Happy New Year to all of You!!

"We are all of us down in the gutter, but some of us are looking up at the stars."
~Oscar Wilde

Wordless Wednesday

The toy of the day yesterday was this pair of safety goggles found in the junk drawer of the kitchen. They had a blast playing "bug" and "spaceman" and all kinds of things...love it when we spend hundreds of dollars on holidays and birthdays and they want to play with things like this...sighhhh. Have a great Wednesday everyone!

2010 Reading List

I'm working on my reading list for the upcoming year. I made a goal to read 26 books this year, but I've only managed to come up with 23 for the list so far. Please feel free to leave me comments with more suggestions. Realistically I love to read so I will probably end up reading more than 26 books but I'm starting with 26 on the list to follow rather than wandering willy nilly through the bookstore trying to curb my desire to grab every book in sight.

Without further ado, here is the list so far in no particular order:

1. "The Bolter" by Frances Osborne
2. "Say You’re One of Them" by Uwem Akpan
3. "The Looming Tower" by Frances Wright
4. "Prisoner of the State" by Zhao Ziyang
5. "The Bear" by William Faulkner
6. "God: A Biography" by Jack Miles
7. "The Unsettling of America" by Wendell Berry
8. "Underground" by Haruki Murakami
9. "Leaves of Grass" by Walt Whitman
10. "Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson
11. "The Regeneration Trilogy" by Pat Barker
12. "The Handmaid’s Tale" by Margaret Atwood
13. "A Lesson Before Dying" by Ernest Gaines
14. "No Excuses" by Kyle Maynard
15. "Echo in the Bone" by Diane Gabaldon
16. "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
17. "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" by Seth Grahme-Smith and Jane Austen
18. "Have a Little Faith" by Mitch Albom
19. "Her Fearful Symmetry" by Audrey Niffenegger
20. "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy
21. "Julie & Julia" by Julie Powell
22. "The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane" by Katherine Howe
23. "The Magicians" by Lev Grossman
24. "The Lace Reader" by Brunonia Barry
25. "Sharp Objects" by Gillian Flynn
26. "Making a Family Home" by Shannon Honeybloom

Any other suggestions? As you can see by this list, I don't discriminate when it comes to books, I read all genres. I'm revisiting a couple from school days but let's face it, as an adult sometimes it's nice to refresh the memory now and then.

I signed up for paperbackswap.com this past year because I kept hearing great raves about it, and if you have patience and don't want particularly "new" books, it's a great site. But if you want anything that is new or rare, might as well get on a waiting list...I think the waiting list for "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" is like 45 weeks or something, gah. The price is right though and my hubby has been happy that I've cleared out some of my paperbook stash I could stand to part with also (which isn't many, I hate getting rid of books, I'm a book packrat).

I'm starting off with "Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson because I received it in the mail the other day. I'll let you know how it was when I get done with it.

Leave me some suggestions if you've read anything great lately!! Happy reading!

Mom...Zombie Style

I haven't gotten my Christmas wish yet...one good solid night of sleep. I am BEAT. I'd take a picture and post it but don't want the rings under my eyes and zombie-esque look to scare anyone. The three-year-old is having issues staying in her own bed in her own room at night. Last night we went to bed about 1:00 am. My wonderful husband takes his half out of the middle of the bed and promptly starts snoring in my ear. I finally doze off and feel a little body crawl up in the bed next to me. She starts snoring shortly after... I am wedged between two snoring bodies with a stuffy nose and cannot get comfortable. I manage to wiggle my way towards the end of the bed so I can get out from between them without waking anyone up. I grab my pillow and head downstairs. Stretched across the entirety of the couch is the 80-some-odd pound boxer. I tell him to get down....he looks at me and blinks. He isn't moving. We have a staring contest.... He wins because I'm too tired to keep my eyes open. I finally give in and tell him to scoot over. Sleeping on an uncomfortable couch with an 80-ish pound boxer wasn't much better than being wedged in between my daughter and husband upstairs. I woke up to the 3-year-old and 2-year-old teepeeing me and the living room this morning. Fantastic. There is no amount of caffeine in the world that is going to be enough today. I need a nap, bad...

