Thank God it's Sunday... well, for a few more minutes

What a week. My sister and I were just commiserating the other day about how we really don't know what all these other super moms keep so busy doing. Perhaps if we were better house keepers we would feel like we were busy little bees running around all day just like them. I used to be busy. I had school, I had friends, play dates, girls' nights out, church, volunteering at church, weekly life group meetings. I had a pretty full schedule and I liked it that way. Here I still don't really know anybody aside from my sister and a few acquaintances from Mom Connections and some other preschool moms.

This week however reminded me of how busy my life was before I moved here. Wednesday my sister and I went to Anchorage for a Costco run and coffee with some of her friends. Thursday was Mom Connections and then a play date for Princess Blondie at my house. Friday I volunteered at Sonny Boy's school as I do every Friday and then met our realtor for coffee at her house. No, we are not looking at buying or selling again. We just really liked our realtor (my sister recommended her after they bought their house with her help) and now I should just start calling her my friend instead of my realtor. Although if anyone is in the area and needs a realtor, I highly recommend Elizabeth!

Friday was Sonny Boy's birthday as well, so I made cupcakes and brought them to his class and we also had pizza and he got to open one present that evening. Saturday, Sonny Boy went to a movie with Cub Scouts and then we went sledding and had a party with Aunt Lisa. Sonny Boy had a great birthday even though his friend couldn't come over as planned. We will try to have him over next week instead. I made Sonny Boy a cake with a chainsaw on it. When he first asked me for a chainsaw cake I was a little surprised, but I think it all stemmed from the lumberjack show that we watched at the State Fair. Sunday we went to church and then we finally came home with nothing to do . Well, there is plenty of cleaning and laundry to do, but nothing that requires me to leave home. I put the kids to bed early because they were quite tired and cranky after such a busy weekend and I sat down to watch Emma on PBS. I love Emma and I love PBS. Perfect end to a busy week.

And of course, this week I have absolutely nothing planned. Hmm, droughts and monsoons, I suppose.

Moving on

I miss my friends. I'm just going to put that out there. I love it here, I really do. I love having my sister just down the road and a wonderful nephew to babysit and love that my kids have an aunt and uncle and cousin that they just adore. But I still miss my friends. They were my family when our families were dotted across the country. It would be easy to wish that I could just go back to NC but that wouldn't even solve the problem because a good majority were military as well and have moved on. In fact, Washington state and South Korea are closer than NC but that still doesn't really increase my chances of seeing them.

I have met some wonderful people here that I am excited to get to know better and I am making an effort to start new friendships, but it is harder when you are older. You can't just ask the girl in moms group to play with you like you did when you were kids. It takes a little more finesse and effort now. I miss the ease of old relationships that are comfortable like an old couch. I miss the comfortable silence that doesn't have to be filled with small talk. I miss commiserating about the stupid things our husbands have done but all knowing that we still all love our husbands more than anything and we just wanted to vent a little. And I really miss girls' nights out, though they never lasted long enough. I miss the way we were all so different but we found the common bond of motherhood and marriage to join us. I miss the way we took care of each others' kids when the other needed a break. I miss the way we took care of each other when life took some crazy turns.

I miss my friends, however I am optimistic about the future. I look forward to making new friendships that will morph into old friendships where we can have comfortable silences, commiserate about our husbands, have girls' nights out, take care of each others' kids, and most importantly, take care of each other.

Au naturale

I've decided that I'm going to start using natural products to clean with. When my husband was in the military, we got all of our cleaning supplies for the house from the self help store for free because we lived in base housing. We also got to use power washers and rug doctors for free when we lived on base, which is one thing that I definitely do miss. I guess I should be grateful that our entire first floor of this house has no carpet. Anyhow, I never really liked all the chemicals that were in the cleaners that I used, but hey they were free, and on a Senior Airman's pay, free is what we used! When we moved into our current house, the previous owners had left some cleaners in the closet so I used one of the rust removers they had left because there were rust stains in all the toilets and tubs. I had to go get a mask to use because it burned my nose and throat so badly. That really can't be good for anyone or anything, even if it does get the rust off (and it didn't get it all off, I might add). So when it was time to buy cleaner, I just bought a big bottle of Simple Green concentrate, and I use that to clean everything. It is nice to have one cleaner that I use on everything instead of something different for each room or fixture. Now I only have simple green, Windex, and carpet cleaner in my cleaning cabinet.
I recently found a recipe for laundry detergent on a friend's blog that I am going to try. I'm really excited about it and can't wait to see how it works. I've got my first load in right now. The best part? She said it only costs her about $20 a year for laundry detergent for her family of four. She also had a recipe for dishwasher detergent and window cleaner as well. Once my Simple Green runs out, I think I'll move on to baking soda and vinegar. If it worked for our grandmothers, it should work for us, right? Here are the recipes if anyone is interested.

Laundry Detergent

• 2/3 bar of Fels Naptha soap (1 cup grated)

• 1/2 cup Washing Soda (this is not pure baking soda, or arm and hammer's powdered detergent. It is arm and hammer's All purpose Super Washing Soda)

• 1/2 cup Borax

• Use 1 Tbsp for a large load and 1/2 Tbsp for high efficiancy washers.

• Also, use 1 Tbsp of distilled white vinegar instead of fabric softener.

Dishwasher Detergent

• 1 part Borax

• 1 part Washing Soda (not baking soda)

• Use 1 Tbsp per load

• Use distilled white vinegar in place of Jet Dry, etc. in the dishwasher's rinse indicator

Window/Multipurpose Cleaner

• 1 cup rubbing alchohol

• 1 cup water

• 1 Tbsp. vinegar

Happy cleaning, everyone!

Christmas

Christmas was great this year. The kids still firmly believe that Santa is the bringer of gifts to all good children and I absolutely used that to get them to pick up their toys and clean their rooms. We tried to downsize a little this year because, well we just bought a house, but also because the kids usually get so much stuff between us, the grandparents, and the cousins that they generally lose track of their gifts. When I finally got all the presents wrapped I was worried because I hadn't gotten them everything that they had asked for, but really, Sonny Boy was asking for multiples of thing he already had. Two remote control trucks and two skateboards are really excessive. He did end up with several little lego trucks to build which he loved.

Princess Blondie asked Santa for a unicorn, and given little girls fascinations with unicorns, you would think this would be simple to find, but they are not. All unicorn stuff is either artwork or figurines, both of which are not great for a girl who actually wanted to play with her unicorn. I finally found one at Target. They have plastic unicorns and also horses, fairies, knights, and dragons. She got a unicorn and a horse with a fairy. I may get the knight and dragon and see if Sonny Boy would actually play with her.


On Christmas day we got up early and opened presents. I made baked french toast, which was really more like bread pudding, but oh so good, and then my sister and her family came over for lunch. We hung out all day and went sledding in the afternoon. We went to the dirt road that connects our little subdivision with another up a big hill and decided to slide down it. The road doesn't get much traffic and I think they only plow it when they get bored and have nothing else to do. The kids had a great time and DH pulled them up the hill behind the fourwheeler. I went down a few times also. I honestly don't remember when the last time was that I went sledding. Even Stinky Beagle got a ride down on the sled with DH. I honestly think he just likes to think of new ways to scare that poor dog. She was a trooper and didn't even pee on him, so she must not have been too scared!

All in all, it was one of the best Christmases I've had.