My Bluebird of Happiness

Most of what makes Christmas so special to everyone is the traditions we have all grown up with or have created for our own families.  Everyone's traditions are different.  It might be singing a certain song on Christmas eve.  It could be a certain order you open gifts.  It might be something common among lots of families, like leaving milk and cookies out for Santa.  Or it might be something personal and unique.  There are lots of different ways to have a tradition.

I have grown up with a few traditions in my family.  One that I really like is how my grandmother would buy each of her grandkids an ornament to attach to our gifts.  She has given me twenty eight ornaments over the years.  Each one hangs on my tree every year.  My mother has carried on the tradition by giving my sons an ornament with their gifts.  Connor has four, Kenny has one.  I started a small tradition after Connor was born of buying him a book each Christmas.  He gets books all through the year and has a bookshelf full of books. But I love to read and I hope that he will too and I liked the idea of giving him a book every year.

I have a special little tradition I do every year that's just for me.  When I was little, I don't remember what age, but I do remember this happening, I would stand and stare at my grandparents Christmas tree, looking at all the ornaments.  There was one ornament that I fell in love with.  It was a little bluebird.  It was wood, painted blue and white with little colored dots.  Every year my Pawpaw would take it down and let me play with it.  Then one year, he told me, my sister, and my cousin we could all pick out an ornament off their tree.  I picked the little bluebird.  Now, every year since I've had my own tree to decorate, it has always been the very first ornament to go on and the very last ornament to come off.  I don't remember how or why that started, but I always do it that way.  It's tradition.

This year my husband said he wanted to start the tradition of getting a live tree every year.  So we got one this year.  We'll see about next year.  My husband is kind of the forgetful type.  We might get to next year and he might rather go back to our old faithful fake tree.  But this year we have a live tree, which is wonderful.  It smells so good, it's a great shape.  I finished putting the ornaments on today, and just like always, the little bluebird was the first one on it.  That tree had no idea what it was destined for as it was sitting outside of Wal-mart in the gardening section.  It didn't know that when we walked up, it would be going home with us, that it would be lucky enough to carry on a special tradition of mine.

Give Thanks....Now Grab What You Can

I know Thanksgiving was a week ago today, so Happy late Thanksgiving.  I hope everyone got to spend the day with the ones they loved and stuffed themselves full of turkey, dressing, and all the trimmings and desserts.  I know I did!

So we spend all of Thanksgiving day giving thanks for everything we have.  At least, we're supposed to.  I give thanks to God every day for all that I have and on Thanksgiving I just repeat that.  I'm thankful for my husband, my children, my family, God's salvation, my church and church family, my music, my love for reading, and everything we have, like my husbands job, enough money to get by on, a roof over our heads, clothes on our backs, and a few extra personal possessions that make me happy.  I'm very happy with all that I have and don't ask for much more than what I do have.  My husband and I were talking about Christmas and how we just want to get the boys Christmas presents.  He agreed with me when I said I couldn't really think of anything that I wanted.

Which brings me to the point of this blog.  This crazy tradition the retail world has started known as Black Friday sales.  Let me get this straight: We spend all day on Thursday being thankful for all we have, eating a good meal with our family and friends, being these nice, sweet, even Christianly people.  Then we leave our houses, go stand in line outside a store for hours in the freezing cold and when the stores open, we run in, trampling other people, to grab as much as we can, usually away from other people, because these things are on sale?

Now, I have participated in this madness twice in my life, and never again! One year, I went to Walmart with my husband, mother in law and sister in law.  We got there sometime close to midnight I believe and didn't get back home until somewhere around 4 in the morning.  I had never seen Walmart so packed! It was insane.  I didn't really do much shopping.  My husband wanted a GPS, my sister in law was getting a popular game system for her son, and mother in law was picking up different things for the grandkids.  I found a movie I wanted.  We pushed and shoved our way up front, stood in line for a while, paid for our things and went home to collapse in bed.

Last year though, I actually dived in with the other people trying to grab things myself.  Never in my life have I ever experienced such greed.  So here's the story: My husband and I had already made a list of the toys we wanted to get our boys for Christmas.  It wasn't alot, just a few things for each boy.  But most of what we had picked out was going to be on sale at Walmart during Black Friday.  So Thursday night I talk my mom into going to Walmart with me to get their things.  I was thinking of the money I could save.  My husband didn't want to go, so he stayed home and took care of the kids.

My mom and I got to Walmart around 11.  It was already packed.  We had parked way out and walked to the store.  Everything that was on sale was wrapped up in plastic on these wooden crates out in the middle of the aisles.  Whatever you wanted, you stood by that crate and waited for midnight when they would be opened.  One of the hottest items was the Just Dance 3 game.  My mom offered to stay there while I went over to the crate that had the Tag Readers.  My oldest son loved the first two Just Dance games and I wanted him to have the Tag Reader.  So I'm standing there, chatting with these other ladies.  They seemed nice, it was only about four of us standing at the Tag Reader crate so we were all confident we would get the ones we wanted.  At ten til midnight, from the front of the store, comes this scream.  We all look down the aisle, and there comes this roar up the aisle like a tornado.  People had started ripping into the crates, as each group saw the one in front of them tearing into a crate, they would tear into their own, and it caught like wild fire.  The woman standing beside me said, "oh well," and tore into the tag reader crate.  She reached in, got the one she wanted then handed me one.  As I was walking away, Walmart employees were running and shouting, "Put it back! Put it back!"  Of course no one was listening.  They had their hands on what they wanted and there was no way they were letting go.  I paused, wondering if I should.  But I looked back and there were still plenty of Tag Readers left, so I kept walking too, feeling a little guilty.  Like I cheated.  We found out later that a fight had broke out up front, and in the middle of that chaos, people took advantage and started tearing open the crates.

I get over to the Wii game crate to see my mom, squished between two people and a buggy.  Some woman had wedged her buggy up against the crate so no one else could get close.  My poor mother looked so uncomfortable and so out of her comfort zone.  See, we are not pushy people, we are not confrontational.  This was not the place for us.  When she saw me coming she said, "You stand here, I'm getting out of here, I'm scared!" So I hand her the Tag Reader and tell her I'll wait.  When midnight actually came, the people at the game crate got downright ugly.  The Just Dance games were gone before I could even stretch my hand out to grab one.  The woman with the buggy grabbed one at the same time as a man did and they tugged over it, yelling at each other, and calling each other very ugly words.  I got out of there as quickly as I could.  We walk over to the glass doors, where all the games are normally kept, and there are a bunch of Just Dance games in there.  So I stand there while my mother goes to ask if we can get one of those.  While she's gone to find an employee, more and more people are gathering around me as they too realize there are Just Dance games.  I hold my position.  I was there first.  But if fists started swinging, I would let the game go.