Small Talk Six Sunday

The topic for this weekend is six things you are looking forward to in 2010. I already did the resolutions/goals post so I'm not going to go back over the same things again but there are other things I am looking forward to that I can put in here.

1. KC Royals opening day. I already made my blue/white striped scarf I want to wear and I am getting tickets to this, come hell or high water. I love my boys in blue, no matter how much they suck.

2. A summer float trip. I don't care where, I just want to go. There's nothing better in the summer than floating down a river on a canoe with a cold beer in my hand. No need for paddling, that's what I have that husband guy for sitting in the back.

3. Family trip to St. Louis this summer. We have been talking about doing this for ages and I think this year we are finally going to do it.

4. Getting myself a different vehicle that will fit all these kids!! I cannot wait for this. It's not going to be anything brand new or fancy but it will be mine and I can't wait.

5. Finishing as many crafting projects as I can fit in this year. This is something I love and enjoy and hope to keep up with.

6. Last but not least, I'm sure I covered part of this at least in the last post but surviving all these stinkin court dates and coming out with what I want out of all of them. Please keep us in your prayers on this - we need all we can get.

Is there a difference between a resolution and a goal?

Resolution: 1) Resolve or determination; to make a firm resolution to do something. 2) The act of resolving or determining upon an action or course of action, method, procedure, etc. 3) The mental state or quality of being resolved or resolute; firmness of purpose.

Goal: 1) The result or achievement towards which effort is directed; aim; end. 2) The terminal point in a race.

I guess in this case one word really leads to the other; you make the resolution to get to the goal. Unfortunately I really suck at resolutions and rarely make them. Just using the word "resolution" itself makes me feel like I'm setting myself up for a big failure.

This year instead I'm setting myself a list of goals, some of which I am keeping to myself and some of which I will share with you.

• I still have 20-25 pounds to lose from the last pregnancy. The littlest is 2 years old now, the post pregnancy excuses are gone. I've got to get up off my butt and do it.
• I am going to take a knitting class and maybe a sewing class also this year. I started knitting scarves on this little loom thing but I would love to be able to really knit, and knit something besides scarves. I'm just hoping to find a class out there that can cater to the left hander that learns everything backwards when it comes to crafts and such.
• I am going to read at least 26 books this year. I started with a grand plan of 50 but with five kids and craft projects, oh and that house cleaning and laundry stuff, I decided I had to pare it down some. I am currently working on this book list, which I will share in an upcoming blog, and I also need to find my booklight, which is in the abyss of my bedroom somewhere and put new batteries in it, since I do my best reading at night before bed.
• I am going to get through all of the impending court dates we have this year without having a nervous breakdown (I hope).
• I want to have potty training complete in our house this year and never buy another diaper again - EVER!!
• I am going to try to make a menu and corresponding grocery list every week and stick to it so that we are eating better around here, which should also assist with the first goal.
• I want one monthly date night with my husband - any babysitting volunteers out there?
• I am also going to really try to keep up on the blogging regardless of what else is going on with my life this year.

These are just a few of a list of GOALS (not resolutions) I have set for myself this upcoming year. Do you call them resolutions or goals? What goals have you set for yourself for 2010?

Beautiful...

Mostly because I don't have to be out in it, but this is the view outside my front door at about 11:30 pm on Christmas Eve. Santa has been here and he left to go to work the overnight shift and I'm getting ready to head to bed pretty soon. By the reports we are supposed to have between 5-7" of this stuff. I'll take more pictures tomorrow!

Remembering the reason for the season...

The coffee is nice and hot this morning after the beautiful snowfall last night. There are fresh blueberry muffins out of the oven making the house smell amazing. The wee ones are playing with their toys. I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas morning!

I wish we would have been able to make the Christmas Eve service at church last night but I didn't want to venture out in the blizzard conditions with the kiddos. I'm leaving you today with a clip of a show I've watched since I was a kid and it never gets old.

