Inspiration

I apologize in a huge way for being MIA around here.  I have stumbled into some freelance projects that have kept me busy along with working on my resolutions project. 

I have a little pile of activity ideas that is growing on the counter, but we just haven't gotten ourselves together to do any of them in a while.  We are planning on some really fun Easter Eggs, but we can't do that just yet!

Today is a rainy day and the kids are home from school, so we are trying to figure out what to do with ourselves.  Tater says he wants to go shopping and buy a Spongebob Lego Set and that will be his "craft".

I don't think he is the spirit of things.

I was just checking out a website, which I think saw in Woman's Day Magazine - Instructables.com.  It seems like a great resource with wide gamut of different projects.  I just haven't figured out which one to do.  The magazine suggested Vegan Marshmallows, but the instructions include a bunch of ingredients that I a) don't have and b) don't know where to get.  So that's not going to happen.

I will have to come up with something stunningly original and exciting and reclaim my Fun Mommy title!

Stay tuned!

What is happening to me??

I am actually excited by the fact that the Jonas Brother, Ashley Tisdale and Mitchell Musso are coming out with new CDs. So I will have more selection on my "kids mix" on my iPod.

So not good...

I Think I am Doing This Wrong

The Plan:

1.) Go to the Library.
2.) Go to Maggie Moo's Ice Cream to get the kids free ice cream cones.

No cost. Free. Gratis.

The Actuality:

1.) Go to the Library.
2.) Fight with the children about why they can't get their regular treats at Maggie Moo's. (Because that isn't what is FREE!)
3.) Arrive at Maggie Moo's to find that they aren't participating in the free ice cream cones.
4.) Silently fume.
5.) Purchase $10 of ice cream for the children. It would be wrong to take them to the door of the ice cream place and leave.
6.) Not so silently complain to the high-school aged person who took my money. He didn't care.
7.) Decide to take a quick trip into Barnes & Noble - ONLY for a guidebook for things to do in Washington DC on our trip this weekend.
8.) Deflect Tater's request for a CD course in Italian.
9.) Deflect Sprout's request for a map of Prague.
10.) Find guidebook...and map.
11.) Deflect request for snacks. (We JUST had not-free ice cream!!)
12.) Get suckered into buying the "Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself" Book for BOTH children.
13.) RUN to the parking lot escaping any other purchases.

Total Planned Cost: $0
Total Actual Cost: $50

I am TOTALLY doing this wrong.

The Last Straw

We just concluded a 24-hour period which included a basketball practice/party, set-up for a school event, a playdate, a dinner out (including ice cream to celebrate the end of basketball), a trip to Dunkin' Donuts, a basketball game, the school event (including lunch, games, new jackets, lots of candy), and a softball practice.

On the way home from the final event, Sprout said the following:

"While we were practicing, I slid on the field and got goose poop on my pants and shoes - so you are going to have to scrape off my shoes and get it off so I don't have to wear poopy shoes."

Um, no - I am not. Last straw. No more. I draw the line somewhere before scraping the goose poop off of their shoes...

Although eventually I probably will wind up being the one who does it. Because as much as I want nothing to do with scraping poopy shoes. I also don't want to be the one who puts the poopy shoes back on the kid.

This seems like some kind of maternal catch-22. To scrape or not to scrape?

Compare and Contrast

It is amazing how different two children coming from the same parents and living in the same household can be.

Example:

Sprout keeps losing sweaters and sweatshirts at school. Apparently she gets hot, takes off her top layer and leaves it somewhere. I only realized this when I looked in her closet and there were NO sweatshirts left.

Upon questioning, she shrugged her shoulders and said she didn't know what happened to them. When I suggested perhaps checking the Lost and Found at school (preferably within a day or so of misplacing things) she was dumbfounded.

I had to walk her into the school and dig through the box myself. Uncovering 2 of the 3 lost sweatshirts. She seems utterly untroubled by the one that is still MIA.

Grrr.

In complete and total contrast, Tater left his sweatshirt on the bus today and within 5 minutes had dissolved into a sea of tears. Devastated. How would he EVER find his favorite sweatshirt??? How???

I called the school and, amidst the wailing and screams of great despair, got the number of the bus company. Fifteen minutes later we were in the car on our way to the bus garage (which, luckily is about 5 minutes away). We tromped around over there, found the office, and VOILA, sweatshirt. As a bonus, we also found our neighbor's lunchbox, which had also been left on the bus today.

How do we find the normal, middle-ground reaction here? Constructive concern, without freaking out?

It's a mystery to me.

Germs are no fun at all...

Go check out this fun site: Say Boo to Flu.

I didn't really realize (I mean, I sort of realized, but probably stashed it in some hidden corner of my mind) that the flu can actually be deadly!

So...go get a flu shot. I just got mine yesterday and the kids had theirs a few weeks ago, and check out the fun activities on their website.

Cinnamon Magic looks entertaining and quick...and I am all over Bug Cakes (although I would totally make them with a mix and pre-prepared frosting...anything that involves a double-boiler is WAY beyond my skills!)

Hey Tooth Fairy...I think you forgot something...

