Ageism??

Is it possible for children to be age-ist?

J-man often talks himself to sleep. It's when he's laying down that the deep wonderings of his heart come out. I don't know why exactly. Except that when he's laying down in bed, he's still and his thoughts turn deep. 

One night, in the middle of this time there were a series of questions that culminated in one large 'ouch' moment.

J-man asked about belly buttons. More specifically he wanted to know what they were for.
So I told him. "That's where you were attached to me, when you were INSIDE me as a baby, so you'd get food."

He seemed to think that's cool.

"Adam and Eve didn't have belly buttons, did they?"

"Well, I'd guess not. Since they didn't have to be in a mommy's tummy."

We both agreed that was cool of him to notice.

"How old were they, when they died?"

Understand that I'm not sitting with him without something to do. I'm either writing, reading or researching. I consider Pinterest research.

So I just say, "Well they were really old." I don't want to age them unnecessarily. Or tell him the wrong answer because I'm quite certain he'll remember the wrong answer. 

"How old?"

"I'm not really sure. I know they were really old."

"Like 30?"

Ouch. Said the 39 year old mom.

"Oh, no. Much older."

You know it's coming.

"Oh? Like 40?"

Ouch again. 

"No, son. Like in their hundreds. Hundreds of hundreds."

"Oh."

Fast forward a few days later.

The Professor is having his birthday. We celebrating on a minor scale because that's how The Professor roles. (Slow.)

"Dad, how old are you anyway?"

"Well, son. I'm 43."

"Wow, I'm really surprised you made it this long."

Ouch.

I've come to the conclusion that my son is age-ist. Age-ist as only an 8 year old can be. 

I'm turning 40 on my next birthday and I'm really not sure I want to tell him.

Wondering and Equating...

I'd wondered why it was taking G-man so very long to do his math work. 

I don't have to wonder any more.

This is from last year - but this year isn't much different. 

One thing that *IS* the same? 

The Good Guy Always wins.

New phone

My current view of my desk. I have a  new phone. so  i wanted to see if I could post my pictures from my phone. and sure enough I can. punctuating is another thing entirely.

All in my head...

I had a blog post. 
Then another. 

and part of another. 

Apparently they were all in my head. 

I was going to show you a picture, too, but the picture loader thingy isn't working. It just sits there and mocks me. So it's either my computer (which I doubt) Or Blogger. Or Google. 

Since Google now runs Blogger, I'ma blame it on Google. 

Decaffeinating myself was going really well until this weekend. When I fell back on the wagon? Off the wagon? 

Where'd the wagon come from? 

Saturday when we had a party for my wonderful niece. Caffeine was consumed. 

Today was supposed to be the first day of school for us. And It was discovered that I didn't have all the books I needed. While Mini-E and J-man are fighting over who gets to 'be first' I'm wandering around the room thinking. I thought stuff like, "I coulda sworn I ordered that math book." "Where'd the phonics page go?"

It was not a stellar first day. We called it done by noon. 

I shoulda known that it was going to be an interesting first day of school when I couldn't find the Rosetta Stone registration codes. Without the registration codes, the program was all but useless.

I very nearly cried. I prayed. 
after looking in the drawer four times, It was found.

So we can study Spanish-  just not math.

Oh, well. 

Hopefully, the picture uploader thingy will work soon. I found the coolest earbuds. 
At least I think I did. 

Watered down...

Ha! I bet you thought I'd call this post 'Day 3'. Didn't you? 

...

I thought about it.

Then decided not to. 

But proof that there's progress: 

My new Writing buddy

Day Two...

I feel like I should be sitting out in the wilderness somewhere writing a title like that.

"Day two, and my water is running out... There's no sign of rain. The thirst is becoming more than I can bear."

but no. I just FEEL like I should.
It was a very dramatic title. I felt like it should have an exciting story to go with it.

but no. I just feel like it should.

It's actually Day two of me giving up Diet Coke.

I've given it up before. I once detoxed myself off of caffeine at the same time I had the flu. I mean, headaches are headaches.

Then I got back on it - due to work and life. And no real big desire to stay 'off the juice'.

Then I was de-caff during four pregnancies. and It was after Mini-E, that I really became addicted again. I mean SERIOUSLY addicted.

So addicted that those t-shirts that say 'there's too much blood in my caffeine system' were hillarious.

And true.

