Giving Tree and rambling about "stuff"

So I'm reading over the Spartan newsletter (our elementary school) when I came across a little blurb about the "Giving Tree". I thought to myself, "Oh cool, maybe we can give something...that was a good book..." I read on to see what they would be collecting...money...coats....new toys all wrapped up...surely we could give something. What I read was a reality check for me. Our school was not going to be collecting to GIVE. They would be filling out forms to RECEIVE. Apparently another local elementary school "adopts" our school during the Christmas season and they provide gifts to all the children attending the school as well as their siblings.



Now, I don't plan on filling out a form. It's just that I am not usually on the receiving end, other than with our parents. It has been a real eye opener for us this past 2 months as we've moved into our first home and Jim has lost his job. We are literally living day by day. I have no idea how our bills are going to be paid or our mortgage for that matter. Jim is doing some side jobs but it's not a full time job with benefits.



In a strange way I am experiencing a sense of Freedom because there are some things that we simply cannot do. For instance...a man came to the door selling magazines, normally we would be suckered into buying one because we can't say no, or we are trying not to be rude or whatever. But now, it's just plain and simple....We have NO money, sorry, can't help ya, good luck at the next house, buh-bye! Some things aren't as pleasant like telling a kid they can't do something their friends are doing because we can't afford it. But there is also a relief, I don't have to buy some kid I've never met a present or waste my gas driving to some bounce house place 20 miles away. I'm probably not explaining this how I really mean it. So I'll just say that it has been nice to not feel guilty about not doing everything, buying everything, etc... there's no pretending or making up excuses. It is what it is and I can be myself. Such Freedom!! (breathe in deep, exhale and the shoulders relax)



I've also been cleaning out our stuff. I've been letting go of A LOT! Today I went through our gazillion containers of toys. Not only did I let go of some "good" toys, I also let go of my perfectionism. No longer is each type of toy in it's own container. I didn't even count to make sure all the pieces to things were there. I even got rid of some playsets....but kept a few pieces! (i.e. we got rid of a pirate ship but kept the pirates) I let go of stuff that I've had since I was a kid...classic stuff...remember when weebles were like an inch or so big? Now they are like 3 inches! Did you have one of these?

I have been hanging on to things, because I know as soon as I let them go I'm gonna need 'em and I sure as heck don't want to spend money on something I already had! BUT I am on the road to Freedom! I am letting go! It helps when the kids have broken, chewed on or destroyed the stuff too...like the items in this picture. It's hard to tell, but, part of Leonardo's bandanna has been chewed off, the Hunchback of Notre Dame view master disc is shaped like a taco, Capt. Hook has lost part of his sword, the shark's tail fin has been chewed off, the knight's sword has been chewed off, Little John is holding a key...that has been chewed up, Tinkerbell's feet have been chewed off, Peter Pan's sword is chewed up and yet another Jerome Bettus has been injured in our home. Poor Jerome has lost a leg!

These are only a few items found in a miscellaneous box this afternoon, I can't imagine how many more toys have been sacrificed to the great tooth god in my son's mouth. ho-hum. Guess it's time to say Buh-Bye to these toys.

I gotta go to bed, church starts in like 6 hours!

Pics

Isaac trying out the skate ramp with his Little Tikes Scooter!

Free Transportation to school!

Zack running Cross Country

The poor-man's Marimba!

SNL Enjoy the Ozz

Relient K -

Only You LORD

I expected her call today, but the phone never rang. It was her idea in the first place. It was her who made the plan. But the phone never rang. I could have called her, but I couldn't face the rejection. Something could've come up....

BITTERNESS sets in, eating away at the HOPE.

How long Oh LORD have I waited? Must my heart ache forever?

Only You Lord.

Only You can bring Peace to my tormented mind.
Only You can bring Comfort to my anguished soul.
Only You can bring Joy to my wretched lips.

But will You?

ZEKE

just some ramblings

My dad came over today. He hung out for several hours. He helped put together the playhouse, moved some dirt, helped put up the swing set...mostly sat and talked. Just spent time with us. He's a different dad than years before. Relationship raised from the dead, better than ever expected.

