I have discovered that I would not make a good professional blogger.  I’m just not on top of things.  Really, I’m surprised I made it this long maintaining a blog.  If it weren’t for the few regulars I have, I probably would have quit a long time ago.

Life around here has been fairly “normal” if you can call it that.  Homeschooling is moving right along, nothing too exciting there.  Although Monkey did bring home an experiment from her enrichment program that could be fun to do a photo-blog of.  It’s on making a lightbulb (they’ve been studying Thomas Edison all semester).  Maybe I can get the all the pieces and parts for that and actually do it.  Hmmmm….  Ok, well that’s one day’s post covered.

The kids haven’t really said or done anything too funny lately, at least not that can be adequately relayed in words on the screen.

The dogs…. well…. the dogs are a bit much right now.  You know how I said that Puppy needed a playmate because he was irritating me to death?  Well, sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t.  I’m kinda missing the irritation right now because it was easily taken care of.  Whenever he came around to “irritate” me, he was just trying to play or get some attention.  I’d throw the ball a few times, give him a scratch or roughhouse with him and he’d be happy.  Now I have TWO dogs irritating me to death.  And today is a rainy day so I can’t just herd them outside.  Thankfully, they’ve found a quiet moment; one is sleeping on the couch and the other on the floor.  I’m sure it won’t last long.

Holiday madness is quickly approaching.  Shopping to be done, wishlists to create, pictures to be made, cards to be mailed, gifts to make, travel plans to make – and Thanksgiving is a mere 16 days away with Christmas right around the corner.  Have I mentioned that I’m NOT one who has all their shopping done before Labor Day?  Or Halloween?  Or even the 15th of December?

I’ll be lucky if I can maintain two updates a week.

Insanity has found a roost at our house.  And her name is Charlie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our puppy, who is no longer a puppy, needed a playmate.  Why?  Because I was tired of him trying to chew on me.  Poor Puppy was in so need of a playmate that he was irritating me to death.  Now he has a friend to irritate.  Although, right now, I think it’s the other way around.  Charlie likes Puppy’s toys and enjoys playing “keep away”.  Puppy doesn’t like that much.

The thunderous sound of them running up and down the hallway, crashing down the stairs and sliding on the hardwoods has become the background noise of our house over the last 24 hours.

Yep.  They were made for each other – that is, once they figure out who’s in charge.

Here’s a conversation I was witness to the other day.  It was all Trey and I could do to keep a straight face.  But before I go any further, let me explain that it involves the toilet and whether or not it has been flushed.  You know the saying, “If it’s yellow, let it mellow.  If it’s brown, flush it down.”?  Well, as adults, Trey and I sometimes follow this – old habit from when we were in a drought – but we always encourage the kids to flush every time.

Heard from Little Man in the bathroom:

“Daddy, you didn’t…! ”  Little feet pad down the hallway.

“Daddy, come with me.  Come with me.”  They walk down the hall together.

“Did you do this?”

“Nope, not me,”  Trey says, possibly because it’s what the kids tell us all the time.  Payback, you know.

“You have to flush when you use the bathroom!”

“Ok, I’ll do better next time.”

Nothing like being scolded by an almost-4 year old.

Check out Potty Training Power for more cute potty success stories!

Did you know that physical therapists like to hurt people?  At least, that’s what mine told me last week.  She said it was one of two jobs she could go into and get paid to hurt people.  She wasn’t a good enough shot to be an assassin so she went into physical therapy.  She’s got a great sense of humor, that one.

In all seriousness, though, she’s well aware of the reputation that surrounds PTs and she uses it to her advantage.

What?  Why am I seeing a physical therapist?  Oh, sorry, forgot I didn’t mention that part.  I have bursitis in my hip and it’s been there for four years.  I’ve been through PT before, I’ve had steroid injections and prescription anti-inflammatories and I’ve gone to a chiropractor.  There have also been many months in between where I was just too busy to try doctors for it again and just bulled through the chronic pain of it.  It’s worse in the evenings and if I’ve had an active-on-my-feet kind of day (which is everyday when you have two young children).

But I finally got tired of it.  I like to be active and I had finally reached a point where I’m done with the pain.  So I went back to the doc and started physical therapy about 3 weeks ago.

I can tell a difference between this PT and the last one I had.  She’s tough but in a good way.  She has actually been working my hip muscles and even from her initial evaluation of my hip and legs, I knew that I had made a good decision.

But I do think she’s out to kill me.  Slowly.  Painfully.  Who says Physical Therapists aren’t assassins?

I just discovered this by visiting another friend’s blog and would love to pass on the information to you.

In honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, bloggers from around the world contributed stories of their struggles with breast cancer:  ”inspirational moments, laughs, recipes, and physical and personal growth articles”.  Just by visiting their site, you can get a free copy of the e-book, “Blog-4-Cause” as a gift.

Breast Cancer is all around us.  Maybe you have a family member or friend struggling with the disease right now.  Perhaps that sweet neighbor down the street is a survivor or perhaps a dear member of your church just lost her fight.

Cancer sucks.

If you would like more information about how you can make a difference, Blogging For A Cause is where you need to go.  You can get a free copy of “Blog-4-Cause” just for visiting.  If you would like and are able to make a donation of any amount, you’ll get an additional e-book from life coach author, Tim Brownson.

I sincerely hope you’ll take the time to visit their site and see what they’re doing.  At the time of me writing this, there have been 32 gifts totaling $635 donated to the Susan G. Komen Foundation through this effort.  Every little bit helps.

Thank you.

