it's just an observation

Ok, I get it, some people treat their animals like children. Not everyone loves actual children, nor does everyone want to have them. That’s fine, but let me just take a moment to say, that I do NOT love animals. I’m not a huge fan of any kind of animal, but I am ESPECIALLY not a fan of what dogs seem to do on my lawn.

I just watched my neighbor’s dog pop a squat on our lawn and take a big old dump. After he was done, he proceeded to use his hind legs to kick up some of my grass. My first question is always WHY can’t your dog crap on your own lawn? You don’t see me collecting my kids urine and feces and then coming up to your lawn and dumping them on there do you? And while my neighbor did clean up her dogs’ mess, I’m sure there are traces of his fecal matter still on my lawn. My lawn is in bad enough shape without adding your dog’s crap (literally!) to it. And the last time someone’s dog peed on our lawn we were left with a new brown spot. Thanks a lot!

It’s inevitable that if you stay home with your kids you will eventually be thrust back into some sort of middle/high school relationship with other moms. It seems so ridiculous I know, but women have a hard time just getting along. I’m fortunate enough that no one I see regularly makes me revert back to those old school girl ways, but I do travel in the same circles as this group of “super moms” lets call them (insert eye roll here). I’m sure you know the type. The moms whose children can do no wrong and who always devote every waking moment to the well-being of their kids. They’re the moms that I usually want to slap and the very same moms that make being a mom harder. Kids need to spend time away from their parents so that they can USE their brains and learn some stuff on their own. Anyway, I digress.

Today I ran into two of “those” moms while at the playground. Full disclosure, one of the moms is on my list because her bratty little daughter scratched up my newborn son’s head while we were in a class at the library. The mom was paying NO attention to her ONLY child while I was trying to sing along with my older daughter while her brother slept in his carseat. In any event, this little brat scratched up his head and I snatched him away. The mother’s only excuse was that her daughter loved babies and was excited to be getting a new sibling herself soon. No apology, just that half-assed explanation. Then like five minutes later the little girl came over again and tried to get to my son. I gave her the nastiest look I could muster and she seemed to get the idea and run the other way. Ever since then, I CANNOT stand this chick or her kids. She and her bestie were the two I ran into today. I don’t speak to them ever, but I do notice when they are with their larger group of “those” moms they act like their precious angels are just perfect. Today though, they had NO control over their children and one little girl was screaming for help to get down from this climbing thing she got up on while her mother ignored her and chatted on the phone. I contemplated helping the little girl, but decided against it. Who knows what their deal is. Was I wrong? Possibly, but I was having enough trouble with my own misbehavers.

A few months ago when on a playdate with my normal mom/dad friends we saw the super group of “those” moms. They had come to the playground organized with balls, bubbles, and picnic lunches. All timed out and planned for their little tikes. Do I sound bitter? Maybe, but not because I wanted to do that. I have NO desire to spend that much time out in the heat with the bugs and neither do my kids. But I do find them highly annoying. I like to think of them as the popular girls. You know, the ones who peaked in high school. I feel like maybe they need to go out and get jobs to channel some of that hovering they’ve got going on. When I see them and the coddling they do of their kids I’m always reminded of those teenage brats that used to shop at the Gap when I worked there. There was lots of back talk and blatant disrespect to parents and the last thing our world needs is more of that! I like to think of myself as being in a smaller group of cool-adjacent kids. And I like that just fine.

I spend a sizable portion of my day with the running dialogue in my head. Why you ask? Well because I have a tendency to say what’s on my mind and everyone doesn’t like that. So I say it in my head and then I negotiate and decide what indeed should come out of my mouth. Alas, some days the old brain doesn’t seem to want to cooperate and people get to hear more than they bargained for.

For instance, when someone else’s nasty, snot-nosed, germy kid invades my child’s space I have to work really, really hard to not swat that little kid away. Instead I give him/her a very nasty look and if that doesn’t work, I say to my own child (who usually isn’t loving snot-nose either) that some kids don’t know how to behave in public. I say it loud enough so if that brats parent is around they can hear it. Wrong? Perhaps. Saving me from slapping their kid, definitely!

