My Children's Rooms

I am suffering the consequences of allowing Sweet Baby M and the Big D to become uncontrollable messes. Their rooms are both so bad. Jim has hit the ceiling and of course we all know who suffers the wrath then....Me. It is so hard to force them to clean them up and keep them that way. Sweet Baby M has SO many clothes and the Big D is just sloppy. There are not enough hours in the day to keep this all running like a well oiled machine AND deal with the unexpected. If somone has the answer, please fill me in.
Signed,
Defeated in KS

RIP Timothy

This sweet little baby, whom I have named Timothy, flew into a window today and perished. I saw him fly into the window and drop to the ground and quickly went over to see if he was just stunned. Unfortunately, he was dead. Because I didn't want anyone to just kick him to the curb or sweep him into the trash, I picked him up and wrapped him in a kleenex in my purse. He rode around to lunch with Tia and I and on our plethora of pressing errands while lying in repose in the back of my car. Now he has been carefully placed on a Sweet Life doily and laid in his little coffin. Poor little Timothy will be laid to rest tomorrow morning in the flower garden. Perhaps we will bury him in front of my statue of Jesus holding his heart (which is my FAVE statue) and say a little word. Wouldn't it be nice if Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal flitted in for the funeral (they live in the neighborhood, you know) and since he is a dignatary in the Catholic church being a cardinal and all.
This is in memory of little Mr. Timothy.

A Bird Came Down the Walk
by Emily Dickinson

A bird came down the walk:
He did not know I saw;
He bit an angle-worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.

And then he drank a dew
From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a beetle pass.

He glanced with rapid eyes
That hurried all abroad, --
They looked like frightened beads, I thought;
He stirred his velvet head

Like one in danger; cautious,
I offered him a crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home

Than oars divide the ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or butterflies, off banks of noon,
Leap, plashless, as they swim.

The service details are below:
Private Service for Mr. Timothy Sparrow
Saturday, August 22, 2009
7:00 a.m. (daybreak)
Family only
Birdseed breakfast to follow.

GOOD BOOK

I just finished reading such a great book. It's "Home Safe" by Elizabeth Berg. I have read another of her books..."The Year of Pleasures" which I also enjoyed. I like her style of writing. It flows easily and her thoughts are so similar to just what I was thinking. I like that. Sometimes I like to read books that jar my mindsets and make me think but for right now, this was perfect.
I must say...I love the cover. It's a bluejay sitting on a large egg. So simple and yet so perfect. The main character is a 59 year old woman with a daughter she is always trying to "mother" and the daughter doesn't like the mothering so much. I can relate to that. She is also a writer. She writes mainly fiction but I love that she makes up stories about the people she sees in her life; the old woman at the bus stop, the waiter, the cabbie.
I think that is what I loved most about my previous job. I got to write about people's lives as they were living them. Got to explore who they were and what made them tick. If you were lucky, the person you were interviewing actually let you see their insides. What made them tick. For lack of a better word...their soul. That was such a gift and a responsibility. You had to be careful to represent exactly what their essence was without reading your own likes and dislikes into it.

I miss writing. I thought maybe this blog would placate that need but it really doesn't. Unfortunately, I feel about this blog kind of like I feel about scrapbooking...if it's not perfect, I don't want to do it. I'm trying to get beyond worrying about it and just keeping it as a sort of journal but I always have the desire to clean it up. To delete things that I don't like and change things around. I need to commit to a set time to just write each day and let it be. I have so many ideas rattling around in my head...I'm just lazy about putting them on paper.

Back to Blogging

What a week we've had! Between Maggie not having a car (minor accident), getting everyone ready for school (Monday) and Jim's VERY early work schedule (getting up at 4:30!) it's been a big week with not alot of free time.
School starts tomorrow and hopefully everything will stabilize a little. I'm ready for the routine again. I have a lot of projects planned (closets and the like) and can't wait to get started on it all.
My biggest challenge is planning out all my meals really well and shopping efficiently so I'm not continually at the store. Both my kids need breakfast and then something Maggie can take to have mid morning. Both need lunch packed (as does Jim) and Maggie needs something to munch on between school and volleyball practice. She needs a lot of little meals all day. Planning dinner is easy, it's all those other things to keep everyone fueled up.

I thought we might have a great jeep ride today to blow all the cobwebs out of our brains...but alas...this is what it is doing right now.

