The Break Up

Blogger, I will always be grateful for all you taught me. You were my first blogging experience, but I'm ready to move on. It's not you, it's me. I need things to work consistently, even if they are free, and you just aren't that way. Who am I to try to change you? I'm leaving.

Will you please tell my visitors that I can be found at my new home on Blogsome? There's an easy link to it right here. Karli from Mom on a Wire has designed the place so beautifully and I know I will be comfortable there for a long time. I'm going to leave my archives with you, though, so I can visit every once in a while and we can remember all the good times we had together. It's just too much to take with me.

So, so long, Blogger. I know you will find someone else who will love you just the way you are.

Two's Fears

^{Thanks to Sherry at Yellow Rose's Garden for the TT graphic.}
Things my children have been afraid of when they were two years old:
1. Wind or slight breezes (Cutie)
2. Trees--especially Christmas trees (Bud)
3. Flies in the house (Cutie)
4. Our dog, Traveler, or any other dog (Cutie)
5. Walking barefoot on the grass (Bud)
6. The Red Robin and other mascots (Cutie)
7. The dark (all of them--me too)
8. Lint--it looks like spiders (Cutie)
9. Bathtub water, especially if there's suds in it (Bud--he takes showers now)
10. Bowel movements (Ant and Bud had to rely on Exlax, the yummy chocolate medicine)
11. Airplane noises--doesn't help that we live five or so miles from an airport. (Ant and Cutie)
12. Boogers (Bud still can't blow his nose)
13. Mom checking the blogs--my Bloglines list is long, but I love these people. (Cutie)

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Works for Me so far

I think I mentioned before about reading the book Housekeeping with Kids. It's a great book so far. I think I've only read about 10 pages, but I already started a cleaning program with my kids. Everyone has a job to do.

Monday - Garbage
Ant-Separate recycling and prepare it for pick-up.
Bud-Take out all the little trash bags in bathrooms, bedrooms, office and laundry room and put in the kitchen garbage bag.
Cutie-Replace all the little trash bags Bud took out.
Me-Take out the kitchen garbage and help Bud & Cutie

Tuesday - Bathrooms
Ant-Clean toilet surfaces in guest and kids baths.
Bud-Wipe down sinks and counters
Cutie-Wash mirrors
Me-Do all of it in my bathroom and help Bud and Cutie and inspect Ant's job.

Wednesday - Bedrooms
Ant-Put away books, trading cards, and stuffed animals and put dirty clothes in laundry room.
Bud-Put away the rest of the toys (he shares a room w/ Ant) and put dirty clothes in laundry room
Cutie-Clean up toys
Me-Help Bud and Cutie and work on my room if there's time :)

Thursday - Dust & Vacuum
Ant-Dust an area of mom's choosing.
Bud-Vacuum room and hallway
Cutie-Vacuum room
Me-Help Cutie, vacuum the rest of the house.

Friday - Laundry
Ant-Bring down dirty clothes, put away his own clean clothes (he can decide to fold them or not)
Bud-Same as Ant
Cutie-Help mom fold and put away clothes
Mom-Try and stay on top of the mountain.

Saturday - Misc.
Ant-Pick up dog poop. If all the week's jobs are done he can earn some money doing extra chores.
Bud-Misc.
Cutie-Misc.
Me-Get everything ready for Sunday

Sunday - Day of Rest

The motivation to do their jobs is so they can play with friends and have some Playstation/Computer time each day. Ant's pretty independent and does his jobs first thing without help. Since Bud and Cutie still want my help, they need to wait until I can get to it so they can play. Hopefully, if I stall, that will motivate them to be more independent in the future.

Vvrrooooomm!!!

We purchased the scooter. This is a Bajaj Chetak "Classic Styling on Modern Machinery" in Metallic Jade. Dh loves retro-looking things and this scooter suits him well. It has manual transmission, and is a little tricky to drive--especially if you've never driven a motorcycle or scooter before, like me. A few hours after we got it home, I was in the cul-de-sac trying it out. My Harley-driving neighbor came outside to watch and made me more nervous.

I got the bike going ok, but when it came time to stop I had some difficulty using both the foot and hand breaks and tipped the bike over on it's side--twice. I scratched the back of the rear-view mirror pretty well. Dh was really good about not having a cow over it. Oh, yeah, and I was o.k. too--there's just a big welt on my shin. I couldn't let it end that way, though. I had to go back out there and master it, and that's just what I did--twice. And now I'm satisfied.

P.S. A big change is coming in July. I just know you're going to love it!

Blockage

I think I have a brain cloud or it's just too hot to think. I'll try again tomorrow.

In case you had doubts...

I kid you not.




Bud is very proud of his shield. It did have some nice feathers on the top and bottom, but Cutie pulled them off as soon as it was brought into the house. It has been very effective at blocking all the light sabre and sword attacks.

