Busy Bees!

Wow yesterday was so busy I didn't even get time to post...!! This is a run down on what we did.....

First thing in the morning I went for a run and rejoiced in the fact that this would be the LAST morning I run in hiking boots as I planned on getting new running shoes today!!

After my run we had breakfast and so on, then I took Jessie down the street for a tour of the Brand New Water Treatment Facilities!! Whoo HOOO!! It's not every day you get to see something like that so we jumped at the chance! Here are some pics!!

It's not often you see balloons at the water treament plant!!

New pipes!! Whoo hooo!! ( and three new engines! )
Mmmmm.... sewage....!!
Oxygenating the organisms!

Year old sludge!! "}
Huge new generator!!!

After all that excitement we needed to get a little closer to the green side of nature, so we went over to our neighbors house and helped her pick cherries from her trees!

She has a bumper crop so we picked and picked and picked!

It was a gorgeous morning for it!

After the picking the cherries, a friend came over to drop off her pets...

a Guinea Pig ( called Tiffany! )

and a pretty little turtle ( named Katy! )

My friend is going away for a week so we are excited to have a couple more exhibits for our zoo!!! Jessie is doing a wonderful job taking care of all the animals. She makes sure each pet has fresh food and water twice a day! What a star she is!

After the arrival of the pets we packed ourselves into the van and set off into town to run some errands and to visit our mailman who is languishing in a hospital bed after a well meaning doctor found cancer in Postie's colon. Happily it has all been removed and the coast looks clear, but it's a scary thing and he had NO IDEA ... * sigh *. On a side note, when we arrived at the hospital two large fire trucks rolled up to the front entrance, sirens blaring the whole thing. I remarked to another woman that perhaps we shouldn't be going IN to the hospital!! :} I asked a nurse when we entered if there was a fire and she said "Oh, it's just on the women's tower....." Excuse me?? What does THAT mean?!?!? There IS a fire, but it's only WOMEN!?!??! What is your point here??!!?! I was Per Turbed!! Not half as perturbed as I was to find myself walking through all the modernisation of the hospital and realising I had come upon the very elevators we travelled in whilst I was in labor with Jessie!!! My uterus actually cramped!!!!

So! After our visit we went .... * drum roll please!! * to get my new running shoes!!!!! Yipppeee!!! And here they are.......!! * sigh* aren't they glorious?!?!?!

After the shoe shopping, then we went for some yummy vegan Mexican food at our favorite restaurant where we made PIGS of ourselves!!! But it was sooo good!! After THAT we stopped to get printer paper and ink and finally back home where the kids headed for the pool and hubby and I flirted a little whilst he trimmed the trees and threatened to lop off my rose bushes!!! It began to rain heavily so we bribed the kids to come indoors for some vegan Berried Treasure sorbet. ( delicious!! ) I put the kids to bed and promptly fell asleep with them... DANG IT!!..... Rex came to get me and I staggered downstairs only to collapse on the couch again ... I roused once when the cat WALKED OVER ME to get behind me, but other than that, I slept there until midnight!!! A HUGE roll of thunder woke me again and I was able to drag my sorry self up to bed!!!! Worn OUT!!!

Jack, Jack the Fisherman...

So I was sitting at the computer last night, reading blogs probably, and noticed that Jack was very quiet. Hmm. Turning around I see why. The young chap is trying his hand at fishing... in the fish bowl!!! I'm not sure if he thought that by throwing in the entire ball of string he would be able to scoop the fish out, or whether he thought they might swim into it, but he kept stuffing the ball into the bowl and whizzing it back out again. He would peer at it, shake his head, "nope" and stuff it in again!! :D I thought it was hilarious! :D



Here he is, patiently waiting for a bite!
Finally he figured that the ball method wasn't working, so perhaps just LOTS of strings might tempt them!!!
Sadly for Jack, the fish weren't biting. Maybe next time?! :D

Morning walks...

Oh I love to walk in the morning !!

I went for a run this morning, did my aerobics ( Buns of Steel today! ) and then we went out for a walk in the fresh air.