I loved the taste, too. Not so much anymore. Now I'm just drinking it because it's habit. Some drinks just taste better than others. There's a major difference between the fountain drinks vs the bottled stuff I buy from the grocery story.

So after our van issues, I did some thinking about the cost of choosing the more expensive drugs and that was a factor in desiring to quit. I failed miserably the first week. So much so that it was just talk and intentions.

Health wise, too, I think it's hindering my sinuses. It's time to make a change.

Then I had the Monday from hell. Major Migraine. I medicated with diet coke, some major advil and someone else cooking.

Yesterday and today, I've had about half my normal consumption of  the stuff. So Yay! That's an improvement. I did find myself slightly grumpier as my blood reacquainted itself with ... itself.

Since we can't pick and choose the times the family barometers will fluctuate - there's no time like today to make the choice. (Which means, I can't wait for the house to be sweet and peaceful to break the habit relating to one of my major comfort foods.)

Something else that's been reaffirmed. I've never been one to quantify addictions. An addiction is an addiction is an addiction. Some are truly harder to get over than others. Sex/drugs/alcohol/food. Doesn't matter.

I will be cheering as loud as I can for the next person who tells me, 'I've been clean/sober for ____ days/weeks/months/years'.

It's Day 2.
I feel silly.
And that's a good thing.

Get up and Go-Go - Oh, No - Part 2

I was awakened Wednesday morning to the sound of my two youngest fighting. Oddly, J-man was pounding on a desk. Mini-E was snuggled up on the couch with her blanket. She wanted to play her Dora game on the console. J-man, who knows how to turn everything on, refused. 

He said, "All I wanted was a peaceful morning and that didn't include watching her play Dora!"

I stared at him. 

I was awakened for this? He's playing a computer game. So it's not like he was being forced to watch. 

"you're kiddin' me, right?"

Unfortunately, he was not kidding. 

So we had to have a long talk because I thought it was silly that people watched him play his game...and he was protesting LOUDLY about hers. 

I managed to get a shower in before the phone call came. 

To fix the van was going to cost just over $1,800. Let me tell you... there were tears. 

Apparently what had happened - was the pressure gauge on the AC blew, sending shards into the A/C system. So the air pressure I found WAS real - it was just the pressure gauge.

And they dye the A/C coolant. 
Now I know. 

When they called to give me the news, I didn't have the forethought to inquire if the heater would be usable. I didn't think about this until later.  If it had been, we could have just driven with the windows down.

And Ice packs in our shirts. (That's from Mini-Me.)

A new car, even a new-to-us car, isn't in the budget.

So we'll be working on keeping a very tight budget until it's cleared off of OUR docket.

and of course, since I wanted to cry, things were doubly hard. Lots of shouts of 'unfair' happened until I just wanted a house with four towers so I could lock them in their towers. 

G-man and Mini-E were playing and he accidentally gave her a black eye. That was far more excitement than she was wanting. So she cried for a good twenty minutes..

Maybe I'm the one who needs the tower. 

Lymm Water Tower House

Saw this on Facebook. 

Pretty much sums it up.

Get up and Go-Go ... Oh, no.

It's hot here. Like Arizona kinda hot. Tho, The Professor insists there's more humidity here than there. He's from Arizona. He says everytime he goes to visit, his contacts pop out due to lack of moisture.

that hasn't happened yet. 

I am willing to agree with him that there's moisture in the air...but since I can actually breathe this air - there's still less moisture than normal. 

We've come to a sort of accord about it. 

We agree it's freakin' hot. 

Because it's so hot, I've been trying to remember to roll the windows down on the mini-van to kind of help vent out the heat. Today, I turned the engine on (Since I didn't drive it yesterday) and heard this sudden growl of a sound. Then ....all was normal. So I proceeded to roll the windows down a bit and insert the sunshade into the front window. 

I closed the van up pocketed my keys and started back inside. 

unfortunately, the van was hissing. 

Vans don't, as a general rule, hiss. 

Since we'd just spent a great deal of money on having the water pump thermometer and a plastic gasket replaced, that was my first thought. Perhaps the radiator bit the dust. Literally. 

Nothing was leaking. 

I popped the hood. Cause I know how. 

I looked. Still nothing was leaking. But I could smell what I thought was anti-freeze.

I did what I know most to do. I called my daddy. 

He guessed it was the water pump. He had me take pictures and send them to him. So I did. 