A Few More Updates

My sister's local paper ran a story today about my brother-in-law's drug addiction, accidental overdose, and death. They interviewed his parents for it, but the story was printed without notifying my sister--his wife. Imagine waking up and finding a story about the husband you buried a week ago on the front page of the paper! That's classy, dumb newspaper people.

Art camp has been a lot better after Monday's longest paper chain. The boys have painted a color wheel, made parts of a mural, painted shields with a crest, and had lots of fun. We can sign off that color wheel project in Ant's Wolf Cub Scout book--Bonus! The teacher has really helped Bud who is the youngest member of the class, and, admittedly, probably should not have attended this year. But I'm glad he did. When they made the crest, Bud put a big B in the background, and then put CTR on top of it. The teacher said "I don't know why he chose those letters, they're not his initials." I told him they stand for Choose The Right--a phrase from church, and I'm pleasantly suprised because I didn't think he was absorbing much from there. He's a lot brighter than he lets on.

Speaking of Bud, it's his birthday. Five years ago I looked out the hospital window and saw several hot-air balloons floating in the sky while I was in labor. The balloons were up in the sky again today.

Dh's 1980s Mercedes just received a new fuel pump and I think we're ready to sell it and get a scooter--no, not the Razor kind, the motorized kind. It would save a ton of gas money. I can't wait to learn to ride it. Although, I don't know what Dh is going to do for transportation in the winter. Good thing his work is just a few miles away.

My Mom--Let's Get a Little Personal

Thirteen things about my mom.
1. A while ago,my mother and I were looking at some pictures of her when she was a little girl. I would love to post some of them, but she won't allow it. She looked a lot like the picutes I've seen of Anne Frank on the covers of her published diary. Although my mom didn't have to endure all Anne had to endure, she still had a pretty hard life.

2. Mom grew up in the South and everyone in the family has a nickname. Her nickname is Nanno, her dad's was Bud (like my son), her uncle's is Ninny, and she has a cousin who's Bubba--Just to name a few.

3. I'm not sure how old she was when her parents divorced, but I assume she was between 4 and 9. My grandfather was an alcoholic. My grandmother contracted tuberculosis and was sent to live in a sanitarium where she could only talk to my mom and her older sister through an open window as they stood outside. She died at the age of 33 when mom was 10 years old.

4. Because her father was alcoholic, mom and her sister went to live with her aunt, Granny. Granny was married, but separated from her husband (Ninny), so she was basically a single mom of her own two boys and now to her nieces. Mom didn't have much (if any) contact with her father (Granny didn't allow it) until our family visited him when I was a young girl. They were able to built a bit of a relationship until he died a few years later.

5. I've been told stories of how crazy and abusive things were at Granny's house.

6. It was a happy day when mom left to go across the country for college. Sometime within her freshman year, my mom met my dad, fell in love, started failing, and then quit college. She was going to study law.

7. Mom and Dad were married when she was 19 and became pregnant with a honeymoon wedding night baby. They had six children (seven pregnancies) within 15 years.

8. Even though Mom improved upon the environment in which she grew up, she was a little stressed out and depressed and sick and tired, but her home was always spotless.

9. She always found joy serving at church in various ways. She loved going out to visit the other women from church, and always came back so happy and refreshed. This is something I've picked up from her.

10. Shortly after I moved out to go to college, mom started getting some help psychologically. She was prescribed some medication that lifted her spirits a bit.

11. Around that same time, Mom was diagnosed with Hepatitis C--which would explain the sick and tiredness. She did a year-long series of shots of chemo that made her lose several pounds.

12. She's just been diagnosed with diabetes.

13. I love my mom. She has helped me through my darkness of depression in various ways: showing me by example that it's okay to get professional help, taking care of my children or my house when I just couldn't, and listening to my ramblings with empathy. I hope I can be at least half the mom she is.

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Arts and Crafts, or Craps?

Ant and Bud attended their first day of Art Camp today. When I signed them up, I had visions of them sketching bowls of fruit, painting Picassos, making great ash trays on the pottery wheel. What did they do? They made the longest paper chain I have ever seen. Three hours of cutting, wrapping, and stapling. No wonder Bud was bouncing off the walls when I came to pick them up.

I talked to the teacher and he said that this activity was to help the children get to know each other and work together while creating something. Huh. Ant knew five of the other eight children there (one was his brother and two were his cousins).

I admit that I have an aversion to this stuff I call "arts and craps". Although I know it's supposed to help build motor skills, etc., etc., I don't like the mess--the glitter that sticks to everything but the project, and glue smeared all over, and the chunks of playdough in the carpet, the broken crayons and their wrappers, the dried-out markers, the rainbow of paint all over my table, the little scraps of paper littering the floor. So when the opportunity came to have my kids go somewhere else to get their art fix, I was happy to sign them up.