Lately Jessie has taken to bringing one of the rats along... today was Violet's turn. Jack brought a little plastic fishing pole... I brought the dog and the wagon! ;D

The wagon is an old metal one that serves it's purpose just fine, but MAN it's noisy! :D

Anyway, here are some pics from this morning's excursion! :D



Jessie wearing a too small hat of Jack's and holding Violet the shoulder rat!

Jack intently walking the dog!

This is Brecon, enjoying her walk! :D We use a halti collar on her which is not like a muzzle at all, although it looks a bit like one. I HIGHLY recommend them to anyone who has a dog who pulls when she walks! Brecon is a really good old dog, but she could pull your arms out if you had her in the wrong collar!!
Anyway, I hope you like the pics! We are going out to meet some homeschool friends in the park this morning... I've got the homemade tortilla dough ready to go ... going to make some yummy picnic nosh! Remind me later... I have some photos and a video of Jackster, fishing in the fish bowl!!!

Enjoy your day!

For the entrepreneurial kiddo in all of us!

The other day I found a book at the library called "Beyond the Lemonade Stand" which, due to unfortunate library sticker placement, I somehow read as "Be Your Own Lemonade Stand" LOL!!! It's by some guy......( Rancic?!? ) and it's written for children and explains how they can easily start their own little business (ad)ventures!!! It's very inspiring and Jessie is all excited and plans to sell ice cream to the neighbors... ! We'll see how that works! Anyway, I wanted to pass the title along as some of you might have kids who would get a kick out of having their own business! ;D

Don't forget to give me a little kickback, 'k? :D

Anyone know what THIS is?!?

Freaky Fungi! ;D

This odd fungus keeps growing in my flower bed. It has a red top and attracts flies, but it doesn't smell ( at least I haven't stuck my face in it so it doesn't smell from a distance!) They appear, stay for a few days and then wither away. I DON'T like them! What are they?!!

Seen an Odd Scene....

Saw this out of the bedroom window this morning...

it was pretty chilly overnight and warmed up fast.... It's just not often I get to call out that I think the cottonwood is on fire! ;D Jessie was smart enough to point out that it must be steam and that this meant it was cold last night and the tree is giving off heat ! ; D Yeahy! Homeschooling might work after all! ;D

A few of my favorite things!

I had an Oprah moment this morning! I was admiring my new kettle that Hubby bought for us for our Anniversary...! I know, how practical, but it really was just what we both wanted! ;D It's LOVELY!

After gazing at the kettle I went upstairs to our bedroom to sort laundry and noticed the light filtering through the blinds and curtains. I LOVE when the light does that... it's so.... hmm.. I don't know, tropical looking maybe? I went for the camera and captured it for eternity! ;D

Since I had the light, I ought to get the kettle.... oh and I really love the blue sky.... and my roses... and the swimming pool.... and ... and.......
And here's the post! ;D

THE KETTLE! In all it's shiny glory! ;D Yes, I DO dry it off after each use to keep it clean! ( we'll see how long that lasts! :D )











The light through our bedroom window... it's magical to me....









A clear blue sky on a summer morning.....









One of my favorite rose bushes....









And another one... I love the colors in this one....





I have always been drawn to water, especially clear, blue water on a hot summer's day! This pool calls to me ( only I know how cold it is, so I've ignored it's siren song so far! )



If you'd have spoken with me lately when I was outside, you wouldn't believe I really like this, but our Cottonwood trees are shedding copious amounts of seed at the moment, so much so it's like a snow storm. I was sitting outdoors talking on the phone and was having to stop talking to pull cottonwood out of my mouth! It got a little ridiculous! :D

I LOVE my big screen computer monitor! My hubby bought it for me a while back but I still LOVE it!!

* sigh * ..... my Big Red Machines.....!! I LOVE my big red machines. They are WONDERFUL! They make doing laundry a pleasure. I love the brrrring sound they make when you turn them on. I love that they are almost silent when they run and I LOVE the handy dandy little gadget that Rexy bought to go with them.. it's a sort of monitor for the machines that sits in the living room and tells me how many more minutes each machine has to run. When the cycle is completed the little monitor quietly says "bing bong, bing bong, bing bong" and I know the laundry is clean and ready to go in the dryer or is ready to be folded...!! Ah... I feel like Snow White! ;D I've had these machines a year now and I STILL love to use them. I still pet them when I walk by and I still have a little happy sigh when I first turn them on in the morning!