See that nut and bolt sticking up there in the middle? That's right above the place that was leaking pressure. The radiator fan is just at the bottom corner of the picture... it was covered in green fluid. Green, to my knowledge, equals anti-freeze. 

Here it is from another angle. Because there was so much pressure coming from the piece, I honestly thought there was a hole. But I think it was just the gasket having broken. 

So.. boo. Hiss. Van's broken again. 

I can't get the radiator off to see if there's fluid inside. As hot as it's been, perhaps it's been leaking slowly and evaporating?

So ... I did what any girl would do. 

I called her husband. I explained the situation to the Professor. I couldn't get the radiator cap off. Otherwise I'd have done that first. 

He came home. It was like 105 outside. 

We decided to take the van to the place that fixed the water pump. He looked inside and said, "Well, if that's where the pressure was leaking, that's your A/C".

Dandy. No wonder it was blowing hot air for miles. I did turn it off and drive with the windows down. 

He recommended a place for us to take the van...armed with the knowledge that the van was driveable, off we went. 

In the heat. (I promise I have a reason for that reminding you that it's freakin' hot.) 

We got to Fix-it place #2 and explained the situation.
He told us that they couldn't fix it today but would put it on the docket for tomorrow. We already figured that would be the case. We drove home.

The Professor's car hasn't had an A/C that worked for 2 years. 
I get in and he's got one window rolled down and the hot air blowing through the vents. 

"Dear God!" I exclaim. "That's going to go off!" And I turn it off and roll down MY side window. I think the professor has the only car known to man that doesn't have auto-windows. 

Properly vented, we toodle on home. We discuss things as we go. Like work. News. And a bit of politics. He keeps up with that stuff and lets me know the highlights. It all makes me angry so I'm kind of glad he at least is willing to keep my 'in the loop'.

By the time we get home, I'm sweating in places that shouldn't be sweating and I'm dizzy. 

So I plant myself in front of the fan and when that doesn't work, I just lay down on the floor. There's a footstool there and I prop my feet up and I finally start to cool off. 

That's when I notice the dog is lying on the floor not far from me. 

And I had to laugh.

Me and the dog - laying with our bellies aimed up so we can stay cool. 

Luckily, I don't feel the urge to drink water out of a bowl. 

Easily Amused...

Being easily amused doesn't mean you don't have your blue moments. It just means you're more apt to find something that tickles your fancy. 

Like a name. I'm going to play Guild Wars 2. It's going to be a lot of fun. It's caught my fancy. I even joined a Guild. Because they caught my fancy. 

Then there's the slightly odd things. Like Pillowcases. 

I like polka-dots.

I bought these when we were going to have my niece spend the night. We didn't need them - so I didn't open them until today. I really like them. They're going on my bed even though they don't match the rest of the room.

Nothing matches in my house, so it's okay.

Tunes!!

Today I got some new music. Love is a Four Letter Word by Jason Mraz. Whatever by Hot Chelle Rae and Sweeter by Gavin Degraw. 

I've never heard of Gavin - but I liked the clips I got to hear on Amazon So I decided to give him a try.

Jason Mraz has been in the house for a while... since "Geek in the Pink", I think. 

However, Hot Chelle Rae is new to me. I bought them because of one song. One song I woke up to the other morning. If the rest of their music is like this, with witty lyrics, I'll be buying more.

And that's what has amused me today. What's amused you? Besides me, I mean? 

LOL 

I hope you find your own amusements today.

Sight

Nope, can't see.

This was seen yesterday. That's at least four stocking caps. He's not padding his cranium. He's blocking his eyes so he can't see.

He wanted to move around the house without seeing. He was using his light saber as a 'cane' to help him maneuver through the obstacles. He took it all off in order to make a trip to Sam's Club. (Which in retrospect, he didn't have to.)

When we got home, he put it all back on.

This time I upgraded his saber to a long smooth stick. (The closest thing we had to a cane.)

Then I asked him questions.

He made two observations - Dogs and cats are dangerous to an unseeing person and it's kind of hard to go to use the potty.

He decided it would take practice.

He also noticed that a blind person depends on hearing.

And a neat house.

LOL  - Yeah. That won't happen around here.

It was fun watching him gain a new perspective. 

Can't always teach that.

Bird is the Word...

.... but not one you want to hear at 2am.


A little revelation about life in the laundry pile. The Professor snores. 
The kids insist that I do and given my history of sinus issues, I just might. On the other hand, when I do snore, I wake myself up, adjust, and go back to sleep. 


