Shhhhh!

I think some people are just naturally louder than others.

Listen, I'm not really a "quiet person," so I speak with a little experience.

My son is also not a quiet person.  He plods loudly down the stairs in the morning.   He jumps in our bed, generally coughing, sniffling and clearing his throat.  If we weren't awake, we are now.    He proceeds to the kitchen where he drops his vitamin bottle, the lid twice, followed by a plastic cup or plate.

More coughing.

Then he opens the freezer to pull out biscuits or waffles.  Jam the box back in.   Freezer is kinda disorganized, so he place he puts it is too small.  The box falls to the floor.

More coughing.  Protests (loudly) when mom gives him a shot of Delsym.

Stomp back up stairs and shoot a few baskets in the hoop on the back of his door.   Wait, I think he just dunked.   Yes, it definitely sounds like it.

More coughing and sniffling.  And singing.   Bathroom door closes and shower turns on.

Someone just turned around in our cul-de-sac.  Intruder!  Charlie has now started barking like crazy.

All this and still, no sign of Gracie.

In search of the bottom of my desk . . . .

I sat down to clean my desk about 30 minutes ago and it doesn't look one bit better.   Price Waterhouse Cooper--please be aware, the correct Best Picture envelope you are looking for may be hiding somewhere under the piles of school papers, bills and Girl Scout crap. 

Anyway, when things aren't getting better--what do you do?  Procrastinate!  Yes siree, it's time to stop organizing and start blogging. 

Having said that, I'm not sure I have anything profound to blog about. My mind is busy thinking about all the things that I need to accomplish in the next couple weeks.  Girl Scouts, teacher appreciation week, a last-minute "pop up" book fair at the middle school, PTO and of course the usual stuff like getting caught up laundry and cleaning house.  And then there is Lent.  We have been talking a lot about if and how to choose what we are going to give up.   Don't get me wrong, giving up candy and fries would be good for my waistline, but is that really a meaningful Lenten sacrifice?

So these are kinds of thoughts that are keeping me from getting my desk clean.  

That and a sudden urge for french fries.  

Online diet . . . .

I deleted Facebook off my phone last week and it was very liberating.   I try to check it out for a few minutes every morning while sitting at the computer.  Shout out some birthday greetings, "like" few pictures, and check out my FB memories "on this day." 

Not only is this a time saver.  It's a sanity saver.

Y'all, the internet is ugly place.  I beg of you.....stop commenting on every article you see.  If someone compiled everything you posted online, would you be proud?     I promise, you really can read something online and move on.  Especially things posted by people you don't know!   The lack of decorum is stunning.   My 13 year old wants to know why we won't let him on social media. This is why.  Whenever a story is posted about a child being bullied online or posting something threatening or inappropriate, people are horrified. How could they do that?  Where were their parents?

Many of these kids are learning it from their parents.  Or grandparents.  Open your eyes.   Matt came home from school and asked what a "libitard" was.   Apparently it's a kid at schools favorite insult of choice. What are the chance the kid isn't hearing that word at home or from another adult in his life. 

This is not a left/right, Republican/Democrat thing.  It's not a me/you thing.  This is a people thing.  We can ALL do better.

I didn't intend to be preachy here.   Just sharing something I am trying (and inspired by my friend, Amy!).   

Incidentally I learned this morning that on this day in my FB history, 2014 to be exact, Matt won the character award at school for "Courage."   A nice coincidence that Gracie won that same award last week.

Musings from the couch . . . .

This afternoon, as my guys watched football on the porch and Gracie played in the yard, I channel surfed while going through piles of mail and other paper on my desk.   If you know me, you know I have paper management problems, so this is not an uncommon way to spend a Sunday afternoon.  Anyway, I was excited to discover 12 Angry Men (1957 version) on TCM.  This is probably one of my top 5 favorite movies of all time.   Does it look a little odd alongside other movies on the list like The Blues Brothers, Clue, Breakfast Club, and Murder by Death?  Perhaps, but I find incredibly riveting. The movie is largely filled in one room.  Great cast.  No costume changes.  You just feel like a fly on the wall. And maybe you feel just a little bit claustrophobic. 

Again with the claustrophobia!