Women of Faith Conference in San Jose is next week. I love these women. My mom and I have been going for so many years it feels like we know each of them. Lucy. Marilyn. Thelma. Patsy. Sheila. Nicole. Barbara, who died this last July. In fact, I'm met some of them in person and they've shared so many personal stories at the conferences and I've read their books and get their e-mails....I do know them more than I know most of my extended family and most of my friends.
With family and friends you can see each other for months, even years, and only know their favorite football team, the names of their kids and whether they like turkey or not...just the facts....but do you really know them?
It's good to have some relationships that stay on the surface. The ones that you can talk about the latest TV show or gripe about being too busy, or where you ate out last week etc... but it's really good to have someone...a few someones...that you can go deeper with. Talk about your fears. Your struggles. Your joys. Share what God is doing in your life...or your struggle to believe.
Someone who will really listen, give you their last Kleenex and their shoulder, and who will not just try to "fix it".
Someone who, though they may not of experienced the same thing will still try to understand your feelings...and not tell you how you should be feeling.
Someone who will speak the truth in love...no matter how difficult...a friend to lift you up with encouraging words. Pray for you. Call you, because they know you and how hard it is for you to pick up the phone and call them when you need them(whether it makes sense or not).
Someone that you can return all these things to when they need them.
Others seem to find these friends easier than I do. I've not had much "luck".
A friend for a season, but not a best friend for life. I guess that's because Jesus wants that position. I've taken that relationship for granted. HE is always there and HE understands and HE has the power to help.
But will HE? That is my hang up. God can....But will HE choose to?

GO STEELERS!!

GO

STEELERS!!

Another venting about "Stuff"

Batman's been taken down by a girl! Though I'm thinking he might be able to break out of the scrunchie hand-cuffs.

Nothing is safe in our home. If you can pour, spray, scoop, dump or squeeze something out of it....it will be done.

This has been going on for some time now. Zack was 2 1/2 but Naissa started at 18 months! Right about the time Zack started to slow down on his creative destructiveness, Naissa took over. You might think our kids aren't supervised but crazy things happen in the blink of an eye. Now, I will take responsibility for leaving the shampoo in the shower and the toothpaste in the bathroom drawer where the kids can reach them. I will even take responsibility for keeping the juice in the fridge and the cat food in the cat bowl, not to mention I am responsible for spending $100 on a locked cabinet where I have been known to keep scissors, tape, glue, markers and such (locked up with the key hidden) so I have played my part in my kids getting into stuff. I mean, why play with the boxes of expensive store bought toys when you can fingerpaint with mom's lotion she keeps in her closet, or the shoestrings that we like to keep in our shoes...in our closet. No longer can they just dress and comb barbies hair. They want to use my make up and permanent markers to get the barbies ready to go out with Batman and the Ninja Turtles. (Of course I can hardly blame them, I used to give my Charlie's Angels "real" battle wounds, scars...made by jabbing my pencil down their legs)

Of course I was being sarcastic but can't we have nice things too? Why is it that my kids find and dump my Bath & Body lotion and not the stinky lotion from the dollar store? The stinky cheap stuff could be left on the counter and they go on a scavenger hunt to find my good expensive stuff so they can squeeze it all out in the toilet!

Enough venting.

For the Love of...PUZZLES (broken toys and missing dirt)

My son Isaac LOVES puzzles. He can spend a couple of hours a day putting puzzles together. We put them together differently. I like to put the edges together first. Isaac likes to start with two pieces and work his way across. He doesn't even look at the picture on the box! Which is a good thing because puzzle boxes don't survive long here, we have most of the 24 piece puzzles marked in ziploc bags! It takes up less space too. When he finished one of the puzzles I told him, "You're really good at those puzzles" He told me, "I AM Mom, I AM"

So as I was looking for Isaac's picture I found this one. A couple weeks ago as we were cleaning out, and I kept finding all these chewed up Legos and such, but since we have an abundance of Legos it was no big deal to just throw them away. Then I found these pieces of my (yes mine) Victorian Playmobil House and other sets. I was ticked! These are only a couple of the pieces I found that day. Broken table and chairs, chewed up ski pole, broken cooking pot, chewed up Robin Hood hair, and the girl's FOOT has been chewed off!! What is the deal with chewing up the toys? One of my kids has some oral fixation with plastic. Though it's not just chewing things up, it's also taking things apart or just breaking them.

