From the Mouth of Dad's Bud

Mom, will you be ALIVE when I move out? 
Me: I sure hope so.
(WHAT !?!?! where did that come from?)
Cause, I am wondering if you would want to come to my house to swim.  So you wouldn't have to pay for the Y.  And if you aren't able to get in the pool (cause I am so old and decrepitate) you could sit in my hot tub. 
Isn't he considerate? 

But he doesn't stop there...

Mom do you want me to have grand kids?  Or do you want to have grand kids?
Sometimes I wonder where these ideas of his come from.......

Out of The Mouth of The Man

It is early this morning.  It is Thursday.  We have piano, Bal-A-Vis-X, Fun Girl goes to work and we have school to do all before 4 pm.  I up a bit early so I can squeeze in a trip to a neighbor's garage sale.  The Man is up too.  He must have heard the water in the pipes running for my shower.
He knocks on the bathroom door. 
"YES" 
The Man: Just checking to see if it is you.
Then it starts.  The chattering. He is our songbird in the morning. 
After about 5 minutes, I laugh and say, "You sure talk a lot!"
The Man replies, "But sometimes I shut my mouth!"
I chuckled at the choice of his words. 
He does my heart good. 
I tell the Dad about our conversation.
He tells me about their very similar one last night.  Except The Man said he was quiet sometimes.

Quoteables courtesy of THE MAN

Riding in the car I hear lots of chattering of course but I hear "MOM, THE Man is using his middle finger...HELP! "
Good Golly, 
MAN!  You can't use your middle finger to point.  It offends people.  Some people would be so offended they would beat you up.  NOT GOOD!  STOP!
THe Man: okay
Sigh, and I continue to drive and there is more indistinct chattering.  Not sure that it is indistinct or if I am trying to go into "my world," but I picked up this blurb that made me wrinkle forehead and ask myself, "What?"
From the backseat...
The Man: You can go to Heaven or Satan's world.
There is some more chatter.  I am chuckling to myself over his way of saying hell.
Then I hear
The Man: It's a bad word and I have to come up with a way to describe it.  (Satan's world)
About this time Fun Girl gets involved and asks, "What letter does it start with?"
The Man:  an F
I am thinking, "Man I have failed!  He doesn't know the letter sound at the beginning of hell."
Fun Girl asks: Does that word have 3 or 4 letters?  She is remembering this conversation.
The Man: 4
Laughter... full on laughter...side splitting laughter.  I didn't clarify anything.  Because it could have been anything.  But Fun Girl is old enough, she knew this could go anywhere and she lost all control of herself and laughed herself silly. 
Which led to her telling me she retold this story to the lifeguards at work.  How they laughed!  Big mistake cause The Man overheard.  Up to this point only letters and numbers had been spoken.  NO words.  He had to ask about THAT word again.  To which then Dad's Bud flips out and can't believe he said the word. 

The ladies are every where!

There is a new favorite restaurant in town with my crew.

2 Brothers.

Hockey Player loves the buffet. 

Plates and plates of ribs, beef, pork, chicken

potatoes, maybe some veggies,

bread and salad.

Don't forget dessert.

Well all my carnivores love the buffet.

 

The Man, however, has a Ms. Stephanie wrapped around his finger and smile.

She knows about his food allergies.

She spoils him.

She gets him his dessert all special like so there is no cross contamination.

She makes sure the rest of the staff knows what to do if she is not there.

She talks to him. 

She chases him down in the parking lot to get a good bye.

This time, The Man, was shy.

She chatted with him about his day.

She colored with him.

We all chuckled at the other table watching the two of them.

 

 

and finally a smile!

 

 

His whole being captures the attention of all around.

Something I can't figure out.

But I love his smile. 

That is one thing I know!

Counting to 650.....

626.  New Casts and insurance for it.
627.  Flocks of sparrows filling up for the journey.
628.  Birds on the line.  A fall sight that brings a smile to my heart.
629.  Beauty in my dining room
630.  Lasagna in the freezer
631.  Children who can wonder and fidget their way through a homeschool day and the freedom to do just that.
632.  Hugs and kisses from Granny. 
633.  Gentle cheek caresses with Granny.
634.  Freshly folded laundry
635.  Ravenous boys at the table, eating and smiling
636.  Allergy shots, for the long term health hope, in spite of the momentary uncomfortable-ness
637.  Watching this guy at gymnastics

 

638.  Beads from Dad's Bud... He bid and won them in the family reunion auction for me.  Just for me.  Makes me smile to look at them.

