I want to be.....

The following blog post should be prefaced by telling you that J-man is 5.

FIVE.

This many fingers.

1 -2 -3 -4 - 5

He's five.

This is the kid that told our speech therapist that he wanted to be a Grocery shopper when he grew up - because rescuing animals and saving them would be too much work.

The other day, on the way home from somewhere where we did something, he announced, "I want to be..." he gets excited and starts his sentences over several times. "I want to be a ....

a....

sky diver when I grow up."

Not to squelch his desires, I reply, "Well, that would be fun."

Of course, the joke about jumping out of a perfectly good plane is running through my head.
And I'm thinking of an episode of "The Pretender" where he pretended to be a skydiver to get the bad guy.

The kids finally pick up on his announcement, though.

I was surprised (and greatly amused) by their reactions.

"A SKY DIVER?!?!" Says G-man. "cooooooooooool."

Yep.
J-man -- the five year old is cool. He revels in the attention.

Some discussion is had about the schooling and training needed for skydiving. The professor suggests that he'll have to go into the military to learn it...you know like Rangers. I scoff.

The Pretender didn't have to.

Though - I could totally see J-man going into extreme sports.
So jumping out of a plane to snowboard down the mountain -- just might happen.
I hope he gets good corporate sponsors. :-)

All the excitement of learning that he was destined to be a skydiver might have been for naught.

Last night, J-man told me, as he drifted off to sleep.
"I want to be a news caster."

Between you and me -- Sky diver would be cooler.

I can't wait to see what he comes up with next.
I know one thing - what ever it is - He'll be a world changer and a history maker.....and he'll laugh all the time he's doing it.

Atmospheric Pressures...

I wrote yesterday that I knew that what my problem was. I knew it was atmospheric.
I even went so far as to ask if there was a full moon. :-)
There wasn't -- but I was still right.

I know ... no...that's not right..

I KNOW

That I can handle things, kids, life while The Professor's gone. It's a good thing, too, because he'll be gone again in October.

I know that I miss him because he does so much around the house. He's the one that keeps my grounded when my thoughts and daydreams keep my head in the clouds. He's the one that listens to my deepest thoughts when things are not going my way. He remembers to make drinks for the kids. He remembers to clean out the sink ... he'll clean out the cat box.

And while I miss him -- my life does not end when he's gone. I am capable.

Most of the time. Most of the time I meet his absence with a determination.

Friday, the blues started. I don't know what else to call it - except maybe a low pressure system hovered over my house. The kids felt it, too.

Sunday it all culminated...all to keep me from church. Seriously. It almost worked.
I could have had church here in the house.

God really isn't bound by a building... but I had a divine appointment. And I decided to press on.

I worshipped my heart out. I praised. I shouted. I rejoiced. My kids had fun. (They were still wired at 10:30pm.) In those actions, the atmosphere shifted. Holy Spirit blew some clouds away and this morning, things are different.

The low pressure system that pushed on me has lifted. It had to go. It really did - and I don't know why it was here in the first place -- EXCEPT, to steal my joy, to make me dread the week ahead, to make me opt out of going to church, to ruin my day, to rob me of time with my kids, to put chinks in my relationships... it was one heck of a low pressure system.

I heard someone say today, "....Then Faith starts to rise up - and you realize that you've just come through something..and you start to worship from that new place."

I liked that.
It ministered to me.
I feel like that. I feel like that today -- that all of what has happened since Friday -- the challenges, the oppression, the challenges...it was all part of "something".

I just came out of 'something' -- and my faith is rising up new
and all is well with my world.

I like the following video.
It really does show how clouds keep moving - the wind keeps blowing - the earth keeps spinning. Even the worst of storms pass over.

And the calmest part of the storm is in the center of the eye. -- but that's another topic for another day.



This whole atmosphere thing - it could preach.
I know several others have preached and taught on it..

for me - I'm glad that it's a new week.
I'm glad that things are yellow again. :-)

Not feeling it...

Your Primary Mood Color is Yellow

You are a enthusiastic and cheerful soul. You have a real zest for life. You have as many troubles as anyone else, but you believe it's important to have a sunny outlook. Life is what you make of it, and you strive to make your life as awesome as possible. You believe in happy endings. You are willing to put your a lot on the line in hopes that things will work out.

What's Your Primary Mood Color?

