Busy Bee

For the first time since my son became active in sports (mind you he's 5 and has been playing since he was 3 - yes only 2 years!), I questioned whether or not I'd become one of those families you read about in magazines, ya know the one's where the kids are in all these activities, piano, painting, swimming and the professional opinion of the Dr. Somethingrother, says the parents are doing it wrong, that their kid is TOO active.

This morning I headed to urgent care to confirm I only had a cold and not bronchitis or some other yuckiness going around. (This appointment was not on the calendar!) Meanwhile, my husband and the boys headed to Sears to buy replacement parts for the garage door that broke as I tried to open it - their original morning plan included pancakes & Xbox.

My appointment complete, codeine laced cough syrup in hand, I raced across town to join my husband and sons at the Meet & Greet for Basketball, my oldest wanted to play again. We shook hands with the other parents, exchanged phone numbers, checked out the competition and 30 minutes later left with a white t-shirt - seriously, a white shirt people- announcing my son will be a Clipper this season.

Next was the gotta-go-now trip to Target to purchase snack stuff for the soccer game, yep our 2nd turn at snack. I then rushed home with my Gatorade and granola bars. I cut oranges (purchased at Costco earlier in the week, I did remember we had snack.) and stuffed goody-bags. I then headed to the soccer field to put in my 1.5 hrs of volunteer time at the check- in table.

It was now game time. I was very ready to attend a game, to sit down, do some cheering, and watch my oldest son run his little legs off. But today I didn't attend the game, I sat in the car w/my younger son who wouldn't stay off the field and sit down and watch because he didn't take a nap because my husband was at home trying to fix the garage door, and didn't think a nap was necessary as he had fallen asleep in the car on the way to the Meet & Greet. Whew! Yep, I think I might agree with Dr. Somethingrother that 2 sports at 1 time are too many!

I don't think my son is overwhelmed or stressed out, he is blissfully unaware of the behind the scenes activities. Me on the other hand, yikes I'm gonna go check the overwhelmed & stressed out box on the form! I don't mind the actual playing of the sports and I can drive to practice once a week, that's easily accomplished. It's the "helping" that seem to overwhelm me - yes, just me, not my husband :)

I'm a big fan of "if everyone does a little, no one does a lot". (I stole that saying from my Pastor at Promise Lutheran - shout out!!) After my day today, it helped me see that I should appreciate that I only volunteered for 1.5 hrs today and only today. Thank you to other parents who picked up the other 1.5 hrs each and every other Saturday!

I'm going to continue sports and keep my son active, he was the one who requested the BB mind you. And I'll bring snack on our assigned snack day and I'll work at the booth when I'm needed.... but tonight, I'm a just a bit exhausted from my part in it all. The dishes can wait, my adult beverage will be a double, and tomorrow, being Sunday, will be a day of rest.

Ring, Ring, It's the Room Parent Calling!

I was recently handed the duties of Room Parent for my sons Kindergarten class, guess no one else volunteered so I was handed the duties in October, school started in August.

I had a million questions about how to go about being a Room Parent (notice it now has a gender neutral term, it's no longer Room Mom) so I called up my wise mother, she was a K teacher for 20+ years so she had to know what I should do, never mind the fact that listed at the bottom of the instruction page was the Room Parent Coordinators name, phone number, and email address. I turned to my mom for guidance.

I received the paperwork Monday, Oct. 19 and began to read things over. Job #1 - By Friday, Oct 23 have 3 parents donate cupcakes/brownies for the Harvest Festival. YIKES! I felt silly calling people I'd never met, they hadn't even been notified there was a Room Parent (My mom said that her Room Parents sent out a letter introducing themselves to the class.). I dialed away, starting from the bottom of the list for luck. I got 2 volunteers and only made 3 calls! The 3rd call was to a number that was disconnected - guess that parent REALLY doesn't want to be bothered!! I was feeling good.

Jobs #2, #3 #4. A Room Parent must organize the parties, take pictures of the class throughout the year for the Year Book, and do whatever he/she can to make the teachers job easier. That sounds so simple on the surface but then I began to wonder.... How do I get in touch with the parents who simply wrote "cupcakes" or "anything" on the sign up form (I was given the sign up form that the teacher put out on Back To School Night in Sept along with the list of my duties.) but didn't list their name? How do I get pictures taken throughout the year when I'm only in the class for 3 hrs each Thursday? I already missed the opportunity to take pictures of the bus evacuation drill, the earthquake drill, the jumping/skipping/hopping test. Geesh!

