I am not sure why I thought I could go on vacation, move, get ready for BlogHer, finish our school year, and take care of seven kids in a two week period. I am quickly realizing that I do not have time to get everything done. So, since I have to move, go to BlogHer, finish school, and take care of the kids this blog is the only thing I am able to cut back on.
But, I love you all! My time on vacation (and mostly off the computer) made me realize how much I enjoy interacting with my bloggy friends. So instead of leaving you for a week while I box up my life and move it across town I am going to have a Happy Housewife rerun week. But here is the deal, not only will I rerun a few Happy Housewife posts I am going to rerun posts from my personal blog I wrote a few years ago. Since most of you have never read my old blog, I thought it might be fun to get a little glimpse into my life a few years ago.
Below is a post I wrote almost 3 years ago. My husband was deployed and I was managing 6 small kids on the home front. I must have written this after a particularly trying day.
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It is much easier to hire two babysitters and run errands with a close friend than to attempt it with 10 kids.
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When you wake up at 6:45am to a fridge that has been without power all night, it is nice to have a neighbor who is awake to take and store your milk.
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If you call and harass the military housing office enough times in a week, you finally get what you need on the first try.
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If you accidently dry a crayola crayon in the dryer you will end up with the entire inside of your dryer the color of the crayon.
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To remove melted crayon from the inside of a dryer turn the dryer on high and put in a damp towel. After about 15 minutes you will be able to wipe off most of the crayon from the inside of the dryer with the aformentioned towel.
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To remove crayon from clothes apply Spray and Wash Dual Power to all crayon spots. Buy a new bottle of Spray and Wash, continue to apply to all spots. Soak in a mixure of oxy clean and detergent, wash, rinse, repeat. After about 5 times the crayon is gone.
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Do not dry crayon free clothes in the dryer until you have removed all crayon from the dryer.
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When your four year old looks down at the neighborhood park and starts screaming… “God is going to kill us all” just smile at your neighbors and quickly bring the child inside. It is not the time to discuss theology.
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If you use all your canola oil to fry french fries earlier in the day you can use olive oil to make brownies. They just taste a bit different.
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If you give 6 and 10 year old boys the job of washing your cabinets your floors will also end up washed.
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If you try and get 6 kids packed up and ready to go to the neighborhood pool it will surely rain the minute you arrive.
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No matter how bad the week gets I always get a fresh start on Sunday!
Too funny…If I’d been blogging three years ago I would have been writing about the discovery that our family room had been turned into a sand box by our tenants…or about how storage shipments packed by people addicted to illegal substances don’t look good when you get them out of storage…or about how wonderful it is to return to your “home” church after years away, again!
Thanks for sharing. I laughed out loud at your child yelling, “God is going to kill us all!”
That is a lot to accomplish for anyone! I couldn’t even get half of it done.
It does sound like that was a trying time, lol!
That’s great!!! I can totally relate to having some days like that while my husband was deployed! Hope you’re able to get everything done this week!
April,
I guess your family got used to the olive oil, huh? I never got the chance to try the olive oil brownies but I can imagine that they had to have a different taste than a batch made with canola oil. Different ingredients make for different flavors – not necessarily better or worse, just different. Olive oil is an tasty, healthy, and excellent choice for just about everything in the kitchen.
TH Husband
Just stopping by from the BlogFrog and wanted to say hello! I saw you are also a blogfrom leader ,so I’m sure we will get to know each other better. I read some of your posts already and I really like your blog!!!! Your family is amazing and your blog is sooooo cute!
(((hugs))) Sandy
Ok~ The post from when your husband was deployed was awesome! My Dad was in the Air Force for 22 years and I feel like I got a glimpse of MY moms life while he was on TDY or in Desert Storm. You ladies are amazing!!
Also, I hope the move goes well this week
I was eating cereal while reading and nearly choked when I read the “God is going to kill us all” line! What in the world did she actually see?
Have a friend with 7 children. While in a store during the Christmas season, one of her youngest looked at a lady wearing a Santa shirt and asked loudly, “Mama, why is that lady wearing a demon god on her shirt?”
And you haven’t tasted different until you’ve tasted brownies made with ‘used’ frying oil by accident. Delicious…
Going to miss you, but I can already tell I will love reading your personal blog entries from years ago.
I can relate to the choking on the cereal, I felt the same way. It didn’t help that he was standing on a hill yelling down at the playground…. at all the happy children and their parents. Gotta love that kid!
Yum, brownies with frying oil, I can only imagine what those tasted like, yuck!
Toni
Thanks for the tips
Too cute.
Boy oh boy, you have a ton on your plate, you know we all (surely) understand your time dilema. I loved reading your older blog post it was hilarious! Kids say the darndest things
Too funny !I will have to remember this list when I am having one of those days!
Don’t feel bad about your son yelling that out !
my 9yr old told our neighbor (he’s 4o ish) ” if you keep using those words, my mama is going have to wash your mouth out with soap !”
Thank you son, can I crawl under a rock now !
as for the brownies, I used water once. had no oil in the house! not to bad,just different
have a great day.
Blessings-
Rachellr
Being part of a military family myself I completely understand where you’re coming from. I admire you for doing all the things you do with seven kids–you are truly an inspiration. I thought two was a lot to handle!
I always make my brownies with olive oil! I didn’t notice a difference either, but then I haven’t got a snobby palate
I love it, REPEATS! YAY!!!
And I will have to keep the damp towel trick in mind…. haha
Thanks for sharing! “God is going to kill us all” made me laugh! You never know what kids are going to say!!!
To funny.
Since every one else is talking about the brownies I will to. I use butter instead of oil in all cake & brownies box mixes. In cakes I also sub milk for the water. Adds calcium. And add 1 TBS of sugar to both brownie & cake mixes & they come out soooo moist. Yum.
You are an amazing writer! I keep coming back to your blog to read more of your personal story… you should write a book you know!
The crayons in the dryer happened to me a few months back. I have a front loading dryer so it was a HUGE load of clothes that became decorated in red crayon! What a mess. Although it was not as hard to clean up as a jumbo size bottle of All detergent covering the laundry room floor!