Ziplocs

Ok, this is such a random blog post. But as I just finished up making lunches for my kids for tomorrow, I am wondering if I overuse ziplocs. Am I filling landfills, choking dolphins, poisoning my kids by my extreme use of ziplocs. With all these cutesy BPA free sandwich cases, snack containers, and so on, I'm wondering. But then I think, geez, then I have to wash those every night. That is energy consumption, water consumption, more plastic bottles of dish detergent. So, is it really that bad to use ziplocs, there's the deep thought I am leaving you with tonight, as I contemplate in the quiet of my house at 11 p.m. making pbjs and baggies of grapes.

oh my gosh, she's back!

How easy was that. A friend told me to blog again on facebook, so out of the blue here I am, with once again, not much to say.
Except I played the good mom tonight and let my kids bake with me, and it was even their bedtime. And I had to drive up to our church to steal their grater for my zuchhini since I left mine at my inlaws. All this to say, this baking project was up there on difficulty and mommy points. The boys lasted about 10 minutes. Coop ran off to go poo, he told me as he left he was a quick pooper and he'd be right back. Yeh right, that kids sits there for like 30 minutes. Parker was too into his latest creation of legos. So they poured they measured out the dry and wet ingredients and I did the rest. I knew the batter looked kinda funny ( I make this all the itme) , but I surveyed the recipe again and thought I was good. However upon taking it out of the oven, it looked real funky, and it immdiately hit me, the sugar! And let me tell you, I tried it and it is nasty. I am a sugar addict anyway, but this bread is proof, that sugar is a necessity of life. So I just finished up cleaning my massively dirty kitchen, since even the 10 minutes they helped means total destruction, but with nothing to show for it, and even worse, the house smells so yummy. What tease.

But on a serious note, and no I do not plan on catching you up with my life the last six months, and it might actually be another six months before I blog again, except for personal requests and dedications (rachel). Oh, wait, where is my serious note, oh yes. YOu may have seen on my facebook page a while back a link I posted re: motherhood. It is so good, please go read it. And it hit me on a night where I was just sharing with this young woman I meet with, how I have been really convicted at my mothering skills and my extreme laziness. I know all of mom's say that, but I really meant it and felt it. One line in the article that hits you where it counts is that kids can tell where they fall in your priorities. And I realized my kids fell behind my personal comfort, my lying down, my facebook and blogging time, and getting work done on the computer. So after the article and my bible study time with my friend, thats all it took, I am officially a perfect mom now- oh, wait, no. But I will tell you of the small changes I have made. Instead of fixing my kids breakfast and lunch and then using the opportune quiet time to check email or get some work done, I sit down with them and join them. I keep my computer closed most of the day, and fight the urge (and I've been surprised at how strong it is) to pop it open and check my inbox. I hop on fast in the morning, get my work done and catch up time during nap time, and then hop on in the evening (pathetic huh) I have also purposely played with them. We had story hour today, we've had a lego building contest, puzzle time, wrestling, evening inside camping. Just for real, I love you and I want to be in your life, not just hovering around it mom time. And wow, only 2 weeks left of summer, thats kind of a bummer. But I guess better than nothing. I love my kids, they are my number one priority (outside of my hubby and God), and its about time my life and time reflects that truth. ok, off to be by myself, oh and go back to post #1 ever, I don't edit, I don't re-read my posts, you get what you get and you don't throw a fit! And if you know me well, you know that's pretty much real time Mel.

In-laws, naps and blogging.