Christmas Eve

We are having a quiet Christmas this year. The older boys are at their father's this year, my mother is preparing to move to Texas, my brother is up in north Missouri and the hubby got stuck on the overnight shift at work. My good friend and neighbor up the street invited us to go to her house at noon tomorrow for dinner and I might take her up on it. Then the evening of Christmas will be spent between Paul's parents' houses, weather permitting.

I haven't been much in the Christmas spirit this year but this is one of my favorite Christmas carols. I hope everyone has a merry Christmas!

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Holidays to Everyone!

Haven't posted in 2 months...geesh

Well I haven't posted in a while, which I realized after I won a blog giveaway over at http://unusuallyunusualfarmchick.blogspot.com/2009/12/nordic-ware-mini-scone-pan-winner.html

I've been consciously/subconsciously avoiding posting on the blog because the things I would like to vent about are all tied up in various courts at the moment (yes, pertaining to the d-bag ex) and I can't really put anything "out there" until it all gets heard in court. Please keep me in your prayers that I come out ahead on all of it. He is seriously a thorn in my side and my older kids are really suffering as a result of it.

This has been alternatively one of the best/worst years of my life - is that possible?? I married the love of my life this year.

He is seriously the best thing that has ever happened to me and I enjoy sharing every single day of my life with him, even though we arent' perfect and drive each other crazy at times.

I also taught myself to sew this year..

I am a master pillowcase dress maker now. :) I also made a couple of small purses to match said pillowcase dresses. I started on Delaney's Christmas dress but it's December 21st today and I'm not done with it yet...could be a bad sign...lol

We also got a Friends of the Zoo membership this year to the Kansas City Zoo and we LOVED it - thanks to Grandma for providing that as an extra birthday present to everyone - and took several trips to the zoo this year.
Here's a picture from one of our adventures. The kids learned a ton about animals this year and got to observe them while learning so it was a great experience for everyone.

I've done some more knitting, made some more scarves and I'm "over" posting pictures at this point because it's a pain in the butt to put them on here and then move them all around. :)

I'm not going to delve into all the "bad stuff" any more than I did up above. We're doing what we need to do around here to take care of the situation and that's all we can do. It would be fantastic if the courts would move a little more quickly but they don't and so patience and perserverance is the key (at least that's what I keep telling myself).

I hope everyone is having a fabulous holiday season and I hope that 2010 brings all of us even bigger and better things for the future!!

Thanks to Tammie over at the Unusually Unusual Farmgirl for making me get off my butt and actually post. I'll try to get back a little more often now.

The cold weather is approaching - it's reading season!!

The time of year has arrived when I start making a reading list for myself and the kids. I love to read and enjoy sharing my love of reading with the children also. I believe the benefits of enjoying a good book are life-long.

I started my list with the new Dan Brown book, "The Lost Symbol". Here is the description from the publisher:

"In this stunning follow-up to the global phenomenon The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown demonstrates once again why he is the world's most popular thriller writer. The Lost Symbol is a masterstroke of storytelling-a deadly race through a real-world labyrinth of codes, secrets, and unseen truths . . . all under the watchful eye of Brown's most terrifying villain to date. Set within the hidden chambers, tunnels, and temples of Washington, D.C.,The Lost Symbol accelerates through a startling landscape toward an unthinkable finale. As the story opens, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned unexpectedly to deliver an evening lecture in the U.S. Capitol Building. Within minutes of his arrival, however, the night takes a bizarre turn. A disturbing object -artfully encoded with five symbols-is discovered in the Capitol Building. Langdon recognizes the object as an ancient invitation . . . one meant to usher its recipient into a long-lost world of esoteric wisdom. When Langdon's beloved mentor, Peter Solomon-a prominent Mason and philanthropist -is brutally kidnapped, Langdon realizes his only hope of saving Peter is to accept this mystical invitation and follow wherever it leads him. Langdon is instantly plunged into a clandestine world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, and never-before-seen locations-all of which seem to be dragging him toward a single, inconceivable truth. As the world discovered in The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, Dan Brown's novels are brilliant tapestries of veiled histories, arcane symbols, and enigmatic codes. In this new novel, he again challenges readers with an intelligent, lightning-paced story that offers surprises at every turn. The Lost Symbol is exactly what Brown's fans have been waiting for . . . his most thrilling novel yet. From the Hardcover edition."