So an employee came over, shoved her way through the crowd to the door to unlock it.  By this time, I look like a bug on a wind shield.  The crowd had me pressed up against the glass.  The employee unlocked the door, the crowd surged, she grabbed a game and held it up.  Never mind that I was there first, she just held it up for whoever could get there first.  I have a very strong sense of fairness, and that just really made me mad.  But I was able to grab it first since I was the closest.  I clutched the game close to my chest because I thought it might be possible to actually lose a hand or an arm if someone spotted me with the game and tried to jerk it away from me.

After that, my mom and I went around to the toy aisles and found the last few items that we wanted.  We kept the Just Dance game hidden under the other toys because everyone was looking for one.  So we battle our way up front and get in line.  And we wait.  And we wait.  We inch forward.  And we wait.  We stood there for an hour and a half.  Finally, with sore legs and numb feet, we reach the cashier, pay for our things, and get the heck out of Walmart.  My Mom swore if she never saw the inside of a Walmart again it would be too soon!! We hurry out to my car, keeping an eye out for any crazy person that might try to grab our bags and make it back home in tact.

Jokingly, I asked my mom this year if she wanted to go with me again and I got a very emphatic "NO".

I told my husband about our experience and I described it as just pure greed.  Watching all those people fighting over THINGS, calling each other horrible names over THINGS.  I never fought over one thing in that store, I was not going to compromise who I was for a THING.  I'm not saying everyone who goes shopping on Black Friday are greedy, horrible, people.  There are a lot of people that are nice about it, who can shop Black Friday and still be civil.  Alot of people shop Black Friday simple because the savings will allow them to buy Christmas for the kids and family.  That was my reason.  I didn't buy anything that Black Friday that was for me or simply because it was on sale.  I had a list of toys for the kids and that's the only things I bought.

Just remember, you've spent the day being thankful for all that God has given you.  Don't turn into a monster the next day just for a few more things you probably don't even need.  And be careful if you do shop Black Friday, because there are monsters out there that will do whatever they have to for that one item they can't live without.

Something Pretty, Something Yummy

Another twofer! Just in case you didn't read the last post that had a twofer in it, here's the definition of a twofer: Two for the price of one! Today's twofer features Something Pretty, a game holder that can help decorate your house (hey, another twofer! I'm full of 'em today!) and Something Yummy, a snack, to go with the game!!



Something Pretty
So here's the story. Cause I'm one of those people that has to explain everything, I can't just give you this without you knowing the whole story! My niece went with a friend to Florida and discovered a game called Bananagrams.  (It's a game that's sort of like scrabble, but you work on your own instead of together and whoever uses all their tiles first wins.  It's very addicting ) She came home, ordered it from Amazon and introduced me to it.  FUN! My mother in law loved it so much, she bought her a set.  But the bag it came in broke, so she put it in a zip lock baggy.  Well, I kept borrowing the game from her so much, and having the broke bag, she decided to buy her another set with a new bag and let me have the set in the zip lock baggy. Then the zip lock baggy ripped open and I had to find something to do with them.  Being the pack rat, scrapbooky person I am, I save glass jars like a squirrel puts away nuts for the winter!! That's when the lightbulb went off over my head.

 I took an empty, (washed) ragu sauce bottle and put the game inside

 Picked out some paper, orange is my favorite color.  I then ran some Tim Holtz ink pads over it I, waded it up some and straightened it back out and then ran some brown color over.  The crinkles were the only part that picked up the color.  Then wrapped the paper around the far and glued it.

 I made a tag to label the game.  I not sure I like this tag, I'm thinking about running it through the printer or something to make the letters a little neater 

 The lid had writing all over the top that would ruin the whole look of the pretty jar.  So I took the gold colored paint dabber and covered the lid.

 Lastly I picked out some ribbon, wrapped it around the jar a couple of time and tied the tag to it.  Viola! A pretty jar that I can set out to look pretty while holding one of my new favorite games!

Something Yummy

Now while you're playing this really fun game, you're going to need snacks to enjoy! I found this snack in a Four Ingredient Cookbook one of my former piano students gave me for Christmas one year.  I've been making these for years and my husband loves them.  These are called pizza crackers.  They're quick, easy, and yummy.

What you'll need:

Round Ritz Crackers

1 Package of Pepperoni

1 Package Mozzarella Cheese

Ketchup

How to prepare:

Lay your Ritz crackers out on a pan, I put the salty side down cause I like tasting the salty part as I eat the snacks.

Next, squirt a little ketchup on each cracker

Then, lay a pepperoni on top of the ketchup 

After the ketchup and pepperoni add cheese on top.  You can put as much or as little as you want.  I'm a little obsessed with Mozzarella cheese, so I use a lot.

After the cheese it's ready to pop them in the oven.

 Bake them at 400 degrees for around 5 minutes or until the cheese gets good and melted.

 Give them a minute to cool off and....

..you're ready to enjoy these yummy little snacks!

So there you are.  My twofer just for you! Now, go out and buy Bananagrams (Cause you'll love this game) buy some Ragu sauce (so you'll have the jar to put them in), scrapbook supplies (to do make the Ragu jar pretty), and all the things you'll need for the snacks, (to enjoy while you play Banangrams!)

Enjoy!

I'm a Musician.....with kids

When I was six years old, my mom decided I should learn to play the piano.  I got no say in this at all.  For the first five years I was hauled and dragged back and forth to piano, and forced to practice everyday.  I even remember this one time when my mother, the queen of guilt trips, guilted me into practicing.  Yes she did.  And there was the time the she threatened to glue my hiney to the bench until I practiced.  At that point I was ready to quit.  I begged my mom and dad to let me quit! They admitted later on that they came very close to letting me, but they stuck it out and made me stick it out.  After that, I started getting into songs I liked, and I started enjoying it more. (Yep, that's me in the picture! My first real piano sat in the kitchen for a long time, then it got moved to my bedroom)

Getting ready for my recital in 2002

When I reached my senior year of high school, music started meaning more to me.  I started appreciating my ability to play piano, and even though it was still hard to make myself practice, I didn't have to have my mom making me sit down and practice.  I wanted to share my knowledge and my love of music, so I decided to try my hand at teaching.  My very first student was my grandmother.  I fell in love with teaching music.

