Keeping Warm

It was in the negatives when the boys got on the bus this morning. BRRR!!! I'm trying to keep warm by cleaning (because I feel less guilty than sitting by the propane stove). I've mopped so far.

Leah is playing with the Book of Mormon figures and testing my knowledge of their names. I'm not doing too badly. Just confusing Laman with Lemuel and Capt. Moroni with Helaman. Of course, the names are on the bottom so sometimes I don't even try to guess.

We've been dealing with a cranky baby lately and I figured it was something I was eating. Milk is always a stinker so I first guessed it was that. I went all day without ANY dairy. If you know me and my love of milk, you know that was a concentrated effort. I made do with the whole wheat bread I'd just made. That night (Saturday), I decided to get online to see how long I would have to abstain before seeing any results. TWO WEEKS??!! I also found a list of foods that can cause cranky babies. Most of it was stuff I'd been eating the past two weeks...then I saw WHEAT. That's one thing I've really increased my consumption of (too bad my colon didn't know it) over the past two weeks.

So I resumed my milk addiction and have eliminated the whole wheat bread. (It's so good though!) I can pass on the homemade bread for a lot longer than the milk. Joseph actually was a lot better last night. He's still cranky, but not so bad. And now Chad won't have to take it so personally. For a while there, I was the only human that could comfort him for any length of time, and sometimes even I wasn't good enough.

Our healthy streak seems to be weakening. We're still healthy, but now have colds. (I think of children with serious diseases or crippled bodies and don't think colds are much to complain about.) The girls are the grossest, but they are getting good practice at blowing their noses! Daniel is getting goopy, too. So far, Joseph is dry. :) Chad has been congested for a little while.

Now Leah is getting into Chad's closet. Why can't they play with the mess that's already out? I get so frustrated (and discouraged) to see the messes GROW instead of shrink. The kids just watch me clean and wait until I go past then close in behind me and undo the work I did. Don't think I'm not trying to teach them to help. I know there are people out there that think children shouldn't have their childhood interrupted by grueling housework and similar chores. I am not one of them! I just haven't figured out how to get four children to help me out without totally losing my mind or temper. The DI bag helps a lot. My philosophy: If it's too hard for you to clean up, then we'd better get rid of it. We don't want your life to be too difficult! (Read that last sentence with heavy sarcasm.)

Now I'd better get up and get back to work. Leah's going to die from malnutrition and I'm going to die from an overdose of whining. I've got laundry to fold anyway, plus a million other things to do before the house begins to look like someone productive lives here.

Here are some scrapbook pages I did yesterday. It was part of a challenge in our scrapbooking group.