Summer in April!

Just wanted to post some photos from our weekend. There's been a heat wave in Eastern PA this week - with 90-degree temps and lots and lots of SUN!

We were able to hang out at home on Sunday and the kids were thrilled to get out the pool and spend the afternoon swimming with their cousin and neighbors!

It's still HOT here, but the weather is going to change tomorrow and go back to more seasonable temperatures. We enjoyed our little summer preview, but I will be glad when Spring returns.
You can see my new laundry line in the background! And my little garden - you can't see the sugar snap peas though (they are about 6 inches high right now). I'll be planting more in another week or so. And we're adding some additional "beds" for the kids to call their own.

FANTASTIC deal at Redner's Warehouse Markets (Lehigh County, PA)

This post is for those readers also in the Lehigh Valley area.

I shop at Redner's Markets - they have great prices and good service. And they are right down the street from me.

But I found an unbelievable deal while shopping this evening. They are having a "Pick 5 for $19.95" deal on meats. There was an entire cooler in the meat section filled with different types of meats and you can mix-and-match whatever you would like (you do have to buy in increments of 5 though).

Chicken breast tenderloins, whole chickens, steaks, sausages, pork chops, fish, scallops, ground beef... lots to choose from! And they even included some more prepared foods like fish sticks, chicken nuggets and Lloyd's BBQ too!

I bought 10 items (some of my steaks were priced at $9.50 - and I got them for $4!). I was talking with the meat manager, and he said that Redner's will be running this sale twice a month because of the positive response they got!

I am going to go back and buy more. I will not have my income in 6 weeks, so having a fully stocked freezer at these prices will be a blessing!

A Sunny Sunday

What a lovely day we had today! It is still BEAUTIFUL here in PA - almost 90-degrees and sunny!

We all woke up a bit early this morning. I was able to take a relaxing 30-minute walk before the whole house was up. I started laundry as soon as I got home while Craig mowed the lawn.

And then we got to try our brand new laundry clothes line! YAY! We bought one of those umbrella style laundry lines last year but never got around to putting it up. We aren't allowed to have a "permanent" laundry line in our neighborhood, so this is perfect as it pops right in and out of the little hole. I hung 4 loads of laundry today and there was still room! I LOVE IT! I'm going to try to do sheets and towels tomorrow!


While I was hanging the laundry, Craig blew up the kiddie pool. We planned on filling it and letting the water have a chance to warm up before letting the kids in, but as soon as there was even an inch of water they had to be in there too!

They "swam" all day! We had a nice visit from my sister and nephew too, and several neighbors came over to join us as well. It was fun!

We bought a new grill too - although Craig couldn't fit the assembled one in the van, so it's still in pieces in the box! Hopefully we can grill tomorrow!



I am exhausted after being in the sun all day - but it was fun!

Weekend Update

Nope - I am not watching Saturday Night Live!

It's been a busy weekend already, and it's only 8:10 AM on Saturday!

Yesterday, we had our yard sale with a few other neighbors. It was a BEAUTIFUL day and we sold over half of our "treasures" and made $200! Yay! I forgot the sunscreen though, and have a sunburned neck now! And I did let Ryan skip school and stay at the yard sale with me - he sold $7.75-worth of lemonade. :) Unfortunately, we won't have to lie on his excuse blank for school - by mid-afternoon I knew he wasn't feeling quite right. Poor guy had a 101-fever! He took a nice, long rest in the afternoon and felt better (oh, I think the Motrin helped a bit too).

I was worried about him being sick - because last night was Ryan and Maddie's birthday party at Bounce U! We had 22 (yes - 22!) kids there last night. Despite one little guy missing his mom too much, another cutting his thumb and a few bops on the head from flying basketballs , everyone had a great time!

