Get back up again..

I'm so glad it's never too late to get back up again....

Hoarding...

My kids have a tendency to hoard. Like the stereo-typical dragon, hoarding treasure or bones (whatever is in season, I'm sure) my kids hoard. Toys. Dolls. Candy.

I let them have pretty much free rule over their rooms. I help clean up because the two little ones are just now getting where they can be beneficial to clean up. Not screaming and such. (This will probably be another chapter in the "Average Mom's Diaries". My kids don't always pick up their toys.) I don't think it's fair for the bigger kids to have to clean up the messes of the younger sibs. So I step in to help.

I have a few steadfast rules. "I want to be able to GET in your room and Get to your closet."

Okay. So that's really just one rule.

Even though I give them reign over their room, I have set up the cubbies so that all their things have homes. I tried to make this easy on them. Really. Still, I have to go in and throw away the trash, broken toys, wadded up pipe cleaners, ruined pirate spyglasses squashed paper towel tubes. That sort of thing.

In my cleaning out yesterday afternoon, I found this:

Candy.
More importantly: Chocolate candy.
Christmas candy. Valentine Candy. Passover Candy.
Candy.
   Candy
       Candy

J-man's sweet tooth is obviously not as potent as the other kids'. They have no candy left and have gone back to eating the candy in the pantry.

It's just sitting there in his room. And I found it.
I wonder how much of it is still good.  (The Banana Laffy Taffy was still quite good.)
'cause I may just have to find out about the rest of it. It could be a cleaner's fee.

He probably won't miss it.

Much.

It's not in any books...

...or rather I'm fairly certain it's not written in the "What to expect for your child's first five years..."

NOwhere will it be written down that:

"your 4-year-old will want a Popsicle the same color as her closest sibling. Not to emulate him but to wag her bottom at him and say something akin to 'neener neener I have the same as you'."

Yeah. Just to make him mad.

Nor will the book tell you that her butt-wagging ploy will work, and she will do it again just to hear him squeal in anger.

Nope. It won't be written down anywhere because I'd have to write the book.

If I wrote the book, It might be titled "Tales of the Average Mom" or maybe "Be afraid, be very afraid:  what the experts don't tell you."

Yeah - I don't see it being a best seller, either.

My four year old is a meanie head.....

or how to let them get to you....

When Bubbles turned four, she had a week or so (around that time) where she was sweet and endearing. Don't misunderstand me, she is adorable. I love her. She will be used mightily of the Lord. I can see the glimmerings of that in things she does.

Sometimes though, I wonder if she'll ever be allowed out of the house.

 She has taken this nifty little trick of screaming as I'm imposing my mommy will upon her. ... like when I want her to actually LEAVE the store with me. Or maybe, just maybe, to pick up the legos she's forcibly thrown around the room.... or like the fateful day she threw blocks at the Therapists office.

Mini-Me saved her bacon that day by picking up the blocks while I finished my conference with the Therapist. But Bubbles still got a spanking when we got to the van. She refused to obey until it was time to leave - which at that point was disobedience.

What's that?? What's she doing? Oh - well - I guess I could interrupt my rant to tell you --

I quote: "Don't Touch me!"
"You're hurting me!"
"I WAAAAAAAAAAANT MYYYYYYYY DADDDDDDYYYYYY!!"
"You're scaring me!" (my personal favorite)
"You scratched me!"

It's lies. All of it. But it doesn't stop her from screaming them.
at the top of her lungs.
Often while throwing herself on the floor...with tears.

You'd be surprised at the looks I get.

I dare not spank her in the store...she'll just scream "I'm bweeeeeeding!!!!!"


Which is why - I made a shirt from CafePress.com.

It's simple and black.
With white lettering.

It says "Don't blame me - They started it."
I have decided this is my "Going to the store with more than one child" shirt.

I had a mom of teenagers comment on a Facebook post - something sweet and innocent about "Shifting the blame ... no matter that they're little" - which she was trying to tell me, my reaction is truly my responsibility.

I understand that. I get it. I really do. I am the adult in this situation.
but when my child is screaming down the hall way from the therapists office to the van about me hurting her and "Don't make me fall" as we approach the stairs to the parking lot... I think I'm allowed my t-shirt disclaimer.

She may be the better mom than I - and I'm okay with that....

My child hides under the dining table yelling "You're scaring me!"

I may need more than one shirt.
I bet I could get it in multiple colors.

Birthday on the Brain...

Back in February, Bubbles turned 4. She had a distinctive list of things she wanted.
A Crazy Castle, like the one J-man had.
A princess
a puppy and a cat
and a purple bicycle.

When you give me a specific list, you will get what you ask for. Most generally. I mean - if it sounds boring, I'll not get it.

Just a few weeks ago, J-man turned 6. OH MY GOSH!!!
6.
I'll sit here and think on that.
6.