 

 

 

639.  Full Saturdays.... smiles, running, energy (the kids), activity, fellowship

640.  Lunch with Parent/Grandpa

641.  Early morning rides with Fun Girl. Watching her practice driving at 5 in the morning

642.  Finishing a book for lit studies with kids and gleaning much for myself from it

643.  Inservice days, time to review and see how much it is all working.... in spite of life.

644.  Being able to take time to affirm my children in their studies.

645.  Benadryl and stopping the reaction without an ER visit!

646.  Peeking in ears and seeing ear tubes.  Sometimes it seems he isn't growing, and yet there is evidence where we least expect it.

647.  Smiles and Comaraderie among siblings as we take pictures

648.  Snuggles and naps

649.  Smell of dirt...another chore done....backfilling along the house.

650.  Excited children unable to sleep...anticipation of a fun family outting.





Favorite Things....Baking Soda!

Kids walked in on me tonight.
As did the hubby.
They always seem to know I am in the bathroom.
Fortunately, I was dressed.
The floor was covered in Baking Soda.
This led to a lot of questions..
From the Dad: "Why? and where did you learn all of this?"
Cause it is non-abrasive and it works really well at cleaning up the hair goo residue off the floor.
And well, I had it in there to clean my hair with and so I had no more excuses to why I couldn't work on cleaning the floor.
This led to more questions.
Baking Soda is really good as a clarifier for your hair.  It removes hair goo residue. I think it helps with the chlorine from my swimming.  Deep from the recesses of my brain I say something akin to intelligence and scientific about the bonding capabilities of sodium with other elements like chlorine and forming salts, etc. 

Little Princess responds with: "Oh, okay.  Well the floor looks better.  Still a little dirty, but better. "
Yes, I know. But I am tired and ready for bed.  Maybe tomorrow.

Anyhow, one day I was reading the bottle of clarifying shampoo and noticed most of the ingredients were sodium based and remembered my chemistry class days.  I knew baking soda worked well at removing hair product build up. So far, it seems to be working pretty well with the chlorine from swimming.  I have done some research online and found a few sources that suggest baking soda as well, so there you go!  As a paste, baking soda does a really good job at cleaning hard stuff like the product goo off my bathroom floors.  I like it in the laundry, too.  It it really successful at getting some of the yuckiest odors out of my kiddos' clothes.  You can find it here on Amazon.


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A new goal....Favorite Things

Just because I get asked about this and that.  Just because this blog is for my kiddos.
(...and communicating with friends and family) 
Just because I have a neice embarking into the realm of parenting....
I am going to try and make Tuesdays, "My favorite things" day. 
Some will be current favorites.  Others will be favorites in seasons past.  Favorites none the less. 
Favorites that have helped me through seasons.  They helped me keep my sanity. 
They were time savers. Effiency helpers.
Teaching helpers and so much more. 

AND off it comes !!

Friday it was officially off!

The cast that is.

Hockey Player was up and ready to go.

I have never seen him so excited to go to the doctor.

He missed 4 hockey practices.

He had big plans for the night.

The cast was just adding insult to the injury.

 

AhhH!  relief is in sight.

Then doctor gave him instructions!

NO ice time till Wednesday.

That would be 5 days.

OH MY!!!

I thought the dad and son were going to fall into the floor.

There is a tournament coming up.

Doctor's face didn't crack.

Not one bit.

He didn't give an inch.

NO ICE TILL WEDNESDAY,

unless of course we want to come back in and see him.

For 5 days he is to work on flexibility and regain range of motion and strength.

You should of seen the pleading in my men's eyes.

Just a little bit of ice... he has to play on Saturday.

It was a good thing I was there.

I get to hold them accountable.

I don't know who was more disappointed, the dad or Player.

After limping this weekend and working so hard on getting range of motion back,

I think Hockey Player is getting a good dose of understanding.

There has been plenty of limping and wincing as he gets that foot and ankle back

to where he wants it to be. 

But don't be fooled, this kid when he gets back on the ice, he will leave it all out there on the ice.

He doesn't slow down. 

The doc knows this.

He has a warrior's heart

and he will fight wounded if not strapped down and sat on by his mother.

I just remind these two brutes of mine,

Gotta live in this body for the rest of your life.

No point in destroying it in the first 13 years and living in pain for the next 80.

 

 

Sometimes it takes me a while...

I have been slow to come around. 

You see I can remember back in the day...way back in the day
When Candle Light (spelling) was all the rage.

It was back when I was young and in love and newly married.

Before 5 kids.

They smelled pretty.

The home parties were fun.

So I have heard rumblings here and there....Scentsy.

No way! 

You see I gave up my candles. 

Somewhere around kid number 2.

Just couldn't keep up when I was alone. 
Someone was always out of sight.

And well fire can be so pretty.

It can be so fascinating.

