Laughing Until It Hurts

I love belly laughing. I love laughing until I cry. I love laughing until I can't breathe. I love laughing until I have to pee. It's the best feeling in the world. (Ok, how could crying, not breathing, and needing to pee be the best feelings in the world?) Whatever it is, it makes my mind and body happy.

I was thinking this morning how fortunate I am that my kids truly laugh at things. Silly things like Sponge Bob or Chris Farley. They could be in the living room or basement while I'm in the kitchen, but when I hear them spontaneously laughing at something, I can't help but laugh out loud myself.

I wish people and things were funny all day.

Milk and Cookies

My munchkins were in the kitchen last night as I was sitting on the couch in the living room. I can't see the kitchen from my couch, but I could hear the microwave hum and then the refrigerator door open and close.

Then I heard the seven year old say to the nine year old, "Michael, I love you...you're the best brother...". I turned around and realized Michael had heated a homeade chocolate chip cookie (cookies that he had made the night before) and poured a glass of milk for his little bro.

It was enough to make me wonder who those kids were and what they did with mine.

I'm Back on Top

It's so quiet right now, I can hear my dogs swallowing while they sleep. Kinda gross...

Everyone is in bed early tonight except me. It's only 9:30 pm. I've spent way too much time on Facebook today. Thanks alot CDJ. Now I'm hooked. There is way too much to play with. (BTW, I've started looking at your Friends and Family list to see how far down I am. It sorts itself by how long ago your people have posted, you know. Well, if I get to far down the list, my competitive nature compels me to blog whether I have anything to say or not just to get back towards the top.)

Anyway, before I became consumed with this new time-eater-upper, I helped the 9 year old finish up his book report poster whatever thingy. It looks pretty good...like a 9 year old did it with his mom standing over him.

Well got to get back to the new hobby. It probably won't last long. Nothing for me ever does. The newness (?) always wears off and then there are just chores to do again.

Quiet Your Mind

I was reading in a 2nd hand copy of More magazine last night about sitting in silence without any technological distractions...letting your mind meander and relax. I've been doing that for a few minutes this morning. Very peaceful. All I hear are the snaps and buttons hitting the inside of the dryer and the hum of the refrigerator...and concrete trucks driving up and down as they build another house up the street.

Outside we are having another beautiful weather day. The sky is blue, the temperature will get up in the 70's. A perfect day for after school football and soccer practices.

Hope everyone is having a good week. Have some quiet time...it's good.

Friday Night and It's Alright

Isn't my title so cute...all rhymy and stuff?

It's 9:30 here and I mentioned to the husband that I wished I had some home-made (?) icecream, and guess what? The icecream maker is whirring away. Four ingredients to happy, happy, happy.

Busy day today. Got up with a headache and stuffy nose so I took 2 Excedrin, 1 Sudafed, and 1 Alevert. I'm hoping to head off whatever it is I'm heading off. After that I was good. I took the kids to school; everyone had their backbacks today, yea! I went to the Y. I didn't have quite as much energy as I would have liked, but I made it through the 33 minutes on the eliptical. I ran home at 9:00 am to shred chicken that was in the crockpot, take a shower, and then run back to school with the chicken for a teacher's appreciation lunch. Met friends for lunch at a newly opened neighborhood spot; ran home for Taekwando stuff and hockey registration. Went back to school for kid's plus kid's friends; took kid to Taek for Poomse practice; took other kid and friends to mall for snacks; picked up Taek kid and went home; got dinner ready and fed 4 kids and two adults. And now I've been sitting on my butt on the computer for a couple of hours at least.

Fox news is yammering on TV. I don't mind Fox news from time to time, but it's Friday nite for crying out loud!

At least I've got icecream coming. It's all good.

Today

I'm sitting here trying to not let myself go take a nap. I just got back from working out at the Y on the eliptical (BP 112/87 and pulse was 154 bpm when I was done) and then breakfast with friends.

