Houston, we have a problem.

It's business as usual today here at home with the Dynamic Duo. Cody has gone to school and the boys are playing nicely in Jamie & Cody's room. If I'm being completely honest, I will admit that though it is already 9:28 a.m. and I have been up for two and a half hours, I am, shall we say, easing into my day. That's right, I'm hanging out on my bed doing some fun internet browsing looking for ideas for the boys' room, for when we finally fix it up. But as I sit here, I can't help but notice I have a bad chill. Hm. Every night we turn our thermostat to 19 degrees and in the morning I turn it up to 21 degrees. Very reasonable. This morning was no different. The kitchen was very cold when I went in to get Cody is breakfast and Jamie his medicine, so I popped into the living room and turned up the temperature to 21.

So why am I so cold? I just went to check out the situation, figuring the boys had shut off the thermostat, as they frequently do. (Nice, eh?) But it was still set for 21. The problem is, it was only reading 18.5 degrees in the living room. No wonder I feel cold! I checked the heat vent and though it was blowing air, that air could barely be classified as warm. So it looks like our furnace is still not working. Or maybe just not working again.

That's okay. It is supposed to go up to -3 outside today, and it looks like the sun will be shining brightly, so there is a good chance it will warm up in here at least a degree, maybe even two. But wow. It is still January in Manitoba, and once the temperatures drop back to normal again in a few days, we will be in serious trouble if we can't keep it warm in here. These are the moments when I think we should really invest in an electric fireplace or something. Yikes.

Jamie is wearing a fleece sleeper, complete with feet, so he should be okay. I put Micah in a very thick, fuzzy fleece sweat suit and socks, so he will probably be fine too. But this is quite irritating. I am so tempted to just crawl under my covers and have a nice cozy nap. But, obviously I can't do that. Here's hoping the sun shines with a little extra intensity into our living room window today.

Meanwhile, I will continue looking forward to February with much anticipation. Is it silly that I'm already excited about Valentine's Day? Yeah, I thought so. I have no plans. I just really want to make heart shaped sugar cookies and ice them in pink. More on that when we get closer to that day! Bye for now.

It is Monday afternoon. I should be in the middle of "quiet time" right now, but sadly, quiet time has taken a serious turn for the worse in this house. Micah spent his whole "nap" shouting, "I want a banana! I WANT A BANANA, I SAID!" He also sang a Coldplay song and requested ice cream. A few minutes ago, Jamie looked as though he was about to have a narcoleptic episode and I asked him to think of what he wanted to do. He said he wanted to play with Micah. Well, I decided to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. Micah is now out and about with Jamie, playing "kitty and puppy". Micah is a kitty and crawls around meowing, until such time that he wants something. Then he talks to me in his "kitty voice". Jamie pretends he is "Oddball", one of the puppies from 102 Dalmatians. They have never seen the movie, but they have the book. I don't know what triggered the sudden obsession, but it is there. Mike and I secretly think that Oddball is quite a fitting name for Jamie, who is and has always been a tad bit eccentric.

Cody is here too. He was doing some math in a book we bought for him for Christmas, but now that Micah and Jamie are playing, he doesn't want to be left out so he is right in there too. They have this ball that is covered in suction cups and they take turns hurling it violently at the window. If it sticks, that is considered a goal. I played a little yesterday. I won. It was strangely satisfying. In fact, I wish I had one with me right now so I could hurl it at something. Maybe I'll borrow it after they go to bed tonight.

Jamie is feeling a lot better, but he is still grouchy. I don't know about Mike. He went to work, so I'm assuming he is okay. But then, who knows what will happen once he gets home. The rest of us still have colds, but not strep so far, so I am thankful for that.

My domestic accomplishments for the day? Well, I have folded two baskets of laundry so far and I hear that my third one is ready now too. Not a huge accomplishment, but somehow it always makes me feel like I have done something worthwhile. I had Cody on garbage collection duty this morning and we went around with a garbage bag and he picked up all the things they have dumped on the floor including (but not limited to) broccoli, grapes, a multitude of granola bar wrappers, kleenex, empty sticker packages, candy wrappers from Cody's birthday party he attended on Friday... Sadly, I could go on. The good news is, the floor is close to being ready to be vacuumed. That's right. In my house, you can't just vacuum. It's like a three day process to get ready first. All discarded laundry must be picked up. (That would mostly be Jamie's socks, which are found anywhere and everywhere on a daily basis.) All toys must be picked up and put in their proper places. This alone is a two day job. Garbage must be collected and discarded. I wish I could just pull the vacuum out and go for it, but it is seriously that difficult. Every day I am awed by how much mess three boys can make and how much destruction they can reap. It is amazing.