I know... you've probably lost all respect for me now..! ;D

Happy Father's Day

Being a Father has got to be a pretty thankless job sometimes. The Father in our house gets to go out to work every day, comes home to a crazy, noisy, messy house where there is often no dinner to speak of. It's crazy, messy and noisy until the kids go to bed when we are all too tired to even THINK of picking up.... then the whole thing starts again in the morning!!

My hubby is wonderful with the children. He is so patient and kind. He's very thoughtful and considerate towards them and knows how to treat them to things without spoiling them senseless. He is wise and tolerant and playful.

My Dad is also a great Dad too. When I was little he was always lots of fun. He always made me laugh and we have always been able to enjoy each other's company without effort. We share common interests and enjoy walking, being outdoors, reading interesting books, and, oddly perhaps, stationery stores!! Pens and paper hold a fascination for both of us!! ;D My husband always knows when I am on the phone with Dad as I am usually laughing! I have nothing but fond memories of my childhood with my Dad and when I look back at pictures from our more recent visits, it is with great happiness. Love you, Dad.


Here's a little photo montage of the great Dads in my life!!


A Great Dad knows when to be goofy !.....


Knows when a gentle word works wonders.......
Looks to the future.............
Is firm..... but soft hearted........
Knows how to make a girl feel special........
And knows how to make her laugh.......
A good father is a great Grandfather...... he knows how to play with the kids.......

He's always there for you..... even when sometimes "there" is very far away.

He knows how to make everyone happy...........

To my Hubby and my Dad and all the other really great Dads out there... this is your day.

Enjoy it! ;D

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!

How to make a 5 year old look like an 8 year old in one easy step!!

Or, Jack got his new glasses today!!! :D
Doesn't he look smart?!?! :D I think he looks like a real braniac in them not to mention the fact that he now looks about 3 years older!!!


























There are tons of pictures, so you'll just have to bear with me!


























He seems to like wearing them for a while but they probably make his eyes hurt as it's a strong prescription and still needs to be increased, so he takes them off fairly frequently!
























He looks soooo big here!

























This one makes it look like he's busy working out some physics problem or other and would like us to not disturb him please!



























Here he is, helping Daddy put up the pool!

























Focusing intently... but not on top of it!
























Looking brainy and helpful!!!

























I was so proud of him today! We took him into the store to pick up the glasses and we put them on him... He said "WOW!!" and started looking around! He told us everything he could see! We walked around the store awhile and he spent so much time looking around him, he kept failing to look in front of him and plowed into store displays and passing customers!

Anyway, that's him. That's his look from now on I expect. How odd to think he'll wear glasses the rest of his life! Lucky for him they look GOOD on him!! :D

It's our Anniversary !!!

12 years of wedded bliss!!! ;D ( well mostly!! We have our days.....!! )

Run.... Run..... RUN......!

All the way around this time! All the way around!! :D Whooot!!!

I started running and counting my steps, run 50, walk 50, when I could do that then I would run 100 walk 100, a few days later then I would run 200, walk 100,... run 250 walk 100, ...run 350 walk 100 and so on.... today, for the first time, I did the entire run without stopping to walk ONCE !! Yeeee haaaaa!!!! I don't know how far it is, but it takes me about 11-12 minutes to run it... and there are hills...!!! It would be interesting to know how far it is, but the distance isn't the point... it's the getting there!!!

Yeahy me ! Yeahy me!! Happy dance!!!!!

....... of course now I have to decide if I'm going to start going around twice......... !!! LOL !!!!!

Weathering the Weather.

Here in NE we've had our share of stormy weather lately... we've had Shear Winds

Floods......

... and now last night, Tornadoes.

Happily for me and my family, we didn't see any tornadoes on the ground, but boy, they were close enough.... the air was THICK and so still... it was very creepy. The tornado sirens went off on three separate occasions and we spent three long hours under the stairs.... one dog, two kids, one cat, two adults, three rats, one gerbil and three fish. I'm going to have to install seating in there if we have to spend much more time sheltering! My knees were killing me and if I banged my head on the ceiling one more time I was going to come a little unglued!!!!

