THE funniest thing happened ever...

We went to my husband's cousin's wedding, which was beautiful of course.  After the wedding we went to the even more beautiful reception.  It was held in a huge banquet room in a nearby hotel.  There was a dance floor in the middle surrounded by pillars and gauzy foofoo decorations. 

So, the traditional things started to happen... the throwing of the bouquet, the shoving of the cake, the first dance of the bride and groom, etc... Then came the garter toss...

My son, Geckmeister (8yrs old) is staring as all the "eligible bachelors" collect under the foofoo thingee.  I ask him, "Do you wanna go?"  He asks, "What are they doing?"  I say, "They're gonna toss the garter."  He says, "Whatdya mean?"  I reply with a big cheesy grin, "Well, the groom takes the garter and throws it over his shoulder, and all the single men try to catch it!!"  He stares buggy-eyed at the mass and slowly shakes his head no.  Then he leans over and whispers, "Mom, which one is Garter... is he the little guy??"

Yep.  Midget tossing.  It's a family tradition at our weddings....

My Mom called at nearly 1am this morning... Giant Head's (my brother) house nearly burnt down!  Yikes!  He heats mainly with a wood burning stove, and it got too hot (no kidding! LOL!  Blonde commentary there for ya...).  He'll be okay, so that's what matters.

Manof theplace just left for work, and I'm exhausted already.  My Mom gave us a treadmill this past week, which we put in our bedroom.  I thought this location was such a fantastic idea, until "Mr. Nightcreeper" decides to go for a run at 11:30pm last night.  It felt as if our bed had Magic Fingers... and I nearly vibrated off the edge and onto the floor.  Now I'm trying to figure out how to sling my hind end into a giant rubber strap, hooking it to the treadmill while lying down, sleeping, so I can vibrate some celulite off ~ you know ~ like those old machines you see from times past?  Hey, this might qualify as a Science Experiment...  I guess I owe my Mom another big thank you for such unexpected bonuses!

Going to have a Jammie Day today with Geckmeister and Zoozoo.  My home needs some TLC, and we need a break.  We're on school-day 122, so we're ahead of the pack around here.

Have a peculiar day!  (They're more fun that way)

My Dad had a stroke the day after Christmas which left him unable to do simple, cognitive and mathematical skills.  I'll tell ya', strokes are such very devastating events.  My Dad went from an articulate, public speaker, strong, capable, Christian missionary with a Doctorate in Theology... to a very frail, confused old man in a matter of minutes.  He is doing much better now, though, thanks be to God!

Homeschooling friend... you'll never know when the Lord will use your homeschooling talents, or how.  Here I am every morning at my parent's home with my two kids...homeschooling them AND my Dad, while Mom gets some uninterrupted sleep.  Dad sits with us and tries to put together a puzzle with my 4yr old... or tries second grade math with my son.  It's a strange role reversal, but I'm thankful I have the opportunity to help, and I'm grateful for the REAL life lessons my kids are learning.

Initially after the stroke, he could not feed himself, so I'd spoon feed him some of his meals.  At one point, my 4yr old daughter asked excitedly, "Can I feed Pop this time??!!"  My 8yr old son "babysat" him when I dashed downstairs to take dishes down or whatever.  I've been blessed with two wonderful kids!

Wow... I can't believe it has been so long since an entry...

My Dad is still in the hospital with his stroke.  Hopefully he will come home this week to start recovery.  These strokes are nasty events.  They surely do ravage a person.

My daughter had testing done at the children's hospital.  Praise God she's going to be okay.  She just needs to go potty hugging the tank with her feet on stools for a while!! Boy, she hated that at first  :o)

I'm starting another painting of a child who died.  I do these for free as a ministry/help to mothers who are grieving.  This child died of asthma.  I have another one who died in-utero.  The mom is haunted by the dark appearance of her baby, so I'm going to do a portrait from a photograph, and use a photo of her other daughter for coloring.  These are tough paintings to do, as I have to stare at photos which sometimes aren't the most lovely... also knowing what happened to the child.  But, God has given me the grace to not have gone through the horror of losing a child.  So, if I can help restore just a moment of joy when I see the Mama's face light up when they see a good portrait of their baby...  it's worth it!

