Truth be Told # 2

I forget things, I mean, everything.

Since having kids, Truth Be Told # 1

keeping the house clean is a battle I can not win.

How we're doing Christmas

Now that ALL the girls are in bed at 7, I try to make money by doing small things on the internet since there's still 3 years before Daisy starts school and I can start working.

Between everything, I've probably earned @ $1000.

Amazon has a task site called Mturk. People use the site to promote business, they promote blogs, universities use it to conduct research, to rate web content, and so forth. I like to do the research or survey tasks because most of them are quick and tend to pay more. But if any task is offering you more than $3, it's usually fake, don't waste your time.

I sell coupons on ebay.

I set up an etsy site.

Now that Maddy is old enough to remember things, unless stores decide to be open 24/7 and I can go when she sleeps, I have to shop online. And ALWAYS use Ebates. If you haven't signed up yet, do it! I love ebates. I got my "big fat payment" today which is in my paypal account and will go towards gifts. And whatever shopping I do will be through ebates to earn more cash back.

I've also been "earning" "money" through Swagbucks. EVERY site I go to, I just search for it in the swagbucks toolbar and earn 'bucks' which I redeem for Amazon gift cards. It's tedious, but every little bit helps. I earned $100 in amazon gift cards in just a few months. Not too bad and not only is it Christmas, but there's 2 birthdays in December.

I love the daily deal sites. I've gotten a few stuff from Plum District and Totsy.

And the other thing I do is Paid the Fastest, which is a little more complicated. But I'm at the point where I get free referrals and let them do the work for me. I've earned the most $$ from there.

I also won a contest that gave a Chuggington gift pack which was filled with a train set, books, puzzles, and dvds. So we're pretty much set. Awesome!

How we survived the power outage

that lasted 74 hours. Some people are still out of power.



Lots of painting...LOTS. Nearly sun up to sun down.



I took the video games out of the closet.





Daisy fixed furniture into her own personal playground.



And play-doh made a quick appearance.

The kids were fairly good sports, til they got bored. By Tuesday it was all fighting. Thankfully, they got to go to school today. Our district, however, is still out. It's unbelievable! I wonder if these are counted as snow days. I'm so scared for winter now.

It got so cold. The temp in the house was in the 40s! The girls would wake up with rosey cheeks and red noses. Daisy was going to bed with a long sleeve onesie, socks, and 2 fleece jammies and her feet would still be cold. It felt so good to take a shower again! I'm so thankful it's over!

I'm joining the revolution!

My own revolution. I'm boycotting laundry. I'm occupying my basement waiting for someone to do my laundry.

I've thrown it all on the bed and am trying to fold it. Daisy comes along and throws it on the floor. But not just any of it, only the folded stuff. Thanks Daisy.

Then she runs to the closets and throws that laundry on the floor. And where do you suppose it ends up? Oh, she brings it to the pile of dirty laundry. And for the most part, I don't realize it til it's covered with actually dirty laundry.

Do you have any idea how much laundry is washed and washed and washed without being worn? Too much!

Why should I have to do my laundry? Why do I have to work hard? Someone should do it for me! I want to be lazy too!

Painting

I thought it would be fun for Maddy to paint today...face and all! The angle that the picture was taken from, is where I was sitting while the whole thing went down. I was watching her do it, but for some reason, nothing was registering.



See those white chairs in the background? They're there because Daisy keeps using them to climb onto the table. Exhausting!

See the high chair? That's what I should have used to feed Daisy and maybe I wouldn't have had such a huge mess to clean.

On the other hand, she painted her face rather well, don't you think? I think purple is a good color for her. You?

Learning Language

Maddy says the cutest things. I don't know if it's because she's so darn adorable or because she hears her sisters say things and tries to use it as though she knows what she's talking about.



Maddy told me today that she was going to show me the best trick of her "whole entire life." That's 3 whole years! Are you sure???



While checking out at Kohl's, she picked up a gift card and with difficulty attempted to put it back, she says, "This doesn't make any sense!"




She was rubbing her eyes with her blankie and said, "I'm tired. Is it nighttime this year?"



I find myself often reminding the girls, "You need to behave."
They hear, "You guys need to be - hAve."
After a few minutes, Maddy will ask, "I being - hAve?"
It makes perfect sense because I also tell the girls that they need to BE good. In turn they ask, "I'm being good?"
It reminds me of when Kaity and Abby were about Maddy's age, one learned from the other to ask, "I being - A - hAve?"




We went out to eat the other day, which is something we rarely do because 4 kids are exhausting just to think about. So on the ride over I was preparing them and telling them what there would be to eat. You know, so there's less time deciding and waiting while we're there and can leave faster and hopefully avoid any and all potential meltdowns. I told them, that first, we would have salad and breadsticks and Kaitlyn excitedly yelled, "I want a breadstick. ... Do they have cheese?" I said, "Ummmm? I'm not positive." Maddy quickly piped in, "I want a positive!"