Here is Jerome Bettus of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Poor guy has been decapitated and had a pin stuck up his neck. Maybe they were trying to make him a pencil topper? Flash over there no longer can hear danger approaching because his lightening ears have been chewed off!

Geez! So do you think they are just CURIOUS, BORED or just plain DESTRUCTIVE??

My dad came by today to fix a sprinkler that had been leaking out into the street. While he was here, I had him move the big heavy Jade plant to the front porch. It was getting way too much sun and starting to look ill. He also brought over some stepping stones and a garden wheelbarrow and one of those things you wrap your hose around to keep it neat and his blower so we can blow out the saw dust and insulation from our garage. Right on dad!

The little ones have been digging this hole in the backyard, they're all proud of it too. The only thing is they've dug it down to the sprinkler pipes and dispersed the dirt all over the backyard, so now there's no dirt to fill the hole back up! They've tried filling it with Polly Pockets and stacking cups but that wasn't good enough for mom. You can see where they've piled some of the dirt though...there's dirt spread across each of the yard toys I hosed off the other day, as well as across the lawn and on the patio and on a chair. Just none anywhere near the hole!

It gets frustrating. But then Pure Joy comes running down the hall singing, "la la la la....la...la...Can't Touch This!" and it makes it all worth while!!

LOL!!

You are God alone

This song came to mind tonight, as I was "wrestling". We sing it at church whenever I seem to be going through something I don't think I will survive. Of course I always do, survive that is. I think God knows I need to be reminded quite often that He is God alone. He is not like those that He created, He is just and fair. He is faithful. He is mighty. He cares about the details of my life. It matters to Him, when I am hurting. He will not strike me down for questioning Him. I am reminded of Lucy in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when she asked if Aslan was "Safe". She was told, Safe? No. But He is GOOD. The wrath of God is a frightening thing, but the Love of God....there is comfort and peace in knowing that He loves me and that He gave up His Son for me, and that His Son willing died for me. He deserves nothing less than all my worship and praise!


I think it's sang/written by Phillips, Craig and Dean but I really don't know for sure, sorry.


You Are God Alone

You are not a god created by human hands
You are not a god dependant on any mortal man
You are not a god in need of anything we can give
By Your plan, that’s just the way it is

You are God alone from before time began
You were on Your throne
Your are God alone
And right now in the good times and bad
You are on Your throne
You are God alone

You’re the only God whose power none can contend
You’re the only God whose name and praise will never end
You’re the only God who’s worthy of everything we can give
You are God and that’s just the way it is

60's dance and new Quilts

My Precious Green Gem is at a school dance right now. It's a 60's theme for junior highers. It's not her first dance, she went to the D.A.R.E. dance in the Spring. But thankfully at this age, most of the kids go to just hang out with their friends...not to actually "dance" with the opposite sex.
So earlier she was on a quest for 60's clothes to wear, as if we had a plethora of them in our closet. I keep telling her that weren't born until 1970 but it wasn't sinking in! lol! Now....if it were an 80's dance....she might actually be able to find something hiding in the back...like dad's old Journey shirts or mom's "rad" jewelry. I told her that many of the things that were worn "back in the day" have already come back around, so go look in her own closet, duh!

Aunt Cathy from Tehachapi, brought my kids new quilts today, that she made, probably in a day or two! They are super cute! My kids love them. Isaac has kept his on the floor in the family room and has played on it and curled up underneath it and tumbled across it with his giant batman pillow....all day. The boy's quilts have guys on mountain bikes on it but Isaac calls them motorcycles. The girls were so excited and surprised Aunt Cathy remembered that Jade likes purple and Naissa likes pink! My mom came by later and Pure Joy was chattering away about how hers was pink and Jade's was purple just like their room and on and on. It was cute! I'll have to make sure Zack saw that he had one too, he came home from school and was basically playing up and down the street the rest of the day. I had to go get him and help him carry his ramp home at 6:45pm. But I'm sooooo happy there are kids his age on the street. We prayed that he would make some new friends when we moved....God has answered that! There's a guy a couple house down, who is about 21 years old, who was out there teaching some of the 9-10 year old boys how to do some skateboard tricks. Cool. With our yard sale last week, we got to meet several of our neighbors. So far I like them. :)

