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Five Question Friday

Posted on October 19, 2012 | 4 comments

Hmmm… it’s Friday! Here’s a brief list of random stuff before we dive into Five Question Friday:

The boys and I all had great reports from the dentist yesterday… no cavities! Jack amused the staff to no end but was overall great with his first real cleaning (not at all traumatized by his last dental visit which included a tooth extraction). Two of the hygienists asked if they could take him home with them – I was tempted to allow that to happen. Jack picked out a princess toothbrush, much to everyone’s amusement. Liam is getting his six-year molars and doesn’t have a hint of any loose teeth.
Jack’s new bad habit is covering his mouth with both hands and whispering a bad word into them and then announcing to me, “You didn’t hear me say that bad word!”
Liam is starting an art class after school next week – I hope he likes it! He begged to be signed up for it and then the day I signed him up, a slip came home advertising a wrestling club, which he also wanted to join but sadly could not as two of the weeks it meets are the same as the art class. So we are the parents who enroll their son in art instead of wrestling, for some reason, that amused me.

My niece, Quinn, had her second baby Ethan Andrew (my godson!) yesterday morning and he is a doll. I get to see him on Saturday and I’m super excited! When she had Max, I had a little baby (Jack) of my own so I couldn’t appreciate the newborn-ness of Max as much as I can now with Ethan. Watch out Grandma Joan and Auntie Laura… my arms are dying for a little baby to hold and cuddle!
I apparently nest for other people. Quinn had her baby and I immediately wanted to make food so I stopped by the grocery store after our dentist appointment, stocked up on supplies and came home and made wet burritos, lentil barley stew and two apple pies. My freezer is ready to supply them with some edibles.
The Tigers are in the World Series – which is awesome, less awesome is that I now have to watch baseball and get excited about it 🙂

1. Where do you hide junk when people come over?
This assumes I have junk to hide – which is just not true. I am always perfectly cleaned up so there is no need to hide things (right now my husband is laughing hysterically [note: I initially spelled this wrong and it auto-corrected to “historically” which is amusing to me]). I reality, we hide stuff in our guest room (and shut the door), on our stairway (and shut the door) and in our front closet (and shut the door). I have also been known to put stuff in the oven, but that was when we had our house on the market.

2. Do political ads help you decide who you are going to vote for?
Not even a little. But they do help me be annoyed with politics and politicians in general.

3. What’s your favorite holiday party to host?
I like hosting things in general so any of them, sadly our house is a wee bit small for large gatherings but someday, in a bigger house, we are going to have awesome parties! I love people, I love food (making and eating) and I rather enjoy drinking things – so win-win all around when it comes to holiday parties.

4. You go to an island with your husband and can only take one personal item. What is it?
I won’t say razor because the hubs won’t care so this is more for me since I hate oily/greasy hair on my head. I would take a HUGE bottle of shampoo for my hair and to be used as body wash. I like to smell nice.

5. If you found out your spouse was a Dexter style serial killer (only kills people to save others) would you rat?
This is an awesome question. And one I don’t have an answer for because while a) murder is bad (duh), (b) I might be able to justify the killing of people to save others. But in actual reality, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t love my husband being a serial killer and would have a serious issue with staying married to him and also might be in fear of being murdered myself if I turned him in… I might encourage him to turn himself in. Does this make me an awful person that I wouldn’t immediately rat him out? Dear serial killers: If you are doing “good” with your killing spree, your secret is (potentially) safe with me.

Linking up with Mama M for Five Question Friday.

4 Comments

Posted in Five Question Friday

Here’s the thing

Posted on October 17, 2012 | 19 comments

Without being overly dramatic, I feel like I live in a near constant state of fear. Fear that I’m going to forget something with or for one of our kids. That I will forget what day it is… that it’s a Tuesday so I need to meet Simon at Calvin to get Jack or that it’s a Wednesday and I need to first get Liam from school before going to get Jack from daycare. Or that they have a dentist appointment at 2:00 on Thursday so I need to get both kids earlier than normal. Or it is dress up day at daycare (I’ve already forgotten superhero day when Liam was in preschool – thank goodness for teachers with extra costumes, not to mention my own ability to think on the fly and convince Liam in the parking lot that he was dressed as Peter Parker – Spiderman’s alter ego). [That we end up anywhere at the right time with the right things is quite possibly a miracle of very small proportions.]

