Who Invented Coffee?

I'm not exactly sure of the answer and I'm not in the mood to research it. However, I do know that on some mornings I really, really appreciate his foresight. There are days I could probably give him a big smooch, but I'm quite certain he's dead. That fact puts my gratitude more on a philosophical level.

Instead, I'd suggest he be given the Nobel Peace Prize posthumously. Under one condition only...



...he must share it with the guys who invented the espresso and the latte.

Have a fun, caffeine-filled day!!

My New Adventure

I've probably mentioned how things are a little busy for me and they tend to keep me away from my blog for long periods of time. Okay, you're right. I complain about how busy I am and use it as an excuse for not blogging. I confess. I'm not making any promises, but I am working really hard to blog more and complain less. Or sleep less and complain more. Or clean house less and complain more. That sounds like the best plan of all.

On with my story. I've taken on a new project. I started it in the spring and got lazy. So I started again in the fall. I'm lazy at the moment, but will pick it up again at some point. The new project is...drum roll please...lawn maintenance. A more specific description is something along the lines of flower bed reconstruction.

And knowing me you know I don't have normal projects. I decided to do something better described as extreme lawn maintenance. You've seen those Internet videos of people doing extreme sports such as sliding down a mountain on a dinner plate in a Speedo or launching themselves into the heavens using a wrecking ball and a seesaw.

I guess I must have recently partaken of such an influential piece of visual motivation when I trimmed a tree in the backyard. Tell me what you think, please.


You don't think I went too far, do you?

Always be Prepared for Any Situation

As a mom, I strive to be prepared for every situation. For example, I've never left the house without a completely stocked diaper bag. Nevermind, bad example. I'll rescind that one in case you've spotted my van rapidly traveling toward home with a nekkid child wrapped in a bunch of fast food napkins.

Before I drift off subject again, let me tell you how totally prepared I was for this wonderful snowfall last Thursday. I'm sure you've noticed in the video and pictures already posted there are a few areas where I lacked.

Sadly, the Bigs did not have waterproof shoes.

Nor did they have hats. Thanks CC for calling me down on that one...Ms. Snow Expert! Even if we did have hats and scarves they would have been promoted to snowman attire anyway.

They didn't have parkas, or whatever those big plastic-y looking stuffed coats are called.

We didn't have an ice scraper to get the windshields clear. Then again, barring an emergency we were not about to travel on the roads. Who around here is prepared to drive in this stuff?

Despite all of this, I am prepared. I can prove it!

We have a sled...a real, live, honest-to-goodness sled! Unfortunately we have no hills.

We used our imaginations.

Creativity is Fun

There are always some things that one must do with snow. One is to make a snow angel. We didn't. The kids had no proper clothing to survive a dive into the snow with our accompanying colds and coughing. Not to mention I liked the pristine beauty of our untrampled yard. It's very picturesque in a suburbia ranch neighborhood sorta way.

Another must do is build a snowman. Our neighbors did a great job. They built snowmen. Normal looking ones with coal (or charcoal, or rocks based on availability) and vegetables used as facial features. How very Frosty-ish. You're half expecting one of them to jump up and exclaim "Happy Birthday!" Okay not really, but you get the point. They're normal looking snowmen for a general population not accustomed to building such creatures.



Like this one.


And this one.

This one.

Yes, even this one.

Now to our pristine yard. Remember it? I stepped gingerly around and took pictures of it for my own personal imaginary postcard, then went to take a short nap. I'm sick and must get plenty of healing rest. When I awoke I noticed the snowman haven our yard has become. All four boys (yes, even the tall 40-something one) took part in recreating the suburbia ranch neighborhood version of Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons. Bill Watterson is considered a genius in our home, and his books are part of our Classic Literature collection.

So enjoy our lifelike recreation of his work as it transformed my lovely winterscape.

Still Photos of the Great Chill

Here are some sights from around the ol' homestead.


The front of the house looks so pristine and, well, inviting. I just want to run though the snow making tracks and messing up the beauty of it. Actually, I don't. The kids wanted to. I made them play in the backyard until I had enough pictures to satisfy my OCD-ness.

Here's a side view from the street. I'm not usually a fan of River Birch trees, but this look may change my mind. Now that I've given it some thought I still don't like them much. But I guess it's okay to like them a small fraction of the time...maybe one three hundred sixty fifth of the year. Snow years only.

