No. Really.

I'm cold.


At last!


Great God Almighty, I'm cold at last!!!!!!!!


Yeah, summer was fun. Well, it was OK. Alright here are a few things I like about summer:

• I do tend to enjoy sleeveless tops
• Not having to struggle with coats in carseats.
• Sitting in front of a fan
• Seasonal fruits and veggies.
• Sleeping in

ummm...I'M THINKING!!!

• OK. Flip-Flops and Birkenstocks...I could live in them.
• Barbecued chicken, cheese potatoes and corn on the cob. The perfect meal.
• The first 2 weeks of having the kids home is always fun.

Alright enough of that.... I am sure there are a few things I forgot. But the truth is: I am a WINTER personality. I love being holed up in the house when there is/are (I can't think right now) 6 inches of snow blocking the driveway, baking cookies with the kids and watching them sled down the hill. I love the way the pine trees look covered in snow. I love how it makes the world look clean again, just for a little while. I love a cold, wet, sleety day when I am alone with a pot of soup on the stove, one of my favorite cardigans on, hot coffee in my pink mug, glasses on, hair a mess, working on something...probably blogging. I love turtleneck sweaters and did I mention I am a virtual collector of cardigans, shawls and other knitted stuff? Love it. I like when it is so cold in my house that there is a fire in the fireplace and I still have to wear a scarf inside. I love my LL Bean slippers! (I need a new pair!) I love the fires Scott builds out in the back yard and the ones that will burn inside all winter long. I love the smell of the cold air and the pine first thing in the morning when Scott has to get up and throw salt on the hill so I can get the kids to school. I love watching the dog frolic in the snow. I LOVE Halloween! Pumpkins, casseroles, pies and baked goods, hot cider and hot cocoa with marshmallows. I love boots. I am learning to love hats. Don't even get me started on Christmas! I love that my allergies will retreat and my cat will sleep all winter long on my bed without ever once making me scoop a little box. ahh....

Well, you get the point, right. I really love cold weather...sort of like how much most of you love summer. I could not be happier for the approaching early fall weather!

Oh! one last thing before I sign off. This is my blog, so if you don't like this, take a hike. But I had to show one thing I do NOT like, just so you all don't think I am blogging only about the good stuff. Life does happen, it's just that here, I can CHOOSE not to let the icky in. If I want to, but today here is a shot of ICKY:I decided to leave it all wonky to hopefully disguise it to protect the innocent but seriously, who told you to let your kids read this anyway? LOL

I'm going back under my blankets to dream of snow. :)

Bedtime Stories

Yesterday we had our first 1/2 day, followed by a McDonalds lunch and a nap. :) Today the boys are in school all day while the Kindergartner (I am thinking of changing her name to some variation of the word "mule" after the report I got from the Kindergarten teacher. Any suggestions?) has the day off. I am really looking forward to tomorrow because I was thrilled by how quiet the house was yesterday. I am not a woman who fears silence. In fact, I crave it! ...but I guess that's no surprise with 4 kids, 2 parents, a dog and a cat. :)

So right now I am sitting with the little man while he dozes off to dreamland. I have to say, as crazy as our life can get, it is still one of my favorite things to do: watch them drift off. I always sit in the room with the little ones and wait... Sure, there are plenty of more productive things to do, but none more important to me. It is such a sweet, intimate thing to be with someone at that moment...*sigh*. And it, like so many of the moments we parents get, is fleeting. My 10 year old would throw shoes at me if I told him I wanted to sit in the room with him while he fell asleep. My 8 year old would giggle wildly! Once in a great while, the 4 year old will still curl up with me (especially if daddy is out late for some reason). But, usually it is just me and the baby. Once he drifts off, that's when I really get down to business! It is a race against time to get all the work done, or sometimes try to create a quiet cocoon for that short time when I can sit alone and hear the dust bunnies roll.

So lately I have discovered the coolest thing ever. Do you feel like you read the same books over and over and over again? Well, youtube has some great semi-animated classics you can put on and give yourself a little break. Our faves are Goodnight Moon, read by Susan Sarandon and The Very Hungry Caterpillar read by some British dude. They are just like reading the book with just a touch of animation. He LOVES them! So when he is creeping around the crib like the woman from the Yellow Wallpaper, I can put that on (while he is still in there, mind you!) to settle him down and get him ready for the big moment. 3-2-1 ...drift-off!

The UNQUOTABLES

My son just came up to me and said "Fate is a cruel mistress. She made me drink dog urine."

WTH???
He is 8.

I just stared at him. How do you respond to THAT?

Let's just hope that was a line from Sponge Bob.

Labor of Love

If I wasn't such a perfectionist, this probably would have taken like an hour..or two. As it is, I have worked and reworked. Finally...the rush! That's how you know you are finished. You artsy fartsy types will understand. I used a template from Jessica Sprague and elements from Jessica's Sweet Nothings (sorry no addy for them...different Jess...) and Designs by Marcie. I hope I got all the links right.

Now...how long will it take me to finish the rest of the birthday book? This is only page 1!
ack!

How important is spelling to you?

I'll admit I have issues.

Lately I am really into creative punctuation. (I am sure I am driving some of you nuts with it!) But I like it. fragments, phrases, ellipses galore... it all feels so stream of consciousness...so realistic, that I find it irresistible sometimes!

Many of my friends are into the non-capitalization thing as well...probably brought on by the hassle of capitalizing while texting. It is so much easier to skip it...aren't we all in a hurry? I know I am!