And even so, I have my heart set on fixing up their rooms in the spring. Well, mostly just the one room which has been ruined so badly by them. Time to paint over my once beautiful baby room and remove what is left of the tattered border. I will have to post before and after pics once we get around to that. We will wait until spring so we can set aside some funds for the job. I can't wait, even though it will be painful to watch the room get torn apart once again. Our hope is, if they are part of the fixing up, they will be less likely to write on the walls...etc. Naive? Yes. But that's okay. It's either that or we have to leave their room like this for another five years or more, and I just can't do it. After the destruction that the flood hit us with in the spring, we are just ready to make our upstairs look as nice as possible, seeing our basement is pretty much ruined.

Oh, and besides the laundry and garbage I forgot to mention I'm making a roast beef dinner tonight complete with mashed potatoes, gravy and some kind of vegetables that are as yet undetermined. That definitely counts as a domestic accomplishment, right? Now I am off to grab my next basket of laundry to fold and organize. Maybe I'll even vacuum before Mike gets home!

Improvements

Yesterday Mike called me at lunch to tell me his throat was incredibly sore. He went to the doctor and was diagnosed with strep throat. With that in mind, we took Jamie in. He also has strep. So they are both on antibiotics and Jamie was substantially improved today. He played and he had no stomach troubles at all. Mike's throat was better in the morning but got bad again later in the day. I am hoping and praying that the rest of us don't get it, but we will have to wait and see, I suppose. The boys were all very grouchy today. Actually, all of us were. But we made it through. We have to wake Jamie up at 11 p.m. every night now to give him a dose of his medicine because it has to be every eight hours. I thought he'd cry and whine, but he was so sweet last night and even thanked me for the medicine. He knows it will happen again tonight. I remember my mom doing that for me when I was really sick. There is something very comforting for a child who is sick to be taken care of by their mother, or their father. My dad, like most, was a working man, so he was not the one there for me during the day. But he always checked on me when he got home from work.

Anyway, that's it for my update. I hope I don't have any further strep updates to give. I'd love to see everyone even more improved by tomorrow, but I don't know if that's realistic. Apparently it takes three to five days of treatment to clear it up. So I'm off to enjoy the rest of the quiet evening until Micah wakes up crying, like he does every night. Goodnight.

Big Day Here. UPDATE at bottom of page.

I'd love to say, "Thank goodness it's Friday", but in truth, I will be relieved when today is over. Cody is off to school this morning. From there, he goes straight to a birthday party in town. From there, he goes straight to hockey, also in town. It's a huge day for him, and I am feeling kind of bad about it. This morning, I had to wake him up to get him ready on time, and that is not normal for him. It turns out, both he and Jamie are complaining of sore throats today. We've all been struggling with colds for a long time in this house. Well, maybe not Mike, but the rest of us are. Micah has been sick for weeks, and I have been for over a week now too.

Anyway, Jamie was looking pale and was whimpering when he got up. He didn't eat any of his breakfast. He seems to have a fever, so I told him to get his pillow and I have him set up on the couch watching TV with a blanket over him. I gave him some Tylenol too, partly for the fever but also in hopes it might help his throat pain. Poor boy. This is not normal behaviour for him either.

Micah is in my room with me, peeling billions of small stickers off of a roll and sticking them on me. I have  21 on my arms so far, but I see he is coming in with another one. I keep telling him to stop, but he is addicted. It isn't that I mind being covered in stickers. My only concern is that these may not be his stickers, and if they're not, there will be backlash later when the rightful owner finds out. Nothing makes Micah happy like stickers. Haha. It's pretty cute. He woke up crying at around 6 a.m. begging me to blow his nose, so he is not feeling awesome either. I hope this will go away soon. It's annoying.