In 2008 I decided I wanted to try going to college and getting a Bachelor's in Music Education.  You know, college is hard! Not only did I have to take all the music courses, but I had to take General Education courses too.  Things like history, english, math and even speech! It's even harder when you have a spouse and a child at home.  It was hard to find time to do the wife and mother thing while trying to get homework done, papers wrote and squeeze in a enough practice time so that your professor doesn't give you that look that means 'you could do better.'!  I got two semesters down and stopped.  We wanted to have another baby (Kenny) and I refused to do college pregnant and then with a newborn.  It probably would've ended with me in an insane asylum for the protection of those around me.  But while I was there, I learned even more about music.  I learned a new appreciation for it.  I learned a lot of the technical stuff and the artistry stuff.  I learned that you have to learn rules of music so you can break them.

Today, I see my music as my gift from God.  He's given me so many things.  My wonderful parents, my adorable husband, the sweetest boys in the world.  But the music He gave me is all mine.  It will never leave me, it will never judge me, it will never get mad and give me the silent treatment.  It is mine to mold and shape, to use, to enjoy, to escape to.  Today, I am so thankful to my parents for making stick it out.  Today, I love to sit down an practice.

My Mother and me at one of my yearly recitals, we played a duet

The only problem with loving to practice today is that I don't ever really get to! My four year old and one year old make about impossible to practice.  As soon as they hear that piano room door open, here they come.  Like dogs when the snack bag shakes.  My college piano teacher gave us all a list of practice techniques we can use to help our practice time. One of the techniques says to create your own distractions and get used to playing with them.  His suggestion for a distraction was put a banana on one end of the keys and an orange on the other.  If only those were my distractions! He obviously never had children in the same room with him while he practiced.

 The first thing I have to do is pull Kenny down off the piano bench so that I can sit down.  Well this just upsets him something awful and he starts pitching a fit.  So while he's sitting by the piano leg crying, I sit down and get my music ready.  Now Kenny has realized I'm about to play, so he starts trying to climb up on the bench beside me, by grabbing my shirt sleeve and pulling.  I'm trying to ignore all this while continuing with my playing but now that he's up beside me he must play with me! He starts banging on the keys.  Most of the time he's in the higher keys, away from where I need so I have learned to tune out what he's playing and focus on my music.

Connor likes to sing.  He'll sing along with anything, even the songs I'm practicing.  Whatever I'm playing, whether he's heard it or not, he's singing along with it.  At the top of his lungs.  Again, I've learned to tune it out for a while.

If I can get them to stop banging on the keys and singing along, they do one of two things.  Start messing with the books on the bookshelves, usually making me stop playing and get up to put the books back, or the run out of the room and go deadly quiet.  That usually means some sort of disaster for me.  One day I realized they were quiet, came looking for them and Kenny, who can apparently reach the middle shelf of the pantry, had the cheeseball bag open, his face was completely orange.

One time I put them both in their room and told them to play in there until I was finished practicing.  I shut their door so Kenny couldn't get out.  I practiced for almost an hour, listening to them on and off.  I could hear them playing and laughing so I knew they weren't being traumatized by being shut up in their room alone.  When I was finished and opened the door to their room I thought for a minute that maybe a bomb had actually gone off in their room and I had just missed the boom, I mean some of those songs I practice are fortissimo (loud as possible).  So I didn't do that anymore.

There are the rare occasions when they're at their grandma's, or with their daddy outside.  I snatch those few and far between moments for some uninterrupted practice time.  I never would've thought that practicing all by myself could feel so good.  If you had told me when I was six that one day I would love practicing as much as I do, I would not have believed it.


I love my music and my piano.  I love my boys dearly.  But right now, with them little, trying to mix the two is hard.  But just so you know, I never discourage them from playing on the piano.  I only ask they play it while I'm in there with them.  I would never want to discourage my kids from expressing themselves musically.  I do hope one day they will both learn to play the piano and love it as much as I do.  

My Approach to Preschool

Yesterday I posted about starting preschool with Connor, all about my freaking out at having to do this.  After my big freak out I started thinking on what all I would need to do this and the different tools that are available to the home schooling mom.  Don't get me wrong, I am not home schooling, as soon as it's time I'm sending him up the road to the elementary school for kindergarten.

 I knew I would need a workbook for him.  I started looking online and found a few that I liked, but being me I didn't want to wait on the shipping.  So one shopping day while I was out with my mom we went into Barnes and Nobles and I found the Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills.  It says for kindergarten, but it had all the colors, shapes, numbers and letters.  Plus concepts like taller, shorter, longer, over, under, top, bottom, left, right, full, empty, etc.  So far it has been great.

But then I got to thinking, that once Connor did these pages, that would be it.  It would be impossible to erase each page if he had to work it again.  How could I make sure he got the most out of this book as he could. My first thought was scanning each page as he did it and printing it out. But that was going to be a lot of work, a lot of ink, and a lot of paper.  That would end up being more expensive than the book.  As I pondered this I found myself in Kroger one day looking at something I had never seen before.

Dry Erase Crayons, I did not know they made these! Then my brain started that whirring and clicking it does when it gets an idea.  Page protector sheets, a notebook, and these crayons! Each page could become a dry erase page.  This way Connor could work each page as many times as he needed to.  This would be perfect for learning the letters, if he had to trace over them more than twice, which is how many times the book had each letter to trace, he could erase it and do it again.  Not only could he work them several times, but I could save the entire book for Kenny.  He'll be ready for this stuff in a few years.

So I started tearing out a few pages each day and putting them in the page protectors.  I only used the amount the came in the pack I got so that we only do so many pages a day.  This lets me time our preschool without having to watch the clock.  The pages that he masters right off I can take out and put in a new page, the pages that he needs more work on I can just leave in.
















As we got into using this on a regular basis, I started thinking about other things I could use to help keep his attention, make each lesson interesting and diversified.  My sister in law was cleaning out her shed one day and ran across some things she had used when she taught her children.  I remember using these in school, and apparently they're still used in school.  They were called Versa tiles when I used them, the ones Connor has is called Think it Through tiles.  Each book has two parts, Connor has to match the tiles, letters to numbers.  If the number one box matches the letter C box, then he puts the 1 tile in the C slot.  On the back of each number tile is part of a pattern.  When he's done, you flip the case over and if your pattern made by the numbers matches the pattern in the corner of the page, you got it right.  Connor loves it and is starting to get the hang of how to do it without my help.

Pinterest has been a great help in preschool ideas.  One idea I've found that I love is the Play Dough mats.  They're pictures you can slip inside page protectors (yay for page protectors!) and put play dough in the patterns, or follow directions like "Put five petals on the flower", "Put carrots in the ground for the rabbit", or "Put a face on the little boy".  Some of these pages were free printables.  But some of them looked kind of boring even for kids.  So I got to thinking how I could make it really fun and unique for Connor.  Those whirrings and clickings started up again and I thought, Spongebob, Connor loves Spongebob.  So I drew out a picture of Spongebob standing beside his stove at the Krusty Krab.  Connor has to help Spongebob make Krabby Patties! I tell him how many patties Spongebob needs and he makes the patties out play dough and puts them on the stove.

