Achoo!!

Spring!!!

Ugh.  I've had to come to a realization.....I am a once a quarter poster.  I can't seem to post once a week or once a month or even once every two months.  Life gets away from me some days.  But as long as I can snuggle my kids at the end of the night then posting to our website can come 2nd.  

The kids are doing great.  The chickens are doing good.  We have 8 hens so we get about 8 eggs a day.  Sometimes it's hard to keep up with them and consume what they produce:)  Mike is doing great and keeping busy.  I had another realization...that in a month I've been working from home for 5 years.  It doesn't seem like it's been that long but then again it does.

We've had some snow, some sunshine, and a whole lot of wind!  I'm ready for mild spring weather!  

I hope all is well with everyone!!

Winter recap

Hello to all!!!

Another few months have come and gone and we are now only a few days away from a brand new year.  These last several months have been a flash since we now have 3 out of 4 kids in activities.

Monday - Ian taekwondo
Tuesday - Anna ballet/tap
Weds - free night
Thursday - Kara & Anna piano, girls scouts every other, Ian taekwondo
Friday - Kara ballet

All of the kids enjoy their activity!  Kara and Anna did their first dance recital on Dec 19th and they both did amazing!!!  Kara was very nervous and we thought she was going to have stage fright.  But she went on stage and totally rocked it!!  I was a very, very proud mom and I quietly sobbed while watching her perform.  Anna had been practicing her routine everywhere we went - grocery store aisles, parking lots.  The 3 girls in her routine were watching her to see what the next move was.  And I quietly sobbed during her routine also.

Ian loves taekwondo and wants to teach everyone his moves.  He is doing great and has earned his third belt.  They test every 8 weeks in front of a panel of black belt judges.

The girls have been doing piano for about a year and are doing wonderfully.  Their piano teacher is amazing and she is the most wonderful woman.  She does lessons out of her home down the street from where we live.

I'm still the co-leader of the girls' brownie troop and we really enjoy it.  There are only about 6 girls in our troop but they love getting together for crafts and activities.

Reagan is growing up so fast!  She talks up a storm and has some lungs on her:)  She likes to scream when she isn't heard or getting her way.  I guess she has to be heard since she is the littlest one.  "Though she be but little, she is fierce."  And as a Christmas present to myself I told Reagan that we didn't have any more diapers and that she needs to start using the potty.  She is the only girl in her daycare and there are two boys younger than her that are potty trained and I don't think that's fair:)  So far she has been doing great and only had a couple accidents!

Mike's been very busy.  4th quarters are always super busy for him because most companies realize they still have money in their budget and need to use it before the end of the year.

I'm keeping the madness - sane:)  I feel like a taxi cab service but I'm happy!!  I still work from home for a guy that owns 11 sandwich shops now (#11 just opened last month). Going on almost 5 years!  And I still do the books for Mike's company.   CNC has been open for 7 years now!!  I volunteer in the kids school one to two times a month.  I try and work out from home 3-5 times a week depending on the week's schedule.  Sometimes I squeeze in a run with a friend that lives down the road from us.

We have all accepted our busy routine and still manage to have some family time at the end of the day.  We read books together or by ourselves, play games and sometimes a movie night.  I've had the wonderful pleasure of meeting a few moms that live out here and we get together often for PB&J & wine nights or coffee playdates or whatever kind of therapy session we need:)  They all have kids ranging from Reagan's age to Kara being the oldest.  Being a mom of one kiddo or 17 - the best thing a mom needs is another mom, some wine or coffee, kleenex and laughter!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and your 2014 is filled with with wonderful memories!

Fall!

Hello to all!

I hope everyone enjoyed their summer and have many happy memories because now it's fall!!!  Leaves turning and falling, snow coming already, icy windows.  Loving the cooler weather!

The Wisniewski's are in full swing school and activities!  Mondays and Thursday's Ian has taekwondo and is loving it!!  Tuesday's Anna has ballet/tap.  I think she enjoys the tap more.  Thursdays' the girls have girl scouts and piano lessons.  Friday's Kara has ballet.  Wednesday's are our only open evening!  Whew!!  And that's only 3 kids!  I don't know what we are going to do when Reagan's older.

