frustrated!!

I do not know how much more I can listen to the little one's jabbering!! I love hearing him talk and think out loud, but there gets to be a time when he starts making noises and whining instead of talking just to hear his own voice or just not fall asleep...and it is now making me nuts. I tried TWICE today to get out of the house alone, and both times he decided to accompany me. Okay...I love him. So off we went, and we had good times, but I really needed to get out alone...
or at least be with some adults (and btw, a friend invited me over to write during their lan party...)


And then D took off with his friend to catch a late movie.


Garrgh!!

How Misanthropic are YOU

Apparently I am quite...83% and on the verge of becoming a super-villian who thinks people are a disease. I do not! I just think most of 'em are rather stupid....

http://www.blogthings.com/howmisanthropicareyouquiz

whatever

Which Muppet are YOU?

http://www.blogthings.com/themuppetpersonalitytest/outcome.php



I thought fer sher I was going to be Miss Piggy...nope. I am :


You Are the Swedish Chef "Bork! Bork! Bork!"
You are happy and energetic - with borderline manic tendencies.No one really gets you. And frankly, you don't even get you.But, you sure can whip up a great chocolate mousse.

Oh yeah! I rock!!

D is back! Whoo hoo!

D has returned from e3 2008 and it appears to have been a success. He made friends with people from England and Russia (I swear he just wants to leave me and go backpacking with those guys...sleep on their couches so he can see their countries..) He was interviewed by many websites and magazines and even got to see his best bud, R.

One of the guys he met is one of those responsible for the Lego series of games (which A & G adore). Dave brought back little Batman Lego people (Robin & Harley Quinn) for the boys and both are quite happy. They won't let go of the toys. Very cute.

The Russians were interviewing D for a website. And D, who took 2 years of Russian in college (had to fill out a form for the CIA and everything), said Thank You in Russian...so the guy started talking to D. And, kind man that he was, asked D if he could read the writing on a little box that they guy was holding. D replied "It's some kind of chocolate." and the beautiful Russian man gave D the bar of chocolate and said "It's yours."... Hah! It's MINE!! Bwa hahahaha Thank you kind Russian man. спасибо Lordy I hope that's right...

Glad to have the big guy home again. Being a single parent sucks when you are used to having a partner around. I have great respect for anyone who raises children alone. Congrats. You are all better parents than I could hope to be. A few days is one thing, but for months, years at a time? Yoinks.

Our Financial Turnaround

We have decided to stop living paycheck-to-paycheck and start ACTUALLY putting money away. A good idea considering that the Feds estimate that everyone will outlive their savings at the rate Americans are saving/spending...



So we are trying to limit ourselves to $600 amonth for grocery (and my occassional coffee). D is trying to limit how often and how much he spends when he goes out for lunch and we are not going out or ordering in for dinner, except for once in a blue moon....makes it a special nite again...



Same goes for junk food. If we don't make it ourselves, then we basically aren't having it. No more treats at Starbuck's. I can make an entire batch of cookies for not much more than they charge for 1! I don't drink their frufru coffees...just drips and iced, but I am trying to do so not more than once a week, and trying for even less than that.



Okay, so staples. We were going to stop buying our raw milk, but as soon as we did for 2 weeks, the inside of G's arms were all itchy and red. So we are going to just get one half gallon every week. A doesn't really drink that much milk anymore. He drinks a lot of water and some of this/that. So he doesn't seem to mind or have effects from whatever milk he drinks (D of course, can't have anything but the junk off the shelves at the store...) Our eggs I am hard pressed to let go of too...

These are the chickens that are laying the eggs we buy from our Milk Hut (where we also buy raw milk, grass fed beef, raw goat's milk, homemade soaps and jams, organic grains...) These chickens are perfect and their diet allows them to produce eggs with the correct ratio of fatty acids...and at $5 a dozen are no more than the organic eggs from the grocer (eggs that are most likely from chickens in cages).

Well, there you have it. We are also turning off the tv and going for netflix, especially now that they've partnered with Xbox Live...downloadable content to pc or xbox 360...plus a dvd in the mail. Sounds pretty good to me. That's all for now. Guitar lessons here we come!

Getting Motivated

Oh this week is trying my abilities. I just cannot seem to find my "get-up-and-go"...no matter how much coffee I drink.

I am just feeling BURNT from this weeks anti-lice campaign and while we still do not have a confirmed case in THIS house, I am rather tired of washing the bedding every day and redrying clothes that were sitting in hampers to kill any POTENTIAL buggers...this just blows!! And if you know me, then you know how bad I am with laundry at any time...so I have about 100 loads to do because every blanket and sheet is downstairs waiting to be washed and/or dryed and then there's all the clothes (because we have been graciously given sooo many hand-me-downs that we all have too many clothes to fit in the drawers)....I feel a culling coming. Oh yes. The clothing spaceships are almost overhead and they are going to zap all those tshirts out of the drawers.

Good Lordy we have too much junk!! I mean stuff...cause its all in good condition, but apparently the rat has struck again and she's a-hoarding...