Connor had a lot of fun with this! I'm already thinking up more things we can do with things like Cars and Toy Story.






I wanted to do more play dough things today so I took some paper and wrote out some numbers for us to play with.  I'm planning on printing some out to look better with the number word on it so he can start associating the numeral with it's word.

And of course he has his writing tablet that we practice all out letters and numbers in that he learns.  I usually have him write what he learned the previous day while I'm getting the rest of his things ready so he can get used to writing them with a pencil.

So that's what we're using so far, I'm always looking for other tools and ideas, pinterest is a great place to find different things.  Sometimes Connor gives me ideas, and I try never to miss an opportunity for a learning experience.  He loves using different things to learn with.

Preschool with my Preschooler

My four year old son has reached the preschooler age.  Yay me. (Did you hear the sarcasm in that? Did you? It was there.) I checked into getting him into preschool at our elementary school, but they were full.  So instead of going through the hassle of filling out paperwork to see if we qualified financially and having him screened only to wait until kindergarten started, I made the decision to just do preschool at home.  How hard could it be right? It's not like I'm teaching him rocket science, it's just numbers, letters, colors, shapes, and a few concepts such as opposites and directions.  These are things I've been doing very well with since I was a preschooler.  As always, how wrong was I?

My first hurdle was getting past me.  I panicked! What if I didn't teach him good enough and they said he wasn't ready for kindergarten? What if the kids enrolled in preschool learned different stuff from him? What if they all passed him and he got left behind? I called my mom, freaking out that Connor was going to miss all this and be way behind everyone when he started kindergarten next year! She laughed at me! Yes, laughed, didn't try to hide it or nothing, just out and out laughed. Gee thanks, mom! But then she told me to calm down.  She reassured me that Connor was smart, he can learn this stuff as well as all the other kids, she told me I could teach him, I just had to calm down and take it slow.  Okay, so I breathed and finally convinced myself she was right.  Connor was smart.  He had been going around the house for a week spelling his name.

I went to my local Barnes and Nobles and found a workbook for him.  I brought it home and started looking through it.  All the normal preschool stuff was in there, no algebra or rocket science.  So that Monday I sat down with him to start.  I had envisioned us sitting down together, me explaining to him what to do, him doing it with a big smile on his face and then looking at me with wonderment that he was learning! Again, I was wrong.  We worked for five minutes and he started, "I don't want to do this, it's hard!" and "I want to go play".  I would try to tell him what to do and he would just sit there, sometimes telling me no.  So we stopped for the time being and I thought, "It's just the first day, he can't learn to sit still and do this in the first day".  The second day came, and the third, by the fourth day I panicked again.  I was about in tears with frustration because he kept refusing to do the work.  I called my mom again, freaking out.  "he's refusing to work, I beg, I plead, I bribe, I sweet talk, I yell, I threaten, I coerce, nothing is working, he'll never learn it, he'll be in preschool the rest of his life!" What did she do? Yep, she laughed again.  She again told me to calm down.  He's four, it's going to take a while for him to realize what it means to sit down and do school work.  If I can just be patient, he'll learn and then it'll be easy and he'll enjoy it.  At the time, I didn't believe her.

But you know, she was right.  (As usual)  After about a week of doing a little more each day he finally likes it.  He asks me after his nap if we're doing school today.  He lights up when I say we are.  He's picking up on everything so quick and is loving that he's learning.  He can write his first name, his letters A-J, capital and small, his numbers 1-8, he's learning to count and associate the written number with counting.  He's learned all the simple shapes and colors, and I think we're going to start on time soon.  He even surprised me the other day. We had just mastered writing the letter G and I asked him what letter was next.  He said, "I know, H, H is easy, I can write it, watch" and he wrote the capital H.  We had not even gone over H, but he wrote all by himself.  I was stunned.

So preschool at our house went from, "I can't do this, he's going to be behind", to "He won't work, he won't learn" to "Great job, Connor, now let's move on to this".  I'm so happy he likes doing the work and asks to do it.  He can't wait to start school and keeps reminding me that soon he'll be in real school.  I'm sure that'll be another panicky day and I'll be on the phone with my mom and she'll be laughing at me.  But that's still a little ways away.  Right now, I'm going to enjoy teaching him his preschool.

(When Kenny gets to be four, I'm going to get him enrolled in preschool early!)

My Opinions

Two things in the media have caught my attention lately.  I don't usually follow new stories and these haven't been any different.  Other than the fact that people have been making noise over these issues, I haven't followed them and don't know all the developments or details.  But everybody seems to have an opinion and I wanted to give mine.  So let me take care of something first before getting into it.  Opinion.  By definition an opinion is a belief or judgement that rests on grounds insufficient to produce complete certainty, a personal view, attitude, or appraisal.  Everyone has an opinion, but some people are mocked, criticized, or hated for expressing their opinion.  So maybe you already know where I'm going with this.


First of all, this whole thing about Chick-fil-a coming out and saying they believed in the Biblical definition of marriage, one man and one woman.  They do not support gay marriage.  I'm so very glad they did.  They had the courage to state their own beliefs, or opinions.  It's not surprising since the company is a Christian family owned chain of restaurants.  Now they are getting slammed from the gay supporters.  They're being called bigots, close-minded neanderthals, anti-gay, heathens.  For a group of people who are shouting for everyone to be open-minded and tolerant, they sure can throw the hate on.  Chick-fil-a did not say they would no longer serve gay people.  They did not say they would no longer hire gay people, or if they discovered gay people working for them they would be fired.  They simply said they believed in the Biblical definition of marriage.  I whole-heartily agree with them.  Being a Christian, my opinion is the Biblical definition is correct.  That's what an opinion is, when you believe something to be right.  It doesn't mean everyone is going to believe the same way as you and can't force them to.  Non-Christians have made it abundantly clear they don't like Christians shoving the Bible and religion in their faces and I can't say I blame them.  I don't like having different groups shoving their beliefs in my face saying "You have to be tolerant, you have to accept this, and you can't say anything mean or hateful to us." I've seen that trying to force someone to listen to my beliefs only turns them away that much quicker.  Until they have an accepting attitude, they are not going to listen to what I have to say about God.  Yes, I'm a Christian, I believe in God, I believe the things He says in the Bible to be true, I do not support gay marriage.  But will I ever be mean or hateful to a person because they're gay? No.  God teaches us to love our neighbors.  He didn't say only love your neighbors who are like you, or believe the same you do, or act like you, or dress like you.  There are no stipulations on this command.  He teaches to love people, but hate sin.  It's not going to do any good to go up to a gay, an atheist, or someone of a different religion, start wagging my finger in their face saying, "You're wrong, you need God, you need the Bible, you're living in sin, you need to get right." That's going to offend them, and when someone gets offended they're going to shut you out.  A Christian can't beat someone over the head, calling them sinners and then try to convince them that our God is a God of love.  So my approach is to wait.  I'm going to be nice, respectful and I will be your friend.  I'm going to live my Christian life in front of you and hope my actions speak for themselves.  Then if you ever come to me and ask about God or the Bible, whatever your sexual orientation, whatever your beliefs, I will then tell you what I believe because that's the only time a person is going to listen and maybe even accept what I say.  
Seeing all the hateful comments aimed at Chick-fil-a for their beliefs made me wonder why it was okay for the gay supporters to say anything they want in support of their lifestyle, even if it is hateful or close-minded, but Christians can't say what they want about their beliefs without being persecuted.  Tolerance is a two way street. If Christians have to be tolerant of each groups choices, then the same groups should be tolerant of ours.  Calling each other names and saying hateful things about each other is never going to get anyone to listen to the other side.