Rain Rain Go Away

Come Again Another Day

Naissa and Isaac want to play

Rain Rain Go Away

My husband has locked himself out several times with the new locks on the doors. You can open them from the inside but unless you turn the little knob, they remain locked. So if you walk out and the door closes behind you....you'll be tapping on my window begging for me to let you in! Not the best locks to have, especially with the little ones because they can get out too easily.

So I'm lying in bed this morning enjoying every moment the snooze button is allowing me, when I heard my Precious Green Gem yell, "Mom! Help! I'm locked in the garage!" Not knowing how long she'd actually been out there I hurried to let her in. When I opened the door she was standing there in only a towel!! lol!

Just another day

I found my camera! It's been missing for a couple of weeks. I've missed out on a great picture of my son's fat, gashed and bruised lip, the many messes made by Hurricane Joy (aka Pure Joy) as well as the daily joys of life with my kids. I'm so happy I found my camera! I took two pictures tonight. The first was of my Precious Green Gem's Math homework. It had a nice circular design drawn on it with brown crayon. Next to it lay another math page with similar brown drawings but this one was also ripped up the middle and hanging on like a loose tooth. I'll give you one guess at who was responsible.

The other picture was of my boys. They were both on the bottom bunk and the older one was reading a book to the younger one. I've needed more of these moments lately.

I spent most of my day cleaning out the many boxes all over our back patio. My youngest son brought out his "Cars" chair and fell asleep watching me. I went in the house for a moment and when I walked out I caught Hurricane Joy leaning over her sleeping brother. "Don't wake him up" I said quickly. "I'm not" she said sheepishly. "Then what are you doing?" I asked. She turned around and in her hand was a smooshed up Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. I looked at my son and saw that he had brown smudges up and down his leg. Knowing the answer I asked, "Did you stamp chocolate on your brothers leg?" Proudly she replied, "YES!" (followed by giggles)

I believe she has surpassed her older brother, "The one whom God has remembered", he held the title, "Creatively Destructive" for quite some time but she has stolen the title!

That's why it is so important for me to be able to clean out our home! We have way too much stuff. I have recently been checking out www.flylady.net and getting ideas and encouragement for cleaning out and organizing my home. I've got a L O N G way to go! I love her definition of CHAOS. "Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome".

My problem is that I need someone to watch my kids while I spend the 15 minutes rescuing a room or doing a 27 fling boogie. Otherwise I've got 13 new messes to clean up. And you do these several times a day! Can you imagine the "FUN" Hurricane Joy would have while I tried to clean something up. I try to save the TV for times I really need it. That's how I get a shower in the mornings. Curious George or Clifford. It's gotta stay new or it won't hold their attention and they'll make messes. And it can't be Big Big World....if that show comes on while I'm in the shower, I will surely have a mess to clean up! That show bores them.

So anyway, I've got to get things cleaned out. My kids have too much stuff and every time I try to get rid of something they whine, "But it's my favorite _____!" or "But so & so gave this to me"! Their rooms are such messes it drives me crazy. I think it's the clothes all over the floor that drives me crazy! Worst though is the books I find half opened with the pages getting scrunched! THAT makes me crazy!

Today my Precious Green Gem went to school without her swimsuit for PE and lost her points for the day. She also called me at lunch to see if I would drop what I was doing, put my son in the car seat and drive 15 minutes to her school, get my son out of his car seat and take the binder to her class, then put my son back into the car and drive another 15 minutes home and hope that I still have the motivation to continue cleaning out what I was working on. I said, "No." Of course it's after the phone gets hung up that the guilty feelings start rising.

(She made it through without her binder just fine, by the way)

Thank God for Clifford

Yes, I am using the TV to babysit my son. I'm in the same room but I just needed time to sort through e-mails and do a little online banking and such without having to stop and read and color and tie batman's cape on (again) or clean up Popsicle mess or anything else.

