I'M BAAAAAAAACCCCKKK!!

YAY!! WE ARE MOVED!!

Now the real work begins. Besides the unpacking, we have a church to get up and running! Very exciting times around here.

I have been a busy bee getting things organized, put away, decorated. I have high priorities people. I mean our clothes are still in various boxes, suitcases and such, but my living room and dining room are getting decorated. I'll send out pictures of the finished product. You all know what boxed walls look like!

The kids are adjusting well. Sam has had a little trouble understanding why special people do not live close anymore, but he doesn't cry about it. He just asks A LOT of questions. I mean really, now that I type that, its really not that different than usual. ~~Smile~~

My very good friend, more like a sister, is coming to visit this weekend. She can't live without us. ~Wink~ And I am looking forward to hanging out with her and entertaining in my new abode!

Well, I know that was not very newsy, but that's all I have today. Back to my boxes!!

Food, Food, Food

I watched Food, Inc. last night. OH. MY. GOODNESS.

Stunning. Who knew all that? Not me. I am not an animal rights activist (I believe God created some animals to eat), but the pictures of those poor cows made me so sad. Chickens and hogs too. The things that we humans have done to make more money is terrible and we are paying for it with our health. I feel so bad for the farmers who are basically forced to do things the way a certain company wants instead of farming the food they want to sell to us. If you haven't watched it, you should.

Now onto the Lovelocks. I told everyone at the beginning of the year that I was going to focus on three main things this year: faith, family and frugality. Having healthy food was one of those goals. Everyone knows that for the most part organic and frugal do not belong in the same sentence but we are trying to buy more organic food because of all the garbage that is put in our mainstream food. Today was grocery day and I spent the same amount that I normally spend and yet I bought not one processed food and all organic meat. {I actually hit a sale and got some grass fed beef steaks for $2.39 each, oh yeah baby!!} I was pretty happy with my acquisitions and my receipt. Not everything was organic, but none of it was that junk we usually buy. I started making my own mac 'n cheese awhile back and instead of fruit snacks my kids are eating California cuties. My kids absolutely love cauliflower, broccoli, carrots and even brussel sprouts, so we will eat those and leave those mashed potatoes for special occasions. I also stepped out big time and did not buy ANY cereal. This is huge for us because my kids love cereal. They eat it every morning. So instead of giving them the choice of cereal or eggs there are two new choices: organic eggs or organic waffles with fruit. We are going to do this for awhile and see how it goes. The more I read about high fructose corn syrup the more I don't want my kids eating it. I am also praying that this new diet (way of eating) will help Sam's eczema get better.

As for everything else in my life, its CRAZY! We are going to St. Louis every other weekend. We are still trying to secure housing (we might have to not be so picky, he he) and then there is the packing. So we are busy, but not too busy to get out and enjoy this beautiful spring weather. I am loving the sunshine for sure.

I hope you all have a bright, bright sun shiny day!!

Someone Threw Time Into Overdrive

I had no idea it had been this long since I had blogged!! I hope I still have a couple of readers out there. Because I am so, so, so busy today I am going to leave you with a list. Then tomorrow more of a real post. Really.

1. We went to St. Louis four weekends in a row and I can officially say that I am sick of the road!!! I am ready to just be there already. We are still looking for a house to rent, pray saints pray. We move in just 8 very short weeks!!!!

2. Makiah and Hubs had a GREAT time in Boston visiting with family. They had a safe and fun trip, what more could I ask for?!?

3. The plague that has been hanging around for 6 weeks, I think, maybe is thinking about leaving. I am having a hard time shaking the cough and the ear trouble. I am starting to just get used to it. That's what it has come too.

4. I made a decision last week that was really hard for me to decide. Due to the fact that we are moving in May and things are already getting crazy, I decided that we wouldn't walk or run in the heart walk this year. It's just too much to try to fit it all in. I will sponsor someone that is walking and I will definitely be there next year.

5. I am still going to run in a 5K, it will just be a different one. Probably the Komen Race. I am still wanting to run, but due to illness I have had to put off the C25K. It is still my goal, but the C25K can wait till I get moved. Maybe by then I'll be over this cough.

6. We have set our official move date. . . . {drum roll please} MAY 22!!! YAY!! (The heart walk is the Saturday before, see why I'm not participating)

So now that I bullet-pointed my way current, I have to go pack. Be back tomorrow with a fun post with pics!!

This Is Why I Request NO RUNNING IN THE HOUSE

One day while mama was hard at work packing boxes, the natives, uh, I mean the children were busy hindering the process.

Here is that story. . .