I'm going to put all those questions on hold and focus on the BIG question, how to "make the teachers job easier". REALLY!? Asking how I can help in such an open-ended way is like, well, asking a teacher what you can do help make her job easier! Will the teacher ask me to pick up her dry cleaning? Maybe she'll be nice and simply ask me to sharpen pencils. The possibilities are endless and a bit frightening!!

I will be back in the classroom on Thursday... So I've got some time to build up the courage to ask the how can I help question. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'm thinking positive, I mean I did get 2 parents to donate baked goods! I'm a natural.

Dinner is Served!

I stumbled across these sushi plates recently in the garage, still in their original box. After unpacking the two plates & two soy sauce bowls, I wasn't exactly sure how I would use them in my 'no I wont eat sushi' house.

My first attempt to find a good use for the unique square plates was to put apple slices on them. (Thank you Pampered Chef for your apple cutter!!!!) The slices fit very nicely on the plate and made things look a bit more exciting, I was very pleased with myself.

Lately I've noticed that I serve the same things, ya know kid food that packs some nutritional punch but mostly goes down without protest, and on busy nights after soccer practice, when dinner should have been served 10 minutes ago, it's what I'm looking for. Sadly the meal sometimes even gets put on paper plates, which adds nothing to the look of the meal but does help with clean up! So the other night, when all the dishes were dirty and the paper plate supply had been depleted, I placed the meal on my exotic my square plates. The boys thought they were great, even asked to put ketchup in the soy sauce bowls. I had discovered the hidden potential of Sushi plates!!

Some day the boys might have a palette for Sushi, but for right now, I'm going to continue to use these wonderfully exotic plates to take some of the ho-hum doldrums out of cooking mac-n-cheese and hot dogs yet again.

Cheers to you also finding a unique plate to spice up your evening meal!

Look who friended me on Facebook!

I was thrilled when I got a friend request from my mom. Wohoo, she's made it on Facebook. She's finally figured out how to use her computer for more then just playing solitaire. She can now see the pictures of her grandson the same day, not weeks later when I email them to her. She can also see my status updates, things like, "gonna get an adult beverage and super size it".

I began to wonder why my mom had finally taken the plunge. Was it the great pictures I'd been posting? Was it the need to see some of my high school friends kids, families, etc.? Did she wonder how much I'd been drinking at night? No, the answer I discovered was, she'd been scooped on a story!

Recently my two year old son experienced his first ambulance ride. He's fine now!! He drank Band-Aid brand antibacterial wash which contains lotacaine - can be poisonous when drunk. I didn't know how much he had drank so the nice and extremely calm woman I spoke to at Poison Control, due to the instructions on the bottle indicating if swallowed please call poison control, said my son needed to be transported by ambulance, not by me in our car, to the hospital in case he suffered a seizure or any breathing problems which are the results of drinking latocaine. So, hence the ride to the hospital in the ambulance while I, worried and scared mom and big brother, followed behind in the family car.

There was a phone call to 911, fire trucks came to the house, the ambulance came, even the police stopped by to check on things. There was a call to my husband at work, calls to my husband informing him of our room #, a call to my mom, more phone calls to family members, calls from poison control, lots of calls! My family spent 2.5 hrs at the hospital so my son could be monitored. This was all very exciting and not tragic due to the fact that my son was FINE, totally and completely FINE. During the monitoring period at the hospital my husband used his timely wisely and updated our FB pages with a picture of our son in his hospital bed with the caption "winner of the prize of first of our children to ride in an ambulance." So it was out there, posted on FB for all of our "friends" to read.

Here's where this is all leading.... My mom stopped by her old job Monday morning after the ride in the ambulance event on Sunday. She is still very friendly with ALL the people at her old job since she retired a few years ago. My mom was so anxious to relay the exciting - only because he's fine mind you - story of her grandson's weekend activities. My mom slowly started her story, as only Grandmas can do. But, when the Secretary cut her off mid sentence with the words, "I know" my mom was shaken to her core.(I can only visualize this, I wasn't there.) She already knew the story! What?!?!? How could she know her daughter had to call 911? How could this person know about her Grandson's weekend ride in an ambulance? How was this possible?! Well, the Secretary and I are friends on Facebook.

