CLICK HERE FOR FREE BLOGGER TEMPLATES, LINK BUTTONS AND MORE! »

Pages

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Trick-Or-Treat 2007














Two witches, a demon
skate-boarder and an
evil fairy/angel.

Monday, October 29, 2007

"Wii" Are Addicted

I swore I would never pay that kind of money for a video game system, but the Nintendo Wii (Wii is pronounced "we") looked like soooo much fun. I had spent the past month and a half trying to find one, but didn't have any luck.

Yesterday, I was looking through the Sunday Advertisements and saw that Meijer was going to have 10 Wii's in stock that morning. I really didn't believe we'd get one and I still wasn't sure it would be worth the money, but off we went to the store. As I steered my cart into the toy aisle I spotted an employee and the store manager putting one Wii box in the display case. My eyes must have lit up like a kid at Christmas because the manager took one look at me and said "Oh, you look like you want one of these."
I bobbed my head like a pre-schooler on a sugar high.

The rest happened so fast it was like a blur. Paid for it. Finished grocery shopping. Couldn't even concentrate, I was so excited. After dinner I hooked it up to 'Cole's tv.
And wowie wow wow... It was so fun !
We all took turns playing bowling, boxing, and tennis. No one argued. No one got angry about losing. We laughed and had a really enjoyable time. Plus, we got a heck of a workout. Boxing and tennis really require a lot of movement and I even worked up a sweat.
Best money I've spent all year.
The kids are excited about next weekend because we still have two more games to try, baseball and golf.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Pickles Cooks Dinner

There's no pictures of this, but I should have made a bigger deal about it. (actually I was kind of negative and it probably wasn't as enjoyable for him as it should have been...I'll do better next time)

I planned the menu and wrote out a grocery list for him. Pretty simple menu. He made Chicken Taco Pasta Bake, Garden Salad and for dessert Breath Mint Pie.

We went to the store and I handed him his list. I told him to gather the items on the list and off he went. I went to do my own grocery shopping.
He had about 10 things on his list. It took him a while to find everything (about 30 minutes) and I had to help him a bit, but overall he did pretty good.

Hopefully he learned alot. (but mostly he made a mess)

Dinner was enjoyable, he did a great job.

We will absolutely have to do it again.
Next time I'll take pictures.

Parenting Burnout and the Single Mom

I'm tired. There I said it.
Somewhere along the line I stopped being the parent I want to be and need to be.
I know I'm supposed to take time to rejuvenate myself and meet my own needs, but there's just not enough hours in the day for that.
I try to find quiet time at the end of the day when everyone is in bed, but find myself picking something up or just trying to wash a few more loads of laundry.

There's always so much that needs to be done. So much laundry, so many things to plan, so much stuff to pick up or clean up. (and don't even get me started on the girl's room)

I haven't been in the mood to pull out the board games this whole entire year. I think we only went bike riding twice this year. It's so much easier to do things with the kids outside the house. Saturday we went out for lunch at Steak and Shake and went to a movie ('The Game Plan'). and I was actually pretty relaxed.

Maybe it's cabin fever.

All I know is I feel stressed without any reason, and it is such a strange feeling because I don't know what is causing the stress.
The kids aren't acting any different, my job is remarkably easy, I'm earning more money than I've ever made, and yet I almost feel suffocated.

I used to be the fun parent. We would play games together, I'd give the girl's pedicures and manicures, we'd play legos together (that's strange, I haven't even seen the legos this year.).

Maybe I need a vacation.

It's time to make some changes, I know that much. I certainly can't go on like this.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Holiday Crunchtime

Pardon me while I freak out.

Ahhhhhhhhhh ahhhhhhhhhh ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Ok. I'm better now.
Where did the year go ? Wasn't it just June ? Didn't school JUST start ?
Now there are 62 days until Christmas.

The Christmas season is my favorite time of year. I love the family togetherness of my sister's Annual Christmas Party. I love watching the looks of surprise as the kids open their presents. I just love the meaning and the spirit of the season.

But I hate the shopping.
I try to do it early, because I'm soooo not a mall-shopping type of person. I do the majority of the shopping online, so much so that it seems like the UPS guy is at my house more than I am.

I've made mental notes of the things the kids want for Christmas. I cut back on the over-indulgent aspect of it about two years ago. Now the kids get their presents based on this:
Something you want.
Something you need.
Something to wear.
Something to read.

That little list has helped simplify my life so much and it helps me to be able to enjoy the holiday so much more.
The kids were used to getting mountains of stuff so it has been quite an adjustment fot them, too.

