And my knee is much better now, thanks.

Totally don’t know why this movie isn’t rated well. It’s tremendous fun, and Shahid Kapoor (known around these parts as “Hottie” Kapoor) is serious eye candy.

Nate’s sister and her family have been in from Tennessee for a few days, so it’s been all party, all the time. Which has been really fun.

Max is getting more teeth. I’m hoping that’s why he won’t let me put him down, ever, not even to nap. Argh. But he’s going down for a nap anyway, he’s just not sleeping. Or maybe he’s “going down for a cry.” Dunno. But I’m getting absolutely nothing done and it’s driving me insane. With the girls back in school, I really want to get caught up on the housework. I’m not at ease when there’s mess all around me.

However, I’m still in a relatively good mood. Exercising and eating better has me feeling better. And that’s nice.

He doesn’t seem to get it.

Or if he does, he’s just hoping that if he continues to ask, the answer will change.

I’ve made a bit of a happy discovery. My mom recommended this brand of stevia powder (they make a pure version that is much more concentrated if you have issues with maltodextrin) and I just tried it. It’s really good. The stevia I used years ago had a strong aftertaste, and this doesn’t. And it’s cheap.

I just used it for the first time, in a glass of milk with unflavored protein isolate powder and vanilla, and mixed it up with my new little toy (which I bought at Costco yesterday for $30).

Very, very good. No funny aftertaste, very sweet, no calories, and it isn’t artificial! I’m so excited. When we went to Oregon last month, my mom’s boyfriend was growing stevia in his garden. We plucked a leaf and chewed on it. It tasted just like the stevia extracts you get in the store, so they can’t be messing with it too much in processing.

So now I can make my protein shakes without sugary syrups, which is what I’ve been doing because artificial sweeteners are scary.

Nuh-uh. Last week was miserable.

So, things are busy around here. The kids go back to school on Wednesday. Abby’s freaking out about junior high. We did some clothes shopping on Saturday, but haven’t picked up school supplies yet. I have a bunch or errands to run today.

I don’t know why I can’t think of anything interesting to say. It didn’t used to be so difficult. But with all the kids home all day every day, there’s really not much time to do anything interesting. I’m always attending to someone, or multiple someones at any given time. And I’m tired as heck.

Except, I’ve been trying really hard to exercise when I put Max down for a nap in the late morning. I’ve been at it most of the month. 45 minutes on the elliptical everyday, and weight lifting every other day. It feels good. And at some point, I’m going to shed some pounds, right?

In other news, Pretzel went bye-bye. I had to keep nagging Abby to feed him, which I’m not ok with. I didn’t even like the dumb bird, so I certainly didn’t want to be responsible for it. But it bothered Abby when every time she’d put her hand in the cage to feed him, he’d freak out so bad he’d bash into the walls of the cage and screech like she was trying to kill him. He never calmed down the tiniest little bit. The pet store very graciously took him back and gave us a refund. But not without lecturing me on unrealistic expectations.

Whatever.

I’ve had birds. This one was a freak.

She still wants a bird. So, we’re going to spend some time researching and finding the right bird for Abby. And since it’ll most likely be more expensive than a lovebird, we’re starting a fund.

I’m so happy!

It’s ridiculously hot here right now. It has been for a few days. Everyone’s sweaty and a little short tempered.

Max has cut his first tooth. It’s not in all the way, it’s still just “cut,” but it’s there.

I’m still playing and writing music with my minimal free time. Trying to record. It’s nearly impossible to get away to my brother’s house sans kids to record. But we try.

I found out over the weekend that one of my sisters-in-law has a brother that works at a custom guitar shop that’s an hour or so south of us. It’s pretty cool. I’d never heard of them before, but spent some time yesterday poking around the website and learning about a bunch of crazy things you can do to an electric guitar. They have this split Jazzmaster that looks totally fun.

I tried a few weeks ago to spin more yarn for that shawl I was working on, and it’s just too blasted hot, so that’s on hold.

I’m going to order some wool this week so we can sample dye and test braid for my m-i-l’s rug we’re planning to make starting in the fall when Clark is in preschool. (Clark in preschool? How can he possibly be old enough for that already)?

I think that’s about it. Perhaps when the kids are back in school, I’ll be a little more interesting on the blog again.

Here we are with our final works of art.

They all match, so we’re going to frame them all together.

It was a lot of work. It took most of the day, but it was very fun.

Here’s a neat picture from our drive home on Saturday.

We’re in south Washington, right by the Columbia River. These wind turbines look like they’re about 20 stories tall. They’re enormous. Some of them are right by the highway, and it’s amazing to drive by the sheer mass of them. There are seemingly hundreds of them along the river bordering Oregon and Washington.

We’re having fun. I’m tired. I’m not sure I’m ever going to be not tired again.

I have loads of pictures I’ll post at some future date. Yesterday, mom’s boyfriend taught us how to paint landscapes with oils. We all painted some mountains in front of a lake with pretty trees. It took much of the day. It was really cool.

He doesn’t much like having his picture taken. Perhaps it’s because the camera blocks his view of me, something he’s trying to rectify in the next two photos.