The musings, ponderings, recollections and recitations of life in my abi-normal world with my husband Danny, and my kids: Rachel 20, Tara 18, Zak 15, Josh 14, Megan 8, Darcy 6, and Lily 1. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamasaidtheredbedays/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Thu, 1 May 2008 18:06:00 -0500 Thu, 1 May 2008 18:06:00 -0500 Tonight is a big night for the homeschooled kids of Cedar Brook Academy.  Tonight is their annual Semi-Formal.  It is their version of a "prom."  There's no dancing, but it's a really REALLY nice meal at a very fancy venue.  It's always held at the Historic Savage Mill.   The kids really look forward to it and get all dressed up.  Tonight is Zak's very first Semi-Formal.  On Tuesday, Tara came and picked him up and took him to the mall to get his fancy duds.  He came home with nice black dress pants and a nice black shirt with deep blue pinstripes (which probably don't show up in the picture) and a black silk tie.  As for the tie, they had to Google:  "How to tie a tie"  to figure out how to do it.  Tara stopped by today to do it for him. This evening I got his clothes all pressed and he got cleaned up and dressed.  He actually let me take a couple of shots of him.  I think he turned out quite handsomely. (I don't know why that picture won't turn) Of course, what you need to notice is how very nice he looks, all the way down to his *ankles*.  At that point, he insisted that he was wearing his chucks to the Semi-Formal and no amount of persuasion was going to change his mind.  He did remind me of the fact that a few years ago, I allowed Tara to wear *her* chucks to the Semi-Formal; at which point I reminded him that her chucks were covered by her evening gown.  Oh well, I'd rather he wear the chucks than to spend a boat-load of money on nice dress shoes that he won't wear again.  Even though he cleaned up nice, he is still a fun boy with a wonderful sense of humor, and this picture of Zak and Tara just makes me smile.  I love it that the two of them are so close.  This one is what they call their "Self-Portrait."  I hope Zak has a great time tonight and I really hope that some of his friends take pictures of him with their cameras, as there was no way, no how that I could convince him to take mine!  Boys!! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamasaidtheredbedays/525709/ Thu, 1 May 2008 18:06:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamasaidtheredbedays/525709/ It has been forever and a day since the last time I blogged.  In that time, my life has been turned completely upside-down and then shaken for good measure.  Yes, and as the good James Bond would say, it definitely has been "shaken, not stirred."  While I won't bore you with every little detail, I will say that my daughter Tara has moved out to be an independent young woman (much to my dismay at her timing.)  I will also tell you that no less than 4 days after Tara informed us that she was moving out, our landlord informed us that we had 30 days to find a new place to live (with our family of 9...errrr...8.)  He had sold his house, but had gotten less than he hoped and felt he did not have enough to buy another place and so wanted to move back into the house he was renting to us.  The hunt was on and we found another place to live, packed up and moved.  This all happened since March 1 (two weeks of which I was also dreadfully sick.)  We are only now just beginning to settle out a bit, although I still can't find the box with all my shoes.  From that intro I will now segue into the body of this post. The house that we now live in was built in 1961 and I don't believe anyone on the face of this earth has done a single thing to update a single part of it since that date.  And oh, it's just so much fun (uh, NOT) to learn all the little ins and outs of a new dwelling place. Last night I had the total and complete joy of being locked in the bathroom. Now, if I'd been in there all by myself and had a great big soaking tub with bubbles, candles, mood music and a glass of wine (or even grape juice, preferably of the sparkling variety), I really could have made the best of it, but unfortunately, that didn't happen to be the situation. Before we moved in, a couple of us got stuck in that bathroom. The doorknob was really hard to turn and it had to be totally to the left to release the little thingy that goes into the door jamb.  It was noted by a number of us that the doorknob needed to be changed.  My darling husband put that on "the list."   Well, as of yesterday, it didn't matter *how* far you turned that knob, it wasn't letting anyone out.  The door became its own master and keeper of the universe (at least the universe of <cue dramatic music> "The Blue Bathroom.")   In the morning, Josh got a shower and got stuck in there.  He told me that he had heard a faint but strangely wicked sort of laughter ringing in his ears.  He opted to climb out of the window and go around the outside of the house in order to escape "The Blue Bathroom."  That evening, I was able to get the door open from the hallway outside. Because the pink bathroom had its own issues (the drain wouldn't drain because the metal stopper thingy broke off *inside* the drain) I took Lily in for a bath and was quite careful not to close the door all the way. Midway through Lily's bath, Darcy came in to ask me a question. On her way out, she grabbed the door and just as I was shouting, "DON'T CLOSE THE D......", she slammed it shut. Oh the joy!  