The other issue that evoked another strong opinion in me is the gun control issue.  What happened in Colorado at the theater was a tragedy and unfortunately has sparked another wave of people wanting gun control laws.  They shout that if we had these laws and we took guns away from the people then there would be less gun related crimes.  I just don't see the logic in that.  I think if the government was to take away all the guns, then the only people who didn't have guns would be the honest people who've never committed a gun related crime in their lives and never plan to.  Criminals don't follow laws, if they did, they wouldn't be criminals.  Criminals will be the only people with guns, except maybe the police.  Gun crimes will sky rocket because the criminals will know that no one will be able to defend themselves.  I always think about this: there's two scenarios.  First, the world where there are gun control laws and no one has any guns to protect themselves.  A man intent on robbing a store gets a gun and runs in, he knows for sure that no one in there has a gun, he has plenty of time to rob the store and everyone in it blind and get away before the police can get there, he's safe.  Second, the world where the people are allowed their concealed weapons and the right to use them judiciously.  The same robber thinks about robbing a store, before he runs in and robs everyone he has to wonder who might be carrying and will he survive this robbery.  He's second guessing and wondering if it's worth it.  Say he does decide to rob it, and more than one person including the store owner has a gun.  Chances are the people and the owner would only have to pull their guns out and the would be robber would probably flee the scene with out any violence.  And if he does go on and try to rob it? He gets shot.  If he's wounded he'll be treated and be arrested for attempted robbery, if he's killed, no one will have to worry about him hurting anyone else.  Criminals are going to target people who can't defend themselves.  If they have a choice they will attack someone or somewhere they know there are no guns, that way they don't have to worry about getting hurt.
I live in the south where most everyone has a gun.  Most of those people have done it the right way.  Both my parents went to the class, went through background checks, bought their guns legally and always have their carry permit with them.  In all the years they've had their permits, and carried their guns, they have never once had to even pull their guns on someone.  No one ever even knows when they have them.  
Criminals commit crimes with guns.  They also commit crimes with cars.  Are we going to ban cars? Criminals commit crimes with ski masks on.  Are we going to ban ski masks? Hollywood makes movies that depict people shooting other people.  Are we going to ban movies?  How far will the gun control people take it? I've seen videos of criminals attempting to rob different places using other things besides guns, there's been swords, knives, baseball bats, crossbows.  Anything can be a deadly weapon, not just a gun.  A gun in the hands of a responsible person only trying to protect his family is not a threat to anyone.
So my opinion: Everyone should get a gun and learn how to use it.  Less people would be victims and criminals would start second guessing before committing crimes.  


So this post may have been long winded and a bit tirade-ish.  But these were strong opinions I had on these issues.  These are my own thoughts and if they don't mesh with yours, that means you have your own thoughts.  I don't expect everyone to believe like me, this world would be pretty dull everyone was exactly alike.  But I do ask you respect my opinion as being my own.  You might be reading this thinking this woman is completely insane.  That's okay with me.  I might think the same about you if I heard your opinions.  But there again, what you think of me is your opinion.  Opinions are what make us different.  It's my opinion that all vegetables are yucky, doesn't make it true.  It's my opinion that I have the cutest, most adorable little boys on this planet.  My mother would say that's not an opinion, that's a fact.  But what mother doesn't think that about her children.  My point to all this is why can't people respect other people's opinions instead of being hateful to them.  If you don't agree with someone, you don't have to say anything, just walk away and leave them alone, unless you're both willing to discuss your opinions civilly.  

What A Day!!!

So, here's what happened.  In one of those "temporary insanity" moments, I decided to make Kenny's one year doctor appointment at 8:15 in the morning! The doctor's office is a good thirty to forty minute drive from my house.  But I need gas, so I need to leave earlier.  My mother is going with me, because a doctor's visit equals shopping trip, and we must not miss those opportunities.  So at 7 am, she's at my house and we're pulling out of the drive at 7:15.  I stop for gas, and we're headed to the doc's.

We arrive at the doc's office about fifteen minutes early and have to wait for them to open the doors.  In case y'all didn't know yet, I live in the south where the heat has now reached a 1,000 degrees.  So we're sweating our patootie's off waiting on them to open the door.  So we get in, get all the paperwork filled out because they haven't had me fill out a hundred times before, we must do it again, and me and Kenny go back while my mom and Connor stay out in the waiting room.  While we're waiting on the doctor, Kenny is having a good time walking up and down the exam table, climbing on me, trying to climb off the exam table, throwing a fit to be in the floor, and beating on the walls.  Finally the doctor comes in and says everything is looking great.  YAY! The doctor said he was above average in head circumference and height.  My mother (who wasn't in the room, remember?) heard, "He's a genius and the most adorable baby I've ever seen".

After the doctor, we went around the corner to where my husband works and saw him.  We love visiting Daddy at work, and Daddy loves to see us.  We said hi to everyone and Kenny showed off his walking and dancing skills as Daddy played his favorite, The Gummy Bear Song. (See last post to find a link to the song, if you've never heard it and want to)  Daddy gave Connor two dollars and told him he could get some ice cream after lunch.

So then it was on to the shopping.  After a successful trip into the clothes store where I found two cute tops, and a successful trip into Archiver's where my mom found a couple of stamps and Connor was on his best behavior, we decide to go eat at the food court in the mall.  On the way there Connor said he was going to buy a cookie with his $2.

Whoever designed the mall was either really smart, or really devious, because you can't sit at the food court without seeing the carousal.  As soon as we walk in Connor starts, "I want to ride that!" How much does it cost to ride the carousal? $2.  So I told Connor he had to choose, he could buy ice cream, like Daddy suggested, a cookie, like he was talking about, or ride the carousal, but whatever he chose he had to eat his lunch.  And he did! My picky, skimpy eater ate all his nuggets and some fries.  Then I asked him what he had decided to do with his two dollars and he wanted to ride the carousal, so that's what he did!