I have to give a big THUMBS UP to Bounce U. Yes, they were pricy, but they throw a nice party! We spilt this party between Maddie and Ryan's friends, so I paid less for one big party than I would have for 2 smaller ones. We won't be able to do big parties like this every year, but we had the money available this year so we went for it! We had 75-minutes of "bounce time" and 45 minuntes in the party room (where we opted to order pizza and drink for all the kids/parents in addition to our cupcake *cakes are the only food you are allowed to bring to Bounce U*). I really enjoyed watching my kids play with their friends from school. I only know a select few friends, so this was a great opporunity to meet some new ones - and I met some really nice moms too!

This morning, I am at work. Before I left, I got all the remaining yard sale goodies out and our neighbor is going to sell my goodies (in return, we let her take over the other half of our driveway with her stuff!). I hope to find everything GONE when I get home!

Best new is, this yard sale money has just about filled our anticipated budget for adding days onto our vacation - so all 14 days will be paid for soon! (We just added a 3-night stay in Myrtle BEach to our Orlando vacation - hooray!).

I wonder what the rest of this beautiful weekend will have in store?

Just when you make a decision....

Last night Craig and I sat down and talked about my job and plans for this summer. It was not an argument at all - he was very supportive and agreed with everything I brought up. There were some tears involved as I talked about how I feel like I missed out on the past two years of the kids' lives - how I am glad that I was home with them, yet feel like I missed out on so much because of having a day care. We agreed I should give notice to my last daycare child for June and become a full-time SAHM again.

I went to bed feeling very good about things and looking forward to this summer with the kids. However, when I woke up, I started feeling really badly about giving notice to K's mom. It's not that K is a problem - we really like her. I just have this need to be with my own kids.

To top things off, I talked with Maddie about this. I told her that I was thinking that I wouldn't babysit anymore and that we would have the summer to be with just our family. We talked about vacation, pools, going to the zoo etc. And do you know what she did?

She cried.

She was so upset that I was considering not having K at our house. She said she would really miss her - even if they have been fighting more than usual lately. I reminded her that just because I wouldn't be K's babysitter didn't mean they can't be friends. We live less than a mile from her and they go to the same school. Playdates would be inevitable - regardless of my employment.

I still really feel like I should make the move to a SAHM, but I will give Maddie an option to give her vote too. She has never been fond of any change, so I wasn't overly surprised with her reaction. If she really will be too upset NOT having K here, I will consider keeping her. But I am hoping that Maddie sees that I am looking to have time as a family. I know that in a year or two, Maddie will be more interested in friends than mom - and that's why I feel that I need to do this now.

I wish this were easier on everyone. A year ago, Maddie would have been fine with having time with just me. She's growing up too quickly.

Powder Room

I tried to snap a few pictures of our 1st floor powder room, but the room is so tiny that it was really hard to do!

It's such a tiny room! But I guess it has everything a powder room really needs. I really like the pretty pedestal sink (even though it means there is no storage in the room!). We added the cabinet over the toilet and it provides enough room for a few rolls of paper and other items.

We painted this room a few years ago - it's just boring old tan (it's actually the leftover boring tan from our basement). I tried to dress it up a little with some framed prints (from Kohl's - where else?) and a pretty berry wreath. I added the berries around the mirror last year. It's okay - but I want to find the time to actually frame the mirror one of these days.

What it all boils down to....

I had Ryan's parent-teacher conference tonight. His teacher had lots of nice things to say about him - his excellent reading skills, classroom citizenship, math skills (I could go on - can you tell I am proud of him?)....

But the biggest thing that I took away from the conference was when she said "You know, Ryan just loves Fridays. He comes off the bus with a huge smile and he tells me 'My mom doesn't have the other kids today. We get to go for lunch at (*fill in the blank*) today - just me and Mommy and Jacob!' I hope you know just how much it means to him that you spend those Fridays with him."

Indeed - THIS is what is important. Ryan does not go into to school on Thursdays and say "Hooray - my mom gets paid today!" Nope - he cares about Fridays - the only day of the week that I am home with just him (and his brother).

I have been looking for a sign telling me what to do about babysitting. I think this may have been it, don't you?