Robin's Nest

Today is the final day of 2019. I have been on stagnant mode since just after Thanksgiving. Not really sure why, but it seems I've gone dark. Time to wake up and prepare for the future. This past year was "enlightening" for sure! Losing the house in January, dreaming of quitting work in February, March brought house hunting and birthdays, April more birthdays and more house hunting. Then we needed to vacate the rental house. Our first move of the year was much lighter! The second proved that we were good at finding more "stuff"! DH checked out the drive time to the ER from the rental house... yup much faster! We found the little house and it was the first house DH gave a thumbs up to so we bought it. It had everything I never wanted in a house! Split-level, vaulted ceilings and a horribly torn up back yard! But it has become "home". We looked at 40 acres in a town way out east and it had potential but it was so far away... my thoughts were wha

Thanksgiving is over and it is Black Friday. The first of five kids arrived at 0540. He is wide awake this time and wants my iPad. He has his own iPad but always wants mine. I am selfish. I have 3 kindles for the young ones to play with but he does not prefer those... I really think I am just jealous that at barely 5 years old he can work the iPad like he designed it. He has no patience for other kids playing on the iPad. Especially near him. I'll be glad when the sun is up and they can go outside on the sleds. The next kid is late. She should have been here 9 minutes ago. Why am I looking a gift horse in the mouth?! Because actually the old saying the more the merrier is true for about 2 hours. That gives me enough time to get breakfast on the table for all of them and partially clean up too. Babysitting is how I will spend my Black Friday this year. It is still "working", just not paid work. Today there is a lot of laundry to get ready for the next week. In December

Today I decided that I should listen to my gmail account that keeps telling me my phone is unsecure. I will never do that again!!! After setting up the pattern I went about my day, texting, cooking and taking pictures. Then I tried answer my phone... the pattern I selected did not work! There are 15 attempts left! If I use all of them the phone becomes a paperweight!!!! This is just the icing on the cake! Perhaps I should spend more time off the phone than on the phone. Guess that shouldn't be a problem now. I will plan a trip to the phone store once the weather is better. In the mean time I think brownies are in order. If those don't turn out....

It has been 10 months since this journey started. It has been a game of stop and go. Yesterday, we received another stop... one that threatens an entire shut down of this process. Yes the basement is partially poured, yes there is a modular home sitting in the driveway, and there are questions that need to be answered.  This was not a small house... B   But it burned so very fast you would think it was smaller. There was enough fuel to keep it going well into the next day. Life moved on... sort of. Here we are today with a hold on whatever is next. We have the planned future sitting on the property. Waiting to be able to place it on the foundation that has been started where the old house had been. It is much smaller. That is a good thing. Here is what it is supposed to look like put together... Pretty sure it will be overflowing with stuff before a year is out if it gets assembled! Put this over the proposed half poured basement and there is room for more s

When you find a house in your driveway...  Yep that's a house in the driveway  Hmm.. must be mine make the best of it. Invade and take pictures! Well that was all I could see but eventually I will get to see more. It makes the little house I am living in look even smaller. I am growing fond of this little house. It will be hard to leave.  Even harder to live at the scene of the disaster and feel it is okay. I am sure in time it will feel alright. But at first I am sure I will not sleep much.   Each move has brought a bout of insomnia as I learn which sounds are normal for the dwelling I am in. Crazy, but true. Where DH can sleep anywhere, even at the wheel of the car driving, I cannot. I should be safe from moving for a while yet as the weather has changed and it is too cold to do any more cement work at this time. Well that's all for tonight. I went out there today to check on the chickens and to meet up with the Stu

Eleven months ago our lives took a turn that would change many things. It would put procrastination in a whole new category. The blaze that took all personal possessions from the two little girls that we cherish, that erased any record of our former lives, that brought us to live in the city, is all but a memory now. Months of looking at houses, properties, modular homes and trailers homes is over. We had ordered a home and started all the groundwork only to be met with delay after delay. The cold weather started creeping in and that changed the plans yet again. Set to stay in the little house that we bought in town until spring we were adjusting. Then yesterday, without warning and totally unexpected DH drove out to the property and found a modular home sitting in the driveway. No phone calls, no texts or email that it was going to be delivered. No siding on it either. The foundation on which it will rest is not complete. But there it is none the less. We certainly have been thr