I need to clean the upstairs, but hard to get motivated. I also need to put in a load of clothes, straighten the kitchen from breakfast, do filing in my office and declutter, and work on a website page. But I'm tired and a little sweaty, and I just don't feel like any of it. I pick up the kids in 2 hours. Could I get it all done before that? Probably most if I really kicked it in gear. After school the 6 year old has taekwando and hockey signup and I need to make the pork chops. Need some music on. Maybe that will get me going.

Ok, the dish network channel is called Sirius Big 80's. We'll see. I'm still sitting here. Both dogs are napping at my feet. Ugh, I don't like this song much. Next channel...ooo, here's one with a dance beat...my feet are tapping...gonna go clean a toilet, yea!

This and That

Ewww...I just had to kill a hobo spider in the basement hallway on my way to my computer. This is how I have to begin?

Anyway, it is hot here. Very un-northwest rockies hot...like 100 degrees. So I am gratefully downstairs in my cool basement on the computer...along with the hobos. Actually, I don't have another choice since DH took his laptop to North Dakota. How rude.

The kids had swimming lessons every morning this week through Thursday. And I have been busy catching up this week after our vacation. I did do a couple of loads of laundry Monday and Tuesday, but I spent the rest of those days catching up on rest. My body was beat up and tired. At the lake, I spent a lot of time entertaining Michael (9) since he did not live at the horse barn like Jonathan (6) did. This entailed running (literally) around a field catching bugs to fish with, then fishing which meant putting bugs and worms on hooks to taking fish off of hooks (none of my family were willing, not even DH - thank goodness my grandpa took me fishing as a kid and made me bait my hook and unhook my catch), watching him swim, taking him out in kayaks and fishing boats, and playing cribbage. In the midst of that, I jumped off the tower 3 times over the week, water skied once, and tried 4 times to get up on a wakeboard. From the wakeboard, I ended up with tons of bruises all over my knees and legs. The ones on my knees are just now going away. I also accompanied Jonathan (6) on two of his many horseback rides that week. And then there is all the walking and running back and forth to the room, barn, or lake to get forgotton towels, cameras, bugspray, whatever. Anyway, I took a vacation from housework when I got home.

But by Wednesday I kicked it into gear. I think I've gotten most of the laundry done and put away as well as most of the Weekly Home Blessing Hour done (Flylady). The WHBH takes more like 3 hours so I divide it up now over 3 days or so.

Thursday I got to see my nurse midwife for a "girl" checkup. I think while in the office, I ended up with a ruptured ovarian cyst again. It came on suddenly, and I left with the same intense pain in my right abdomen that I had in January. I went home, napped and took two courses of the prescription Aleve they gave me in January and the pain was pretty much gone in 24 hours. And I still got my chores done on Thursday and Friday.

Saturday morning I was going to get up early and pull weeds before it got hot. Instead I spent the morning buying replacement irrigation heads and installing them. Four were easy...just unscrew the top and screw a new one on. One I had to dig the huge thing up and replace the entire unit. I was actually sweating from my forehead, and down my back and legs. I still ended up weeding although it was after noon. I wasn't too picky. If it was big I grabbed it, if it was little, I'll get in next time.

I also finished two books this week. One of them was "The Shack" by William P. Young (Christian fiction) which I started at the lake (CDJ - I wanted to read this after you blogged about it. This book was interesting and made me think outside my little "Baptist understanding of God" box. And while part of the middle seemed to move a little slow for my taste, I really enjoyed the chapter entitled "Verbs and Other Freedoms". This chapter spoke to me where I am at this point in my journey...trying to understand what it means to be free in Christ and living in the Spirit with joy and peace vs. living according to my understanding of Biblical rules and laws I have been taught and living in fear of judgement. I also liked the example of responsibily vs. the ability to respond, and expectation vs. expectancy.)

So that's that.

June and July

Well winter finally passed and summer finally arrived (physically, spiritually and emotionally). We have had a wonderfully peaceful and playful summer.