I tried valiantly, yet vainly to get the door open. Considering my options at this point, I knew there was absolutely no way that I was going to haul myself and a baby out of the tiny  window to get out of the bathroom. I called for Josh to come and try. He couldn't do it. Of course my dear husband and oldest son were at (of all places!) Home Depot getting stuff to fix the *other* bathroom. I needed a macho-man type super-hero to just bust the door down for me and yet, the two strongest people in the family were nowhere to be found to release me. Rachel came and tried, but she couldn't do it either. I told them to get a hammer and just beat the doorknob off. They beat and banged and pounded with all their might.  It was at that moment that I'm sure I heard the same strangely wicked laughter that Josh had heard earlier.  That doorknob just didn't want to come off.  Why should it?  After all, it was in complete control of the little universe known as "The Blue Bathroom." Finally, with a combined effort, great clatter, and a dent in the hardwood flooring, Rachel and Josh were able to knock off the doorknob on their side of the door. BUT, we still couldn't get the door open. By now, Lily's bathwater is getting lukewarm and her little toes looked like raisins (which she nervously pointed out to me.) I tried to pull off the part of the doorknob on my side of the door, but it wouldn't come off.  And again, why should it?  This doorknob was just not going down without the fight of its shiny, brass-plated life! I had no tools in the bathroom, so I told Rachel to get a big screwdriver and begin to hammer it into the heart of the doorknob mechanism to try to knock off the part on my side of the door.  It would have been easier to hammer a silver spike into the heart of dracula.  That doorknob really missed its calling. It should have been used to protect Fort Knox. Rachel beat and banged and pounded, pounded, banged and beat, but that doorknob would not come off.  I told her to bang harder.  Lily kept looking at me saying, "Bang. Bang." Yep baby, we are just plain stuck.  Stuck in the universe of "The Blue Bathroom" that time forgot, held in by the maniacal dictator of the doorknob realm.  I didn't even have a diaper in there with me to put on the baby. So, she stayed in the tub. The water was getting cooler.  It might as well have been an episode from the Twilight Zone.  How much time really was passing by on the outside of that door?  Would I be released only to find that my family had aged by 20 years?  Would I become known to all as Shellie Van Winkle?  I told Rachel to give the doorknob another go and she was *finally* able to get the part on my side to come off. You'd have thought that was the end of the story, right? Well if so, you'd have thought wrong! The inside mechanism was just stuck fast into the door jamb.  More wicked laughter.  I STILL could not get out.  Blasted doorknob dictator!!  I told the kids to call Dad. I thought about having them call the fire department, but resisted the urge. I finally took Lily out of the tub and wrapped her in a big towel. As she sat on my lap, we could see Rachel through the doorknob wormhole.  It was like gazing into another world.   She used the hammer and screwdriver again and beat and banged and pounded. "Bang. Bang," said Lily.  There were other descriptive words that I was thinking, and Bang, Bang were not them!  That stinking mechanism just would not relinquish its control over us!! Rachel used the screwdriver to try to pry it out. No go. They (whoever "they" are) certainly don't make hardware like this anymore!  The wicked doorknob dictator was hanging on to the last vestiges of power it possibly could in "The Blue Bathroom"universe.  Finally, she attempted to use the claw of the hammer to try to pry it out. It messed up the outside of the door, but didn't do much to the mechanism. I told her to keep trying. I was starting to get more than a little annoyed about being so stuck in the black hole universe known as "The Blue Bathroom."  Finally, Rachel was able to get it close enough to her side that by her pulling it and me kind of pushing it, we were able to break off a little piece and then painstakingly pick apart the mechanism out of the doorknob hole.  And we did have to pick it out, literally, piece by piece.  As we did that, I could have sworn I heard it screaming out in the fashion of the Wicked Witch of the West as Dorothy doused her with a bucket of water.  Oh, what a world. What an adventure.  We had finally overcome the tyrannical rule of the doorknob master and had broken through the black hole from "The Blue Bathroom" universe.  I was more than relieved to find that as I walked through that forbidden portal, my family truly had not aged the twenty years I feared, but a mere twenty minutes (give or take.)  As I so often reflect after a family adventure such as this (of which we seem to be in no short supply) I so cannot believe that my last name is NOT Murphy!! If it's going to happen, it's going to happen to us! In closing, I must tell you that now we have blue painter's tape covering the hole in the door for the doorknob.  Currently, we all like it like that.  We feel the need to exercise the greatest care in re-establishing the rule of a new doorknob master.  As you well know, it is for times like these that Revolutions are fought and won.  None of us care to be sucked through the black hole again for another round in the universe of "The Blue Bathroom."  And so, it may be awhile before we put a new doorknob back in that door!!  But, like I said, right now, we all like it like that!  