Lingering On...

Is the flu that never ends. I try to post at least once a week. That way people still check it and I'm not obsessed with it. And it keeps it somewhat interesting. I don't have to write every day and say, "hey, guess what? I did nothing today." But I came down with a wonderful case of the flu over a week ago and I'm still feeling it. I'm pretty sure I got it from Halle who's been puny off and on for two weeks. Maybe it's not the flu but it's some crazy virus that lasts for-e-ver. Chloe actually has struggled with something for all of Spring Break so last week- the week I've been looking forward to forever so I could do some fun stuff with my kids- turned into a sleep and watch TV on the couch-a-thon. I felt really bad about it and then decided that it's not my fault and there's absolutely nothing I can do about it and moved on. Well, I haven't moved that much...anyway.

But there were a few things I did that were right. The first is that I spent Sunday (a week ago) cleaning. I was very motivated to get the house entirely clean so that we could start the week off fresh. And somehow we were able to keep it that way for the whole week. So that when my parents got here on Friday we didn't have to spend the whole day cleaning like mad and I was able to do some stuff that I don't usually get to. Like cleaning the microwave and the front of the stove and fridge where stuff drips but doesn't get noticed until *after* people have left your house. I was very proactive about Easter basket stuff and went out on Wednesday so that I wouldn't be elbow to elbow with the mobs on Saturday. That is actually something I wish I'd waited on. It's not a good idea for someone who mostly lives without sugar to have candy in the house for four whole days before the holiday. That being said I had to replace two of the bags of candy on Saturday (no, I didn't eat them by myself but I did eat too much). And when we went out on Saturday to the Galleria, Sam's Club and Target the only place that was remotely crowded was Sam's Club. The streets were nearly deserted. Weird. But back to my parents visit...

They got here Friday evening and I decided that I would not do a ton of stuff, no running errands, before they got here in the hopes that I would be able to do a bunch of stuff when they got here. Saturday night Amanda made plans with them to go to Panera for breakfast and then drag, er-um, go to the mall with them. Travis and I originally opted out because we weren't feeling well but I was awake by 7:00 Saturday morning and had that overwhelming "there's fun to be had and I'm going to miss it" feeling, so I got up and got ready and got the girls ready. I accidentally woke Travis up and he couldn't go back to sleep because he had the same feeling so he came too. Breakfast was really nice, the mall wasn't crowded, I finally got some more Sonny's BBQ sauce (it's only carried at Sam's Club and we have a Costco card), had a great lunch at Blue Coast Burrito, and then to Target. Where my Mom spoiled the little girls with new Easter dresses and shoes and some things for their Easter baskets. Then we headed home- whew- to take a short nap.

After I got up, I decided to make cinnamon rolls, since my Mom brought her bread machine, and the Easter Bunny cake I made last year. Only this year I made it using this recipe and cream cheese frosting. I used a cake mix in the past but this recipe is more dense and suitable for sitting on it's side. I really like it.

The next morning we all got ready for church and mom threw together some wheat bread that we could eat with lunch (you can throw bread together if you have a bread machine and it takes about 5 minutes- God bless whoever invented that!) and I tossed a couple of pork roasts into the crock pot so that we could have pulled pork BBQ for lunch- mmmm. It's not traditional but we liked it. And mom left the bread machine so that I can make bread whenever I want to. She let me borrow it before but I really thought it was going to be hard to use so I never tried it but I have to say that I don't think I'll *ever* try to make bread without it again. One reason is because even though my little hand mixer has bread hooks, it just doesn't have the muscle to do what needs to be done. And speaking of kneading, I'm just not going to do it by hand. It's not enjoyable and it takes too long. The girls especially love it and Chloe wants me to make bread for her lunches from now on.

Overall, we had a great time with my parents (we always do) and were sad to see them go. Dad says it's too cold for them to move here plus they have to be where God wants them- blah, blah, blah- I'm so totally kidding. I want them to be where God wants them to be, it would just be nice to have *some* family here. But I won't get started on that again.