So then we headed to Wal-mart because the other day I got a phone call from the portrait studio offering me a free 10x13 photo for Kenny's birthday.  I made the appointment for 3 because I figured we'd be all day shopping.  Wrong.  We get to wal-mart at one! I thought maybe they might could get us in earlier, but nope, they were booked and then the photographer had to take her lunch.  I should have just rescheduled and went on home, but nooooooo! I come from a family of 'going to see it through no matter what' kind of people.  At 2 I decided I would go ahead and reschedule.  But the people ahead of us was still in there.  Finally, at 2:30 they left and I thought, "well, there's only a half hour left, might as well stay now."
An hour later we're finally leaving.  The kids are tired and my mom and I are beat.

Oh, but the fun doesn't stop there.  When we got home we went over to my mother in law's so she could visit with the grand kids and she was making spaghetti for supper.  After supper she gave Kenny the rest of his birthday present (It didn't come in in time for the party) It was a little CD player for kids and she had her daughter burn a CD with nothing but the Gummy Bear Song on it, over and over and over and over.  So now he can listen to it non stop as much as he wants.  I have discovered that when relatives buy presents for kids, they take no consideration for the parents sanity.  But it's okay, Kenny loves it and I love seeing my baby happy.  Besides, until he figures out how to turn it on and press the play button, I still have control over how many times in a row it plays!

So we were sitting there listening to the gummy bear song for the 158th time and my sister in law starts talking about the new movie Magic Mike.  I'm not sure how it happened, but before long she had talked me into joining her in making these pictures to put on facebook.  She made one with her fellow and I made one with mine.  Then we posted them on facebook and watched everyone start laughing! So I thought I'd share it here too:

So that was my day.  It was a really good day, the kids behaved, I got new clothes, Kenny got a good report from the doctor and I'm going to see Magic Mike with my sister in law sometime Saturday.  

Kenny's First Birthday Party!

Kenny turned one on June 22.  He actually had two birthday parties.  Since my husbands mother had to work on Saturday, she had him a little cake, ice cream and presents the night before.  It was going really good until Kenny grabbed his daddy's cup of milk.  Now, for the past few days Kenny has been drinking out of regular cups really good.  The only problem he has is when he's done, he throws it down! So when he grabbed Brad's milk, everyone got nervous except for me and Brad because we had seen him drink from cups.  I brag on him, telling everyone, "It's okay, he can drink from a regular cup, watch." What does he do? Dumps it all over himself.  So for the rest of the evening I'm getting teased and laughed at because I let him do it.  But it was nice, his granny got him this cute little activity table that plays music and lights up.  He loves it, he can stand up at it and dance.


The next day was his other birthday part for everyone else, mostly my side of the family.  I got the cutest idea for his cake.  Kenny, for whatever reason, has come to love the Gummy Bear Song <-- this is the link in case you've never heard it before--  This song can instantly change his mood.  He can be mad, upset, crying and screaming, but if we turn on the gummy bear song, he will stop, start laughing and dancing.  Since it seems to be the only thing right now that he just absolutely loves, I decided to have a picture of it put on his cake.  The Kroger Bakery does that.  I took them the picture and they put it on the cake.  Not only that, but Kroger, ours at least, gives a free little cake they call a "smash cake" on the first birthday for the baby to dig into.  It turned out so cute.  Being the procrastinator that I am, at 1:00 I leave to head to Walmart and get Kenny's birthday present, and then to Kroger to pick up the cake.  I got home with thirty minutes to spare!

Brad graciously volunteered to grill out for everyone.  Hamburgers and hot dogs.  I don't want to brag, but y'all, my husband can grill up some awesome food!! I love when he grills for us, it's always grilled just right, never burnt or under cooked, juicy, just perfect!! He started grilling as the grandparents and great grandparents arrived.  While he was grilling, Kenny entertained everyone by dancing to the gummy bear song! (His great grandparents were still laughing about this morning at church)



So we eat, and then pull out the cake.  We give Kenny his little smash cake and at first he's a little shy with it.  Then he realizes it's edible.  Before long it's all over his face, his clothes, his hair, the chair, up his nose and in his ears! That's when we decided it probably would've been a good idea to let him open presents before digging into the cake.  So while the rest of us are enjoying the big cake, my mom and grandma stick Kenny in the bath and wash him off.  We get him redressed and after my grandmother insists on coming his hair, which didn't do any good cause he ran his hands through it and messed it back up, we give him his presents.

All the presents are in gift bags so it's easy for him to open.  I encourage him to pull out the tissue paper in the first bag.  He leans over and looks in.  Clothes.  (Cute clothes) so he goes to the next bag, pulls out the tissue paper.  More clothes. (Even cuter clothes) On to the third bag, pulls out the tissue paper, and again, clothes.  (I'm happy, cause he's out grown everything else and the clothes are so cute) On the fourth bag he was done, he started playing with other stuff.  I knew there was a toy in the fourth bag because it was from me and Brad.  But I could not convince him to pull the tissue paper out of the bag! I finally pulled it out and tipped the bag over for him to see and then he wanted it out of the bag and out of the box so he could play with it!

So he had a great first birthday!

A Whole Year is Gone

My youngest son Kenny will be one on the 22nd of this month.  A whole year has passed.  I can remember a year ago I was so miserable.  I was ready for him to get here.  I was excited too, I couldn't wait to meet him.  I couldn't wait to see the differences between him and his older brother.  What would he look like? What would his likes and dislikes be? What would he show interest in? What would he care less for? Well, I've had a year to learn about him.  He's a very different baby than Connor.

Right off I noticed that Kenny was a very determined baby.  Most of the time he was relaxed, easy going, laid back.  He just went along with the flow, unperturbed by what went on in his world.  But when he decided he wanted something, like to be picked up, then he'd start whining.  If ignored, the whining turned into crying.  If the crying was ignored, it turned into screaming.  I say all this in the past tense, but he still does this.  Now he follows me around the house, letting me know he wants to be picked up.  I have had to pick him up and go put him in his crib to let him cry it out.  But since he's so determined, crying it out can last forever.  I've tried distracting him, I've tried picking him up and getting him calmed to put him back down, I've tried bribing him with food.  Nothing works.  Fortunately this doesn't happen a lot except when he's teething or going through a growth spurt.

