Mom to the Screaming Masses

Oh, the noise, noise noise, NOISE!

At any given time, these are the sounds of my house. Seriously - this is what I'm listening to RIGHT NOW.

• One child singing.  This child is always either singing, humming, or repeating ALL of the lyrics to whatever show she is watching, a split second after the character on tv has said it.  The echo is enough to make you want to hurl.
• John Madden's voice from Madden 08.  Incessant. 
• One child singing along to the iPod plugged into her ears.
• The washing machine.  Always.
• The dryer.  Always - I'd LOVE to line dry, but it plays havoc on the allergies and asthma here.
• The dishwasher.  Always.
• One kid crying.  Just about always.
• Someone is whistling.
• "OMG!!!" from one kid on the telephone.
• Hannah Montana, again.
• Star Wars on the DS - the music was great the first 73 times, but not so much now.
• Screaming. Yelling.  Fussing.  Not all of it from me.

What are the sounds of your house?

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First THING in the morning - a self portrait

I decided to post this on my blog, knowing that I'm taking a chance. But I'm doing it anyway.  I've been following the posts that began on Sweetney, went to Mrs. Flinger and Her Bad Mother, and then spread internet wide.

It's a challenge to avoid the glossing over, the primping and the brushing and everything that we all do to put our best face forward all the time.  Or, you know, to make everyone ELSE feel better, when they see how raw indeed I am in the a.m.

So, here's what I looked like, first thing in the morning, right before I went to the race on Saturday.  I have on NO makeup, haven't brushed my hair, and have had no coffee.  I'm dressed and hooked up with all my running gear - that's the only thing I did to get ready.  Total prep time for this pic?  About 1.75 minutes.  Including putting on my sneakers.  And my wickedly cool Shamrock arm band and entry pinned to my shirt.

So, take the challenge.  What do you look like before the day begins?

But, yeah, it's under the fold, just so that I don't scare any little children.

Out of nothing at all

Both of my boys are involved in Scouting.  My younger son is in Cubs.

Each year, they do this event with recycling and trash and just plain junk.  The boys are given a bag of stuff.  This year, it contained lots of different stuff, including (but not limited to) an empty fruit cup, a 20 ounce soda bottle, a paper plate, metal bottle tabs, paper towel tubes, wires, green construction paper, nails, foam blocks, paper drink umbrellas, a business card, a matchbox car, glass stones, a blue feather, straws, a balloon, and other stuff.  You are supposed to work with your son and create something cool out of this stuff.  You can't add anything, you don't have to use everything, and it must be a work done together - although, lots of times the projects don't resemble anything that grade school kids would be capable of, but, hey, that's just my opinion.

This not being one of my favorite projects - sorry to the CubMaster that reads here, but, hey, whatever - I waited until the last day to do this project.  I mentally grimaced as I dumped out the bag and my kids oooh'ed and aaah'ed.  I looked and looked at the hodge podge of junk and couldn't picture anything. I rummaged through and finally came up with the lamest idea ever - a baseball diamond cut from a paper plate and glued onto the green construction paper, with the metal tabs as bases. 

Whoo.  I am soooo talented. 

And then I looked over where my 10 year old daughter was messing around, and was blown away.  She'd created an entire beach scene, completely unsupervised.   I DITCHED the baseball diamond idea and had my son work with her, and the resulting idea was, to me, amazing.

Oh, Really? I had no idea

When I got home from running this morning - details will be on The Elff Diet later today, after I do the soccer runs - I was really wiped out and decided to make scrambled eggs and Ezekiel bread toast.  My little ones wanted eggs too, and so they helped me crack the shells, whip up the eggs and stir in them in the pan.  Riley added the cheese and put the foil on the pan, and then she watched the clock for the minute I set it, just to melt the cheese.

I portioned them out for the three of us, and took a bite.  Yuummm, heaven.  Riley took a bite and looked at Emma.  "Wow, you can really taste the cheese in these."

She took another bite and added, "And the egg."

Emma looked at her and said, in a bored, can you believe this, put upon patience kind of voice, "That's why they are called EGGS AND CHEESE, Riley."

Survey says!

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Unused Baby names

We all have them.  Names that either our parents were going to use when they named us, but we were either the wrong sex or Mom changed her mind.  For example, my mother says that if I was a boy, I'd have been called Mark. 

One of my boys, up until about my 6th month, was called Liam.  One of my girls was due around the time that Jackie Kennedy died, and I toyed (thankfully briefly) with giving her the middle name of Bouvier.  My entire pregnancy with Emma, we were set on Olivia.  When she was born, I realized that she didn't look like an Olivia, and I told The Hubster that her name was now Emma.  He disagreed, and we discussed for two days, before I finally told him, "I'm the one that signs the birth certificate, so I get to write down what I want, and she's going to be Emma."  I really wanted to name Riley Saoirse, pronounced Seer-sha - one of my favorite Irish names, but it didn't go with my last name.  I also loved the name Ivy, and I was completely distraught that I wasn't able to name any of my girls Josephine.  I mean, is there any name cuter than Josie?

So, what are the names you liked but weren't ever able to use?

************  Hey, can you see a survey over there on the left side?  Can you please take a minute to answer it?  Also, I've got new stuff up over at Zwaggle, and I'd dearly love it if you guys would come and visit me, and leave me a comment so I know you were there!

To Err is Human

To forgive is, apparently, verboten.