This is the view from the end of the driveway. The barbed wire fence is so pretty covered in snow. I think it would be absolutely gorgeous if it were a wooden rail fence. Maybe I'll build one for the next snowfall. Oh wait...it's not our fence. The property owner behind us put it up. Probably to protect his property from our boys and dog. He may not like it if I took it down and built a different one. Too bad because I really did want to build a fence and would have started first thing tomorrow morning. Yep.

So this is the beauty that is our snow day. I'll post some more pictures soon. I have many, many, many to sort through. Unfortunately its become apparent that my old computer doesn't like my new camera. The complaining, fussing, griping and moaning it does over the size of the files is getting on my nerves fast. Of course the Babiest forcing size D batteries in the DVD drive doesn't make it want to strive to please me either. I'll work as fast as it will let me to put more pics up!

My Resurrection Post--AKA The Great Snowball War of 2008

Okay, weather like we have been seeing today in South Louisiana is just not normal. If there's ever been a reason to revisit my long forgotten blog this is it. So here we go.

By the way, I know you're on the edge of your seat wondering where I've been hiding out. I'm not going to bore you with how busy I've been (at least in this post) but will explain everything later. I know you're hoping it's much later!

Anyway, to the subject at hand. The Great Snowball War of 2008, which never actually took place. The Bigs were so busy and worked so hard to create fortresses to protect themselves from the impending war that they never actually got the chance to have the war. Just a few stray shots here and there during construction.




They quickly got too wet and cold to stay outside. We're just not equipped for this type of precipitation. A trip inside, a break with a snack and a change of clothes and they were off again. I'll make another post for those still shots. In the meantime enjoy the video and ignore the gravelly voice. I'm trying my best to get over this nasty cold but my body has other ideas.

All Better Now!

The whining has ceased, at least for now. It's amazing how a nice steaming cuppa and clean clothes can change your entire outlook.




Have a great weekend!!!

Who Is Watching the Baby?

Never, ever assume the other parent is watching the baby. That should probably be enough to give most parents whiplash nodding in agreement, but I'll elaborate for the sake of clarity.

We love holidays. Especially Easter for its special meaning to our spirits, its significance in our lives, and its fun traditions. We really enjoy when it is time to dye the eggs.


See the lonely looking eggs sitting in the carton patiently waiting for their debutante party? They look like little no brand name generics in their white packages. All they need is the word EGG stamped in bold black letters. Or maybe not.

See the color tablets just sizzling in the cups? I love the smell of vinegar for this very reason. It reminds me of coloring eggs, and wine left in the fridge too long. But that's another post for another time.

See the look of patience on his face? See the look of leftovers on his face? Poor kid deserves a mommy who takes more pride in his appearance on the web.

Blastoff into colored egg land! By the way, the eggs are not a product of Chicken Elmo spotted in the background.

And they're just right! Perfect tones...hues...the density of the color is spot on. The texture of the colored shell and how it reflects the light is quite remarkable. Yep, that must be what J was thinking as he wrote on one egg the sweet sentiment N drools, J rules.

"I don't remember doing this last year. Do we get to drink the juice and eat the eggies?"

Here are the final results. Aren't they gorgeous? I'm sure you're wondering about the missing three. Don't ask. It's really a sad tale.

So where does the mishap with baby-watching come in? The night following Easter I was working on the computer, D was watching television in the back of the house (March Madness, baby!), and the Bigs were in bed. Babiest doesn't seem to realize there are times when small ones must sleep so he was playing throughout the house. As parents sometimes do, I thought D had him, he thought I had him, and Babiest was enjoying the freedom. He dragged his step stool up to the bucket of eggs, somewhat broken from the multiple hiding/finding games, and began stirring with a rather large wooden spoon.

The result was a disgusting concoction of colorful broken eggs smushed together for effect. We laughed when he was discovered, praised him for his "beautiful egg salad masterpiece," and refrigerated the evidence to show the Bigs the following morning.

Evenings when we are both preoccupied, we now are heard calling out frequently, "Who has the baby?...What is he into now?...What. Was. That. Crash?"

You Can Bring the Cheese...

...And I'll supply the whine. We'll have a nice little pity party, okay? What's wrong, you ask? How nice of you. I suppose if you're not the least little bit curious you could click the little X in the corner of your browser right about now.


Well, here's the problem. I ran out of coffee. It's a drastic thing, one that I really didn't plan on. It just happened, and I'm really suffering. I thought I had an extra unopened bag in the camper but, alas, no. Only a few boxes of cereal and a can of Pringles. No precious coffee. I tried to go buy a couple of bags today but got extremely insulted at the grocery and stomped out leaving my groceries on the conveyor belt. It's the principal of the thing, the thing being deceptive advertising, and I'm all about principals. Except when I need coffee. I almost went back and through another register, but I didn't have an extra hat in my possession to make a disguise.



