Spring is just around the corner

And so it begins

We've just started our reconstruction process and already it feels like it's slipping away from us financially.

I heard about people's project costs doubling. I'd been warned about extended time lines. What none of these fair weather warners didn't say was that it was self-inflicted.

DH and I went through the contract again. This time with a much more level head. We'd talked pie-in-the-sky when we first opened up the Medussa's box, hoping for the world.

Our contractor is good, fair and honest. That's on the plus side.

Costs of materials keep rising. That's on the negative side.

Our hopes and dreams (but not expectiations) are like a thong. Stuck in the middle.

This morning DH broke Rule #1 (for those of you who don't know or don't choose to remember, rule #1 is NEVER, EVER wake a sleeping woman) to tell me he got an update on the costs of three new windows as per the change request we were looking into. Three grand. I was awake faster then a double-espresso could shake me.

After a few mental explicatives, I started to do the math, knowing how limited our "extras" budget was. Where to cut, what to cut so that it makes a difference. (We've already commited to putting down our own floors in an effort to save some bling and flip it over to the fancy bathtub DH wants, and I've already poo pooed upgrading the hot water tank as a forced economy.)

Oh the joys joys joys of renovations.

Priceless

As posted on PostSecret this week:

I was having a bad day at work last week. I hoped my husband might send me some flowers to cheer me up but I know he’s busy right now. So I called the florist, ordered a bunch of flowers and had them delivered to his office. The card read “give these to your wife, she’s having a bad day.” The florist laughed, and so did my husband.

Uncle, aunt and all the extended family

I'm ready to say uncle.

For years I've been downplayings the challenges of having children. Today I'm 'fessing up saying that four is enough. At least four under the age of 18 and still living at home.

My day started off with CU-1 raising the dead (basically every one else in the house who happened to be sleeping) at 5:30 a.m. That's not too bad for most except I went to bed well after midnight, and CU-3 starts to act up when she's tired, and CU-2 just gets really really cranky.

After coralling and separating the children (the swimmers versus the non-swimmers), I went with the swimmers because it was "Bring a parent to class day". I hope the CUs realized how important it was that 1. I wore a bathing suit (a first in over 10 months), 2. I actually got into the water (I don't like getting cold or wet).

We were lucky and got buses both ways (which reduced the "why don't we have a car, I don't want to walk" conversations). DH was thankful for the extra pair of hands. I kept him busy though, as if he was attached to a bungy cord.

He just gets in the door, and then he's off with CU-2 for a birthday party and a quick groccery pick-up.

While he's off having a few minutes to himself, I'm at home with CU-1, 3 and 4. CU-1 and 3 have found sticks and are doing what kids do with sticks, CU-4 is doing what CU-4s of his age do best.

Me, I started thinking that four is enough.

For today.

Maybe.

Ok, so tell me how you really feel aka potty talk

As you know, we're having some work done on our home. This means that some things are getting displaced, and there's a bit of banging going on.

I thought it was CU-4 and I who would have to deal with the brunt of it all. Not so. There are the catz.

Big Purr has handled the changes the best, hanging out in the bathroom (next to the heater), frosting the towels for us. (It's ever so nice to get out of the shower/bath, to grab a nice, warm, furry towel. Share the love with us Purr. Share the love.)

Papa le chat had a few adjustment problems as well. When the new stairs came in, he wandered around in a big circle. Going down the old stairs and up the new. At least this one found the cat box.

Can't say that for André, aka the harp seal. He's having the hardest time of it all. At an over-the-top, over weight 17 lber, he still manages to waddle around and find the sunny spots. The construction's got him a little confused though. In the last two days, he's refused to go down the new stairs to the boxes at the landing. I figure it's been two days only by the volumenous dump he did in a file box containing project notes!

Thank you for your comments André.

Don't ask if you really don't want to know

The conversation went like this:

"Is this DH?"

"No. He's a work."

"Is this Mrs. DH?"

"Yeesss?"

"This is Claudine from The Sun."

Oh oh. Not again.

"Do you read The Sun?"

"Noooo."

"Would you be interested in subscribing to The Sun for 25 cents a day?"

"Noooo."

"Oh? Why is that?"

"I don't like the paper and wouldn't wrap fish in it."


I find our local papers a bit much to take. They've got strong political leanings and each has its own problem as a media from which to gain information about my community. I don't subscribe to either. ;-)

Tasty

Finger lickin' good. Lip smakin'. These are terms I'd never have used to describe ... myself.

Today I discovered that I was both of these. After a significant feed this morning, CU-4 turned away with a very smug and satisified look and smacked those little lips.

Later, while I was pinned down giving CU-4 yet another top-up, CU-3 decided to give my hair a spit shine. Yah. It goes like this:

1. Spit into hand.
2. Whipe genetically lubricated hand into Mama's hair.
3. Repeat until Mama calls Papa for back-up.

Well, I've always wanted to be wanted, my children just give a whole new twist to the definition.