We also discovered pretty early on that it doesn't take much to make him smile.  Me or his daddy can just look at him and we get his big goofy grin in return.  And he has the cutest laugh ever.  He's very ticklish and we've found all his tickle spots.  I love his grin.  He's got a small gap between his two front teeth and when he grins you can see it.  He'll throw his head bag, squint his eyes and grin as big as he can.  That grin makes my heart smile.  He loves to play and his favorite thing to do is play with faces.  He'll stick his fingers in our mouths, grab our bottom teeth and pull.  He also likes to pull on his daddy's nose.  He also finds it hilarious to smack us on the face and hear us say 'ow'!

Kenny is definitely a mover.  He's never still.  Trying to change a diaper on that kid should be an Olympic sport! He'll do one of two things: He either pulls his legs up to his chest and start playing with his hiney (that's usually only when he's dirty) or he waits until the diaper is off and starts rolling away.  It's hard to hold him down, keep his hands above his waist, his legs down and put a diaper on him all at the same time.

But the biggest thing I can't believe with him is how he eats.  Connor has always been a skimpy eater.  When he was 8 weeks old he was diagnosed with Pyloric Stenosis and had to have surgery.  He lost a lot of weight for a baby and since then has never really ate.  He also inherited my picky eating habits.  But he's healthy, he has plenty of energy, he's just skinny.
Kenny never stops eating! He is as opposite from Connor in the food department as one can be.  I have yet to fill this child up.  Even has a newborn, he'd nurse for a long time.  The only time I've seen Kenny turn food away was one time when he didn't feel good and had a fever.  My parents kept them the other night for my husband and I to go out for our anniversary.  They told me he ate supper, then laughed and said he ate 6 chicken nuggets and half a banana.  My mother in law was watching them other day while I was cutting grass and said he ate an entire grilled cheese sandwich and some pudding.  Last night he ate an entire bowl of a pasta dish I had cooked.  That kid will eat anything that doesn't eat him first.  When he sees food, he spits his pacifier across the room! It literally flies!


It has been quite an interesting year of learning all these new things about Kenny, like he inherited my curls, or his daddy's dimples.  Or how when he decided he wanted to walk he just started walking. (He's been walking really good for a couple of weeks now) and when he cries he has this heart breaking, pitiful cry that makes you feel like a terribly cruel person if you don't pick him up and comfort him.

They Grow Up Too Fast

I love the country song Don't Blink by Kenny Chesney.  There's a line in it that says "Don't blink, you just might miss your babies growing like mine did".  I'm finding that's true.

On July 11, my oldest will be four.  Four! That's how long I was in high school, that's how long my husband and I were married before we got pregnant with him! Of course he thinks he's grown.  I don't know how many times a day I hear "I'll do it myself", or "I'm a big boy".  He no longer needs pull-ups during the day, he's in a grown up bed, he drinks out of grown up cups, and now he thinks he can wipe his own little bottom. (That didn't turn out to good by the way).  I love seeing him grow up and learning how to do things, watching his mind figure things out.  But at the same time I realize he used to need me for these little things and now he doesn't.  In another year he'll be starting kindergarten! That's a day I'm not looking forward to.  We drive by the elementary school whenever we leave the house and I see all those little kids out there playing and I just know once he's turned loose in those kids I'll never see him again!  Connor's excited about going to school, he can't wait.  But I think that's because every time we drive by the school, he sees the kids out on the playground, so to him that's what school is, playing.

On June 22, my youngest will be one.  A whole year has gone by and it's felt like a few weeks.  In the past twelve months Kenny has learned how to smile, babble, grab, laugh, crawl, feed himself, hold his own drink, clap, put things in buckets, and now walking.  Last night I was putting sheets on Connor's bed.  I turned around to tuck them in at the bottom and Kenny was on his feet just booking it across the floor.  I counted about five quick steps before he lost his balance, fell and started clapping.  He was so proud of himself! I helped him back to his feet and took another four steps.  It won't be much longer before he's running around with Connor.








It seems that in a few short more weeks, they'll both be in school, then they'll be teenagers, then they'll be in college and adults and have their own lives.  But I'll always be their momma.  I know from experience you never get passed needing your mother.  My husband and I both still need out mom's.  So I'll always be here for them whenever they need anything.  But I wish sometimes I could slow down time and enjoy them being little just a little bit longer.

The Escape of the Keys

I know that there is rarely an easy day where everything goes perfectly and smoothly.  But do some days really have to be so stupid?  And why can't your brain just recall whatever you want it to?  Our brains remember everything we ever hear, read, and see.  We just don't have the recall capability.

I woke up this morning tired.  I really didn't want to get out of bed, but the kids are always up no later than 6:30am.  I wasted a lot of the morning sitting on the couch, trying to talk myself into getting up and getting something done.  It wasn't going very well.  I was just about resigned to spending the day on the couch until Kenny started wailing from their room.  The worst case scenario sprang to mind: He hurt bad, there'll be blood, broken bones, missing teeth he just grew in.  I get back there and Kenny's just sitting in the floor crying.  Connor has destroyed their room with toys.  So after I get Kenny calmed down I figure I might as well stay up on my feet to get some things done.

I go get dressed and start picking up each room.  I'm going along fine, watching the clock because nap time has to be right around the corner.  I make it to the kitchen.  There's a check laying there that I know I better put in my wallet to deposit in the bank tomorrow.  So, like always I open the back pocket of my wallet and put the check in.  In the back pocket of my wallet I keep extra keys.  But they've in there so long I can't remember what they fit.  So I thought, "I'll get my keys and compare them.  I'll know what these go to if they match any of the keys on my key ring." that's where my trouble started.

We keep a key hook in the laundry room.  It's really in a dumb place.  It hangs on the wall right over the garbage can.  When I go to get my keys, they're not there.  Okay, if they aren't on the hook, they have to be in the diaper bag.  I checked that diaper bag three times.  Then I dumped everything out and came just short of tearing the lining out, convinced those keys HAD to be in there.  They weren't.  My  darling hubby is always fussing at me to always hang them back up so I thought maybe he hid them to 'teach me a lesson'.  (He's did that with something else....once)  I called him to ask and he said he hadn't seen them.  Of course I got the speech on how if I would just hang them up every time I wouldn't be trying to find them now.

I go through my purse, I go through pants pockets, I go through the kids toy boxes, I look under my bed.  I called Wal-Mart to see if anyone had turned in lost keys, I texted my preacher's wife to see if I had left them at the church, I called my mom to see if they were at her house, I walked over to my mother in laws to see if they were there, I searched the car, the grass around the back porch, I backed the car up to see if they were under it, I even looked inside the shoes that sit in the laundry room.  Nothing.  They were just gone.  I just know if my keys could talk they would've been laughing at me, mocking me.  I wonder if Kenny ate them, since he seems to eat anything he can get his hands on.  I wonder if Connor flushed them like he did my MP3 player that one time.  And of course the whole time I'm looking for them Connor and Kenny are right underneath me.  Connors want to play a game, then he wants a drink, then he wants a snack, then he's had an accident in his undies, then he wants to go outside and catch bugs.  Kenny just wants to be held.

