Happy Halloween!

May all your hauntings be benign!

Catching up...

Ah, so much to share, so much space in which to share it.

First...and my tail is between my legs here friends...I started taking pictures and preparing to do this "week in the life" project. I was all psyched about it. And then I stopped remembering to snap the pictures. And I had to clean the house for parties. And I started reading Brisingr (ohhhh...good book! REad it!) Yeah, I know, I suck. I'll do it sooner or later, 'cuz it looks like fun, but it won't be this week. Wanna know why?

• My baby turns 6 tomorrow. Yeah. Six! I'm so old. Anyway, so I have parties to plan, cakes to back, pumpkin muffins to bake for school tomorrow, presents to wrap...
• I went to the doctor and dentist today. I've had this wicked-a** toothache all weekend, and I was sure I had something lodged in the gum. Or a crack in the tooth. But no, nothing that easy. I'm a "clencher", which I knew, but apparently, following a marathon grinding session last week, I bruised the pulp in two molars. Sounds gross, right? Anything "pulpy" sounds gross. So I have to start sleeping in a bite guard and taking ibuprofen for the pain. Also, I have yet another case of bronchitis. I can't have a freaking cold without getting bronchitis. Hopefully, once I get all this weight off, I won't get it so easily.
• Yesterday was my soccer teams' final (two) games. We lost the first one, won the second. After, we invited them back here for a pizza party. They worked so hard this past season, and improved more than any other team. I was very proud of them. They ate...a lot...and played in the backyard.
• I had my first parent/teacher conference for the girl child today. Very glowing reviews from the teacher, much to my delight. Apparently, she is not the most talkative person in class. I guess she saves it all for me.
• We went to the corn maze on Saturday night. Very good fun. Have I mentioned how much I love this season? Even with a toothache and bronchitis, I had a blast. I just coughed a lot.

Okey doke. I have to bake some pumpkin muffins and watch Heroes. Oh, our freaking TV lamp burned out. So I have to watch Heroes upstairs. Such inconvenience I suffer...

I know, I know, you're all waiting with baited breath for this great project I said I was doing...I've been taking the pictures, and writing down what I've been doing, I just need to post. And I will. I swear. I need to go to bed now, but I will do some uploading and posting tomorrow.
Kisses...

Fuzzy-headed rambling thoughts

I feel the need to post, but my head is a bit fuzzy (either my allergies are wicked bad right now, or I have a cold, which is kind of what I feel like is happening, and my sinuses are all nasty and I'm just feeling kind of cruddy...heehee, I do love a good run-on sentence), so this is going to be a bit "stream-of-consciousness"-like.
I was reading the blog of a friend of a friend, and that blogger has a friend who lost a butt-load (or more) of weight on SparkPeople. I joined a few weeks ago, but the last few days I've been participating a lot more, and I find myself wanting to do thing rights just so I can earn points and stuff. I mean, I drank lots of water today, and I logged my food intake. Go me. Do you know I burn over 1,000 calories mowing my lawn? You can look at my sparkpage if you want, I linked it to the left. Think thin and healthy thoughts for me.
Girlchild had 3 birthday parties to attend this weekend. THREE. She is quite the social butterfly. And I was quite the taxi driver.
I went to a Crop for the Cure-type event yesterday. I completed 6 pages. Not horrible. Could hav ebeen better. I would llike to start Ali Edward's "week in the life" project this week. I should probably put new batteries in the camera in order to do that. It looks like fun. It's over on her website, but I can still do it for myself, darn it.
My happy little soccer team lost their game today, but the score was 4-3. We played the team we lost to, 13-0 last time, so I think we have improved. A lot. The little annoying girl started crying again, and telling me if I had put her at midfield instead of defense, we would have won. It's all my fault. Little punk. I'm so glad she's 8 - I won't have her next season. I thought they did well. Well enough, the studmuffin and I are giving them a party after our last game next Sunday.
Um...I think that's it. I need to take loads of sinus relief drugs and go to sleep now. Have a happy Monday.

This weekend is our kids' "fall break." The studmuffin took today and Monday off as well. Today we met friends for Thai food at Mai Thai, a very tasty restaurant on US 42 in Florence. If you live in the area and enjoy Thai food, I highly recommend giving it a try. Then we went to World of Sports and golfed 9 holes. Now, most of you know my kids have been playing on a junior league for a few years now. My husband has been playing since he was a kid. I do not enjoy the sport. In fact, I haven't played since before the girl child was conceived, over 6 years ago. But...I did promise the Monkeybutt I would play golf with him sometime in the next 2 years, and I played today. And...kind of enjoyed myself. The weather was gorgeous, and I actually made the ball go in the general direction I wanted it to go. Go me! Walking through a wooded area on the course made me wish I had my camera. The foliage is so beautiful this year, I'm going to have to walk the arboretum soon. Ooh! Girl Child has a soccer game tomorrow at the arboretum!
Last night my Monkeybutt attended his first school dance. Another situation I should have taken pictures, but...what are you going to do? I picked him up at 9:30 and he said he enjoyed himself. He danced...with girls. Three of them. He also came home bouncing off the walls due to his excessive patronage of the pop and candy bar. Mountain Dew and Pixie Stix were only two of the many sugar and caffeine-laden products available to the students. This morning he came into our room, groaning. I laughed at him, and suggested he learn not to overindulge at these events. My baby's first dance, and his first hangover. I'm so proud.

An annoyingly upbeat post...

Today my sweet little gold soccer team won their first game! Hoorah! Thanks in part to my studmuffin, who has been taking time each week to help us practice and play. They actually use...strategy. They won 6-0, and they were so happy. Go them!

