Gotta laugh

Sometimes despite our frustrations, as a parent you've just gotta laugh. For example on nights like this, when:

- Your daughter refuses to get out of the tub... but she's willing to bring the cat in with her (hint... if you ever notice your cat's tail dripping, your kid may be involved),

- Your family room floor looks this (and more Legos are coming - don't tell),

And you find your cat on the dining room table (the bath tub incident must have left her parched).

Well... at least the Christmas lights are already up and I didn't have to do it! I can take comfort in that, enjoy listening to The Cinnamon Bear radio show with my kids as we get our pajamas on and get ready to snuggle together for Charlie Brown's Christmas. How are you enjoying the holiday season this year whatever you may celebrate?

I hope you dance

Remember making pinecone bird feeders as a kid? I do and passed it on to my kidlets. So far no birds (that we've seen) but one was quickly stolen off our back tree -- we're assuming by a squirrel or maybe a raccoon.

I can't believe it has been a whole week since last I blogged. I started several posts during that time, only to have them circumvented by computer technology or shall we say lack thereof (my computer was not cooperating) and then life and turkey and sibling squabbles and shopping (thank goodness most of that's over) and just the things in life that get in the way...

I don't know about the rest of you but I'm feeling exhilarated by the holiday season and all the possibilities that brings for ways to be with my children and our family. I am glad to have finished most of my shopping (I try to do as little time at the shops and malls as humanly possible) and that I can now focus in at home on candles and gift-making, decorations and cooking, appreciating and sharing.

Despite the desire to hunker down and nest at home, the world beyond beckoned us out of our comfortable family slumber today -- back to work and school. We weren't quite ready but did our best to reassimilate. Despite my best efforts to get back in the groove, I must admit to finding my mind wandering often...



back to our house where I wanted to be - with a warm fire, watching the snow fall (yes there WAS some falling), being crafty working on sewing our new family advent calendar with my newly inspired seamstress son and... taking breaks to dance with my daughter.


Welcome back to the holiday season. I hope you dance!

Dancing with who?

O.K. I realize that the BIG finale of "Dancing with the Stars" has come and gone. To be honest, I guess I could say I'm happy with the outcome. It is always nice when the traditionally handsome younger guy doesn't run away with the honors... but hey I have a seriously serious question to ask.

Am I the ONLY ONE in all of America that thinks this is about the dumbest show I've ever seen?!

I watched a few minutes of it once just to be certain. I didn't want to diss on something I've never even laid my eyes on. So I did it... and I mean really?!#?! Doesn't anyone else notice that pretty much every "star" on there is either a has-been or a never-was or a what-have-they-done-lately?

As someone's Yiddish Grandma would say, "Oy, oy, oy already."

I confess to having watched "American Idol" last season. We even cheered for certain contestants (and pretended to call and vote for Taylor since our son wanted him to win but had to go to bed at a decent hour). And even though there are plenty of cheesy embarassing bits on that show, "Dancing with the Stars" has it completely beat.

Oh well... for today that is my 2 cents worth. I feel a bit better. I've wanted to get that off my chest for just about forever. Now I'm gonna go watch "It's Thanksgiving Charlie Brown" with my kids. It may not be fine art, but it's better than that other show.

Hey! I've got an idea. Maybe next season, they can do "Dancing with the Cartoons!" It worked for Bing Crosby!

Can anyone name the movie where he danced with a famous mouse?

Fun Friday

Fun Friday at school is my son's favorite. The teacher brings in her dog and they get to play more games and have a bit less school work (of course it is even more fun when Dad skips making lunch and let's little Mr. have a second hot lunch at school for the week).