When the Professor snores - He just sleeps right through it.  I, however, do not.


so out of the kindness of his sweet heart he often sleeps on the couch. 


It was that same sleeping arrangement was had going for us the night we were talking about 'the bird'. 


He came and got me about 2am. 'Comfy, the cat dragged in something and has it cornered. It's screaming. I could use some back-up.'


Great. Jack Oy, the Porch Cat strikes again. Through the doggy door he has delivered a frog and a crawdad. In the back yard, he's delived two small bunny carcasses for the dog to de-fuzz. 


Ew. 


I go toward this book shelf where the cat is pacing back and forth. The object of his attention is behind a stack of folders and clipboards. 


The professor sits on the couch. 


I thought I was the back up??


I pull the binders away until something jumps up at me. I yelp and hop back. My first thought was 'frog'. Then I discover that the screaming hopping thing in my house - is actually a small bird. 


not a baby as far as my eye can determine. just a small bird.


I should also mention that it's raining outside. Which might explain why the bird got in Jack's mouth and why Jack decided to bring it in to snack upon. 


I catch the bird between a clipboard and plastic container that had been discarded by a kid. I take him out front, but the entire thing on the porch. I take the plastic container back and step back. I didn't want him to decide to peck at me. 


Bird just sits there. 


He doesn't look broken. but What do I know?? 


I stare at him. He stares at me. 


I decide, 'Forget it. It's after 2 am. You're on your own.'


I wish him luck and go back inside. I flop back in the bed and hopefully I don't snore.


3am. "Comfy. The bird's back."


Swell. Just swell.


This time it's behind a fan and the fireplace.
This time it's got the attention of Gizmo. I guess the dog wanted to pull the feathers off the bird like he'd done to the bunny and its fuzz. (ew)


But darn it. I left my clipboard outside. So I get a cheap (ha!) plastic plate (For a flat surface)


Yes. 


Plate. 


The irony.


I get another plastic container and take Bird back outside.


This time I put him on top of our shrubs. I KNOW Jack can't climb on top of them. So if he's going to get to the bird, he's going to have to work at it.


Realizing that I've just served up a bird on a plate, I watch him to see if I can tell whether or not he's wounded. Jack is purring against my legs. 


I'm guessing he's grateful?
Or hopeful?


I wait a good 10 - 15 minutes. The bird just sits there. 


I decide that at this point, the bird can be cat food. I'm going back to bed. 


I go back inside and put the fan in front of the doggy door. If Bird gets eaten, it won't be inside. 


As I'm resettling myself back in bed, the storms open up and the rains pour out. Poor Bird won't be flying, I guess. But that also means Jack's gonna get wet. 


I figure it serves him right.


The Professor tells me that Jack was found scowling at the back door in the morning. 
The plate was still in place on the shrub and no bird carcass could be found.


I can only hope that the plate was a safe haven and not a serving platter. 


It's given us something to laugh about.
But we all agree... 


bird is not the word we want to hear in the middle of the night.

Looking for Yellow

If you remember (and if you don't that's cool, too) I have a thing for yellow.

It's the color of Hope.

When Toby mentioned looking for yellow after my last post, I started looking....and realized how boring my neighborhood really is. It's mostly green. and flat.

No yellow...and I wasn't sure where to drive to discover yellow... so I decided to discover yellow at home...

So what follows is part of my hunt for yellow...

Golden Delicious Apples - oh, look. Behind the faucet, a yellow scrubber handle

Yellow pages arrived just when I needed a picture of something yellow. Cool.

Pencils!

BananaGrams!! (Yes. I know the fish tank needs to be cleaned. shh. Focus on the yellow)

Yellow Fruit Roll ups

G-man's Rubber band ball, with Yellow rubber bands..

T-Bone

When I told the kids what I was doing - they offered to help. ... They offered TOO much... So I had to be selective...hard to do in this tiny room.

and then there is:

It's an underwater explorer vehicle...

Otherwise known as a yellow submarine...





And one thing I can promise..... whenever we're looking for hope in the midst of a struggle - The Sun really will shine. The waiting isn't easy - but I know it's out there..

What was that???

This...

This right here....


This post is my 600th post.

A moment, please.



Okay. Wow. You'd think I'd have more something deeper, more relevant for this moment in history -- but I don't. Life is life and I tend to find it to be boring to retell.

except for those moments that I hear stuff like, 'Everyone's got an evil laugh!"
that's fun..