Well, it is 11:30 here in Conroe, TX. I left Ritchey at home for the long weekend. Boys have 3 days off for Mardi Gras break,(only in LA!) which is a 5 day weekend in case you're not good with math, which means 5 days of nothing to do but clean up messes, listen to fights, say no to video games all day and just kinda be bored out of our mind. So off we went to the in-laws, the land of all things perfect and wonderful. Ritchey has to work, but really this is the best present I could ever give him. I even stocked the fridge and only left 2-3 things on a honey do list for him, yes finishing taxes was one of them, but no big deal.The kids did awesome in the car. I pay Parker a whopping $1 an hour to babysit in the car, meaning pick up dropped toys, switch videos, entertain, etc. And he did so great. Petty bickering aside, he is such a nurturing young man. So the 4 hours were a breeze in the car, really. And what do you do while at the in-laws, especially the kind that take care of your kids 24/7 for you, take a 2.5 hour nap. I never nap, not even when I have newborns. But today, I was out like a light, I'm still in that fog even now, but it is also 11:30 and I am wide awake. I actually have zero content to report to you on this blog post, but to throw out the idea that I may just let down all 10 of my followers. I've been debating again whether to keep blogging. I said I was doing it to preserve memories, which I sort of have been, but kinda not. I find myself writing more for you all then for a keepsake. Plus I am realizing that Ritchey's job, and really any of our husband's jobs I guess, makes it a good reason not to put myself so out there. One google search for him or I would lead someone here, and as much as I am about being real with people, you have to take it slow. I'd hate for someone to judge him based on the content of this blog. But I will never be a serious, devotional, oh I'm cherishing these toddler years kind of writer/blogger. So I don't know, we'll see. Thanks for indulging this late night rambling. Good night- oh creative title to this blog, huh?

This year's tacky card submissions.

Well, I believe there is a clear winner. But Ritchey gave it his best shot. In his defense, his definition of tacky is not as well-defined as mine. In his defense he did buy a second card that hit the nail on the head in re: to our relationship, so he gets a point for that.

I hope everyone had a good Valentines Day and that you were able to express love to those you love and to pause to reflect on the depth of love God has for you. I was in children's church on Sunday and we made Valentines and talked about God's love for them. What a simple little topic, but so lifechanging and profound.

Valentine's Day Cable style

Ok, so Valentines day can be a nightmare for cheapskate non-crafty, lazy mom's like myself. And to knock me when I'm already down, the school my kids attend are requesting non-cartoon/character driven valentines. Shoot, there go the Star Wars valentines my kids would have loved more than homeade crafty glitter ones. Oh, and yeh, one other thing, in the past their classes have just decorated bags in school to collect all their valentines. But this year, both classes requested homeade decorated shoeboxes. Now I actually have very fond memories of making these kind of boxes. But that was probably in like the 4th grade, and by a then artsy girl. Ugg, I don't even own shoeboxes thanks to my massive and random walk-in closet that has 12 drawers. So I would have had to gone out and bought wrapping paper, shoe boxes, and decor. And seeing as my kids don't know how to wrap yet, I would have had to do all that. So already your getting to my cheap and lazy. My first stop therefore was Hobby Lobby, and their brilliant all in one packaged craft kits, no brain required. My first aha moment there was the kits for valentine boxes, on sale for $3 a piece, yay!.I also picked up a Rice Krispie Valentine snack craft thing, cuz I'm one of those fun moms too :) And at Target I found non-character tacky valentines that came with suckers attached, candy always wins kids over, that and tatoos, but those were a$1 more, so nope. Ritch had to be gone most of Saturday, so that was going to be our fun Valentine preparation day. It started out with my pink buttermilk pancakes. Buttermilk pancakes are our Saturday morning ritual.

And here is how it went. Below you see an example of Cooper's Valentines. He can write all his letters and is beginning to read the basics, so I thought it would be nice for him to write his own valentines, oh how painful, it took forever and he wanted to give up with 4 left to go, thankfully there were only 14, not the 20 Parker had. I took a pic of two of his, one with stellar handwriting, one not so much, Julie spelt with a backward J, which is kinda cute, and for some reason he thought his name began with a G on this one.

This all while Sophie was taking a bath and I was going back and forth. Because doing Valentines with a Pre-K, a 2nd grader who is perfectionistic, and a 2 year old was carazy. So in the tub she went. Next we tackled the oh so cute boxes. I'll show you a pic, but then tell you the nightmare that they were.

