I Don't Hate Mondays

I've noticed one amazing thing since I quit my job at the end of last school year.

I don't hate Mondays anymore.

I used to think Mondays were the day from hell.  I used to DRAG my body out of bed and feel icky and miserable.  I used to barely make it through the day and then come home and have to take a nap on the couch because I was so tired.  I used to feel so worn out and that I was doing a huge disservice to my children, my husband, and my job.

Now, I wake on Mondays and don't feel automatically pissed at the world.

I wake up excited about going to volunteer in my child's classroom.  I wake up and happily make my child's lunch.  I enjoy coming home with my little guy and making his lunch and doing homework with him.  We read books and play games.  Sometimes we go to the park when it is a beautiful day like today.  I look forward to my older child coming home from school on the bus and greet him excitedly.  I get snacks, help with more homework and make dinner.  Then the kids go to bed and I don't feel like I'm about to DIE.  I still have energy!

I love this new "job" of being a stay-at-home mom.  Thank you so much to The Bread Winner.  I am happy to support you and so thankful to have this opportunity to enjoy my family.

Cookies for Breakfast

"I don't like it."  and  "I'm full."
These are the two comments I get VERY often from my picky eater.

So I have a plan.  I think to myself, what kid would not want cookies for breakfast?  Seriously.  Chocolate chip cookies.  They are these WONDERFUL Giant Breakfast Cookies from a blog I follow.  I decided to give them a try this morning.  I figured my kids would be oh so excited about cookies for breakfast and the cookies turned out awesome.

My picky eater decided to shun the cookies.  "I don't like it." he says after taking a microscopic bite.  He has the BIGGEST sweet tooth on the face of the planet and he still turned them down.  Yes, the cookies have oatmeal in them.  And yes, I was trying to sneak some healthy food into his body.  But you can't really tell the oatmeal is there.  The cookies are not dry.  They are very yummy.  The chocolate chips definitely mask any "healthiness."  I think he is just completely insane.  I'm considering locking him in a closet until he outgrows his weird picky eating.

The non-picky eater did eat a whole cookie.  When asked if he wanted "another cookie for breakfast?"  "No, I'm good." was his response.  SERIOUSLY!?  It's a COOKIE for breakfast!  What is WRONG with you?

So I went to my backup plan and sliced a pear for the kids to eat.  What happened to the pear you wonder?  All consumed.  No begging, pleading, or nagging.  Pear, gone.  I'm not complaining that they ate the pear.  I just totally don't understand not wanting to eat the COOKIES.

By the way, the picky one finished his pear and had 98% of his cookie left and said "I'm full."

PARTY!

Today was Kieron's birthday party day.  He had 8 of his little friends join him at Carson Slotcar Raceway (a totally great deal - $90 for 1 hour of racing and extra time for party and very nice owner).  Kieron had a great time and it was such a nice party.  Just wanted to share a couple pictures.

Then we came home and he wanted to play with his toys.  The Nerf gun was fun but fortunately for me it didn't last too long.  He's crashing from the sugar rush and has decided to watch a movie and relax (the mama is VERY thankful for this).

I get to enjoy some peace and quiet.  Then I may cook something healthy later... MAYBE... or we may just eat Oreos and cake.  There would be some milk though.  Now it is also time to switch gears and start focusing on Canon's 8th birthday party coming up.

Happy beautiful Saturday afternoon!

Australia!

Holy Crap!  I'm going to Australia.  I can hardly believe it.  The Bread Winner has to go there for travel (don't ask, I have NO idea what they heck he'll be doing.  don't know, don't care).  I do know that it means we have decided that the whole family will be going!  HOLY CRAP!

Now about 2 months ago when this first came up, I thought The Bread Winner was completely insane.  "Do you know how much that will cost?" I asked him.  "Once in a lifetime" is what he responded with.  And I have finally come around to agreeing with him on that one.  That does not mean that I'm not constantly thinking about how we will be paying for this trip for about 2 years.  But I remind myself that it is "once in a lifetime."

Which brings me to thinking about the stress of traveling with 2 kids (6 and almost 8 - his birthday will happen while we are in Australia! Unfortunately an 8 year old does not see that as a birthday present and will still ask for lame toys - priorities, priorities!). I have come to the conclusion that there will be meltdowns (for both kids and myself) at some point.  I wonder what the options are for medicating your children with Xanax like products? Okay, not really.

My kids travel REALLY well.  No throwing up.  No whining in the car.  No fighting.  No complaining that they are bored.  They can watch movies and play games for a good solid 5 hours with no issues.  But the flight to Australia is like 25 HOURS.  That's my typical car trip TIMES 5!  I'm not sure about this.  Of course we are going to do it.  No going back now.  But I still have some concerns.

One of them is that The Bread Winner will be flying over first.  So I won't have my partner in crime for occupying their time.  "Traveling by yourself on a 25 hour international flight with two kids?" you ask in shock and amazement!  No, I won't be alone.  My dad is going on this once in a lifetime event/vacation also.  And my brother is suppose to go too (if he can get his passport issues and other weird issues dealt with - don't ask, I can't talk about it right now without being frustrated).  I will have at least one extra body to help on the plane and in the airport and when I need someone to distract my child so I can smack them on the back of the head to knock them out for a couple hours.  I'm not that parent that thinks her kids are perfect.  I totally know they completely suck sometimes.  I totally expect for there to be at least a couple of those moments on this trip.  But I'm willing to roll with it all because "once in a lifetime" means exactly that.  I plan to enjoy this trip and make the most of it.  I'm sure I'll have pictures of wonderful happy family times.  I also promise to take pictures of the meltdowns just for posterity!

