grrrace’s Neighborhood

Show us the last thing you bought.

Ice Milk Goodness

Yesterday I picked these up and stashed them in our deep freeze.  Today, they are a gift for my husband - it's his birthday!

But another quite recent purchase of a greater magnitude:

Yep!  We're now mini-van folk.  We're quite happy with the deal we got on it, though now we have to sell the Lancer.  (We're quite keen on staying a one-car family.)  We bought it from a used dealership and ended up with a much nicer edition than one we would have initially wanted, but that was ok because it was still in our budget.   I'm loving that there are tinted windows (the sun and heat is really getting to me!)  and there is tonnes of space which we will eventually fill up.  It has lots of 'power' things - doors, windows, seats, etc. which are nice, but I would be ok without.  (It took me way to long to figure out how to move up me seat!)  And for now, it just feels huge after our car, but I'm sure I"ll get over that.  :)

"In the modern world, capitalist exploitation is rampant almost everywhere. Capitalism is now rapidly moving into the final stage of degeneration. In the early part of the capitalist era, society experienced certain advantages, but towards the end, society has become the victim of insatiable rapacity, unbearable hardship and heartless deprivation. Those countries suffering under the weight of capitalist exploitation are rapidly moving towards worker revolution." - Shrii Prabhat R. Sarkar
http://www.worldproutassembly.org/

Okay, so one of my favorite baby supply websites is giving away 12 bum Genius 3.0 diapers! Seriously! Here's the link.

If you use cloth diapers or are even remotely interested in trying cloth diapers, I would highly recommend entering. Your odds are only 1:5000!

Just ROCO, ok?

Have a great weekend too. :-)

There is a natural disaster headed your way. You get 4 standard sized canvas grocery totes to fill with valuables and provisions to bring with you to a safe place. What would you put into your 4 bags and why?

Submitted by dejablu503.

You know, I actually think about stuff like this from time to time, so I have a ready answer. In order I would...

1. Stuff the first one with important papers like birth certificates, passports, house and insurance stuff...especially home owner's insurance stuff because it's stuff you need no matter your location.

2. Family photos/memorabilia/selected items of jewelry because they cannot be replaced.

3. Laptop, external hard drives and storage devices because intellectual property and all manner of records are stored therein.

4. Clothes, shoes and as much underwear as you can cram in because...well, if you really need to know the "why" on this one, you're probably in way over your head and need to stop reading. 

RG...out!

I'm so glad it's Friday. It doesn't happen often, but this has been one of those weeks I just wanted to get to the next weekend. I woke up on Wednesday thinking it was Saturday, and the days have just kind of dragged since then. Work hasn't been particularly awful or anything; I just really have a lot of stuff I'd rather do at home.

Last night, I broke a glass in the kitchen. No one was hurt; it just came crashing down from the counter to the floor. I took that as an opportunity to thoroughly sweep (and Chris vacuumed) the kitchen floor (much needed after The Boy's recent attempts to scrape breading from his chicken nuggets). And since I was in that mode, I also vacuumed the family room - which first meant picking up all The Boy's things and putting them away (also much needed, especially since The Boy has started stacking items upon which to climb). Two hours later, the family room was nice and tidy (save for the laundry basket on the sofa and myriad items on the chair), and the kitchen counters were closer to clear. (It's a work in progress.) I successfully filed away The Boy's artwork from school and tossed a number of items into the recycling pile. I figure I just need another three or four hours of dedicated sorting and cleaning to get the kitchen and the dining room whipped into shape. That is, of course, as long as the family room stays as I left it this morning (which was fairly tidy, considering that The Boy took it upon himself to liberate all the balls from his toy basket right before we were to leave and I had to hurriedly put them away before he realized what I was doing).

And in all honesty, I'm actually motivated enough to have launched back into cleaning mode if I were at home alone today. But there's no telling what I'll feel like at the end of the day. [sigh] There's yet another reason telecommuting would be so awesome.

I'm trying to find an easy recipe for pot roast or beef stew that doesn't use one of the Lipton soup mixes (and thus doesn't contain MSG). I know I can't keep The Boy from eating things with high fructose corn syrup, but I can at least do my best to keep MSG out of the food he gets from home. If anyone has one (even if it requires using a demi glace), please help!