Apple Picking 2007



Last Saturday we were invited to go the Apple Orchard with my friend Marcella and her children. The kids spent the afternoon climbing a large dirt hill. (I have a picture of this....I think, but the camera needs batteries)

It was nice catching up with Marcella. She got married back in September to her boyfriend of two years.

After apple picking and dirt-hill climbing we took the entire gang to CiCi's Pizza. A great (cheap) place to eat for large families.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Grocery Day

Today was our weekly grocery shopping day, so I spent the day shopping with Pinky and Daisy.
First off let me say.... I love my daughters. I really, really do. But I hate shopping with them.

For my daughters the grocery store is like... Disneyworld.

It is a huge place full of interesting sights and sounds and people. To them it is almost as fun as Chuck E. Cheese. They could easily spend HOURS just poking the meat in the Meat Department.
I spent the entire trip saying:
"Please quit poking the meat."
"If you touch that again I'm going to make you buy it."
" Could you come back over here...please."
" We do not swing our sisters around in the store."
"You only have $9...no you cannot buy a $20 toy."
"If you keep playing in the store you are going to get hurt."

Five seconds after I said that last thing, I heard a BLAM from behind me. I look back briefly, Pinky is sprawled in the middle of the aisle.

I simply turned around and kept walking.

I'm a sympathetic parent...really I am. But after you've been told to STOP IT... well Mommy just isn't in the mood to kiss your boo boo.

So Pinky finished the shopping trip holding her hand in the air like a flag. (She had just the smallest scratch on it.)
Daisy had a piece of wisdom for Pinky after the incident. She told her
"Well, Mommy did tell you to stop."
Sometimes in order to learn something you have to learn it the hard way.



Sunday, October 7, 2007

Mommy Goes Bananas for.... Elisabeth Withers

The first time I heard this woman sing was on Emeril Live and I was immediately was captivated by her voice. Elisabeth has been captivating audiences in the Broadway production of The Color Purple.
Her song Simple Things from the album It Could Happen to Anyone just blows me away every time I hear it.

So if you have a moment drop by her MySpace page and take a listen...

http://www.myspace.com/elisabethwithers

and her official site http://www.elisabethwithers.net/

Pumpkin Spice Bread


It is October...right ??
Then WHY is it so stinking hot ??

I feel like I'm living in the Bahamas instead of Ohio !

But I didn't let the heat stop me from making Pumpkin Spice Bread.


It really did taste like Pumpkin Pie without the crust. Granny requested pecans and golden raisins in one loaf and while I'm not a fan of raisins in my Pumpkin Bread...it wasn't too bad.


Pumpkin Spice Bread
Submitted by: Delora LucasRated: 5 out of 5 by 26 members
Prep Time: 10 MinutesCook Time: 1 Hour
Ready In: 1 Hour 10 Minutes Yields: 32 servings

INGREDIENTS:
3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 (16 ounce) can solid pack
pumpkin
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 cup water
DIRECTIONS:
1.
In a large bowl, combine sugar, oil and eggs. Add pumpkin and mix well. Combine dry ingredients; add to the pumpkin mixture alternately with water. Pour into two greased 9-in. x 5-in. x 3-in. loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for 60-65 minutes or until bread tests done. Cool in pans 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack; cool completely.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2007 Allrecipes.com

Monday, October 1, 2007

Oh Where, Oh Where Did those little socks go ??

Mommies you KNOW what I'm talking about !
At the beginning of every school year I buy each of my children two bags of socks. School has been in session for two months and guess what ?!?

NOBODY HAS ANY SOCKS !

Where did they go ?

I asked the small children to please look around their room and see if they could find any socks. Five seconds later they came to me and said "No, Mommy we can't find any socks."

So that means mommy must brave the disaster area that is their room and hunt down renegade socks. My search yielded 4 socks, a pair of clean underwear, and two nickles

There are no socks in the laundry hamper. There are no socks under the beds. There are no socks here or there. I can't find those darn things anywhere.

Is someone sneaking into the house in the middle of the night and stealing the socks ?!?

D0 the kids sell the socks ? And if they do what is the going rate for socks these days ?

I suggested to my sister that parents should just buy socks in bulk. Just get a giant industrial sized Box O' Sox. She laughed. Apparently she is not yet aware of the great sock mystery.

That's okay, her grandchildren will soon have her educated about the issue.

Meanwhile, I guess I'll be buying more socks.