Going Stir Crazy

We've been spending a lot of time inside the house, due to the extremely cold weather.  The children have managed to accomplish quite a lot of school work.  They have also been doing craft projects, tumbling on the mat that they received for Christmas, playing various board games and having fun. 

Overall, the house has managed to be reasonably clean and we've been eating healthier foods.  I've even managed to get some exercising in this last month.  Mike has worked diligently keeping the snow out of the driveway (parking for 5 cars) and off of the sidewalks.  He has also almost completed the drywall work in the master bedroom.

I still haven't found the foot pedal for my sewing machine.  It's disheartening.  This is perfect weather for getting lots of sewing projects completed.  Almost all of the kids activities were cancelled last month and I haven't managed to get any of the necessary sewing done.  In desperation, I purchased dish towels, even though I had the material waiting for me to make them.  I hand sewed one of Steve's bedroom curtains, but the material is so heavy, and my skin so dry, that my fingers were bleeding.  His second curtain is but out and pinned, but awaiting stitching. 

I even resorted to bribery.  I've offered a fairly substantial reward to any of the children who locate my stupid sewing foot pedal.  It's here somewhere.  I saw it twice before Christmas, so it did make the move to this house.  The younger girls and I are going to make a concerted effort to find it this week.  If we can't, I'm going to price a replacement.  I know that it will be extremely expensive and hate the thought of spending money on an item simply because it's misplaced, but there are many projects that need to be completed. 

Wild Weather

Boy did we have a whopper of a thunderstorm last night. The lightening woke everyone up around 4:00am. We were up for about an hour. The rain, 1-3/4 inches, came down in sheets. My daughter's bedroom on the lower level had major leaking. The two girls ended up sleeping the rest of the night on couches in the family room. The carpeting in their bedroom needed to be pulled up. Dehumidifiers were located and set up in their room to remove moisture. The shop vac was brought in from the garage and used to remove gallons of water. We're supposed to have more heavy rains and thunderstorm for the next two days. Hopefully, we won't have any more problems.

Update

Allie came down with strep throat a couple of days ago. She's been pretty easy to entertain and isn't too cranky. With all the illnesses our family has come into contact with lately, I decided to push more green vegetables in our diet. Today, I made a cream of asparagus soup . Overall, most of the family enjoyed the meal.

The four older kids are really enjoying their Tang Soo Do classes. Madelyn is getting a lot of positive feedback from the instructor, which is helping her confidence level. Joe and Steve practice everyday whenever they have a few spare minutes.

Business has been really slow for Mike. I struggle with fears about being able to make our bills throughout the month. Because Mike is paid by commission, it is very difficult to prepare a budget. December was a really slow month and his earnings were 1/4 of what we needed. I'm stretching the food in the cupboard and freezer to last until the end of February. I know that the job change was really positive for Mike and needed to be done. He has a lot less stress before that he no longer has. He enjoys working with the customers and no longer dreads going to work. We also could not afford for him to drive so far everyday.

I went outside to widen our driveway today and enjoy a little of the sunshine. The wind was very brisk, but the sunshine provided my mood with a much needed lift. I keep reminding myself, only 8 more weeks of winter.