with the whole family.  What I didn't enjoy was the lack of security I felt.  Our new house is all electric.  This means that if we had had our power go out there would have been no heat, no way to cook, and no coffee!  This is why we are going to put in a wood stove.  In addition to that there is no water when there is no power.  Our well pump is electric too.  Mostly this means if I think we'll get a storm I do things like fill up any and all water bottles and jugs for drinking water.  I didn't dump the cooler from our weekend bbq.  That water could be used for washing or the dog to drink if we needed to.

I am seeing I'm going to need to be a bit of a prepper here, especially when it comes to water.  Even more so once we have more animals than the dog.  I need to stock up on his food better too.  We are close to being out of milk but I'm not worried because I keep powdered on hand just in case.  I buy groceries in a way that allows us to go a week without going to town for more so when a storm hits it isn't  a huge deal unless it were to hit Wednesday or Thursday, and even then it wouldn't be too bad.  I would just have to get more creative with meals.  I'm seeing with our lack of back up cooking methods I can certainly stand to stock up on some more ready to eat foods.  And/or make some more of my own to freeze or dry.

We don't get these storms often but it seems to me I would rather have stuff on hand and not have an emergency than to have an emergency and have it truly be an emergency as opposed to an inconvenience. 

So here's a small portion of my list of things to change here at the house:

wood stove installed
water storage
dry food storage
animal food storage area
chickens for fresh eggs
dogs for animal and homestead protection
better access to the riding mower that gets a snow plow installed

Otherwise I find our house does quite well in a storm.  We get some interesting drifting but the house is well insulated and comfortable.  I would not have wanted to be in many of the houses we've lived in during a storm like that.

The kids loved the snow.  Actually we all did.  I got to go skiing, we got snow days, and the kids got to drag out the snow clothes.  We also are loving the moisture from this storm.  This will help with the drought.

Potty Training update

Last night Mia demanded to not have a diaper when she went to bed.  We took a chance.  No accidents!!  Of course this comes about because I just bought a package of diapers.  That's okay though.  I would rather have diapers here and not need them than need them and not have them. 

Now this doesn't mean that somebody makes it to the bathroom every single time so I do a lot of clean up.  So goes it.  This too shall pass.

Besides that both kids are doing quite well.  They both went to their new dentist yesterday.  They were both really well behaved.  Bear gets to go back for fillings next Friday but Mia got an A+ on her tooth report card.  The best is that they seemed to both enjoy the dentist.  Mia less than Bear but she was okay with it none-the-less.

Now we're busy with getting our house in shape for spring.  The garden is going in nicely.  I've got to get it in gear though.  Also, we're starting to plant grass seed around.  We are tired of looking at dirt.  Plus it isn't very much fun to be outside with the dirt blowing around when the wind blows, which is all the time around here.  I am very glad that someone put in a wind break on our property.  The wind howls but not like it would if we didn't have the wind break.

Let's see... What else is going on?  We have a dinner party tonight that we need to get ready for.  My house is a bit of a wreck right now too.  We have started on a route to getting healthier as well.  Both Tom and I want to loose weight and get into shape.  We realize that with the food we love we will never be tiny skinny people but we can at least be healthier and stick around for awhile.  This means I'm running for the first time since high school when I was on the volleyball team. 

Now if I can just keep up the miles and find a 5K to sign up for.  There is a marathon at the end of the summer but I'm not gutsy enough to try and run a marathon for my first race ever.  That seems like a dumb move.  I'd have plenty of time to train but still...

I suppose I'd better get started cleaning and prepping the food for tonight.  I'm hoping I might even get a run in this morning too.  I might be able to convince Tom to let me do that.

Potty training

Miss Mia is almost there.  Most days we go without the diapers even when we go to town.  We have a ways to go for night time and nap time but the light at the end of the tunnel is getting a lot brighter.  Hopefully this will mean my pocket book will be a bit heavier too.  Diapers ain't cheap no matter how you do it.

A couple of pictures finally.

A few of the does that come and graze.  These are just behind the fenced garden area.  They are very much in my back yard.

 

 

We had fun coloring eggs with my mom.  We made monster eggs.  A lot of fun to make but a little weird to peel and eat.