Sometimes the inner dialogue is all about taunting me. Today’s major internal conversation is surrounding the cinnamon rolls I made the other day. I had a delightful, healthy chicken salad sandwich for lunch and a glass of apple juice. Then I had a cinnamon roll (with extra icing). Great. But I really want to have another cinnamon roll now. I don’t need it and I know I don’t need it – as does my waist – so I’m trying really hard not to have one. The problem is, the debate raging in my head is beginning to sound like noise that could all be drowned out if I only went ahead and had another yummy roll. See, today the internal dialogue is doing me NO favors. I’m going to try and be strong though…

Either I’m getting old or I have too many activities during the week. I feel like I’ve been going non-stop since Monday. Between running my daughter to summer camp and trying to entertain my son while getting our errands done it has been an uphill battle. I know I’m odd, but I like staying in the house. We get up early around here so we can normally get everything done and be back in the house by 11:30am. Except this week that is.

I know I shouldn’t complain, but I am tired. I’m sure that has something to do with the fact that I also haven’t worked out in ages and need to get back to it. Once camp is done at least we can resume our morning run/walks. lol at least I hope we can.

Now all that’s left for the week is chores, chores, chores. Big sigh…

Today I decided that some of the house needed cleaning. So instead of sitting and watching tv relaxing my brain this afternoon, I got up and started cleaning. I entered receipts and filed them, checked the balances on the credit card, cleaned off the dining room table (don’t ask), cleaned up the island a bit, put all of the kids laundry away, vacuumed the toner up off the carpet in the basement (again, don’t ask), did all the prep work for dinner, and last but certainly not least, categorized and priced ALL the donations for charity that we’ve done and are planning to do in the coming months! Woo Hooo!!!! Go me

Unfortunately, all that energy exerted has left me slightly lazy this evening. I don’t quite know what to do with myself this evening. I kind of need to get to sewing the million and one projects I started, but that will cause me to be up too late tonight, I also kind of need to actually clean off my dresser and exercise too. Lol, yeah none of that is gonna happen. Well, at least I got my blog post done today right? Yay for me.

We get lots accomplished today OUTSIDE of the house. Spent my evening catching up with friends and going through my iTunes library. I wish more days ended this way

I’ve got more gardening posts to get up. Sadly, our Purple Bell pepper plant was viciously killed by some garden intruder. We were SO looking forward to trying those this year. Sigh…

I love my kids, but sometimes I get so complacent and lackadaisical that it takes a documentary like “Waiting for Superman” to awaken me. This moving, very eye-opening movie talks about the current state of the U.S education system. Long story short, it sucks. Not only does it suck, but it’s getting worse everyday and our children are stuck holding the bag.

This documentary made me remember that although we are not in an impoverished area, we still have to fight for our kids well being. The lack of accountability in the school system is staggering. We meet several young children with varying circumstances throughout this documentary. By the end I wish I had a million dollars so that I could pay for all of their educational needs through college. That and the fact that except by the grace of God we are not in their place were enough to emotionally exhaust me.

My kids are precious and wonderful and a delight. They drive me crazy but I will fight to the death for them and anything they need.

After all the excitement of Day 5, imagine our surprise when Day 8 rolled around and we had so much MORE to show for our efforts! Yay!!! Here’s all of our crops through Day 8.

So each day the kids and I would do the loop around the house to try and see if anything was growing. For the first few days we had nothing. Then I started to wonder if we would have anything to show for all of our hard work at all – patience is not necessarily my best skill. We planted on Sunday, May 15th so fora few days we just kept looking. Then a funny thing happened on the 5th day, May 20th. WE GOT LITTLE FLOWER BUDS!!!! I was so excited that I yelled for the kids to come look. Here’s what we saw:

Sunflower Buds

Zinnia Buds

Flower Buds

It was hard to keep the flowers straight but we think we had the proper things labeled in the proper places.

Even MORE exciting later that same day we went out back and saw these:

Beet Bud - reddish dot in middle of box

Bean Bud - middle left of box

Pea Buds - best grower yet!

Broccoli Buds - middle of box

Corn Bud - middle of box

We were beyond excited. The kids were jumping up and down and loving it. Now if only our tomatoes, cherries, and two types of carrots would start little buds we’d be full fledged gardeners!