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamasaidtheredbedays/522396/ Fri, 25 Apr 2008 16:41:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamasaidtheredbedays/522396/ Boy, does time fly.  Today it became official.  Today, my boy is one step closer to manhood.  WWWAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! I don't know why it surprises me so.  We've had this date marked on the calendar for months now and  have been talking about it even longer.  And yet, I'm still surprised that "today" has arrived.  Today, Zak took his test for his learner's permit.  This boy......my boy, should not be old enough for a learner's permit.  This boy......my boy,  should still be chasing the dog around with his little foam baseball bat.  This boy.....my boy, should still be on the floor, contentedly playing with legos.  This boy.......my boy, should still look like this:   And yet, sadly for me, he does not still look like that.  And, sadly for me, today all his paperwork was in order.  Sadly for me, he actually studied the driver's handbook before he went in to take the test.  Sadly for me, he seemed to have no trouble with the test whatsoever.  Sadly, for me, he passed with flying colors on the very first try.   And also sadly for me, he already owns his own truck.  Once Tara totalled our family van (my Ford E-350, V-10 SuperDuty 15 passenger pride and joy), we determined that the kids would NEVER AGAIN be allowed to drive the family vehicle.  We determined at that point, that as each successive child reached the legal driving age, we would require them to work for, save for and purchase their own vehicles.  Tara bought herself a Pontiac Grand Am.  We liked it so much that we looked for another Grand Am for Rachel.  Of course, Zak did not want "no stinking little racing car."  Zak wanted a truck.  So, his daddy found him a TRUCK. Zak's truck is a Ford F-250, extended cab, 8'bed, with a tow package and a plow.  Best of all (according to Zak and his dad) it's a diesel!!  Can you just hear Tim Allen grunting like a caveman over this one? RAARAAARAAARAARAAA!!  Of course, it's not a *new* truck.  I think it's a 96.  But even so, Zak is in love!  And so, today, my boy.....my very big, tall, and strong boy, has moved one step closer to manhood.  As much as it makes me sad to see my little boy fade into the pages of my memory, I am so proud of the man that he is becoming.  I am proud to see him taking those steps with courage and boldness.  I am proud that he is a hard worker and was able to work and save to be able to provide himself with a good truck to drive.  I am proud that as much as he is the strong, silent type, he has an obvious soft spot for his baby sister and scoops her up into his arms every time he walks past her.  I am proud that he has the dignity to open doors for young ladies.  I am proud that this boy is my son.  This boy.....my boy, has become a young man.   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamasaidtheredbedays/488311/ Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:10:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamasaidtheredbedays/488311/ Today I spent $8 with the hope of completely transforming my life.  And, I truly believe that my little $8 purchase has all the potential in the world of accomplishing that which I desire.  And, what I desire... (aside from a luxurious month-long vacation in a sumptuous villa, fully equipped with maid, butler, masseuse, and professional chef, right on the sands of some remote corner of Hawaii, Costa Rica, the Bahamas--oh, any white sand, clear blue-water, palm tree-laden beach will do)  sorry, I'll wake up now...Back to hard, cold reality...what I desire is for my life to be a smooth-running, organizational dream.  I so desire that my days will be laid out for me in such a way that I can accomplish the tasks of keeping my house straight, educating my children, preparing our meals without having to take out a loan to pay for the food, getting bills paid on time, being able to find matching socks for just one kid just once during the week, giving time to others, and being able to remember the last place that I left my brain.  Yeah, that would be nice.  It's really nice to know where I've set my brain down, as it comes in handy from time to time.  And so, today I spent $8 for a chore planning system that will prove to be my knight in shining armor.  Well, maybe not *shining* armor, as I would probably have to polish it first and I know I don't have time to add "polish armor" to my to do list. Now what, you may ask, could possibly accomplish all that I desire for a measly little $8?  Well, I bought the printable chore organizing system from Motivated Moms.  ( http://motivatedmoms.com/ )  And in doing so, I confirmed what I had already suspected and my mother has probably known since I was born.  I am a box-checker.  Probably a bit of a free-spirited box checker, but a true and bonafide box checker all the same.  I delight in planning things out.  I love to plan out my next year's curriculum studies.  I love to plan out vacations.  I love to draw floor-plans.  I love to plan out just about anything that can be planned out.  The more fun the event, the more exciting it is to plan out.  However, planning out chores that need to be done around the house?  Well, that's just not as much fun as planning a vacation.  And because household chores are jobs of tedious, not to mention overly-repetitious monotony, the planning of said chores also becomes as much of a drudgery as the actual performing of the tasks themselves.   Hence, my true need to spend $8 for a handy-dandy little chart where all my chores have been laid out for me for an entire year!!  