Pure Joy is at Kindergarten so it's like down time for me. I was not careful in choosing my battles this morning and I got a mouthful of 5 year old attitude. After arguing (mistake on my part) with her about the dress code at school and how she couldn't wear her spaghetti strap mini dress with her tutu and dress up shoes (little heels with no backs), I told her that she needed to change into the clothes on her bed and that I wasn't going to help her because she wasn't listening to me. She in turn told me, "I'll listen to you tomorrow....but not today".

She finally changed her clothes and came in the kitchen, where she purposefully spilled a glass of water across the kitchen table, causing papers to get wet and stick together and ink to run and mom to get mad. She then pretended to clean it up by putting my work gloves in the puddle and standing there. When I asked her what she was thinking, she just replied, "I'm cleaning it up".

(Take a deep breath and count to 150!!)

I am in need of a vacation. But we can't afford it and I have too much to do.

At the Junior High where my Precious Green Gem attends, they are having a magazine fundraiser right now. I HATE FUNDRAISERS!! The FUN in FUNDRAISERS is misleading.

"If you sell 42 magazines (which we all know that it's the parents and grandparents who have to buy all these magazines) we will give you a free pencil with a fuzzy creature on top, along with 3 cheap plastic toys that will need 12 AAA batteries and 3 9volts, so they can screech and sing and blink ALL night long!!! PLUS your school will receive 40 cents per magazine subscription. So with your 42 magazines you sell, you will pay $1050 and your school will get $16.50!!!!"

Now I may be exaggerating just a little bit but not much.

Plus, this is a fundraiser for the junior high school. There will be another one for being in percussion. Not to mention my other daughter in high school and percussion and my other two in elementary school!! I HATE FUNDRAISERS!

Okay now! I've gotten that out of my system(I hope), maybe I can get something done now. Besides, I think Clifford is almost over!

This evening as I was driving my mom's new prius to pick up my daughter's friend so they could spend the night at Grandma's, we were driving down the country road when I saw a cat start running toward the street. I started hollering "NOOOO!" at the cat, but the cat obviously didn't hear me. I put on the brakes and started moving into the other lane (safely of course) but the darn thing kept coming! All of a sudden there was a BIG THUD against the front right side of the car! I screamed, "Oh My GOD" "Oh My GOD" I pulled over to the side of the road and looked in the rear view mirror to see the cat running off! The girls tried to tell me the cat was okay because it was able to run off. I wasn't buying it. So I had to tell them about TRI-PAWED.

One afternoon when it was time to pick up my now 17 1/2 year old from Kindergarten I put my now 12 year old who was in an infant car seat, into my truck to go to the school. As I turned the key to start my car, I heard this terrible grinding sound that just wasn't right. So I got out of the truck (the engine was off) and looked under the car. Under the front of the car was a paw. A cat's paw, from the elbow down. Again...I freaked! I hit the hood of my truck, afraid to open it. Nothing happened. What if there was a dead cat in there? What if my car won't start because there is a dead cat in there?? Oh my gosh, how am I going to get my daughter from school if I can't start my car? Where's the cat that belongs to that paw?

I ran back inside the apartment and got the portable phone and called my husband at work. I told him what happened and being the wonderful, caring, understanding great guy that he is, he came home. By the time he got home I was a mess. I had been crying and hyperventilating. I think it was about this time that the cat made a mad dash from underneath the truck and out of sight. We took my husbands car to school and everything worked out okay.
Later we saw the cat in our backyard, with the other strays that liked to hang out there. It was the cat we called Oreo because it was white with a few black circles on it. It looked like someone had split open some Oreos and stuck them on the cat. But from then on we called the cat Tri-pawed. It seemed to adapt to only having 3 paws. It was really mangled up though. I remember the poor things tail looking like someone had run their fingers down it removing all it's fur! (Like when you slide your chicken and pineapple off the kabob) The whiskers were all bent crooked and burnt.

So now I've cut off a paw and hit a cat with my mom's car!
I think I'm going to bed.

Everything's a Quarter!