This book kept me engaged from start to finish. I liked it even better than "The Davinci Code". I tend to be a fast reader, especially when it is a good book, and I had this one done in 2 days. I loved that the entire story took place in Washington, D.C. I also enjoyed the fact that you knew exactly who the villian was from start to finish and had realistic and descriptive visuals throughout the book.

I have read all of Dan Brown's books thus far and he will continue to be an author that I seek out for future reading enjoyment.

Small Talk Six Saturday - Party Time!!

Today’s topic is “6 unconventional things you think people should celebrate by throwing a party.” You can answer this with a list of 6 words, 6 phrases, 6 sentences, 6 paragraphs, 6 photos, 6 videos, etc . . My answers are probably going to be all over the map, so be forewarned...

1. Groundhog Killing Day Party. Let's face it, we get hopeful for early spring every year and the little bastard always sees his shadow. Yeah I'm sure the PETA people will eat me alive for this one but who cares... Put him and us out of our misery and rid us of the hope of an early spring - it never happens anyway.

2. Grade card party. I would actually consider doing this for my oldest if he could pull his grades out of the crapper. Or we could go in the opposite direction and make the ones that didn't make good grades sit in a corner with dunce hats while the party is going on...lol.

I think I'm in a mean mood today...

3. Hump day party. I think this would be more of a private affair (but to each his own...whatever trips your trigger) - candles, wine, kids put in bed for the night and some time alone with the hubby every Wednesday evening - at this point you need to fill in your own blanks...I could definitely go with this idea of a party.

4. Veteran's Day Party. I think instead of making this a day of mourning and remembrance, we should throw a good ol' celebration for the men and women in uniform that make it possible for us to live in this free country that we have. I think it should be bigger than the 4th of July...let's throw a huge kegger and hand them all a beer for all the hard work that they do. Whether you choose to agree or not with what they do, you get the opportunity to disagree because of these fine folks. Let's celebrate them!

5. A potty party. I have one that is potty training right now and one that I'd like to get potty trained but it's probably still too early for him. When I get them potty trained, I'm throwing a potty party for all Mommies and Daddies that have survived the trials and tribulations of potty training. And I'm celebrating after training the youngest that I will never have to potty train anything ever again...well maybe unless we ever got a new puppy...LOL

6. A Clean House Party. If I could ever get this house perfectly clean, I might be tempted to throw a huge party, which in turn would totally defeat the reason for the party in the first place, since my house would be trashed afterwards. Although a perfectly clean house would definitely be a reason to celebrate around here.

M-I-Z.....Z-O-U

We are big MU fans around here. Even the little ones know it. The daughterling begged for this new cheerleader outfit when we were out shopping yesterday and her daddy is a sucker. :) However, why is it that taking pictures of two little ones at the same time is I-M-P-O-S-S-I-B-L-E??

The littlest has his eyes closed here and I have no idea if she is sticking out her tongue or what...

Here he looks like she just scared the crap out of him...hilarious!

Here is the cute little ornery smile that I love and of course she is not paying any attention...

Now I get the cute dimples from her and he is not looking...

Now this is some sweet sibling love and about as close as I'm getting...I give up and call it good at this point. :)

Here's to hoping for an MU Tigers victory tonight!!

Wordless Wednesday

This is a picture of my oldest I took recently for his "About Me" collage at school. When he first started playing the saxophone, it sounded like a dying cat but he has improved so much over the past few years. Sometimes when I look at him it is hard to wrap my brain around the fact that I am the mother of a teenager. Where did all the time go???

Morning routine....