Oh what delight!!  What joy!!  So, I have bought and downloaded and printed my delightful choreganizer.  I have 3-hole punched each and every page.  I have set it up in a notebook.  I have read nearly every page for the entire year.  I have added the birthdays and anniversaries of both sides of the family to each appropriate date.   AND (drumroll please.............................) I have actually completed 3 of the tasks for today's date!!  Joyfully, gleefully, and dare I say, giddily!  And why wouldn't it be fun to do my household chores?  Someone else has decided what needs to be done today.  Someone else has laid it out and organized it into a page that send shivers of joy up my spine.  I did not need to have my brain in hand to figure out what jobs I should tackle today.  Best of all, someone has given me adorable little boxes to check off when each job has been completed.  Today I swept my front porch.  It's been bothering me for about 2 weeks because it's really been needing a good sweeping.  Today it got one!  Today I changed the sheets on my bed.  That's been bothering me too because everyday I keep meaning to change them, but I get busy with other things and then it becomes time to slide between them before I fall unconscious somewhere else in the house.  My dishwasher got emptied and refilled, eagerly awaiting a few more companion dishes for the wash tonight.  I got some laundry done, so I don't get backed up with 60 loads again (not so sure my sister-in-law will come to my rescue a second time!)  And best of all, the dogs actually got fed today!  They usually get fed (I think), although they're definitely fat enough that they could probably live off their own fat-stores for a month before you could tell they actually needed to be fed.  But, because the box got checked, I know FOR SURE that they got fed.  (Now maybe we won't keep refilling their food bowls 4 times a day!!) It feels great!  It feels wonderful.  I did not do an enormously thorough deep cleaning of my entire house today.  I just did 3 or 4 things.  But, I KNOW that I did them.  I know that tomorrow my handy-dandy little list will give me about 5 or 6 more things to do and they will get done.  In time, maybe my house will be straighter and more organized than it is today.  Maybe I will be able to find the blue sock with pink polka-dots that matches the other blue sock with pink polka-dots so that my daughter can wear them both at the same time instead of one blue sock with pink polka-dots on one foot and one green sock with grinning monkey faces on the other.   And maybe, just MAYBE, this list will help me to keep track of where I keep leaving my brain.  What do you think?  Have I just totally and completely deceived myself into thinking that my little $8 just bought the savior of my little household's world?  Yeah, that's what I thought! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamasaidtheredbedays/477250/ Fri, 8 Feb 2008 15:30:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamasaidtheredbedays/477250/ So, I've kept you in suspense far too long!  Two birthdays, out of town company, mid-year high school reviews, a baby with a rash, and a daughter with a bad back, plus regular daily life have just taken a priority over my blog.  So sorry. So, on Thursday, my sister-in-law, Lisa, decided that we were going to get ALL of my laundry done.  "Where,"  she asked, "is the nearest laundromat?"    She might as well have asked me, "How would you like to die today?"  You have never seen me hem, haw, and hedge like I did when she asked me that question.  You see, laundry is my greatest downfall, my most hated household chore.  It is nothing short of being my mortal enemy.  I have NEVER in my life been good at keeping up with laundry, even in the best of times.  Go ahead, you can even ask my mother.  (Once, she came over and was doing laundry at my house and actually found something like mushrooms growing in my dirty laundry!)  Give me a month with a well that works when and if it feels like it and I am totally inundated with dirty clothes.  Lisa is much better at getting her laundry done than I am and she insisted and persisted until I made some calls and found out where my local laundromat was.  Then she proceeded to grab a handful of garbage bags and started shoving dirty laundry into the bags.  I sat in my laundry pile, trying hard to sort out clothes and trying even harder not to burst into tears at the sheer enormity of what my sister-in-law was "forcing" me to do.  Not only were there children present, but there were children EVERYWHERE!  I must not show my weakness.  I must be strong!  (Inside I was totally overwhelmed.)  Lisa led the charge and began to get the bags of laundry to the living room where we were going to get the boys to put them in the back of my 15 passenger van.  Very shortly, it looked as though the van might not be large enough to transport it all.  Maybe we should rent a tractor-trailer to transport it all.  By the time we had about 10 huge garbage bags totally stuffed full of laundry, I was becoming energized at the realization that I might really get all this laundry done and Lisa was becoming a bit overwhelmed at the enormity of the task at hand. To my utter dismay and surprise, we decided to just do the 10 bags and 7 laundry baskets-full and leave the rest for another time.  We got to the laundromat and it was pretty empty.  We realized that there were 3 tremendously large, mega-industrial sized washers and about 6 medium industrial sized washers.  Okay, this might not be too terrible after all.   