All I seem to do is catch up

Okay, what have I done since I last blogged?

Besides a load of dishes nearly every day.
I even hand-washed the pots and pans yesterday. Go me.

Let's see ... I left off with Dad and L having come visit. And a trip to the doctor's. And Bucket eating in the living room. What's happened after that?

• Spring break had totally crap weather. Which resulted in a meltdown from Bucket because she REALLY, REALLY wanted to go out and ride bikes one day.
  And, since Michael was at work, I was the only adult available. And I couldn't be standing out in the rain, since I would be holding Bubbles.
  And, on the days that Michael WAS home early enough to watch the kids, it POURED.
  If the weather HAD been better during that week off, I'd have taken them to the park. Instead, we went to the library and ran some errands.
• Mom came up on Wednesday. The kids were thrilled to get to go to McDonald's for lunch. And we even went to the one with the indoor play-place. So they got to play with lots of different kids while we hung out. It was SO crowded. Bubbles slept the whole time we were there, by the way.
• The kids don't have homework this week. Weird. So they've been watching TONS of episodes of Phinneas and Ferb. And now, after a visit to a friend's house, they're watching Kick Buttowski.
  (These are all on Netflix. Have you ever HEARD of Kick Buttowski before? That's a new one to me.)
• I bought Bubbles a baby bouncer. It is helping. Except for earlier this morning, when she kept crying while being in it. So I picked her up and she SPIT UP ALL OVER herself and my freshly-showered self. So I changed my spit-up-on clothes and gave her a bath.
• My new nursing bras arrived. I had ordered a two in slightly different sizes. They fit okay ... The one that fits better is (thankfully) the cuter one.
• I've been doing a lot of housework ... so I've barely been reading. Strange. 
• I was so exhausted last night (swept and mopped the kitchen ... among some other chores. But THAT was the big one. Along with taking Bubbles shopping and putting together the bouncer.), that I CRASHED. Which was sad because Bubbles was sleeping pretty well. So ... Michael and I could have made out or something. If I wasn't unconscious and drooling and snoring.
  I suck at being a good wife. 
• I made cinnamon rolls on Sunday. Since it was General Conference (yay for being able to "attend" church in pajamas!) (If you don't know what General Conference is, it's a twice-annual event in our church where the prophet and a selection of General Authorities speak to ALL the church. It happens at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, but is broadcast -- via television, radio, and on the internet -- all over the world.) ... So maybe I'm only a crap wife, not a total failure.
  I used Ree Drummond's recipe, but I made a cream cheese frosting instead of icing. I'm a frosting kind of girl. (And my frosting was yummy: Low-fat cream cheese, milk, powdered sugar, and vanilla and maple extracts.)
• One of my besties invited us to her daughter's birthday party. Her girls and the kiddos have been friends since my kiddos were born. (They have NO CHOICE. Ha!) So that was fun. Pizza and a kids' room to run around and play in. ... Also, I have never seen a child SO EXCITED about window clings (I'm sure glad that she liked them. But I didn't know she'd think THAT was the best thing out of our present. :P)
• Our plumbing in the west end of house is still being wonky. And the laundry room was starting to smell pretty rank. ... Turns out that the bucket under the sink in there was FULL of the most rancid-smelling water. So Michael emptied it and tightened the pipe under the sink. (Since that's the sink that gets most backed up when we run the dishwasher. Or the garbage disposal. Ugh.) And, since Michael cleaned out that sink last time (and nearly threw up doing it), I did it this time.
  (So maybe I'm a mostly-crap wife?)
• Yes, I feel like a crappywife/failure at wifedom. His love language is primarily Touch ... and here I am cleaning the house (which SORELY needs it, don't get me wrong) ... but cuddling as I drift off just isn't doing it.
  And it's not like he asks all that much. ... I am NOT going to cry. My eyes just get a little prickly-feeling whenever I think of how much I'm failing at this.
• I actually have all (but one or two) thank-you notes written. Now to get them handed out. I still need to mail one off ... but I have to get an address for that one.
• I managed to (FINALLY) walk down the street and talk to my Visiting Teaching companion. And get her phone number ... and to find out that she'll be moving. So I'm going to get a new companion. But, hey, at least she and I will get to go on some visits together. That'll be nice.
• I made a dinner calendar for the week. But I've only filled it out through Thursday. *rolls eyes*
  Yeah, I TRY to get all organized. It doesn't really work that well. I mean, I cleaned off my desk on Sunday (or was it Saturday?) and it's cluttery again.
• I have a new (to me) keyboard. I'm still working at getting used to holding down the Shift key. It's a little different from my old keyboard (where the S, X, C, N, and M keys were all worn off). Give me another week and I might be able to type and not start sentences with lower-case letters or have 9s and 0s surrounding what are SUPPOSED to be parenthetical phrases.
• The kids got to ride their bikes Monday during a break in the weather. It was gorgeous weather. Might as well take advantage of it ... Until Bubbles woke up and demanded that we stop. TWICE.
  One cannot negotiate with an infant. They are not amenable to compromise at this point. *sigh*
• On a scale from 1 to Roasting-in-Purgatory, how bad is it if I might use doing laundry as a last bastion for time away from a screaming infant. "Sorry! I can't hear you over the washer filling up!! just give me a minute to load the clothes! ... Hmm, which articles make the cut for THIS load?? ... La la la, I can't hear your squalling over the laundry. ... Okay, back to motherhood. *sigh*"
  Just let me know.
• Michael still loves me. And his telling me that? Let's just say that my face is all blotchy. (And not from an allergic reaction.) ... I didn't cry.
  But I was really, really close.

I can't really think of anything else that is totally note-worthy.
I mean, Bruise and I got some reading packets completed for extra [school-mascot] points. And the kids were excited to take their Box Tops for Education sheets to school. (Between Mom, Mom C, and me saving points ... with occasional contributions from friends, we had two full sheets [20 box tops total] for this month.)

And for a touch of lactivism, I was able to help a friend due to my copious amounts of reading and my love of breastfeeding websites. Yay! Without going into too much detail, I knew of a couple pieces of equipment that she could use (shield and shells) to help facilitate her newborn's latch. Yup. Pretty awesome. I felt quite amazing ... and it makes me feel nice when my internetting skillz pay off. ^_^