I'm just waiting for all this crazy weather to settle down so I can put the pool up!!!! I hope it's sunny where you are!!

Online Surveys...

Don't you wonder who it is they are looking for?!?! I fill out their questionnaires, time and time again, and am CONSTANTLY being told I "unfortunately do not fit the criteria for this survey " doubtless after having spent a good 15 minutes answering inane questions about bread or some other such nonsense.... It seems to me if they only want those folks who answer in THIS manner ( X, Y, Z) etc, then yes, sure, it's easy to make any survey say anything you want it to!!

Survey says "EH UH"

And as I already have one song in your head...

Try this one...!! This is an ad for the Discovery Channel... it is soooo addictive and so inspirational!!

No need to thank me!! :D

I love the whole world

Code Monkey!!

I'm afraid I LOVE this song and we are totally hooked on it. I found it months ago but my kids were playing it over and over again this morning....Now it's stuck in my head... I thought you might like it stuck in yours! :D

Share and share alike, that's what I was always told!! ;D

Code Monkey

Enjoy!! :D

Catch up! :D

Or, where the heck have we been?!





Wow, we've been really busy lately and I keep taking photos and planning to blog about them all... but then I don't get around to it and something ELSE exciting happens so I take pictures of that and then don't get around to posting those either...etc.





Let's see where to start... Hmm....we've been doing some school, but not enough for my liking. That's just the way it goes around here. I've started running thanks to inspiration from my friend, Sarah. I started running 50 paces and walking 50 paces. I increased my paces daily and yesterday I ran 550 paces, walked 100 ran 610 paces and was home! I nearly ran the whole thing! Today when I run I'll run 580, walk 100 and run 580... soon I'll be running it all.. which, frankly, seemed an impossible dream a few weeks ago! :D It's only running for 12 minutes or so, but much of it is uphill including the last stretch! Baby steps people! :D





Rex took me out to see Sex and the City for my birthday! It was a really neat movie and I enjoyed it tremendously. I loved the series too though, so what's not to love!?





We had terrible weather here lately, storms, wind, tree damage, tornado threats, floods... it just went on and on!! Now we have the aftermath... muddy waters, cornstalks high up on tree trunks and debris everywhere. I took tons of flood pictures.. I'll see if I can get some up here...

This may not be easy to see, but the road...?? it's gone. The railway line that runs across it washed away in several places throughout town and had to be rebuilt! We spent Friday fixing our house where water POURED into the basement and spent Saturday cutting up a tree that fell and touring flooded lakes.

We're recently become excited about Geocaching. We found several Geocaches using Google Maps alone, but for my birthday I got a GPS device which will make finding them easier still!! Whoo hoo!! I saw a T Shirt that said on the front "I use Multi Million Dollar Satellites to find Tupperware in the woods. What's YOUR hobby?"!!! I did laugh!! Rex thought that was hilarious... he SCORNS my Geocaching in favor of his hobby which is searching for graves !! Yup. ! He belongs to a group online where a person might post that he is from out of state and is doing family tree research. Perhaps he would like to find his great grandmother's grave and all he knows is she was buried in Ashland. Rex then goes to the cemetery, finds the grave, photographs it ( and maybe any others of the same family ) and posts them on the website. He gets a great deal of satisfaction from it and feels he is helping other people. Lah dee dah. I find Tupperware hidden in trees. I gain satisfaction from that!! ; P

We took Jackster to the eye doc recently. Hmmm. For years I have TOLD everybody there is NOTHING wrong with Jack's eyes. .... Ah. Turns out his eyes are sooo bad that he can barely see anything which would explain, as Rex said, why he looks so surprised when you throw a ball to him and is comes "out of nowhere" and hits him in the chest. Poor kid! His prescription for glasses is soooo strong that they won't give him it full strength as it might shock him off his feet! He is getting 1/3 strength to start with and they will slowly increase it as he gets used to being able to see!!! We found some really neat frames for him that you can screw up in a ball if you wanted to..... don't know WHY we felt the need to do that... he's such a delicate and gentle fellow!!!