This Friday I continued an experiment I've been trying on the couple of mornings I work and then have the kids for the rest of the day by my lonesome. The experiment is this... I scan the radio dial on my morning commute and listen only to songs that feel upbeat or happy or frankly that I just LOVE... My "Kickstart to Happiness" Radio Playlist for yesterday morning's Fun Friday commute included the following:

• "Good Vibrations" - Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch
• "All Star" - Smash Mouth
• "Rio" - Duran Duran (Any true fan will tell you this song is not their favorite)
• "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" - KT Tunstall
• "Baby Hold On" – Eddie Money
• "What Have You Done for Me Lately" – Janet Jackson (Back when she was cute)
• "Whisper To A Scream" – Icicle Works (arguably one of the best most perfectionistic bands and best songs EVER!)
  
• "Honkey Cat" – Elton John (How can you not enjoy a song where you get to sing Honkey Cat?! And the lyric "A Change is gonna do me good" - ahhh ain't that the truth!).

And speaking of changes... the leaves are all but gone from our trees and piled up in our yard and Thanksgiving is next week!


The kidlets had big changes last week as they finally got hair cuts and look adorable -- the boy with a short cut (albeit not the mohawk he originally suggested) and the girl with a sassy (and much less tangle inducing) bob-like style. I'd LOVE to share some of my pics of them with their new do's but feel trepidatious. I'll be sharing them with friends and family if I haven't already. I also want to figure out ways to start sharing more of my photos with the world (such as selling them as photo cards and/or my services as a kid portrait photographer) but with all the changes we've got going on right now that may have to wait.

Back to our family changes... While the kids are looking cuter than ever, they (and us parents) all managed our own individual meltdowns this past week. Mine included a gallon of milk put down just a little too hard on the counter and gushing like Niagra Falls onto the floor.


Our cat and dog have never been happier! I however realized (with an out of body experience) just how silly it is to get upset with our children for doing the things that kids just do. And so, once the absurdity of the moment had passed (and the milk was cleaned up), I got back to thinking about some positive changes...

I'm back to doing more diaphramatic breathing and practicing my humorous comebacks (think Erma, think Bombeck). It goes something like this:

Kid: "Mom I hate you!"

Mom: "Oh honey that's too bad because I LOVE you!"

Mama had a little help making changes from the "lock up the TV fairy" who came one day. To my amazement, the kids barely even noticed and when they did they were easily distracted by other fun activities.

I tried to get back to exercising but other than the one day I did it in the dark (while the kids believed Dad's story that I was already at work), it was a resounding failure. The earlier I got up, the earlier the kids did as well. Aargh.

And so the next time I'm adding the gazillionith item to one of my kids Christmas Wish Lists (they'd better wish REALLY REALLY hard), I'm going to add the following to mine:

• A big thick daily planner large enough to include EVERYTHING we do
• An exercise video I can do while kids are awake without them being able to watch TV
• A little more patience
• The sense of humor it seems I used to have
• A maid and a cook (I'm gonna have to wish REALLY REALLY hard)!
  

What's on your mama (or dada) wish list this year? Let me know -- sometimes I have a bit of an "in" with the old Santa Man!

PS ... don't tell my kids that sometimes Santa shops on Craigslist! :)

Say what?

Is anyone else as completely unprepared and caught off guard by the impending holiday season as I am? Oh my gosh. How can Christmas be just weeks away at this point? Seems like just yesterday we were lounging at the beach, soaking up the sun, and then school started with all its chaos and now this. Ee gad time is really flying.

As I begin to think about and envision our holiday this year, I'm hoping (as usual) to instill some values into it. I certainly don't want it to be all about toys, toys, toys. Anyone ever notice how often those big ticket items sit collecting dust for much of the year after their big arrival in December? Like most parents however, we've got to figure out the balancing act. Let's face it... it is fun to get and give toys and kids love to play with them. However if the holiday isn't about more than that, it becomes one more thing that makes our children materialistic.

And so I'm left to ponder the best way to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas in a meaningful way with our family. I'll keep you posted.

Never ending story

This morning the sun is actually shining and the Democrats look poised to take the Senate - aaah. I'm personally enjoying watching "the decider" squirm. Despite the sunny outlook, I hear another storm system is headed our way (more flooding with it perhaps). Just like Mamahood -- things look sunny one minute and cloudy the next or the other way round.


