Wednesday, November 10, 2010

At the risk of sounding crazy I want to talk about Fear.







The top fears in my home rationalized or not they are real.


I fear birds. Big ones, little ones, caged ones, trained ones and wild ones scare me white! With the exception of chickens . A few short bird stories to make you giggle... but have given me nightmares.

Once upon a time I had an upstairs apartment. The top of a beautiful tree was near the walk to my front door. A tiny little nest was in this tree with a tiny little humming bird couple and the nest of tiny little eggs. Every time I left or came home I felt much like how Gilligan must have felt being attacked by all the tiny little people in his travels. I was dive bombed by flying needles. I woke my neighbors with blood curdling screams.





Story two....... Sonny was a small baby able to sit but not crawl. I had just picked the kids up from school and was entering my house I walked straight into the kitchen to see out of the corner of my eye a finch sitting on my printer. I fell to the ground and started screaming save me. My hero Joey walked to the sliding back door and opened it. Out went the tiny bird. The kids where laughing so hard I'm sure my parents heard them in Fresno, dad's hearing aid off.


Last bird story..........A beautiful summer day Warren took me to the Tea Garden's in San Fransisco. We were having a nice chat when I felt something staring at me. I turned my head to be looking eye to eye with a Pigeon. I jumped and screamed. Warren now knew my biggest fear and still married me. Since then he's seen me drop and duck more than once in fear of BIRDS!!!


Joey's fear is of weirdos. I'm not sure if that's him, his experiences or me? We adopted Joey about 4 years ago from Foster Care. I was/am a paranoid mother who is fearful that somewhere in our county his biological mother lives and is capable of kidnapping him. So I put Joey and the girls in a self defence class that focused on strangers and bullies that was age appropriate. I had a private conversation with the instructor about Joey and how we needed to include people we know can be strangers as well. The kids and I looked up people in our neighborhood that were registered offenders and talked about how even nice people can be bad. Then I went as far as talking about aunts and uncles and family friends could be strangers. Mostly because Joey is my brother's biological son, Joey often refers to him as Uncle Jonathan. . Seams pretty healthy to me, until Halloween came. We went to a few houses in our neighborhood. At first he was into it. Running from door to door asking for candy with the girls and saying thank you. Then it became running to a door asking for candy and then thanking the person and yelling to them to WATCH OUT FOR WEIRDOS. Then it turned in to not wanting to go up to houses at all and locking all his muscles and me having to carry a very stiff and frightened Joey a half a mile home. This happens every year now unless he goes with Warren. Joey's fear of strangers is so strong it's impresses me. He sticks to me like glue and can not go into areas he knows are safe unless they are well lit.



My second oldest feared germs. She would wake up in the middle of the night needed to wash her hands and crying out terrified about germs being on her. The park became no fun for a while until she forgot about the germs and hand sanitizer is necessary to keep close at hand. She is not so bad now that she is older but for a while I feared when she would worry what had germs on it in a panic.


Sonny is very close to total potty training success, except for the creatures that live in public restrooms. He is so convinced they exist he will cry uncontrollable until removed from the restroom not mattering if it is you or him going. We take short trips now in diapers, he hates them. Occasionally he will try to pee somewhere in public like on the side of the play structure. We definitely have our work cut out on stamping out this fear.










Marysa I fear, fears nothing. This can be good and bad. My fear is that she will try something dangerous like bolting out in to a parking lot as she did in kindergarten or taking off to ride a ride in an amusement park without notice as she did at both at Santa Cruz Boardwalk and Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. (Marine World) or take a walk to a local park and not asking me. My favorite how she doesn't fear fire,often getting way to close for my comfort. I swear that this child will be the cause of ulcers in her mother one day.

Declan's fears have yet to come. I think he's just to young or maybe a Marysa junior. Time will tell.

Then there is my love. He fears flying. He does well to build up courage to fly but I always get the very real good-byes and we have never flown together as our children need a parent if something happens. He's been listening to some kind of self hypnosis that he says helps so maybe Hawaii is in our future together?

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

So much work for so little satisfaction


This one is for the dieters and the ones who care only to torture themselves.






The Pomegranate. Fruit or enemy. I guess Warren and I at different locations had the same "fun" idea. We both picked up a few pomegranates at the store. We are fans of the juice, I made some great jam 5 plus years ago, they will be fun for the kids to eat.