Then they learn to blow and well, they just blew them out.

Then I was hook line and sinkered into scrap booking.

Then along came child number 4 and 5.

Well, not doing much there. 

But all these neat and wonderful things cost money to keep up with and keep going.

My kids are the same way!

Come this past March I visited my frugal friend Dara.

Hook line and sinkered me! she did.

They got to her.  She is just as penny pinching as I can be, but they got to her.

I fell in love.

Pretty to look at. 

Pretty to smell.

But I didn't buy.  I just smiled.

Then summer came.

My boys played!

Need I say anymore.

I got to where I didn't want to go downstairs.

Opening windows helped.

Air freshners helped. 

Deodorant helped.

But only for a while....

Then I went to my family reunion.

They auctioned off some scentsy.

For sure what I thought was a bargain price.
(and it was!!! I soon found out...see the frugal me. )

But I had no warmer.

So I batted my eyes and said pretty please to hubby

and

he looked at me with this look that I know all too well.

The one that says, what is this really going to cost.

And he asked me what is SCENTSY???

Makes the house smell pretty.

Still the look.

Remember Candle light when we got married??

Maybe that wasn't the best comparison, cause that was a little pricey...

The eye brows go up!

But there is no fire.

We don't have to worry about the house burning down.

We would have a pretty smelling house....

He just can't resist my smile and eyes.

And I know it and I am sooo bad.  

He asked how much?

I had to restrain myself so he didn't go apopletic.

Then the next week, I inherited some from Papa and Grandmama Mac
(my parents!!!)

I saw them in their house and was so excited cause they were a part of the club!

Papa was like I don't know where the baseball thing is.
It was for a fundraiser, here take it all!!!

Are you sure?  It is pretty.  Surely Momma wants it.

Nope, they stuck it in my box of books.

I have been waiting and waiting.

My stuff came today!

My bathroom, cause I should get first dibs!!

 

My living room!

 

 

I quickly plugged them in and left for the night.

When everyone re entered they smiled!

Even hubby! 

He even agrees the basement needs one or two!!!

Then he asked about the cubes. 

I figured it out. 

Well it is a bit more than I spend in air freshners...

but it smells so yummy!

Surely I can stretch it out a little bit...

Surely, with some frugal conniving,
I can sniff to my heart's pleasure!

 

Going Vertical !

 

Grandpa Mac retired from teaching this past spring, well sorta...

We received an email offering us some bookshelves.

I got kinda excited. 

Cause despite our best efforts, school always ends up in the dining room.

School gets scattered all over the table.

School time runs into meal time and well we end up with piles.

Piles everywhere.

Piles on the floor.

Piles in the living room.

Piles on the piano.

Piles on the fireplace ledge.

Well maybe this would be the fix...?? 

The Hubby was not to sure about more stuff in the house.

First he said, "No," then he paused and said, "Yes."

Then he asked where?

He was not too sure about my plan.

But after this many years of marriage, he is learning to let me try and fail....

and sometimes not fail!!!

This was definitely a win!!!

I am learning too.

As time has passed and lots of decorating fails, I am learning.

With his agreement to buy some pretties to pretty up my dining room.

I spent a whole weekend in between activities and such

sprucing up my dining room and going vertical.

 

 

 

 

 

Life Requires a Sense of Humor....

Fortunately for Fun Girl, she wasn't home.

My allergies are bad.  Ragweed is my nemesis this time of year.

Mostly my eyes are affected.

I step outside and they swell and water.

They itch.

They get tired. 

I spend a lot of time like this.

Cold Compresses to reduce the Swelling.

Often, I doze off for a while as well.

 

 

 

So when I needed to show the Dad what needed to be done in the yard/garden,

I had to take serious steps.

I refused to shower first....

cause the shower would remove all the gunk from my being that makes me sneeze and wheeze.

But what about my eyes?

My sunglasses weren't going to be enough.

So in my jammies, I ventured out.

Then I heard giggles and my IPhone.

Iphone in the hands of Hockey Player.

He is no longer my sweet quiet child.

He is onery, squirrely and obnoxious.

I turned my back and laughed.

Dad reminded me it was his birthday.

So I turned around and smiled.
How cool is that!! 
I told him that would be his birthday present.

 

 

And since you can't tell in the above photo, we had to take one of the feet.

mismatched flip flops.

 

 

Fun Girl's response:  "I Can't Believe you Went Outside!"

WHat will the Neighbors THinK.

UmmMMM We have OnLY LivEd hErE for 17 YeArS.

I think they have seen it all from us.

 

Then I told her, I would blog it.

Her response,
"If you want to embarrass yourself that way!"

I love my FUN GIRL and HOCKEY PLAYER