I finally did it! I updated the page, splitting it into several pages. I had to cut several companies and update a lot of links. I think the page looks a lot better, and will hopefully be easier to use. Why not take a look at the new work at home jobs page? I found a few new companies too.

We finally have a costume for my daughter. We went to a Renaissance Faire this weekend, and she just fell in love with how I dressed for it, so we bought her a blouse and skirt, and she’ll wear them for Halloween. The blouse is several sizes too big on her, so she’ll be able to wear it for a while. The skirt is just long enough, though, so it won’t be long before it’s an overskirt. I really need to pick up my sewing machine from my mother so I can make her skirt next time she needs one.

We finally made the apple pie I promised her we would do. We did it last week, and it turned out great! I have some things I will tweak on the recipe next time we try it though. One trick I did was really great for cooking with a toddler, though. The recipe suggested using a lattice top for the pie. Well, obviously that is a lot of work and not something a toddler can do. So I bought small cookie cutters, and we put shapes on top instead. It worked beautifully!

I don’t know if any of you noticed my site being down for a time last night. No idea what caused it, but I had to make some changes on my end to get it back up. Still haven’t heard what the problem is, but I can tell from another of my sites with the same company that the problem is not fixed yet. That’s pretty frustrating, especially since they are generally an excellent company. Going to have to try get the tweak right on the other site – so far it hasn’t been working!

Am I surprised? No. The sites listed have been around longer than this site and have more users. But no one can say I didn’t try hard for it!

Just a chsnce, there are lots of other great mom sites out there, but I’m hoping to get enough votes for homewiththekids.com to get listed. I truly believe my site has a lot to offer, such as free advice on getting into medical transcription, descriptions of various work at home scams, listings of companies that hire people to work at home and support for all at home parents.

It looks like voting will end on Wednesday night, so if you’d like to help me get listed, please head on over and vote for homewiththekids.com.

Ok, so fun also means pretty crazy. Ariel is going to be one wiped out little girl after all of this! We went picking apples at an orchard in Wynola today – as you can see from the picture below, Ariel had a great time, with a little boost from Daddy.

I’ve promised Ariel that we’ll make an apple pie on Monday. She’s been wanting to do that for weeks now! I’ve never made a pie on my own, so this might be interesting.

Tomorrow we’re going to Legoland, partially to celebrate my oldest sister’s birthday, but mostly because one of my sisters had a chance to get some nicely discounted tickets. Then on Sunday we’re going to my sister-in-law’s baby shower. She’s expecting a baby girl in early February. Since she lives on the East Coast, we’ve arranged for her gift to go there, now I just have to get a card.

Let’s face it, by Monday Ariel is really going to need a break. Gage will too, no doubt. Legoland won’t be much fun for him, stuck in the stroller all day, but there’s little to be done for that. The baby shower should be better for him, although I expect the various relatives will pretty much be playing “pass the baby” the entire time. He’s a little lovebug so he won’t mind all the attention.

I’m trying not to think about how tired I’ll be!

The kids are over their colds, I’m mostly over the cold, and I’m learning to cope with the toe I slammed into a box on Sunday. That one’s pretty painful, and I’m tending to walk on the side of that foot, leaving the entire leg pretty tired, but I’m getting around.

Now it’s time to refocus. I took advantage of this time to play more with the kids – thank goodness kids think mommy lying on the floor makes a great toy! But now Ariel is going back to preschool, much to her delight, and that gives me back some of those hours where I can work with Gage on my lap. It’s not easy getting things done sometimes when you work at home, and this past week plus a little was really proof of that.

Gage is really something, though. He still hasn’t fully mastered crawling, but he’s pulling up on things and trying to walk already. I can tell already he’s going to be quite the handful. It really is a relief to see him so capable of these physical accomplishments after how much the helmet delayed him in that area. He’s making up for that and then some now!