Well the kids are at school. I'm in need of a snack. Hmmm I think I'll have a red ripe plump pomegranate. I pull out my super large Ginsu. (I know, but it's a great knife.) Cut the fruit in half. Tons of ruby colored seeds, my mouth is already for this tasty treat.




I get out the spoon and start scooping the seeds into a cup. With every scoop there is some nasty white colored skin thing I have to remove. Fifteen minutes later I am still doing the same thing until I give up. What's a little of the white stuff in with my treat. I bet it doesn't taste that bad? WRONG! It's bitter and hard. I was able to scoop maybe 1/3 a cup of seeds out that equals maybe 5 bites looking at every spoon full to get the tiny little specs of white skin off before eating. I'm glad I didn't go with plan B: the juicer. Or plan C let the kids do it?




It left a juicy stained mess on the cutting board. I have tiny dots of stains all over my shirt and next time POM is getting my 4 bucks. They earned it. Not my favorite do it your self fruit.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Haven't had one in over a year




Marysa and Tanner had a sleepover with a team mate from soccer. We decided to get Papa Murphy's Take 'n Bake. The bottoms of the pizzas never cooked. The bottom coil in our oven died. So I called the repair man. He told us the oven was so old the part wasn't made any longer. Since we rent and no one likes a land lord to come for a visit we didn't fix it.

Then my dad called. He said he got me a turkey. I told him we didn't have a working oven. He said he got me a turkey. Oh GREAT! Frozen turkey that will never get used coming to my house. Then my dad brought it over with a giant roaster. WOW! That's gonna take up space. Warren whispers "Can we sell it?" Nope. Dad now wants to come over for a turkey dinner.

My Mom came over and we had to figure out how to cook a turkey in a roaster. Well #1 the turkey wont brown unless you make some weird browning liquid. So we decided to make the turkey green. I injected it with Trader Joe's Goddess salad dressing. It was the best flavored turkey ever. It was green. Awesome sliced, in sandwiches, cut in salad and I HATE turkey.

The roaster deserved a second chance. I have been cooking everything in it. From the store bought frozen foods to meats and casseroles. Breads and cakes not so good. One kitchen experiment after the next. Tonight's was toasting pumpkin seeds. Took way longer but are just as good. I'm going to say 1 1/2 hours in the roaster.

Over all if you need an oven and doesn't look like it's going to happen soon get a roaster. It will be the most useful eyesore you ever get.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

When the cats away the mice will clean?




First I need to describe my husband in a nut shell. He's brilliant, smart, independent, motivated, focused and a It's good money and I couldn't be more proud. With that said I need to also explain 5 children in this "work" environment is not a match.Six hours a day the 3rd and 4th grade kids are at school. Good! Eleven hours a day my 22 month old and 3 1/2 year old are at daycare/preschool. Good!? I'm at work plus commute those eleven hours. :( OK we have nice cars and kid supplies coming our our ears. A modest home in a good neighborhood where the 7 of us live together. The house while my writer is writing needs to have a consistent level of quiet. For the most part we have that part in check as well. Sounds perfect. HA!

I commute. He works and then 3 independent dependants come home. They snack, the food gets left out and spills aren't cleaned. They do their homework and the pencils, glue, scissors, etc come out and don't get put away. They change their clothes and the dirty ones fall where ever and lay. Their shoes come off by the front door and jackets and back packs crowd our entry way. Oh and ideas for worm mazes and kitchen experiments come alive. Then there is restless destruction, rolling on the couch, chair or floor tossing throw pillows and blankets all over the place. Then I come home with the "Hi Guys!" boys. Who run and kick the block towers down, pull diapers of and run naked, jump on unmade beds pushing what they can on the floor. Then we eat dinner and dishes already in the sink get combined with the new dinner dishes. There could be soccer and this part could start 13 to 14 hours after I left that morning. Then we have baths. Towels, uniforms and dirty clothes added get added to the piles . Melt downs about not watching their favorite shows, forgetting homework at school and not wanting to read happen and some times tempers flare throwing something more on to my floors. Oh yeah and 3 of the 5 still have bed wetting accidents. Two of the five you can never get to bed and are capable to adding more to the work every minute their eyes remain open.

I usually try to pick up as much as I can enlisting the help of who ever I can grab. Laundry gets run every morning and night . Dishes unloaded and loaded in the dish washers every night and ran. Not ever enough. There is so much to do. I can usually get a few loads of clothes folded. Needless to say we need to vacuum, mop, dust clean bathrooms, kitchens and bed rooms. ELIMINATE CLUTTER! and still have time for a bike ride, trip to the park , birthday parties and play dates. Walk the dog? Soccer games and volunteering.