Hmm... what else is new?? Oh! We have FISH. We now have NINE pets in this house. I should NOT be allowed to go to Petco unsupervised!!! :D They had goldfish on sale, so I got one for Jack! He LOVES to watch the fish. We asked him what he would like to name it and suggested a few options for him....

Goldy?? Dorothy??? BOB!?!!?

..."Wait, wait wait wait.." he said, holding up his hand

....."Nemo!" .... !!!

Nemo it is!!! We kept Nemo in a large vase by the computer and hoped he wouldn't grow too big. I was visiting a friend who has a green thumb when it comes to pets and plants... she is almost over run with fish who keep having babies.... yeah.... you guessed what happened right??? She sent me home with two more. ( Fame, and Fortune!) Well three fish in that little vase was too much fish. I needed a bigger bowl. I wanted something interesting... like a coffee pot, or a blender... but found in Goodwill a GIGANTIC vase with painted daisies on the side. I actually planned to scrape off the daisies, but everyone else loves them! The fish like all the room and last night we had fun feeding them mosquito larvae from our fountain in the garden!!! Honestly, when there is a Tornado watch it takes ages just to get all the animals downstairs !!!!!

So I think that's about it for now..... I'm sure I'll come up with some more news soon enough but as of now, that's your update!! I'll try and get some more pictures up soon, but I really should be cleaning the house! ( which MIGHT be why I am blogging... Procrastination QUEEN, that's me! )

I hope all is well with you and yours......! Take care now!! :D

Travels, travails and try~outs..!

We've been really busy lately! :D We took a quick trip to MN for a neat birthday party ... it rained the entire way up there... and when I say rained I mean it POURED!!! It rained so hard we couldn't see through the windscreen!!! We love driving in the rain though so no one complained! :D The party was lots of fun and we got to catch up with the MN tribe! Always a pleasure!!

After that we drove up to Sioux Falls ( still raining, by the way ) and stayed in a fantabulous hotel with the most fantastic swimming pool ( which one day will be mine !! ) ... it was just heavenly. It was a Hilton Suites so we had a bedroom, living room and kitchen... it was splendid! We all swam out little hearts out before a late dinner. We were shattered so ended up with a fairly early night though I had SWORN I would stay up all night long just to enjoy the room! Ah well! Over night the wind grew to 60 mph. We couldn't open the hotel doors to get out to the van! It howled all night long! The next morning we were up with the larks to a beautiful but freezing day. The kiddies and I swam and swam some more before breakfast... ( please note.. if you swim BEFORE food, then at least hunger drives them out!! I would be in the pool all day PLEADING with them to leave if we hadn't used the "But aren't you HUNGRY??" ploy!!) After a lovely breakfast ( healthy for me, donuts for the kids, fried meat and such for Rex....!) we climbed back in the car, dog and all, and headed West. Yes. West. Right. That's not the way home is it?! Nope! We went on! For hours! To "Nebraska's Pompeii" !! Oh dear. I'd have taken them a LOT more seriously if they hadn't tried to pull that!!! Pompeii?!?! Anyway, we went to the Ashfall fossil beds! It was really worth the trip! ( remember, we weren't THAT far away!! ) The Ashfall beds are from when a volcano in IDAHO erupted and covered everything in North West Ne with a foot of ash. They have found many skeletons of Rhinos, Two toed Horses and so on all gathered together in what may have been a watering hole where they all perished. It's really something to see and staggering to comprehend. I really have a hard time coming to grips with time.... heck I have a hard time coming to grips with reality... !! The site also has an interactive time line comprising of a walk way... a loooong walkway, with a liiiittle red strip at the beginning. The little red strip is Man. The rest of the loooooooooooong walkway is Not Man...!! Ugh. It hurts my head.!! Anyhoo.... after a super time at the fossil beds and an INCREDIBLE time in the gift shop where I could have spent a thousand dollars and not regretted a penny of it... we headed off once more. This time, SOUTH!! We like to meander! :D We made a few more stops along the route ( including a small misfortune at Columbus where I mistakenly suggested we should try the "authentic" Mexican restaurant for some Vegan food... I ordered Bean Burritos for the kids and myself, only to discover, on my first bite, that the beans were cooked in.... Bacon Ends........ ooops. The homemade salsa MORE than made up for it though! :D So we returned home just in time for the kiddies to go to bed. We were amazed at the change in the flowers... all the bulbs were blooming, the lilacs were out, the place seemed so NEW and DIFFERENT. "I'm so happy to be HOME" Jessie sighed. "You were only here YESTERDAY!" reminded Dad!!! How could that BE!?!?? Four states, new and old friends, swimming pools, fancy hotels, swanky breakfasts, fossils, hours and hours of driving.... and only been gone one day?!!?!?! LOL!!!