But a paper chain? It has to get better.

What are the best and worst art projects that your children have brought home from school or an activity?

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Tackle it Tuesday--The Fridge is Done

First, an update. My brother-in-law's funeral is Thursday in Utah. Dh is staying home with Bud and Cutie, so Ant and I can go. Kimberly has a lot of family and friends with her.

Second, Karli from Mom on a Wire has been working on a new template for me on Blogsome. It looks awesome--she's fabulous. I won't be making my move over there just yet, but soon.

^{Click here to see other Tackle-It-Tuesday participants listed at Janice's site.}I finally got to the refrigerator today.
I threw away two almost-empty ketchup bottles, a spaghetti sauce jar, honey mustard that may still be good but I don't want to risk it, some asparagus (don't ever buy it from Costco unless your family loves it and wants to eat it daily), a bag of decomposing spinach, and some aging onions. I took out the old leftovers and here they sit:
That'll be my next thing to tackle today. While I was wiping out the fridge, I stumbled over and spilled the bowl of hot soapy water on the floor. So the floor got a nice washing--even underneath the range. While I was on the floor doing that, I noticed all the little handprints and splashes all over the front of the dishwasher and the lower cabinets so that was cleaned up too. Whew! So now I'm off to get dressed for the day at 3:20 p.m.

Tragedy

This is a call for prayers for my sister Kimberly and her baby and the family of their husband/father/son/brother who died last night from a drug overdose at the age of 25. Kimberly had been separated from her husband to protect herself and their child as he had been on a self-destructive path for a while. I am not implying that he meant to commit suicide, he's cheated death before. He was released from a month-long drug rehab last weekend.

Please understand, I am not judging him, I have experienced a small degree of the anguish that must have enveloped him. You can imagine the mix of emotions shock, sorrow, confusion, and sadly--even relief. One of my first thoughts was a prayer "Oh, God, please have mercy on his soul." Then I thought of the family left behind with whatever hope they had for recovery now shattered, and I pray "Oh, God, please give them peace."

When I told my children that their uncle died, Bud asked, "Is Jesus healing him?" (wondering if he will be resurrected in a few days). No, he won't be resurrected just yet, but yes, Jesus is healing him and Jesus will heal his family too. The atonement is the glue that will stick those pieces of shattered hope back together.

Kimberly reads this blog daily, so any comforting words you may have will be appreciated.

Restaurant Review Saturday & Recipe Request

We've eaten out or gone through the drive-thru a lot within the last two weeks. Things got busy, I got sidetracked or lazy, and I didn't feel like cooking. So, here's the highlights of the places we visited.

KFC/A&W - (Drive Thru) Whoever heard of A&W running out of rootbeer? Actually, they ran out of the carbonation for the plain rootbeer, but we could have diet if we wanted. Um, no thanks. We ordered a bucket of 12 chicken strips and then another 3-strip meal. They said they put the 3 extra strips in the bucket. Well, I counted them when I got home and there were only 13 strips in the bucket. I didn't do anything about it, until now.

McGrath's Fish House - (Dine In)My sister works at one of these, so I need to be careful what I say. I got the shrimp platter. I used to love their coconut shrimp until they stopped butterflying them. It was a pretty messy cook job as some of the shrimp were not peeled all the way before they were dipped in the batter and fried. Dh got the mahi-mahi and inhaled it. He was completely satisfied.

Wendy's - (Drive Thru) Dave would be so disappointed. I really like Wendy's food, but they have one messed up system since our orders are wrong 85 percent of the time. It's a problem in more than just one store. This time they remembered to not put the mayo on the spicy chicken sandwich (I made sure of that when I was at the window), but they forgot to give us our extra order of large fries. Also, why do they ask you what kind of sauce you want with your nuggets if they aren't going to put it in the bag? I called the store to complain and asked dh to stop by after work to get the missing parts of the order. Seriously, Wendy's, you really need a new system. E-mail me if you want some guidance.

Local Mexican Restaurant - (Dine In) I liked my taco salad. Dh ordered a taco dinner (2 tacos for $8-9!) and was still really hungry after he ate it all. He told the waiter he didn't want sour cream, but they put a big blob on his plate anyway. I'm surprised he didn't send the whole plate back to the kitchen. (Remember, he's my sauce-a-phobic guy.) We took the kids to this place because you can get a free kids meal with each purchase of a regular meal on Mondays. However, their drinks aren't free. We ordered a strawberry, a raspberry, a plain lemonade for the kids. We got the strawberry and raspberry lemonades and a Sprite. Obviously this waiter has a lot on his mind. He charged us $2.50 for those drinks and never checked back for refills. Dh talked with a manager and he took $5 off the bill. I learned later that the waiter didn't get a tip.

