I had to throw the towel in last week!

I had many wonderful opportunities last couple of weeks but with those great opportunities came some struggles.

My sister and her two wonderful daughters came and visited the last two weeks. We really haven't had much time to visit let alone talk about our lives. So having her in my home was amazing. Because I haven't seen her for awhile, I was able to see immense changes. She has grown into such a wonderful mother and person. She has more patience in her little finger than I have in my whole body. Her oldest just has the biggest imagination. She will see something, or something will catch her attention and see will starting singing about it. Her youngest could get away with murder with her dimples. Unfortunately both got sick while at my home. This is always the case, but no one had to go to the hospital...this time. One of the reasons that my sister came to visit, is because my husband was leaving for two weeks with the Army Reserves and with school starting I needed some help with the back to school activities such as school shopping for supplies and clothes.
Both families had such I great time. We went to parks and for walks. The cousins enjoyed hanging around with each other and being able to spend time.

Everyone taking a nap

SCHOOL STARTED!!!! Who can think that is a bad thing is bound me. Don't get me wrong I have enjoyed having my boys home all summer, but  we were getting to the point that the fighting and the quarrels were happening too often. I like the structure that school helps bring to our home. 

We took the boys to each schools back to school night and football practises. All of which left me a little stretched and frazzled.

School started on Thursday and my youngest decided the night before that he wanted to play the violin. Which in turn meant I needed to get my old violin out and cleaned up, restrung, and tuned. thank goodness for a close friend who I ran into and offered to help me out!! Thank you Jordan!

While my husband was gone the first week our dog decided to get terrible sick and vomit and have the poops all over, all night and day! Which was the day my mother and sister were leaving. 

So, on Monday I had to do everything by myself. I got up through out the night to let the dog out to go to the bathroom. I woke up and got the boys up and ready for school. I got my youngest to violin and went home got my oldest on the bus showered and went to go pick up my youngest and brought him home. Then dropped off at school, which after I took the dog to the vet. Which I was explained that I need to make my dogs meals of boiled chicken and rice. So I lost it, I cried, and felt like everything was falling out from underneath me. I needed to take the day and reset myself.

So naturally I had a few drinks of wine. I opened two bottles of wine, both are my favorite and had a glass of one and a glass of the other. With a few glasses of wine I wasn't able to finish the whole bottle. I was glad that I had my Kovot Flavor Savers for my wine, which I plan on finishing later this week.
The flavor savers are a cork replacement. They are plastic, screw shaped. I had one bottle that was corked and one that has a twist top. The flavor savers worked well on the bottle that had a cork. The flavor savers didn't fit in the opening of the bottle with the twist top. The bottle opening was too big. I tried the bottle cap savers on the twist off bottle and they were okay not the greatest.
I am looking forward to drink the remaining wine later this week!

You can purchase the Kovot Flavor Savers on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/KOVOT-Beer-Wine-Flavor-Savers/dp/B01G7FXPEO

Chore Chart

Dolores Umbridge : Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix

I loved the Harry Potter series until this movie, it is because of this character.

Overtime I ask my kids to do their chores and they don't listen and I have to ask a second time, and all I can hear is "I need order".

So, I decided to make a chore chart using a few clip boards, paper, magic erase markers and these amazing things I found on Amazon. 

They're reusable page covers that come in a packages of 10. They are stitched around the outside and are colored.  I have always color coded my boys one is red and one is green, which in turn works perfectly for my chore charts. 

I have chores for the weekdays that include normal day to day things such as dishes, making beds, etc. Then I have a chore of the day that focuses more on particular room in the home. For example I have KITCHEN setup for Monday. This includes cleaning up and washing the counter tops, scrubbing and disinfecting the sinks, wiping off appliances, washing floor. In this chore of the day one child gets the bolded items and the other child gets the other ones and kitchen gets repeated on Friday. On Friday they switch chores so one isn't always washing the floors and one isn't always washing the counter tops.
Once they are completed for the day we can cross the day off in dry erase markers. if both charts are marked off they are able to get the code for the Internet password for their electronics.

I am super excited about these pages. Hopefully no more whining about their chores.....well we can hope!

Well, well, well......

Well I am here again. It is the middle of the year and I start to reflect back on the last seven months and imagine what the next five months will bring. I wish I had done that...I wish I could have gone there....I wish I didn't eat that. I would love to go there....I wish I could look like that.
Thinking like that all the time isn't good for anyone all the time. I try and make goals for the remaining year and let go of the previous half.
I want to try new things that I normally wouldn't try. This includes workouts, clothes, foods, etc.
I want to be happier for myself and everyone around me.

So why not start a blog and bring my friends and family along for the ride....