Anyway, I turned it on today with about 45 minutes left.   Admittedly, all sorting of paper and bills ceased because I was hooked--and of course with TCM, no commercials.   As the jury continued to turn, I found myself with an unsettled familiar feeling, which fully sank in when Juror 10 (Ed Begley) went on his rant about "those people" and how they were all criminals who couldn't be trusted.   This film was made 60 years ago.  Every one of the actors in this film has passed away.  And yet, the bigotry of Juror 10 is still prevalent in our country today.   I wasn't alive in 1957, so I would like to think it is far less prevalent, but still present nonetheless.  

I'm not going political here. I could.  But I'm not.  

And then I really was reminded of the President.  But not the one you're thinking of . . . . but Kid President.  As I think back to Juror 10 and Juror 3 (Lee J Cobb) yelling at everyone in the jury room, I remembered this, "Love is always louder . . . even if hate has a bullhorn."

Oh yeah, and "corn dogs rule!"

The South . . . .

This morning, there was a bad car accident in Lebanon, TN (approximately 25 miles east of Nashville).  The car rolled over several times.  Thankfully, the woman (not wearing a seat belt) and her 2 year old (strapped in a car seat) sustained only minor injuries.

As they covered the accident on the local news, I noticed the location of the accident.

Tater Peeler Road.  Southeast Tater Peeler Road. 

You cannot make this stuff up.  

When "Yankees" generalize the entire south as backward and dim-witted, I suspect Tater Peeler Road fits into their narrative very well.  

5 things I know

Here are 5 things I know . . . .

1.  I hate daylight savings time.  Or is it the end of Daylight Savings Time?  I can never keep it straight.  All I know is as soon as it gets dark, I get tired.   And since that happens at 5:00 pm and the kids have activities after 5 pm on 4 out of 5 school nights, I'm pretty much hosed.

2.  I deleted my Facebook app today. I just can't, y'all.  The world needs more love, and it's not to be found on social media right now.   I congratulate my friends and family who are fans of "the other side of the aisle."   You will never hear me say, "He's not MY President," or any similar comments I've listened to for the last 8 years.  Donald Trump is the President-elect of the United States.  Period. Yes, I'm shocked and sad for more reasons than I could possibly outline here. If you're interested, I'm happy to tell you why one-on-one.   However, the majority of you don't care (which is perfectly fine) and I'm too tired to rant (see #1 above).

3. Fall weather has finally arrived in Nashville.   It's the second week of November, so it's about stinkin' time.

4.  The end of the world might be coming. Not because the Cubs finally won the World Series or because Donald Trump is the President-elect of the United States, but because on Tuesday I took Matthew shopping and he willingly picked out 2 pair of jeans and a pair of pants.   Praise God!  If the world is ending, at least Matthew will be wearing pants that fit.

5.  Charlie got a haircut today.  Before he was stinky and shaggy and now he is sleek and not smelly! That's the good part.  The bad part is that once again, he pooped on the floor at the vet's office, even though he went RIGHT BEFORE WE GOT IN THE CAR.  A quick search of Google tells me Nervous Bowel Syndrome isn't an actual diagnosis, but I'm here to tell you IT IS A REAL THING. The dog shakes like a leaf the minute we walk in the door at the vet and the next thing you know, he's got to go.   Right there.  Right then.

Oh, Charlie.

The early bird . . . .

Do you ever have a morning where you can sleep in, but yet you wake up early, your mind starts cranking and then you can't go back to sleep?

Sure, sleeping in for me only meant 6 am, but I was wide awake at 4:45.  Tried desperately to get back to sleep until 5:15 and then finally gave up.  I should have just gone to the gym.   In the meantime, Charlie has decided he's wide awake, too and it's time to eat (which he does loudly), scratch up a storm (also loud because he thumps around the hardwood floor) and play (yep, you guessed it . . . by loudly running around and growling, trying to get you to engage in tug-of-war).

I suspect everyone will be up early this morning.

In the swing or on the swing?

Today was the first FULL day of school.   

And Matt forgot his lunch. 

I guess that means we are officially back in the swing of things. 

Yet somehow I'm not feeling particularly "in the swing."  I feel more like I'm on a swing, but one that is  going slant-ways, desperately pumping my legs and trying to straighten out.  I can't quite figure out why I'm out of sorts, but I'm trying very hard to get on track.   

