Laundry Schmaundry

I recently traded Mark the dishes for laundry folding. He said that he felt like he was ripping me off. He was sure that the dishes were far worse than any laundry I could throw at him. He is such an optamist! That was all before he saw this.


This is one week of laundry at the Bennett household, minus all the sheets and blankets that I had to put back on the beds so the kiddies could go to sleep. Sometimes I just look at the enormity of the heap and move on to the next chore that I can actually get done in 4 hours. Who knew 3 kids could dirty so many things?

I hope Mark is as excited about the laundry as I am about the dishes.
Deep down I feel like I ripped him off.

Hellfire without damnation

I love so many things about summertime; swimming, Popsicles, the smell of sunscreen, fluffy towels, sand castles, flip flops and tan feet but there is an aspect of summer I could live without...the heat. I HATE the heat!

Right now my house is HOT AS HADES. I have a portable a/c unit and 5 fans going full blast and my living room it is a cool 92 degrees. Sweet. or should I say Sweat.

I think I am ready to buy into the whole global warming bunk. Surely it wasn't this hot last year in my house. I could have never tolerated it and stayed on for another year.

There is a song that comes to mind about home can be a heaven on earth..... I have revised it as follows...
Home can be (heck) on earth when it is filled with stale humid air, 3 young children, and a woman with perspiration pooling in her unmentionables. ( I took a little liberty with the tune, but you get what I mean)

I am off to stand in front of the fan, the unmentionables can only tolerate so much pooling.

The BIG 10

Today is the day that marks 10 years of wedded bliss. Since my #1 man is off in the woods camping I am going to eat molten lava cake courtesy of Trader Joes, and drum up the top 10 reasons I am glad I am married to such an amazing person.

Reasons Why in random order...

1. He really does love me. Every once in a while I think about that. I am so lucky to really know that no matter how frizzy my hair is or expensive my shoes are he loves me just the same. (technically he might love me more if my shoes were cheaper, but I have no proof, so I don't test that philosophy)

2.He is an amazing dad. I am pretty sure that if he stayed home and raised the children they would all be peaceful and happy, having never heard an angry word. They would also be filled with joy because they would get to wrestle and hang upside down from their toes at anytime. I couldn't pick a more wonderful person to have my kids call Dad.

3. He likes leftovers. I can only think of one time when he wouldn't. I can count on him to eat the forgotten food congealing in tupperware. I am leftover picky, but I tend to cook big. The man eats a lot of leftovers!

4. He does the dishes every night. I am not sure how I nurtured this trait into full blown magic, but it really is heaven. He is even starting to train Julia to take his place at the sink when he is too old to wield a sponge. Bless him.

5. He is a spiritual rock. I know he has an amazing testimony of Jesus Christ. I love that about him.

6. He rocks babies in the middle of the night. Not all men will do this. Or maybe not all women are desperate enough to elbow their husband awake at 3 am, and hand them a fussy baby.

7. He lets me sleep in. I have this thing about sleep. I need it, I covet it, I keep track of who gets more. (I think I have some OCD tendencies about my sleep, or lack there of. ) 99% of the time, Mark lets me sleep in. I am not as selfless. I try to be thoughtful and give him a few extra winks here and there, but when it comes right down to it I would rather be the one sleeping, and he lets me. Again...bless him

8. He is supportive of my "hobbies". When we were first married I had a real job. I worked earning a normal living for about the first 18 months. Then I decided I wanted to ride horses and barely get paid. He said to heck with the money and I rode off into the sunset. Who knows what we could have bought if I had spent 4 years working instead of galloping through the hills. He has never mentioned it. He always said he was great with whatever made me happy.

9. He likes to travel. I grew up in a small town, and never saw the ocean until I graduated for high school. After such a sheltered existence he could have taken me to Canada and I probably would have felt foreign and exotic. Thanks heavens he thinks a little bigger than that!

10. He is great with money. He gets the stock market, and investing. He is on top of our retirement. I am so glad I don't have to take that one on. I have completely stopped trying to interfere. I just go with it. I have even stopped paying the bills. he does it all online. I used to try and be the bean counter, but I gave that up years ago. Now my part in the whole thing is not selling our souls to Costco and Target.


