Salt Galore!

I can't believe its been 12 days since my last post. I have to get cooking with my digital camera so I can upload photos to this venue!

Thursday proved to be one of the most funniest cooking adventures of 2010. We decided to make waffles on a tight time crunch and I enlisted Cookies help. I told her to mix the dry ingredients and I then poured the wet ingredients in. I heard Cookie and Dolly say, "That's yucky, It taste like salt!!!" To make a long story short Cookie put 1/4 cup of salt into the mix instead of 1/4 teaspoon. Go Figure... I couldn't help but laugh. We ended up ditching the batter and having Chicken and salad for Dinner. In light of this dinner fiasco, we decided that we could probably do without salt for the next several months.

The Ice cream Man

I was in Noahkeem & Rocco's room this afternoon when I heard a familiar melodic tune coming down the street. It was the tune of the Ice cream Man; That little music box sound just seems to entice all little kids outside or at least to the window. As he slowly glided down the cul-de-sac in his bright yellow ice cream mobile, blasting his theme song, I glanced at him hovering over the steering wheel. He was on the look out for his little customers. Noahkeem yelled out of his bedroom window, "No thanks, I have my own icecream today!!!!" Just then something in my brain clicked and I realized, ever since I was a little girl, I never trusted the icecream man. The same questions I had back then about him, I still have today. Why is it I always feel that the Ice cream man never gives back the right amount of change? Why is it that it seems like he jacks his prices up on the "good ice cream" treats every summer and leaves the busted down supermarket ice pops at $.50 or $1.00? (The one's no one wants). How does he remember all the prices for all the treats if all the prices are listed on the outside of the truck next to their faded pictures? And could somebody tell me what the Ice Cream Man does all winter while he is waiting for summer to roll around? Maybe I should ask him the next time I see him and make sure I have exact change when I do.

The Regular Mom

I had Rocco come inside today after setting my car alarm off- on purpose. He apologized moments later and asked for forgiveness. (Of course I forgave him). In between all that, I had a phone call and I took it upstairs. When I returned back down, and walked into the kitchen I felt a wet little puddle of fruit punch under my feet. Dolly had no problem blowing the whistle and telling me Rocco did it.

I called him in from riding his brothers bike (which he is not allowed to do) and asked him to clean up the spill. After cleaning Rocco said, "I wish you were a the regular Mom". "The regular Mom? When  was I the regular Mom?" He then said, "When you were 33" followed by "You were nice then". I had to remind him that he was only 3 when I was 33. How could he remember when I was 33? The clinker was, "you're mean and boring". Thankfully, my skin is tough after being a mom for 10 years not to mention I majored in Psychology and have a Life Coach certification. With all of this experience I was able to translate the situation into more understanding terms in which I then was able to move on with the rest of my day. What Rocco could not verbalize was, "Mom, why can't I just ride my brothers bike even though you and Dad have asked me not to? Mom, isn't it okay that I pour a 1 1/2 gallon jug of fruit punch myself when your not looking? Are you serious that you expect me to come back inside and at 7 years old expect me to wipe up the fruit punch that I spilled? And missed out on this sunny day (even though I've been outside for the last 4 hours)? And to all of that I say yes my little one, this part of the home school curriculum is called training and development; housekeeping. I am training you to take responsibility for your actions including spills and relying on the fact that you will develop into a young man who will take responsibility for choices and actions-including spills. If I clean up the things that I know that you are capable of doing in a satisfactory manner, I would be robbing you of this wonderful exercise in housekeeping. What a wonderful boy you are! What a wonderful blessing you are to our family that you cleaned up the spill so that no one would slip and fall or worse, ants would come for a sticky wet treat. Thanks for taking care of that son! I am most certain after a couple of these incidents and exercises on how to respond, you wont have to be called in to clean up your mess and you won't even consider setting off the car alarm. Now all those things you said about Momma, I know that deep down inside you just want to do your own thing and instead of saying that it came out as, "You're mean and boring, why can't you be the regular mom". I can only say, I will probably always be The Irregular Mom. But one day your wife will thank me for it.

Stress beyond belief!

There I said it.. I'm stressing big time! I refuse to be labeled as perfect christian homeschool mom who has it all together. If it seems as though I do, it is an illusion. You cant judge a person by a glimpse you see on Sunday morning at church or on a 2 hour social outing. Or you can judge and compare and feel that you don't measure up. With life comes stress whether you have one child or 10. Unfortunately we live in an isolated society where family and friends compete against one another rather than reach out to one another. (This is where girlfriendsand bffs prove valuable!). I am so not, the perfect mother but, I will say I am not a worry wort and that I trust Jesus with a lot so things that typically would produce a freak out moment, do not. (And for that I have to give Jesus all the credit).

I have great kids but, it is a huge job training, correcting, guiding, building, and encouraging. It is a HUGE JOB. Some days that job starts earlier than others and I'm not down with that program. Several years ago "someone" made an insensitive comment to Big D while we and our children were out to dinner. The restaurant we were at had some wiggle room so the kids could flip around a little bit without management giving us the evil eye. So our "guest" said, after Big D was trying to wrangle the troops, "Your actions have consequences". If I weren't the conservative, person that I am I would have reached over the table and well.... use your imagination. "Your actions have consequences". What a nice thing to say to someone who was trying to be insure that their kids weren't disturbing others and that they were safe at the same time. Yet the comment opened my eyes how certain people feel about families with 4 or more. The bottom line is is that if your child fights, cries, whines, gets out of control, throws a tantrum or anything of the like- it is your fault because your unbridled sexual practices has caused you to have this brood of children that you cant control.- Good luck by the way, hope you can see that your actions have consequences.

Angry? Annoyed? You bet. All I have to say to that is, when things don't go your way, is it fair to say that -"your actions have consequences?" If your checkbook won't reconcile, you get into a car accident, you can't make a relationship work, is it fair to say that you should've been more wise with your money, you should have been more careful when driving or perhaps taken a different street, or you should have reached out more and that relationship would have worked and because you did none of these things- your actions have consequences? Let's get real! Life happens and it is full of difficulty-period. Here are a few basic things that my mother taught me that mean more to me today than they did 30+ years ago.

-If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.
-Be careful how you treat people, you never know when you might need them someday.
- Treat others the way you want to be treated.

That being said, if you feel compelled to be helpful to someone who is struggling with their newborn or preschoolers or teenagers-be helpful. If you are compelled to comment about how its better them and not you, think twice. Although you might not be in the same position as they are, would it be comforting to you during you difficult "life" moment for it to be said, "Better you than me?" I think not.