After spending most of this weekend babysitting it hit me this morning that I am not feeling the greatest. Hit by a head cold earlier last week I thought I was on the mend. Nope that virus returned with a vengeance. It was all I could do to just lay there and try to sleep between coughing fits. A seal barking in the zoo has nothing on me!  All the great plans I had for organizing my desk were swept under the pile of laundry that isn't getting any attention today either. My youngest daughter took pity on me and went to the grocery for me. Saturday evening I was able to tackle the pantry in this little house and figure out what we have and what we need. But Sunday morning I was unable to muster the energy to do anything! As I lay in bed feeling sorry for my self I remembered that the 19 year old granddaughter was needing to borrow the minivan for a while as her great gramma needed her own car back. Up I got and started clearing out the van of the belongings we had forgotten in th

Good Morning! This is the day we remember veterans and their sacrifice for this country. But it didn't start out that way. And trying to teach little kids both meanings for the day is not easy. We spent our snow days watching videos of the world war II guess I should have focused on WWI. Today, much like Friday, the house is full of extra kids. So picking something for my own kids to learn isn't going to be easy. The original plan was to just de-clutter the downstairs bathroom where the baby chicks spent their last days before heading out to the property. Originally I wanted a chicken house here at this property and I thought it was going to actually happen! But then the cement guy called. The elusive cement guy. Hard guy to track down when the weather is perfect. But last week was the polar opposite of the week before. He appeared! Much as he disappears! He said we had been moved up the list of jobs and he would be there Wednesday to level and set forms, and then pour on T

Yesterday all four kiddos  had Taekwondo after school. It is another fundraiser for the school. If 30 kids signed up at $40 each the school gets to keep all the money and the Dojang donates uniforms and the instructors for 4 weeks. I know this because it is the dojang that my grandson belongs to. It is a win/win because the kids drive their parents crazy until at least one or two families give in and spend $1000+ to have their child join for real. The school gets $1200 for the group that goes twice a week for 4 weeks. And the dojang gets a donation write-off. For this family we will most likely not be continuing, but we will see.  So far neither of my two has made the request. But the other two here today are both wanting to continue. Grandkids usually talk us into stuff that mom and dad won't go for. It is November and there is much to do before December. There may even be a move involved. So that is my biggest reason for saying we won't likely continue. I have two hats al

School fund raisers happen every week where the kids are going to school. Every Friday they have a "dollar" day. This means they get to do something out of the ordinary that day. Maybe it's wear pajamas to school, bring a stuffed animal, wear a crazy hat, something of that nature. We generally participate in each of the Friday events.  Even if it is just to give the system a dollar and not wear a crazy hat.  Of course then there are catalog sales that are overpriced goodies that you pay for now and receive a lot later, like close to the holidays later. Far enough away that you forget that you have ordered something and replace it at the local store at 25% of the price you paid the school for it. This time the fund raiser went a little far. They gave the children a coupon page and a speech about how they would get a prize for each thing they sold (kids interpretation). On the coupon page they had a coupon for a "good deed" prize. They each had to do a good de

I spent the weekend doings some things that I wanted to do. That included paying someone to watch the baby for half of the day. I just felt "off" a bit. But that didn't stop me from going to a "Pure Romance" party that one of my former co-workers had invited me to. It was a lot of fun and nice to get out without feeling guilty about leaving DH to wrangle the children. After the party my car wouldn't start so I walked to my daughter's house. She took me back to my car to see if we could get it started. No luck. So we went shopping and then she drove me home. I spent Sunday and all of Monday worshipping at the porcelain throne. The last time anyone in my home was this sick was about this time last year. That is when the littlest one ended up in the hospital for 3 days. That was a completely different house but the circumstances are not all that different. Luckily, with all the snow that came in overnight the schools were closed.  Good thing as the

With Halloween just days away Thanksgiving can't be far behind.  Of course that leaves you know what closer than you are probably prepared for. At least it does me. I haven't even purchased or made costumes for the kids. The plan was to go to Goodwill this evening because Tuesday is military day. But the best laid plans of mice and men and moms... Luckily Wednesday is old people day! So we are good! Speaking of Goodwill, I went there with the little that I was babysitting on Monday. We found a coffee table! Okay it was not a coffee table and it was too big for our little living room. But we bought it anyway. I had too! What else could I have done? It came with six airplanes! Who could say no to six airplanes in a too small living room? Obviously not me! So now in the living room is Jay Jay the Jet plane play table and six airplanes. Today was one of my two days off from babysitting. Not much got done but I did make biscuits and sausage gravy from scratch. It didn't b

