It’s official. I’m pooped. This has been an incredibly productive and exhausting weekend. Beginning with my Grandma, Mom, and I painting the girl’s bunk-beds and then later that same day my Dad and I installed an extra shelf in my laundry room. Saturday, DD1 had her first dance class, and then today we resumed our remodeling efforts after church.

The plan is to tile the downstairs half-bath, install wall paper and trim as well as wainscoting. We even made some great headway. Dh and Dad primed the wainscoting, removed the existing tile, and my Mom and I hung the wallpaper. Tomorrow we’re installing the moulding around the ceiling and will lay the tile. Once the tile is down we’re going to add the grout, install the wainscoting and then put the trim around the doors. After that we’ll put the toilet, sink, and mirror back.

The goal is to have all this done before Dh goes back to work on Thursday. I’m keeping my fingers crossed, but know it’s no simple task to do these types of projects when four “littles” need lots of mama and dada attention.

Did I mention I’m exhausted? This project took on a life of it’s own. And now something simple promises to be quite consuming.

The girls and I have been “land locked” for almost a week now. The car we affectionately call “Dave’s” car is having radiator problems, and is essentially out of commission until Dh’s next day off. Meanwhile even our van has had it’s share of maintenance issues. Including a dead battery and more recently a punctured tire. Dh has been using the van to get around, and as a result we (The kiddos and I) have had to cancel all non-essential trips. Including trips to playdates and LLL.

So, to assume we are a bit stir-crazy would be an understatement. The blanket of boredom has stretched to such a point that my two eldest are practically wiggling out of their skin with suppressed hyperactivity.

Yesterday, my eldest was bored and as a result she was doing everything in her power to “mix things up a bit.” At one point, after witnessing her knock her little sister down and listening to her screech nonsense at the top of her lungs, I sat her down and told her, “Listen, I know you are bored, but if you don’t make better choices you are going to land yourself in hot water.”

Her eyes got really wide and she paused.

I assumed I had made my point and was surprised when I heard an awed little voice behind me whisper, “Wow, in hot water. Do I get to play with the hot water or do we add ice?”

I explained to her, “Honey, ‘hot water’ is what people say when they mean that you are going to get in trouble. It is not literally a tub of hot water.”

She nodded knowingly and walked away.

Later that night as I was herding the crew into bed, my eldest touched me on the elbow and asked, “Since we didn’t get to do it today, can tomorrow we get into hot water?”

!

Sometimes I have no idea what to do with her.

My husband readily admits he doesn’t like the title of my blog. He thinks I’m hardly a “drop out” and wishes I would find a new title. I told him the only other name in contention would be “Monica’s Closet.” (Ala “Friends” and the episode where Joey and Chandler discover neat-freak Monica has a messie secret closet.) Unfortunately, renaming the blog “Moncia’s Closet” requires a continual explanation as to WHY my name isn’t “Monica” and all the backstory that goes with that. So, I’ve never made the change. And this site remains “Domestic Drop Out.”

However, in the spirit of this blog and all things domestic, I’m showing off my recent efforts. Including a trip last night to CVS. Also known as “CVS Trippin.”

For those who are not in the know, CVS has a cult following of couponers. These couponers practically speak a new language and take coupon shopping to a new art form. Including pie graphs and spreadsheets. I would not call myself a hard core CVSer… but admit to “dabbling” a bit. After all, it’s hard to pass up a bargain.

Take for instance, my most recent trip. I bought $65.00 worth of goodies for just a little over $3.00. I would have walked away spending nothing, had I read my Herbal Essence coupon better. But still, it’s not a bad score for the $$ invested. Plus! I walked away earning $20 in Extra Care Bucks. Setting me up nicely for the next trip.

In related domestic endeavors… My sister and I recently dyed two dozen unbleached Indian prefolds. We wrapped them up, tossed them in the buckets, and spent the afternoon stirring diapers. They came out really pretty. All tye-dyed and ready for baby Jaz. Whenever she decides to make her appearance.

Yesterday kicked off the Olympics. (In case you were hiding under a rock and you missed it.) I wasn’t planning on watching the opening ceremony. For no other reason except for I get totally annoyed that it takes so stinking long to get to “United States of America” during the Parade of Nations. As it turns out, though, my two eldest were interested in the fireworks (giant exploding footprints… doesn’t get any cooler.) So, we left it on and watched the ceremony. At least we watched most of it. I kept it on through a third of the Parade of Nations and then had to convince the girls to go to bed.

Ironically, we still missed the US entrance, even with the unique character stroke scoring system they used (instead of the standard Alphabet listing.) So this morning we watched the important portions that we missed on nbc’s olympic site: www.nbcolympics.com

Olympic kick-off aside, the girls and I also celebrated 08-08-08 by going to the Children’s Museum with a friend and her kiddos. The girls really enjoy the Children’s discovery area. They have a new hot air balloon exhibit that fascinated both DD1 and DD2. We talked a little bit about hot air rising and they enjoyed pressing the button and watching the whole process in practice.

If I remember, I plan on taking them back to the Plano Balloon fest again this year. We went last year when DD3 was just a few days old. I know they’d enjoy returning and seeing life size hot air balloons in action.

A long time ago I started phasing out noisy toys from the girl’s toy room. I can’t handle the incessant noise. The tingly sounds of canned music just grates on my nerves and eventually ends in my ceremoniously sweeping said toy into the closet and declaring it “off limits.”

Which, is unfortunate for my eldest because she seems to crave that noise. She will sit and press the noise button over and over and over. Putting her ear against the toy and giggling. And yes, I’m talking about my four year old.

You can imagine that her craving for jangly noises and my extreme aversion to them, do not mesh well. At. All.

My solution has been to not buy noisy toys and to let batteries die & toys come to a quiet end. This solution has worked well for me. So much so, that I had a lapse in judgment and purchased, for DD1 and DD2, the Bella Dancerella box set for Princess Dancing. It was clearanced for $3.00 and I knew the girls would enjoy dancing to the DVD. What I failed to take into account, is that the box set came with one magic wand.

You do the math. One noisy magic wand. Two daughters who believe they are genuinely princess.

So all morning I have heard the loud jingle of a magic wand being activated -over and over and over- all the while two girls scream about “MY TOY!” “NO! MY TOY!”

My head is literally splitting in two. And I find myself cursing Bella Dancerella and at the same time contemplating buying ANOTHER box set so that both girls can have wands.