I've been pondering over this amazing essay written by Mata and posted at Blogher.

The nature of forgiveness, she writes, can be elusive at times.  Is forgiveness something that erases a past act? What does it mean to forgive and not forget?  Isn't that like not forgiving at all?  Is forgiveness absolute?

Mata is one amazingly insightful woman.  I'd really like it if you all would hop over there and read what she has to say, and tell me your thoughts.  Leave comments there, of course - I am not trying to steal her audience - but I'd like to have a conversation about this here as well.  Like Mata, I don't have the answers - in fact, my record on forgiveness is spotty and weak, and I'm as messed up as all of you.  I'm truly interested,though, in what you think about all of this stuff, especially as we approach Holy Week for Christians and Catholics.

To not forgive is like swallowing slow acting poison, she claims.  How do you feel about that statement? 

About, oh, fifteen years ago, I had an argument with my father.  I was young and made many mistakes - as opposed to old and mistake making me now - and vowed to NEVER speak with him again.  And I didn't - for ten long years.  Any mention of him I avoided, anyone who sent him pictures of my kids was cut off from me, and I was MAD.

For ten long years.  And then one day I grew up.

Do you know the Muffin Man?

This past Sunday, I spent two hours making muffins.  They were all great.  I thought I'd share the recipes here with you. All are low fat, one contains carrots and one is chocolate.

CARROT GRANOLA MUFFINS

Heat oven to 400.  Spray 12 muffin cups with cooking spray.  In a large bowl, mix 1 1/4 cups flour (I used white whole wheat), 2 t baking powder, 1/2 t baking soda, and 1/2 t allspice.  Set aside.  In a separate bowl, mix 1 1/2 cups granola, 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1 cup buttermilk.  (I also added dried fruit.)  Let set for five minutes for granola to soften.  Stir in 2 egg whites (I used 1/2 cup egg substitute), 2 T oil and 1 cup shredded carrots (I also added 1 grated apple.) Spoon batter into muffin cups and bake for 20 minutes or until browned.

PUMPKIN MUFFINS

In a large bowl, mix 4 eggs (Again with the egg sub), 2 cups sugar, 1 cup oil, 2/3 cup water, 8 ounces pumpkin (I used a whole can), 2 t baking soda, 1 1/2 t salt, 1 t cinnamon, 3/4 t nutmeg, 1/2 t ginger, 1/2 t allspice and 1/4 t cloves.  Mix well and then add 3 1/3 cup flour (I used 1/2 white whole wheat and 1/2 white flour) Stir in chocolate chips if desired.  Spoon into muffin papers and top with optional streusel (1 cup oats, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1 t cinnamon and 2 T melted butter) Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

I give UP

I just freakin' give up.

Five long weeks ago, my son sprouted his first cold sore.  (We were so proud!)

During that time, I came down with one, and so did one daughter.  Mine lasted a bit over a week, and so did my daughter's.  His is still here.  It's bigger than ever and ugly looking.  He's been after me for two weeks to go to the doctor, but I thought he was picking at it and annoying it and I told him, "Sometimes, they take a while to go away."  But this one never did.  And so, today, I decided to call the pediatrician.  Which warrants it's own post, which I totally can't write because they read here - hi, how ya doin'? - but I just have one question for you...

Does your pediatric practice ONLY make appointments in order - that is, you can't get an appt at 4:30 (necessary if you get off work around 2 most days and have a school pick up at 3, a carpool counting on your dropping off said child at 3:30 and another school pick up at 4, and then you have to drive alllll the way to the other side of town through rush hour traffic) until every appointment before that is filled?  Am I the only one who thinks it weird that I had to call 6 times, an hour apart to see if they were coming up on the magic time,  to finally discover that, oh, sorry, it's been c-r-a-z-y here and the appointment slots were FILLED and I was only able to get an appt at 4:15, even though I KNEW I'd be late - and I was, too, thanks to a midtown warehouse FIRE and driving like a maniac - oh, wait, I wasn't going to write about this.  Hmm.  Never mind.

New Movie Monday - and bonus music!

I like to watch movies. I make myself watch movies while I'm on the treadmill -  that way, I feel like I've accomplished something.  In fact, I won't finish a movie unless I'm on the treadmill, no matter how good it is.  I've worked my way through most all of the Homicide: Life on the Street and Everybody Loves Raymond, as well as a third of the way through I Love Lucy.  I've also watched various movies, and recently I saw a preview for a movie called The Namesake.  It looked really interesting, and so I put it on my Netflix Queue.  The description reads as follows:                  While he respects his immigrant parents and their decision to rear him in his United States birthplace, Gogol Ganguli is torn between Indian traditions and the modern Bostonian lifestyle. Sounds interesting, right?

It was even better than I thought it'd be. 

Another strong hit for me was Waitress.  You all know that one, right?  Keri Russell plays an abused pie maker who finds herself pregnant.  That one was even better than I thought it'd be, and I thought it'd be good.  Go watch both of those.

And the bonus music alluded to is 1) the new album from Flogging Molly is out, and it's great.  2) I'm thoroughly enjoying Great Big Sea's music that I downloaded last week. And the big #3) have you heard the new group Foxboro Hot tubs?  They are apparently a front for Green Day, and my fav song of theirs is Mother Mary.  Unfortunately, not available on iTunes, but I've been listening to it on YouTube. 

I love music.  I love movies.  Have you discovered any new movies or music?