I so wanted to be a cleaning machine today. I wanted to finish the last of our mega organize before Ben goes back to work tomorrow, but that’s not going to happen. Ellie spent the night with her MomMom last night, and after being up half the night with a stomach bug I slept until she came home at noon. I feel pretty ran down, so I’m going to take it easy.

I’ve got some shoe boxes of stuff to sort before they go back in the craft and supplies cabinet. There is a lithium ion rechargeable battery box that I really need to go through. I need to charge up some of the batteries in the stack of electronic toys on my dining table that aren’t working, and then I need to see if there are any rechargeable batteries I need to add to my shopping list.  I know we don’t have enough AA’s now that we’ve got smoke detectors that use those, too.   I can probably get rid of some of the 9 volt batteries because we really have no use for those anymore.

Then I’ll probably spend the rest of the day being lazy with Ellie watching Disney movies.  She seems to be coming down with a virus or something, too, so she’s already curled up on the couch.  She’s got a rash on her back that is now spreading across her trunk (slightly raised flesh colored pimples), and now she sounds a bit croupy and acts generally ran down.  I think I’ll give the doctor a call in the morning and keep her resting for the day.  A lazy day might do us all some good.

Man have I had a hard time keeping my eyes open today.  As I sit here I feel my lids wanting to slip to the closed position, and it’s only 4:15pm.  Ugh.  We can thank Ellie for my lack of energy.  She apparently sucked all of mine out of me when she became a ball of energy at 1am (and I hadn’t even made it to bed yet).  She insisted she couldn’t sleep because she’d rather jump up and down on her bed.  I tried to get her to go back to sleep, tried putting her in bed with me, and all she did was slap me on the cheeks repeatedly telling me to “get up Mama!”  Apparently she forgot it was the middle of the night. 

When she did finally go back to sleep it was 4am, and we both got to sleep ‘til 6:45am, but she woke up again when she heard Ben getting ready for work.  He stumbled out the door on barely a bit more sleep than I’ve had, so I’m sure he’s had a rough day at work.  I honestly feel like we have a newborn in the house again.  Am I really ready to go through all that again so soon?

You’d think that lack of sleep would have her passing out hardcore for an early nap, but it didn’t happen.  She’s only slept 45 minutes today, and I tried my best to close my eyes.  Unfortunately I kept one of my funny mugs filled with coffee all morning, so I was a bit wired when she did pass out on me.  Right before she passed out she had a temper tantrum because she didn’t have a mug like mine.  She tossed her sippy cup at my head, so I made her stay in her crib for a bit.  I was thankful she fell asleep even if I didn’t get to catch any zzz’s.  Now she’s wide awake, and my coffee buzz has worn off.  I’m contemplating making a fresh pot to keep me awake for a few more hours.  Maybe if I promise to buy Ellie her own funny mug she’ll actually let us all get some sleep tonight.

I’m happy to say I finally paid off my last credit card (I’ve been working that one down for a few years), and we’ll have the truck paid off as soon as our tax refund comes in.  This morning I opened another savings account in the hopes that Ben’s new job will stay steady, and we’ll finally be able to put some money into that account and save for our future home. 

I’ve spent years dreaming about finally owning our own place, and in another few years we may finally be able to do just that.  We don’t plan to buy a house.  We’re hoping to find a piece of land to buy within the next year, and we plan to build our dream home.  We don’t want anything huge.  A simple log cabin is exactly what we want, and it will be a lot cheaper for us to build.  I’ve been looking over building codes, and I’ve discovered we can mill our own wood (my dad already owns a portable mill), and we’ve got plenty of trees to stockpile for logs on my Papa’s property not counting any we may have available on the land we buy if we have to clear a spot for the house.  Ben also plans to start gathering the material in the next year so it can be weathering naturally.  We both want an authentic log cabin, none of that kit stuff.  We won’t have to pay labor costs because our home will be built by Ben and my dad in their spare time.  It may take 2-3 years to build, but that’s okay.  We have a roof over our head until it is finished.  The savings will outweigh the time.

Of course that means I want the decor to run in the cabin theme as well.  Ben can build the furniture I want, but that doesn’t mean he will.  I’ve begged for a log dining set for over 5 years, and he still hasn’t built me one.  He uses the old “the carpenter doesn’t bring his work home with him” excuse.  That’s fine because I found some beautiful aspen furniture I’ve already added to my wish list. I’ve been drooling over the Silver Creek Aspen Log Trestle Dining Table all morning. Throw some benches in with that baby, and it’s my dream dining set.