Then an awful thought hit me.  What if they had fallen off the hook and into the garbage that my husband had just sacked up and taken out to the big can last night.  I really didn't want to have to dig through the trash.

Well, by this time it was lunch.  I'm fixing lunch for the kids, thinking of any other place they might could be before going through the trash.  And while I'm pouring Connor some tea, I happened to remember that I had dropped some keys into the little bag I keep my Bible in when I go to church on Sundays.  I went to look and there they were! I was so happy at not having to go through the trash I was dancing around in the living room with Connor giving me a thumbs up and telling what a good job I had done!

So my keys are safely hung back up....over the garbage can. We really need to find a new place for the garbage can, or the key hook.  It's amazing how one discovery (keys being missing) can really throw your day out of whack.  I still feel befuddled.  Of course that could be Connor in there saying "Mario Galaxy" over and over and Kenny turning the DVD player on, which turns Connor's game off, which makes Connor fuss, which make Kenny laugh.  So yeah.  If my biggest accomplishment today is that I found my house keys, I'm good with that.

Cleaning House? That's a Joke!

Ever heard the saying "Cleaning your house while you have kids is like shoveling snow while it's still snowing"? I don't believe there has ever been a truer statement made!

I have been putting off my house work because I simply don't like doing it for a couple of weeks now.  I was keeping the laundry and the dishes done and that was about it.  The dust was actually starting to look at me as I walked past.....staring....with little beady eyes.....accusing me of being a terrible house cleaner.  The weird thing was when it talked to me, I heard my mother's voice.  Let me tell why this is such a big deal.  I come from a line of OCD neat freaks.  It's getting less with each generation so I'm not as bothered by a messy house as my mother or her mother.  My grandmother's house is immaculate every day, all day.  You could literally eat off her floors.  My mom's house is nice and neat and 99% of the time picked up and clean.  My house is liveable.  But I have two small children.

So back to my messy house.  I decided Monday I had to get some cleaning done, I couldn't take it anymore.  Then something else happened.  I think my grandmother somehow possessed me and I decided to clean out closets, drawers and cabinets because we had way too much junk.  I started in my bathroom.  I got the bathroom clean and opened up my walk in closet that was no longer walk in.  I started pulling out clothes, shoes, purses, and hats.  Just as I get my closet all torn apart, that point-of-no-return, the nine month old decides he's going to through the biggest fit he's ever thrown.  I pick him up and he hushes.  I get him calmed and then set him down.  He looks at me, his lip quivering, tears in his eyes, but he's quiet.  I get back in my closet, he starts all over.  For two hours, while I'm sorting through clothes that are too little or that I don't wear anymore, he's screaming.  I'm doing my closet as fast as I can, but he just kept screaming.

I finally get done with the closet and get him settled down.  So I tackle the drawers and cabinets in the bathroom.  This doesn't take me as long as my closet, but while I'm going through this stuff, Connor comes in and thinks all the stuff I have in the floor is for him to play with.  Every time I go to look for something or put something back, he's got it, pretending it's a race car or a monster he has to kill.

By the time I'm done with the bathroom (that's the closet, three drawers, three cabinets, the usual scrubbing down of the two sinks, the tub and the toilet, then vacuuming) it's lunch time.  Usually I can do both the boys lunch and nap at the same time.  But after Kenny's big fit, he's sleepy, so I feed him and get him down for a nap before Connor.  By the time I wrestle lunch down Connor, get him down for a nap and eat my own lunch, Kenny's ready to get up.

I spend the rest of the day and evening doing mine and my husbands bedroom.  Dusting, straightening up, cleaning out our bedside tables and vacuuming.  The entire time having to deal with the kids and the dog right up under my feet.  Because Connor likes to chase the dog and the dog will run to me for protection.

Tuesday morning I decide to tackle the dining room.  I've got a cabinet and a hutch that needed going through and cleaning out.  Luckily my mother in law was home and let Connor play at her house while I worked.  (She lives right beside us)  But Kenny uses me as a jungle gym while I'm in the floor cleaning out the hutch.  I'm able to get the dining room and part of the kitchen clean before lunch time.  This time lunch goes smoothly, which is rare.  I don't question it, I just enjoy it. I get them down, eat my lunch and enjoy a few minutes of peace before getting back to work.

By this time the need to clean out cabinets, drawers and closets has left and I'm done.  I decide to do just my regular cleaning and continue the cleaning out some other time.  I do dishes, scrub down the counters, dust off my pretties, or as we say here in the south, my purties, and make tea.  The next room on the list is the small laundry room at the back door.

By this time the kids are up and right up under me again.  We keep an 'outside toy box' in the laundry room that holds all the toys the boys are only allowed to play with outside: sidewalk chalk, bubble blowers, basketballs, soccer balls, and the quilt we use for picnics.  Somehow the bigger things have ended up on bottom and the smaller things are falling out the top.  So I pull everything out to get it back right and here comes Connor again.  "Can I play with that? Can I play with this? Oh, this is my favorite, I want to play with it!" I calmly (because they haven't driven me nuts yet today like they did yesterday) tell him, "No, those are only for outside." So you can guess his next question, "Can I go outside and play?"  again, calmly, "No, I'm cleaning right now and it's cold outside." So he starts whining, a new things he thinks will get him his way, even though it never has he keeps employing it.  I tell him to stop whining he's not going to go outside.  He keeps on until I finally shout at him to go play in his room before he gets in real trouble.  He disappears.  The whole time this went on, Kenny's snuck up behind and is playing with the 'outside' toys.  He's learning how to use his brother as a distraction to do what he wants.

I get everything put back, straighten up the shoes and start to sweep.  Kenny's sitting in the middle of the floor grinning at me.  I pick him up and move him out of the laundry room and before I can get back in the there, get the broom and start sweeping, he's back, grinning at me.  He thinks it's a game.  I move him again, run in there and sweep as much as I can before he's back.  We don't have a baby gate any more and I keep forgetting to pick one up.  I'm regretting this as I move from sweeping to mopping.  Because now every time I move him, he starts crying.  I get finished in there only to come find that Connor has destroyed the living room.  I think he was trying to see if all his toys would fit in the living room.

So today I'm working on the rest of the house.  Hopefully I can get most of it done today if not all and rest the next few days.  So far I've been able to keep the rooms I completed picked up and clean.  But I know they won't stay that way.  Usually when I get done with the last room, it's time to start all over again.  See, shoveling snow while it's still snowing.