Blogthings: Cheaper Than a Therapist

I agree with this -- that Generally speaking -- I have a yellow disposition.
Which is odd, because I never owned anything yellow until recently.
Yellow is the color of, among other things, the color of hope and joy.

Today I'm not feeling it.

I'm feeling rather bluish-gray.
I'm not sure what prophetic significance that might have -- just feeling a bit bluish. and grayish.

The professor is gone - yet again -- at the behest of a contractor.
He's up in the frozen Tundra ... or where the frozen tundra will be in a few months. (Not Canada.) There was even a snowflake sighting last week.

He's the morning person of the family.
Him and the kids.
I don't like waking up to a complete list of demands ... like something to drink and food.

I prefer to wake up and just sit. at least for a few minutes. I know that sounds very selfish...
it's my blog....

....

They started it.


Still, that's not all there is to it. It really has nothing to do with kids and early mornings and late nights and --- the endless STUFF to do...

The blues started Friday before The Professor even left.
I'm not sure what's up in the atmosphere...something is afoot up there.....
I just haven't seen what it is...

Today is one of the worst blue-gray days.

Today, we were making cookies to take to church. Oh, these were good cookies, too.

Some how, a large glass measuring cup got knocked to the floor and it shattered.
EVERYWHERE.
there were even shards on the table.
I got a shard in my arm. it bounced so hard. Several pricked my foot and my ankle luckily, none stuck. Even more blessed - no child was hurt.

The cookie batter, for safety concerns was thrown out. I couldn't stomach (pun intended..get it, get it??) cooking them up and then wonder if any glass might have fallen into the bowl.

It's been a few days of early mornings, late nights, and lots and lots of mommy policing in between. Survival instincts are starting to kick in.

I'm tempted to get out the camo face paint and go into lock and lode battle mode ...
barricade the doors and all that...

but then I look around and realize, it can't be THAT bad -- they're all still living.
And other than treading softy around the battle ready mom, they seem well-adjusted.

I still have hope.

I still believe that the atmosphere will shift. That the blue-gray haze will blow away ... it has to because it can't stay. I'm the boss.

I have hope.
And for that I'm glad.

Otherwise, I'd be found blowing spit bubbles in the corner.

Studies of a big blue variety...

Every so often - in the few weeks that we've been officially "doing school" - I wish I could figure out a way of doing things "Better".

Sigh.

I'm silly.
I believe this was God-ordained for us to use text books this year.
But then I see other people able to do fun stuff in their schools.
Mini-Me wanted to put out food and flour to check for tracks, but I had to point out to her that all we would get would be cats and maybe a skunk. Our neighbor hood is critter poor.

So when she was assigned a Mammal poster/report, she jumped at the chance.
She had to choose a Mammal to report on - and her first choice was the Blue Whale.

AWESOME!!!

We started looking for information -- and found a really good "channel" at National Geographic.
They even have a video of a rare sighting of a BABY Blue Whale - which are RARE. We watched the video -- and I'm nearly embarrassed to admit it....but I cried.

One thing she learned was that a Blue Whale's heart is the size of a Mini-Cooper.

So today, we went on a hunt for a mini-Cooper.
The Salesman I talked to (I wanted to ask permission) was happy to oblige us - even moved the Mini out of it's parking place so the kids could stand next to it.

The kids were thrilled. Especially Mini-Me. -- who stood by a mini-Cooper. :-) and hopefully, that will be a not so mini-Memory.

Happiness...

Ya'll,

I'm happy.

And that really is the extent of this very random blog post.

Television Frustration

I don't know how it is in your neck of the woods, but we're not overly fond of the great Digital Conversion. I understand WHY they say it's necessary --- but I'm seriously beginning to think it was all a big scam from the cable company. (Meaning - some cable lobbyist can probably now retire.)

We like TV around here. It has it's uses, honestly. I've always liked TV. That doesn't mean we watch any old thing on TV. We were pretty selective in what we watched, but we still liked it. Like.
I have to remember -- we still LIKE it.

We got the converter boxes like good tv viewers are wont to do when they don't have cable.

We got them hooked to our two tvs and got them operating.

And it all went down here from there.

Viewing some things became an experience in pixel buffering and lag. It was like watching a pod cast that kept stopping to buffer. It was frustrating.

When I was a kid, to watch UHF channels required an antenna, some aluminum foil and creative positioning. Watching TV from our newly acquired Digital converter box and super antenna has brought back all those memories.

