Mom to the Screaming Masses

A Snapshot of My Afternoon

Confession: I'm kind of a control freak about putting things back where they belong. I nag and nag about it - put your shoes on the shelf! Hang up your coat! Put your uniform on the hook! - but, hello, with 8 people in the house - I don't have time to help you find your coat/hat/shoes/belt/special favorite pencil. That's a common refrain, heard oh so often around these parts - I'm sorry that you cannot find YOUR stuff. Please put it away where it goes and you won't have this trouble.

Case in point: uniforms for Muay Thai. When we come in the house every Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday, I say the same old tired refrain: Go INTO the laundry room. Remove your uniform. Hang up your belt.

If it needs to be washed, I will wash it. Just put it on the hanger and for the love of God, hang UP your belt. If you forget YOUR belt, you are doing the pushups from the instructor - not me.

Multiple Links for Your Reading Pleasure

(sorry - the quality is ghastly. Why not pick up your own copy?)

I am in the April issue of Redbook, discussing if we should put our children on diets. Please do not send me hate mail, saying that I'm a terrible person because I answered yes. I am not a believer in diet plans, diet drinks, or weight loss camps for kids. What I AM a believer in is keeping an eye on your kids body. I know that bodies come in all shapes and sizes and that kids go through cycles of weight gain and then gain height. What I say in the article is that if you notice your child getting heavy, add some extra exercise - and join them. Make it fun and keep an eye on portion sizes. And I say this as a mom with 6 kids who has kids that are thin, active, and have had episodes of being heavy, being too thin, being obsessed with weight and not eating enough. I've run the gamut.

I'm pleased to announce that I am the Family Meals Blogger for The Parenting Connection. I will be blogging once a week on topics that deal with feeding your family healthy, enjoyable, delicious meals - and dealing with all of the trauma that surrounds said issues. I have my first post up and I'd really appreciate some feedback - and some questions, so I know which direction to take my next post!

I'm writing for Cafe Mom in the Raising Athletes area. Come and visit - I've got a couple of posts up - How to Balance Sports and Kids and Feeding Your Athlete Without Draining Your Wallet, and Kids,Spring Tryouts and You.

I'll be co-host a live-blogging class in TheMotherhood.com called Managing the Anxiety Often Associated with Food Allergies on April 5th at 1:00 pm ET. If you deal with food allergies, I'd love to have you join us. (If you don't, but still want to join us, that'd be awesome as well...)

I think that's it. :)

OH! If you need a yummy dinner, check out Paige's recipe for Mexicali Meat - this was absolutely delicious and other than the fact that my two little ones cried when they were served it - because IT HAS BEANS, MAMA, AND I DO NOT EAT THE BEANS - and one girl cried so much that she gagged - everyone loved it. Even the criers decided that it was good. I served it on tortillas with cheese and a chopped mix of avocado/tomato/lime. Sides of sliced fresh mango, sliced fresh pineapple and carrot sticks.

Growing Up is Hard To Do

Mir wrote a fantabulous post over at Off Our Chests. Seriously. It was a thing of beauty unlike any that I've ever read, and it really spoke to me as a mom of teenagers.

Today I took my 16 year old to the doctor for her check up. Between the hilarity of a teen who had an inappropriate undergarment choice, flashing me numerous times as she cavorted - for there is really no other word to describe her actions - a discussion about how unprepared she was for her "physical" because she thought she was merely having a "check up", and her startled realization that she'd forgotten to shave her legs - it was an unsettling visit.

Sure. There was the requisite 3 day old baby - not mine - to admire, the toddler to be happy I'm no longer chasing - but the 16 year old appointment remains a stumbling point for me.

Laughter Through Tears is My Favorite Emotion

do you need a Mother's Day gift or an Easter gift? My cousin has a new venture and I think it's awesome!

Last night, after the little girls were in bed, my husband and Gabe decided to play a game of Wii frisbee. Gabe is really good at Wii frisbee and so this is a challenge to my husband. While they were playing, I cleaned up the kitchen, and Nik and Allegra were in the kitchen cleaning up along side me  getting in the way. Nik put his music on his phone, in order to inspire me to clean harder. Note: he was most emphatically NOT helping. He was hindering.

The song was Boom Boom Pow. Black Eyed Peas. Nothing wrong with a little BEP, and it's a good dance tune, yes? We all know it's easier to clean with good music on.

(What's really funny is that when my first kids were younger, I was MUCH more strict with music. I didn't let ANYONE listen to anything that could be remotely racy. Thus, we all listened to Barney and The Wiggles and such. It's amazing how much your life changes when you have grown kids and almost grown teens in your house.)

I do spend an AWFUL lot of time saying things like, "Turn that down! I don't need your sister going to Catholic school singing THAT!" and "Don't teach your brother to say THAT!"

One Descriptive Word

This week, I've been described by two different people using a one word description. Both of the people in question were medical professionals.

One described me at "Practical".

One described me as "Patient".

The more I think about it, I agree with Practical and not so much with patient.

What one word would you say does or does not describe you?

So, About That Timeshare Presentation...

About a month ago, my husband and I had a heart to heart conversation about bills, income and expenses. We talked about clubs that the kids attend, classes that we take as a family, and summer plans. While we were discussing this, I mentioned that I'd need to determine how to pay for an airline ticket to San Diego this summer for Blogher. I also wanted to fly to Texas to visit my dad - Nik wants to go this summer and I was thinking about joining him.

About a week after this conversation, my husband told me to clear the calendar for the next day - Friday evening. Apparently, he'd received a phone call to listen to a timeshare presentation. He'd been promised two free round trip airline tickets to anywhere in the US as well as a $100 gas card. He was so, so excited to be able to help me out with this.

I was skeptical. I'm ALWAYS skeptical. But I thought about it and figured, hey, we know how to resist high pressure sales - we've been to these things before, and if I could get at least one airline ticket - well, that'd be more than I already had, yes?

Don't EVER deal with Kings Creek Plantation, Williamsburg Virginia. Parent company Grand Incentives, based out of Florida.

Thursday, 10 p.m

Chopping down the inbox...

Thursday, 9:00 p.m.

If you make it artsy, it still isn't fun.

Thursday, 7 p.m.

Thursday, 5p.m.

Hour one of Four. Thursdays - and Tuesdays and Saturdays - are long, long days.