Ok, can you tell these will hold maybe 3 valentines. They are tiny. Secondly a sneeze would knock these over because they are made with a paper that is one step above card-stock or construction paper. It also took a degree in engineering to assemble these (they started out flat). And they required double stick tape, which might be a staple in a crafty home, but not around here. Right away I knew this wasn't going to be a group project. They couldn't even decorate them post assembly because it required brads and double stick tape, so tonight while Ritchey cleaned up dinner, I made valentine boxes. I guess next year I'll just break down and do shoeboxes, because really I don't know what the boys are going to do once 3 valentines fill this box up.

Ritchey and I went out for our Valentine's date on Saturday night. We had so much fun, went to 3 different spots and ate all of our favorite yummy food. Including ending it at one of those yogurt spots where the toppings are endless and they charge by the ounce. It was worth it even though we were sick by the end of the night. We are both officially on diets now, for real. I left the Rice Krispy treat craft with the babysitter. She said it was kinda hard to do with the kids, so she just made them and let them decorate them. Oh, and on the side she makes cakes, so hers looked real nice.

And to end our fun Valentine weekend (it isn't even here yet!) I made heart shaped biscuts for our Sunday night breakfast dinner. Parker put on his most gangsta face, he even snapped his fingers when he took the picture.

Ritchey says I'm taken Valentines day a bit too far. But I am trying to compensate for my other failures I suppose. Oh, and I'll post a pic later after he opens it. But this year we are having a contest for whoever can find the tackiest card. Red velvet, Rhinestones and Sexy Devil written in flames, thats all I gotta say. Ok, well there ya go, Valentines Day Cable style.

The mean boy at chick-fil-a and how I put him in his place- sort of.

