Ants, Ants Everywhere! GAH!

So the title totally defines what this last week has been like for me. We have two kinds of ants trying to make their way into our house. grr.

We have the tiny brown ants who, I believe, are living somewhere in the wall behind our stove. They pop up on the counter every once in a while, sometimes in huge bunches! We had freezies as a snack during the hot spell the past few weeks, and when a drop fell on the counter, I would use a paper towel to wipe it up. Those stinking little ants would crawl up onto the counter and, oh, I don't know, lick the leftovers. I have to disinfect the counters every time I use it, even just bread crumbs. grr.

Then there are the carpenter ants. You know, those big juicy ones. They had issued a full-on assault and marched in through our back door last night. They were coming in through the corners. And those buggers are fast! grr. Jeff says that these big black ones look like warrior ants or major worker ants. To me, they are just insects who should not be in my house.

I was really enjoying spraying all the ants with chemicals and gleefully watching them die slow and painful deaths. But at the rate those ants were coming into our house, I was rapidly running out of cleaner! So Jeffery poured shampoo on the outside of the door - apparently they won't cross liquid soap. We have just run out of dish soap, so shampoo it was. It seems to be working, since there aren't any more ants coming in through the back door. yet.

I really don't like bugs with lots of legs. Ants are okay, so long as they don't touch me. Other bugs, like centipedes, absolutely horrify me. I can't stand to even think about them, and the hair on my arms just stand up straight, I get so . . . *shiver*.

Anyhoo. On to bigger and better things.

Alexander has spent the last two months or so waking up crying and/or sleep walking almost every night. He has been waking up, crying practically inconsolable. I've had it explained to me as night terrors, but I'm not entirely sure about that.

And for the past week or so, whenever he woke up, the only thing that would calm him down was when I prayed for him. I would say, "Alexander, God will keep you safe. Do you want to pray and ask God to keep you safe"? And Alexander would say, "Okay." I would pray for him, and he would be able to go back to sleep. I really hope this is a phase he will grow out of, but he's never had a phase that has lasted this long. Has anyone else out there had this issue with their child waking up crying once or twice a night for months on end for no apparent reason? I would love to know your experience. Alexander didn't wake up last night, so hopefully we're turning a corner.

Isabel is trying SOOO hard to walk! She is a very confident crawler, and she is pulling herself up onto her feet against the couch or tv stand or exersaucer or the box of yarn from Heather. Then she moves her legs, as if trying to walk. And if she ever loses her balance and falls, she's pretty good at making sure she doesn't hit her head on the floor - I'm not really sure how she does it.

And once she's down, she rolls over and starts crawling in a different direction - to test her standing balance against something else! This is what she does practically all day. She doesn't want to look at picture books or even watch the movies that Alexander watches (she used to be fascinated by the tv). She wants to crawl and stand. I wouldn't be surprised if, when we go back to school, Isabel will be walking along all the furniture.

Isabel is also a very talkative girl, even more so now than she was last week. She's talking while she crawls, she's talking while she eats her supper, she's talking while she's chewing on toys. Man, it strikes me all the time how different my children are!

I made a to do list of things I wanted to get done this past weekend. Here it is again:

- de-clutter certain areas of the house (office, my side of the bedroom, craft space).
- clean the house (including washing the floors!).
- bake chocolate chip cookies.
- open my second etsy shop to start selling my new product - SO EXCITED!!!
- get pictures taken of the patio stones in our back yard and list them for sale on kijiji.
- get rid of the fly-away garbage around our house - people walking down Ottawa Street like to litter.
- make t-shirt yarn out of the old t-shirt pile.
- sew new buttons on my shirts and do the new button-holes - kinda nervous about that one.
- finish crocheting my scarf.


Well, I got four things done. I organized my craft space, washed the floors, finished crocheting my scarf (pictures to come on Friday!), and opened my second etsy shop.

I couldn't get anything else done for two reasons:

1. The heat was unbearable. my brain would have boiled like a chicken's if I was outside for too long.

2. Jeffery ended up being gone for two days out of the three-day weekend we had. And the one day he was with us, it was Sunday. We went to church, then my parents' house to celebrate two birthdays, then Jeff's mom came over in the evening. How am I supposed to get anything done with that! It's really difficult to set aside time long enough to organize large spaces with two kids at my heels.

I didn't do the button holes. I could have, but I'm way too nervous. Does anyone want to volunteer their time to do them for me? I'm afraid I will mess it up!

I probably could have baked chocolate chip cookies. But I completely forgot that was on my list! gah!

Anyhoo.

We need prayer. again. majorly. Jeff is getting paid this week on Friday, and we're going to get $50.00. Yeah, I thought the $93.39 this past winter was bad! And we have $68.49 in our bank account right now, so we will have $118.49 to pay our mortgage, property taxes, cogeco (phone and internet), horizon (hydro and water) and quarterly rental fee for the hot water heater. Not to mention food or gas for Jeff to get to his appointments for work. We don't have anything we can use on the visa, since we had to use that for previous slow months, and we haven't had the income to pay off the balance. I'm not sure what God is going to do with this, but I know FOR SURE there is nothing we can do! The only hope we have is HIM. So please, please, please pray. Please don't get me wrong. I'm not asking for help or advice or anything like that. We are merely coveting your prayers. Thanks! :)

That's all, folks!

-Shirley