Forts and Applesauce

What a great fall day today!  A friend of my husbands has five apple trees in his yard and he gave my husband two HUGE bags filled with apples.  Now I have a dilemma of what to do with all these apples!  I made two apple smoothies this morning that were really yummy.  I made an apple crisp-ish thing for breakfast tomorrow.  And of course I made applesauce!  I have never made applesauce before so of course I went to my trusty Betty Crocker app to find a recipe.  Anyone who likes to cook or try different things should definitely be on the Better Crocker website or have the app on their phone.

The kids helped us much as they could and when their help was no longer needed they made forts in the living room with my hubby.  As my two year old would say, "Busy, busy, busy!"  Here's my pics from the applesauce.  It was too hot to try tonight so I will have to wait until tomorrow to see if the kids actually like it.  I have never peeled so many apples in my life!  If anyone has any good apple recipes, please send my way!  Come back to my blog tomorrow for more recipes from my Packer Sunday blog.









































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Busy Mommy Blogger

Getting ready for winter!

Oh man, the past three days I have been going through all my winter clothes for the kids trying to figure out what I need to buy and what we already have.  First I sorted all the clothes into separate piles of hats/mittens, coats, snow pants, and boots.  Then I lined them up by size to see what I all had.  Then I started to pull what I needed for each kiddo and made a pile for each child.  That way I could see what each child needed and wrote down what and sizes of things to buy.

Then I went to the store and bought all the things on my list and brought them home for the kids to try on.  This literally takes FOR-EV-ER!  After they try things on I figure out what sizes are wrong and what needs to be returned, exchanged or bought.  I am exhausted!  It does get me excited for winter though, I love playing in the snow with the kids and seeing the amazement on their faces when snow starts falling for the first time!

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Busy Mommy Blogger

Play-doh!

I was watching Oprah once a long time ago and there was a SAHM on who said if she had to sit and play with play-doh with her kids one more time, she was going to shoot herself.  I didn't think much of it then because I wasn't a SAHM, but now that I am I realize that there are moms who want to stay at home and enjoy all the mundane every day activities that come with it and there are moms who are truly not fulfilled by staying at home.  I think it's great if you can stay at home and do, but I think it's only good for your kids if you are happy staying at home. 

We as moms are put in such a hard position.  If we stay at home we "just" stay at home and the things we do for our family are overlooked or over simplified.  "Of course you have time to do such and such, you just stay at home!"  I hate that!  I am so busy everyday with my kids and taking care of the house, not to mention if there are errands to be done that day.  Moms who go back to work are also made to feel bad because they are giving their kids to someone else for 8 hours each day.  They have demands on them not only from the workplace but also at home, trying to keep up with the daily responsibilities of having a family.

For me, I don't really care what moms choose to do, so long as they are happy I believe their kids will be happy.  No one wants a mom around all day if she is grumpy and no one wants a mom at work if she's unhappy not being at home.  So, here's to all you mommies!  I hope you are able to tune out the rest of the world and do what is best for YOU and YOUR family!

Btw, I love playing with play-doh with my two year old!  Everything is so new and exciting to him!  It is so neat to see him playing with all the cool stuff in the play-doh bin.



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Busy Mommy Blogger

When will my house be clean?

Do any of you other moms ever wonder when your house will be clean for more than a half hour?  And even that is a long time for my house to stay clean.  I know, I should know better than to expect my house to actually be and stay clean with four little kids running around.  And I wouldn't trade the kids in to have a cleaner house, I would just like the house to stay clean long enough for me to enjoy it.  It seems like as soon as I vacuum up the crumbs from snack, someone is running in from the backyard with sand all over their clothes.  And then, as soon as I get the sand vacuumed up, someone else is spilling a glass of milk in the kitchen.  When I am finally done wiping up the milk, someone else has spilled crumbs all over the floor.  Ok, you get it. 

I know that the more children I have I should probably loosen up more, become a little less anal about how tidy the house is, but it seems quite the opposite for me.  Maybe because there is so much more to clean up when there are more people to pick up after.  Maybe it is because I really love to organize and make sure that things are tidy.  Whatever it is, I don't see this condition getting better any time soon.  I may even be passing this on to my kids.  My two year old is obsessed with changing his clothes if they get dirty, putting things where they belong, and washing his hands.  Now if they could all be like that (especially my husband!), I might not have to be so concerned with cleaning the house every day!

It is just a really nice feeling to see the kitchen after it is clean or the basement when all the toys are put away.  I find enjoyment from having a floor so clean it is squeaky and a pile of laundry neatly folded and ready to be put away.  I guess with all these kiddos there will plenty of enjoyment for the next 18+ years that comes from cleaning but what I am really going to enjoy is the day when I can clean my house and it actually stays that way!

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Busy Mommy Blogger

Go Badgers!

What an awesome day today!  My uncle took me and the baby to the Badger game today and the rest of the fam to a tailgate before.  My mother's side of the family was all there and we always have a blast.  We are all funny, sarcastic, and have so much fun together!  The kids were awesome at the tailgate and hubby hung out with the three big kids during the game while I sat practically on the field.  Best tickets EVER!!  We were so close to the action and there were a lot of big plays right in front of us.  Weather was amazing and the baby was so good.  Now I am completely exhausted and can't wait to fall asleep in my recliner!

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Busy Mommy Blogger