Maybe it is a sign of my age (I learned to type on an actual typewriter!) or maybe I am just too stuffy, but I cannot stop capitalizing. Even when I try to stop, I catch my self hitting the shift button! At the same time, though, I GET it. I can see why you might skip it and it doesn't really bother me either way.

But what about spelling? I saw an ad this morning that said

• I am having a rummage sale. Lot of stuff. cheep cheep cheep!

My thoughts were like this: idiot! then to myself: oh that's terrible. Anyone can make a mistake.

This is how it goes...me judging people who cannot spell. I admit it. I do. Every email I get when a person uses there for their makes me want to bust out my red pen and return to sender all marked up.

Actually I am pretty forgiving on the spelling of words that do not have homonyms. So if you misspell surprise (like I do all the time)...it doesn't faze me. But if it PHASES you. I am annoyed. If you accidentally insert European spelling when listing the colours in your crayon box, no prob! You probably don't even realise you are doing it.

So maybe it is the grammarian in me. (at least I think there must be a tiny bit of her left in there somewhere between the top 10 reasons to breastfeed and the phone number for the pediatrician!)

Still, it is a tricky position to be in...putting yourself so high and mighty above the writing skills (or whatever) of others. Now I have to watch my every step or I look like a hypocritical idiot. I know. Once I said out loud how disgusted I was that the sign at Wal-Mart said HARDY MUMS instead of HEARTY MUMS. Later I found out I was the dummy. Ooops! How foolish I must have looked! So while I am still annoyed, I guess the lesson is to keep my mouth shut. Or... I could take the position that the person having that rummage sale might not be so smart and therefore may have drastically under-priced items... LOL

I will try to control my urges to edit and face the facts that I, too am a little rusty. Goodness knows it has been a while since I have written a paper for a grade or *gasp* a JOB!!! I would not be surprised to learn that some day when I am bloging I end up typing in the lines from the Dora theme songs which runs on a never-ending loop in our house.

All this leaves me curious: am I the only one? Do spelling and grammar errors bother you? Which ones really get to you? Or are you afraid to admit it? :)

Thursday

I am trying not to focus on the negative today. Sick kids, BIG BROTHER tracking the fact that I bought cough syrup for my kid...

So I have decided to share a couple of things that put a smile on my face.
Be Pure Mineral Lip Balm by Jane is what I am carrying in my bag this summer...and fall. It is like a silky smooth chapstick with the slightest hint of color. I love it because I am not a lipstick girl on most days (I know, it's coming back in style!). This has just enough color to perk you up without looking made up. No one will ever know you have it on. Love that! (under $3!!)

Colgate has come out with a new product that makes me giddy. Yes it's true: I LOVE to brush my teeth. And if I arrive at school to find out my boys skipped this important step ONE MORE TIME, I will scream. But now I don't have to. Wisps are teensy little individual disposable toothbrushes that are pre-filled with a dab of Colgate toothpaste. There is also a little toothpick on the end, so you can get fresh teeth on-the-go! Love it!! (only about 50 cents per brush!)

That's all I have time for today.....

Monday, Monday.

...Can't trust that day....

Today seems to have delivered quite a mixed bag. This can happen with 4 kids.
Ian got up waaaay too early. Once the coffee started, I decided to forgive him and get moving. :) So we did. I checked my email and had notes from 2 old schoolmates. What a delight!

Last night, Ian seemed to have pulled a muscle in his leg and did not want to walk. In my experience these sorts of injuries tend to result from accidents on the slide, so I'm going with that theory. Although my superstitious side compelled me to call out all the deadly diseases whose symptoms involve a lame or sore leg. (see title of blog.) This morning, he refused to put weight on the leg at all until the Dora theme song started, at which time he broke into a full-on dance on top of my bed. It's a miracle!

Did I mention I have a hideously busy week coming up? School supplies, uniforms, doctors visits, babysitters, AND Scott and I will have a booth Thursday at the World Breastfeeding event at the Zoo. What usually happens (Murphy's law) when I overschedule is that the kids will come down with Swine flu or whatever is going around that year and I will get stuck in the house completing NONE of the assigned tasks. (This is exactly why I keep a bookshelf stocked with unread books.) :) Let's cross fingers. We really want to do the Thursday thing and I need to get moving on my back to school activities.

So today we decided to just pick-up. No real cleaning. I had the grand idea of having the kids pick up every Beanie Baby or Little Petshop, Lego, etc on the floor of each room and set them in a pile in the center of the room, at which time, we will decide to "put it away" or "throw it away". So creative of me. :) That's never the problem. It's the management that kills me. Why don't they require all people of reproducing age to get an MBA first? J/K

...fast forward to it's 12:30 and the bedrooms are not even done to my satisfaction. The boys did get their job done that their dad gave them, but here I am..not much farther along than when I got up this morning. And you wonder why I sip Liquid Satan (coke) all day long! It could be SO much worse!

I guess it is a good thing my kids are so darned lovable. My job would be totally unbearable if they weren't! So I'll feed them, and keep pluggin away at the laundry. And go to dinner and have a blast with my old friends tonight knowing I got virtually no where today. Oh well. As Scarlett says: Tomorrow IS another Day!

And in case you are wondering how I found time to blog on such a busy day, here is the answer: MULTITASKING! (noodles are boiling, washer running, I am singing to the baby.) Yes, I am just that talented!

Happy Monday!