SO photogenic!

It's the last day of NaBloPoMo, isn't it? I just realized! Wow. Time flies, just like always. No real surprise there, I guess.

I still have Thanksgiving and fall-ish pictures to share with you, but today I wanted to show you the funny pictures I got recently in the course of a regular day. The boys apparently make a lot of silly faces. Note: I was *not* trying to get crazyface pictures! I would in fact like it if they would look as beautiful on camera as they do in real life. And they often do...but not today!

On a side note, I will be so relieved to not be complaining about all the crap on a regular basis anymore! Life here is good but sometimes challenging. We have a lot of days where my energy level is very low, usually a combination of crazy blood sugars, lack of sleep, and life events...but I usually don't dwell on it because I have the two sweetest, most beautiful, fun, and precious children in the world, and there are so many perfect moments in my life that I can easily forget the crappy ones. So that's what I wanted to tell you on the last day of the month where I blogged a bunch of depressing stuff about not getting any sleep! I thought maybe I could do it eloquently, but again life has other ideas and I completely lost track of time.

Therefore, without further ado, I give you Mr. Suspicious:

(You really expect me to believe that kids my age actually LIKE to have their teeth brushed? HA! What do you think I am, a BABY?)

And his brother, I Do Not Like Your Answer*.

(Aw, MAN! But I really REALLY want to show the dog how to use the toilet!)

Aliases include Carrots-Are-Disgusting-Boy:

(Oh, GROSS, Mom! Not the carrots AGAIN!)

SuperImpressed:


(You've, like, already told me to pick up my Legos like 50 times today, lady. Geez. Chill! I'm totally on it. Tomorrow.)

And Mighty Morphin' MegaLips:

(Git Deez Hur Cameras Outta Mah Faish, Leddy!)

And that is why my days are awesome.

The End.

(*In this house we call that a Poo Face. I can't even think of what else to call it. Help! My vocabulary's gone missing!)

Is it Wordless Wednesday yet?

Dads. They're just SO FUNNY!

I love that this is what goes on at our dinner table many, many evenings.

I also love it when I finally manage to upload pictures from the camera! Thanksgiving-y, and also some hilarious, photos to follow. Stay tuned!

P.S. Had a pretty good night's sleep last night. YAY! My blood sugar was pretty insane today, and I made a slow cooker meal this morning but, for the first time EVER, forgot to check and make sure it was heating up, and also forgot to plug it in.

BUT when you get a decent night's sleep, it's much easier to deal with setbacks...and when your husband picks up emergency dinner on the way home, it's all good! =) Good night, everyone!

I still haven't uploaded the latest photos, so you might just want to skip this one.

SEriously.

If I have pictures, I can post about the happiness of the day. If not, all I have left is to tell you about things like the crazy intense headaches I've been getting. They only last for about a minute but they are awful. Luckily, if you want to look at it that way, Ben's been getting them too so we're assuming it might be allergies? Either way, not fun.

Today was good but really exhausting. I know I say that a lot! But we were in town ALL day today, and I was on my feet ALL day today, so--zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Wait, what was I saying?

Oh, yeah. In other news, J got some tiny ornaments and a tiny star to put on his very own miniature Christmas tree, and he is superduper excited! So there's another idea, teeny ornaments/teeny Christmas tree accoutrements would be a great little gift for him that he would get very excited about!

And I'm going to bed. This will be the fifth night since the dairy exposure, and we've yet to have a good night's sleep...wish me luck! See you tomorrow~

Definitely a case of the BLAHS

Why is it that at the end of every day I just feel a big question mark come up when I think of what interesting things I might have to blog about? I *know* that I lead an interesting and varied life, and we discuss some deep ideas around here (for example, today James listened to Charlotte's Web, so we of course discussed the circle of life etc), and we have lots of adventures...but I just don't feel like writing about them at the end of the day. Maybe someday I'll get it together and post in the mornings instead!

But not for now. Today was an errands day, and the last few days have been full of housecleaning, organizing, travel, planning for Christmas, etc, and I really just feel wiped out. Ben and I have been having lots of political discussions, as it's hard to tell what really should be done but it's hard not to feel that SOMETHING MUST BE DONE. James and I are talking about a lot of history and science topics that I find fascinating. (Why are bones white? Why does the honey sink below the maple syrup in the measuring cup? Why does somebody get to be king? Is (insert famous person's name here) a good person? Why would they do that? etc etc etc.) We have a lot of do-it-yourself projects going on and we try to get the chance to enjoy a decent bit of art around here. Tonight we played Uno and this afternoon we made homemade granola that smelled sooooooo good!

I know there's a more coherent, or at least a more interesting and witty, way to present any or all of these topics. I just don't have it in me tonight. Or really any night. I just need to go to bed.

Good night!

It's that time again...time for a crazy Christmas wish list.

Obviously I was a little bitter last night. Hopefully it was obvious that it's all the crazy people who act like complete nutjobs that seriously dishearten me. I always get a touch of the blues during the "holiday shopping season" because I worry about consumerism. But that stuff that was in the news, the bad ways people treat each other on Black Friday...awful. Yet I know there are also courteous people and normal people. I just get seriously depressed by people being so violent and insane and grabby and acquisitive during a time that is meant to be all about joy and love and peace.