I also fear that my boys will look back on their childhoods and feel somehow jilted. Like they missed out because they didn’t participate in soccer or swim lessons (yes, I know children in general are over-committed, but still, when everyone else is “doing” it, they can’t help but feel like they are missing out). Like not having both parents home each night and seated around the dinner table will mean that we have let them down. Like we didn’t spend enough time together doing Quality Things because both parents also want alone time, a.k.a. “me” time and that time often comes out of family time because it’s the only time we have to spare. [Time, time, time…]

That my kids will remember all of the times I yelled and raged rather than all the hugs and kisses and times spent laughing on the couch or cuddling together in bed because the yelling is louder and the words more harsh. That they will think of their parents as angry and short-tempered (though clearly not scary enough to actually listen to us and do as we say) rather than knowing we were just tired and spent.

I’m afraid my kids are turning out spoiled simply because they are raised by two “single” parents who team up on the weekends. We give in more easily because we are both tired and too weary to have the battle – we don’t have a back-up to hold us up, in the mornings it is Simon and in the afternoons/evenings it is me and the temptation to give in wins out more often than if we were all together, all of the time. Together we might give in 2-4 times a day, separately if we both do that, our kids get their way (rather than a battle) 4-8 times per day. It’s no wonder they always try and push their lucky – statistics are on their side.

So I have fear, fear like every parent, that I’m not getting it right. That I’m doing the wrong thing, at the wrong time. Yet, each day, I keep trying. Trying to get it right. Even though I know the fear will always be there – no matter how “right” I get it. And that right is all relative because there are multiple paths to the same destination. Not to mention, it’s not really in my control to begin with, and yet, I fear and I worry. I’m not alone, right? Tell me I’m not alone. And my goodness – if you figure out how to do it right, please let me know. In the meantime, I’ll be over here, praying, because I suspect it might be the best thing I can do.

Source: via Michelle on Pinterest

19 Comments

Posted in Life in general, Parenting

Instagram | 26

Posted on October 16, 2012 | Leave a comment

I fear my children might not ever get photo albums of their childhood, but instead a URL link to my Instagram account. But that’s better than nothing, right?

I have just been loving the morning sky when I’m driving Liam in to school – dramatic and breathtaking, sad that my phone can’t quite capture it (but darn close).

Last year I made the costume on the right (for Liam, this year Jack is wearing it) and last week I saw the pre-made costume at Meijer for $54.99 – I feel very good about myself right now 🙂

Jack was looking awfully handsome after church, sadly, he could not stand still for a photo for the life of him. This is how he looks in 90% of the pictures I take.

My little artists love drawing me pictures – the hearts in Liam’s picture are he and I. They are sometimes good kids.

Not a wiggly tooth to be found in that kid’s mouth – despite his asking me near daily to check for a loose tooth.

Jack was sick last week which meant I got cuddles and a child willing to nap on me – something he NEVER does, not even when we was a baby. Unlike Liam who would fall asleep whenever you held him tightly, turned him sideways and cuddled him into your body.

It was a long week so I broke my own rule and drank wine by myself on Friday night after the kids went to bed. Hopefully this week will go better.

Saturday morning, after finishing my bible study, I doodled with a cheap Bic pen (medium point) and was so happy about that. But I loved the shadows the pen and my hand were throwing across the page before I started.

One can never have too many hats.

The minute we open the front blind, George jumps on the back of the couch and watches outside for any movement – ready to bark like crazy as soon as he sees something (needless to say, we don’t open the blind very much because the barking, it makes me crazy).

Liam decided he was a baseball player on Saturday – I have no idea why. I also have no idea why he asked me to take his picture and struck this pose with the very serious eyes. I had to make it black and white because he had some serious devil-red eyes going on.

Music Monday: Recent Downloads

Posted on October 15, 2012 | 4 comments

We got an iTunes gift card last week and you know what that means – new music! Do yourself a favor and listen to at least one of these, otherwise I might not be your friend any more (you’ll just have to take that chance, if you don’t, unless you would like to end our friendship, in which case, why are you reading my blog?).

Skyfall | Adele (the theme from the upcoming Bond movie – not my favorite Adele song, but “not my favorite from Adele” is still better than a lot of others)