I believe this is the single event that flung my mom into action to get herself a profile and get her status updates flowing. Now, like I said I'll take the good with the bad and so far it's all good as my mom is very computer illiterate. She hasn't posted a status update or a picture, she's just lurked in on my pictures & updates.

My mom joining and friending me on FB got me thinking... What was the catalyst that made us - meaning me and all the billions of people now on FB - to set up our Facebook Profile? Was it the constant, "yeah, I saw that on his/her FB page." thrown in our face, as what happened with my mom. Was it the, "have you seen ____ went on vacation to____ ?!" Or was it, "What, you aren't on FB?!" Everyone has a breaking point and FB knows it + loves it!

Here's another thought... What will be the breaking point for EXITING Facebook? Will there ever be that point? I don't think MySpace saw FB coming. Is Twitter next for us? Maybe we will all be tweeting soon and FB will be old boring, slow news, kinda like texting kicked emails to the slow lane. I think I'm ready for the next "it" thing, but first, let me update my FB page with my blog post.

Working on #2, #9, #13

Research! Time to head to the library, bust out the dictionary, go old-school and get out an encyclopedia. Well, really I just grabbed my mac book pro and googled "how to write a blog".

A million different results came up. Here are the ones that caught my eye.

"Get about a months worth of material together" from mintblogger.com. I did type out a list of 13 items to blog about, so I guess I did that and didn't even know it! I'm not sure a months worth of items is necessary. What works for me, a piece of paper and a pen. When something comes to mind, write it down. Keep the list handy when you sit down to write, that seems easy-peasy to me.

wikihow.com has "how to write a famous bog: 8 steps". There's a list there, their aren't numbered or anything, but its a list non-the less. The question of lists as a good thing seems to be answered, most every How To blog site had a list. Some use paragraphs, some actual numbers. Guess it's open for interpretation.

Problogger.com has a list of 10 items to get you started, this one numbered 1-10. This site promotes being "creative". Here's a quote, "I emphasize ‘create’ because I think too often as bloggers we ‘PUNCH’ out content as though we’re in a race or under some kind of deadline." That phrase seemed like excellent advice. I'm going to use it as a mini-mantra as I go forward. I have no deadlines except the ones I impose on myself. So I'm going to take the time, do the work, make it worth it for me & my reader(s).

The final How to Step that was put out as a tip, not even listed in the Lists on wikihow.com, in order to get the word out about your blog, you should be reading other blogs and posting comments. Don't just post one word comments that bloggers might view as spam, but a real thought out observation. Basically I'm guessing I can't click the LIKE button on their blog like I can on Facebook. So if I'm going to be successful, I need to start searching for some blogs to read. I have a few I follow, but really I lurk. Here's what I'm hearing, Lurking days are over missy!!

The scene of the crime

Today, I was greeted with a small, tiny, dead bird on my bathroom floor. Buddha, our cat, our indoor cat that NEVER goes outside, snagged himself a birdie for breakfast. I'm the cause, I'm the one who fills the bird feeder each morning!

Books Beware

Today I finished up Julie & Julia. It was a wonderfully entertaining book! I borrowed the book from a friend, as I couldn't find it at any local library and just didn't want to spend the money to buy it as I knew I wanted to see the move and wanted to save my money for a Coke, popcorn and Junior Mints when I went. (shout out to Kathryn, thank you :) Any-hoo. The book was given to me in I-just-came-off-the-store-bookshelf-quality. I even wondered for a minute if my friend had read it, though I know she did. She is anxious for me to finish so we can talk about it. The spine didn't have a crack to it, the pages weren't bent and the cover didn't curl up on the sides. My MIL also gives me books she's read, "trashy novels" that I read in two days. LOVE THEM! They too come to me in excellent shape, all of them!

I've finished reading the book, like I said way back at the beginning of this, and now I must return the book to my friend. I'm looking at the book and I'm wondering what happened to it in the week I had it? I mean the cover is bent in two places and the edges curl up at the sides, the spine is all splintered and some of the pages even curl up a bit. I know there's some greasy finger prints on the inside, I was enjoying the pizza & the book at the same time! And it got wet! I just picked it up and it's wet a bit and so now the pages will curl up with that I got wet look. Wow, I'm not so nice to books when I read them!!

