Project 365

Pin It Yes, I'm doing this again this year. :) I really enjoy going back and looking over the pics I took last year, so I'm excited to do it again. Maybe I'll just try to continue forever.

I have a hard time uploading pics on blogger. It takes a while and somehow I always manage to get them backwards. I started putting the 365 pics on facebook. I'm still doing that, and will probably continue to do so, but I started today to put them on 365project.org.

I just uploaded the first six weeks of 2010 today, and will update it with the rest of February this week (lots of editing to do first.) It looks so easy to use! If you're doing a project 365, consider uploading your pics here. (And, you can feel free to follow me if you like.)

Oh - if you didn't already know - project 365 is a commitment to take a picture a day. I set very low standards for myself, so mine is more like a project 300-something. Last year I think I ended up with 340, not too bad. :) AND, if you are interested, just jump in. Doesn't matter that it's the end of February!

I Heart Faces - Hands On Fun

Pin It I was going to skip this week because I couldn't think of any "hand" pictures. Then this one scrolled across the screen. It's not technically fabulous, but I love it. This was the first of the jewelry parties at Grammy's house, playing in her jewelry boxes. Madelyn ran downstairs all jeweled up and declared "Are we having a jewelry party, or what, y'all?!?" in her full Texas twang. What a fabulous memory!

Let's See ...

Pin It Let's see if I can take a day when I really can't string two words together and come up with a blog post.

Last week was a hectic week, and this one is starting out that way as well. Brendan was sick last week, and then my mother in law came to visit. I felt really lousy over the weekend, and the weather has been so up and down that not a one of us knows if we're coming or going.

We're having a very pleasant visit with my mother in law, and I'm glad that we're close enough for her to be able to come visit without her son being home.

(Speaking of which - we have less than seven weeks left!)

The kids have been delighted to have her here and seem to be on a mission to separate her from any extra money she may have lying around. :-/ They were quick to make plans to take Grammy shopping. I guess it's much more fun to take Grammy shopping than to take mama shopping. Ha.

Madelyn has a couple of friends over today, and they are having a ball! She had a rough couple of weeks in the friend department recently, so I'm very happy that these three are having such a good time together. :)

Brendan had a buddy over earlier too. It's so funny to watch Brendan and his buddy together. They've been missing each other so I know they were excited to get together.

Gabbi is sad and lonely, no friends for her today. She thinks she's an adult anyway, so it's all good.

And with all of that said ... if you happen to still be awake ... thank you for reading. I promise posts with at least something interesting in them soon.

The Lazy Blogger

Pin It That's me!

I really haven't had anything to say. Weird.

I do have a couple of PSA's though.

PSA #1: If you tell a four year old child that he will not get a shot, and then he needs to have blood drawn, he will see that as a shot and will think that you lied to him. Even though he feels completely miserable and will want you to comfort him, he will be mad at you. It will take loads of comforting plus a nice toy to get him to forgive you. It will probably require sedation to get him back into the doctor's office. He will probably need some too.

So now you know.

We had a rough week around here. Said four year old has been fighting off a cough and cold for a couple of weeks now. Monday night he was wilty, and then he came home from MDO on Tuesday completely wilted, and by Tuesday afternoon was running fever. I called at 4:58 pm and made an appointment for Wednesday, assuming that it was either ears or throat. Then the fever shot up, and the boy was crying in pain, holding his side. I was thisclose to panicking, and kept praying that the Lord would just tell me if I needed to take him to the ER. He slept and whimpered all night long, and we went to his appointment a little early because he was still completely miserable on Wednesday.

The doctor said he thought it was a stomach virus. Huh. I was thinking no way was that a stomach virus. Then the doctor said he would do a blood test just to make sure. I was kind of relieved about that. (You didn't miss the PSA, right? Take note of that, please.)

Hey guess what.

Wednesday night, Brendan started feeling a little better, thanks to Tylenol and Zofran.

Thursday, he was still "off" but still a little better. Thursday night, he said "hey, I'm hungry!"

Friday, he's fine.

So, it was a stomach virus. This brings me to another PSA.

PSA #2: Sometimes stomach viruses involve fever, even high fever. Who even knew that? (Okay, evidently our doctor did. Thankfully.)

See, I want my blog to give back to its readers. You can thank me later.

(And thankfully today, he's all better, and so far, nobody else has been affected.)

I Heart Faces - I Wanna Dance!

Pin It

I had the fabulous privilege of taking some pics at a wedding this weekend. This couple, I believe they said they had been married for 48 years, was so much fun! Eventually all of the young people on the dance floor just stopped to watch them. I hope when I've been married for 48 years, I'm willing to get out on the dance floor and make everyone stop to watch!

Something is wrong here!

Pin It From a child last night: "You don't love me! If you loved me, you would buy this toy for me!"

From a child just a minute ago: "You don't love me! If you loved me, you would be willing to do this thing for me!"

The last night child is wanting a backpack that has a stuffed dog in it. A ridiculously overpriced backpack with a stuffed dog in it. The child today is wanting me to cram a five hour drive into an already overbooked day.

Oh my at the over-indulgence I'm seeing here!

As far as the backpack goes, I gave this child some options to earn the money for the backpack. Things like a clean room, made-up bed, dishwasher emptied, vacuuming. I pay well for these services, in part because it's all stuff I don't want to do, and in part because the sooner she has the ridiculously overpriced backpack in her possession, the sooner she'll start whining and wanting something else. :-/ The backpack costs $18. So far she has earned $9, so halfway there. This is if I am kind and do not subtract money for things like temper tantrums and excessive whininess. (I should subtract for HER tantrums and whininess too). ;)

As far as the drive goes, we had plans for this child to go visit my parents this weekend. Several things happened to make that not an option. Rather than accepting a "no, I'm sorry, but not this time", this child has devised about 37 options so that she gets what she wants. Never mind at the inconvenience to everyone else.

I'm really really aggravated with them. I'm sure I'll feel bad later for using them for blog fodder, but I'm really at a loss and almost in shock at the selfishness I am seeing. (I know, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree ... sigh ...)

I think it's time to have a little talk about being thankful for what we have. Maybe add in a side order of "the world does not revolve around you" and for dessert, my personal favorite, "money doesn't grow on trees." Dinner is served.

Now excuse me while I go have a temper tantrum because I still haven't heard from the plumber. For THREE DAYS now I have had to brush my teeth in the kids' bathroom. Yes, that means walking an extra FOUR FEET every morning and evening, and sometimes in the middle of the day if there's been garlic. And my children think they have it rough.

Irony, anyone?

If You Give a Mom an Hour (to herself)

Pin It If you give a mom an hour to herself,
She'll be so excited to have some quiet time, but first
She'll probably decide to do a load of laundry
(Since all you really have to do is put it in, so it doesn't take much time from the hour)
Along the way, she'll probably notice a few scattered toys
So, she'll pick them up after doing then laundry
While picking them up, she'll probably notice some more dirty clothes
She'll pick them up
While doing that, she'll probably notice shoes in the living room
She'll put them back where they belong
Along the way, she'll probably see some dishes that were left out
So, she'll take them to the sink
She'll think that she really ought to just do the dishes
Then she'll realize that 1/4 of her free hour is gone
So she'll decide to sit down and read a book
Along the way, she'll notice a child's schoolbook pushed halfway under the couch
She'll know that to leave that would mean that it would be pushed all the way under, and she'll know she won't remember seeing it, so she'll go and pick it up and put it where it belongs
Along the way, she'll see a DVD on the floor without its case
DVD's are expensive, so she'll pick it up to find its case
Right after finding its case, she'll see a sharpie left where a four year old will certainly see it
Remembering how much fun it is to get sharpie off of walls, she'll grab the sharpie and put it away
Along the way she'll step on a tube of lipgloss
She'll grab it and put it away and realize that now half her time is gone
She'll go to sit down again and realize that the cushions for the couch are all on the floor
So, she'll pick those up
She'll realize that there are 47 stuffed animals piled up under the cushions
So, she'll pick those up
Then she'll notice that the floor really needs to be vacuumed
So, she'll do that
Then she'll see that the floor in the kitchen has little bits of lunch around every chair, so she'll sweep that up
Oh no, now there's only fifteen minutes left, really not long enough to get comfortable and read her book
Plus the washer is done
So, she'll move the clothes to the dryer, start another load, and figure she might just have enough time to do the dishes
Then she'll look around at the clean house
She'll breathe a happy sigh
She'll go and get her little darlings
And they'll decimate the house again in about 6.8 seconds
But she'll remember that she loves them and missed them for the hour they were gone
So she'll kiss them
And start another load of laundry

The End.