So I anticipate a very quiet day here, seeing I won't even see Cody again until about 7 p.m., and Jamie will probably veg out all day. Micah is always pretty quiet, though he does get into trouble. Maybe we'll all even get to nap this afternoon! That would be nice. This cold has me losing sleep too, so I could do with the extra rest.

That's all from my frigid corner of the world this morning. I will quickly add though, I am very glad we are nearing the end of January. February is cold too, but psychologically it just feels better.

UPDATE: About an hour ago, Jamie threw up on the living room floor. He is weak and pale, and his voice is so quiet. He has finally fallen asleep on the couch. I have laundry going from the barf. I'm not as stressed out as I normally get about stomach sickness, but I am worried about Cody. This morning he said he had a stomach ache, but he used the bathroom and then seemed fine. Now I'm wondering whether he really is fine or not. I hope I will not have to go pick him up. That would mean dragging Jamie out in the freezing cold and making him endure a van ride with a bucket in his lap. Ugh. I hadn't even thought about that part of things. I SO hope that doesn't happen. But I wonder whether Cody will be okay after a day this big when clearly he was off to start with. Cody never sleeps in. Ever. Sigh. Okay, I am definitely a bit stressed out.

Micah is playing very quietly on the floor in my room, which is fine with me. I will probably try to keep him in here for a lot of the day to avoid contact with Jamie. (For Micah, I mean.) This is just not cool. I hope it will be a mild one and not get really horrible. I've been trying to call Mike so he is aware that Cody may not be up for hockey tonight, but I can't get a hold of him, as usual. Yuck. This is definitely depressing. Hopefully I will have a good update tomorrow, or whenever I post next.

More Invitations...

Last week I posted about Cody's birthday party that he was invited to and how that was a milestone for me as a mom. I am sure I overreacted to the whole thing, but regardless, I was somewhat stressed out for many reasons. I told myself it was good, I would have to get used to it because there were bound to be more invitations in the future. What I forgot to update in here was, the very next day, I found another invitation in his backpack! It's for this Friday, so at least this time I had more notice. Once again I am a little bit stressed, but only because that day will be so huge for him. He will get on the bus to go to school at 7:40 a.m. Crazy, right? Then, at 3 p.m. when school is over, he will go directly to the birthday party, which will go until 5 p.m. Then, Mike will have to pick him up and rush him straight over to hockey, which starts at 5:30 p.m., and he really should be there by 5 so he can get dressed in all his equipment. I'm not sure how the whole thing is going to be coordinated. I haven't talked to the mom yet, but her son is also on Cody's hockey team, so I am thinking she will want him to rush over there too. But then I wonder, will she be feeding them supper? If not, Cody will not eat before practice, and that will NOT work. I have this and many other questions, but what I really need to do is call her. I will be doing that later, to sort out the details. I also need to know whether I have to drive to town and pick Cody up and drive him over to the birthday boy's house, or whether she is going to walk them all over from the school. I'm guessing that won't be the case, seeing it is ridiculously cold out this week.

Yes, winter has bared her fangs at us here, and we have been under an extreme wind chill warning all day, and it will continue all through tomorrow as well. The wind chill will be as low as -43 tomorrow morning. I heard it was -50 in parts of Saskatchewan and Alberta today. That's just gross! As it was, I had to take the Dynamic Duo out today, which was not thrilling for me. I had to see my ophthalmologist yet again, and it was early in the morning. So I had to take them over to Mike's parents' place at 8 a.m. and then brave the highways. I was nervous about that because there was a lot of blowing snow, but it turned out the visibility was pretty good. Ironically, just as I was exiting my house to leave, I got hit with a migraine, and when that happens to me, my vision goes very weird and it's hard to see. So even though road conditions were pretty decent, my eyes were not that good. It turned out okay, but I was worried I might have to pull over on the highway and wait until I could see again. Fortunately, it didn't get as severe as it did last night. I guess it was one of those kind that continues into the next day. I feel fine now, so that's a relief.

And now, I have one of those permanent chills you get when you have been outside in weather that was not made to be out in, and the only way to get rid of that kind of chill is with hot water. Man, I wish I had a hot tub. That would be so awesome. Not that it would matter. In 25 minutes, I have to go outside AGAIN and walk to the road to get Cody from the bus. How I wish I could stay inside today! At least tomorrow I get to, though I am going to get my hair done in the evening, so I will freeze then again.