I take the books with me on the go, into the car, they get thrown into my purse, on the seat of the car, sometimes they even land on the floor of the house and get knocked around a bit. I take books to the gym and read as a cycle away, holding on to the book w/sweaty hands. I put books on the icky gym floor to use the weights. I put books through the ringer.

I was going to pose the question, "is this normal?" But really, I have my answer. I'm the one who is unkind to books. I have two other people who read books and then hand them over to me in pristine, bookshelf quality and after I've read them there is NO question they've been read. I use our local library a lot and most of those books are hardback thank goodness or I'm sure they'd come looking for me.

I contemplated learning a new way of reading, maybe even googling the subject of how to read a book without trashing it all to hell. But ya know, that's just not my life, that's not how I deal with things around me. I touch things, I squeeze things, I carry things, I bend and twist things, heck I put holes in perfectly good Tupperware so my son can keep the beetle he just caught! I'm on the go, I'm stuck in the car while my youngest son naps. I'm at the gym trying to work off that "baby weight" from my five year old. I turn to a book as something to help me relax and recharge and yes, escape! If I also had to worry too much about how I treated them all the joy of reading might get sucked away.

So, though I'm not so nice to books, I love them just the same. I guess when it comes to handling books I'm like a boy on the school playground with the girls, I hit you and push you, but deep down I love you.

Traditional?

Last night I took to the huge pile of rubber bark that has been resting on the side of our house, resting patiently waiting to go under our new play structure. Here's a shout out to my friend who let us scoop it up and bring it home with us, as it was not going to be shipped to ID when they moved. Last night I'd had enough of the site of the bark lingering and gathering leaves and just looking ugly that I began hauling it into our back yard, even though we don't have a special something-or-rather that's suppose to go under it, or the special trim to keep it in place.

I grabbed the Mega Blocks wagon and began loading exactly 3 shovel-scoops of rubber bark, then rolled it into the back yard and dumped it under the play structure. Hells bells! Now the back yard looks like a magazine ad for rubber bark. It makes the play structure shine and the whole scene screams, SAFETY FIRST!

I was wicked dirty when I finished, I jumped in the shower and then sat down at the table to enjoy the yummy pork chop dinner my hubby had prepared. I laughed when I sat down. I mean, I was the one who was outside doing manual labor, getting filthy dirty, and sweating like pig. Meanwhile, my hubby was inside making pear vinaigrette salad dressing, baking up some candied pecans and trying out a new recipe for pork chops.

I stay at home and husband works, that statement sounds very traditional on the surface. But there are many jobs that I've taken on in my "core roles" that he as the man of the house would be doing under the term "traditional". For example, I take the trash to the curb, I use the chain saw when the trees need trimming, and I haul rubber bark! I'm not a cook, I can get the food from the can, to the pan, to the table. My husband is the chef in our house, he's the chef and I'm the sou chef. I wonder sometimes do other families have such an abstract concept of "traditional". Is there a new definition of the word? And if I work outside the home, would we still be a traditional family if I did all the manual labor and still didn't cook well?

It works for us and it's been working for the past 9 years so I'm not looking to change things! I would never complain too loudly about taking the trash to the curb, as then I might be expected to make the fabulous meals my husband makes. Here's to non-traditional!!

Is napping a thing of the past?

The afternoon has approached, lunch has been served and cleaned up, and now it is time to begin the nap time routine. It usually consists of my youngest son laying down with me on the couch as we watch HGTV and he slowly nods off. "Usually" is the operative word lately! Today, after 30 minutes of laying down, no nap. My son didn't stop moving even for a second. He wiggled, tossed, turned, stood up, elbowed me, stuck his knee in my gut, and wiggled some more. I was outwitted, I had lost, the window had closed. Today, I gave up and sent my son to his room rather then continue the battle. Now that older brother is in school, the room is available for today's emergency.

Wow, loosing naps at 2 is... so many things...

1. As it relates to me, it's me loosing those few moments of alone time in the middle of the day. Time I use to catch up on emails, check FB, read a book, and time I us to just sit, alone.

2. It means MY napping during the day has come to end. My youngest still doesn't get the concept of sleeping through the night, so some days I'm exhausted by mid-afternoon and need a power nap. Kiss that good-bye.