When my beautiful little Sprout was 5 and lost her first tooth, the Tooth Fairy brought her a very cute angel/fairy necklace to commemorate this big event. Special occasion, special gift.

Yesterday my darling little Tater lost his first tooth. Special occasion!! The Tooth Fairy, however, was, I think, a little stumped about what the male equivalent of an angel/fairy necklace was, and settled on an extra $1.

So this morning, eyes shining, Tater pulled his little Tooth Fairy bag out from under his pillow. He carefully read the note from the Fairy...he asked me to hold the little bundle of money, because "I think there is something special in there!" (Uh oh...)

He carefully unfolded the dollar...to find 4 quarters inside. And he looked at me, all big brown eyes and disappointment, and said, "That was nice...but Mommy, why didn't she bring me something special?"

Crap.

Can the Fairy revisit? Can she say "Sorry, I forgot to bring you this special thing"?? And what would that special thing be??? For a boy...a cute and sweet boy...raised in a house where we try not to draw a lot of lines between what girls do and what boys do...although I think angel/fairy jewelry of any kind pretty much falls on the girl side of any scale you draw...

I think the Fairy is still working on it...sweating it a bit, I think...Perhaps she will find something special for the second tooth...

UPDATE: Interestingly, the Tooth Fairy apparently left a airplane watch inside Tater's pillow case. We didn't find it until last night (two days later). I wonder how long it was in there...hmmm... :)

Scrappy Don't

(Did you get the Scooby Doo reference there?)

I am hesitant to admit this. I am pretty crafty. I have quilted. I have embroidered. I have even decoupaged. However, scrapbooking scares the daylights out of me.

Not old school scrapbooks. My parents did what was, at the time, quite creative scrapbooking. Little corners on the pictures, captions, hand-drawn decorations. I love those old scrapbooks. Love them.

Back in the day I even made a scrapbook of the beginning of my relationship with Mike - with captions and hand-drawn decorations. Granted, it ends with the ultrasound photo of Sprout. But I did it.

But scrapbooking as a full-fledged, capital C, C-R-A-F-T...scary stuff. The aisles of stickers, and papers, and cutting devices. The shows devoted to "techniques". The home parties. The planning. The execution. Heeby jeebies...

Don't get me wrong - the finished products are quite impressive. But the idea of making any kind of dent in the accumulated history of my family with that kind of attention to detail and artistry...would make me want to stop doing things worthy of being photographed!

We have 16 photo books. The ones with the little plastic sleeves for the photos. I have all of the photos in these books (except for the past few months...which are piled up on my desk). They are in chronological order (at least mostly) and there are Post-its in there marking the date and some brief explanation of where we are/what we are doing.

This is all I can pull off.

This is partially because I can't bring myself to weed through the photos to edit down to just the best ones. I love them all. Every goofy face and blurry action shot. Every picture where my #$%^&* digital camera took a shot 4 seconds AFTER something good happened. Love them.

The other part of the issue is the performance anxiety I would have working my way through all of the options now available for how to present the pictures. Tags and ribbons and die-cuts and papers and buttons and stickers and rub-ons and....whew...I am getting light headed.

I did put together an excellent book of our trip to Italy last summer. I used the software from MyPublisher.com and the result was completely awesome. I gathered the photos from my parents and my brother and my husband and mixed in my own. Dragged and dropped and cropped and zoomed until the pictures were telling the whole story. Picked templates that fit the pictures (plain black and white). Added captions. And had the whole thing printed in a hard-backed book. It was actually fun and not at all intimidating.

I don't think I would do it for all of our pictures - that might be a little daunting. But for a special trip or occasion, I would absolutely do it again.

No stickers required.

Activity Overload

I am yearning for the "simple" days of the summer...when we spent our days lazing around and working through lists of crafts and trips.

Did I just say that? Me?
The one who breathed a sigh of relief when the kids went back to school?

Yep.

Now we have karate, and music lessons, and orthodontist appointments, and intramurals, and chorus (at 8AM...are you kidding me??) and soon basketball...and homework...arrrgggghhhh...

I am definitely entering the phase of my life where I am the chauffeur. Lots of taking small people places and waiting for them. And I am (possibly) a little (maybe) too me-centric (a tad) to enjoy this.

Except for the 30 minutes where the kids are at music lessons right next door to the Ulta.

That part is cool.

Down at the Fishin' Hole

A few months ago, my children started asking me when they could go fishing. Where this request came from is a mystery, as neither I, nor my other half, has ever fished (or honestly, wanted to).

I think they were remembering that a couple of years ago when we were at the beach (as we are this week) we saw some people fishing. And I guess knowing that we were coming back to the beach made them want to try it out? Who knows.

Anyway, I said "We'll see", as I often do. And then I saw these sets of fishing gear for kids at Target. And for that moment it seemed like a fun and do-able thing. All those funky little lures, hooks, rubber fish. Fun!

So I bought them, and I stashed them in the closet. And when we were packing for the beach I got them out and brought them along.

The rubber hit the road this morning as, for the 5,000th time, Sprout asked when we were going fishing. It was a little chilly out, too windy for the beach. So today it was.

