The House Will Explode.

As a stay-home mom, I have a massive juggling job that I've pretty much fine-tuned (but it still gets out of tune pretty quickly, ha ha) from lowly things like making sure the plants get watered to reconciling the house budget and paying bills on a spreadsheet. I have a system. A checklist. A schedule. Every day, I get up and tick things off my list. I have five other people dependent on me for a lot of things, and if I'm suddenly not there...what happens?

Yep. Pretty much.

So, I am leaving on Saturday, and I will be gone FIVE WHOLE DAYS. I am attending a family get-together in my parents hometown, and I am going by myself. No kids, no husband. Which means, they are home to fend for themselves. This makes me...nervous. I will be honest. In fact, I told Thing Four (who is 5) that I was going away for a few days, and his immediate response:

"What? Who will give me baths and turkey sandwiches and take me to Taekwondo?"

See? Even at the tender age of 5, he gets it. Luckily I have a 14-year old daughter, who is VERY capable, and sons who are 13 and 11. They are going to be fine. I have coordinated with neighbors about rides to their summer activities, the swim lessons are literally at the clubhouse pool down the street, and I am going to plan/cook meals that can be heated up for the duration of my trip. I will make sure they have clean clothes and SOMEONE waters the flowers, walks the dog, etc. etc. etc.

Everything should be fine, right?

Pray for us.

It's Summer, What Can I Say? Oh, and SNACKS.

I've been a baaad blogger. I think this might be some sort of record! Now that I have a book coming out soon, I need to keep up with the blogging. I think more book-oriented posts will be over at my writing blog, The Potted Pen, but for now, I just need to keep up with things!

We got through all three graduations: Pre-school, Fifth grade, and 8th Grade. I now have a High School Freshman, two middle-schoolers and a KINDERGARTENER. Yikes. Talk about a spread-out brood! But this is good news. Why? With all four kids in full-time school, that means I get a LOT more writing time.

Just not this summer, ha ha. Why? Well, like a fool, I signed them up for all sorts of stuff. The boys have Taekwondo six days a week, and Swimming lessons four days a week. Which means we are busy busy busy. I have friends who are laying around their houses watching movies and doing nothing with their kids the first week of Summer, and I am JEALOUS.

A friend of mine told me something eye-opening last night. She said "I have cut our grocery bill in half by doing one thing." I asked her what it was, and she said "SNACKS. I just don't buy them anymore. I buy fruit, and I buy veggies, and if they want a snack, they can have something like that."

GENIUS, if you ask me. I mentally calculated, and I bet about half of my grocery budget every week goes to...snacks. Chips, crackers, fruit snacks, granola bars, cookies, pudding cups, jello cups, candy (gasp, I know) etc. etc. etc. etc..

So, I'm going to try it next week. No processed "snacks." Just fruit and maybe I'll bake some cookies for the cookie jar. We'll see what happens.

Genius, or Insanity?