But to prove that I'm an American consumer, I now present you with our Christmas list! Ha ha ha. No, really, people ask me and I never can figure out what everyone wants. So I think about it and post a big long explanation of everything that might be good, and then that helps me know how to answer those questions and also figure out what *we* should get the boys! So here it is.

1. books, books, books! We love Usborne books, any title really, although you can find some suggestions on my Amazon wish list. Also of note, Nathan loves horses and J would love to get audio CDs of any of the ones we've loved from the library so far: The Magician's Elephant, Odd and the Frost Giants, Nurk, The Cricket in Times Square, Charlotte's Web....
Nathan could use a few more Sandra Boynton board books, and I'm sure there are a million other awesome books we've yet to discover with him. He's also a big music kid, so some cool music cds might be great for him. (True story: tonight he was singing MMMbop. No, this is not a common song in our house. I was singing it earlier, thanks to some other high school song I heard, and he just picked it up. Hilarious.)
We can always use more farm resource books, and we could use a general homeschool resource book (also on the list already, I think).

2. Legos: J is allowed to get Lego "Kingdom" legos only--or generic, non-branded legos. We can't deal with a million different Lego "sets" to collect, we just don't have room in our house, so we've allowed him one set. Nathan would also love to get some Legos for kids his age or slightly older--he always wants to be like brother!

3. Experience gifts. J would ADORE a magazine subscription, for example, NatGeoKids, because not only would he have an awesome magazine to read once a month (or however often), he would GET HIS OWN MAIL every month!
He also love love LOVED going to the movies for the first time ever this summer. And Ben and I never get to go to the movies...so maybe a movie pass or movie tickets or however that would work out?

4. J needs his own cd/tape player, as he is always having to borrow ours for the above-mentioned audio CDs. They are truly great because he doesn't always have to wait for us to be available for the looooooooong books he wants to read! Also, Ben could use one of those little travel alarm clocks or something, that could fit by where he sleeps and also not take up too much space, and we could permanently relocate our other one.

5. Nathan would love to get his own kiddie desk. I'm ambivalent about the space it would take up--I guess it would depend on the desk. He's also really hoping for a fancy kid chair or couch, but a bean bag chair or foldout couch would also rock his world. (Okay, he just wants kid-sized stuff, he doesn't really care about quality...but I sure don't want everything branded! Shocker.)
Nay also would really get into a set of playsilks (link included here in case you don't know what that is).

6. We'd love a family globe! I'm guessing that would be James' gift. He is pretty fascinated by the globe at the library...but I can't promise the rest of us won't use it as well! (Wait...multipurpose...Best Kind of Gift!)

7. J would love his own cookbook. We found this one by Nicola Graimes that he loves and maybe that would help cut down on the fussing at dinner time. Probably not but it's a nice thought, and a seriously useful gift.

8. You guys, don't forget art supplies! These boys are so in love with drawing and coloring. I have never seen a 1-year-old love to color as much as Nathan does right now. We have plenty of coloring books, but we'd love sketch pads, or cool and interesting crayons/colored pencils/markers (there are some interesting textures out there, for example), or different kinds of paints, (we definitely need new paintbrushes! and new playdoh!), or those colorsafe coloring kit things are cool...the sky's the limit. They would love it all.

9. Both boys love dress-up, so this set of safe and natural face pencils would be awesome, as would any dress-up outfits that do not involve sports or branded superheroes (you know, a fireman outfit, a wizard outfit, a cool knight's helmet, etc.).

10. Video-wise, we've found that Backyardigans and Magic School Bus are pretty awesome. We also don't have Toy Story 1 or 2 on dvd and wish we did. For the grown-ups, we still don't own Harry Potter #5, 6, or 7 v. 1 and 2.

11. Grown-up ideas include a big cooler, good bookends, a hot glue gun, a shoe rack, and dish towels. Clothes-wise, we all need everything! But really...belts, shirts, sweaters, pants, shoes, socks...the kids both will need new boots at some point (Nathan has J's old wintery boots but not boots that are good with The Wetness, aka rainboots or muck boots). Board games or group games are always popular. A few we don't have but would like are: Clue, Fjords, Scattergories, MadLibs books, Sorry!, Scrabble, Jenga.

12. And if you knew how much crap we're going to have to buy, you'd know how much we'd love a gift card. In the fairly near future we'll need a new vacuum, new washer and dryer most likely, at least one more large stainless steel cooking pot or some other kind of cooking STUFF for our family with rapidly-growing appetites, all the aforementioned clothes...and of course the infamously expensive heating and cooling unit we'll have to buy next spring so we can make it through the summer, although we pray next summer won't be as record-breaking as this past summer...

That is all. Thanks again for being here and know that we love you no matter what you do or do not get us! Good night~

Black Friday

It's depressing. I hate it. I can't stand the way people act absolutely insane over a few things, some random crap! I don't CARE if it's a $2 waffle maker or the awesomest TV or what the heck ever. Yeah. Great deal. NOT great enough to pepper spray someone. And no matter how cheap or awesome those pants are? They're still PANTS and therefore not worth punching someone over.

I just...can't get it. I do understand that the weekend after Thanksgiving is likely to be the first time a lot of people seriously consider their Christmas shopping...but until we all put a halt to the CRAZY consumerism and remember our humanity....I will be depressed on this day.

Not to mention, the baby got dairy, somehow, AND has a cold. Unless the dairy is just making him congested, which is totally possible. Probably I shouldn't think too hard about anything with all that going on.

