Mom to the Screaming Masses

Mission Monday: Finally, I post some recipes

Sorry for the delay.  It's been tough for me to find a chunk of time to sit down this week and type out these recipes.

This ties in PERFECTLY with your Mission for this Monday.  Cue the music: Duh, duh, duh duh....

I'd really like to hear some things that you cook that are family favorites. Maybe it's a recipe that you plan to serve for Turkey day this week. (Those of you who live in other countries, like my Australian and European readers,  do you have a comparable holiday to the American Thanksgiving?  What do you serve for that meal?)  Maybe it's a dish that EVERYONE asks for when they eat at your house, or a dish that is requested when you go to a potluck.  Share your recipes with me, pretty please, since I have (finally!) posted the promised crock pot recipes. 

And I'd really like to know, do you like Green Bean casserole?  I can't stand it, but I seem to be in the minority 'round these parts.

Again with the day off

Yesterday was Friday and The Hubster was off from work. I wasn't feeling especially stressed, or out of sorts, or anything, but I had some errands to do and all of them involved shopping.  I wanted him to go with me, but he had some home repairs to do - sigh, when does the man NOT have home repairs to do?  I accused him of TRYING to make up projects just to stay busy, he's that afraid of being still - and so, I just made an executive decision that I was going out by myself.  As in, the two little girls could stay home with him.

My usual MO is to take them with me, to be kind to him so that he can get his projects finished in peace.  No one does that for me, though, and so I decided that it was MY TURN.  The Hubster was agreeable and poof, I was gone.

Drive bys and other forms of entertainment

You know, I had this REALLY good idea for my Love Thursday post.  A really good one, about food, and how much I love it, and I was going to tie in all of the recipes that I'd promised you.  But something happened today that annoyed me, puzzled me, and finally, just angered me so that I felt I had to post it or I'd pop open, spouting anger all over the Internet like a pus filled pimple.

Long time readers of this blog know that my youngest daughter Riley has a mild form of an autistic disorder called Sensory Integration.  SID.  It's a problem that she will always have, to some extent.  She's had a year of therapy and graduated with flying colors.  She no longer exhibits many of the really troubling habits that she once did - no head banging, no biting her fingers until they bled, that type of stuff.  She eats pretty well now and sleeps, neither of which she was doing before we began therapy.

So, she's got a disorder.  A set of letters that could follow her for the rest of her life.  It's a fine line - we want her to have the help that she needs, and not call attention, overly, to her problems.

Flu shots for everyone

Well, not quite everyone.  I didn't get one.  But all of the kids did.

Five of my kids have asthma - to be precise, four of them do and one of them has "reactive airways" - and so every year we go for flu shots.  (I'm not big into vaccines, doing the big ones for each kid, delaying the chicken pox until puberty, and avoiding any that I don't think are necessary.  And yes, I know that many people don't feel that the flu shot is necessary, and can be potentially harmful.  I've done my research and looked into everything that I need to to feel confident, just like you've done for your family.)

I picked up all of the kids from both schools and then dropped the news.  "We are going for flu shots. "  "Groan, moan, NO!"  "After we are finished, I'll take you all to 7-11 and get a treat." 

"Can't we get the treat without the shot?"

Nice try, kid.

The birthday recap

Oh, thank you so much for your well wishes, and your great "stupid Mommy" tricks.  I laughed at all of them, especially at my own.  It's so easy to laugh now, but at the time, I was horrified when all of those accidents occurred.  As I'm sure you all were.

I woke early this morning to hear noises coming from my big girls room and a missing Hubster.  He turned out to be in with them, wrapping gifts for me. (He'd gone to Wal-Mart at 5:30 in the morning.)  Gifts that turned out to be SIX bags - one from each child - and one BOX of candy, despite my declaration from the previous evening that I most emphatically did not want candy.  I do not eat candy.  Or at least, I try really hard NOT to eat candy, since it's apparent that I cannot stop with just one piece.  So now I have six bags in my house.  And a box. 

Topic Tuesday: Stupid Mommy tricks

Kira alerted me to a great post over at The Naked Ovary.  There have been a spate of "Bad Mommy" moments lately, which started off with Karen posting about her baby eating some coins.  She invited her readers to share in her misery by posting their own terrible mistakes, and Kira posted some real doozies.

But, I think I've got a few up my sleeves.

For example, there was the time that I put a 6 week old Nik into the car in the July heat and leaned over to start the car.  I cranked the a/c as I was sitting in the back seat, buckling him into his car seat.  Then I hit the lock button, got out of the car, and slammed the door.  Yikes.  It took The Hubster 30 very very long minutes to get there with the spare keys.  While I was waiting, an elderly woman walked over to me - I was in the mall parking lot - and said to me, in a very friendly voice, "You know, he's going to die in there, and you are going to watch him die as your punishment."