Hm. A fireplace would also be nice. At any rate, as you can tell, I don't have anything profound to say today. I'm off for now.

Things you do NOT want to overhear your four year old saying...

Well, I just had my adrenaline rush for the day. Cody is at school today, so I am just here with the Dynamic Duo. It has been very quiet in here for the last few minutes. I am in my room, where I do my laundry folding and putting away, and I heard Jamie say, "Now hold still, this won't hurt." My eyes popped open and I headed for the living room. On my way, I heard Jamie say, "Now don't move. I'm just going to cut around your ears." AAAHHHHH!!! Well, I supposed it was time. I have been a mom for almost six years now, and I don't think any of my kids have given themselves a haircut yet, let alone giving each other one. I bolted into the living room, my jaw already hanging open, and I stopped short. Jamie looked up, guilt in his eyes, but he was not holding scissors. He had a pair of pliers! Phew! Oh my goodness, that got the heart pumping. I really thought he was hacking Micah's hair, and I only hoped I would get there before he cut one of his ears while he was at it. I can't tell you how nice it was to walk in on a scene like that and feel relief instead of horror. Too many times I have been in the other boat.

Now I'm going to make some lunch for them and maybe I'll get some of their stuff cleaned up. It's like somebody set off a bomb in Santa's workshop. I'd love to get rid of some toys. I think that will be on the agenda soon. I also need to go through all my boys' clothes and "retire" the ones that are not fitting them and then bring out the ones that have been outgrown by someone but will now fit someone else. Endless cycle! I have been avoiding it because it is such a big job, but I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet soon and do it. Micah has a ton of clothes in his drawers that should have been retired a long time ago, and I think Jamie has some in storage that were Cody's but will fit him now. One day, when they are all past the youngest stage, I will be able to box up ALL the clothes and get rid of them. Not that I won't be sad to see some of them go, particularly the really small ones, but it will be nice to have some more storage space again too.

Micah is crying and needs some help. I'm off for now.

I'm in my room by myself with a tall glass of chocolate milk. Mmm. Outside, huge fluffy snowflakes are falling gently to the ground. It is mild out again today, but starting tomorrow it's going to get super cold for the whole week, which I'm not looking forward to! I'm tired and a bit run down these days from a yucky cold, which I'm sure I got from Micah. It's really not that bad except the congestion gives me headaches and I find it hard to sleep at night because I can't breathe, so I'm tired most days. Hopefully it will clear up soon, and Micah's too. He has been sick for weeks.

Just wanted to follow up on two things. First, Cody's birthday party for his friend went all right. All in all, he had a good time and even though they watched part of a movie (we picked him up before it was over), the mom skipped the part that I was concerned about, so she must have been thinking the same way. I'm sure there will be many more birthday parties to come, so it should be interesting to see how that goes! Hopefully I won't be as nervous for all of them.

Also, I wanted to mention that Mike's dad came over and helped him fix the furnace. Well, apparently it still has a problem, but they did get the new elements installed and we actually have heat! I was beyond relieved. Anyone who knows me will tell you I am more often hot than I am cold, so it is ironic that it bothered me so much, but honestly, it was really uncomfortable in here. Whenever I sat still or stood still I had a chill and even under blankets I was shivering. The day after it got fixed, the boys and I all gathered on the floor in the living room around the most accessible heat vent and we just enjoyed the warm air coming out. Yes, that was very nice!

I don't have a ton more to report today. Cody has a hockey game today out of town, and as I watch the snow outside I wonder how the roads will be. In the few minutes I have been typing this post, the snow has gone from one of those romantic, gently drifting down snowfalls, to something a lot more intense. Still big flakes, but they are coming down much harder and faster than before.

The other thing on my mind in the last few days is home improvements. I really have this strong urge to go to Home Depot and buy a whole bunch of paint and other supplies and really fix up our place. I'm so tired of the writing on the walls...literally. So much writing, and much of it is in blue ball point pen, so it does not come off. I just want to paint this place, but then if we do, the boys will probably just do it all over again as soon as we're done. I just keep wondering how many years we'll have to wait before we can really get this place nice again. Oh well. Tis the season, I suppose. The season of life, that is.

I'm off to eat some breakfast. Bye for now.