We had a yard sale today. This is the first yard sale out of like 15, that we've had at our own house. Usually we've hauled everything over to someone else's house and then we get up way too early in the morning to help set it all up. Afterwards we spend a couple of hours in the hot sun, cleaning up what's left. This time we had everything brought to our house. We got up early and started to unpack the boxes with our flashlights. Two hours later there were still boxes that were not yet unpacked, and not because we had too many people coming. In fact we didn't have anyone during that time. Whenever we are at my brother's house we have people going through the boxes as we are carrying them out at 5:30-6am. Once we had people helping us carry the boxes because they wanted to look through them and we were apparently too slow.

Each and every time we have a yard sale we tell each other, "This is it! No more yard sales". Yet we always seem to forget and have another one. (Kinda like giving birth....after few months or so you forget how painful it was and you start thinking about how great it would be to have another baby) Personally I HATE yard sales. I love going to them but I HATE doing them. I hate dealing with the people. I HATE hagglers!! SCREAM!!
"How much this (like new, used once, cost $300.00) item?"
"$2.00" (said with a cringe, because you are thinking of the money you paid 4 months ago)
"You take TWENTY FIVE CENT!" (notice there's NO question mark)
"No, we want $2.00"
"No you take TWENTY FIVE CENT"
"No!"
Item is left where they were standing.

AND....I want to punch the people that have "faked it" and acted as if they only spoke spanish and acted ignorant while trying to rip us off! It's a fricken yard sale! You're getting a fricken bargain! Pay your fricken $2.00 and get the hell off my lawn!!!

Yes, I have issues. I do not know why we put ourselves through yard sale torture!
OH! The other difference with having our yard sale here at our house is that the neighborhood has a lot of yard sales every weekend and they last all weekend long. So we, who are used to packing it up at 11:30am (max), still had people coming after 5pm!! OH MY GOSH!!!

Somewhere around 2pm my husband said everything's a quarter!! We made over 30 bucks with that! We still had to box up a bunch of stuff and wouldn't ya know it, the good will/salvation army (whichever one is over here by Walmart) closed 3 minutes before my husband got there with all the junk!

Isaac's lip

Today was my son's first Cross Country meet, so we walked over to the school to cheer him on. While we were there our 12 year old called to let us know she missed her bus and needed a ride home. I said I would go so I walked back home leaving my husband with the 3 and 5 year olds, a wagon and a few snacks. Before I even got to my daughter's school my husband called and excitedly informed me that my 3 year old had fallen off the bleachers and might need stitches!! Later after getting the whole story when everyone was calmer, I found that he was on the second row and slipped and hit the bench. He took a big chunk out of his lip. In fact there wasn't enough skin to "stitch" together without it looking really funny. It's just a hole! His front teeth were bloody too, which I thought was just from the inside of his lip but they have bled twice since then. Little ones don't like to hold ice on their owies so of course his lip swelled up and the poor little guy looked so pathetic. His grandma gave him $5.00 to go buy Popsicles. My husband took him in to pick some out and he came out still holding his money. My husband said he got all sad when he had to give up his money so he just bought the Popsicles with his ATM so Isaac could keep his money.

Pure Joy Continues to Wreck Havoc in Her Already Chaotic Home

Pure Joy continues to wreck havoc in her already chaotic home.

I cannot count how many messes she made today. I drove the “One whom God remembered” to Tae Kwon Do and when we got home there were messes everywhere. The puzzle I had picked up before I left and put up high, was spilled all over the kitchen floor. My husband was busy trying to put in our new electric oven, and having to move the gas line for the stove etc…therefore he was not really supervising the little ones. The kitchen and front room smelled of gas. I went to put my bag in my room and tripped over 3 different pairs of kid shoes walking down the hall. I was greeted with the blaring of some man’s voice on channel 18. In my room was a ripped envelope that had once held money, I was then sent on a scavenger hunt to collect it all. A card I was going to send a friend for her birthday lay crumpled just under the bed. The cap to my deodorant was also on the floor but the deodorant was no where to be found. (It was found later under my pillow) Our PG&E bill that came in the mail today, was still on my nightstand but next to it was a capless pen. As I picked up the outrageous bill I found blue scribbles all over the page you mail in with your payment.
I went outside to water my freshly blooming flower (Gerbana Daisies) only to find that the 2 bright pink beautiful flowers that were there yesterday were now in pieces laying on top of the soil.
Still HURRICANE JOY was not yet finished destroying those things unfortunate enough to cross her path. In the girl’s room were more messes. Piles of books tossed on the floor, some opened, some not, some getting their pages crunched, none of which are cool. She was sent to bed but kept coming out. Where is Super Nanny when you need her?
During one of the times she actually stayed in her room for a couple of minutes, she was making yet another mess. She had taken her sister’s shampoo and poured it all over her bed and it was dripping into a large puddle on the already crappy but can’t afford to change it carpet.