A couple of weeks ago, our pastor delivered a message about taking a snow day.  To sum it up, he said that if the God Almighty, creator of the Universe, takes a break after working all week, then maybe we can, and should, too.

Many religions celebrate Sabbath in some way.  But this post isn’t about that.  It’s about a snow day.

Do you remember when you were a kid and you woke up on a school day only to see a few inches of snow on the ground and mom telling you there’s no school?  Remember how much FUN that was?  No school, no school work, no homework, no responsibility?

What about as a grown-up?  You wake up one morning, getting ready for work or school or with your list of errands in hand only to find that everything “out there” is closed due to snow.  You can’t get to work, you can’t go run those 50-bazillion errands you planned, you’re just stuck at home.  But you don’t necessarily feel guilty about it because you know everyone else is stuck at home, too.

So, what do you do?

You relax, you play, you go outside with your kids and make a snow angel, snow man or a snow fort (if you get enough snow).  You have a snowball fight with your spouse then head inside for some hot chocolate and a fire in the fire place.  Yeah, I admit, I got a little Norman Rockwell, but come on.  Isn’t this what a snow day is all about?  No real responsibility, like work or going to the grocery store (unless you didn’t make that egg, milk and bread run before the storm.  You have to be able to make French Toast in a snow storm.  I’m not sure why, but it’s a rule, apparently).

People are wired to get breaks.  We’re made for sleeping and resting.  If we don’t get sleep, we lose the ability to function.  Did you know that someone who is sleep deprived and driving is a worse driver than someone who is drunk?  If we don’t take breaks, we get irritable, grumpy and don’t do our best.  We snap at the kids, we don’t do our jobs to the best of our ability, we take it out on our partners.  Our health and our bodies fail us if we don’t get breaks.

We’re told in the Bible that God rested after working for 6 days.  If he does it, why shouldn’t we?

We should be taking a break once a week – that’s 52 snow days a year.  Put it on your calendar!  Take a snow day.  Let go of the guilt of not getting anything done and enjoy the day relaxing or doing a favorite hobby.  Take your kids to the park for an entire afternoon with no agenda to run here or there afterwards.  Leave the dishes in the sink and go out to eat and let someone else do the cooking and cleaning.  Curl up with a book and read.  The work, the chores, the dishes – they’ll all be there the next day,  but will your sanity and your health?

Go take a snow day.

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? ~ Mark 8:37

Today I am a guest in someone else’s house.  I’ve written my first ever guest post and I’m a bit nervous about it.

Head on over to Writer Dad for today’s post.

And, no, I didn’t go crashing through the wall yelling “Oh, Yeah!”  :)  I do have better manners than that.

Monkey has an idea – a little venture, shall we say.  I’m not sure where the idea originated from but she came home talking about it on Monday from her enrichment class.  Several of the kids in her class, including her and her good friend, C, are designing dog costumes to sell.  Nevermind that the pet stores are chock-full of doggie costumes, but she started working on her drawings and her “business plan” on Monday.

Being the loving mom that I am, fully supportive of all my children’s ventures, I thought – nay, hoped – that she’d be “over it” by Tuesday.

Nope.  She continued to draw and plan out her costumes.  Actually, I loved that she was drawing them.  I’m all about drawing on paper because that doesn’t really involve that much involvement from me other than a “that’s nice, honey” every once in a while.  Wednesday, she returned from her enrichment program with even bigger plans and more accomplices.  Now they’re planning on selling the costumes in the driveway and asking people to measure their dogs so the costumes can be a custom fit.

Hmmmm…..  so it’s not going away, is it?

Wednesday night, at church during drop off, Monkey wanted to approach a friend of mine and ask if she had dogs and if she would like to buy a costume.  I know this mom and she’s very sweet and sincere and told Monkey as she looked at her drawings that she would think about it.  I know it doesn’t sound like it because intonations can’t really be interpreted over the monitor, but I promise, she was sincere.

Ok, let me stop here and explain something.  I’m a crafty person.  I like to scrapbook, make cards, make jewelry, knit – I really should open up my own little etsy shop, but I also have a streak of laziness.  Sometimes I don’t WANT to be creative.  This is where my quandary lies.  I don’t want to discourage Monkey with this idea.  She’s really into it!  But I really don’t want to have to “deal” with it, you know?  I’m not a good mom that way.  Last year, she wanted to have a dog show.  She was so excited about it and wanted to invite people and such, but I dragged my feet until she forgot about it.  Yay me, great mommy award there, right?

So, after dropping Monkey off to her class, I approached another friend who was asking me what Monkey was selling.  I explained to my friend, D, what Monkey was doing and how she was so enthusiastic about it.  I told her my issue and she, very gently, I might add, scolded me.  ”You have to support her on this – come on!”  And she was right.  So, Wednesday night, after picking up Monkey, we talked about some logistics with her idea.  Maybe designing them for live dogs wasn’t the best idea.  What about Webkinz?  All her friends have those while not everyone has a live dog.  Also, dogs can be really big and making a costume for one big dog would be, cost-wise and effort-wise, as much as two or three little ones.  Webkinz are all close to the same size.  We also talked about how successful she was at pre-selling her costumes to her friends and that it might be easier to just sell them to her friends instead of setting up a “garage sale” for them.

Monkey pondered those ideas.

Yesterday, she got her money together and asked me to take her to the fabric store.  She’s ready to start making some of her designs.  She’s going to use some of her Webkinz and other stuffed animals as models.  We got fabric for a mummy, a fairy and a vampire.

I’m guessing we’re gonna get creative today.