We put the rods together, got out the (very scary) hooks - we used the ones that look like little feather bugs. Right for the conditions? Who knows.

Bait? Hot dogs. Cut up small-ish. Not in a big hurry to invest in a stash of worms.

So we went a couple of blocks over to the bay, where people were lined up fishing. And a little bitty girl had just caught a itty bitty-ish fish.

So the kids were all excited. Me, not so much.

I have this tendency to anticipate the potential dangerous repercussions of any activity (I worked at DuPont for 5 years - they beat this kind of thinking into you). So putting sharp objects into the hands of children that they will FLING into the air, heart-stoppingly close to other people. Not my idea of a good time.

Hot dogs on, and the casting began. Once we figured out what button had to be pushed to let the string (line?) loose, we were good to go. Sprout is a decent caster. Tater wasn't actually allowed to do it himself, but he was a good helper.

The little bobber thing kept floating right back over to the dock that we were standing on, so lots of recasting (flying sharp things) was required. Big fun.

The fish stole our hot dogs.

Then the guy next to us (with the itty bitty fish-catching child) offered us his left-over squid to use as bait. Said the fish liked it.

I don't know what I expected when I opened the squid box. Fried calamari rings? But it was squid. Like whole, tentacle-wearing squid. In a box. Horrifying.


I don't even like to touch raw chicken. And I have to rip a chunk off of a squid and stick it on a hook? Luckily I had brought scissors (expecting to have to cut a fish loose if we were lucky enough to catch it). I managed to minimize finger contact with the squid and get it hooked on. I am not sure I will recover from that.

The fish did like the squid. Took it right off the hooks. Yum.

We never caught anything. But the kids are interested in when we can try fishing again. I am thinking when they are old enough to cut up their own squid.

So Not Fun

I am not being fun this week. Sprout told me as much today.

Boo on me.

We came back from vacation and I just never got myself together to have a plan for what was going to be fun. And I had set an expectation that there was going to be fun.

We did go the zoo. And we did sort of an art project. And we made a telescope out of old glasses and a toilet paper tube. And we magnified things with a drop of water on a envelope window. And we watched a movie. And they went golfing and on a picnic with my parents.

Which is essentially more fun than they have had in weeks.

But it wasn't packaged properly I guess.

I have work to do!

The Not So Fun Babysitter

I just had my first experience with a babysitter who was not a teacher from my kids daycare/school. I am clearly spoiled.

A neighborhood 13-year-old and her friend sent out a flyer offering their babysitting services and since I am desperately trying to get some work done, and I didn't want to leave my children rotting with their friends Zach and Cody, I figured I would have one of them come over and play with the kids while I worked.

My first concern was when they called me back and said "We needed some more information...(giggle giggle)" on my answering machine. So I called back and said, "You needed more information?" and the girl said "Yes."

Me: "Like?"
Her: "Well, we weren't sure when you wanted us."
Me: "I actually sent you an e-mail earlier today asking if you could come tomorrow between 1 and 4."
Her: "We didn't check our e-mail."

Anyway, desperation won out and I asked her to come...

So at 1 she arrived with her mom...who was checking me up and down like I was some tween-slave-driver who was going to sell her daughter. But she must have thought I was OK enough to leave her kid here.

The kid looked OK. No obvious piercings. Normal clothes.

So I sent the kids into the basement with her to play. And all was well for about an hour. Of course I haven't gone into the basement since, so who knows what it is like down there. But for that hour I didn't have to be involved. And that was cool.

Then they came upstairs...and on went Zach and Cody. Are you kidding me? Of course, I am supposed to be working...so I am trying really hard to pretend I don't know what they are doing. No one is getting hurt. It's all good.

Then I hear my little Tater jumping on the sofa. Which he is SO not allowed to do. And she isn't stopping him. Doesn't that just seem like something that should clearly be stopped?

But I bite my tongue. Unless there is crying I will not get involved.

And then I hear The Babysitter comment to Sprout about how weird it is that she is eating Kool-Aid straight from the packet. Like the world's largest Pixie Stick. Again, could that EVER be something that is OK with the mother??

So I had to intervene. I called Sprout into my office and said "What are you doing?"

Sprout: "Nothing" (with the open packet of Kool-Aid in her hand)
Me: "Does that seem like something your mother would EVER let you do?" (And to clarify, she has asked...and I have said no...never...several times)
Sprout: "Um, no"

So she had to trash her treat. Poor delusional little Sprout.

And they watched TV for the 2 remaining hours of babysitter time. They did play a little bit with the Paper Bag Town. But still...TV.

The Babysitter's Mom arrived at 4...still looking suspicious about what we had done with her child. I swear I hardly talked to her. She got to watch TV.

I asked how much I owed her. She said "We aren't really charging. You get to pick."

Um...free?

So that wasn't the most positive experience. I had originally planned to offer them a craft to do, but the Water Bottle Pencil Holder required spools...and I don't have any...and Sprout refused to substitute. And Flower Pounding involves a hammer...and I think real adult supervision is required for that.

Must be better prepared next time. Or, you know, get a real babysitter.