I was upstairs going through the toy store, more lovingly known as the play room. I was up to my ears in toys and books. Earlier that day I had been packing in the kitchen. I dumped some flour in the kitchen trash out of the canister, because I wasn't about to pack a flour filled canister. It was only about half full and I had another whole bag of flour, so I dumped it. I finished up in the kitchen, took the hooligans and went upstairs.

We had been upstairs quite awhile already and I needed some more trash bags (for toys going in the yard sale) and so I sent Makiah after them. Sam followed her, because you know, there might be an opportunity to harass her along the way. They went downstairs and I heard Makiah say, "look what I found Sam." Famous last words in most cases. See whatever she has, he thinks he needs. I heard her yell "NO" and he yelled back and then I heard running. Then silence and then "oh, look what you did". Little feet began a quick accent up to me. Sam appeared in the door and said, "there's cauliflower on the floor and Kiah did it!". I had no idea what he was talking about. Then Makiah came to the door, a guilty I-hope-you-really-love-me-grin on her face. "Uh, mama, um, there's a problem"--short pause--then in a very fast and determined tone she began again, "and it's all Sam's fault, he was chasing me and we knocked over the trash can when we (RAN AT FULL TILT) through the kitchen and I'm sorry".

Realization as to what the "cauliflower" was. . . the flour I had dumped out.

I headed downstairs to assess the damages and there it was, every last fleck of flour was on the kitchen floor. Makiah had tried to sweep it up and had just kind of smeared it around. Samuel had walked through it, over it, around it and left little foot prints all over the kitchen and then of hall carpet before coming to tell me about the "cauliflower".

I began sweeping. I swept up a pile and then again and again. Leaving a broom path of white dust. UGH!! Finally, I got most of it up and I went for the Clorox mop and got up the rest of it.

This is one of the reasons for no running in the house. And next time I dump some flour, I'll put it in a bag in a bag.

A True-to-Lovelock Style Adventure

Well we are moved. The piles of boxes surrounding me proves it.

Last week was truly a wild week, I still look back at it and think no way all that happened in eight days. So let me go back to the beginning. . . .

Hubs had scheduled a huge outreach event for church on June 20th and we were moving on June 22nd, I was about to lose my mind. We split our time, he worked at the church on the Chinese village (made out of cardboard for the Open Grill) and I packed and packed and packed. On Friday June 19, Hubs was heading out early that morning to finish up the village and start putting it together outside. He hadn't been gone 15 minutes when he called and said that he had been in a car accident. My heart lurched and he quickly added (knowing how I am and knowing that frantic was nearing) that he was fine and that he had been rear-ended and the bumper was "dented". Breathing in a sigh of relief and thinking the car was just slightly dented, I went back to the task of packing and he went onto the church. He worked all day and all night at the church. I called the insurance (other guy's) and took care of that. A friend picked me up Saturday morning and took me to the church so I could decorate and grab the car. I walked up and saw the car and inwardly cried out "Thank ya Jesus he wasn't hurt", because that car was more than just "dented". The trunk wouldn't even shut, it was completely crushed in, the lock broken. Hubs should have been hurt, but he wasn't. The rest of Open Grill was a blur and tiring, but we got through and now the complete focus could be PACKING!

On Father's Day we headed home from church to change clothes and then we were heading to a friends house for a cook out. Friends house is way out in the country about 40 minutes from where we live, but that was fine and we were looking forward to it. We got almost home and the car began to sputter, shake and quake and died. I started it again. It died again. We all got out and I called my parents. Linton, my dad and another guy rolled her into a parking spot and we left her. Monday morning she got towed to a shop. I needed a car people, it was moving week!! I had to have a vehicle. Well, they got us a rental car while they were figuring out the details of my car. The rental was nice and had a huge trunk which I knew would come in handy. Monday was spent running around with my dad or in the rental with breaks of packing in between. Monday evening our Pastor and a young guy from our church came and took a load of boxes to the new place. I filled the rental and they filled a pick-up truck and off we went. Linton had to work that evening.

Tuesday morning the UHAUL arrived and Hubs started filling it. Then some help arrived and they took over the two man heavy stuff and then the help left and it was back to Hubs. Finally got that thing loaded and we headed to the new place. Help came and we unloaded. For the most part we were moved. We still had some other things in the other place, but nothing we'd need a truck for, so we considered ourselves done for that day.

Thursday, I picked up my new to me minivan, because they TOTALED my "dented" car. More than $8,000 in damage and that didn't included the mechanical problem, which was why the car just died on Sunday. But Hubs wasn't totaled and that's the important part. I LOVE my mini van!!! We also spent Wednesday through Saturday finishing up at the old place and cleaning. Ugh! So glad that's over.

