So much on my mind

I've been neglecting my blog lately. Seems like every time I sit to write a post I get distracted by something else, or one of the kids needs me. But there are so many things I want to write about, so I am setting a goal to write at least 4 posts a week for the next few weeks. I've gotta write about how grown up Isaac has become and how much trouble he gets into during the day. And about how similar he and Rae are and how different Blaise is from the two of them. And I'm way behind on pictures. So, yeah, keep checking back and bug me if I'm not posting! :)

Why I'm glad my firstborn is a girl

Sometimes Rae is a little smothering with her mothering instincts - but most of the time I'm glad I have someone around to help me out and keep an eye on the boys! Just now I realized things were a little too quiet (Rae was still asleep) and then I heard Blaise say "we are cutting the banana". I had been using a knife to slice some banana into my cereal and left it on the table. (I forgot that Isaac can now climb onto the chairs to reach things on the table - ergh!) Isaac retrieved the knife and banana and was helping himself to a snack. Instead of informing me that his little brother had a SHARP KNIFE, Blaise decided to get a knife of his own (just a plastic one) and help mush banana into the carpet. I'm so glad that no one got hurt. Most of the time Blaise is just totally oblivious to what Isaac is doing. Even at age 3 Rae was a mini-mommy and now at almost 6 I can trust her to keep an eye on the boys while I run into the house to do a quick chore, or I can close them up in the playroom while I shower. I know that some boys, especially firstborns, can be as attentive, but Rae has the desire and love of caring for others (and tattling!)

Oh, and don't worry, it's safe for me to be at the computer writing this, because Rae is awake now! :)

Getting creative

Since our nice big house is gonna be an extra $200 a month in rent, we are trying to find ways to save money. I decided that our grocery bill has been way too high, and that we shop way too often. We've been going to either Walmart or Aldi at least 4-5 days a week. It's easy to do because they are so close by. But in Fayette our shopping will be 25 miles away - so either we need to learn to shop once a week or we'll be wasting a lot of money on gas!

So this week I gave Roy $20 and told him that was his Walmart allowance for the week! He is pretty much on his own for his food - he does his own weird thing. But for me and the kids I decided that I was going to go as long as I could this week without going to the store. I usually try to go on Mondays and stock up on food for the week, but I always end up making more trips. So this time I'm trying to use up all the stuff in our cupboards, fridge and freezer. I probably won't go to the store until we run out of milk!

Yesterday, since we were low on our basic staples, I had to get a little creative. Oh, and another part of my goal is to make sure I use all of my produce before it goes bad. So I thawed some salmon that I had in the freezer and grilled it on my foreman grill. Then I flaked it and mixed it with Wacky Mac, raw broccoli, red onion and baby carrots and some parmesan italian dressing. TASTY! It was even better today after sitting the fridge overnight. The kids didn't like it, but I put some of the wacky mac aside and mixed it with butter and parm. cheese and they ate that along with a little bit of salmon.

I've been trying to get my kids to eat cooked carrots, but they hate them, so today I blended them up into a puree and mixed it with their mac and cheese. Hahaha :)

For dinner we are having homemade pizza. It feels good to use up the mozzarella cheese and pepperoni that has been in the freezer. And it's always fun to use my bread machine :)

Anyway, I know it is only Tuesday, but I'm feeling good about this new goal. I've been relying heavily on prepared foods for the kids (like chicken nuggets and tater tots) so it's good for me to learn a few new recipes and cook from scratch. I'm hoping that when I do go to the store all I'll need to buy is milk, eggs and some fresh produce. I'll let ya know how it goes :)

Movin' on up! *Edited to add picture*

Ladies and gentleman .... for the first time in the 8 years of Wright family history....we will be living in a house! Still renting, but at least a house that doesn't share walls with any other houses!!!! I am beyond excited. When we first found out we were moving to Fayette we looked for places for rent and just couldn't find anything. So we considered living in Columbia but really felt like we should give Fayette a try. So we started looking at houses for sale, but really didn't feel like we could make that commitment. We finally found a few things up for rent, but two of them were disgusting. So we settled on a 4 bedroom house that is way bigger than we need and is at the top of our rent budget, but it is really our only option. We first saw it a few weeks ago and signed the lease agreement last week, but yesterday I was feeling like I needed to see it again so I could get a better idea of where we'll put things. I forgot my camera, but we took down measurements (I forgot the measuring tape too, but we bought one) and Roy put together this floor plan.



I am a little overwhelmed with the amount of space! I know that we can't get enough furniture to make it the way I want it, because we'll probably only stay in this house for a year or two, and our next place is not likely to be as big. But here are some ideas I have for it:

-The kitchen is huge and has a nice little corner nook and I want to put one of those nook tables there. We'd probably eat most of our meals there. And then in the dining room we can put our current table, but with the leaves in it so that there's actually room for all of us! Then there is still room in the dining room for a computer desk or something.

-Front room 2 will be a playroom I think. I wanted to make front room 1 a playroom, but it has a better layout for the couch and tv. So I think front room 2 will have a futon couch and a few toys and maybe a table for school work.

-Front room 1 will have our couch and our entertainment center, and maybe a bookshelf. The window sill is awesome and we will put some cushions there for extra seating when we have company.

-Unfortunately the only shower is downstairs, so Roy and I will probably keep most of our clothes hanging in the laundry room. But fortunately the laundry room is nice and big and has shelves and hanging rods.

-The basement is icky and really scares me, but we'll be able to store a few things down there - like our camping equipment or something. Most of our other outdoor stuff we will probably store on the HUGE front porch. We will probably do most of our playing out front. There's a nice big tree that gives great shade, and maybe sometime we'll be able to get a porch swing. The back yard is nice too, but the front yard and front porch are just so HUGE.

-Upstairs, the first bedroom is pretty small, so that will be our spare room. We might just use it for storage or we might end up putting the computer and school work table up there. We haven't decided yet. The other bedrooms are nice and big and the master bedroom is bigger than we'll ever need. I'm giddy about the fact that we'll able to walk around our bed without bumping into things.

-The attic has lots of room for storage and isn't as creepy as the basement :)

-Oh, and upstairs the hallway goes all the way down past the bedroom doors and it's just this huge empty space - practically big enough for another bedroom! If we were buying this house I'd probably make it into a huge storage closet.

So, yeah, I'm totally excited. It's not a super nice house - it's pretty dingy and has a few structure problems, but it's totally great for renting for a year or two. And I think that after 8 years of married and move number 6, we've definitely earned ourselves a nice big house!! I can't wait to move in and get some pictures of the "finished" product!

Here's a picture of the outside - from Google Maps


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