Random moment of randomness....

LOL!!

Yesterday I had a moment. A good moment!! We ( Me and the two crazed Monkeys I call my own ) were driving home from somewhere or other..... (**thinks.....** !! Oh yes!!! WRESTLING!!! Now THERE'S a whole 'nother post!!) and we happened to spot a large flock of Geese flying above us.... then another.... and another..... and....oh look.... another !!!! We appear to be under the flight path for the Canadian and the Snow Goose express! There were literally ( and yes, I'm prone to exaggerate, but not this time ) THOUSANDS of geese. They swarmed above us like a Rorschach image... constantly flowing from one outline to another. Jessie would call them out...."A polar bear"....." A horse with a rider"......" A woman with long hair"...."A fish"..... it got so that I was spending so much time looking at the sky I really wasn't paying due care and attention to my driving. That's enough of THAT, I thought, ...... so I pulled into a housing estate, stopped the van, and we spent the next 15 minutes watching nature's Bob Ross at it's finest!!! :D

You know what's sad??

I'm LOSING followers.....!! :( That really is sad. I had 12 (YEAHY!!!) now I have 11.... booo. Was it the Mammogram post??? What happened!?!? Why did I lose you!?!!? :D

Come back!!!!!





** sobs!! **

AP moment of the day......!!

Yes!!! There was an AP moment today!!! And I was there!! ;D LOL!! In fact it was literally two minutes ago and I thought "I should BLOG about this!!!" :D

What happened is I foolishly asked Jack to pop down to the basement and fetch TEN of the dried beans from the great big bucket of beans that they use to play with. ( It's a tactile thing....) Anyway..... an hour passes..... finally I begin to hear yelling. I'm sizzling onions on the stove so I wonder just what the yelling is about and can't even tell if it's happy yelling or sad yelling...! I run downstairs to find Jack yelling "PARADE!!!!!!!! PARADE!!!!!!!! " and scooping great handfuls of dried beans and flinging them EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!! AAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Now, this is where it gets good!!! Instead of yelling like a banshee at the terrible mess he has made I check to make sure that it is PARADE he is yelling and then ask if he's pretending the beans are confetti. I am reassured that this is indeed the case. I keep my cool and ask if perhaps we might pick up the beans when we are done..... all heck breaks out. Jack is furious and upset. OK. I'm thinking hard now and trying to recall all my AP training ..... my brain seizes upon Playful Parenting!!! Aha!!! ;D "OK Jack!! After the parade is over and everyone has gone home, I need to know that the street sweepers are going to come and pick up all the confetti so that the streets will all be clean in the morning... ok??!!!"

"OK!!" he agrees and gleefully gets back to his work!! ;D

Wow!!!!! What do you think!?!!? Good eh?!?! :D

Play with me?!

My good friend Risa( Reeeeesah!!) sent a link today to a fascinating article about the Serious Need for Free Play. The article goes into great depth regarding how children need... NEED to play. I don't mean they need to play chess, or they NEED to play the violin... they NEED to play fairies and dress up, wrestling and chase. They need games where they are the villain or they are the hero, they need to build forts, play with legos, look through paper tubes, create worlds in their bath tubs. Children need to use their imaginations and, as Jack says, they need to spend some time " 'tendin' ". Jack and Jessie both are GREAT pretenders. They are often rescuing wild ( and totally imaginary ) beasts from various worldly locales. They pretend to be creatures themselves, the picnic table is everything from a fort, to a boat, to a magic school bus. This very evening Jack went out to the garden as it was growing dark. I wasn't sure what he was doing, but apparently he was planting candy trees!!! I later saw him go out again and water them!! ;D

When I first read the article my initial thought was one of concern. As homeschoolers maybe Jessie isn't getting enough play time with friends of her own age. She does have various homeschooled friends and we see them at least once every couple of weeks if not more.... but perhaps she needs more friends to play make believe with... maybe she needs more pretending....???? then I thought about it. Jessie and Jack play make believe every.single.day and I have nothing at all to do with it!! :D They get on famously despite the (ever reducing! Yeahy!) communication gap and Jack has learned so much from Jessie just through their play.

So next time the kids are driving you bonkers ( and you know they do!!) tell them to go outside, or, if it's not all that nice out tell them to go under their beds, and to find where they left their imaginations. Come to think of it, why should the kids get all the fun!?!?! Why don't WE have a go too?!!? :D

I'd like to thank The Academy.......

I have my first ever blog award... !! And TWO people gave it to me at once!!! What do you think of THAT!!?!? Must be like buses!! Nothing for ages then two come along at once!! :D

I'm very grateful to Stephanie and Alicia for nominating me.

I'd like to also thank my husband for his undying love and devotion, and my two dear children for their craziness which gives me reason to write in the mornings!

I believe there are rules to this blog award, but you know me, not much of a rule follower. I'm a skimmer. I read instructions by scanning for key words thus I know I have to name some things that make me happy and then nominate others for the award.

The "nominating others" reeks of chain letterdom and spam to me, but that might sound ungrateful. I will say that I read all the blogs in my side bar and some more I've yet to add. They all make me very happy and make me feel less alone in the world!

Other things that make me happy are:
*Hearing Jack laugh in a HAPPY way ( not in a "I'm tormenting the cat and I LIKE it" kind of way )
*Drinking Ice Wine with my hubby and getting giggly after one glass.... but still drinking two more anyway!!
*Being with Jessie
*Watching the sun make the snow sparkle like diamonds ( I LOVE diamonds!)
*Drinking cups of hot tea whilst sitting on a sunny step.
*Swimming in a blue ocean
*Spending all day with good friends
*Walking with my dogs
*A good morning run
*laughing uncontrollably ....... I could go on and on....

Turns out lots of things make me happy!!

Who knew!?!? :D

Nothing says "I LOVE YOU" like getting pee stains out the carpet! :D

Today's post is brought to you by the Bissell Little Green Compact Multi Purpose Deep Cleaner*!! ( wow ... that's a mouthful. Guess I shouldn't be eating it eh?!! :D ) Well for my Valentine's gift this year, this
is what I asked for !! :D Our carpets are just nasty with all the dogs, cats and little boys who use them on a daily basis. OK.. it's not daily, it just FEELS like daily. For instance, Minnie, our old rescue dog, peed liberally all over the carpet the other day. On Valentine's morning no less I was woken by the words "Minnie has thrown up all over the floor" ... * siiiiigh* !! So anyway, unromantic it may seem, diamonds and chocolates it is not ( though I did also receive a box of chocolates ( I know, I know, I'm spoiled.... !) ) the Bissell Little Green was the perfect gift.

Yesterday I finally took it out the (recycled) box, added the earth friendly cleaning solution, (it's not called the Little "Green" for nothing!! ) plugged it in, turned it on and began stain removing!!!! Whooo!! :D It works really well!!! Jack and I kept searching to find more dirty areas of floor so we would have something else to clean!!! It was so satisfying!!! My friend Diana recommended it to me a month ago and I am so lazy if someone has a product and likes it, well, that's a good enough recommendation for me!!

So there ya have it! A Valentine's treat everyone can enjoy!! :D Clean carpets in no time!!!

No need to thank me! :D




*and PS, I'm not being paid to recommend this product, though I wouldn't say no if it were offered!! ;D I have principles, but I'm not STUPID!! :D