This is the first weekend in a very long while that The Boy doesn't have anything on his social calendar. Chris said he wants to spend the weekend doing house things, which will be very nice. I'm almost caught up on laundry (as caught up as one can be, anyway), though I'm out of my peroxide bleach and need to get more laundry detergent on my way home. And I'd really like to at least get this sewing pattern pinned to the fabric, if not get the fabric properly cut, as well. And I've got some other little crafty projects I'd like to complete...

I think I may keep The Boy on Lactaid for another week before giving him regular milk again and seeing how his little body reacts to it. I realized last Saturday (after a full day of diarrhea despite an ordinary diet) that he might be lactose intolerant, and I took him off regular milk on Sunday then introduced Lactaid milk on Monday evening. His poops went back to normal, so I was happy to discover that was the culprit (and not a full-blown milk allergy - that would have been catastrophic). The research I've done indicated that lactose intolerance in toddlers often happens after a stomach virus (which he had about eight weeks ago - and honestly hasn't had normal stools since), but a week or two away from regular milk should allow his digestive system enough time to heal itself, and he'll be able to drink regular milk with no problems afterwards. So, to play it safe, I'll keep him on Lactaid for another week and reintroduce bovine milk next weekend.

Oh, yeah - and his diaper rash is finally completely gone. We're still teething like a fiend (and still waiting on teeth #15 and #16), but at least the pain is now only coming from one side of his body. And there haven't been any other diaper-throwing incidents.

Life is good.

Let's start this off by saying... being a mom is the hardest and most fun job I've ever had.

After having a conversation with someone about my boredom with life and my routine the other day, I decided to shake things up and find something fun for the kids and me to do last night.  You would have thought I suggested pooring hot acid into their eyeballs the way they reacted.

Seriously.

They are use to coming home and going straight to their friends house to play until dinner.  I know it's a right of passage during childhood to do so, but I kinda miss the little rugrats and wanted to do something fun with them.  So I declared Thursday nights as "family night" and they have to hang out with me. 

I suggested Joe's Crab Shack for dinner... then IHOP... then a movie... or go to the pool at the Gym.  Each time it was "Can I bring _____?"  ... they wanted to bring their friends WITH them.  I was trying to explain to them that, no, we needed to do something together as a family.  Actually, Nate was all for it, it was my 6-year-old-going-on-13 that claimed she wasn't leaving the house unless she was allowed to go play with her friends.

Sigh.  Are you kidding me?!?  I am willing to drop a good chunk of change on entertainment and food and you don't want to go?!?  When did I stop being a good enough companion for my kids?  Use to they couldn't wait to go somewhere with me.  They wouldn't let me out of their site for more than 10 minutes.  They couldn't even go to the BATHROOM by themselves.  !!!

So I finally talk them into this restaurant with a huge-tastic sandbox/sand volleyball for playing in and live band on the patio.  We ate dinner, Jenna played volleyball with some other kids... Nate ran from me and tried to bury my car keys in the sand (thank god the electric fob for the doors still works).  I had a martini to keep my sanity.  Yeah, It was fun. 

 

Then they talked me into a movie.  They wanted to go see "The Dark Knight"... but I have heard it's pretty dark and violent, so I nixed that.  We decided on "Mamma Mia".

SUCH FUN! The singing and the dancing kept the kids enthralled, and although there is a bit of adult content, it's vague and vieled enough that it was easy to explain away to the kids (namely Jenna) when she asked some questions about it.  Now we want to buy the soundtrack (and I am not even really an ABBA fan at all, but might be changing my mind now). I totally recommend it... the acting and singing is fantastic and humorous... and did I mention just FUN?!

The downside was on the way out.  I am having HUGE (and I mean SERIOUS) issues with Nate running from me in public... he's fine at home, but get him in a restaurant, store, movie theater and he thinks is HILLARIOUS to run from me. The ONLY thing that works to calm him down and show him the seriousness of the amount of trouble he is in is to spank him. I swear to GOD one of these days he is going to get run over or stolen. I scares the crap outta me.