We got what seemed like about 400 pounds of quarters and started loading.  And loading.  And loading.  And loading.  And loading.  And loading.  And loading.  Well, you get the point.  However, what we discovered was that a mega-industrial sized washer would wash about 7 normal washer loads at once.  OK!!  Now, we're getting somewhere.  This was actually getting really exciting.  Things got even more exciting when we realized that the mega-industrial washers completed the wash in only about 15 minutes.  We had our shopping carts and it was like a race between us to get the wash from the washer into our little shopping buggies and over to the dryers.  We were squealing like two little girls on Christmas morning.  Anyone else in the laundromat must've thought we belonged in the local insane asylum.  Once we got about 10 dryers going and another round of mega-and medium industrial washers going, we called my daughter Tara.  I told her to grab her cousin David (Lisa's oldest son, who is only 3 weeks younger than my Tara) and get ALL the rest of the laundry that was ANYWHERE in the house and bring it (along with lunch for me and Lisa) to the laundromat.  I was absolutely giddy with the overwhelming delight of the situation.  All I remember was Tara asking me, "Mom, are you alright?  Mom?  Seriously."  More delighted squeals went up from both me and Lisa when the dryers completed drying  in about 20 minutes.  We were on such a roll.  We started folding and folding.  Then the other washers began to finish and it was another shopping cart race.  We had to have had about 12 dryers going.  We folded and folded some more.  About the time that we got as much folding done as was dry, in walked Tara and David with about another 6 huge garbage bags of laundry.  We started all over again, but this time we were able to spread the love and excitement of the size of the washers with the kids.  They just didn't quite appreciate the efficiency of the situation.  They looked at us out the corners of their eyes when we squealed in delight at the amount of laundry that we could stuff into just ONE mega-industrial sized washer.  Then they looked at each other with that "knowing" look that could only say, "Yes, our mothers have really gone off the deep end this time." It was wonderful to have Tara and David around when the dryers began to finish their cycles.  They helped us fold and fold and fold and fold and fold and fold and fold and fold and fold and fold.  Well, you get the picture.  They were real troopers and didn't complain a bit, although they never did quite get into the extreme state of pure, unadulterated bliss that Lisa and I were in.  After about 4 hours of washing, shopping cart races, drying and folding and folding and folding, along with loading everything back up in the van (and boy, was THAT a trick!), with our backs burning in searing pain,  Lisa and I dragged ourselves into the seats of my van and got ourselves home.  We calculated how many loads of laundry we probably got done and we think it must have been about 60.  Really.  Sixty.  Truly.  To which I say, "My family has WAY too much clothing."   I have determined that before spring, I will cut every person's wardrobe by at least half.  I will NOT be doing this much laundry again!!  EVER!!  But, I must say that my sister-in-law is my hero.  Without her dogged persistence, I would never have gotten all that laundry done and caught up.  Without her to come to my rescue, I would have been buried under a true mountain of dirty laundry from which I may never have overcome.  Her selfless devotion to my family's laundry needs went above and beyond the call of duty.  She is truly a super-hero.  I have seen her cape flapping in the breeze behind her.  The kids may call her "Mom" or "Aunt Lisa" but I call her, "Soaper-woman"!!    http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamasaidtheredbedays/474512/ Mon, 4 Feb 2008 17:05:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamasaidtheredbedays/474512/ So on Wednesday morning, I got up at 7 am or so, after having crawled into bed a bit after 2:30, and I met my friend Amy at Curves.  I was truly surprised that I was able to put any effort at all into my workout.  Amy and I have wonderful visits at Curves and meet there 3 times a week.  After our workout, I stopped on the way home and picked up a couple of grocery items and headed on home.  Upon arriving home, I was greeted by a panic-stricken Tara.  She was absolutely white as a sheet and may have been hyper-ventilating as well.  "MOM, we have NO WATER!!!!"  Now an event of this magnitude would normally be a crisis of epic proportions to Tara in particular, who absolutely cannot ever leave the house without showering.  (I believe she would say it's against her religion or some other such reason.)  However, on a day when we had an extra 8 people in the house......well, lets just say that this was most definitely a crisis of epic proportions!  We'd been having a bit of a struggle with our well anyway, but I was hoping it would be more on the cooperative side while we had our houseguests.  Especially since the landlord had spent the majority of the previous Saturday working on it and it had worked fine since then.  Guess that was too much to hope for.  Our last name really should be Murphy.  So, it appeared that we were in for another family adventure.  I dutifully went to check the water, hoping beyond hope that the water would magically come splashing out of the faucet upon command.   But, much to my dismay,  just as Tara had so frantically announced, we definitely had NO water.  Not a single drop.  