All has to be done quietly. LOL If your guessed it only a fraction ever is complete. Not because we're lazy. Warren with his work and me with the kids and a full-time job our calendars are full and I don't sit much at all.





My window has opened for a major catch up and I'm working it. HARD!!!! Tanner is scared of her room so in addition to the over due I need to flip flop her's and Marysa's room with Joey's.



Warren left to Atlanta on Sunday and will be home Wednesday. In this time I have gone to 2 parent-teacher conferences, had my carpets cleaned, moved 3 beds, 3 dressers, 2 toy boxes, cleaned my main bathroom clean enough to eat in including replacing the old toilet seat, washed 8 loads of laundry and put away, bagged items for goodwill, cleaned the dog house, decorated the yard with ghosts, learned new 4th grade math, sprayed the weeds in the yard with weed killer, trimmed the front bushes, blogged 3 times, replaced knobs in the kitchen. I still have to deep clean the master bathroom and replace the toilet seat, thin out the toys, clean the room Joey moved into from left over girl trash, go to a job interview, move the crib out of my room and put in Joey's, clean my room and relax unless I forgot something. Oh yeah and the kids get out early every day this week. Lucky me. I can do this because I'm not working and who cares how loud the kids get. HA! My sweetheart will come home to a house he can renew some pride in. It's the least I can do.







Monday, October 25, 2010

Mixed feelings, confussion or just motherhood



My daughter...... oh wow is she her own person. Part of me is so happy that she is and the other half is hurt. I can't figure out how my Mom became my best friend if I can't even connect with my little princess some times. I am so old and un-cool. Marysa is 9 3/4 going on leaving my house and starting her own life. She doesn't show me a lot of my baby girl anymore. Somehow I still try and treat her that way. I still want to give her too much explanation so she gets conversations and cut her off when she tries to talk. She's always calling me on it. She doesn't play dolls but she collects stuffed animals, only everything is hi-tech, her animals Webkinz needs a computer to make her animals come alive. My computer isn't even good enough for her. Not to mention the Beiber fever. No clue what I'm going to feel like when there is a real boy and not just a Teen Bop poster boy. I guess my little girl is more diva than I thought. I worry I'm not raising her right. I'm worried that I try to be her friend and the mothering gets in the way and visa versa. I worry what lessons and values she'll take from me into her own life. I have big dreams for her and one day I'll have to give those dreams up and support her dreams she doesn't even know she has yet.
I had her Parent Teacher conference at school today. I always get that feeling like when watching a good tear jerker and hope the teacher can't see it. Marysa is excelling across the board. Reading at a 7th grade level and bringing up wanting to take chemistry classes to become a Vet. The teacher conference was about 10 minutes told me how smart she is and how she is nothing to worry about. I guess my baby girl who won my heart with the first look see gave me is now my responsible wonderful young lady who I am very proud of.

I will follow him


Declan does what Sonny does. Good vs Bad. Sonny is my wild child after all. Luckily Declan does not keep up and is distracted pretty easily.


Now potty training....... ha ha ha. Declan wants to go when Sonny does. Makes things very easy. They both grab there diapers and yell peeing when they have to go. We all run to the potty. Sonny on the big potty, Declan on the small Elmo potty. Sonny usually goes Declan usually just sits.


No number 2 accidents for Sonny for a few months now. He will get lazy from time to time and just pee where he be. Couple of main reasons are the creatures that live in public restrooms, the potty seat is cold or my favorite "I DON'T WANT TO MOM!" Usually when we are at home I have him go any way. He has graduated to vinyl covered training pants. We are on day 3 and it's progressing nicely. This morning again the potty seat was cold and he was not going to use it. We talked about how boys can stand up to pee. That tickled a funny bone and he giggled. Now the challenge was getting him to try. Cheerios targets. LOL he dropped about 60 in the potty so he couldn't miss and couldn't get his body to work. Fifteen minutes of trying and the spring finally broke through. He shoot a stream straight up into the air. WOW! How fun but he needed to reload.


My newest fear........Declan didn't see that. The day is short potty training. How do you explain to a 22 month old a 3 year old is big enough to stand but you really need to sit down. YIKES!