Fatigue

I don't get it.

Before I left on my one year, self-induced exile, I implicity stated I was willing to do work (come into the office, or work from home.) Since then, I've repeated heard nothing from my manager(s), and I've heard through the grape vine that there's been lots of work, but that it keeps getting reassigned to other people. Sooo, what to do without sounding like spoiled grapes?

Well, one thing I'm doing is not going into the office. Out of sight, out of mind. The other thing I'm doing is hanging out at home, thinking about things. It seems that this thinking is hard work. Well, between that and CU-4 and my hanging together just is exausting. I'm finding that, oh, between 2 and 3:30 we tend to nod-off and miss some of the best televion (for example HGTV's I want that), though we have been getting up in just enough time to collect the assortment of siblings.

Perhaps it's just the weather and we're hibernating, or maybe it's my body catching up on all the sleep it missed for the previous four months.

Mother Nature's revenge

After all the warmth and cuddliness of the festive 14th, Mother Nature's coming back with a vengence. Nasty cold is hitting this area, and CU-1 and 2 are in mid-Winter Carnival mode with an outing plan today! CU-3 is warm and cozy at day care and CU-4 and I are hanging out in winter wear at home as J. aka "the gas man" looks at our heating and air return systems to reroute it because of our current state of construction.

On that side of things, we've been told that the tentative date of demolition is Monday! Woo hoo! Here's hoping I've got pictures to post by mid-morning.

Here's to *Friendship Day*

There's a move afoot to try to double-brand this day as Friendship Day (at least that's what Y TV has been dubbing it).

On one hand, I think it's all a bit silly. On the other hand, I think it's brilliant. I'm thinking it's a bit more balanced (though politically correct) approach to celebrating love in it's many forms (and not just those who happen to be coupled on this day).

So here's to you all - Happy Friendship Day. I certainly appreciate having you all as friends.


And a special thank you to PC and Grandma C for checking in today. I appreciated the visits.

Hurray for Grandma's baby bags!

Just a quick note to publicly thank Grandma C and her inspired baby bags. Used on CU-3, CU-4 is now currently enjoying the bag-and-back reactor-type activity that occurs in this item - just like a bag n'bake turkey! Keeps CU-4 nice and warm until done! (For me, that usually means about six to seven hours of sleep, glorious, glorious sleep).

Slow to post, AKA are blogs dead?

I kept telling myself that life really wouldn't change after CU-4's arrival. On one hand I was right, while in the other hand I'm holding a dirty diaper wondering what I've been doing with my time.

For those few who actually read this blog, you'll probably be thinking the same thing. Well, between napping and living the life of Riley, I've well, been napping, and doing a lot of paperwork to get this maternity leave off the ground. I've also been making a couple of dozen papier maché hearts for CU-1 to distribute at school (filled only (read cheap-ed out) Hershey Hugs and Kisses, shuffling my To Do list pile of papers from one side of the house to the other, and folding one half of the house into the other (the later is because construction started in earnest with the front hall closet becoming a large, though very temporary laundry shoot while we await new basement stairs to be put in).

Once Valentine's Day is through, I'll have SO MUCH more free time! ;-) So I might actually find the time to write the stories for the blog to share with everyone. That was the idea behind getting up and out of the house (in minus 13 degree weather no less!) to meet up with Perpetual Chocoholic. The goal, as hammered out in a coffee-drunken stooper last Thursday night, was to get each of us out of our perspective ruts, and to provide mutual support to attend to our more creative pursuits. PC was to work on illustrations, me on writing and research to further more photographic pursuits.

Our first time out the door (and into the local Bridgehead) didn't see much drawing, or planning, but a lot of talking. Though not our original intent, I think we've both found it to be unblocking. PC helped me realize that I really really was trying to talk myself out of putting forward a proposal for solo show. She also helped me see I need to pull that camera out and pursue the visions in my head and get them out onto [photographic] paper.

However, through that two hours of exploration of all things, we started on a discussion about blogging and wondering if it was dying. (Or maybe this discussion was from last Thursday.) In the back of my head, I was wondering if blogs and blogging had seen it's day. I've heard (before maternity leave when I was plugged in to the world much more) that there was newer, better technology that was being pursued. Not really being a definitive techy, and finding that I'm less and less interested in technology as each year passes, I kind of don't care about the changes and am quite satisified with this medium.

We'd discussed how some of the people she'd followed regularly were closing out their blogs. We mused about the life span of our own blogs and whether the time had come to put them to bed. I'm thinking no, this one still serves a purpose. I just need to get off my arse and start writing, as I find that writing keeps me sharper then just having these conversations in my head. They can be pretty one sided. So, during the next 49 weeks of forced time off, I'm hoping to write more, self-publish to here more. Read other blogs more. And respond more. Like PC points out in her studies of illustration, it's an exercise, and some times you have to force yourself to keep going.