For his birthday he wanted an Indiana Lego toy. A few Star Wars Lego people. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (it's on back order) a new DS game and a movie - if it wasn't too expensive. (His words.)

He got what he wanted and then some.

So now, we have birthday on the Brain.

Any time Bubbles sees something she might want, she says "I want it for my birthday." She doesn't quite see the correlation that she's already HAD her birthday. And with G-man's birthday coming up in June, we'll probably have more birthday on the brain.

For my birthday, I decided to get myself a new CD deck for the van. I miss having a CD player. We have a radio that works - but when we're traveling with the kids - I'm constantly shifting stations. Around here, we have 1 Contemporary Christian station, 1 Christian station with preaching and soft gospel, there's a Jazz Station that i would listen to if I could find it twice in a row, 2 oldies stations, one station that plays songs from the 80's. (Seriously????) we have some rock stations and scads of country stations.

I really. Really. REALLY missed my CD player.

So the Professor let me go forth and purchase. I found one, with the help of some friendly guys at Best Buy - One had the unique name of Nait. His mom named him that. It's not short for Nathan. It's not Nate. It's Nait. His managers said it was too confusing. So they made him misspell his own name on his name tag.

Being a big proponent on Naming - I nearly got mad for him.
But that's a blog post for another day.

I ended up with a low dollar Sony - and I'm so thrilled with the new CD. They installed it and We discovered something about Chevy's we didn't know. They ran all their electronics through the radio. However, only 8 percent of their vehicles have the radio that actually shows the read outs. So when you change out stereos, you have to buy a part. Or the electronics won't work.

For instance, a guy bought a new stereo. He refused the extra part. So Best Buy installer guy said "Then I won't put the stereo in, because it will mess up." So the guy took the radio and did it himself. Best Buy Installer Guy told me, "He came back later and said 'you were right'. He was in a wreck and because he didn't have the part, his air bags didn't deploy. His insurance company found out and refused to pay.

So we grit our teeth - pay for Chevy's mistakes (AGAIN) and move on.

I have a CD player again!!!
We dusted off our Veggie collection and -- I got tired of it quickly. So I put in Hillsong Kids "Jesus is my Superhero" ... Is it possible to outgrow Veggie music?? I was rather concerned.

The Professor's birthday is in June, too. ;-)
He wants a sword.

Happy birthdays abound in the Laundry pile.

Hues of Gray

I like the color Red. It has significant meaning in my heart. But so does Blue. Purple. Yellow. I like colors. I don't wear them all on my clothes, because I'm shaped much like Winnie the Pooh.

But I like them.

For this emo post, I'll use the color red.

Sometimes I feel like the color red in a black and white world.

If I put Red in a laundry load of whites - the whites might just be tinged with red dye. Leaving color splashes of pink.

But on the flip side, Red can become darker and even gloomy when washed in a load of dark blues or blacks.

I'd rather be the one spreading the color around...but sometimes it's just not meant to be. Sometimes the black and white world is just too black and white. I'm a dreamer. A romantic. An optimist. and sometimes the world just pecks on those things until I feel like that umbrella. The only bit of color. Solitary. In a world of black and white

Life pecks and pecks. Issues of the day abound.
and the color is sucked out....

I don't like hearing reality when I'm dreaming.
It actually hurts when I hear practicality when I'm romanticizing.
Being spouted by logic and news when I'm being optimistic can be wearying.

Wet blankets in hues of gray

Disillusionment at play

Why must the color fade

just to fit the world you've made?

Without the dreamers and the hopeful

What a sad lot you'd be

left alone in your dreary hues

of solemn colors you seem to choose.

Please don't pretend and don't deny

I can be red or blue as the sky

for I am a dreamer and quite the romantic

I can't make you see me

or change your ways

but I will leave you, mourning your lack

Leaving you solemn in your grays and black.

Blog? Really?

Am I the only one who looks at the "new post" button and think something like:

"But if I blog about what's really on my mind - they'll never talk to me again."

or -- "Wow. I'm really feeling dull today?"

Seriously. I've hit a stage of life where I still need the creative outlet of a blog. I really yearn to hear from you... but at the same time, I just look around think to myself: I could keep reposting the same stories over and over again.

I've posted that the middle of a story is the hardest to write. Probably because it's really quite important and really quite boring.

Maybe that's where I am. Middle of the story.

which ... huh ... has inspired me. inspired me to grin.

Because. You see? If I'm in the middle of the story - there's some really good stuff coming my way. Why am I confident that it'll be good?? (And not, say, pirates - as I'm writing about) Because I believe in Happy Endings.

And God loves me...so, the best is yet to come.

I just know it.

I just encouraged myself.
Thanks for listening.

Thank you is never enough...

Says I...

Says I to the kids -- I'm just totally mad and crazy about you guys.

Says Mini-Me back - The good kind? Or the bad kind??

I stare at her for a moment before bursting out laughing...

"The good kind of crazy," says I.