Well, this was going to be quite interesting.  Things like this have happened so many times in my life that I have learned to look at it as an adventure, or a challenge.  Lisa (my sister-in-law) was up for an adventure as well, and so we began to try to be creative about the situation.  We sent Mark out to the store to buy a number of gallons of water for flushing.  We figured that flusing was probably of utmost importance in a house with 2 working toilets and 17 people!  We called Danny and asked him what to do.  He told us to shut off the power supply to the pump and let the water build back up.  After about an hour, we had a steady stream of water-----for a little while.  We called the landlord and let him know what was going on and set up for him to come and work on it on.............Saturday!!!!  A whole 3 days away!!  Lisa and I had to determine who was most in need of showering and let that person get a shower, military style.  We were able to function quite well like that actually.  And, we figured out that if we ran out of water and flipped the switch for the well pump, in about an hour, we'd have more water.  BUT..........what to do with all the mountains (and I do mean mountains!) of laundry that needed to be done?  Because we'd been having this problem with the water suddenly just disappearing since before Christmas, my dirty laundry was quickly threatening to overtake the known free world.  But, I shall save that tale for another day!  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamasaidtheredbedays/463383/ Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:57:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamasaidtheredbedays/463383/ Fortunately for me, my in-laws are the friendly sort.  Last Tuesday night Danny's brother, Mark and his family, came to visit us.  They had car issues on the day they wanted to leave and weren't able to get on the road until roughly 6 pm.  They pulled up into our driveway around 1:30 in the morning.  After spending about an hour together, we all decided to take a bit of a nap before the sun began to rise.  We had people sleeping in all bedrooms in the house, plus the kitchen, the living room and one in the basement.  Oh, did I tell you that the headcount in my house was SEVENTEEN?!?! Yep, we were a family of 17.   The adults were outnumbered 3 to 1.  Believe it or not, everyone gets along amazingly well.  Lisa and I seemed to be on the same track many years and had babies in the same year.  A lot of my kids have a built-in buddy of a cousin.  Lisa's first son, David,  and my second daughter, Tara, were born 3 weeks apart.  Three years later, she had Micah in March and I had Zak in May.  Two years after that, I had Josh in January and she had Matthew in August.  Then she had Angelica two years after that, who is a primary reason that we have Megan (who is 3 years younger than Angelica).  Megan was born 6 months before her cousin Nathanael.  Then came my Darcy 11 months after Nathanael.  Three years after that Lisa was surprised by Sam, and two years after that I was surprised by Lily!  In a span of 19 years the two of us had 13 children between us.  And if it seems like it's always someone's birthday, that's because it IS always someone's birthday.  Every single month of the year, there is at least 1 birthday or anniversary.  May has the most, with 7 birthdays between all the aunts, uncles and cousins! For the most part the cousins get along like siblings.  They are great with each other, but will definitely squabble like brothers and sisters if they don't happen to agree on something.  I think that because my boys are so outnumbered by girls in our house, they really see their cousins as extended brothers.  Megan simply adores Angelica and is basically attached at the hip to her the entire time they are together.  There seemed to be plenty to keep the kids busy.  The trampoline was a big hit, especially since the weather was in the 60's the first couple of days they were here!  The kids jumped, they biked, they played X-box, they climbed trees, they played Wii, they shot air-soft guns, they raked leaves (ok, maybe that wasn't exactly FUN, but that was Uncle Mark's idea).  Mark seems to delight in seeing what needs work around my house and fixing it!  He fixed 2 sinks, helped snake out a toilet (that we found a pudding cup stuck in-yeah, that will make it difficult to flush!), he raked leaves, he changed the headlight on my van, helped my husband put in a new dishwasher, and helped our landlord with the well.  I'm sure he did other things too, and I'm just having a mental block.  I'll check and see if he does windows and if he's available for hire. We had a great time together.  I won't put all our week's adventures in a single post.  I'll put the rest of it in, as it happened (only it was last week and not this one)    http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamasaidtheredbedays/461187/ Mon, 14 Jan 2008 14:43:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamasaidtheredbedays/461187/ Oh the joys of language and babies!  Lily is now 16.5 months old and is really beginning to get a grasp of language.  The kids find her to be a great play-toy, and now the toy even talks!  I can't tell you how they delight in asking her the following couple of questions (over and over and over again!) Josh:  Lily, do you want to go to bed? Lily:  Naaa-ahh Josh:  Are you sure? Lily:  Mmmhmmm Josh:  Do you want to go night-night? Lily:  Naaa-ahh Josh:  Are you sure? Lily:  Mmmhmmm Plain, simple and makes him laugh every single time!   