Bastille Day 2008

Its a beautiful day in our neighborhood. We've had a lice scare on the street. Due to poor management, not reading directions on bottles, and a large sense of pride, One of our playmates has had lice for over a month now. None of the playmates families were notified and when another parent found the little buggers...well Hell was unleashed on our fair, little street.

Four shaved heads later, the kids are allowed to play with each other once again...but only outside and they get checked before returning inside. In the meantime, Mommee gets to vacuum and wash more laundry than she knows what to do with. I hate laundry. Especially the folding and putting away bit. Too tedious...so the laundry stacks up....so the kids use it to lean against when watching tv...so now it all has to go through the dryer on high heat to kill off any potential buggies.

Blech.

Luckily, we haven't actually had a confirmed case in this house...Huzzah! As soon as we heard that it was going around, we started dousing all of our heads with vinegar and tea tree oil (mixed with a little water to cut the burn). Not sure if it worked, but so far no lice and no nits. I heard the vinegar and tea tree kill the nits. Of course, each time my eldest has gone outside to play with his friends (with his new buzz cut) he comes back with bugs...but they haven't made it inside and his hair is 1/8" long at best. So easy to pick out and no nits as of yet. Apparently we all have a dandruff/cradle cap issue tho...so we've been oiling the kids heads. They are too old for this...

Its been a fun 6 days and I am glad that we are moving through this. I'm tired now. Signing off...

finding connections

The universe is an amazing place. Due to our size and limited knowledge of said universe, I believe that it is of utmost importance that we find and create our family and "village" to help ourselves raise not only children, but our own minds. We must grow together and to do so, we must overlook those aspects of others that we don't agree with (so long as those aspects aren't hurting each other). What do I mean by this? I mean that just because I am uncomfortable with the concept of a single parent entity who is looking out for us and caring about us, doesn't mean that I shouldn't associate with those that do. I find immense comfort in the presence of my friends who have deep faith and truly walk-the-walk of putting the Almighty first in their lives (or at least equally to their spouses). And I like that these friends are praying for me.

Except of course, for when I don't want the Bible-thumpers anywhere near me (friends not included in that - just those I don't know who are espousing their own crazy). Still, I love the people that walk around with a sense of peace because they have their spiritual life all figured out...and I clearly do not and it DOES keep me up at night.

So I say all of this because so many of the folks that are on the Fringe, like me, are wildly Christian (I am not), they are vocal about it and it guides them in their everyday. Their information and experience is greatly appreciated and I hope that they are able to love all of the universe's creatures, not just those that think the same as they do...(ooh. Midwesterner ending a sentence with a prepositional phrase!!) Anyway, I will be adding links to their sites as well...as even tho I don't subscribe to their brand of crazy, I do agree with how they are living the other aspects of their lives and I don't suppose anyone wants to subscribe to MY brand of crazy. Let's just agree to ferment and grow together and leave the God-talk for another day.

Tangent: Do I believe in the Almighty? Good question. I certainly find myself talking to someone sometimes. Some would say myself, but there are times when I am NOT talking to myself but clearly directing the conversation at some other being. I do believe in the basics of what I learned in Nat Sci (had quite an epiphany in NS3)...matter can neither be created nor destroyed. Thus, since the universe has been created, all that is in it has always been in it. So yes I believe that "aliens" exist and there is no reason why some are capable of long-distance travel and others aren't (like ourselves). I believe that there are tons of planets of all manner of types. And I have no idea whether there is a god. I would like there to be. I would like there to be angels and ghosts and spirits of all kinds. But I am inclined to believe that when we die our "spark" which is just matter, goes somewhere else. Perhaps if the energy binding the matter is strong, the matter will stay together and "go" into some other creature, plant, being? Not sure...but that's my understanding of reincarnation. Kind of blows the whole past life regression thing out of the water...since my matter that I am currently using probably won't stay together. And I am unsure if the spark that we all have is anything other than "just" the same old matter found in everything else...

Oh how I can go on.

Funkee

There's no doubt about it, I am a slacker-extraordinaire. I can turn any job into a day-long project (or more!) and sit on my behind and watch the clock tick rather than actually get started on a project that I am just so-so on.

Good thing I'm homeschooling the kids, eh?

Yeah, I laughed too. But as the bumper sticker said, Life is too short to spend it sitting in public school. And I agree. Especially since I don't have to work (I should be earning some dough if we actually wanted a savings account, but that's another story) the kids can be here learning at their own pace (which is generally accelerated) and they can spend the day loving life...in the form of legos, because that's what they like to do. Although, I do think its a good idea to get them down to our cooperative garden a bit more...theres a nice big field to run in and a great path to walk where there are few cars...like none.

So what is a Mommee like myself to do with her off time when the kids are playing legos? Knitting and writing...on top of the managing of the house (bills, shopping, laundry, dishes, vacuuming, cleaning...yeah. Like I do any of that!) Seriously though, I am ready for some words to flow out...and some knitting would be nice. How do all these chicks on the blogs have time to create such gorgeous knits (WendyKnits...I am speaking to you!)? I could wax on about it, but I would probably say things that were out of line and mean, so I won't. But the mittens rock and I want to make things like you do...So I am going to...just as soon as I finish Maeg's socks...which will hopefully be sometime before next spring.