I need to revamp my morning routine. However, that would require me getting up much earlier, which I don't want to do but I believe that I'm going to have to suck it up and just make a stronger pot of coffee or see if someone sells a caffeine IV drip that I can start about 30 minutes before the alarm goes off.

The average morning routine with the big boys here and not at their idiot father's house is to start with the oldest child. He has to be at school first so he is the logical first step in the wake up routine. Now if I could just get him to be cooperative with the program, that would be fantastic. I go downstairs and holler, "Son, it's time to get up and get ready, let's go!" No answer. "Son, you've got to get up and get dressed!" No answer. I flip the light on to his room. No response. I need to get that kid his own alarm clock that jolts him out of bed - wonder if I can find one that sprays ice cold water? Finally after cajoling, stealing the blankets and threatening to dump ice cold water on him, he drags himself to a sitting position, eyes bleary and unresponsive.

Second group of risers are the 7 and 8 year old. This also usually includes the 1 year old because these three share a room. I get their clothes for the day out for them and put them on the end of their beds, tell them to get dressed. This inevitably leads to a fight between the two of them about whose shirt is whose, even though I have put them on their individual bunks of their bunkbed and told them, "These are YOUR clothes for the day. Put them on." Punching and kicking commence... The 1-year-old has no issues in the morning, he just wants breakfast. However, he doesn't want to wait for it, he wants it RIGHT NOW AND NOT A MINUTE LATER.

Usually within the chaos of the boys, the daughterling wakes up. Her mission in the morning is to prevent the boys from going to school. She is quite angry that they all get to go to school and inform her that she is not big enough yet. She gets her Dora backpack and princess dress complete with heels and tiara out each morning in anticipation that one of these days they are going to let her go with them too. Poor thing...

Breakfast becomes a hurried mishmash of me playing short order cook. The kids enjoy this because it is the only meal of the day I am flexible on - otherwise around here it's "either you're going to eat or be hungry". While they are eating, I pull the clothes out for the wee ones. When breakfast is done, the tag team wrestling match commences. I tackle the 1-year-old as he tries to dart past me sitting on the living room floor. I wrestle a clean diaper on him and if I have to let go of his leg long enough to reach his clothes, I'm screwed. He's laughing and off and running again...some mornings I am lucky enough to tag his dad in when this is going on. He catches him, brings him back to me and volunteers to dress the daughter, who is generally more cooperative about these things...UNLESS you pick out clothes she doesn't like. If she does not approve of that day's clothing selection, there is kicking, screaming and pouting on the horizon. Does she think I'm running a democracy here??

By the time the morning routine is finished and the boys are off to school and the daughter is forlorn in the window of the screened in porch that she got left behind once again, I am worn out and ready to go back to bed. Maybe I need vitamins? :)

Small Talk Six Saturday...

A group of ladies I've recently come into contact with over at momdot had a blog topic to write on for today. What are the six things that you say that you don't want your children to repeat? Are you sure that it only says "six" and not "sixty"??

1. I'm going with the word "shit" on the first one, simply because it's the word that hubby and I say the most and immediately regret when the little ones repeat it immediately and then proceed to run around and repeat it over and over and over and over and over....getting my point here?

2. "Dammit." We were at a store the other day and I dropped something and Delaney said "Oh dammit, Mommy". Funny to me? Absolutely. Funny to the 80-something-year-old lady in the store next to us? Probably but we got an awfully disapproving look. Old fuddy duddy.

3. "Because I said no." This is a favorite of the youngest. We have been going through the "why" phase here lately (he's almost 2 and his sister is almost 3) and they hear it a lot. Picture a scene where I pick him up and go to give him a kiss and he yells "No!!!" and I'm like "Why not?" and he grins his little ornery grin and says "Because I said no." Well all righty then...