I tell ya we are at our wits end! The amount of stress that is being generated in this home is unbelievable. I seriously am surprised that no one has tried to leave for school naked.

Last night as I was “kickin’ it” on our bed I was playing with this heavy duty flashlight. My husband layed down next to me and as we looked up at the ceiling I dropped the flashlight that was also being held above our heads. The damn thing smacked me right on the nose between my eyes and caused my teeth to clank!! I hate that!! The flashlight also hit my husband in the head! When the pain began to fade we both cracked up.

I think it was good for us to laugh. Laughter is one of the things, besides money, that is missing in our lives right now.

dog poop or manipulation

September 13, 2007
Dog poop or manipulation

Every morning since school began this year, my precious green gem has given us nothing but a hard time about riding the bus to and /or home from school. I understand that junior highers think only about themselves but the constant badgering and whining and pouting and stomping off and walking off while we are talking to her and screaming at her siblings and just being plain rude is about to send me over!!
I’d like to just smack her but not really. I just like to say it I think. “I’m gonna smack you” just gives me a sense (however false) of control over the situation. Unfortunately all of my kids, especially the last 4 have taken after their mother and have a will as strong as an OX. We are as stubborn as mules and will fight to the death over anything, just because we can. We know there is not anything we HAVE to do, (though we know there are also consequences for not doing things …like homework and housework) BUT we know that you can not MAKE us do anything we do not want to do . The only thing we HAVE to do is DIE. Sounds extreme maybe, but there are a lot of us out there. Now we don’t go around defying all authority and rebelling against all the rules. Though I do not believe in MANDATORY. In fact when someone tells me that it is MANDATORY for me or my family to be or do something I will probably not show up.

I digressed.

Back to the precious green gem and her fit at having to ride the bus to school this morning because her dad had to get ready to go do some handyman work….to bring in some money! She wrote on the wipe off board underneath all the activities of the day, “Jade has to ride the bus again! Get there at 7:00 Jade!!!!!!!” Now I have heard her talk enough to be able to read her writing and know her tone pretty well. I could sense there was some sarcasm in her comment. (duh!) Plus it was followed with, “I guess I better leave now…to walk to the bus stop….because no one cares to give me a ride to school….okay, I’m going now….bye….”
We ignored her manipulations and all hollered “BYE”.
She was gone for 2-3 minutes when the front door opened and she meekly called for her dad and asked if he would walk her to the bus stop. He ran.
A few minutes later, I was expecting my husband to walk in the door but instead it was precious green gem, with only one shoe on! My husband had the other one under the hose! She had stepped in dog poop!
I asked in HER USUAL TONE, “Did you step in it on purpose so your dad would have to drive you to school?” She completely lost it! She cried out/screamed and ran to her room in a tizzy!
OH MY GOSH!!
I don’t think I’m going to make it through her junior high years and if this continues on to high school they’re going to be putting me in the home for the bewildered!

Pure Joy struck again

As I was cleaning out the large container that we packed our bathroom in, I was surprised when a slimy substance attached itself to my arm. As I peered into the the mass of shampoos, hairbrushes, shower gels, toothpastes and sunscreen, that dreaded feeling overcame me. Someone (and I had a suspicion who) had been playing in the box. My arm was smeared with a bright blue gel that at first I thought was toothpaste, but it didn't have that minty fresh smell to it. I called for a box of baby wipes and started the long tedious task of cleaning up yet another mess that I didn't have time for. It's true what they say in Kindergarten..."A little dab will do ya." Funny how a little goes a L O N G way when it's something you don't want to clean up!