So last night we are at the movie theater, he had been really good until we went to leave, he TAKES OFF... so far ahead of me in the crowd that by the time we get to the lobby, I can't find him. My heart is hammering. I am scared and mad and embarrassed.

I am that frantic mom you see in public, oblivious to the stares, yelling for her child to come here.  RIGHT.  THIS.  MINUTE.  Then counting to  one... Two... THREE... feeling my bloodpressure rise with each number uttered. 

I finally find him OUTSIDE, by himself, without me, laughing through the glass door at me - as I am frantically looking and calling for him.

I was sooooo MAD. I gripped his little hand and stomped back to the car with him. I wanted to spank him soooo bad, cause he was still laughing at me, but was AFRAID to spank my own child because so many people were around and we live in the kind of nieghborhood that I would certainly be turned into CPS for doing such a thing.  People don't spank their kids here.  They spoil them to the point of ridiculousness.

But then that meant, by the time we got home, the situation is so long gone that a punishment is less effective. He still got a time out, but really could have cared less at that point. Time out does nothing for him.  I was just so frustrated at the situation. And don't get me wrong... I HATE spanking him, but it's the ONLY thing that makes him stop laughing at me and take me seriously. He has ZERO respect for my authority.  He doesn't listen.  Everything I say is a big joke.  I don't know what to do with him.  It totally ruined the fun of the night for me because of his behavior. 

We have an appointment next week to have him evaluated for ADHD, not for meds (he's too young for that) but for behavior therapy. I am at the end of my rope with him and don't have any more ideas.

So moral of the story:  Go see "Mamma Mia", but don't take your kid if he tends to run from you in public.

 

 

I was 17, Todd was 19. (That's no excuse for my backwards baseball hat or Todd's white socks, but still.)

We were at his little sister's soccer game.

His mum took the photo.

We were falling in love.

13 years later I feel fortunate to be able to look at him and think, I got SO lucky.

And so to another Friday night, with Chopin doing his level best to soothe my soul, accompanied by a glass of my vintage $1.99/bottle red. And, as usual, they've been successful. For I am sitting here savouring this moment. What's so special about it? Well, I'm alive. That's special, don't you think? And worth taking a few moments out of a busy life to give thanks. But who to thank? Well first, my parents. They did, after all, give birth to me, nurtured me, and did their level best to give me a better life than they had. So thanks, Mum and Dad. I hope I made you proud, and showed my gratitude for the many sacrifices I know you made. I know I could have done better, but you always understood. And I have to learn by your example, and understand when my kids behave exactly as I did.

But who else to thank? I suppose all the selfless teachers, ministers of religion, and others who cared enough about me to try to teach me what they thought was of use to me in this great adventure we call "Life". You tried to instil in me the lessons you had learnt in life; about how to survive in it, and beyond. So, thank you too. I'll be forever grateful. As I venture further in this life I may have come to a different understanding of it than you had, but I know you did your level best. You tried to pass on the knowledge you had accumulated in your lifetime to me. Because that's what we do in this life. We try to make sense of it, and pass that knowledge on to those who follow us.

So now it has come to my turn; time to pass the baton on. I turned 69 recently. The next one is 70. And I do wonder what I have to pass on. Have I anything of worth to pass on to those who follow? I don't know. I guess that is for others to judge. I've tried to understand it all, but it is no easy task. There's just so much knowledge out there, isn't there. It's like a great, ever increasing  orchard of knowledge. We sample a fruit here, another there, and at times wander aimlessly in that orchard, wondering what fruit to sample next.

I've looked to other humans whom I think may have sampled better fruits than I, and wonder if I have chosen the right fruits. I now know the answer to that question. There isn't any right combination of fruits. We each have to choose those fruits for ourselves. For there is no perfect life. Just the one we cobble together for ourselves according to the dictates of where fortune may take us. And if we are to have peace of mind, we must gracefully acknowledge the truth of this.

So, for a while, Friday night philosophy will track my search for a consistent philosophy of life. I think I finally got something workable for me. All I can hope is that it is of some help to you, for it is no easy task this journey we travel together. Till next Friday night..

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Seen on dewitte's blog. :-)