But seriously, folks. It might be fun to go shopping...but have a little human decency. Put people first. And then consider whether you want there to be ANYTHING left for your grandkids.

That is all.

Turkey Day Review

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I am truly thankful every day. I am so blessed. And one of the things I love about Thanksgiving is getting to spend it with a large family group and do fun holiday things. In our family, this usually involves some kind of word games. Today was no exception, as we got to play MadLibs AND Scattergories. I love this family tradition...although we don't own these games ourselves...hint, hint for future holidays...And the game-playing tends to show how those who are related often think alike, with hilarious results. There were several moments today where my sister and I had pretty much the exact same thought simultaneously. Classic.

Yes, we got to go to my sister's for Thanksgiving, which, personally, I think is an AWESOME tradition because I really enjoyed getting to just make one dish, and then NOT having to stress about any house details. Everything was delicious except for our dish (oh well...it had to have too many adjustments, I think) and we got to take home an amount of leftovers that was satisfying even to my husband, for whom Thanksgiving is a shining day of stuffing yourself, following by several days of leftovers, or else it was done all wrong!

The cousins had a great time playing today, and the only issue we had at all today was that Nathan got locked into the playroom by himself. It turned out to be very difficult to get him out of there, although my sister's father-in-law eventually managed it, but luckily, it was the playroom and not, say, the bathroom, so I was pretty relaxed about it since it was highly unlikely he would get hurt. He was a little scared but I could talk to him and keep him calm. So no big deal in the grand scheme of things. A good day.

And man, am I tired now! Nothing like a day of travel and tryptophan to knock you out! Good night, sweet dreams to you! See you tomorrow~

Worn out already, and I still haven't done much.

You know how it goes...during the day, I get all kinds of ideas of what I might want to or get to post on. But then the day goes flying by. You make a trip into town, you take a walk with the dog, you play with the kids and you make a delicious-smelling stuffing that you can't eat yet...and then after you wrestle everyone into bed, because that's the kind of a day it is, you sort of sit on the couch going....Hm....what can I write about? My brain....empty....zzzzzzzzz. So here's a random assortment of what comes up when I try to think of what I was thinking about writing earlier.

1. I made the stuffing without onions, even though I LOVE onions, because my sister and her baby can't have them. Then I realized that I had put almonds in them and I'm not sure my other nephew can eat them, although I *think* he can. And I'm making the stuffing in the first place because if anyone else made it, it'd be sure to have dairy, and then we couldn't have it. I hate food allergies! Stupid GMOs and pollutants and toxic crap and x factors.

2. I don't have to host tomorrow and still my list of crap to do is a mile long. I didn't ever clean out my car, so that's going on to the "Would've Been Nice" list, but I still have to pack us a bag with enough food for the whole day for at least me and Nathan, change of clothes for the boys and diapers for Nay, pump change set because I'll also have to change my pump tomorrow, camera and cell phone which need to be charged, house which needs to be dog-proofed, laundry needs to be done because J and I are running out of pants, insurance still needs to get called because they forget that they have proof that I'm covered (lovely, and I can't do that tomorrow anyway), I need to pick out clothes for us all to wear tomorrow and it'd be awesome if they didn't clash so we could take a picture...I still haven't even brushed my teeth for bed tonight...

3. Why are so many books about Robin Hood weird/depressing? One book we got was a graphic novel, and it wasn't too bad, James really liked having all the pictures, but then either the text and captions say the same basic thing but I *have* to read them both, or the pictures have too much violence or a weird-looking Maid Marian or something. One book we got had a ton of pictures but they were actually creepy. The people looked unhuman, more like goblins or something weird, and everyone had a deranged look on their faces, and there was a lot of violence and the ending was awful. Weird.

4. I'm reading a biography of Stephen Colbert. I *heart* Stephen Colbert. Brilliant.

5. I realized that what I said about Life is Beautiful might not have made it clear that I know it centers on all the really sad horribly WWII stuff. I actually thought it might be really awful, because we all know that sometimes when something wins lots of awards, it's because it's awful, but I was and still am hoping that it turns out worth it. I don't know. We'll see.

6. Ben wants to show me some cool fun chess thing so I'm off because otherwise I'll never manage to make it to bed. Love to all!

Long Week!

So. It's Tuesday, right? It feels like the Friday of a very, very long week. I don't know why this is but I am exhausted!

I've been doing a lot of projects online lately. Don't really see how that would make me exhausted, although of course that's not the only thing I've been doing, but I've been working on gifts for others for Christmas in various areas, and working on Pinterest especially to create a good list of crafts we want to do, and working with Snapfish for my newest tradition: every New Year's Eve, starting this year, I want my family to create a yearly photo album, or to create however much STUFF we need to memorialize the year in pictures and then be done with it and be able to enjoy it.

Anyway. All of this is just to say that if you happen to want to know what we want for Christmas, I've also been playing around with Amazon's wishlist stuff. This is not a formal wish list at all, because I've just been sticking things on my wish list that I like and maybe think would somehow translate well into a REAL wish list...maybe in a few more days. But it's good for ideas. For example, I need some shirts; both boys would enjoy Legos; J would love a magazine subscription. We love board games, would love some "experience" gifts like movie tickets, etc...But here's the Amazon list I've made, just be aware that it is not edited for public consumption, it's just me thinking out loud! I don't really expect anyone to get us a vacuum, for example, but maybe we could get one for ourselves? However, if you WANT to get us a vacuum, go for it! And soon enough I'll publish a list of our polite requests for things we love that would be useful to us. Although we always like to make the caveat that we'd much rather just spend time with our loved ones!

Wish list

And now I better get to sleep. Love to all, see you again soon!

Pintrouble

I joined Pinterest today. It is SO addicting!

But seriously, it's pretty much the coolest idea ever. I've always wanted to be able to have just a folder of cool art depicting trees...or of recipes I'm dying to make...or of books I absolutely adore...or of things that are random and make me laugh...and now I can have all of those and not take up any space in my house! Perfect!

Therefore, I shall not spend much time blogging tonight because I must go Pin things. Also of note, we're watching Life is Beautiful, and loving it. I know that movie is famous but I've never actually heard a real person I know say anything about it. I'm here to tell you that so far the first half is hilarious and the second half looks like it will be very interesting. I expect it will get two thumbs up in this household.

Love to all, and goodnight!

Update

That was pretty much the fastest I've ever seen power restored out here. Usually we are the very last people to get power restored, as far as I can tell, since when we lose power it's a grand total of maybe 6 houses.

That was awesome. But I admit, I sorta wish the power wouldn't have come back on until I had already fallen asleep. That way I would've gone to bed really early. But I just can't make myself go back to bed right now, because there's so much to do. I just realized today that I NEED to go shopping tomorrow for foodstuffs so I don't HAVE to go anytime after Thanksgiving. I hate Black Friday. And the weekend won't be any better.

I'm feeling so cheerful! I think I really will try to haul myself off to bed. It'll probably still take me 30 minutes, but at least I won't be staying up *late* at that rate.

Good night, if anyone's reading this...it's hard to tell sometimes.

Power's out...

Lightning strike, so blogging on Ben's IPhone.

Just another busy day

Today we went to our parent meeting/kiddie playdate that we do once a month. Then we went out to lunch. Then we went and shopped for mattresses (go to the mattresses?), which the kids LOVED because we were the only people in the store and we just let them run around and play peekaboo and otherwise be a nuisance, except of course they weren't being a nuisance, they were being KIDS, and they weren't bothering anyone, as our salespeople were somewhat comatose...I'm thinking business has not been that good lately? Or maybe they had a very heavy lunch.

Anyway. Then we came home and Nathan had a nap while James and Ben played chess and Connect 4, and I dealt with a low and also felt awful for a while there. Very sleepy, and also a huge headache and my back and neck are all out of whack. I haven't done T-Tapp for 2 days. I need me some T-Tapp!

While brings me to a subject on my mind--weight loss. I started losing weight at the beginning of this year, and it really slowed to a halt around June or so, and lately with all the hormone crazies and the blood sugar swings and my least favorite thing, HAVING to eat when I'm not hungry, I think at least a small portion, if not a large portion, of that weight has come back.

Reflecting back on the last year, I've realized that the only time that I was really easily losing the weight is when I was cleaning house. So, every two weeks, I need a 3-hour exercise session, that I get paid to do, while my husband happily watches the kids (or some other free childcare arrangement).

AAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Yeah. So I need another plan. It felt really good to lose that weight, and *I* felt really good, more energetic and able and less achy and sleepy. (Okay. I was still sleepy. But only when I didn't get to sleep because of the baby!)

But I have yet to feel able to make myself exercise, in the middle of all else I have to do, for a significant amount of time, because I'm trying to conserve energy and also trying not to crash and have a huge low.

So I don't have energy because I can't exercise and I can't exercise because I don't have energy. Sigh. Sometimes it really stinks being a diabetic.

Okay. It stinks a LOT to be diabetic. But this is one incarnation of that that I'm dealing with right now.

And I'm very sleepy after our busy day, so I'm off to veg for awhile until I can drag myself to bed. Good night!

Self-Portrait

This guy. He is just perfect.

That will be all today, you guys. I've really focused this week on living in the moment, and remembering that it's really important for my kids to know that I love them RIGHT NOW, and not after they've cleaned the mess, or waited patiently for me to finish whatever I'm doing, or quit fighting, or fussing, or having any inconvenient feelings, or taking up space--no, I love them,right now, just as they are, warts and all, because they are two of the most fabulous, fun, funny, sweet, caring, beautiful, imaginative, perfect beings on this planet.

So I'm gonna go get ready for bed so I have a little more energy for them this weekend. They deserve all I can give them!

See you tomorrow. Good night!

Not terribly lucid.

I just realized that I was confusing Boy George with George Michael.

WOW.

Not the same person AT ALL.

I'm still laughing from that one.

Moving on...today has been a looooooooooong day. I have learned that you should never post on the internet that there's a possibility you might bake a pie the next day, because that just gives life the chance to say OH REALLY? I DON'T THINK SO.

It's not that it was a bad day. In fact, it wasn't. The boys and I had a pretty good day, not a lot of fuss, not a lot of trouble, not a lot of stuff that had to get done. But I was Just. So. Tired. I could barely keep my eyes open through all the things we did do, and I was very lucky that there really wasn't much that needed to be done, and that I could spend my day just reading books and playing games with the boys while trying to stabilize and recover from a wild roller coaster ride of crazy blood sugars.

Hopefully that's done for now, although my blood sugar is still a bit low. This is why I'm still awake even though, again, as I might have mentioned, my eyelids are seriously drooping and I can't hardly keep my eyezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

What was I saying? Here, have a cute picture from two or three days ago, before the onset of WINTER:


Notice how he's wearing a t-shirt that says "turtley cool" or something like that? This is awesome because that was the same day that we found these two guys crossing the road and got to save their lives:


That big guy there was HEAVY.

Turtles are cool.

My brain is off. Good night.

Quotes and such, part 1

Today was the Day of Funny Quotes. Let me see if I can remember them all...

1. There's a game that Daddy and Jamesy play where one of them will spell something funny and then do it--the favorite is "Jamesy, what does P-O-K-E spell?" and then J says "POKE!" and pokes Daddy. So today, both boys were sitting on the potty at the same time (big kid, regular potty, little kid, baby potty), and having a chat, which was cute in itself. But then J said, "Nathan, what does P-O-K-E spell?" And Nathan said, "POKE!" and poked James. It was so hilarious! We all had a huge laugh at that one. And...bonus! we're teaching N how to spell at age one. Awesome.

2. This brings me to feeding time. J usually measures out the scoops of dog food for Denali, and then N takes the food over to the spot, and then both boys tell the dog when he can go over and get it. But J always counts out loud, "One...two....three...four!" so yesterday they were doing their thing and J went, "One..." and then Nathan went, "Two...three..." And...he can count too! Genius.

3. But then we have baking. A few days ago N and I baked some sweet potato and pearsauce bread (which, oddly enough, tasted a lot like gingerbread) (not that that's a bad thing, as it was delicious!) and when I added the sweet potato puree N said, "POOP, Mama!" I won't make any other comments about that but you can draw your own conclusions about how that puree looked. So then N kept asking for POOP when he wanted to eat the bread, which we all thought was pretty funny. Then TODAY we baked peanut butter cookies, and discovered Nathan's word for cookie is "Doodie!" So James, especially, really enjoyed all the poo references.

4. Here are some sentences that N has said recently, by the way. He seems to be one of those all-or-nothing kids, who had very few words and then BAM! paragraphs. He told me "Mama! Go poop!" when he, in fact, needed to go poop (and let's not talk about how awesome it is that he's practically potty-training himself). He will say "Me! Up! Now!" and "More eat (apple) (banana) (avocado) (doodie) (etc)." He will tell me "Doggie bite!" when Denali is rolling around on the floor.

Okay, honestly, he's been saying way WAAAAAAAAAY more than that but I gotta go! We've been having a really good but really busy week this week and there is just so much to do. I admit, when I get into a cooking groove, it's really a lot of work to make so much stuff, but MAN, it is nice to have such deliciousness! Tonight we had homemade chicken noodle soup, last night we had a new jambalaya recipe I found that was wonderful, and the night before that we had roast chicken...and of course there's all the baking. Tomorrow, vegetable barley medley for dinner and pumpkin pie for dessert if I get the chance!

Good night all!

Blah blah blah picture picture

Today I offer proof of the craftiness I discussed the other day, aka "knight's helmets":


And next we have some "before" pictures, so you can see the haircut "after" pictures...right after I TAKE some haircut pictures...maybe tomorrow...

Also, I'd like to say that I loved, nay, adored the boys' hair before the cuts. There is something about boys with nature-given hairdos that pulls at my heartstrings, and they are just so beautiful. But...I thought they might appreciate a little break from having bangs in their eyes all the time.

Even though it's beautiful. See?

And this next picture, showcasing Nathan's natural bang eyesight issue, I'm quite proud of, because James wanted me to take a self-portrait of everybody and this was my very first, two-seconds-to-prepare attempt, and we're all actually in the picture! Because I am awesome.

And finally, just a fun photo from the 200-some pictures we took just in the last couple of days. These guys are hilarious!

See you tomorrow!

A Surprisingly Good Day

So, last night in the night, Nathan definitely was feeling some intestinal discomfort. He was tossing and turning and groaning a good bit...BUT it definitely was not nearly as bad as his reactions have been in the past. No throwing up, no crying, no full-on waking up, and it ended around 4:15 this morning. So I'm going to say that gives me hope! Maybe in a few more months I might get to have CHEESE again!

I'm still exhausted, naturally, but I had a pretty productive day. I raked leaves, swept both my porches, ran the dog and kids and goats around outside, did two loads of laundry and folded and put them away, cleaned the kitchen and swept and mopped the floor with the kids, got a short nap and then did T-Tapp to help with my back pain, perfectly timed dinner to be ready right at 6:00....

Who cares if I never got around to brushing my hair today, right?

Also, must post pictures of 1. kids' crafts from the other day and 2. kids' haircuts from yesterday but first I must download them! And...I'm still too lazy to do that. No, scratch that, I'm too tired!

Good night, everyone. I'm trying not to feel like I'll be worn out tomorrow. It worked for me yesterday...;)

I hate Mondays

I really, really do.

I might even hate Sunday nights MORE...because I know Monday is coming. It's so hard not to stress out, not to think of all the sleep I'm missing, all the tasks I have to accomplish, all the swimming-upstream feelings I might have, all the things I won't be ABLE to accomplish even though they need doing (or, like exercise, are very important but can be put off indefinitely)...

This weekend was pretty good. Except! for the part where Nathan, at the grocery store, in about 3 milliseconds, grabbed a Rolo off the shelf by the cash register and bit into it. As in, he got an entire chunk in his mouth, gulped, and tried to bite my finger when I tried to swipe it out.

Let me repeat that in case you didn't catch it: MY DAIRY-ALLERGIC CHILD ATE MILK CHOCOLATE TODAY.*

Probably not the best way to have a good weekend.

It would've probably been funny and cute if I hadn't been trying not to cry. My husband was much better at this than I was--he could still enjoy the cuteness. And that helped, it really did. It reminded me to take a deep breath and realize that nothing bad is actually happening now. The baby did not throw up right away--nor has he yet. There was some definite fussiness but so far he has seemed fairly normal. Nighttime is usually when the damaged intestines show themselves with constant thrashing, tossing, turning, comfort nursing, and general all-nighter behaviors...but we are not there. Nothing good will come from stressing out about it. I cannot change it. I can only live right now, and right now, nothing bad is happening. Even if I am awake all night long tonight, I can only be present in that moment and it will pass, oh-so-quickly, even though it may feel like an eternity.

These are the things I tell myself. But still, we tend to get angry at each other on Sunday nights, because the stress of the work week is upon us. And that's WITHOUT the dairy incident.

And that's why I hate Mondays. And also, why I'm trying very hard not to.

Wish me luck while I attempt to enjoy the present...

(*I tried to get a list of the ingredients in a Rolo from the Hershey's website, but it was all messed up. Suffice it to say that the first ingredient was milk chocolate, which includes such joys as nonfat milk, milk fat (why do they do that anyway? Isn't that dumb?), lactose (milk) and so on and so forth. Not to mention the crazy chemicals like whatever "PGPR" is.)

Mama, I'm BIG!

I'm just gonna tell you right now that I really have nothing to say.

I have a HUGE headache today. The last few days, my back has been really sore, and there is some misalignment going on there. Plus, my gums hurt, so I know some of that is hormones adding to my head troubles...And then there's the wind. There's always a wind here, but today it was FIERCE, and I'm pretty sure the allergen level must've been high because, in addition to the headache, I've got some itchy scratchy eyes, nose, and throat. And I had to get up early with the baby today...and a good portion of my headache can probably be attributed to stress from the time change. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate the time change? Maybe once or twice? Every year?

So. The creativity or the cuteness or the energy to come up with anything coherent to say? Not so much.

But I can try to post a random fun picture I've never posted before...I think. Here's Nathan doing something he frequently does, and being as proud of it as he should be:

I don't know if that boy will EVER figure out that he has his OWN shoes. In fact, he probably already knows but just doesn't care. It is WAY more fun to put on brother's. Because, of course, we want to be just like brother. RIGHT NOW!

I love my life.

I could stand to get rid of this headache, though.

Good night! See you tomorrow~

Crafting in the Real World

So, I see a lot of beautiful craftwork on the internet. I even see a lot of it that my in-real-life friends have made. They do collages, they scrapbook, they make amazing pictures out of button collages and do interesting things with chalk or paint or fabric strips....you name it.

Meanwhile, over here in Not That Talented Land...Today we were super-crafty! We did TWO five-minute crafts IN ONE DAY! I am amazed at myself.

First, we took some water jugs (because, hello, it says you need milk jugs, but that would make Nathan sick!) and cut them so they (loosely) resemble helmets for knights. The boys wore them around all morning and it was really fun. And funny. And cute. And I took pictures but I'm too lazy to post them right now. Sorry!

Then, we traced their hands and feet and did a bunch of cutting (good practice for James on fine motor skills!) and gluing (Nathan's favorite part!) and ended up with two cute kid-sized turkeys. FUN! (Also no pictures...yet. Sorry!)

I really love doing arts and crafts stuff with my boys. But I just for the life of me do not understand how people make it all shiny and pretty and how they come up with half the stuff they do.

We have fun, though!

And now I feel like a kick-butt kind of a mom for doing two crafts in a day. Onward and upward!

Good night.

Le Tired

Today was a very busy day. We went on a nature hike this morning (I was a bad blogger and did not take ANY pictures), then had lunch and played at the park, then went to my book club, then picked out a jillion books at the library, then came home and ran the dog and goats around again, then cooked dinner, cleaned up, played Uno, got the kids ready for bed...MAN, this was a long day! So now I feel like this:


even though the kids were cool as cucumbers all day long.


Thus, my post will not be any more substantial than me throwing out a bunch of pictures from the last 6 months and stringing together a vaguely comprehensive narrative about them and about my exhausting day. It was a good day, but also hard, because I was low a lot and just felt like I was swimming upstream the whole day. AND there wasn't a bathroom at the nature trail! That was probably the most stressful part of my day. Seriously. Not cool.

So, hopefully I'll head off to bed soon, and hopefully I'll be able to let go of my stress from the day, and not sleep with my arms crossed like I'm mad at my Daddy for not reading me a longer bedtime story...


Good night!

Wordless Wednesday: Lipstick Jungle

Just Another Day

Today was one of those days that I try to soak up and hold close. I got to just play with my kiddos, spend some time outside in the nice weather, let the goats and dog-who-wishes-he-was-a-goat run around outside and let the kids burn off some energy and get dirty. I got to clean my house with help from the kiddos. I got a few things done and felt good about crossing them off my list. I got to play kitchen with Nathan over and over again. ("Hot! Mama! Hot hot hot!") (Nathan's other favorite game, I must tell you, is "Work." He comes over, gives you a kiss, says "Bye bye!" and waves, and then goes and gets on his scooter and drives off. Then he drives back and says, "Home!" Repeat, repeat, repeat. Gotta love a one-year-old's imagination!) I also got to read to James, and listen to one of our new favorite stories (The Magician's Elephant) with him. I got to just relax and BE with my two lovely, funny, sweet, adorable, perfect kiddos. I even had a nap!

And then to top it all off, my husband came home from work and took over as I ran out the door to have dinner with one of my oldest and best friends (who lives several hours away but happened to be in town). That's right, I got to have dinner, out at a restaurant, without children, AND talk with a good friend. All by myself. It was all unbelievably awesome.

I have so much to be thankful for. What a perfect day. Good night!

Oh, and if you're interested in all the NaBloPoMo stuff, I should add that my friends Patricia and Jessie are also participating this year! Check them out!

Bumpity bumpity bump

Apparently we had another earthquake tonight. This is the first one I haven't felt. I'm starting to really wonder about this fracking business. I'm no expert. But it reminds me of the global warming issue...and the precautionary principle...where, you know, if it seems logically reasonable/possible/likely that one thing humans do causes damage to Mother Earth, we should knock it off! Because even if that cannot be proven as The Cause of all harm, it's better to quit things that seem likely to be harmful than to wait until you've done so much harm you can't take it back.

I'm not cool with this earthquake business.

I'm also not good at remembering to post before bedtime, apparently, so that will be all tonight.

Okay, I lied. I will also add that I'm secretly addicted to watching Once Upon a Time right now. It is so, so cheesy. But we all need a little cheese in our lives....and I can't eat any dairy! So there.

Good night!

Siblings

I have an amazing family. My husband is wonderful, my two kids are the sweetest, smartest, cutest, fun-nest kids I can imagine. We have a great place to live, and we get to be near quite a bit of our family and still have our little farm, our handsome dog, our dumb but useful and fun chickens, our smart but silly goats....

(Darn picnic-table-loving goats! But they're hilarious...hours of entertainment!)

But today I want to write mostly about my sister. Why? Probably because I got to see her yesterday, as we're trying out this great new thing called Getting Together Every Month So Help Me God. Or, you know, "sistafriend dates." Whatever. Anyway. I'm thinking of her a lot today.

Sometimes, I wish we (Ben and I) could have a larger family. I worry about the future, because I have two siblings, and if I didn't have my baby sister, I don't know where I'd be but I know it would be a huge void in my life. I wish I didn't have diabetes (well, DUH!) or at least that it wasn't so hard to be diabetic and pregnant/nursing/having tiny kids. I wish the world wasn't so overpopulated that it feels kinda indulgent and selfish to even have two kids. I wish there weren't so many natural and man-made disasters that make it feel so scary to have tiny kids sometimes. I wish my kids could have lots of strong, close-knit sibling relationships to help see them through life, and especially whenever I can't be there for them. I wish I didn't require sleep. (That last one? THAT'S the superpower I'd ask for. Just in case you're wondering what to get me for Christmas.)

But anyway...then I remember I have that baby sister. And therefore, my boys actually have two cousins named Charlie and Andy who can be those extra "siblings" for them, should they need that. And....maybe someday...said sister could even have ANOTHER baby for us to all snuggle and love on....

Having a baby sister who's grown up into a wonderful friend, mother to her children, and allo-mother (aka AUNT) to my kids? It's pretty awesome.

(My mother? Also pretty awesome. But that's a whole 'nother post...or, you know, book.)

Having a sister who lets you come to the birth party when your second nephew is born? Also awesome. Here's me getting to hold my hours-old nephew while my two boys and my other nephew surround us with love...and chaos...as usual. It was amazing and perfect to get to be there:


And, unfortunately, I don't seem to have a picture of my sister with Nathan in the Ergo. She has always been my kids' personal Baby Whisperer, getting them to sleep by the sheer force of her presence. (And, apparently, Phil Collins songs. So she tells me.) Another reason it's awesome to have an Uncle Sandra.

And just in case you're curious...no, I do not need any special favors from my sister. I did not do anything for which I need to beg her abject forgiveness. We did not fight. We are just awesome sisters and I thought I'd share with you how thankful I am that she is. That is all.

I hope my boys have that same feeling of thankfulness and care for each other as they grow. So far, so good!

("I got your back, bro. Nobody can defeat us with this awesome snow-proof armor we just found in the hall closet.")

("I'll scratch your back if you....act as my primary locomotion?")

(Zombie Apocalypse Togetherness, check. )

(Okay, I never let Nathan watch TV but this was too cute not to take a picture of before I broke up the party.)

(No words for this level of sweetness.)

Have a great rest of the weekend! See you tomorrow~

Still quaking

About 30 minutes ago there was an earthquake. One that actually shook the whole house, one where you can feel the ground move beneath your feet.

Last night at about 2:15 a.m. there was also one.

A few months ago there was one. I was taking a nap for that one and I thought a helicopter had landed on my roof. I was angry because it woke me up.

I have lived in this state almost my whole life and can't remember ever feeling one before this last year.

I'm pretty sure Mother Earth is mad at us. Or at the very least, looking to balance the out-of-balance of humanity.