Homeschooling today... and putting my home back together after the weekend... and laundry, laundry, laundry... then going to the hospital to sit with Dad for the afternoon!

What a time this has been!
Christmas was basically...
My daughter went to the ER with what they suspect is Viral Cystitis of her bladder.
My sister's dog was hit by a car and died.
My dad had a stroke.

What a stressful Christmas this has been.
But God is good....
My sister will get another dog someday.
My daughter is alive.
My dad is alive.

This is all blessing from Him. 
This has taught us all to "choose this day" and to be thankful, and not take anything for granted.  Life is so fragile!

Had a genius moment the other day.  (well, genius for me, that is!!)  My kids names should be "Search" and "Destroy", as the house looks like a war-zone nearly every day.  I spend a frustrated two hours putting it all back together again at night, every night!  Am I insane??  A glutton for punishment, surely.

So, it was the end of another day.  I looked at my children's rooms with despair.  I told them that I officially quit as Grande Madame Pikerupper.  I promptly went and made four charts.  One is a Morning Chart, one is an Evening Chart, and two are Individual Chore charts... one in pink for my girl and one in blue for my boy.  I posted them in a prominent location upstairs.  Now they must follow the appropriate chart before they can do such things as EAT, have free time, or play with their friends!   GENIUS!!  For the last few days they have been staring at me sideways, not knowing when I'm gonna cave and ditch the chart idea.  Well, my son is loving it... he's my more organized child.  My daughter is coming unglued as if this were the severest form of abuse one could inflict on my precious home-litterer/ disassembler.  We'll see how it goes.  Anyway, I'm determined to stick with it as my personal stress levels have subsided... and so have theirs, even if they will never admit it!!

Give it a try!!

Well, yesterday I had the "bright idea" to take my kids to the local superstore BEFORE starting homeschool for the day.  BIG mistake.  They were so perky and fresh, and the store so unstimulating to their little minds of moldable mush that all the energy flew out their arms and legs.  Literally.  Yep.  Such a great example for what a homeschooled child should be!  Swinging on the posts like pent up monkeys, crawling in and out of the shelves, performing commercials for weird items on the way, having walking-backwards contests and crashing into preppy moms whose kids are presently and appropriately warehoused, pretending the aisles were slip-n-slides, trying to out-wit me with the list of benefits of buying the "needed" item gripped in their hands and two inches from my face, riding the cart on the side until it almost tips over and then, "WOW!  I almost CRASHED the CART!!"

I'm so exhausted...
 
Where are the good old days when little Grammas would come across the store, searching for the offending child who was causing such chaos, and give 'em a firm swat on the posterior???  Then they would say, "Mama, I understand!  I had twenty of my own!"  Those were the days!

Nope... today they look at the child, form a sociopathic diagnosis in their minds, roll their eyes and walk away.  And it's not like you can even raise your voice anymore at your children... that would be misconstrued as "verbal abuse", dontchaknow.  My goodness, one would not want to startle the dear ones with an abrupt word.  It might stunt their creativity or something.  As long as "Joey" feels good about himself when he is disassembling the store... as long as he is happy doing it, and learns something in the process! 

Balderdash!!!!!

So, I was not a good walking advertisement for homeschooling yesterday.  And yes, they were disciplined appropriately!  Poor little unsocialized homeschoolers....

So, here I am... using a weblog.  Wow.  (thoughtful pause)  It's freezing outside and covered with about 8 inches of snow.  I look out the window beside my computer and see my two kids building a... well, it's supposed to be a snowman, but it's only a white blob about 14" high with two stick arms.  Teetering on the edge of one "arm" is a baseball mitt.  So, it's more of a snowclump in the outfield kind-of creation.  I think we're going to study sculpture next....