Our Favorite Local Chinese Restaurant - (Take Out) The boys ate pizza for dinner over at a friend's house, so I ordered some slightly-spicy orange chicken and beef lo mein for dh, Cutie, and myself. Yum! We order from this place at least once a month.

As I write this review I see that we spent way too much on dining out these last few weeks. I need to get back into the cooking mood. What are your favorite recipes of non-creamy (no mayo or sour cream) dishes? Please share them with us.

I didn't get it done, but I will

So I was going to do the Tackle it Tuesday, but only got around to taking a "before" picture.
I'll get the "after" picture done tomorrow, or the next day.

Today I worked in my garden, pulling out two-foot-high weeds and planting some tomato and green pepper plants. I'm going to try Neighbor Jane Payne's garden tip this week and spread newspaper and grass clippings in between the rows as weed control.

So now my body is aching all over--even my fingers are sensitive to typing. I'm going to take some ibuprofen and get some rest. I have a mountain of laundry to tackle tomorrow; oh, and that refrigerator too. I don't think I'll be able to do the Thursday 13 this week.

There's so much I want to tell you

I've been catching up after a busy and fun weekend.

Saturday was such a big day for Ant. He had most of his extended family come to the church to support him as he was baptized by his father. After he and dh changed into dry clothes, the family and our bishop met in the cultural hall where Ant was confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and given the Gift of the Holy Ghost by his father.

Ant was excited to make this commitment to follow Jesus Christ. It's a rite of passage, really. He can now join us in fasting, if he chooses, for two meals one Sunday each month. Although he hardly made it five minutes past breakfast time this past Fast Sunday, we had a great talk about how to fast for a purpose and with a prayer in his heart so he doesn't feel like he's just starving himself. He received his own scriptures and marking pencils and has already marked a few passages he likes. He also was given a journal to write down his feelings about his special day.

We invited all the family to come to our home for ice cream sundaes after the baptismal service. Dh had made some vanilla ice cream and we had some bananas, mini M&Ms, chocolate & mint sprinkles, rainbow sprinkles, caramel, strawberry syrup, chocolate fudge topping, and chopped nuts. I didn't even think to buy some whipped cream and maraschino cherries, that would have been even better. I couldn't get enough of the chocolate fudge--I could eat a jar of that stuff if I let myself. In fact, I may just go get a spoonful right now....

In my last post, someone asked how do I know my son is ready to be baptized? I just do, I guess. We have taught Ant about Jesus since he was a baby and he knows and loves the Lord. It's a tradition and a commandment in our church that children are accountable and should be baptized at 8. I understand in some other christian churches, the First Communion or Confirmation is a big step for their children and is encouraged and celebrated in a similar way. I was baptized at 8. My mother was 10 when she was baptized with her family. Dh was 24 when he made that covenant after being introduced to the gospel. I'm going to put the question up to you other moms. How do you know your child is ready to take a big committal step like that in their life?

Date Night

All empathy to Taffi who guessed the secret substance: Gogurt--Watermelon Meltdown neon green. Something so bright can't be good for you.

Went to Ant's school spring concert last night. They had some good songs that were entertaining. My favorite part was at the end when the 5th, 6th, and 7th graders played rhythms on bright orange buckets borrowed from Home Depot in a sort of mini-Stomp style. It's the teacher's way of teaching music theory. The classes had to come up with their own rhythms and then play them by their assigned letter--the teacher would say a or b or c and the class would switch to the corresponding rhythm. I loved it when the students got their parents to come up and try it. I told Ant that when he's in 5th grade, I would love it if he would drag me up there (I played the snare and bass drums in my 7th grade band). I wonder if Home Depot could manage to donate their 60-70 buckets since the classes had to practice their routines on a flat white board until just about a week before the performance. That would be so nice and the school parents and staff would be so grateful and the company would be advertised everytime the children performed on the buckets--we could probably share them with another school who uses the same teacher.

Terry asked me to go out on a date with him tonight so I may be able to do the Restaurant Review tomorrow. I know you've missed it. :)

I decided not to babysit that little 3-yr-old boy anymore. He was over Wednesday and yesterday and then his mom had the day off today. He's a great kid, no trouble at all, but there's a reason my husband and I chose to have just 3 children. I was so stressed just thinking about the job that I got a headache. It went away after I called up his mom and told her it wouldn't work out. She was going to check into a church preschool/daycare anyway, so it wasn't a big deal. I really admire you angels who can open your homes and hearts to other people's children all day every day.

Thanks for your suggestions about entertaining the family after Ant's baptism and confirmation tomorrow. I think we will just have dessert--homemade ice cream with a choice of toppings like M&Ms or Reeses or gummy bears. We just need to go buy an ice cream maker.

Guess the Substance

If you can guess what substance has been flung all over my great room, I will give you my empathy, for you must have a Cutie at your house that loves to make gloppy messes too. Two days ago it was a jar of vaseline spread all over the couch, and now this: