because I really can't get enough of myself

Sometimes my 6 year old, Spike, must thinks he's 16. I mean, when all you have are teenage siblings, I guess the whole "treat mom like she knows nothing" schtick just rubs off easily? Because that's what we have going on here the past few days.  Every fall, when it starts to get cold, I refuse to turn on the heater for as long as possible. You know that smell that happens when you first use your heater and it makes you feel like you're choking on the dust of a thousand mummies? I hate that. So I just put on a sweater. And socks. And slippers. And maybe carry a blanket around. All in the name of avoiding mummy dust.  Spike however has other opinions.  Do you know how many times I've heard that kid yell, "Why do you always have to keep it so cold in here?!!" At least 8 times a day.  This morning my husband was getting the kids ready and off to school while I slept in and Spike came into my bedroom just to stand next to my bed and yell, "

Earlier today I watched 14 year old Monkey playing his electric guitar. He's getting pretty good. And then I thought about a video that I posted when he was 2, loving the new little plastic guitar he'd just gotten for Christmas, "playing" along to Guns N Roses while wearing snowman pajamas, spiderman slippers, and a pink binky. And then I wanted to watch that video, but a horrible thought crossed my mind: "Oh my gosh, does my blog even still exist?!" So I came and found it. Because yes, it's still here. I'm just not. Which is sad... This thing used to bring me so much joy. I could get all my weirdo thoughts out there. And then I could go read other people's blogs and feel like I was making friends. And then I'd meet those other people in real life and realize that I actually was friends with them. And then we'd all blog and be friends. I MISS THAT. I was reading through a bunch of old posts tonight. I wrote a lot of stuff

I have one grandma that loves telling us stories, but my other grandma never thinks her stories would interest us and therefore keeps them to herself.   Now that she's aging, she's sadly starting to forget the stories.  And besides that, she's wrong - her stories would very much interest me. My grandma Deonna (Morgan) Van Nosdol, my dad in the middle, and my two uncles. Sometimes I try to get tricky and ask round about questions to get her to tell me stuff from her past.  She gets upset when she can't remember certain things.  But then sometimes things just come right out. For instance, a few weeks ago I was talking to her about a frustration I was having with one of my kids, and asked what my dad was like when he was younger.  Grandma started talking about how my dad was a very calm and serious child.  He would go outside behind their house, over by the clothes line, and build stuff all day.  He had wood and nails and he would keep himself entertained while my

We've been making changes around here lately.  Because I was tired of feeling like we were constantly playing "why is life going too fast, how many things did we forget today, and can't I just take a nap?!"  (It's not a very fun game to play, and yet we seem to be doing it a lot.) So I made a meal plan - complete with assigned children helpers (because my kids should really know how to cook stuff by now).  And we listed ideas as a family, and individually, on what we could work on.  Then I made "expectations of...." papers for each person that are now hanging on our wall.  (Not that everyone always follows through on what is expected of them, but at least now no one can claim, "I didn't know I wasn't supposed to shove my dirty socks in the crack between my dresser and the wall!" and "You never said I had to shower more than once a year!" and "What homework?") I also made some work goals.  Among them was finally l

Monday was a really bad for probably everyone in the town in which I live.  Because on Monday we had a fairly decent SNOWPOCALYPSE.  And it was not pleasant. Monday was the day that Opie was supposed to get braces.  His first set of braces.  Because he's lucky enough to need them twice (and while we're on the subject, teeth are ridiculously expensive.  If you're planning on having a lot of children and you have small mouth genes, just DON'T DO IT, the orthodontics bills are killer). I had worked out my day perfectly.  The Jr High gets out early on Mondays so I had scheduled Opie's appointment for when Two Bits would be home to watch Spike.  Because being baby free for an hour long orthodontics appointment sounds pretty heavenly.  However the skies were being the opposite of heavenly.....if hell can come in frozen form. It snowed.  And snowed.   SO MUCH SNOW. I went outside an hour and a half before I needed to pick up Two Bits and Opie and tried to clean off

I got the latest version of one of my favorite drawing programs on my Surface today and played.  It had been so long since I had used this particular program that I had forgotten how much fun it is.  It's perfect for anyone who likes to doodle.  And I'm a really big fan of doodling.  In fact, I doodled this for Illustration Friday .  This week's theme is "animal".