New Cards!

I made some new cards for my etsy shop out of some of my photography prints. Kind of fun to combine two of my loves in one!

I Vaguely Remember When I Was Funny

So my plan of packing up the kids' toys was thwarted by a barfing preschooler. Darn Friday the 13th anyway...though I'm insanely grateful that vomiting is the worst that Friday the Thirteenth threw our way.

If I'm totally honest, Friday the 13th hasn't ever really been that bad. At the very least, it hasn't been remarkably bad since I can't remember anything.

Once the kids toys were packed up, my plan for yesterday included using our new Family Y membership. Swimming is my preferred activity so far (surprising, considering my size) but Mother Nature arrived to make swimming-at the very least-awkward for the next few days. Perhaps D's illness was a sort of good thing in that respect. (I have to say she is pretty much the most agreeable sick person ever.)

I took the Bigs to the Y while Ms. D was at her home school co-op preschool on Wednesday. The 3 of us pretended to play racquetball and we stunk up the place with our bad skillz. Both Bigs took a ball each to the face so at least it was even. Next on our non-aquatic agenda will be basketball. I'm taking bets on the number of bruises received during that first session.

I'm reading the Twilight series. I'm sort of embarrassed to admit I love the books. If I had been a teenager when these books came out I'd definitely be a groupie. I find Edward's character more interesting than the character of Jacob thus far (I'm just into reading Eclipse). Edward has to sacrifice more. The restraint he (especially he) and Bella have to exercise is smoldering. The non-sex scenes are hotter than any sex scene by far. If only we realized that when we were in those shoes!?!

Hey! Nothing like rambling blog posts! No wonder I have no readers! :) It's okay, I kind of like talking to myself.

Very Superstitious and Tangential

I can admit it, the number 13 freaks me out. It's stupid and silly and idontcarebecausethatsjusthowiam. If I remember during the day that it is Friday the 13th I get a little wigged out. Most of the time I forget. I think.

Today I'm going to pretend it's just Friday. The last Friday of my Bigs' Winter break. We're going to spend at least part of the day packing up the majority of my kids' toys. They've shown lack of consideration of the value of most of their things. They have 4,379,579,895 toys between the three of them and it shows that they have too many because so many end up broken. The broken toys are mourned for 2.3 seconds before they're forgotten because they have so many others to play with (and break).

The most responsible kid is Miss M which is good since she's the oldest. She should be, and in truth, she takes pretty good care of most of her things most of the time.

My son is terrible about taking care of his things. Some of the problem, I know, is caused because he has dyslexia. Dyslexia makes organization difficult. Another issue is that he finds taking things apart fascinating. It can take a toll on the pocketbook. It stinks also because he feels terrible after the thing is broken but he seems helpless to stop himself.
Then there is the little one. So far, most of her toys are pretty indestructible just because she's little still and the toys are made more sturdy. I still worry that she has so many toys around her she sees no value in them.
So my plan includes packing up most of my kids' toys. After a week of proving they can take care of and put away 5 toys each, they can list another 5 toys they'd like back. Until they can't list any more toys because they can't remember what they had. If they can't remember what they had, those toys are GONE.
These kids are too important to me. Entitlement is not something they should be feeling. I want to teach my kids to be grateful for even small things in life. Tomorrow it could be gone.

I like to think of them as anti-accidents

It's Still 2011, RIGHT?

I'm not sure how it happened but Halloween rolled right into Thanksgiving and before I knew it we were doing our traditional early hour countdown to the new year with the kids.

My new year so far has been consumed with hours in a courthouse and a courtroom as a potential juror in a criminal case. After 3 days of voir dire I was excused and the panel of 14 jurors were seated. I was both relieved and disappointed. The trial will be long and disturbing. There were hints of how disturbing it would be during jury questioning. I'm probably lucky I don't have to serve on the jury. But it's still a little disappointing too. It would have been interesting to be involved in the justice system and being a part of that. Though I can also admit that 3 days of waiting, sitting, and answering questions was also very draining. I can't imagine how I'd have felt after 2 or more weeks of a trial.

My big kids are on school break this week and still next week. I am hoping that we will pack some fun into next week since my jury duty put a damper on activities this week.

My husband has a "big" birthday coming up in a couple of weeks. It was my hope to have a party for him, but time escaped me. Maybe this summer we can host a belated party. Also? I'm not sure how it happened that this birthday is coming up for him because I'm only 2 years younger than him and I'm still 29.

Yesterday it was 50 degrees in Minnesota. In January. Crazy. I took the kids out for a bike ride and had to keep reminding them to stay out of the mud (I know, I'm a total buzz kill). It also reminded me how out of shape, fat and unhealthy I have become. I may be purchasing a Family Y membership on Monday. I hope. I'd like to go swim laps and work into other activities as I get more in shape. We shall see.

I'm out of practice blogging. This is my weak attempt at posting something.

Perhaps the next days will provide inspiration again.