What can you do?  Keep pumping.   Keep pumping.

"I love it when a plan comes together!"

I was thrilled to find reruns of the A-Team on FETV last night. Happy memories of Tuesday nights in the 1980s . . . and a lovely distraction from the Republican National Convention being aired on multiple other channels (and yes, I will feel the same way about the DNC next week!).

 In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them....maybe you can hire The A-Team.

Happy Birthday to my Mom!  You are the best!

I'm a little verklempt. . . .

I was quizzing Matthew for a Social Studies test tonight and one of the terms in the chapter was the Holy Roman Empire.

Being a child of the 80s, I laughed and found myself channeling Linda Richman. "The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy nor Roman nor an empire. Discuss."

And because my kid is a child of the 2000s, he stared at me blankly.

Just say no?

We haven't finished up this school year, but it's already apparent to me that my plate is too full for next year.

I'm back on the PTO executive board at Gracie's school (very long story there), plus chairing Book Fair and co-chairing Hospitality.   Over at the middle school, I'm chair of spirit wear and Book Fair.   And then I was asked if I would also co-chair hospitality.   I wanted to.  I love hospitality and doing great things for our teachers, plus the other chair is a super nice lady.  But when I took an honest look at what I had committed to do, I gracefully tried to bow out. 

The response to my "no" was to see if we could restructure some of my other commitments so we could make hospitality work.   Because I'm relatively new to the "no" thing, I said I would see what I could do and get back to them in a couple days.

I'm so weak. 

Over-extended mamas, you understand this problem.   The same 10 people do 90 percent of everything.   Everyone tells you to just should just say no, but if you have an ounce of "people-pleaser" in you, this is easier said then done.   Plus, the person who asks you is undoubtedly one of the other 9 people who do everything, so you can't help but feel like you shouldn't find a way to make it work.

Last night I sat on the floor trying to get things ready for my Girl Scout meeting, while helping the kids study for tests as they tossed field trip and other registration forms at me.   My phone kept beeping that I had an incoming texts and the clothes dryer was on it's 5th bonus "wrinkle care" cycle.  A random bad night?  Yes, but perhaps the reminder I needed to stick to my guns.

Now I have to make the call.  

Monday, Tuesday . . . Friday?

It's Friday?

I'm not complaining, but I'm not exactly sure what happened to Wednesday and Thursday.   Judging my the lack of things crossed off my to-do list, I'm beginning to wonder if I slept through them.

 It's been Spirit Week at Gracie's school, which always makes things interesting.

 There was Mustache Day, where Gracie wore her mustache shirt, necklace and bracelet along with an adhesive mustache (with spares in her backpack).  Looked adorable, but she had some kind of reaction to the adhesive, made worse when the mustaches were pulled off, so she may or may not have been sporting a bit of a pink mustache the next two days while her skin healed.

#ooops  #mustacheday #notforeveryone

Then there was Wacky Wednesday.   A picture says a thousand words, don't you think?

Yesterday was pajama day.  She opted not to participate as it's never been one of her favorites.   Not such a bad thing since most of her jammies aren't exactly school-worthy.  I offered to make a Target run, but she said "no thanks."

Today was hat day.  She put together a cute little outfit and hat when she woke up, but by the time she left for school, it had morphed into a much less cute outfit and hat.   I'd bet a $100 the first outfit is on the floor of her room in a ball.  Given the large amounts of laundry and house stuff I've done this week, I'd be too upset when I went upstairs and saw it with my own two eyes, so I won't even look.

#avoidanceworks  #seenoevil

Speaking of two eyes, we often laugh at how Charlie WILL NOT look at a camera.  I have more pictures of the side of his head or his nose than you can shake a stick at.  It's funny, but yet it's also exceedingly annoying. And the kids wonder why he's not in our family pictures.   I can just see it--two kids looking at the dog (instead of the camera) and the dog looking somewhere else completely.  No thanks.   I saw a post on Facebook recently where someone put a piece of pepperoni on top of their iPhone to make their dog look at the camera. 

Yesterday, I was trying to snap a picture of a doe outside of our bedroom window and the UPS man pulled up (aka "The enemy").  Charlie started barking and I realized this was my chance.  Okay, he wasn't exactly looking AT the camera, but it was in the vicinity, which is better than nothing. 