I've also been fighting a headache for a couple of days. This afternoon I finally realized the correlation between the two. Insight, but still no coffee. I did manage to raid every last little bit of chocolate Easter candy I could find and polished off about a fourth of a bag of chocolate chips (it was all I had left). Still no relief. I'm going to a different grocery tomorrow.



My washing machine died. It lived such a short life and was such a pain in my side for its entire existence. I miss it only because I have laundry piling up. And I'm so not a laundromat kinda gal. I did go to one on Sunday afternoon, along with the rest of the population of washer-less people. They are an interesting and eclectic bunch. I don't think I fit in with them though. I spent the first five minutes of my laundromat visit wiping the inside of the machines down with my Lysol wipes. I have issues with germs, especially those belonging to other people that may soon be swishing through my underwear. I get hives just thinking about it.



I went washing machine shopping today. I've been looking forward to this day for the last three years I've had that pathetic excuse of a washing machine taking up space in my laundry room. I've narrowed it down to two or three models. After I had my heart set on a nice new space age looking machine sitting in my nicely decorated laundry room, I had the unfortunate insight to realize that my laundry room is backwards. The washer connections and dryer vents are on the wrong side of the wall for the machines I want and the doors do not reverse. I'm thinking I'll just buy longer cords, hoses, and vents, switch sides, and call it good. Or I could remove the overhead cabinets, stack the new units, and fill up the extra space with something fun like a new vacuum cleaner. I hope it all works out one way or another soon because I really don't want to go back to that laundromat. And D doesn't want to remove a wall of cabinets.



On a positive note, we've done some furniture rearranging and I now have a schoolroom. I no longer have a formal dining room, but it was merely used for stacking miscellaneous stuff I didn't know where else to store, so that's okay. We're enjoying it a lot and it's coming together nicely. I'll post pictures of it soon. As soon as it's organized. Okay, maybe you'll never see pictures, but you can see it when you come visit. Just don't tell anyone how unorganized it is, okay?



Unfortunately the schoolroom is not making school easier at the moment. I'm so tired of negotiations and complaints. Every statement is preceded with "Do we have to..." Dear sons, you have to. Trust me, you have to.



"So where is this whine headed?" you're wondering. Me too; I've been at it so long I lost my train of thought. Oh, I know. I remember now. The burning question is what does a caffeine withdrawing, washing machine deprived, headache-y mom do when feeling especially snarky? She turns it around and has fun with it, of course. There's no sense in living if you can't have fun with the bumpy parts too. So as an introduction to our new schoolroom, I created a sign welcoming new students and their visitors.

Provides much needed insight into the school and its pupils, don't you think?

Of course I'm just kidding with all of the whining. I've got my tongue planted firmly in my cheek and I'm very blessed with my life, bumps and all! Enjoy your day and have a little fun too!

The Great Play Dough Adventure

Most parents take certain things for granted. For M, though, the idea of pulling out a couple of cans of play dough for his entertainment wasn't possible because... Store bought play dough is made of flour. The flour is made of wheat. Wheat contains gluten. Gluten is a no-no.



Kids eat play dough. Have you ever met one who hasn't? For that matter, I'm sure if you reached back into the recesses of your mind you can remember the distinctly salty taste of play dough yourself. I'm right, I know it.



To build childhood memories as normal as possible for the three of them, I pulled out some rice flour, salt, and food coloring and made them some play dough. Of course M ate so much I thought he would get sick from it. But when the Bigs pulled out their play dough toys it all became apparent what the stuff was for. It was for playing and snacking.



Fun memories!

TWO!!!

Yes, TWO! Oh so very, very, very two...

For Crying Out Loud

I've recently been quite perplexed why the Babiest wakes up from his nap screaming. Loudly screaming. I finally figured it out. He can see his reflection from his bed. It can be scary for a little one, I'm sure.

In fact, I'd scream too if I woke up looking like that. Come to think of it, I do look like that. I guess that's why he wakes up screaming in the morning also...just the thought of me coming to get him out of bed frightens the bejeebies out of the little guy.































I'm off to move a mirror and place a hairbrush on my nightstand. It should be a more peaceful day tomorrow. Have a great weekend!

Therapy and Football

While I've been taking pics of the guys playing "front yard football" my blog has been in therapy working through its abandonment issues. It's doing better now, but since its insurance ran out before therapy was completed we're still working out a few things. In the meantime, enjoy some pictures of our game while the blog comes around.