My day just wouldn't be complete

Last night after the kids went to bed, I went into the kitchen and stepped into a puddle of water on the floor. Upon inspection, I found that one of my kids filled a school box full of water and left it on our counter--which it eventually was spilled. That was the fourth puddle of water I had cleaned up yesterday from spilled drinks, etc. It made me think...how often do I really clean things up...what exactly do I do everyday?? So I decided to make a journal of the things that happen in one day. So the following is my log of today's events:
5:42 (yes a.m.)-- I wake up nervous that Grant is late for work
6:40--Say goodbye to Grant and hold Lady (our borrowed dog) while Grant drives away, to make sure she doesn't run away
7:47--Trev wakes me up (did I really fall back to sleep??)
7:49--Get him cereal and pray
7:55--Ben wakes up and wants cereal, so I get him cereal and pray (in the process cereal falls)
7:56--Sit down to check my e-mail really quick
7:56.05--Karmin wakes up, but isn't ready to eat
7:59--She decides she is ready to eat, Ben spills some cereal
8:03--Boys are fighting because Ben is looking at Trevor's cereal box (I'm mean really, how rude can a brother be??)
8:16--Another fight breaks out--Apparently Ben doesn't like that Trevor is standing next to him (the nerve of him)
8:20--Ben does his reading/Trev practices writing his name
8:35--I start my Spring Cleaning. It's time. Either I'm always late or always early--however you look at it--I like doing my Spring Cleaning in the Fall.
10:00--To protect the innocent--or rather the guilty--one child locks the door when he leaves the house so the two of us are locked outside. Another child, (sitting about 18 inches from the door) didn't hear us pounding on the door/ringing the doorbell because he's too focused on the tv
10:30--enough tv--snack time. Trevor proclaims: "I love those 'tomato' chips" Really I love feeding my kids healthy snacks of pudding and chips--yum!
11:45--Karmin has temper tantrum because she does not want to take a bath, and by no means does she want to wear her diaper. She has always loved her Birthday suit.
12:15--Start making lunch, talk to Grant on the phone while I cook lunch with the help from two kids (2 kids over a hot stove, not such a great idea), while I put away the cooking ingredients that Karmin got out from playing earlier. During lunch, Trevor decided to add his soup to his water, took a drink and to put it gently--rejected it.
1:15--Decide it is nap time for Karmin because she keeps following Trevor around and that is just unacceptable behavior!! I grab a quick shower before the whole day gets away from me. The boys continue to destroy the house (yes the one I am trying to clean). Too bad I can't hire them out as a demolition crew (I could be rich). Darn Child Labor Laws.
Do some dishes; Start dishwasher
3:30--Trev hears me pulling out a pan--he comes running. We make our treat for Family Home Evening (FHE) because I'm in charge of treat this week. We make puppy chow. I start dinner while this is going on, at the same time I make some phone calls that I've put off all day.
4:00--Mad dash to get ready for karate, and get everyone in the car
4:45--Arrive at karate, this begins the entertainment of Karmin--let the fun begin
5:30--Leave and drop off a bill in the mail, meet my mom to give her back her camera, and drop off a check to someone's house.
6:15--We've hurried home, finished making dinner--Start FHE
Ben gives a great lesson (that he prepared himself) on what are good movies we can watch on Sundays and which movies we shouldn't watch. Trevor is in charge of the activity which he decides is: 1 game of hide-and-go-seek, 1 game of tag, 1 game of leapfrog, and 1 game of "don't touch anything" (which is kind of a fun game to play when mom is Fall Cleaning) We eat our Puppy Chow. At this point, I'm thinking I can't remember the last time I went a whole day without cleaning up a spilled drink. Grant gets water for the kids and puts them all in sippy cups. And I start wondering "How can this be?? My day won't be complete without a spilled drink, but this might be a record day--no spills!!" Then wouldn't you know it, we are all eating our Puppy Chow, and then some how Ben's cup goes FLYING across the room and lands on the complete opposite side of the kitchen, the lid falls off, and water goes everywhere. He cleans it up, gets himself more water, sits down to drink, and the lid falls off again and water goes everywhere. It just wouldn't be the same without spilled water.
7:15--Brush teeth, take medicine, fluoride, and vitamins (not in that order); read books; sing our closing songs, 4 prayers (1 for each child, and 1 family)
7:35--tuck kids in bed
7:40--I walked down to the mailbox to get the mail
8:30--Tell the kids enough is enough, it is time for bed
The rest of the night...probably continue my Fall Cleaning

Summer's Finally Starting!!

--From our weekend away (one thing we got to do was go to a concert--this was our view)

I don't know if it has been because of the weather (it hasn't gotten really warm until the last few weeks) or if it has just been one of those summers and a lot has happened and now we can finally enjoy our time, but whatever it has been, I feel like the summer has finally started. We have been busy the last couple of weeks. Grant and I got a couple of days without the kids (thank you Gina and DeWayne for your help). That was fun and we think we need to do that a lot more often (this was only our second time without the kids). We went to Silverwood. We went for a couple reasons--Ben got a free ticket for reading 600 minutes this past Spring, it was my Birthday, and the last day before Grant started his new job. I loved being with my family for the day and just seeing the joy in the kids' eyes. Grant started his new job this week and is liking it. Heather came and stayed over night with us this week. That was almost like having a slumber party as an adult! It was so fun to stay up late talking and laughing together; however, I'm realizing that I'm older now that I've had a Birthday because I still feel tired. But it was worth it. So anybody else who needs a place to crash while here, I finally got that back bedroom cleaned out so it's all ready for you.

The New Deal

Okay, so my new hobby is finding deals at grocery stores. I had my best success story this last week--and so now I'm going to brag about it!! I spent $70 and I saved....are you ready...$230!!!! No that's not a typo. I was so excited. I have trained my family to be avid cereal eaters. I'm a lame mom because I ONLY serve cereal for breakfast--but I get credit from my kids because it is mainly sugar cereal. So with 5 people eating cereal each day, we go through a lot of cereal. So this is my 3 month supply of cereal. The people at Albertson's thought I was CRAZY. They all had a good laugh when I bought so much. But I'm so excited. I love feeling prepared...and that as long as we have milk, we have lots to eat!

Sunday

I was very proud of Ben today. It was fast and testimony meeting today at church--when people can get up and say what they know to be true. Ben wanted to go up and tell people his testimony. So he went up there and said that he wanted to share his testimony and he knew the church was true. He said that he watched a church movie one time and got "happy tears." He said that he didn't know what "happy tears" were, but Grant told him that it was the Holy Ghost telling him that what he was watching was true and good. He said the movie was about Jesus coming to earth. And then he closed. It was very sweet and simple. We watched this movie over a year ago when Ben had this experience. It is amazing that the Holy Ghost can touch someone (even so young), and it makes such an impression on them that they remember the experience and the feelings of that memory over and over again. The movie that he watched is called "The Testaments" and I put a video of it on the bottom of the page. The movie is about an hour long, but this is a clip of the last 10 minutes...Ben's favorite part. I hope you enjoy and can feel the Holy Ghost and similar good feelings like Ben did.