We have been enjoying two tiny, furry, temporary additions to our family this weekend. My good friend A and her family rescued these sweet little pumpkins when they were only 1 1/2 weeks old (abandoned by their mama). They were going out of town this weekend and, since the kittens are only now 6 weeks old, A asked me to keep them for the weekend. They are so much fun. Right now they are fighting over a dress up glove the girl kitty (Friday) found in the basement. The boy (Frisco) has wrestled it away, and if anyone goes near him, he grabs it with his teeth and growls. He is very fierce, and we are all afraid. They sleep all curled up together like a furry yin/yang symbol. They have been following me all over the house, they are delighting our cat Finn, and harrassing the other two. They purr a lot and love to snuggle and I have quite fallen in love, and dread giving them back.

Friday is in the cauldron, Frisco will not let me get his picture with his eyes open.

Anyway, it has been a rather delightful day. Winning the soccer game, haircuts (the girl child had her's cut short again, which is fine for now), playing with kittens, reading...I hope you have all enjoyed your Sunday and are ready for a new week...

Something I learned yesterday...

I've decided I need to take a major hiatus from political discussion groups and media commentary on the current presidential race. Don't get me wrong, I care, deeply, about the future of our nation. I vote at every election, and I bring my kids to give them a lesson in civics. I know who I intend to vote for this year, and I'm rather excited about it. I have made my decision based on issues alone - I agree with the stance of one candidate on most of the issues I care about, I don't agree with the other. I am not basing my decision on prior relationships, family trauma, or whether I like the person or not.

However, yesterday I walked outside and noticed my neighbor had put a "McCain/Palin" sign in her front yard. This is a person I care about, have fun with, listen to. But I saw that sign and I got mad. "How dare she put a sign in her yard, on my street, for a candidate I don't want!" I was irritated for about 5 minutes...until I took a step back and thought about why I felt that way. I have many Republican friends, friends who plan to vote for McCain, who are intelligent and interesting people. For that matter, at the heart of things, we even tend to agree on a lot of issues. Unfortunately, I have spent time reading political discussions where people have made hateful accusations (accusations that were addressed and proved wrong months ago) against my favored candidate, spread nasty rumors, and acted just plain stupid. And we're only talking 5 or 6 people here, folks, and I'm judging an entire group of people based on a few idiots. The media goes back and forth, lashing us with irrelevant details and constant hateful rhetoric like so many limp, sticky spaghetti noodles. I buy into this crap, and judge my neighbor harshly for having the gall to choose the candidate she likes best and agrees with. I happen to be proud of living in a nation where we can choose someone to lead us who stands for what we believe in - who am I to make that decision for anyone else?



So I chilled. And smiled and waved at my neighbor, while mentally kicking my husband for being a Republican. My own fair nature won't allow me to post an Obama/Biden sign in the front yard we share. The bumper of my fair mini van is another story, however...

Stories for MY children.

There are few things as delightful as sharing a book with one of my kids. I started reading the Harry Potter series to Monkeybutt when he was 4. Once he started reading on his own, he read through the Fudge books by Judy Blume, the Ralph S. Mouse books by Beverly Cleary, and books by Roald Dahl - all stories I loved as a kid. I loved discussing the books with him, and finding that we were amused by the same characters and antics. In the 4th grade he attempted "Tom Sawyer"...he came to me one morning and whined, "Mom, I just can't finish this book. I can't stand Tom; he's so bratty." I couldn't fault him; I couldn't finish it, either. I told him to wait a few years and attempt Huck Finn - it's a much better story, with better characters. Last year we started the Eragon series...Monkeybutt read the first one and told me I "had" to read it. I did, and loved it, and went out to grab "Eldest." He read it first, with me standing over him, urging him to hurry up and finish. We both spent July, August and September in a state of manic anticipation, waiting for the publication of "Brisingr". And now I'm waiting impatiently for him to finish it (I should have it by this weekend.)

I can only hope my daughter shares this love for reading. I just spent the last hour reading to her before bed. We are reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. I read the first three as a child, and loved them so much I just kept rereading them...I never moved on past "On the Banks of Plum Creek". So these past 4 books have been all new to me, and I am enjoying them immensely (we're reading "Little Town on the Prairie"). So much, actually, that I have a tendency to read on past her bed time, until she is softly snoring beside me. Then, of course, I have to go back a chapter the next night. Or I stop reading aloud and keep reading forward until Girl Child pokes me and reminds me I'm supposed to be telling her the story, too. It is just such a pleasure to share these stories with her, to talk about what life was like in the late 1800's, how lucky she is to be born now, when she has choices in her life, heat and food in the winter time, an opportunity to learn and speak her mind, and be an independent and free human being, rather than just a wife, mother, daughter (although, from the stories we're reading, Charles Ingalls was quite the progressive male for his time.) A few weeks ago, while visiting a homestead in Peoria, the Girl Child identified excitedly the butter churn in the corner and the chamber pot under the straw mattress in the loft. In the future, I predict various historical vacation spots, with the kids and myself running excitedly from relic to relic, telling stories and facts from books we've read, while my dear, bored husband trudges along behind me, asking to go back to the hotel to swim and play mini-golf.

whew...once again I have rambled. All of this is simply to express the joy I feel in sharing a love for reading and history with my kids. They drive me crazy in millions of different ways (not the least of which is their shared enjoyment of beating the crap out of each other), BUT discussing an interesting story or fascinating historical tidbit certainly takes us a large part of the way toward "totally worth it."