It is Saturday and that may not seem all that important, but as a child it meant no school and all the good cartoons on television... all morning. Surprisingly, as an adult it still means no school but why would I care? This is why... Because number 9 and 10 don't have school. Today is the first day that I realized they don't rush to the television for cartoons like we did. Of course with Netflix and no real local channels available without connecting to cable they haven't been introduced to them. But still they hardly sit through an animated show anyway. Most of today has been the 9 year-old acting out and trying to melt down. It has not been a fun day per Se. We were supposed to go have banana splits with a friend in celebration of her new refrigerator. Hey one needs to celebrate when one can! Yet three out of five people in this house do not want to do the work required to get ready to go. One out of five is not willing to do it all herself.  Finally, about 1300, t

Today was an unusual day, even for my world. Yesterday after physical therapy I actually and some relief from the pain. So deciding that the kids were tired too, we turned in early for bed. It was then I realized that the relief was very noticeable. As I drifted off to sleep I was kicked in the side by a seven-year old climbing into my bed. That was the beginning of a very long night with little sleep. Within an hour the nine-year old was up and couldn't get back to sleep so she had to talk... and talk and talk. Finally about midnight she dozed back off. Within an hour DH decided to finally come to bed and was actually very quiet in doing so. It was the silence of the television that woke me up that time. Somehow the lack of hearing the music to "Jaws" seemed wrong. I looked over to his side of the bed and sure enough he was asleep. I got up and checked on the couch child and covered her back up. As I returned to my half of the king-size bed it was obvious the younger

It is Fall! Yup cold mornings and hot afternoons. I like this weather. I do not like getting up to put "nails" on the girls. They are cute enough but they don't stick well. Then the tears start and, and the "she took my nail when it fell off!" "I can't find it!" Not to mention they cannot do anything that involves using their hands, including pulling up their own pants. Ah they are out the door and off to the babysitter's...er I mean school. I do enjoy the little bit of time they are gone and I have high hopes for accomplishing some things today. Tomorrow is the baby day so if I want to sew it must be started today. She is a very good little girl but I didn't quit work to babysit full-time. I intended to learn something new and apply it to my life. Well I did do something new.. I did all the "well woman" doctor visits that had been neglected for the last 10 years to include labs. That was disappointing... but at least I k

For some reason I make appointments for myself and something comes up and I don't get to keep the appointment for whatever reason. Tomorrow I had a scheduled appointment and poor DH just melted down insisting that he had told me of the most important meeting ever for weeks and I needed to be there. So in order to keep the peace the appointment has been changed. Going out with friends is not a regular activity for me. So when I was afforded the opportunity to go the a real restaurant I jumped on it! Of course in the middle of meal is when I received the desperate call requesting my presence at the "important" meeting that I have no memory of being told about. Enough whining for this evening. Wait, no it isn't my cell phone was acting wacky all weekend and sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. So back to the phone store today to get it "fixed". It works again, who knows for how long but at least I was able to get some messages today. I enjoyed

There I've said it! I have been pretty good about the bone broth lately. I have also been good about making homemade chocolate pudding for the lunchboxes. Yes, I know I can get four cups for less than a dollar from Wal-Mart. I also can get an instant mix for under a dollar and make it "myself".  But there is something satisfying for me to do it all myself and have the kiddos say they "love it"! Betty Crocker I am not. But I digress, when one makes pudding from scratch it must be taste tested by the cook. That's where I fail. I taste too much of it. After all I don't want the kiddos to get to school and not have really good pudding in their lunch! As I continue on in my sabbatical from working I feel I should "channel" Betty every now and then. Alas, with babysitting for a child so that her mom can get on her feet, my day is pretty busy just keeping up with her. By the time my kiddos get home I need a nap! In my youth I babysat, a lot... I h

Today started very early and came in like a freight train. Kids didn't sleep well and today is picture day at school. Am I ready? No, spectrum kids do things on their own schedule not the school's, not yours. I woke at 0520 and remembered that they had wore the outfits that were originally set aside for this picture day. I also remembered that I had no yogurt for lunches. So I made a Wal-Mart run. It was nice to be focused and not have kids in tow. But I did have a timeline. So wandering the store is not really an option. I checked out with yogurt, milk, cookies, 2 shirts to go with the pants I had already picked up, elastic, straight pins, and 3 teacher gifts I found for Christmas. Oh and a Sprite. That impulse purchase should have been left behind. :( But no worries, it won't go to waste.  Oh I also picked up 2 small chips for the kids lunches. So that's how I run my card up so fast! And wander on a time budget! I got home and made breakfast, packed lunches,