*********************************

This week Jessie, Jack and I have been learning about Explorers. Jessie has been Lewis AND Clark... ( Jack wasn't much help in the Clarking process and wanted to play "Hige and Sick" instead. Ah well!! Jessie's task was to start at St. Lois ( the bench ) and map the back yard! She did a great job of it and even discovered a lost emerald mine along the way!!

*********************************

Today was Jack's first ever T Ball game... aaaaand it may be his last!! :D He was all psyched to play! He had his glove on, he went back to the van to get his ball, his bat and his helmet, the nice lady walked up to him .... and then Jack spotted a baby. Uh oh. Ignore the baby ignore the baby ( babies freak Jack out. He's always afraid they are going to cry... ) He did a good job of ignoring the baby and walked along with the coach assistant to where all the other kiddies were playing catch. He looked at them all, looked back at me, looked at Jessie and said "Oh no no no no!" Took off his glove, threw it to Jessie and walked off!!!! When we caught up with him we asked he what was going on and he said "YOU play, Yay~Yee, I wotch" !! Hmm. We sat on the bench together and we all watched the kids play. Jack would say "Hittin' time!" when it was time for the kids to catch the ball. He'd say "Quickwy!!" when they were running to first base and he'd yell " Cack it!" to the kids when they were trying to catch it!!!! Several uninterested yet still somehow over involved parents kept yelling to their kids ( this IS T BALL people!!) and Jack would pipe up "Keep you' eyes on the ball!!!" to the poor kids!!! LOL!!! When he'd had enough he declared it was time to go home and he said he'd like to watch "B'Ball on the fee fee" !!!

Sounds fine to me! I guess I just paid $25 for a shirt with Jack's name on it!!! :D LOL!!!!

AP Kids say the Funniest Things..!

Jack: "Dora ~Bo~ Bora??"

Mom: "What do you say?"

Jack: "Than' kooo?"

Mom: "No, not thank you, what do you say?"

Jack: "Sorry, Please, Than' koo" !!!

LOL!!! Pick one!!!

AP Parenting on a schedule! :D

I've always fought schedules.... NO!! Can't. Stand. Routine...!!! However, when I make 'em, they work so splendidly I wonder why I don't use them more often! :D We have a super schedule worked out for the evening. At 8 pm the kids head up to get ready for bed. They pee, wash faces, floss, brush and rinse their teeth, put their clothes in the laundry basket, then head to the bedroom where they put on their pj's and lay out their clothes for the morning. At 8:30 they are in bed and I start to read them a story. We're reading Little Women at the moment and the chapters are quite long so Jack usually falls asleep whilst I read. If not I sing a couple of lullabies after the story then it's lights out by 9 and I'm back down stairs for an hour before I go to bed! it works GREAT and the children love knowing what they need to do and not having to THINK about what to do next. I've made a schedule for myself for morning so that I don't forget to take my vitamins, feed the cat and so on. I've worked it so that I put the kettle on to boil for tea and whilst it's boiling I can unload the dishwasher! Clever eh!? :D LOL!! Now we've got these two schedules pretty much ingrained I need to come up with one or two more. I tend to start making dinner at 5 and we eat at 6. I try to clean the kitchen up before I put the kids up to bed, but sometimes we get carried away doing other stuff... a schedule will get me on track! :D We like to play games after dinner and last night I also got a walk in before bed time... a good thing I'm thinking! : D If I do it right we can get all these things in with ease! :D

Schedules, people. Don't have one? Get one!! LOL!!

Vegan Cook Books...!