Monotonous Monday

I wish this post wasn't called Monotonous Monday but alas, it is. I just can't get excited today about a new week. For one thing, it is now the final two week countdown to school for the kiddos. Ugh. I like having them home and hanging out for summer. Soon we will start the whole huge year of homework and volleyball games and rushing to get to school, rushing to pick up from school, rushing to volleyball, dinners on the run, rushing home to fall in bed. My only consolation is that at least this year I won't be working and will have more time to keep everything together at home and everyone well fed and happy.

So much has changed for us this school year (Jim's new STRESSFUL job, Maggie's Senior year, Daniel's new school) that I think it will be wonderful to be at home during the day to focus on keeping our home base as stress free as possible. They all need a comfortable place to take a breath and I'm hoping home will be that this year.

Now for some random thoughts:
*I'm wondering if my hair can wait two more weeks until my peeps are back in school for color. Probably that is going to be PUSHING it.
*I want to get rid of my hideous mini blinds that are EVERYWHERE in this house. I want to replace them with matchstick blinds but it seems overwhelming. I guess I just need to jump in, measure and price them.
*If I die of the swine flu, I beg of you (my family and friends)....just call it something else. I can't imagine anything worse than forever being remembered as having died from "the SWINE flu". It's gross. Just say I died of a virus.

I'd best get to the never ending laundry pile and I also forgot to run the dishwasher last night before bed (double darn!) so need to start that up. Baked Spaghetti for dinner tonight (super easy!) and I'm still scanning in slides (more on that in another post). Here's a preview pic though. This is an old slide of me when I was about three years old at Avila Beach in California. I think my arms look freakishly short for my body. My arms aren't too short now. It's weird looking. Maybe it's just the perspective the picture is taken from but it seems strange.

Saturday

Shadow is INSANE this morning. It rained in the night and I think it has affected his brain! He's running through the house like a madman...all 60 lbs of him! He's not happy outside and so is barking endlessly but he's not real happy inside. It's not a pretty sight and the only thing that is keeping him calm right now is a big glob of peanut butter in his Kong. It's a momentary peace.

What a week we've had! Got both kids enrolled in school. Whew! Sweet Baby M has a full load of classes this semester plus volleyball plus college prep. She is going to be a busy girl. We still need to find a couple of pairs of jeans for her but in the school shopping found these coach shoes. Not quite this pattern...she got the ocelot but I'm too lazy to take a picture and I couldn't find the exact on the web. Actually they are nothing like this...they have laces but just squint and imagine.

They look so cute on her. We also found the darlingest dress for Homecoming in November. It is one she looked at for prom back in April but it was just too spendy. Well, lo and behold, it was on sale at Von Maur for about half off. She grabbed it up and we bought it and it is hanging in my closet encased in plastic to await it's debut. Not really the things she needs to start school but with that Von Maur you have to strike while the iron is hot, so to speak.
She will probably want to go to Deb's in the mall or Gordman's for jeans...they always seem to have her size (tiny!) and fit her well in both the waist and hiney. She is the hipless wonder. She also needs a few cute t's to perk her up and a new backpack/schoolbag/carrying case. Whatever's cool for Seniors to carry. Ha!

The Big D is all enrolled in school too and we have most of his supplies. We have his new shirts and just need pants. He is going to love his new school and I hope he is very happy there. I think he will be. He doesn't require as much as his sister!

I'm not ready for it to be two weeks 'til school starts. We've had a good summer and I don't want it to end. Once they start school I have to figure out lunches and schedules and what to do with MYself. Ugh!

On a random note...when Shadow wants something or is bored he has a high girly bark but when he's mad he sure sounds like a big boy. Right now he is lying beside me licking the kitchen cabinets...so sanitary! He's a big lug of a mess. Poor little Pup pup and Tiki are still tucked in tight in bed with Jim.

It's a rainy day here today...all my plans of jeep rides and garage sales are probably going right out the window. I did find this little Kate Spade gem at a sale last week.

The gal wanted $8.00 and it was like brand new. I couldn't resist and simply paid full price. Took it to Von Maur to authenticate it and comparable Kate Spade's are going for $175 to $250. Yikes! I've carried it a little and I like it but it is PETITE. I still love this big bad boy the best...my sweet black leather Coach. It's huge and I can stuff everything in it including a notebook and calendar. I just can't fit my camera in it. I need a cute camera bag.


Guess that's all the rambling I can do this morning. I need to jump in the shower and start the day and wake up all these sleepyheads!