Now the work of unpacking, organizing, pricing yard sale items and decorating begins and I am actually excited for it. It was a wild week and I don't think I could properly put it's true craziness into words, but I tried. Bottom line, we are moved and we are blessed. I have several posts floating around in my head and I hope to get them typed and saved for your reading pleasure this week.

Cloth Diaper Storing-A Meme

A wonderful mama over here has a weekly cloth diapering meme. I love to talk about cloth diapers and this a perfect opportunity! I don't have any pictures because I have lost our camera (hopefully I find it soon), so a description will have to be enough for today.

This week is all about storing your diapers. I am always looking for new ways of organizing, so join in and maybe we can all learn a little something from each other.

Because of being in the moving process, our storing system is a little crazy, so the following is what it was until the packing took over and what it will be when I move. At the new place the changing table will actually be in the kids bathroom and I am really excited about that.

On the top of the changing table I have a small cloth lined basket for our cloth wipes. Right now Daniel and the basket still fit on there, but a couple more inches and it will have to go to the second shelf. I currently only use water on our wipes. Daniel's bum seems to be really sensitive. If anyone out there has a really gentle recipe for wipe solution, feel free to lay it on me.

Second shelf: My current stash is all bumGenius 3.0's One Size Pockets and we have one Happy Heiny (I have a bumwear one size coming in the mail). So after washing and drying, I stuff all the nappies so they are ready to go. I have two large cloth lined baskets and I fold the diaper in half and put them in the basket. Another small basket holds extra wipes, doublers and liners (which I don't use very often).

The bottom shelf will hold our baby towels and wash rags.

That's it. I can't wait to get moved and get everything organized again!

Don't forget to link back to Mama Kenz Studio so we can all read of your cloth diapering storage systems.

I can't have a cloth diapering post without mentioning this great giveaway.

How Big Is This Closet Again???

As I told everyone is another post, we are moving again. I won't whine about that today (well too much anyway), I will just tell of my time with the downstairs storage/coat/throw-it-all-in-there closet.

Our lovely huge closet has been a thorn in my flesh for the last several months. Oh it's spacious and has places to hang things as well as store things--that became the problem. Storing things, everything, there. It started out well organized and completely useful. Then things went down hill from there. People realized that they could just put something in there instead of taking it upstairs. Makiah would change into her pj's and put her clothes in there. They would put toys in there to keep from having to take them upstairs. Then other things that we didn't know what to do with it would get placed in there and before I realized it, I had a HUGE problem.

So last Tuesday, I got the wonderful idea to pull all of that out and start going through it. I made two mistakes: (1) I assumed I could get it all done in about 6 hours HAHAHAHAHAHA and (2) I did it while all three children were here (where else would they be??).

I started the great dig into the closet. I cannot tell of the things I found in that closet. Toys that had been long thought lost. Clothing items that I was sure the dryer had eaten. Shoes that couldn't be found. More toys. More clothes. More shoes. Yarn. Yes, yarn.

I pulled everything out. Everything. I had a mountain of mess. And a mountain of laundry. See I had been bagging up and storing in there all of Daniel's clothes that he had outgrown. The boy had quite a wardrobe! Needless to say between all of the stored clothes (which were stored clean), all the clothes I found, the normal laundry for the 5 of us and the tote of clothes I went through for discarding--I did 16, say it with me 16 loads of laundry last week (yes I washed the stored clothes again)!!! I have already done 3 this week and I took a laundry break on Monday. I have more laundry amassed and ready to go into the machine. I am beginning to think that someone else brought their laundry over and added it to mine! Where are all these clothes when I can't find matching shorts for Sam?? I know, hiding in the closet!!

No more my friends, my closet is beautiful! Perfectly organized. Shoes all lined up and ready for feet. Any clothes in there are hung up and I will hang the next person that throws something in there up by their thumbs (they have been warned). No toys in there, except the hula hoop and riding toy for outside. It's great. What a lovely closet.

I got it functional just in time to move.

Spring Cleaning and Packing. . . Again!

Yes dear followers, we are moving again. {Insert a very big UGH here, along with a sigh and an eye roll}

Our lease is coming up here and we have decided not to renew this lease. We don't really like this apartment now that we have actually been living here. And it's way too expensive compared to some others. So we are going to be moving at the end of June. So not only am I spring cleaning, I am cleaning out stuff. I am not moving all this stuff again. Some of it has to go!!