#Ineedanewhobby  

I'm not sure any of these things adequately answer the question about where the last two days went, but based on the number of loads of laundry done (6), PTO meetings attended (2), extra trips to school (3),  I don't think it was completely wasted.

Just not fun.

All orange and blue cans are not the same

Although both of these cans are blue with orange caps, if you reach in to the cabinet without flipping on the light to grab something to clean up a dog vomit stain in the middle of the night, only one will actually clean the stain.

Shocking, isn't it?

*pun intended*

What say you?

New Year's Resolutions . . . . yay or nay?

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of life changes I need to make, but is there some special value in starting them on January 1st?

I started making a list of "house projects," both big and small, that I want to tackle this year.  Despite not being finished, it's wicked long and quite frankly, a tiny bit depressing.  Feeling overwhelmed before the New Year even starts can't be good, right?

"Pay to the order" of who????

Today I received a check for my car from the insurance company.   And while this is a completely absurd thing to be irritated about, for some reason it really bothered me that the check didn't come addressed to me OR made out to me.

It was to my husband.

To be clear, I was alone in the car at the time of the accident.  Hence only MY name is on the police report.  Furthermore only MY NAME is on the car title that I signed over to them.   His name appears nowhere, except that we are jointly listed on our insurance, who is not in play since I was not at fault in the accident.

Farm Bureau---I was this close to switching to you when I fire State Farm next month.  As ridiculous as it may seem, this may change my mind. 

Things you can count on: Part II

1.  If you need something on Tuesday morning and the tracking says it will be delivered on Monday, your mailman will not only come very late (6:45 pm) on Monday, but he will not have the thing you are waiting for.

2.  The earlier you order your Christmas cards, the later you will send them out.

3.  During the Christmas season, you will find pine needles all over you house, including rooms where this isn't a tree, spray or wreath to be found.

4.  The worst size shoes to wear for boys are 6.5, 7 and 7.5.  Boys shoes stop at 6.  The majority of men's shoes start at 8.   Online ordering is your only hope.  Warning:  See #1

5.  If you hide something in a "safe place" there is a good chance you will not remember where this place is.

6.  If mom is the first to wake up in the morning she will undoubtedly be the last one ready.

7.  Rental cars smell funny.

8. Despite graduating from middle school, high school, college and earning a masters degree, it turns out you may not be that smart.  At least according to your middle schooler.

Promise to be back tomorrow with a better attitude and something more interesting to report.

1 out of 2 wouldn't be bad, right?

Things you can count on . . . .

While generally I think it's good to have things you can count on in life, these 10 truths that have presented themselves over the last 24 hours are not my favorites . . . .

1.  If you put away 10 strands of Christmas lights in January, only 7 of them will work come December.

2.  If you think you have a cavity, you probably do.

3.  If you decide you REALLY WANT a certain Christmas decoration the weekend after Thanksgiving, it will most certainly be extremely difficult, if not impossible to purchase.

4.  Glitter multiplies.

5.  If you order a lot of stuff online, the boxes will arrive on the day your husband gets home before you.

6.  If you don't write something down on your calendar, you will probably miss it.

7.  Vacuum cleaners seem to most need replacing around Christmas and Mother's Day.  

8.  You should apparently never buy in one trip to Target what you can buy in three.

9.   When it rains, it pours.   Inevitably, you will be without your umbrella when it happens.

10.  Sugar-free/light hot chocolate is disgusting

I almost miss the non-stop pictures people used to post of their meals on Facebook . . . .

Seriously, y'all.

Off on Wednesdays. . .

Tomorrow we are off school in honor of Veterans Day.  I keep thinking about strange it is to be off on a Wednesday, and it will make me crazy confused the rest of the week.   This afternoon I told a student I would order an item for them from book fair when we were back on Monday.

I think I meant Thursday.

And while I'm sure I will be confused what day it is on Thursday and Friday, I've now decided it's worth it.  Looking forward to a rare day of leisure with the kids. Although they both have homework, tests to study for and Matt and I have music lessons at night, I'm turning off my alarm, skipping boot camp and am going to sleep in.

I'm sure all the way until 6 am.  Hey, I'll take what I can get!

Thought for the day

12-hour Sudafed ought to consider a name change to "9 1/2 hour Sudafed."

Just a thought.