G'day mate!

It's ALL Trash

Do you ever look around your house and just think "it's all trash"?  All of it.  Every single thing you see is trash.  That's how I felt today.  I wanted someone to come park a house-sized dumpster in my driveway so I could just throw everything away.  I'm sure I should have some desire to recycle.  But in this case, I just don't.  I just want it all to go away.  I want The Bread Winner's garage to not be a mess.  I want all of the crap in my whole house to just get thrown away.  Furniture included.  I want to just live in a hut somewhere (except I would still want plumbing - I couldn't stand not having a toilet and sink).  Otherwise I would be good with having almost nothing.

Don't get me wrong.  I love my computer (how would I survive without email), my cell phone (thanks BBM), my new bread machine (mmmm... bread), my mp3 player (love that 80's music), my electric blanket (but I want a tropical place for my hut so I could probably live without the electric blanket), my camera (taking pics of my babies is crucial), my car (but again tropical so walking is totally doable) etc.  But sometimes I just want to throw it all away and have nothing so I don't have to worry about anything.

Now, I'm not stressed right now or anything.  Really, I'm not.  I just have those moments where it seems like there is just TOO MUCH STUFF.  Today was just one of those days.  Too much stuff.

But on a side note, Evil 1 and Evil 2 decided to do their part in helping to get rid of all the stuff and decided to eat a dog bed today.  Thanks so much.  I can't wait to clean up all the stuffing they spread all over the backyard (it's dark right now or I would be out there cleaning it up right now).  I really think that there should be some sort of doggie jail that I could send them to.  That would just make me feel better.

In regards to the "stuff" though... I did manage to make a trip to the dump.  But our little trailer is just so little.  It didn't feel as good as a HUGE dumpster would.  I know, we Americans just throw everything away with no regard to the environment.  I just can't care about the environment when it comes to purging my house of all the crap that 10 years of marriage has accumulated.  It just seems like downsizing would be good.

Alright, enough complaining.  I know I'm lucky to have a good life.  Really I do understand that.

Evil Part II

I gave it some thought and decided that maybe if anyone were to actually read my blog they might think that I am an animal hater and might do something mean to the dogs since I suggest that putting them down would be a good thing.  This is not at all true.  I can't even listen to the music on those commercials about the abused animals - much less see the sad little faces of those poor little creatures.  Let me be clear that I am just at the end of my rope.  These two dogs have caused a great deal of grief for me.

Keep in mind these dogs have done a lot of things that my first two dogs NEVER did.  Not sure what the deal is with that.  Maybe it is just like kids, they are just different.  If that's the case, I wish that these two dogs had the personalities that my other two dogs had.  Either way, I have covered myself now.  I am not an animal abuser!

Evil 1 and Evil 2

Do they seem cute and sweet?  All I see is pure evil.  I see baskets, glue, light bulbs, paint, crayons, markers, legos, hoses, laundry baskets, and all sorts of other yard and household things that have been eaten.  They've gotten in to the trash and generally speaking, caused me a great deal of stress, irritation, and anger.

This morning Evil 2 puked on my bed (which is something that also irritates me - being on my bed in the first place).  This happened at 5:35 AM just moments after The Bread Winner had left for work.  I got to get up and clean it up - so fun.  Then I tried to rest in bed but all I could do after that was think/stress/worry about who would take care of these 2 evil creatures while my family is gone for 2+ weeks to Australia.  Yes, Australia (more on this later).  I have a great deal of stress about who will watch these evil monsters while we are gone.  Seems like most people I know don't have a fenced yard (a requirement since they will both take off and cause trouble in the neighborhood if given half a chance).  Or they are allergic to dogs (really, who is allergic to dogs and not cats? lame).  Or they already have too many dogs.  Or they don't like dogs.  Or their house is too clean for dogs (I'm jealous of these people - the ones with clean houses and nice yards because they don't have dogs) Or who knows what the reason.  But I have NO IDEA who is going to take them.  Which leads me to evil thoughts myself like maybe it would be better to just have them put down.  Then I would never have to worry about these issues and the many others which involve them slowly consuming my house and the things in it.

So if anyone knows a guy who knows a guy who wants two dogs... I would be happy to give them my dogs.  Really, they would be free.  Just come and take them please.

Taking the plunge on Kieron's Birthday

This blog is for me as I have decided to take the time to create a "journal" of sorts.  I have found through reading other blogs that I like the idea of having a journal of what is going on in my life and the life of my family.  I have tried traditional journals where you write stuff down and your hand cramps up... not for me.  So after surfing the internet and reading lots of blogs I am starting my own.

Today is Kieron's 6th birthday!  I can't believe my baby is 6!  How did that happen?  How is it possible that he is 6?  It seems like he will be going to college tomorrow.  The funny thing is that he told me today that he "didn't feel bigger."  Like he expected to go to bed last night and wake up this morning and be instantly taller?  It is so cute how kids see the world.

I have decided I deserve the mom of the year award today also... he had DONUTS for his birthday breakfast.  Yes, donutS.  As in plural.  As in we drove to the donut shop and he picked 2 and ate them both.  I'm so awesome.  I'm sure the sugar and fat really helped him have a productive day at school.  And we plan to follow it all up with a trip to McDonalds for dinner.  Yum.  More fat and sugar!  He isn't known for being my healthy eater anyway.  Pretty sure he could subsist on chicken nuggets and oreos.  He would drink milk all the time though - doesn't like soda (as shocking as that sounds).

So Happy Birthday Kieron!  May you grow up to not have food issues with sugar (good luck).  But mostly, may you grow up to be happy and successful!  Love you a million-bo-billion.