Monday, March 30, 2009

Spring Break

It's spring break here in our little world. I've already decided that my last post of this week will be titled "Spring Break Me".

So far it's been a pretty good one as far as the kids are concerned. We went to a concert Friday night. It was Chris Tomlin, a christian rock singer, and we had seats in a suite where the kids could dance around and move from seat to seat and eat salsa and chips and drink juice and pop and all the water bottles in the entire suite. Then we spent most of Saturday playing outside and then going over to their cousins house for pizza. (Our motto is "If we can't play with our cousins then why are we breathing?") Sunday we went to Indy Island, an indoor swim park with a big tube slide (with our cousins). And we topped the weekend off with having Molly and Emma (our cousins) come over for a sleepover. At that point I said "Aren't I the best mom ever?" (Cause it's not like someone is just going to volunteer that.) No one said anything so I'm just going to assume that's a "yes". We also have a visiting dog for the week, Aggie, so Olive has had a sleepover too. So can spring break be over now? Where's the beach?

I'm having visions of sunny beaches and warm gulf waters. I'm blaming this on Tim's sister, Susan, who is on a sunny beach near the not so warm gulf waters. It's very disturbing to me because here I am looking at my dirty floors and the never ending laundry baskets of clothes waiting to be folded but in my head I see sand and cool lapping waves. But then someone says something nasty to me like "mom" and I see dirty floors again. (And by the way, that's not the same as smelling dust.)

So I picked some spring break party music today because I could use a little Tequila, I mean party music. Here's a picture of my partying spring break crew.



Party on...

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

An Epidemic

Isaac has been home from school since, well, his last day of school was last Thursday. He has missed 4 days of school. I am starting to miss my sanity. This virus or whatever it is has really hit him hard. Thank the Lord he has been the only one to get it so far.

Tim worked from home today so that I could go to work this morning and run to the grocery this afternoon so I shouldn't complain. But I already did so I'm just going to stick with that pattern. I'm nothing if not consistent.

And I'm still consistently trying to give up sugar and consistently failing miserably. Sugar is in everything. And I really am passionate about sweet things. But I have tried to incorporate more healthy fats in my diet (like the book I'm reading suggests) and ok maybe nacho cheese is not a healthy fat, but I'm trying. I've found that adding the fat without reducing the sugar has caused an interesting effect. That would be the effect of my expanding waist. Huh, isn't that interesting? I keep trying to stand up straighter and taller so my stomach looks more svelte. I'm pretty sure I've pulled a muscle.

But that's all ok because I'm still consistently inconsistently working out. (No that's not a typo.) This is not only good for my new diet and expanding waistline (something sounds wrong there?) but because next week is spring break and working out is the antidote to my kid-induced stress. I guess that would make my children a virus or something. Huh, interesting.

In preparation for the upcoming viral epidemic (spring break) and for the not-to-distant summer break (there should be a vaccination for that, moms would pay big money) the best thing for me to do would be to go workout tonight and sweat out the image of my kids hanging all over me like baby opossums on their mommy opossum. Or... I could bury myself in my book with a bowl of moose tracks ice cream. Hmm... sugar and fat together in a nice little frozen concoction, sounds like a viral vaccine to me.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Sick Monday

It's Maniacal Monday all right. It's not feeling very musical. Isaac is home sick today with the stomach flu. It just breaks my heart to see him so sick. He was throwing up every 20 minutes last night until 3:00am. That's too much information I know. He was so tired and his stomach just wouldn't let him sleep.

So he's feeling a little better as of 12:00 today. He has managed to keep down three bites of toasted bagel. The musical pick today is for Isaac and his illness. I couldn't find any songs about puking up your guts all night long well, I think I did but they had that little "explicit" sign next to them so I thought, eh, maybe not a good idea.

Enjoy your Maniacal Previously Masticated Musical Monday.

(Eww....gross.)

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Cravings

Ok, where did the week go? I know it's not over yet but it will be - in two short days. I'm having a little trouble adjusting to my new schedule of working in the mornings. Time is flying by and the laundry is piling up. It's perplexing to me. I throw a load in and then a little later I move the load into the dryer and throw another load in. And then before you know it I have 5 baskets of laundry to fold which are crammed into 3 laundry baskets. And then I get cranky because the next day I have three more loads to wash and I still have 5 baskets to fold and I gave up coffee for Lent. It still haunts me.

So I'm still working through the coffee thing. I've been good. I tried to count the days that I've gone without coffee but I got frustrated and ripped the calendar off the wall and threw it on the floor and then jumped up and down on it until I lost my breath (that was 2 and half jumps.) Actually that's a lie. I don't have enough energy to jump up (the down part happens automatically) so I just kicked it across the floor. And I felt much better. Although I kicked it under the fridge and that's a bummer.

Ok, really, I have to admit that I'm much better off without caffeine. I still want it, but I'm much better off without it, kinda like I'm much better off without Maks from Dancing With The Stars...






I would also be much better off without sugar. But this I can't seem to let go of - kinda like Mmm....nevermind. Just like with any "diet" you try to deny yourself something and all of the sudden you can't live without it. (Where does Maks live? LA?) So over the weekend I had cheesecake on Friday a brownie sundae on Saturday and a lemon bar on Sunday. And then there's the Girl Scout Cookies, the ice cream and the box of Lucky Charms in the cupboard taunting me.

There's a lesson in here somewhere. A parable or a bible story to tell me why I need to let these things go. But I'm not going to look that up right now. I need a cookie, a nap and Ma... a glass of wine.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Cha Cha Cha

Wow. It's Monday. How does this happen every week?