Mamahood doesn't take a break - even for good news. And so I'm off to take as good of care of myself and my little people as I can.

Oh happy day

Although it is still rainy and gray here in the NW, you gotta wear sparkly sunglasses (if you've got 'em)! America has spoken and God bless them every one! I don't know about anybody else, but as a person, a citizen of this country and a Mama, my faith has to some degree been restored. I feel like I can actually take a real deep breath for a change.

MORE GOOD NEWS!!! Rumsfeld resigns! Hastert to step down. Never in my wildest dreams. Never gets boring anymore. Gotta go now and do Mama things!

Rain

Rain rain go away, come again another day. I am actually enjoying (for some reason) the non-stop rain we've been having here in the Northwest, however it may be time for it to stop -- at least for a little while.

While I'm personally enjoying it, it is beginning to cause problems with flooding, falling trees, houses crashing into the ocean and roadways becoming impassable.

Strangely enough, I'm also honestly worried about voter turnout if there's too much flooding (it's true). Probably one of the only things I personally think the neo-cons can't manipulate in their favor... hmmm.

Taking one more step

It is that time again in the great Northwest. There are beginning to be more leaves on the ground than on the trees, more rainy days than not. As the rain begins to fall, we move our focus inward in more ways than one. I need to look for kid projects to entertain ourselves on these long wet weekends when we don't feel up to a soggy game of soccer or a hike in the gorge.

This November, my thoughts keep being drawn to both the national and local elections. Here we go again... voter fraud, disenfranchisement, Diebold, hackers and the like. I hear the Republicans are planning to cry "foul" if they lose, citing election fraud. Well, ain't that calling the kettle black. I'm sorry (call me a conspiracy theorist if you will) but these Neocons wouldn't even be in power if they didn't know how to cheat. And while my mind keeps wandering in that direction, I keep trying to pull it back from the political abyss to something more wholesome, more real, more within my control.


I think they call it "nesting." Amazingly I have conquered the laundry! No, no - it's TRUE! I did our entire week's worth of laundry yesterday, put every piece away (except Hubbie's - he does his own) and I even sort of enjoyed it! Now compared to the fate of the world, this seems extremely insignificant... and it is. But I can master it and I have. Isn't the Serenity Prayer used in AA groups around the world that says:

grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can...

A more modern day thinker offers this:

Listen closely and you can hear them...
the great spirits of every tribe
the ones who were here before us
Listen to what they are saying
There is one who calls himself Gandhi
and another who calls himself King
They know that the way is not easy
There is a woman named Teresa
and many who are simply known as
Grandmothers and Grandfathers
and all of them whisper into our ear...
'Don't give up' they tell us...
'Don't become cynical...'
'Take one more step...'
'There is a reason...'


Ron Atchison/Inspiration Peak http://www.inspirationpeak.com


and so as any good Mama would, today I will spend quality time with young children, do my phone banking shift to get out the vote for schools and pro-schools candidates, revel in my new found laundry goddessness, have a family meeting, continue to organize my office, hunker down, attempt to have hope, brace myself and make pretzels!

If the world falls apart, at least my house will be clean and we'll have clean clothes!

Traditional Halloween

A beautiful holiday tradition has been started in our home this Halloween:


Being the sneaky Mama that I am (or at least can be), I decided to attempt to get the kids' tummies as filled as possible before they headed out in pursuit of candy. What would they most likely eat without pause? I surmised something spooky, something ghoulish, something made up of only the best... COLORS!

And thus was born a new family tradition for All Hallow's Eve: Traditional ghoulish gruel will be served every October 31st for dinner in our home. The actual contents may vary but they will all share this in common: Dinner MUST be ORANGE, BLACK & sometimes RED -- spooky colors all.

Pictured above is our first annual ghoulish gruel, consisting of macaroni-n-cheese, black olives and tomatoes, plus oranges (on the side)! Boo!