Oh, that's why it feels so good!

We went shoe shopping. They have started rolling out the red carpet when we arrive, dollar signs blinking in their eyes. It was the normal stress and mess, but eventually we all had shoes. Erik was trying on a shoe and walked around the store. I saw him and said 'Erik, your shoe is on the wrong foot.' Erik replied 'Oh!!!! That's why it feels so good!'

Tim's were too small, too big, too tight, too loose, too purple or too black. Eventually he chose some, now we just have to convince him to actually wear sandals instead of winter boots.

Sylvia wanted to wear other shoes about constantly. I hope she is not going to turn into a shopper! The older girls and Cees did their own thing, nice to have some independent ones.

Now back to studying go! Oh, I guess I need to make some food too.

Clean Up Day!

Yet another one, but this one actually went particularly well. Almost everyone cooperated and we are now enjoying a perfectly (ok ok, almost perfectly) clean house and happy kids (ok ok, almost happy kids)

I spent time outdoors doing aikido and studying go, the weather is beautiful. I was going to post flower pictures, but that will have to wait to a rainy day when I don't want to be outside instead.

Tomorrow I have yet another go tournament in Boston. Looking forward to a whole day without kids interruptions. To sit down for lunch without somebody hitting his brother on the head, or someone falling down from the chair. To eat a bite without sharing. Oh, and I get to play go too ^^

Hungry Fish...

At least, that's what Sylvia must have thought when she emptied two containers full of fish food into the aquarium... The fish food (or whatever is left of it) has been put up high now and I have replaced half of the aquarium water and the filter. STill very cloudy, I hope it will magically turn clear again, because I have no idea what more I can do about it.

My go tournament was fun, a whole day just playing go without ANY interruptions! I played as 3k, won 2, lost 2 games, so that seems like an ok rank for now. Only three more stones to shodan!

Birth Flower

Our daffodills finally are blooming, and Kate was admiring them. I heard her mumbling 'Daffodills!!! They are my birth flowers. They are pretty. Hmmm, but they aren't pink... ' I guess I'll have to find pink daffodills for next year ^^

Today was cleanup day, I still hate it just as much as the kids hate it. But we did get everything done, even if there was much moaning and groaning. From the kids too. Now the house looks halfway decent and I can go to Massachusetts tomorrow without worrying about cleanup day (usually we do it on Sunday) Yes, I am going out all by myself tomorrow, for the whole day. Playing in a go tournament. Wish me luck!

Busy, busy, busy, busy

So much to do, so little time. I started studying Japanese again, and I learned how to type Chinese characters on my computer. Of course, now I want to be able to read at least a bunch of them, so that I can type things which actually do make sense. My vocabulary used to just be 'black'黑 and 'white'百, but has increased with words like sun and moon now. So much to study, so little time ^^

Of course, I also need to study go and aikido. And there always are things around the house which need to be done, somehow the kids do like to eat once in a while.

Last night, Tim stood at the top of the stairs and puked right down... What a mess!!! It could have been all the easter candy, but it felt more like a stomach bug. Oh joy, that means other family members will get it too.

Easter was fun. We did an egg hunt, egg coloring, way too much candy and more. Here are some pics.

Ready to for the egg hunt

Helping his little sister find her eggs

It'sss mine! All mine!!! My precious candy!

Two Hundred Pounds

Today, I got 200 lbs of wheat berries delivered to my house. This was most of my coop order this month, should feed us for about 4 months or so? I don't remember how long they will last exactly, but I am not going to be out of whole wheat flour for anytime soon.

Bread keeps evaporating, I am baking yet another load of four big loaves. I am thinking I might start baking even more, but then I have to calculate everything again, and I have to find a way to get it all in the oven. Hmmmm. Seems easier to work with the four loaves, since I did figure out that one. But still, I am wondering.

My car is in the garage today, it was leaking coolant. Blech, most likely yet another high repair bill. This on top of the $75 worth of gas I put into it yesterday. Gas prices are crazy again.

Rats!

Matching outfits! The dream of every group of girls, at least of my girls and their friends. This had been planned for a while. Money needed to be earned, so we suddenly had a very willing team to work whatever jobs in our households. Finally, the day arrived, they went shopping.

My friend made the mistake of not stepping backwards when volunteers were asked for, so she got stuck taking them to Kmart and Walmart. She spent at least two hours letting them shop and watch them try to stretch their money as far as possible. The t-shirts had to be the expensive ones though, since the girls told her 'These say Rats! when you look in the mirror!' A reasoning which could not be faulted...

They got matching shirts, skirts, sandals, and hair ties.



No idea how I ended up with girls who like shopping...

Blah!

Just one of those blah feeling days, no idea why. Maybe it's the weather, it turned cold and snowy again after a few teasing days of spring weather. Maybe it's some other stuff going on. Just don't feel right today, and not sure what to do about it. Most likely just hope it will pass and kind of ignore it.

I am having my period, which doesn't help either, it's not my favorite thing in the world. So messy. But I did get go study and aikido study in. I realized that the samurai in the old days most likely never had to interrupt their kata for a panicky 1yo 'Mama!!! Pee!!!'

The girls are out shopping for matching outfits with their friends. How did I end up with kids who enjoy shopping? Must be from Sander's side of the family, they sure didn't get it from me.

Foreign Languages

Another one in our series! This series is so much fun, I am glad I came up with the idea. I have so many more caching ideas, I just wish I had more time to actually implement them ^^ I did some caching today, but it was just helping a friend with one of my caches, nothing new got hidden. But at least I spent most of the day outside, soooooo nice! Finally it's SPRING!

I have started to bake more bread at a time, my kids go through them so fast. I now bake two big loaves and two normal sized loaves all at the same time. I hope those will last us a bit longer. We'll see.