Here's a quick update on our kiddos:

Kara is doing great in school!  She loves to read and although she expresses she doesn't like math - I think she secretly likes the challenge of it.  She loves to dance and sing around the house ALL the time!

Anna is doing great in school also!  She also loves to read!  She loves to dance and be outdoors.

Ian is doing great in kindergarten!  He's been a little feisty at school.  But he's a boy and needs outdoors to get the crazies out!

Reagan is doing great in daycare!  She is the only girl during the day surrounded by 5-6 boys:)  So she is surely no girly girl.  She holds her own but likes to play with her babies:)

Mike is busy!  4th quarters always are.  So we try and make the time spent together count since it's not very often.

I hope you all have a great day and remember to count your blessings and be grateful for everything!!

Delays, delays, delays

I can't believe it's already June. 

We went from bombing snow storms, skipping spring all together, and jumped right into hot temperatures, wildfires across the whole state and fire bans.  But it also jumps us right into camping season with a new camper and atv!!  Woohoo!  There is a saying out there that you don't camp - you RV.  So, we don't camp - we RV.  We tent camped up till we had Ian and then it became too much work; to the point where it wasn't worth it.  Having our camper has gotten us to camp way more!  The kids know that the camper is only for sleeping, eating and shelter if it's raining.  But for the most part we don't let them play very often in there.  Being in Colorado there ain't nothing better than when you are sleeping and being able to flip a switch and turn the heater on for a little while:)

So let's see.....March was Kara's 8th birthday and lots of snow storms.  April was Reagan's 2nd birthday, got chickens and more snow storms.  May was Ian's 5th birthday and the end of the school year.  Mike was slammed with big projects so if it bombed snow, he would stay at my parents since he had to go back into town at 5am the next morning anyways.  But he made it so he would be slow during the summer so we can have a lot of family time together.  We have lots of camping trips planned for this summer and all of us are really looking forward to it!!

We were so excited to get chickens.  We kinda thought it was required since we live in the mountains.  We got 10 chicks and the kids loved taking care of them.  We kept them in our spare room and we will never keep them in the house again.  The room was covered in saw dust.  That was a days worth of cleaning, wiping down walls, air hosing off everything before I put it in the washer, wiped down everything in the closet, mopping, air freshner, blah, blah blah.  But the room is back to normal and smells real purty now:)  The chickens should start laying eggs by the end of the summer.  Mike is building a coop.  More like a Chicken Hilton.  We moved the chickens in before we left for NY at the beginning of June and already had a break in.  So now it is the Chicken Hilton built like Fort Knox.

I hope you all have a wonderful summer!!!

Piggies

Double - quadruple piggy back rides to bed.

Reagan riding shotgun (front) Ian on the back, down the stairs to his bed. Back up the stairs, Reagan still riding shotgun. Anna's next in line for her turn on my back. Back down the stairs to Anna's bed.

My kids thank you, P90X!:)

Recap

So let's see.  I think it's January 2013 and I am pretty sure someone fast forwarded through the last two months and hid my camera too.  I don't have many pictures.  But I'll see what I can scrounge up:)

Here's a list of the past two months happenings:

1.  Mike and I started P90X (for those of you who don't know what this is - it is an at home workout regime that is about an hour and half every day.  Yes, every day.  We are going to Mexico next month and Mike thought what a better way to get motivated to have a beach body.  I didn't like him very much in the beginning but I am digging it and am happy he got us started.  It is really fun pushing each other and supporting each other when we want to skip a day.  Not only that but seeing the results on each other is super cool.  Can't wait for Mexico.  Ole!
2.  Kara had strep.  Blah!
3.  We went to the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center in Woodland Park (near Colorado Springs).  That was the coolest dinosaur place.   Ever!
4.  Ian had 5 days of 104 fever that resulted in a double ear infection and pink eye.  Triple Blah!!
5.  Thanksgiving, turkey, stuffing, family, laughter!!
6.  I flew to El Paso, TX to help move my brother and sister in law to Salina, KS.  16 hour road trip but good times with my bro and sister in law:)
7.  Reagan got pink eye.  Tired of blah!
8.  Went through about 17 boxes of kleenex with all 4 kids having coughs and runny noses.
9.  Kara got pink eye.  AAAAHHHH.  Thank goodness the eye drops I had for the first round works on all children and adults.  So I was able to nip it in the bud right away and not have to take anyone to the doctor.
10.  Let's see.....I think Christmas and New Years happened.
11.  Cookie baking
12.  Elf on the Shelf.  Mike and I had a talk to the children about their behavior and we were concerned that Santa wasn't going to bring them anything.  Mommy and Daddy talked to Santa about it and he sent us the Elf on the Shelf - named Boxey Red Guy by the children.  I'm not sure that Boxey Red Guy's ears worked as well as we'd hoped.  In fact they worked as well as our childrens ears which is why Boxey Red Guy was supposed to step in.  Well, Santa did come.
13.  And for my finale......drum roll please.....  Ian threw a little blue plastic chair and nailed innocent bystander Anna, although he was aiming at Kara.  All the sudden I hear Anna's very hurt cry, I started running down the stairs.  As I'm on my way down Kara screams "oh mom, there is a lot of blood".  I think I jumped the last set of stairs because there was blood streaming down her face.  After sitting Anna down, cleaning the war wound, and assessing the damage, we made the medical decision (cuz that's what you do as parents) that she needed stitches.  All the while Ian is hiding under his bed.  We take her to urgent care and she does in fact need stitches however, since the cut is in the hair line the doctor has decided to use glue.  Now, not being in the medical field but in the mommy field where glue is a necessity in a house with 4 small children........Why didn't I think to glue her head shut and save myself a couple hundred dollars??!!  Oh well.  The doctor used purple glue and she is all better.  Walmart list - purple glue!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and any other holidays that I've missed!!!!

Procrastination

There are 30 days in a month (give or take) and I swear I can't seem to post more than one post a month.  What is wrong with that?  Some days I sit on my dupa (ok, that never happens) and other days the time goes by so fast that I have no idea what happened to the day, what I did, or even who I talked to (if anyone).  And then there are some days where I know what I did and feel great about my accomplishments. 

I've read quite a few excellent books lately.  One that I'd like to mention is 'A Different Kind of Normal' by Cathy Lamb.  I highly recommend this book but have a few tissues near by.  I absolutely loved the family commitment and values that was forever present throughout the whole book.  The second book I recommend is 'Cleaning House - A Mom's 12-Month Experiment to Rid Her Home of Youth Entitlement' by Kay Wills Wyma.  I've really enjoyed reading this because it really has made me thankful for some of the chores and other somewhat 'adult' decisions/chores that I have my children do.  There is a saying that goes something like - don't do anything for your child that they can't do themselves.  I don't make them scrub the toilet yet but that will be soon:)  Soon, my little pretties, soon!  But if we are in a restaurant my kids have to order or they don't get anything.  If the order is missing ketchup or ranch they need to ask the waiter/waitress.  This should be read by anyone with children. 

The older girls recently came home with a girl scouts flyer.  And after talking with them they really, really wanted to join.  So I went to the informational meeting and was informed that Kara's new brownie troop had a whopping 15 girls and that Anna's new daisy troop didn't even exist yet.  There was an approved leader but she was out of the country for a month and they needed an approved co-leader to even get a troop started, plus a minimum of 5 girls.  I really didn't want to be a co-leader, I mean I'm a mom of 4 and I work.  But after talking with a wonderful cousin of mine she told me that she was a leader for 18 years for all 3 of her girls (now in their 20's).  She said she loved it!  Ok, twist my arm.  If I want my kids to be passionate about something I have to be committed and passionate about what they do also.  So I can now add girl scout co-leader to my duties and domestic engineer resume:)

There is one thing that I can say I do every single day, I say a little prayer.  I say how grateful I am for everything and everyone in my life.  From the shoes on my feet, to the sugar in my coffee, to the roof over my head, even for the bills we get.