First off I have to sing the praises of Health Links, our 24hr 7 days a week health help line. Last night Emanuel went from slightly whiny to screaming that his ear hurt (his left ear) so we called up Health Links and got a sweetheart of a nurse willing to chat about all the symptoms, our concerns and alternatives to heading into the hospital right off the bat. We sent Ken off to 7-11 for an only slightly over priced bottle of Tylenol (of course we ran out of that LAST week using it on Miss Echo),  tried bubble gum to relieve pressure (he chewed it like twice and then ATE it of course) and propped him up with a warm heat pad (that we had to ditch as he didn’t like how the pad felt). Once the Tylenol kicked in and he was comfortable he went right to sleep. BUT before that managed to wake Echo up of course!

After a semi restful night (of course Echo slept well – when I was awake and timed her being awake with my going to bed… but less so than previous nights) Ken took the 3 boys to Sunday School where I was told they “had fun” other than that they seemed to be unable or unwilling to share anything! Trinity, Echo and I spent the morning together until Trinity had a pre-nap meltdown and was ushered off to bed quicker than expected.

Happier baby

After naps… ok Trinity lay in bed for a few hours, Emanuel napped and oddly enough when we sent Zander to his room HE actually had a little sleep… we did the gold paint for our Chinese fire crackers. I plan on posting pictures when they are completed but each of the kids painted 2 toilet paper rolls. Trinity covered her hands right off the bat and ended up in the tub for a bath using our vapour bath for good measure.

Adding gold (Gavin next to Trinity)

That marked the end of our productive time… the boys had left a huge mess in the basement, hiding toys in the laundry room which has prompted the creation of a NEW rule – toys hidden in the laundry room, regardless of their status as new or old will be confiscated… PERMANENTLY! We took our tree down entirely, packed away the last bits and bobs from Christmas and have started the push to putting our livingroom and in turn Emanuel and Trinity’s bedrooms back to rights. I have to spend some time taking the toys that I put IN their rooms out and relocating them, either into storage for our spring/summer move or back in the livingroom and easy access for all. This is further complicated by the addition of Echo’s toys – the Jumparoo, her new swing and floor toy.

Again I have been thwarted in my purchasing of glue for our glue gun so I am keeping hopeful that TOMORROW Ken will manage a trip to a store that sells some. It is amazing how many projects we use that silly tool with. More than I ever expected.

So life is busy here even with the sick kids. Ken and I are attempting to settle all the odds and ends for the next 2 months THIS month to free up time to start sorting for our move later this year. Packing up 7 people’s belongings, sorting through the garage AND digging out the summer toys in the backyard is not going to be an easy task. As it is Ken and I are always on the look out for things to donate, throw out or otherwise dispose of right now. We have enough clutter with our homeschool stuff, we don’t need the added useless pieces of this and that. So hopefully I will find more things to pass along to other people and families while I go through what we have. I know I have to figure out what I am going to do with my maternity pieces. I was debating Kijiji but am unsure as to how much to charge, after all I have TONS but pieces that range from nearly brand new to well used… something to think about.

Miss Trinity all cleaned up from her gold paint adventure