Category: mumbling

Somehow, my one year blog-iversary slipped by me. I started this particular blog last year on August 29th. And I’m pretty proud I’ve kept it up. My laundry is piling up and I don’t want to even discuss how messy the kitchen is, but the blog? Up to date!

I actually started this whole blog thing ages ago when Neko was just a baby, but I was doing all the page creation on my own instead of using a blog site. So it was incredibly cumbersome. And then there was my brief stint over at LiveJournal, but that was spotty at best. Some day I’ll fold it all together and make it one tidy blog.

But until then, I give you the above photo, which is actually of Neko on the day of my very, very first blog entry, June 1, 2003, at a little over two months old.

The weather around here has been spectacular. As I loaded the kids up this morning, it was a little cool. Probably just cool enough to slow down the butterfly I found in the driveway. She let me pick her up, and even let Neko hold her for a while before we sent her on her way.

I don’t know why it took me 35 years, 4.5 of those as a parent, to come up with this plan.

I suppose it started with the kids’ nightly treat. We don’t really do junk food around here too much, but we usually do one small thing at the end of the day. It used to be whatever we had around, and then we went on a big fruit snack kick. But then I started reading more stuff about high-fructose corn syrup, and decided that wasn’t the greatest idea.

One day, at Trader Joe’s, I bought a bag of cookie dough balls. And for dessert that night, I made just one for each person. We baked while the kids picked up, and we all snacked on our one cookie when we were done. I loved this idea, but since there were only a few dough balls in each bag, I’d be making a lot of trips to Trader Joe’s.

And then I’m all like, “Wait a minute. How are these any different than the cookies I make? Why can’t I freeze my own dough balls? And then I’ll know exactly what ingredients are going into my kids.” And I did. And it worked out great. And the other fantastic part? If I ever have one of those moments where I need a last-minute snack for playgroup or guests or something, I’m all stocked up!

Tonight I made another batch to freeze. And now I have 75 potential cookies just ready to roll at any time. AND I substituted whole wheat flour for the regular stuff, and they turned out just fine.

Martha would be so proud.

Today started badly. Badly enough that in my sleep-deprived delirium I began rationalizing in my head that maybe it would be okay to leave the kids alone in the house for a day or two while Tom and I catch up on sleep and drink a cup of coffee without being interrupted twelve times. I mean, Neko knows how to open the frig and scrounge for basic supplies, right?

And then we came back to our senses and realized we were stuck with three cranky children and two even crankier adults. I decided to bring the morning up a notch by making healthy muffins that will rejuvenate and energize us. Tom played the part of good husband and preheated the oven for me. See? Things are looking up.

Well, until we discovered the cutting board that Tom had thrown in there during our last dinner to keep my tofu warm had now melted all over the inside of the oven. Tom is not the crying type, but I swear at that moment he almost began sobbing.

Shortly after that, Doug and Susie arrived with their kids because Tom was going to help them move a swingset, so he and Tom escaped the insanity to go move big, heavy things with tools. I waved my hands in the air and ranted and raved about how hard life is and Susie dutifully nodded her head and made me eat a not-so-healthy pastry they had brought, which made me feel a lot better.

Turns out, having new people enter the house disrupted our downward spiral, and suddenly the kids were being a lot nicer and then so was the Mom. We headed down to the basement where Neko Redeemed Herself With Art. She drew this insanely long train track all around the floor of the basement so the tricycle and trailer could become a roller coaster. These are the moments when I can put aside my ADHD anxieties. She sat there and meticulously drew ties on her track for a good twenty minutes. When she was done, she even drew a platform and cue so that all the riders could stand in line and wait for turns.

Unfortunately, after a while Shep didn’t want to ride any more. And Chris was so thrilled that Neko had made this big track, that he just wanted to pretend to be a train and run around after her. So I got to be a passenger. And, no, I don’t think even Nicole Ritchie could fit her butt in the back of this trailer, so I did the best I could.

Continuing on our getting-better day, we met R&D at the mall, where everyone ran and frolicked and enjoyed riding in that double car stroller thing, since I still don’t have a new stroller.

And, even better, the evening rounded out with Tom taking the kids home while I went to dinner with the girls with NO KIDS. I drank half a margarita and a beer and laughed and listened to stories and, yes, children were probably involved in 90% of the conversation, but the point is, they were not present so that makes it okay. Anyway, I need to make a point of these adult get-togethers a bit more often because it definitely renews your soul. Thanks to Libby for organizing and then reorganizing after the whole appendix incident.

Enough for now. Must now go figure out how to extract a cutting board from our oven…

The painters came today to get started on the wall. I guess it really hadn’t occurred to me how fumey it would be, so on my way home from our morning outing I placed an emergency call to my dad to beg to come over for the afternoon.

Clearly, there was no hope for a nap. So the kids ran wildly around my parents’ house. I took some photos, but the batteries were dying on the flash, so most of the pictures are blurry. But I kind of like them that way, from Neko’s fairy wings to Shep’s eternal air guitar.

The kids were crazy today.

No, seriously…CRAZY. Jumping and running and hitting and shouting and screaming and pinching and poking. Hurling their bodies into the air and against random pieces of furniture or each other. All day, people. Not just a part of it. Every. Single. Minute. And that goes double for Shep, who didn’t even nap. Even Ellery was doing this crazy “Hey, let me try to push up on my knees!” business. No way, sister. Plant that butt firmly on the ground and don’t even think about that whole crawling business.

It got to the point in the afternoon where I just gave up and got out the camera and took pictures, because if I was going to be orbited by total nut-jobs, at least I could get a few photos while I slowly lost my mind.