Then came the Great switch over. When all public TV Stations were supposed to make the great switch from analog to digital, and the signals would be boosted...

We actually lost all but the UHF channels. and on a good day - Public Television

How ironic is it that after the government switched to digital -- we in this house are only receiving the channels that were once considered 'rebel'. hmmmm....

Really, though, I'm not surprised....I mean there aren't many times when the government steps into take over something that there aren't issues and problems. or that it goes completely bad and becomes pointless.

I've even toyed with the idea of getting cable -- but then a funny thing happened.

We started watching less TV. We buy DVD disc sets to watch when we really want to watch something - and we have oodles of movies..

but those days when we just sat and watched tv because our brains were tired and we wanted mindless entertainment are far fewer.

I do miss it on occasion. I miss not being able to watch NCIS or CSI:NY during the actual season - instead of waiting for the disc sets to come to the store shelves. I sort of miss being able to turn the tv on during a storm. I kind of miss just being able to turn the tv on and get something - anything...

but ... we have to over come and adapt.

Along with the DVD sets, the kids have been watching old TV shows on the internet.
Mini-me's favorites, so far, are Benson (she has actually splurted her drink on the keyboard because she was laughing) and the Jetsons.
The other kids are fond of Batman: the Bold and the Brave, Scooby-Doo and, well, just about anything Mini-Me happens to watch.

The Laundry Pile is not digital -- and apparently, that's not a bad thing.

Most of the time.

Time to Dance

There are a few things that I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that you would encounter if you came to our house...

Loudness - inside voices?? Ha! We scoff at inside voices!! ESPECIALLY at the store. *eye roll*

Joy - even amid the whining

Music - LOTS of music, because I like it. It can vary from classics to blues to pop to oldies to Sandra Boynton to showtunes - it all depends on my mood but My PASSION is worship.

And when we can have all three...Loud, Joy and Music!!

Well -- it's time to dance!!!

One should not ponder spelling words too deeply

I never know where my thoughts will take me.

Spelling words can be one of the most fun mental train rides for me.
One word can bring a song, a pun, a funny - I just never know.

Today's word that started my mental train along the though track was "daytime".

"If everyone was awake at night, when the sun was not out - would they call it 'daytime'?" I wondered.

Puzzled expressions on the faces of the big kids as they pondered it.

They talked about it in mutters as my train continued down its thought track. It pulled into the station when I heard Mini-Me say, "Plus, when would we sleep?"

Hearing her say that made me smile -- some things are just absolute.

There is a daytime and a nighttime and spelling words should probably not be pondered too deeply.

I want a badge...

Today got off to a slow start.

The lightening flashed so bright against the dark gray of my room - and the thunder sounded so close it shook my bed.

It was that loud.

I rather wonder if lightening struck nearby, but saw no evident signs of it.

Then the day started with a "Mom...she's doing this to me!!!"

"Mom!! He won't leave me alone!!!"

"MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

In the midst of that, there's the "Can I have....(insert anything here)...?" that I've heard a bazillion times already and it's not even lunch time.

I've picked up trash off the floor that has missed the trash, and ignored..

I feel like a police mom.

I want a badge.

I want a ticket book.

I think littering could result in a fine.

Assault and battery of a sibling could result in solitary confinement.

Yelling "MoooooM!!!" when there's no blood, could be considered noise pollution.

Hhmmmmmmmmmmmm

I may be on to something here...

I want a badge.

I missed it --

I missed my blog's very own birthday. It's three now. ;-)

AND -- 8 posts ago, I missed my 400th post.

I'm not sure if reaching the 400th post mark is a good thing...but I think I enjoy that fact.

There were more than a few times that I thought I was going to have to stop blogging.
There have been many times when I thought it would all just fall to the wayside as I...

a) had nothing funny or insightful to share
b) worked on a manuscript
c) I'm supposed to be learning how to play the guitar

So to reach the 400th post is rather fun.

And I missed the occasion.

Maybe it's good that I missed it - because I might have just rambled on ...

kind of like now. Which is just like Normal.

I wouldn't have reached 400 posts full of music, thoughts, kids stuff and total ramblings without readers who have become friends.

So thank you for being there!
And mostly - thanks for putting up with me...and reading.

You've encouraged me and laughed with me ... and slapped me on the back a few times.

For a blog writer, I got it good.
Because I've got the best bloggy friends ever.

Things Heard round the Laundry Pile...