4. "Do you want me to beat your ass?" Now let's put a disclaimer in this one before we get the anti-spank people all in a snit. We don't beat the kids - our preferred method of discipline around here is time out; however, a tap on the butt never killed anyone (I'm still alive, I'm typing this, right?). However the words "I'm going to beat your ass!" or "I'm going to beat you to death" are very self-satisfying to say when you are particularly frustrated at whichever child is annoying at that very moment. I honestly don't know why I bother anymore - they all know it's a bluff - the big boys and the little ones alike. For example, last night: Dear daughter does not want to go to bed. Daddy takes her to bed, reads her a story and tucks her in. Five minutes later she is out of the bed and back downstairs and trying unsuccessfully to hide next to mommy on the couch. Daddy says, "Young lady, get your body upstairs to your bed like a big girl or I'm going to give you a swat on the butt." She walks directly to him, pokes her little cutie patootie out and says "Just swat my butt, I don't want to go to bed." Pardon me while I walk out of the room to DIE LAUGHING before I come back and finish this list...

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Still laughing....
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OK better now.

5. "Your grandmother is crazy." Yeah that's a good one to discuss right before a big family dinner. Fantastic.

6. Although I've got to say the one that my daughter spouted off that I approved of wholeheartedly was this particular gem. My ex husband had come over to pick up her big brothers (the older 3 boys) and he's trying to be nice and say hello to her standing next to me outside. She is FURIOUS. She has figured out this is the guy that comes and takes her big brothers away. She says "No!!! I no like you!!! You a JACKASS and you not take my brothers any more!!!" He stood there stunned and said, "She was serious wasn't she?" I replied, "Umm, ya think?" and he said "She really hates me doesn't she?" I said, "Well thank God she is displaying better taste than her mother ever did." and with that I picked up my daughter and walked back in the house because ya know what? He IS a jackass - she nailed it right on the head.

As I am sure you can imagine with five kids, I could write a much longer list than this. I'm not known for my clean as a whistle language all the time for sure and neither is my handsome husband. Ah well, the humor makes it well worth it - well...except at family dinners. LOL

Have a great weekend everyone!

I'm a book winner! And another book giveaway link..

I won a book tonight off of Northernmama's blog and I was soooo excited. I never win anything - ever.

She also has another book giveaway going on right now and I love the author of this particular book, so I thought I'd give her a blog shout out here and if you want to enter to win and check out her great page, go for it.

Northern Mama: A Separate Country ~ Book Review and Giveaway!#c2814749373145570275#c2814749373145570275

Let the wild rumpus start!

Am I the only one who cannot wait for this movie to come out?? This has been a favorite book of mine for years and a favorite of all of the kids. I'm really excited to take the 7 and 8-year-old to see this. I imagine the 13-year-old will say he is "too old" and "too cool" to go with us. I'd love to take the little ones too but is it just me or does it have kind of a creepy, dark feel to it? I don't want to scare them...maybe after we see it I can be a better judge of how they would handle it or we can just wait for the DVD to come out for them.

And a quote from the trailer that I'm using as inspiration for today:

"This is all yours. You're the owner of this world."

Mom Time...

Mom time comes in small spurts...naptime if I can get them to nap at the same time...after bedtime...very occasionally I wake up early in the morning before they get up and enjoy a hot cup of coffee on the screened in front porch. The early morning one doesn't happen very often because I am NOT a morning person in the least.

Top 5 things I like to do during Mom time:

1. Read. Right now I'm between books but I just finished Alice Sebold's "The Almost Moon". It was a good book but a little bizarre for me to read because of a history of an awkward relationship with my own mother. I'm a sucker for books. I love them. My bedroom is stacked with them. Recently I've attempted to part with a few by signing up for www.paperbackswap.com. I LOVE this website and it is a great money-saver, which is great for our family of seven.

2. Scrapbooking. I love to do this but I generally don't do it much during "mom time" because it involves a process of dragging out all of the supplies, actually accomplishing something and then putting all the supplies away again before little people come and start rifling through it all. For scrapbooking time I try to set aside a time when Daddy is home, invite my good friend Diane over and we set the baby gate up and block off the dining room so we have the whole table to ourselves without little hands "helping".