That's ok because not only is it Magical Maniacal Mandibular Musical Monday but it is also Dancing With the Stars Monday!!! Throw in some vintage music from the 60's and 70's, a disco ball and maybe a Cha Cha or a Rhumba and Mondays are worth living for.

Spring is very slowly emerging here in central Indiana. I was thrilled to see how well my tulips are growing but slightly disappointed because they are growing in a Ziploc bag in my garage. I now see the point of planting them in the ground. Did you know "slothiness" is one of the 7 Deadly Sins? Well, it is and I'm a sinner.

So I'm sloughing off my slothiness and posting a Monday song. I'm feeling spring and I'm also feeling like hanging a disco ball from the ceiling in my living room (this always happens when DWTS is on.) And since we had a full moon last week I'm picking a song that has nothing to do with St. Patty's Day but everything to do with the feelings way down deep in my Dancing With The Stars soul.

So grab yourself a partner and Samba. Enjoy.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Smokin'

I have been remiss. And I think that's ok because I like that word. I wish I could say I have been on vacation but I haven't. I've just been remiss, missing in action, missing a few brain cells, just missing.

So I have a new job. It doesn't feel like a job which I think is good because a job that feels like a job is just a job and when it's a job it just feels like work. I'm pretty sure that makes sense. I'm not entirely sure why but it's Thursday and tomorrow is Friday. Have I mentioned I gave up coffee for Lent?

Hey, I gave up coffee for Lent. It's been, I don't know since the beginning of Lent that I gave up coffee. And I think it's going o.k. I've had a slight headache for about a week and a half. It takes me about 6 hours to wake up everyday which is ok because it's just in time for my nap. I'm a little lacking in motivation but I'm still doing laundry and dishes and cooking dinner and working half days so no one seems to notice. (Can't imagine how they missed it?) So yeah, overall I think this is a good thing. Anyday now I'm sure I'll stop WANTING coffee. I hear it takes 21 days to get over a habit. And it's been.... not 21 days yet. My thoughts are a little scattered but I'm sure that will go away when I can think straighter and not so scattered. Huh.

Caffeine is a drug. I have witnessed it first hand. I was feeling a little down one day because of my lack of motivation. (I didn't WANT to do the dishes. Go figure.) After having an ice tea for lunch that same day I wanted to add on to my house - myself. Then it hit me! I'm a caffeineaholic!! And there's not a twelve step program but fortunately there is Advil and the three children I have that prevent me from burying my head in a pillow for more than 67 seconds.

The really crazy thing is I was drinking maybe a half cup to a cup a day and it was half-caff! This is why I don't drink alcoholic beverages. I'm a wuss. Two sips of wine and I'm three sheets to the wind.

We are all kicking the drug habit here. Tim gave up coffee for Lent as well. And as witnessed in the photo below Isaac does not allow cigarettes at his snack station. In case you were planning on coming over to visit Isaac at his snack station and pulling out a smoke. This is the sign at his snack station. Cigarettes are known in our family as "smokers". (Everyday after school the girls have to go to the snack station where Isaac gives them their choice of a granola bar or fruit snacks. He keeps post it notes on the boxes to show how many are left in each box. My little anal retentive cutie pie.)

It says:

No Books Ulawd (allowed, isn't he brilliant)
No paper allowed (I guess paper and snacks just don't mix.)

And underneath the lovely graphic symbol:
No smokers allowed

The kicker is it looks like we haven't only given up coffee and cigarettes for Lent but also smoking weenies by the look of the art work.

Huh.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Isaac

Well, my little man is now without both of his front teeth....



He says he looks funny. And I'm thinking wait until those gigantic permanent teeth pop out of your little bitty head! We have decent size teeth in my family. They are a little daunting looking on a kid but they work well for an adult. I can only imagine how they will look on all 35lbs of Isaac. Maybe they'll be heavy and he'll gain another pound when they come in.

I'm thinking though that there is going to be more spit flying around my house with that hole in his smile. Isaac has developed this condition which causes him to either be in active combat mode or plane flying mode or car crashing mode. All three of which require the same noise which entails a lot of spit flying out of his mouth.

It can happen anywhere. Sometimes it's like he spontaneously combusts and he just starts "phtttttt-ing". Weren't we just sitting quietly together watching a movie? Why are you punching the pillow with that car? That's my book not an airplane. That's a tampon not a sword. (I've learned to hide certain things.) One day he got into some mini pads. And let me just say this kid has a fetish with things that stick. I think I only had to remove one from his shirt. I figured that was better than when Eva discovered them and stuck one in the appropriate place on the OUTSIDE of her pants. I had to give her points for knowing where it went.

I use to let Isaac take small toiletry items in his backpack as toys to play with when we went somewhere because he loved to play with them. Then one day I looked in his backpack and saw Vagisil. We stopped doing that.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Marchy-Parchy

So I'm feeling lucky today. Perhaps it's a little luck 'o the Irish. Mostly because, I think, it is no longer Blah-blah-blahbruary. It's March! And it's really hard to change the name March into something cheerier like say, Marchorea or Marcharoni or Marchissimo, maybe Marchy-parchy. Or maybe not.

But hey, not only is it March but it's the first Magical Musical Non-Malignant Monday of March. There are so many things to look forward to in March. St. Patty's Day and March Madness, windy days and St. Patty's Day and ice storms and green beer and wearing green underwear (like you don't like wearing your green skivvies on Patty's Day.) Maybe even a 60 degree day. A 60 degree day with 45 mph winds but hey a 60 degree day is a 60 degree day even if you aren't able to walk upright outside. And plenty 'o rain which turns my backyard to mud and did I mention bad hair days?

But hey, you can't talk me out of feeling lucky today so here's my Monday Melody. Hope it will make you feel lucky today too. Check out my new playlist on the right.

(Note to Tim - I said "feel" not "get".)