I know I am so lucky to have such a great man!

I love ya honey. Thanks for a great 10 years. :)

Its so MONDAY

What do you do when the hem of your comfy flowing pants is soaking in the cat's water bowl while you are doing laundry (in the garage) and you spill way to much bleach into your white load so it will probably end up being your "yellowed" load instead and your husband is out of town for your 10th --yes 10th---anniversary (he missed #9 too) and your kids are addicted to tv and it is only the first day of summer and your house that is way too small and way too dirty is at the height of small and dirty? I eat cake. Lots and lots of chocolate cake, and then I think about having to wear a bathing suit for weeks on end this summer and I eat some more cake.

I love cake.

Oh Sleeping Joy

It is 9:15 am and wonder of wonders the baby is still asleep in his bed. Yesterday I did torture him with 3 hours of church and then kept him up an hour past his bedtime, but I had no idea that sleeping bliss would be the result.
Sleepy baby you're the best!

The Pandemic goods are in the mail

Since we still live in the age of communicable disease and church head quarters just posted a get prepared site; I purchased some rubber gloves, N95 face masks, and some sweet shoe booties.


(on a complete aside....who is this guy wearing the face mask. I wonder if you could put that on your resume. Guy with half of my face covered in the medical magazine. I wonder if I could get that job. I do have nice eyes.)


All of it will be delivered in good time by a man who is most likely carrying a communicable disease. Perfect!

The idea of locking myself in my house and parading around in laytex accessories is less than appealing, but you just never know if it may be necessary.
I plan on stacking my hospital supplies next to my hundred pounds of wheat and hope that I never have to crack a box.



*****A few people have asked where I got my goods. Here is the link .

I will be honest that I didn't shop around that much. The prices were less than Amazon on the masks so I went for it.

This is what I bought... Shipping was about 15 bucks--ouch-- but it shipped fast and saved me from leaving the house. (sometimes I would pay someone more than 15 to shop for me)

3M-8511	3M 8511 N95 Particulate Respirator	$14.65	3	$43.95
BE-NITRILE	BE-7500PFM - Medium Size	$8.00	2	$16.00
AR-51020	Non Skid Polypropylene Shoe Covers	$25.00	1	$25.00

You Swap it with a Swapper

Somehow the topic of fly swatting was mentioned at school and Julia's teacher told the kids that flys were hard to kill because of the size of their eyes. They can always see you coming.


We had a giant fly buzzing around the house yesterday. Julia got really serious and began to enumerate the nasty things flies can do. Then she said "Too bad you can't just swap that fly with the swapper. Flies are really really hard to kill because of their huge eyes. Swappers aren't very good because of that."

I just love little kids, and now I love fly swappers.

The boy

Oh how I love this boy!!

It is the saddest thing that he is 10 months old. Next he will be off to kindergarten and I won't get to squidge his cheeks whenever I want. I wish I could trade a bit of the slug stage and keep him just like this for a little longer.


Love you baby Jack!

Face Plant

Cute little Ava is a faller. She finds a way to trip, launch or stumble across the weirdest things. It would be fine is she could dust off her hands and knees and maybe take advantage of a bandaid or two. Instead she catches herself with her face. She has already lost 2 teeth to falling on her face. (granted... Julia was carrying her and fell on top of her on the sidewalk, but still she caught them both with her face) Its not a great trait. She has a cute face. I would like to keep it cute, at least until she is through the horrors of junior high.
Today she came home from shopping with Dad at REI with a monster puffy lip and bloody teeth. It seems that she got her foot stuck in the top of a sleeping bag and caught the floor with her teeth. So sad. I guess it happened with in the first 5 minutes in the store, making the whole trip a bust.
I need to have a little practice session where she falls repeatedly and works on getting her hands out in front. Or maybe I should buy her one of these and call it good.

Return to blogger

I enjoyed my little vacation from blogging, but in truth I missed writing.

I suck rocks at journaling, so I am using this as my life log in hopes that my posterity will read it. (taking for granted that blogger will not go under in the mean time.)

Ode to the Gym

I know a dank place called the gym.
When I go there the light is quite dim.
Though I sweat and I slave
Its the brownies I crave
And they thwart me in becoming thin.