The Vegan cookbooks I bought are fantastic!! I bought Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson ( 400 Irresistible Recipes with Fantastic Flavors from Home and Around the World) .. this book is awesome! I started to bookmark the recipes that looked the yummiest.... and now my book is literally frilly with page markers!!! One of our favorite recipes so far is Cranberry and Walnut Oatmeal cookies!! Delicious! We've also made Tuscan Bean Soup and tonight we are having Freeform Caramelized Onion Tart!! I can't wait!!!!!!

The other book I bought was The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen, Meat - Free, Dairy - Free Dishes from the Healthiest Region Under the Sun by Donna Klein. Out of this book we have tried Sauteed Cherry Tomatoes with Mediterranean Herbs.. and they were GOOD!! This book is also frilly with page markers!! Would you believe that all these choices are actually making it HARDER to choose what's for dinner!?!?! :D

Too ... Many... CHOICES!! :D

AP'ing the body.... The Eager Vegan

So...! For some reason, I forget what now, Jessie asked me what a Vegan is. I told her that a Vegan is like a Vegetarian, but a Vegan avoids any products that involve animals, such as honey, dairy, eggs, leather etc.... She decided she would like to try being Vegan too. I have wanted to be Vegan myself for sometime, but didn't want to force it on the family so this was a great opportunity for me! :D I took her for Mommy and Jessie day to Barnes & Nobles where I picked up two FABULOUS Vegan cookbooks! It took some looking, as many vegan recipes are "take soy meat product and soy mayonnaise, mix with soy margarine and soy sour cream...." BLEURGH!!!! The books I found were real recipes, with REAL vegetables and very little, if any, "fake" food!! We've done quite well for our first week! Jessie was pretty disappointed to find that she couldn't have her standard "Mac and Cheese" when we went out one day at lunch! Also, Ice Cream was out.... only now I have found a super Rice Cream recipe with Rice Milk! :D The only side effects we have suffered so far was an interesting and somewhat surprising reaction in the bowels department!! (Poor Jessie!!!) Suffice it to say she needed a bath.... that's all I'm saying.

We've begun a new schedule system! :D At night our routine is laid out and the kids follow it without any trouble! This leads to them being tucked up and sleeping by nine. I've finally given in and succumbed to going to bed at ten. I've found that getting that little bit more sleep makes the days just that bit nicer! :D

I'm working on a schedule for mornings... they really do seem to help us, much as I claim to despise them! I've always, since I was a small child, said I hated routines, but now I wonder how much of that was me just repeating what I'd heard from adults. Routines really do seem to make life SO much easier.... I'll let you know how they go! :D

The weather is just fabulous here at the moment, though we are predicted to have some storms today, with a moderate risk for severe weather. Marvy! Hubby is out of town today .. I LOVE getting bad storms when hubby isn't home. Just great! :D

Anyway, off I go for now. Just wanted to post a quick update on what's going on around here since I haven't posted for a long time and several people have been kind enough to remind me that they looked for updates! :D Thanks guys! You know who you are! :D

Toodles all...!! :D

xxxxx

AP Parenting the cat....!!

Last night the cat was frantic! He was standing, shouting, at the top of the basement stairs. Something was VERY wrong and he needed me to fix it immediately if not sooner!!! He shouted and wowled until I simply had no choice but to check and see what was up! :D He led me downstairs in a big hurry and ran to his food bowl. Oh NO!!! ... ahem..... whilst the food bowl still had a great deal of food remaining in it, he was able to see the pattern on the bottom of the bowl and that was causing him a great deal of distress!!!! Herman likes to have his food bowl piled high at all times!!!! I rubbed his head, topped off his food bowl and assured him he would not be allowed to starve to death over night!!! Poor Kitty !! That was a close one! :D

AP Parenting the soul.

