In d' schule...

Posie started "school" on Monday.  I've enrolled her in a Montessori preschool program, and quite frankly I LOVE IT!  I pick her up every afternoon, and she regales me with what she's done that day.  (I have to interpret, generally speaking, because Posie's vocabulary consists of about 3 vowels and 8 consonants.)  They pour water, and do puzzles, and eat lunch and take a nap.  She loves going out on the playground. 

But, most of all, Posie loves when her teacher puts her finger to her lips and says, "shhh... let's use our indoor voices."  Since Posie is the last of 7 children, she is in no way accustomed to quiet.  So, as I pick her up from school, she puts her finger to her lips and says, "shhh..."  As she walks into the house, she walks up to the barking dog and "shhh", walks into the computer room where her siblings are playing a game, and "shhh..." 

It makes me wonder if Posie will bring a little peace and quiet to our family. 

Nah... probably not.

Shopping

I hate grocery shopping... like really hate it.  I think there are myriad factors that lend to this distaste, including:

 

1. I like convenience foods and they are very expensive, not to mention pratically nutritionless! (LAME)
2. Whenever I am in the store, I have grand ideas of the wonders I will create in the kitchen, and then all the ingredients tend to rot in the fridge before I get around to it.
3. I will load up two grocery carts of food, and feel like I've gotten enough food to last through Armageddon, and then see bare cupboards by the end of two weeks.  (Other than those fancy ingredients that have been sitting there since Creation, of course!)
4. Baggers never bag the way I like... and worse, there are groceries stores where I have to bag my own groceries!  I like to have it a certain way, but I don't want to do it!

 

I could go on, and on, and on... but I'm sure you get the point.... grocery shopping: hate it.

Kathryn Heigl

I have yet to see a Kathryn Heigl movie that I do not like.  The Cowboy and I went out for our weekly date night on Monday and saw her new movie "Life as We Know It".  It was great.  Even greater than I expected it to be.  I expected a cute romantic comedy... but to me it was significantly deeper than that.  It was like a Rom-Com-Dram... (Cromedy?)  Based on my description, dRM frowned and said "it seems to me like another movie with the message that 'a baby will fix everything'", but that's not really the message at all.  It was more like "take life as it comes, and do what makes you happiest... sometimes it's the thing you least expect."  It was fantastic.  I recommend it with two whole-hearted thumbs up!

Check this out!

http://www.storyofstuff.com/
I think it's pretty cool!

le Sigh

Bageena's dad and I have been divorced for the majority of her life.  It astounds me that after nearly 14 years of being divorced, he still consistently tries to enroll me in some form of drama with him. 

I learned quickly that the best way to deflate drama is to be unwilling to participate.  If you throw a ball at someone over and over, and they absolutely refuse to either catch the ball and throw it back, or to duck for cover from the incoming trajection, you tend to lose interest pretty quickly. 

I'm drawn to wondering why he keeps "throwing the ball"...?

I think I'm pretty clever

Recently Ababe has been threatening things like "I'm going to break your car" and "I'm going to break your table" and "I'm going to kill you tonight" as an act of defiance.  (I don't even want to think about where my 4-year-old is learning things like this...) 

I addressed it tonight with some suggestions that about caused Bageena to fall out of her chair laughing.  I said to Ababe, "why don't you say something nice and constructive, like the following:
'I'm going to...paint your bedroom'
'I'm going to help you with your chores'
and
'I'm going to detail your car'"

I realized he had gotten the point when he asked, "can I just say 'you're awesome'?" 

YEAH!  Parenting at its finest!

Um.... when am I going to do this?

So, I'm nearly half-way through a nursing degree.  I'm in my 3rd semester and that involves both clinical rotations, and a whole lotta school work. 

Take for example the 19-page case study I just finished.  Last night.  At 12:30am.  It was due at 9am today.  The funny thing is that I have known about this paper since the beginning of the semester (about 6 weeks ago)... I've known what the assignment is, how to do it, and when it was due.  And yet, I managed to put it off until the literal 11th hour, and yesterday spent about 6 hours starting and completing it.  It seems to me that those 6 hours would likely have been better spent doing something fun, like going fishing with the Cowboy (my husband), or even just watching the House episodes I have DVRed.  I'm thinking if I had put in an hour a day for six days in the last 6 weeks, my time would have been significantly better spent.  So, yeah, that's how I do my life.

Fortunately dRM, the Cowboy and some other sisters had all the kids, so I did have very few interruptions.  And, I was able to drink all the beer my little heart desired as I worked.  (I wonder if that paper will make sense this morning...)  :D

Beauty is in the eye of....

Lady Leprechaun gave Posie a pair of scissors the other day... She went right for her hair and cut off a ponytail. Do you think shaving the head of a 2-year-old girl is cause for a visit from The Authorities?
Bah!!

Happy Birthday kiddios!

'da Renegade Mama and I threw a joint birthday party for The Fairy Princess and Ababe today.  Their birthdays are exactly one week apart, and they tend to run in the same circles (toddler socializing can be so complex!)  We figured we'd kill two birds with one stone... ok, actually we don't like to kill birds, or even refer to killing birds in a metaphor... so let's say: We figured we'd bake two apple pies in the same oven.

Hennyways... the party was a bust.  dRM is world-(neighborhood)-renowned for her party throwing skills, and she had just as awesome as plan as usual.  Unfortunately, the kids didn't really take to it.  They limped through the games, and tapped their feet with impatience through the singing.  Even the opening of presents was a cause for yawns and watch-checking (if toddlers wore watches).  All in all, it really fell flat.  We ended the party early and sent everyone out to the backyard to the swingset.

I guess you win some and you lose some.

Happy Birthday you crazy little munchkins!

A sidenote

Da Renegade Mama, (my sister), has asked me to include the following:

(I quote)

"Bageena - no comment.
Oddie - jes' like me at that age
Auttie - Deep blue eyes, crystal-clear heart, and the sweetest thing walking
Twin One - Likes to hit, and follow grown-ups around
Twin Two - Beautiful and likes animals
Ababe - Don't interrupt this boy, because he will start over
Posie - She and Lady Leprechaun are two cats in a cage; absolutely darling, until they yowl and scratch at each other."

Yes, these are some of the children she watches.  (Check her page for antics I don't get the privilege of enjoying).

In case you aren't a "bright highlighter" and haven't made the connection, since Renegade Mama is my sister, Pu is also my sister.  We enjoy a weekly "Girls Night Out (GNO)" where we get together and pretend that we are the only three sister-ladies in the world.  It's good times!

First Post

Ok, first of all, typing this blog on a crappy netbook is, well... crappy.  My fingers are not used to how closely spaced these keys are.  Just for the fun of it, I'll show you (with the classic typer's sentence) what my typing would look like without pressing the backspace key three hundred thousand times:

The quick brown fox jumoped over the lazy dog's back.

Shit, that was anti-climatic.  Blah blah, blah blah.

I am a 34-year-old woman with 7 children that I have borne from my womb.  And, to set the record straight, I am neither Mormon nor Catholic.  That's that on that.

I have:

Bageena 14
Oddie 8
Auttie 7
Twin One 5
Twin Two 5
Ababe 3
Posie 2

Hands full -- 'nuff said.

I lied, one more thing to add to the mix -- I'm 6 months into an 18-month accelerated nursing program.  A glutton for punishment, you ask.  Puh-leeze.

Read on, enjoy, and bless your uneventful life!