3. Nap time will now begin to be referred to as "quiet time". Which means I send my son to his room, where he proceeds to play instead of nap. Which also means the room is destroyed and I add another cleaning project to the To Do List.

4. My little boy is growing up. Loosing the last nap is a huge leap out of the toddler world and into the world of a preschooler. I know he's only 2, but he thinks he's ready for the big time!

5. Looking on the bright side, maybe now bedtime will be earlier! Wow, the possibility of BOTH my kids asleep by 8 pm. I'm giddy with excitement just thinking about it!

The biggest question remains, is this for real? Has my 2 year old really dropped his afternoon nap? After a quick search on the parenting sites, I've come to the conclusion it's temporary - insert sad face here. Most children by age 2 have shortened the length of their naps, but not dropped them all together. I also discovered that this transition of no napping could take a while, up to six months. That being said, I think we are going to be getting more non-nap days then nap days, but there will be some nap days - insert happy face here.

Maybe today I can check the nap box, but tomorrow might be a different story. Tomorrow, I'll research things to do to help napping continue - that's if I get the time.

Things I thought of today to Blog about

Today my mind raced with ideas to write about, to start off my blogging life. It started early in the morning as I was reading the paper waiting in line at the drive thru of Starbucks.

Later my mind raced again with ideas and questions and this time I pulled out a pen and paper and began to write them down.

1. Article in the Daily Bulletin about Army recruiting on the rise, due to the economy. I had many thoughts about this, including the selfish thought of gratitude that it's them and not me. The warm fuzzy feeling of living in the USA where I'm free to choose. Yep I could do a list of reasons why that article aroused questions with in me... another time maybe.

2. Lists. Are you suppose to blog in terms of lists? Is that how it's done? Is that the best way? Is there research to support this? Again, for another day.

3. Pondering statements, questions and other personal stuff that comes out only when moms are alone with other moms. Does someone eventually write that stuff down? Should it be me? Would my mom friends be upset if I blogged their "question"?

4. After reading an article in a parenting magazine about teeth healthiness for kids that use a pacifier at age 2; I began wondering, does a sippy cup count as something that kids suck on that can ruin their teeth? Should I look into this as I know I'm going to have to get braces for my boys? What do braces cost? I could do a listing blog here for sure!

5. The many reasons I love reading Cookie Magazine! It could also include the many reasons why I shouldn't read it, along with reasons why it's over the top in and probably does more harm then good to my self esteem when I read it. Here's a list in a list: 4 articles that I read more then once in the Sept 09 issue: The optimist Child, Open Wide, Mommy Warrior, Jenny McCarthy is interviewed - she might get a show through Oprah!!, and Back to Work. Yet another list... should I do this one first?

6. After reading the article in Cookie, Back to Work, I'm even more conflicted about thinking about looking for a job. A list of pro's & con's would work well for a blog here. Gosh, I guess lists are the way to go!

7. Fretting about how to teach my son about stranger danger/don't let people touch under your clothes/and all that yucky stuff about yucky people who are out to hurt kids. Are there books? Websites? Do I ask friends? Would this be a topic that goes on the list of things that moms talk about when their alone with other moms?

8. What are the "normal" levels of anxiety when your oldest goes off to Kindergarten for the first time? This one I'm almost afraid to look in to as I'm seriously afraid of where I might be placed on the list!

9. I'm on #9, so I guess the list thing works. And why do lists go to 10?

10. Blogging. Can this be my job? And Facebook would probably fall into this blog, though I'm sure it could have it's own! The computer, me and the future - endless possibilities.

11. The words a mother ushers into her vocabulary as others leave, "K-chow", "To infinity and beyond!". I could then do another list, which I could probably be #12 on this list, of phrases such as, "No, don't stick______ up your ______!". You could add to this list all the different ways you bribe your kids into doing things. I should probably make that #13, but I'm still keeping them all together as they are the things that get squeezed into a moms brain, while other stuff get's squeezed out. Here's a very good example. I clearly know it's called a restroom, but still my mouth blurts out potty quicker then I can correct it!

12. I could fill up a whole blog on weight, food, too much weight, too much food - enough said there!

13. Now where do I start?!

Yep, I'm quitting at lucky #13. This is where my list ends for today as I now feel my mind is free of these thoughts & ideas. They are on paper, online, I own them now as I've written them down. I can now begin a list!