Lily, of course, thinks she is just as big as the other kids and now will laugh at them as they laugh at her.  She's absolutely at "maximum cuteness" age.  Not one of the kids can walk in the room without getting or giving a kiss to her.  They all have to scoop her up in their arms and squeeze that adorable little toddler body of hers.  And she is learning as well to run up to them with her little lips in the kissing position saying, "Mmmmmmmwah!"  And then, when anything happens that shouldn't, Lily is the first to say, "Uh-oh!"  I'm just so blessed and priviledged to have had the opportunity to experience these little ones 7 times over.  Lily is in the middle of what I call "my favorite age" which is between 12 and 24 months old.  I love my other kids too and there are absolutely really special times with them.  But, this little girl!  Right now, I'm SOOO wrapped around her little finger.  And my imaginary conversation with her goes like this: Lily:  Mama, do you want me to grow up? Mommy:  Naaa-ahh Lily:  Mama, are you sure? Mommy:  Mmmhmm    http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamasaidtheredbedays/455558/ Fri, 4 Jan 2008 16:18:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamasaidtheredbedays/455558/ I suppose that all the craziness of the season has subsided for most of us.  Ours was really not exceptionally busy; mostly I think I got a bit lazy in documenting it.  I will recount for you, however, the event that I feared to post prior to Christmas.  Feared to post, because I was afraid that my kids might actually read my blog on occasion and would discover their biggest Christmas gift. On Wednesday, December 12, I took the little girls to Wednesday classes and fully expected to stay there for the Mom's Respite group.  When I got there, Deb (the leader) was not there and group was cancelled for the day.  Hmm, what do I do with 2 hours of time and no people to cart along with me?  Ahhhh, Target, take me away!!  I jumped into the van and took myself straight to Target.  We needed toilet paper and stuff like that anyway, so the trip *did* have a purpose.  As I found myself blissfully, peacefully, and therapeutically strolling up and down the aisles of Target, I wandered into the electronics department.  Josh had made a comment that he sure would like a Wii for Christmas.  "I'll bet you would.  You and at least half of the other kids your age in America.  Good luck buddy."  And on this particular Wednesday, this particular Target had no Wii's available either.  HOWEVER......... The kid working the register was telling someone else that they were getting in a shipment of Wii's on Saturday night.  I grabbed the kid by the shirt and proceeded to interrogate him as any good mother would.  "When will this shipment be available?"  "Sunday morning, first thing."  "What time does the store open on Sunday morning?"  "8am"  "How many Wii's are expected in this shipment?"  "About 20"  To which an older, and more knowledgeable saleskid said, "No way goofball.  This is a MAJOR shipment and there will be at least 60 units."  (60 units, huh?  This could be possible)  "What time would I need to be here to be in line to make sure I actually get a Wii?"  "Oh, if you're here by 7:15, I'm SURE you'll get one."  (7:15?  I don't think so.  Gotta be here earlier than that.  But HOW early?)  (Do I REALLY want to do this????) I went home with my toilet paper and laundry detergent and a plan formulating in my brain.  I would go the extra mile for my kids and make a valiant, if not Herculean effort, to get a Wii for my kids for Christmas.  As the week marched on, I kept an eye on the weather reports for the weekend.  It was not looking good.  Saturday night the weather was supposed to get frigidly cold AND to rain, snow. sleet, all that fun wintry mix stuff.  Oh joy.  Have I mentioned to you just how much I detest weather like that?  No, well, I detest all the cold, rain, snow, sleet, wintry mix stuff. Saturday night came and I asked my dear, darling husband if he might be willing to get up early and go stand out in the cold, nasty weather and get a Wii for the kids.  "No."  Point blank.  He doesn't usually just say "no" flat out to me, so I knew it would be useless to try to persuade him.  I would be the one to do this.  I did not sleep well on Saturday night.  The anticipation of what I intended to undertake was too much in the forefront of my mind for me to be able to sleep well.  It was cold and extremely windy and raining very hard.  I kept wondering if I really wanted to go stand outside in this mess.  Would I be able to drive in this mess?  Was it just rain or was it ice?  Was it going to stop?   Again, did I REALLY want to drag myself out of my nice, warm, king-sized bed and go out into the cold and wet rain?  Are my kids REALLY worth this?  I concluded that, yes, they are worth it to me. I should have gotten up at 4am when I was doing my mental gymnastics, but somehow I persuaded myself to go back to sleep.  I reawoke at 6am.  I got up and got myself dressed in the warmest clothes I own and asked my darling one last time if he would be willing to do this for our kids, for me.  "No."   He rolled over and began to snore. Okay, here I go.  It wasn't raining anymore when I left the house, but there was ice on the trees and there were a number of large tree branches down in the roads as I drove the 30 minutes from my house to Target.  I decided that I was hungry and would risk a quick stop at McDonald's for breakfast.  Well, they must have been gathering the eggs and milking the cows for the breakfast of the guy in front of me because it took *forever* for him to get his meal.  