Well looks like another update is in order! :D I feel like I am finally managing to pull myself out of the darkness that has been this winter. What a long and miserable season it has been this time. I've been reading some good books that I managed to lay hands on through serendipity! I tore through Unconditional Parenting in the hopes that it would be the last parenting book I would ever have to read, but it ended up raising more questions than it answered leaving me rather frustrated with it. On balance the theory is a good one but certainly not one that can apply to all children and all families at all times. This lead me to realise that NO parenting philosophy can apply to all children and all families at all times and I need to take what I enjoy from the books and ignore what doesn't fit!! This may sound like an oversimplification, but it's a new concept to me!! All this time I have been trying to bend my children to fit the books...!! I have!! My children are just fine! I need to find a style that works WITH them rather than against them and it may well end up being a book I write for myself! :D

Another book I have enjoyed and one which has opened my eyes, is John Taylor Gatto's "Dumbing Us Down". Amongst many pertinent arguments he makes, one particular one stood out for me. He talks about today's society and it's proclivity towards "networking" rather than "community" ... in other words building relationships and investing time with a group of people with whom you have one thing in common ( a chess club, an art class, an online group etc) rather than investing time in real relationships and friendships, a "community". The networks allow you to feel you have "friends" but when it comes down to it, you don't. This can lead you to feel "lonely in a crowd". I've experienced this situation many times myself and I am sure many others have too. We feel we have friends, but when it comes to the wire, we have acquaintances at best. I have been working hard at making real friends lately and as such have found a deeper happiness.

One more book I am reading ( yes, I DO read more than one at a time!! ) is Endangered Minds Why Children Don't Think and What We Can Do About It... Jane M. Healy, Ph.D. What a fascinating and mind opening book! :D The author leads us through horrifying tales of children's brains and how they learn clearly showing how language has degenerated through the years and demonstrating how old heroes such as Sesame Street and PBS are doing a disservice to children today. She outlines how important it is to read to your children, and not just any books, not picture books, but "REAL" books with well rounded language and complex sentence structures. Having followed Ambleside Online on and off for a few years I have seen results of this with my own eyes and ears!! We read great books at bedtime, we are currently reading The Borrowers for instance. Both children lie in bed listening closely to the story. They are learning not only to listen, but to form pictures in their minds. They are hearing beautiful language which is not dumbed down to a level beneath them, but instead pulls their skills up and encourages their comprehension. I am only a third of the way through Endangered Minds, but what a book it is.

*********************************************************************************
(I'm trying to write intelligently about the books I have been reading but I am thwarted by the kids who seem DETERMINED to talk to me and show me this or that....!!! THIS is why I try to write at night.... when I am only thwarted by exhaustion!!!)
**********************************************************************************

Of late I have been working on my "self". I'm trying to kick the sugar habit, giving up chocolate, sugar, cookies and so on. I am trying to find time to read, to meditate and to exercise. I am also spending time with friends and trying to focus on what's important. Not sweating the small stuff. It's a goal...!! I'm also clearing out the house... spring cleaning. Moving the furniture about and freeing up some emotional and physical space!!!! Ahhhhhhh!!! It's a good thing!! :D

I hope you are all ready for spring, to emerge into the warmth and to let the sun shine on your skin once more..... It's really been a long time coming.

AP Parenting and parental pride! :D

Or, how proud I am of my hubby....! :D

The other day my dear and sweet daughter found the scissors and cut off her bangs. Seriously! She did!!! I know I shouldn't be shocked, but she is a SENSIBLE CHILD!!!! I honestly thought that those days were way behind us and we had got lucky!!! I was really surprised!! ( I know, I know, stupid me! ) The only way I realised though, was when I went in the bathroom and discovered a bunch of looong hair on the floor. I knew it wasn't mine, Jack's, hubby's, the cats, the dogs... etc!! ... I called sweetly down the stairs.... "Oh Jessie?!?! Cherub?!!? Did you cut your hair my sweet lamb?!!? " LOL!! ( or words to that effect...!! ) She came up the stairs and admitted that yes, she had, because it was in her eyes. She'd hacked it right from the roots!!!! GAH!!!!!!! Oh my!!! Funnily enough it really didn't look too bad, and yes, it sure did keep it out of her eyes...!!

I regaled my husband with the tale over our dinner table that night. He looked at me, shrugged his shoulders and said "Well, I guess they all do it at some point !" !!! and that was IT !!! I thought he'd go nutty!!!!! I suppose if she'd SHAVED it ALL off he may have been a little more verbose, but as it was, it was pretty darned low key!! :D

I'm proud of 'em both! Jessie, for taking the situation and fixing it all by herself! And hubby, for not going bananas and accepting that it's her hair and her head and if she wants to cut off her hair, then I suppose it's her business! ;D

What a pair! ;D