I still don't know what that bright blue gel was. There was nothing in the container that matched it! I did get a confession from my little "Pure Joy" though, along with a sad face, a hug and a sorry!

I would've been okay if I didn't hear my husband yell "There's poop smeared all over the toilet!!" Followed by my Precious Green Gem screaming at Pure Joy about getting into her candy. (Which she isn't allowed to keep in her room in the first place) So now we have a chocolate mess to clean up as well as a 12 year old melting down!

A few other things that led to the melt down of my family today:

Chips crunched in the hall carpet

Bread crumbs floating in the Turtle's temporary container (and a long talk about Why turtles do not like bread the way the ducks at the park do)

Green beans on the kitchen floor again

Early Release at school (afternoon kindergarten goes to school earlier and everyone gets out earlier, but not at the same time!!)

Forgetting to go pick up kindergartner on Early Release day

Youngest son biting Pure Joy on the back because she hit him in the face

Cooking tater tots in the toaster oven for 15 minutes and forgetting to turn the knob to bake

Gathering the 8 puzzles that were mixed together, sorting and counting the pieces, only to find one piece missing out of each puzzle!!!

Started moving the furniture and boxes around in our room but have not got to finish because we've had to deal with all the MADNESS!!

Oh yea, that's what I was doing earlier...better get back to it !

"I drank Jade's Alligator all"

"I drank Jade's Alligator all" Isaac came in and told us. If it weren't for these moments I don't know if I would survive. What Isaac was telling us was that he drank all of his big sister's Gatorade. Funny boy. Makes me laugh. He is true to his name...Isaac...means laughter! I think God knew we would need some laughter in our lives. Because the "Pure Joy" I gave birth to before Laughter hasn't been so pure or joyful. In fact she fits the old poem from my childhood.

There was a little girl
who had a little curl
right in the middle of her forehead

When she was good
she was very very good
but when she was bad she was horrid


The only difference is that "Pure Joy" doesn't have a little curl in the middle of her forehead. That could be because SHE cut it off herself several months ago!

Such attitude for a barely 5 year old. If you looked at attitude alone you might think she was a twin of our 12 year old "Precious Green Gem". Those girls can drive ya bonkers with their, "Oh no you di-un't" crap!

Then there's our "Whom God hath remembered" almost 10 year old. I don't think God could forget him, he's caused a lot of ruckus in his nine years. Born the most sweet calm little boy, sleeping through the night at 3 weeks, smiling with his cute little dimple, blonde and blue eyed like his mama. Then he turned 2 1/2. That's when it all began. Experiments with shaving cream, shower gel, hand soap, nail polish and toothpaste. Toothpaste I think was a favorite. We would find it everywhere. Once I walked into the bathroom to find it squeezed on to each lightbulb (there were seven), on the toilet seat, the toilet paper, the tub faucet, the knobs on the drawers and several other obscure places, not all found that day.

I'm sure when Zack meets God face to face, he will say something like, Aahhh yes, the infamous Zack. The one who smeared 2 tubs of butter on his sister's wall and covered himself in blue permanent marker on Thanksgiving Day, the one who chews up all the little lego pieces until they are unrecognizable, the one who yelled, "Oh Shit" on the T-ball field when the ball went passed him, the one who accepted me in to his heart and told his mom he hated me, just to make her crazy, the one who wouldn't touch a vegetable but would drink his dad's V-8, the one who tried to hide his food in his sippy cup so he could have dessert, the one who takes anything and everything apart just to see how it works or looks inside, the one who wouldn't wear anything but his elephant costume for 3 months, and would only wear shorts in the winter and long pants in the summer, the one who throws angry tantrums, the one who wants to cuddle, (AND THE LIST WILL GO ON AND ON AND ON....)yes, I could never forget you"

Our oldest "obedient" is just that. I actually hope she rebels someday. Though not against me! ;)

With all the craziness there is I can't help but laugh! For that I am extremely THANKFUL!