I am going through clothes and more clothes and then more clothes. It's no wonder my laundry is never done. We have so many clothes. I am weeding through Daniel's clothes that he is now too big for and packing away winter stuff (Makiah and Sam's) in hopes that it will fit again this coming winter. FIngers crossed.

I am also going to be seriously scaling back our toy inventory. We have way too many. A lot of them I have held onto over the last 9 years and now we just have too much. So a lot of them are going to have to find new homes or start paying rent.

Even though I absolutely hate moving, but I am looking forward to doing some decorating things that I didn't do here for too many reasons to list. I have some things in mind, lets see if I can get them out of my mind and actually in place.

We finished the last quarter of school and are taking a two week break before starting out summer quarter. I have some big plans for homeschooling this summer too, but it all has to work together with the move.

So that means enough blogging for now. More cleaning out and laundry. I live such an exciting life, don't I?? ~~Smile~~

Heaven Help Me, I'm Displaying this Mess Online

Here are the pics of our unpacking adventure this far.


This would be the dining area in our kitchen. It's really large and we have a lot of space in here, which is good because we need it.


My poor kitchen is in need of TLC, but soon and very soon it will be together and I'll have a fully functional kitchen.


The living room is also in need of TLC, but the living room is being worked on today, so by tomorrow I'll have pics of a clean living room (kitchen too for that matter).


Play room and most of these boxes are toys and a few are clothes, so this room will take awhile, but hopefully by Monday the kids will have all their toys out and be able to enjoy them.


Kids bedroom--not a lot of toys will be in here, because this room is for sleeping. Toys only make sleeping more difficult. I can just see Sam up at two a.m. playing with his drums. At least if the drums are in the other room the temptation is not as great.

Well there you have it ya'll. We have lots of unpacking to do, and then on to the decorating. The kitchen used to be done in apples, but like I said in the before and after post I plan on changing to the Vineyard theme. I need a change. I have some other pics of areas that will be decorated, but alas it is time for Daniel (otherwise known as the piglet) to eat again.

Exhausted

We are moved in!! Thank goodness, now let the work continue. We have so much unpacking to do, but that's okay the hard part is over. The beds are set up and we are getting ready to hop into bed. We actually finished quite a while ago, but I am just now settling in. The kids are sleeping and I am going to do the same. Hopefully Daniel will want to sleep awhile. I was hoping he would wake up before I go to sleep so that I can nurse him and then we can both sleep the rest of the night.

Tomorrow I will be running in the morning and then home to turn this town house into a home. I already like it here, I wasn't sure I would, but now I am thinking it will be okay. I am hoping to post pics of my journey, but it might be too much to ask for to know where the camera and cord is actually located, but I will try.

Sweet dreams, more posting when the sun is shining and my eyes aren't blurring from pure exhaustion.

Nothin' Much

Well I don't have much to say tonight, other than--we've been packing!! Shocking, I'm sure.

We got a lot done today and even took some to the new place and unpacked there. I am finishing up the kitchen and then tomorrow we will take the rest of the kitchen stuff over and set the kitchen up. I need to know where my dishes are, it just makes me feel better.

Anywho, other than that we don't have a lot going on over here. Just wanted to post tonight because this may be the last post until Monday, and I plan on posting my Before and After pics then too.

Well, bloggy world, have a good night.

Off to finish the kitchen.

We're Havin' Fun Now

Well folks the packing is in full swing and we only have three days before the movers arrive!! I woke up yesterday with a severe pain and took myself to the doctor and I have yet another double ear infection and sinus infection. Oh, yeah, way fun. Nothing like packing from the horizontal position, I spent most of yesterday laying the in the recliner and telling Hubs what could go to the trash and what was priceless treasure! I could barely stand up straight. Needless to say I haven't done very much in the last 36 hours, but I am on the mend and will work like a crazy woman the next three days. We are making more progress than I think, I just hating packing and moving. This is unfun, which in Lovelock Land would be the opposite of fun! I don't know if it truly is a word (too tired to care), but it is tonight!

Now, whew, I feel better. Nothing like a mini rant to start off a post.

Well, I have lots more to say, but Hubs is quietly yelling(yes I know, but somehow he is accomplishing it) from the other room that I should be in bed and not typing. He's right! Need some sleep, so I can work like that crazy, afore mentioned woman, tomorrow.

Daniel is asleep, so I should do the same before he changes his mind.

TIme to count my blessings and close out Wednesday. I bet you all think I don't do that, count my blessings, considering the whininess of this post, but I do.

Maybe I'll be more cheery tomorrow. I'll try.

Goodnight.