Someone had pulled in behind me after I ordered, so I couldn't leave even though I was desperate to do so.  I think I might have put a dent in my steering wheel.  If this kept me from getting a Wii, I was really going to kick myself. Finally, I got my measly little bacon, egg and cheese biscuit and my Dr. Pepper and headed the rest of the way to Target.  Somehow I got behind a fearful little old someone who would not even drive remotely near the speed limit on the little 2 lane road between McDonald's and Target.  Talk about frustrating!!  As I pulled into Target, I noticed that the parking lot looked QUITE full for 7am on a Sunday morning.  And that's when I saw it.  I saw the LINE.  The line that extended from the front door to around the side of the building.  My heart sank.  But, I proceeded to park my van and RUN to the line to get a number.  My number was 102.  Again, my heart sank.  If they had gotten in 60 units, there was no way I was going to get one.  I asked the guy how many units they had gotten.  "Between 100 and 150."  Wow.  That trip to McD's could have been a deal-breaker if they only got 100.  But, I got in line anyway.  Across the parking lot there was a Best Buy with a long line too.  Apparently, they had only gotten 87 units.  People were coming from there to get into Target's line.  All of us in line were talking about who we were in line to buy for.  It was a jovial bunch standing out in the cold, wet parking lot that morning.  We found out that the guy who was number 1 in line had gotten there at 9pm the night before and had camped out at the front door all night long.  We found out that a guy in line at Best Buy was willing to sell his spot in line for $200.  We learned quite a bit about each other, not a single bit of which I remember today.  Around 7:45am, a manager came down the line with "official" numbers.  I moved up to number 101.  When he came by, I just had to ask, "Do you know how many units you have this morning?"  "Yes ma'am.  We got 114 units."  AND I GOT 101!!  I did it!!  I made it just in time!!  You should have heard the groan of dispair that went up from the folks just 13 people behind me.  It was officially 8:32am when I finally got through the front door and into the store.  I had only had to endure about 15 minutes of cold drizzle before I got inside.  And so, my kids got a Wii for Christmas.  I'm glad.  I'm glad that I got up to brave the cold and the wind and the rain.  I'm glad that I got there just in time.  I have to admit, it's really tons of fun to play.  I can do things on this machine that I could never do in real life.  I have bowled a 205!  I have shot a 40 on a 9 hole golf course.  Then again, there are some things that one will just never master.  Tennis; not my thing.  I haven't even tried Boxing.  But all in all, it's a lot of fun and it is a good fit for the wide range of ages we have in our family.  I told my kids the story of how we actually got a Wii.  They'll never truly appreciate it, but overall, maybe it wasn't such a big deal.  Afterall, *I* didn't camp out all night long in the wind and the rain like Mr. Number 1 did.  I got to stay in a warm, dry bed most of the night.  And I ended up with exactly the same thing as Mr. Number 1.  I just happened to be Mrs. Number 101!    http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamasaidtheredbedays/454947/ Thu, 3 Jan 2008 16:35:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamasaidtheredbedays/454947/ Do your kids like eggnog?  I didn't like it when I was a kid.  I think it was the name that really turned me off.  Any drink made of egg just could not be good.  It just sounds slimy to me.  Not appealing to consume in liquid form.  And NOG!  What in the world is NOG??  And where did the word "nog" come from anyway??  (I'm sure that some wonderfully trained etymologist out there knows, but I don't.)  Combine them together and it just doesn't sound like an appealing drink to a kid.  However, my kids are of the abi-normal kind, and as such, they just love eggnog!!  Rachel just came home from school with stuff for supper.  It's taco night here.  Quick and easy, just the way I like it.  She also got 2 quarts of eggnog.  Somehow, Darcy has extremely sensitive eggnog-detectors in her nasal cavities.  We hadn't even unpacked a single grocery item, but she was already in the kitchen just chugging down quite a large cup that was quite full of eggnog.  Having polished that off, she happily poured herself the rest of the quart.  Of course, I was sitting right here at the computer, less than 5 feet away from her.  In my own defense, however, I was not facing her and it did take me a couple of minutes to return from computer-coma so I could detect and decipher what the glug-glug-glug-mmmmm noise behind me actually was.  By the time I turned around, surveyed the situation, and determined it required an immediate eggnog intervention, the entire quart of eggnog was gone.  Finito.  Or as Lily would say, "All done!"  Darcy, in one fell slurp, consumed enough caloric-intake for more than half the day!  Thank God that this eggnog is the harmless, grocery-store, non-alcoholic variety.  It appears that there's enough left in the other quart for each of us to have about a shot glass worth.  I guess Darcy may need to be enrolled in a 12-step Eggnoggers Anonymous program.  Or,  maybe we should just hide the rest!  Gotta love that girl.  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamasaidtheredbedays/438156/ Mon, 3 Dec 2007 17:00:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/mamasaidtheredbedays/438156/