The kids have been involved in various camps and activities. Jonathan (6) got to restart Taekwando, went to basketball camp, and was in a Children's Theater play called "Johnny Appleseed". He was an appleseed. Michael (9) went to football camp, YMCA Broken Arrow camp, YMCA golf camp, and YMCA Mission to Mars camp. Both kids were taken to the pool too many times to count as well as to parks, on hikes, and day trips to lakes by the best mom ever.

The whole family just got back from a week up at a dude ranch preceded by a quick trip to a wedding in a neighboring state where Jonathan (6) was the proud snagger and now owner of the bride's garter. (That's a lot of "..ers", CDJ. Noticed that just for you...oh, and look at all the "..allys" and "..ullys" in the first paragraph. Now that I read that in your blog, I can't get away from seeing this stuff everywhere.)

I've eaten way too much this summer. The theme song for the "Pullups" commercial keeps marching through my head ("I'm a big girl now..."). Gotta cut back, but there are no regrets. Food was good.

The kids start two weeks of swimming lessons tomorrow and then school starts the next week on August 27th. Yes, I know swimming lessons should come before all the trips to the pool and lakes, but at least they are getting them.

This summer I've started on two projects, making dinners almost every night using the E-mealz.com menu system and getting my house decluttered and cleaned using the Flylady.net system. Both have helped me overcome some (and I say some) of my poor planning and organizational skills. Baby steps, as fly lady would say...

Anyway, more later.

Merry Christmas!

It has snowed off and on today...in mid-June. We are expecting a low of 33 tonight, highs in the 40's today and tomorrow. They are forcasting 2 inches of snow on the valley floor and 5" in the foothills. We live between the two so I guess we get about 3"? I brought my pots into the garage. Thank goodness they are the only annuals I put out this year. And that was just last week.

Here's a picture from the other day off our deck:

New camera, yea!

I finally got a new camera. Perhaps it will work for me this time. The last two cameras I had both didn't work after a few months.






Today was the first day of summer vacation. I didn't get up until 8:00 am. After breakfast, I took the kids and met a couple of friends at the Y around 10:00 am. Then we ended up with one of their friends here most of the day. They tried to play outside between rain showers, otherwise they played a little xbox, with the nerf guns, and with the Erector set. It seemed a little crowded in the house with them running around inside.

Writing Just to Write

I didn't cry at church for the first time since the end of February. So I'm ready to move on from that.

Tomorrow I have a follow up with the doctor I saw for a high heart rate. I'm prepared to convince him that I don't need the medication that he put me on. He was hoping it would take care of both my heart rate and migraines. Well, it seemed to lower my heart rate, but it didn't touch the headaches. But I think it was making me have even less energy, be more tired, and more depressed. I don't need all that, even if my heart rate is a little high.

Michael (8) got up this morning and got little brother's and his breakfast ready on his own without being asked. Wow, I like having older self-sufficient kids. It fits right in with my selfish, lazy lifestyle.

The sun is finally coming out again. I definitely think it affects my mood when it is gone. I may need a second home in a sunshine state to visit at will.

I signed up for E-mealz.com a couple of days ago. I'm so excited because I spent no time stressing over what was going to be for dinner tonight. I made potato salad earlier and will throw the main course together in a bit. This is awesome. Hopefully, we will save some money from not eating out.

Hello. I'm still here.

It's been awhile. Lots has happened. I've had to recover from some of it. I think I'm still recovering. I still feel sadness and some anger. I cry alot. (Mom, I'm not saying I'm depressed...yet...so I don't need the lecture.) I hope writing will help.

There are only 3 1/2 more days of school next week. I can't decide if I'm happy or sad. Happy that I can get up at leisure for the most part instead of with an alarm. Sad that I will have to think more about meals and our daily schedule (I'm so lazy, huh).

The kids have various things they are signed up for peppered throughout the summer. Other than that, we will just roll along until next school year. We just got back from the south and no more trips are scheduled. We will swim and maybe do some camping. Hopefully I can help them not watch too much tv or play too much xbox. But that means I need to plan. But I'm lazy. So we'll see.