So Friday school was called off for ice, yes we probably had some ice up in trees that could have proved deadly. It was nice having Ritchey home with us but by Friday night we were going a bit stir crazy, yes folks, it takes less than 24 hours to get me ansty, I'm a get out of the house at least once a day gal. So we headed to Chick-Fil-A, a mother's dream. Clean, good food, playground, and free newspapers and free refills of awesome lemonade, plus I always have a free coupon for something there. Anyhoo, we set our kids loose in the very small playland there and sat inside with them. Most parents were outside of the little play around in a booth having a nice quiet date while Ritchey and I decided to take part in the hysteria of the room, really, mainly for Sophie's sake, she is a little young to let loose on her own, and she wouldnt' have let go of my leg anyway. And Parker saw a boy from his class there too, so that was fun. So anyway, to the point of my story. There was this little shrimp kid, maybe 3 years old, going around terrorizing everyone. Literally would just go up to a kid and hit them, or push them down, or spit on them. Out of nowhere. So soon after we got there, we saw a dad come in from his outside of the room playground date with his wife. He saw the kids just push his son down. The pint-size bully ran under the little steps while the dad was trying to talk with him. Ritchey and I are just fidgeting at this point, kind of awkard. The dad tells the little boy to come on out buddy, nice and polite, the kid doesn't, so the dad says, right as the bully's mom comes into the playland, "I'm not asking you to come out, I'm telling you and if you don't I am going to pull you out," Ouch, really awkward now, the wife of this guy was mortified. Anyhoo, the mom of the bully basically told him to play nice then left the play area and went back to her paper. At which Ritchey and I sat there and watched in amazement the nerve of this kid. So then the kid turns to Parker, who is double his age and his size. Parker is climbing up some pole or something (ignoring the no climbing sign) and this kid grabs his ankles and pulls him down. Ritchey isn't in here at this point, which is a good thing, cuz the mama bear came out in me, but I had to keep it cool cuz the kid in Parker's class was in there too. I said, "hey little guy, its not a smart idea to pick on an 8 year old boy who is much larger than you, if he wanted to he could squash you. He won't cuz he's kind, but he could." Can you believe I said that. I had to say it again, because he did again. "leave my boy alone, he is bigger than you and could pound you in."Parker just kinda laughed at me and let this kid pick on him. That is so my boys, they are so freakin shy/polite/doormats sometimes in public. So the kid does it again, drags parker down by his ankles. Cooper is just standing there with mouth open watching this, wondering what I am going to do now. I told Parker that he shouldnt' let this boy do this to him, to just shake him loose off his ankles and tell him to cut it out. Which he didn't. Well the kid moved on to some other kid to terrorize and we went out to eat our food. I gave the kids a pep-talk, trying to be as Christ-like and turn the other cheek as I could, but also wanting my boys not to be bullied, abused, or walked over because they didn't like public speaking. I told them that if anyone ever does something to them that they don't like, or don't want them doing to them, that they HAVE to speak up and say, Stop It Please, and if that doesn't work, to yell it, STOP IT!. And at this point I am fearing for all those perv. freaks out there who love quiet little boys. So this was serious training going on here. Both boys laughed at me and agreed they would yell please stop. I really wanted to tell Parker just to take that little buy bully and shove him up against the wall and tell him to back off or he'd grind him to a pulp. But I didn't. So back into the playground we went. Ritchey made a joke about cooper's track pants and hooded sweatshirt with hood up thwarting away the bully, "Cooper looks like a thug so no one is messing with him." Too bad, cuz Cooper is a prime target, being only 30 pounds at age 5. Anyhoo, so this kid starts spitting. Literally backs Parker in the corner spitting, or making raspberries, I don't know. And of course Parker's tutorial didn't really work, he just kind of stood there with a stupid grin and kinda laughed it off. Geez Parker. This takes me back to West County Mall when Parker was 2 and let some kid push him out of the little ride on and Parker just sat and watched. Anyhoo, I told the kid to quit it out, then he came over me to spit and I just stopped him dead in his tracks with my hand, i wasn't hitting him I was just keeping him away from my face. Ritchey is laughing at this point and we are both wondering where the heck is his mom. I'm pretty sure she saw me stop this kid with my hand to his face. Well, I could go on and on, cuz it did. Oh at one point while we were eating, this military dad sees this kid push his kid and gets up and screams toward the playland at this kid to cut it out. And what did the mother do, oh she finally goes and sits in there to monitor her kid. Only to 10 minutes later go back out and sit with her paper. I feel kind of bad for her. He obviously is not the best kid, she appeared to be a single mom, and was trying to get some peace and quiet at the chick-fil-A and let her kid loose in the playland. But 3 parents later, multiple crying children (at least mine didn't cry) you think she would have gotten the point. So there was our funny/odd,/disturbing time at Chick-Fil-A. What do you think, how should we teach our kids to respond to bullies, or behavior they don't like. Do they really turn the other cheek, ignore, make a joke (like their dad does), or do they stand up for themselves. I don't know, it is so hard to just sit there (apparently not hard for my boys). How do I encourage my kids to be a wee bit more aggressive so they aren't sitting ducks, or I guess their plan is to just fly under the radar socially at school. Ok, that's that. Here's hoping we don't run into that kid on our next playland adventure.

Random boy fun

So just thought I would post a couple pictures of life here recently. One is of a fort the boys built, and their funny little sign, the only girl allowed in was Sophie. The other pic is from the light saber duel they had when they each invited a friend over. And a picture of what their room looked like afterwards. Literally, light saber battles, stomp rocket fun, wrestling and video games. Don't ever let someone convince you that boys are wired the same as girls, I can't make this stuff up. A therapist once tried to convince me that the only reason boys liked guns and balls is because that is what their parents bought them. Whatever. I actually was one of those mom's who tried to keep guns out of my house and vocab for as long as I could. And out of a room full of guns, balls and dolls, sophie goes to the dolls and crayons. God created us to be nurturing women and men to be conquerers, plain and simple. Anyhoo, enjoy the random testosterone pics, oh and one pic of what Sophie chooses to do on playdates.