3. Sewing. This also has the dragging out of supplies issue. Although this one isn't as bad because my daughter knows when I drag out the sewing machine I am generally making something for her so she wants to help and watch. She is also very good at saying "No no, brothers! This is for GIRLS!"

4. Glass of wine and mindless TV. I like white the best but will go for an occasional red. My mindless TV choices lately are my old standby's "Grey's Anatomy" and "Private Practice" (which I am watching as I type this). I've also been watching "Modern Family" and "Cougar Town". I am also into the HGTV channel, "Ace of Cakes" and the Food Network. If there is nothing interesting on, I am a CNN junkie. My afternoon guilty pleasure is "One Life to Live". And no you don't have to tell me how lame that is...I already know.

5. A long hot shower. This has to be done while children are sleeping. I never shower in the morning and here is why. Small children banging on the door, small children stripping off their clothes and hopping in the shower with me, the older boys turning the water off and on in an attempt to scald me, or the husband hollering through the door for me to hurry up because the children are going crazy. (I often ask him what would happen if I died - he assures me he and the children will all move in with his mother. I wonder if she knows this? She would go to any lengths to keep me alive at all costs, that's for sure. lol)

What are your favorite things to do during "mom time" (or dad time, such as the case may be)??

Wordless Wednesday

This is not a new picture...it's from a few months back but it's still one of my favorites. This is my youngest and this is what happens when Mom goes to the bathroom and doesn't put the baby gate up to keep children out of the kitchen. He climbed onto the cooler my dear husband left in the kitchen, got the flour out of the cabinet and played in it. This is what 4 minutes unsupervised gets you....but look how proud of himself he was!

The moral of the story is: Some days you have to laugh or else you will just cry...

To-Do List Tuesday

I am a "to-do list" kind of mom... If I don't have some type of motivation and direction IN WRITING, I tend to plop my butt down in front of the computer and waste hours of the day while watching the kids destroy the house room by room.

My to-do lists are totally lame by what I would consider to do list standards. I put the most menial tasks on there just to have something else to check off to elevate my feeling of accomplishment at the end of the day. "But honey, just look at all these things I checked off on my to-do list today!"

I will make cleaning the kitchen into a 10 item to-do list. For example:
1. Unload the dishwasher.
2. Wipe down countertops.
3. Wipe down appliances.
4. Wipe down the front of the refrigerator.
5. Clean the kitchen table.
6. Clean the high chair tray.
7. Sweep.
8. Mop.
9. Reload the dishwasher.
10. Clean sink.

I need these 10 items to be marked off and consolidating them would lower my motivation level considerably. I could make a one item to do list like this:

1. Clean kitchen.

The end result of this list is the same but the feeling of scratching out each item on a 10 item list is so much more self-sastisfying.

The children do not share my need to inflate the to-do list. I give them each about 5 chores per day depending on age and ability level. If I broke their 5 chores into 3 steps each for a 15 step to-do list, I would have total anarchy on my hands. I've learned the best way to get my kids to complete their chores around here is to make it into a competition. At a certain time every day, the chores are handed out, the time is noted and with a big "Ready! Set! GO GO GO GO GO!" they are off. Various lame prizes doled out for the first ones done. "You sir, are the winner of a huge hug and kiss from Mom!" I get eye rolls for this since they know they would get the hug and kiss anyway but they still fall for the competition theory every time.

My motivation is already puttering out so I've got to get started or I won't have any of my 25 things marked off my list today. What's on your to-do list for today?

My five monkeys...

Five little monkeys jumping on the bed...

One fell off and bumped his head

Mama called the doctor and the doctor said,

"No more monkeys jumping on the bed!"

Oh if it were only that easy.... I need this "doctor" person who has so much authority to come hang out at our house for a few days. In my house usually it's "Stop jumping! You know you aren't supposed to be jumping.... Did you hear me? I said no more! Ouch I bet it hurt when you fell, didn't it? Now WHY were you doing that?"

And the standard answer is????

"I don't know."

Welcome to my world...