Holy Cow, March,

where is this year going? The gorgeous weather of spring is fading fast, my air conditioning is on and I'm feeling the laziness accompanied with summer heat coming on as well... ugh.

So March:

Dentist appointments for all three kids showed we were free of cavities AGAIN - woohoo! We must be doing something right around here, at least...

Orthodontist appointments showed that A needs three more teeth pulled, great. Thanks a lot again, Nonnie, for our inheritance of your tiny mouth, and thanks Daddy, for our inheritance of your huge teeth. This will be happening in May.

Spring Break took the girls to gymnastics camp... partly because I've decided I do NOT want to travel on Spring and Fall breaks anymore. Staycations it is! Why would I leave Arizona on the two of the most perfect-weather weeks of the year? The girls went all week and loved it, and Mommy was able to get a lot of vinyl projects done.

Slight car problem during Spring Break as well... thank goodness for good friends who came to rescue me, saving me from a towing bill to the repair shop. Sparky is feeling much better now, but I'm knocking on wood every day that he keeps running okay. I feel like there's some major fix looming on the horizon... 160K miles, he's starting to show his age. Speaking of Sparky, he seriously needs an oil change today.

Spring Break also took J to Grandma's house for two days for his "G&G Inn" time. Our house was EERILY quiet while he was gone, and I found myself distraught and super lonely without my boy/sidekick. We were so glad to welcome him home!

I joined a gym in the middle of March, and have been going almost daily to classes, getting back in the habit. Now that I'm exercising my knee has loosened up and doesn't hurt nearly as bad as it was. Go figure.

The kids returned to school the next week, thank goodness. I spent a lot of time creating new vinyl and signs for a boutique... since I was almost out of inventory. Now I'm pretty stocked up again. Small (sometimes VERY small) custom orders keep trickling in, giving me pocket money each week.

Thanks to Grandma watching J I was able to see the Hunger Games movie on opening day with some friends.. Loved it. Getting ready to re-read Catching Fire and MockingJay now.

Spring boutique came and went, and it went about how I thought it would...lol. I sold about what I expected, so I can't complain. I need to put some time and effort into finding just the right boutique shows to get into... haven't found just the right place yet to feature our stuff.

Craigs List has become my new addiction since I scored an awesome sectional couch for our downstairs living room for CHEAP. Now I have hope that I can find deals for the rest of my house, and have been scouring every day for just the right pieces. I've finally sold all of the random things I had laying around here "to sell" and can move on now. Oh, how I love upgrading my furniture! Next on the list: new kitchen table/chairs. Wish me luck.

Activity Days has been going a little better since I've been putting more time and effort into it... we had a whole music lesson with the girls where we learned all about the different elements to a song, different kind of notes, time signatures, etc. Each of the girls took turns leading us to sing a hymn of their choice and we played a music matching game. Pretty good. Last Friday we had an Easter lesson, talked about the last week of Jesus' life, and planted seeds in egg shells. I'm crossing my fingers that the stuff actually grows, lol.

We went to the Easter pageant on one of the first nights it showed when Nonnie and Papa were in town. My kids enjoyed every bit of it. I need to go even earlier next year to try and get better seats, though... A was constantly complaining that she couldn't see everything.

Kids are doing well. J is the happiest kid I know and so fun. He plays with bouncy balls and marbles and sings a lot, though he only knows a few words to a few primary songs. When he hears a slow song come on, whether a church song or not, he does this whole interpretive dance thing and sways around with his arms up, eyes closed, permagrin attached. It's hilarious. He's definitely a jokester lately. Daily he tells us something to be immediately followed by "I'm just kidding!" or "I'm serious. I'm not lying."

M is the most helpful kid around, and generally so pleasant! She is more than willing to dig in and help around the house... on Saturday she helped paint AND got in the pool and scrubbed the sides with the brush. I never never have to ask her to make her bed, or get dressed or ready for school, etc. Her interest in the piano has waned, and we're doing well to get her to play through each of her assigned songs once a day. Because of that, she hasn't improved as quickly as I would have hoped. She is looking forward to swim team this summer, and is still enjoying gymnastics.

I've been struggling with A lately, not only with the eating thing but with her just generally being defiant. She has to get reminded over and over again to do her chores, and she tends to act so burdened. Seems like every time I ask her to do something she hides out somewhere and starts reading a book, or playing on my phone, or something... I'm the nag and this horrible person who doesn't want her to have ice cream every night because she barely eats lunch or dinner, and won't buy her gum, and I hate it. I don't think she's eating much more than pretzels every day for lunch, since she almost always brings home her sandwich from school untouched. She's doing quite well in gymnastics and is moving up to level 3 as of today. She's already saying she doesn't want to do swim team this year, yet she wants me to keep paying for gymnastics, piano, and also wants to do private violin lessons this summer. Grrr.... I'm at a loss as to how to deal with her. She's plowing through 3-5 books a week, doing fine in school, but a lot of times I feel like she only does the minimum of whatever it is to get by... just to be able to do what she wants. Shoves her stuff under her bed and calls it "cleaning her room" etc. She and her sister are NOT getting along at all lately, the screaming has become ridiculous, but I don't know what consequences to apply.

Between work, basketball and scouts, we barely see N. Seems like when he's home he's too tired to do much. I've all but given up cooking dinner because the kids (I take that back, 2 of my kids) won't touch it anyway, and N's not home to eat it. So, I throw kid-food at the kids (or have them make their own) and call it done most days.

House is ... coming along. We're coming up on one year over here in Mesa. We have a LONG way to go, but the difference is night and day from when we moved in. A lot of paint and TLC goes a long way. To-do list includes finishing cutting in the paint upstairs, painting bathrooms, getting quotes on built-ins for downstairs living room, painting a hall tree I bought for the laundry room, SUN SCREENS (tax return??) , living room furniture, and hopefully a pool decking re-do (SRP bonus??) but we'll see how much of that happens this year. Hopefully at least 2-3 things on that list.

Now I've missed my class at the gym today because I don't have any workout clothes clean. Looks like it's a laundry day!