Just this evening I was reading a hidden picture book to Bubbles. It's one of those that you lift the flap to reveal the picture.

The hidden picture was a mosquito eating a watermelon.

Bubbles informed me that "Mosquitoes hurt my feelings."

I had no idea...they usually just make me itch.

Speech Therapy can often be the fodder for much said by J-man.
Sometimes though, he's pretty focused on the task at hand.
This last week was not one of those days.

He was working on words that began with the "r" sound.

He told our Therapist that "I want to be a grocery shopper when I grow up."

Our ST thought maybe he meant something like a manager. So she asked him.

He shook his head, "No. I want to be a grocery shopper." then he got this "well, you should know" look on his face. "You know. because I don't want to be an animal rescuer. Because rescuing animals and saving them would be a lot of work." With this supremely austere look on his face, "So I want to be a grocery shopper when I grow up."

He didn't want to hear about the fact that he was a grocery shopper when he went with me to the store. Mostly because he knows that he's pretending to be a spy when he's running down the vacant aisles and rolling on the floor.

He told her again..."I want to be a grocery shopper."

Alrighty then.

Another word at the same session was "Raise".

So he started immediately talking about "Mini-me's game. She can raise people from the dead." -- just so you know, she's playing Final Fantasy XII. (Actually, The Professor is doing MUCH helping in her quest to beat the game. She really, deep down, just wants to watch the movie cut scenes. Though she insists that's not entirely true.)

J-man continued, "She can bring people back if they die - but it's complicated."

Our ST said, "There's only one person I know of that's done that. Do you know who that is?"

J-man said, "Who?"

"Jesus."

"Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaah." long pause "It's complicated."

He's five. I laughed.
We'll talk about it not being complicated another time when it's not in correlation with a video game.

The things we talk about....would probably make people roll their eyes at us - -but it's certainly never dull.

Ego Tripped...

If my kids do nothing else, they truly know how to keep me humble.
First there was J-man talking about my size...

Then tonight, after finding the curtain rod broken and J-man voluntarily cleaning his room (that's twice that he's done that!) -- Mini-Me says to me..

"Hey, mom? Have you gotten shorter?"

Sigh.

It's a good thing I know who I am in Christ.
Because my kids are truly trying to kill my ego.

Necessity warrants...

Sometimes I wish everything else would stop while we do our school.
There would be no hunger, which leads to the stopping of school work, the cooking of something edible, the whining when the food is not appealing to a child (Which leads to further hunger in said child), the eating of the food and .... lather, rinse, repeat.

The other thing that I wish would handle itself -- would be laundry.
School takes nearly all day. Then comes that time when I have to start the whole fighting hunger thing with dinner... (didn't I just feed them?). You see where I'm going with this??

Yeah.

Homelife is full of cycles. hmmm....much like a washing machine.

I ended one cycle today.
If necessity is the mother of invention - it's also the buyer of another laundry basket.

mini-me has been unable to locate certain garments all week.
It's been a constant hunting through the laundry. Today, I ran yet another load of laundry in order to find her said garments...I told her that if there were ANY clothes in her room that needed to be washed, she'd better make certain they ended up in the dirty clothes.

Sigh.

So that's where the missing garments were....no wonder we couldn't locate them using normal seek and find techniques.

"Everyone get your shoes on!" I called out. The "all call" from my mouth to their ears that we're about to leave the house and they'd better move it.

Sometimes I LOVE having a loud voice.

Mini-Me asked, "Why are we going to the stuff mart?"

I just grinned at her.

"We're going to go get me a laundry basket, aren't we?"

"Why yes, yes we are."
I'd been promising that if she didn't get her dirty clothes to the proper laundry receptacle that she would have to start doing her own laundry. So, after finding a weeks worth of the lost items suddenly in a nearly empty dirty clothes basket, I knew it was time.

She's smart. She figured it out, too. I knew she would. Then she tried another bit of logic. I guess she thought it would stop my forward momentum. "I'll TEACH you." was my reply.

I would have inserted an evil chuckle right then but that might have been too much drama, so I abstained. I have to tell you, it took a great amount of will power.

so we survived the trek to the mart.
Mini-Me has a laundry basket.
Now if she can't find garments -- it certainly won't be my fault.
Just like it wasn't my fault this time.

I like that.

I think I'll throw that evil chuckle in now....

Bahahahahahahahahahaha

I feel better.