Then there was the time that we let a 15 month old Mackenzie, who was an, um, extremely busy toddler, play with a rosary.  We got it back from her in pieces.  Counting the beads, we realized that she'd eaten 12 of them.  The rosary was put together with metal hooks, and we had to watch her poop for a week.  We found 9 of them and the others, even after an X-ray, never materialized.  This was a week after she drank holy water.  We joke that she has Holy Guts.

Mission Monday: the great snack debate

Soccer tournaments, part one, were held this weekend. Allegra's team did GREAT. 

Two games yesterday - the first was at 9:30 and was a total victory - they won 4-0.  The second game was at 12:30, and they won that game 2-1.  It was a tough game, but they played well.  They qualified to progress to the semi finals today, and the first game was a 8.  EIGHT A.M. on a Sunday morning.  Whoa, was that hard to get to on time.  It was cloudy and cool, and about 25 minutes into the game, a cold front came sharply through and dropped the temperature by 25 degrees. The team played hard and they were able to tie a team that was undefeated from the year.  This put our girls in first place, and sent them to the second level of the semi finals, at 1 this afternoon.  The cold front that came through brought severe storms and flooding, and the second level semis and the finals were cancelled.  The resolution of the tournament is in question, as next weekend, the team is playing in another tournament in another division.

This was one of THOSE days

I was feeling good - the incision didn't hurt at all - and so I decided to be very kind to The Hubster and do his ironing.  The exact same ironing that has been sitting on the couch for two days, waiting for someone to get some ambition and get it done, already. Today I decided that I would be that person.

The little girls were playing and I was ironing, and all was calm.  I looked up at one point and noticed that Riley had on different pants, and they were not her pants.  Not a big deal; she and Emma change clothes more than three times a day. The pants were wet.  That is a big deal.  Wonder why that is?  "Hey, Ri, what's up with your pants?  Where's your diaper?" I asked, cool and calm like.  "Emma said I poddy twained.  I wear her pants."  Um, no you don't.  The wet pants are clearly evidence that you are NOT poddy twained, so get in here.  Emma came around the corner and stood in front of me with her hands on her hips, visibly annoyed.  "I said she could, Mom.  I'm in charge.  I'll make sure she gets to the potty." 

"Well, you are CLEARLY falling down on the job.  Ri, come over here and get your diaper on."  I grabbed a cloth diaper and two pins and had her lay down on the floor.  As I was lowering to the ground, I noticed that my leg was hurting just a wee bit.  Emma took her little attitude and stomped back into the kitchen. Riley's gotten a bit chunkier than her former twiggy build, and the diaper wasn't fitting the correct way, and so I unpinned the first side again to adjust it.  As I did so, a faint sound from the kitchen penetrated my brain.  It sounded like, but I knew that there was no way it could be, a waterfall.  "Emma, what are you doing?"

The crankiest child

My son Gabe is having a tough time right now. 

Every day this week at afternoon pickup, as soon as he gets in the van, he's cranky and crabby.  He yells and screams at everyone and bursts into tears regularly. At first, I thought maybe he wasn't feeling well.  After all, I've got a cold.  Mackenzie has a cold.  He could have a cold and feel under the weather, right?  He did have a migraine while at school today. 

Today was especially difficult.  Mackenzie was supposed to pick him up on her way out of school and bring him to the van.  Same as every day.  Today she appeared at the van sans Gabriel.  She said he never came out of school.  Hmmmm.

The most exciting words in the world

Sitting on my butt requires that I watch a LOT of television.  Most of it has been of the Nick Jr/Noggin variety. It's like Preschool on TV.  Hey, what can I say.  I'm easily amused and it keeps the little girls quiet.  There are some things that I've noticed over the past two days.

Why is the only character in Franklin with a name the turtle?  I mean, why is the bear called Bear and the rabbit called Rabbit, and the turtle is called Franklin? 

How much fun would it be to be on The Upside Down show?  And what if workplaces were just as they show in the Noggin commercials, complete with pie graphs and singing theme songs in the elevator?  Steve and Joe always have too much fun on Blue's Clues, and Dora makes me crazy.  Don't even get me started on Diego.  I'd give my left leg to see Mama Bear lose her patience on Little Bear, just once. 

But, the strangest thing in the entire world today was the commercial that asked, "Once upon a time.  Are there any more exciting words in the world?"

Um, yeah.  I can think of a few.