So Here's what I SHOULD be doing... picking up and working through the edits on my Story "The Bounty of Grace" ..

Here's my distraction:::

And yes. I took these pictures with a camera because I wasn't sure how to screen shot. This was way easier..

I have 2 level capped characters -- and 4 others waiting to distract me with quests and adventure. It's fun. Especially since we don't watch a lot of TV (and way better than facebook games..just sayin')

It is completely and thoroughly distracting..

And there we go - you get a glimpse of my on-going challenge.
Happy 600th post to me!!

Happy 600th post reading to you!!! (and that's 600 on THIS blog - and doesn't count the old one.) (Speaking of which I should probably figure out how to download those entries..I might need them some day.)

letters and words

I don't know if y'all know the game "BananaGrams". It's a letter game that comes in a really cool banana shaped pouch. There's scoring involved if I'd bother to read the instructions. I haven't yet. I've got such competitive kids, games are not always a fun thing around here. 

I originally bought the game for me. I love word games. I'm the only one in the house that does. I have fond memories of growing up and playing Scrabble with my grandmothers. Crossword puzzles with them both. 

The Professor doesn't like word games. He claims it's because he's a terrible speller. I'm more likely to guess it's a game I can win at. He won't play gin with me because he's a card counter and wins all the time. 

I guess I'm not much of a challenge. 

Anyway - I bought the game for me. I bought it thinking we could have fun just putting words together. it would help with spelling. And reading. 

See? I was thinking.

but I never did it.

One day, I was going to make lunch and I dumped several handfuls of letters on the counter and made some words. Just to see how many words I could make with just the few handfuls of letters.

I came up with:

I know Squeak is misspelled. I was going to say 'squee' but ended up with an extra 'k'.

I wasn't worried about it. Not really. Except that I considered using it as my facebook status. That was worrisome. I blame Zonker on having no extra 's' and cartoons. 


So my words were done - it was time to make lunch. I told Mini-Me, 'here, you try. in the time it takes me to put the pizza rolls on the tray and get them in the oven, see how many words you can make.'


I even gave her all the letters. 

Mini-Me admits that 'nautilis' is the wrong spelling. but neither of us cared.

I wasn't worried about MY words, until I saw hers. After all... fiddle wax brain sex sound really elementary (Or juvenile) compared to THOSE. sheesh. 



My science brained kid showed me up. 



Five minutes. I gave myself five minutes to do better than my first try. (Of course, this time I was using ALL the letters.)

Zoop. in honor of how someone says 'soup'. It's fun to say it that way. Try it.

blink Blink. There it is. all the letters in five minutes with some left over. It's... MORE ... but ... 

I still laugh about 'fiddle wax brain sex' every time. 

Well Equipped

I had this post in the back of my mind .... then today I realized it's February. And I planned this out DAYS ago!!! I'm so surprised that time has gone by so quickly... What I thought was a few days has turned into a few weeks. Gah!!


So today I was looking something up - and remembered - "Oh, Hey! I have a blog!"

One day, J-man told me that he wanted to do something. 
He didn't want to play with his people.
He didn't want to  play any games..

"Well .. what DO you want to do?"

"Well, I dunno." (Shrug) (Sheepish grin)

"You want to clean your room?"
 
"No." 

They never do.

"What I want," he said, "is maybe, I dunno, go outside (Shrug) and swing...and talk about stuff."

"That's what you want to do?"

Big blue eyes look at me, "Yeah." He grins. "You have a mouth and a hiney."

I laughed. 

I'm well equipped.


We went outside in our unseasonably warm weather - and we talked about stuff.

 It was good. 

 
 

There be Dragons....

Okay - so sometimes I remember to throw in the extra stuff that's more fun than it is important. Except that we're still having problems saying our "r's" around here....

It's getting better - but there are times of speed talking that an interpreter is needed.

Or a babel fish.

A tic-tac-toe game with J-man led to Mini-E's insistence that she get to play, too.

Except -- She cheats.

I kid you not.

Of course, she's also not very good at it. She's 5 and I'm still (mostly) smarter than a 5 year old. 

There was only one place to play, and she knew it. That one place for me to put my token and win the game... 

Except.. there was something in the way.

Her finger....and .... another tactic

"You can't play there mom..... It's scary."

She won by cute default.