Just sayin'.

Also? I was just about to head to bed when I realized that I didn't post today. Does this mean my priorities are weird? I dunno. But it's true. NaBloPoMo has hooked me.

Good night. Sleep tight. Here's hoping everything stays put tonight.

Out of town!

Oh my goodness-we actually TRAVELED somewhere! It's amazing!

Granted, we haven't even gone an hour away from home....and we're heading back home tomorrow...and Ben and Denali stayed at home...but it's nice to take a short trip every now and again, even though it's also SOOOOOOOOOOOO much work! Man, I thought it was hard to travel as a diabetic because of all the extra supplies....then I had kids...and then I had a kid with a milk allergy! Now I have to bring TONS of food as well as all the kid supplies and all the medical supplies AND all the regular stuff you need like toothbrushes!

And now I am exhausted. I gotta go, too, because James wants me to read him a book--or five or six. Some things never change! =)

See you tomorrow, if I can remember while traveling!

Word Explosion

I have a little bit of Mommy Guilt. Who doesn't? But mine is, particularly, at this moment, Second Child Syndrome guilt. Not only the part where Nathan gets to do things that James never did, because, you know, they're not very safe...but also the part where I tried really hard to write down as many special moments with James as I possibly could. Every tooth that came in, every new step that he took, every funny sentence he's uttered, all the signs he knew...

And with Nathan, I really just sort of hope that James can help him fill in the blanks. Because James' memory is much, much better than ours! And I honestly have no idea when which tooth came in for this baby. I only know that he's got a heckuva lotta teeth. Well, that, and a few weeks ago he cut FOUR teeth in the same 24-hour period. For now, that fact is burned into my brain due to lack of sleep, but I know I'll forget. Unless! I manage to start blogging all this stuff.

Thus, here I am. About 2 to 3 weeks ago, Nathan had a word explosion. Before that, he was signing a few words, saying a few words, and making sound effects and gestures to make himself perfectly well understood, and he was happy with that. He would say "mup" for "milk," "mo!" for "more," and Da-Da, and of course his first word was "goat." He'd sign for milk, or more, or all done, or potty.

But then one day he just woke up and knew probably 100 new words. It was really that many. Right now he's saying "ga-goo, ga-goo!" which means "tractor, tractor!" and looking at the tractor in one of his baby books. And of course, when I looked down and said, "Oh, tractor?" he went, "Yeah...." but his favorite word is NO! Some of the others I particularly enjoyed are: peachies, mulk, grackle, doggy, bubba, poop, potty, socks, kitty--

I could've gone on forever there, but I in fact finished writing this post and then realized that I wasn't logged in and lost it all. Therefore, The End. Stupid internet chaos crapola.

On a happy note, we had a babysitter today! A real live true babysitter!

On the other hand...James is a superfuss because of the Halloween candy. I hate candy. The End. For Real.

So long, see you tomorrow!

Wordless Wednesday: Cooperation

It's kinda awesome. That is all.

NaBloPoMo--AGAIN!

*Disclaimer--I don't know why my text is messed up and I don't have time to fix it tonight. Promise it won't be all schizophrenic tomorrow! Sorry.*

A few years ago I blogged every day for the month of November. This is called NaBloPoMo (here's a link to this month's participants), and it couldn’t have come at a better time for me then—I was still adjusting to a very new and different version of my life than I had been used to and expected. I was learning how to be a parent. Yes, this is an unapologetic “mommyblog,” and many times lately I’ve found just barely enough energy to slap up a cute pic of the kiddos and call it a day, but back in 2007, I was so thankful for this month of writing, because it connected me to who I had been while helping me explore who I was becoming, and it was awesome.

But. Then stuff happened, again, and again, and again, and I am continually shocked at the fact that life moves so quickly. We moved across the country, bought a mini-farm, had another kid, had dog drama (“Wow, I didn’t know dog surgery could BE that expensive!”) and all kinds of other drama, including many sleepless nights for many different reasons. We also lived without home internet for over 2 years. Along the way, this blog was sadly neglected. For example, it'd be nice if I updated my link list, right? Or maybe I should add a new NaBloPoMo badge....Yeah!...maybe....someday....*cough*

So anyway, here we are again, just another November where so far the baby’s sleep pattern is dismal and I’m drowning in sleeplessness. And I’m going to try it again, this whole blog business. Last time, which, by the way, I can never believe was FOUR YEARS AGO, I found some really amazing online friends who made me feel less alone, and that was priceless too.

If you’re here because you’re family, you’ll be excited because I’ll post lots of pictures this month! If you’re here because of NaBloPoMo, welcome! My theme this month is chaos—and thankfulness. In other words, I’m blogging off-the-cuff because my life still doesn’t really allow for much else.

I am so thankful to be here. I am so glad you’re reading! Now, look at my cute kids.

Welcome to November, everybody!

P.S. James was a "pirate skeleton ninja," and he also wanted to be a ghost but we couldn't figure out how to easily incorporate that. His bag actually says "The Dread Pirate James" but we decided it should've been The Dead Pirate James. Ha ha! Oh, and Nathan was a spider, although I couldn't get ANY good pics with all his little spider legs out on the sides of the costume. AND he picked out the pretty pink purse for trick-or-treating, which we loved. But then everyone thought he was a girl. Whatev. ;)