Don’t have a toddler in your life? You are missing out on a lot, if you don’t. So far, this has been a real roller coaster ride, but my little man has begun coming into his own… well, as this stage of his life will allow. When Little Drake turned 2 years old, last March, he said that the object of the game will now be just keeping him from hurting himself and he has been proven correct again, and again. He will turn 3 years old in just a month, now, and I think I’ll be attempting to do some comparisons between 2 and 3…. It’s been a ride!
This video is hysterical! But I’d advise to view it before letting your little ones because there are parts that they might like try out.
There should be a disclaimer: “Don’t try this at home.”
I love Sean Morey’s humor, though. I’ll be posting more of his stuff soon.
Shhhhhhh! Don’t say that too loud: I-have-nothing-to-do. Well, I did just start a potato soup recipe.
But really. The house is clean and I don’t have any major housekeeping chores looming over my head. Why… What…. How do I find myself in this situation, you ask? I hosted my first playgroup today. I was crazy yesterday, trying to clean, but mostly procrastinating… torn between the desire to crochet and the responsibility of cleaning house. Geez, I am so hungry! I have to stop writing for a bit……
Back, oh 1/2 hour later. Finished the soup and can’t wait to see how it tastes. I’m letting the flavors “blend”.
Back to the cleaning thing. Better write fast as my thoughts are already fading fast, which was my problem over the summer. <Let out deep breath> I find myself sitting in a clean and, most importantly, orderly house. Why don’t I learn my lesson for good? Well, I did, but as with everything, I keep falling back into my bad habits. I have no idea if I’m t……….. oh, shit. Gabe just spilled a ton of water and I had to mop it up. Thank goodness it was just water…. <big sigh> As I was saying, I have no idea if I am truly, simply put, lazy or if it’s something else. I am hoping it’s something else because “lazy” doesn’t sound good. <took time out to comfort son who found something “wrong” with his beads and is flinging them across the room, whining to himself>……………………
……. Tried to get Little Drake down for a nap, but it was a no go 15 min. later. See, this is my life, bouncing from one thing to another. So how can I possibly get some decent writing time where I can just collect my thoughts for long enough to write them down. BTW, the soup is a keeper!
Right. Getting back to clean-talk. I’ve always been intimidated by the thought of cleaning. The women in my family are despot fanatics. Me, on the other hand… WAY over on the other hand, avoid cleaning like the plague. It’s not that I don’t like a clean house, but the road there has always been a long, slow, rocky one. You know those dreams where you are running in the fog to someplace you’ve got to get to yesterday? That’s me. Running furiously, every muscle in my body straining to reach further and further, in slow motion, and getting absolutely nowhere. Part of the problem is, believe it or not, is that I am too much the perfectionist. I remember locking myself in the bathroom… just like my son is doing right now, wait a sec…. Okay. I’d stay literally all day in the bathroom trying to clean it. It was my one chore and I had such a hard time getting it done. I could not focus for long enough. Part of my problem was that I as such a klutz. I’d clean one area on the sink, then, when cleaning an adjoining area, I’d mess up the first area. That would get me so frustrated and I hit a brick wall. Of course what followed was intense avoidance.
Fast forward to now. Well, during the course of the past year, I joined a Mom’s Club in our area. The main reason for joining was the playgroups because Little Drake just doesn’t have kids his own age to play with around here. Somehow or another, these girls got the idea that I was “only” in it for the playgroups and I think that was the reason why I always felt like no one was interested in getting to know “me”. Sure the playgroups was what got me off my duff to get out there, but I also do not have any friends of my own, so, I was looking to make friends, too. Anyway, playgroups were not working out for one reason or another. I am guessing that part of the problem is that I don’t make friends easily. I’m not the type of person to get into, what I’ll call for now, “frilly” conversations. You know the ones. Those things we talk about when we are really wishing we were somewhere else… the weather, makeup, fashion, or “those Jets”. A former horrid topic was “kids” and the cutesy things they do; but now I’m one of those who crossed over to the KIDDIE SIDE…wooooo. I am not trying to imply that these women talk about frilly topics… but I am just trying to say where MY head is at.
Our playgroups get re-grouped regularly, so this time around, I offered to host right away. I am learning so much about being social… I am not a socialized individual. I never know how to clean, you know? I mean, what are those chores you can do days before and still look presentable when it’s showtime? When do you wash the floor? When do you dust? When do you clean the bathroom? When do you vacuum? I’ve always had a problem with this because there are just some things you need to do right on the same day… then pray nobody uses the sink or the toilet! The end result for me is that I do it all the night before and right up to the time people are scheduled to come; and this is what happened to me today. So last night I ran around like a maniac after both males of the house were sound asleep. I washed the bathroom, cleaned the kitchen, dusted and straightened up all the usual (and unusual) clutter centers of the house.
Bright and early this morning, because playgroup is at 10am, I cleaned the foyer, shook out the front mat, swept the porch, steps and walkway. Back inside, I shoved the Drake’s empty boxes into his closet, made the bed with spread and pillows, made LD’s bed, made sure I had snacks, juice and coffee (with accessories) accessible on the kitchen counter. Did I mention whipping out the vacuum and to my horror, it was not picking up even the smallest of particles? No….. YES. When I got to LD’s bedroom, the room that the kids would surely visit, it spit out dust balls the size of my hand, accompanied by sprays of shimmering dust particles… Mission Control, we have a p-r-o-b-l-e-m! After digging out a clothing store tag from the hose, I got allmostsome whatever-dust-I-got-I-got off the floor. Oh, then I showered without washing my hair.
10:00am…. 10:05am….. 10:10am. I think that was when the first of the mommies got here. We all had a nice time, well, I know that I did. Little Drake even did a great job sharing his toys, even though he had his moments. Two hours later, they were gone and I was left with a day of leisurely guilt-free time. Unfortunately, the Drake will not be home until late. I was also supposed to have people here from this Mom’s club, but nobody responded to the event on our calendar; but Drake had already made his plans.
Oh well, just another day in the life. Oh, and here’s a present, blast from the past for reading this far:
I do have a post coming out soon, but I found this and thought it was cool. Maybe more for my crafty friends; but makes a great project for a school project. I think it’s also a nice way to get into origami.
Sorry about the inconvenience if some of you wanted to comment on my last post, “Alcohol In Celeb City“. Somehow the comments were turned off; and now, they are back one, so comment away if you so desire. A big Thank You to Robert of DragonLife for pointing that out to me. Don’t understand about the comments because I allow comments and pings as a default. Also, something is wacky with the widgets again as the music is gone, too. I’ll have to check it all out again.
Thank you for your patience!
UPDATE…. Justin: Sorry, thought I’d posted this already! Everything should be okay, now for the widgets.
Do not know how many of you had problems, but evidently, WP had “a problem” that took all my widgets off the page and now I’ve got to try and remember which ones to put back up and in what order they were. Thankfully, the contents of the text widgets were preserved.
Okay, Justin tagged me and as far as I can see, I must tell you 5 little or unknown things about myself in prose, so here it goes (eh eh!)
I figured out with 5-7-5 is, but as you can see, I make my OWN rules!
1. Push the veil back on mystery, and know that I love history
In the far misty past my own spirit was cast
A Dragon out of time, still finds her way to shine.
2. Sparkle and my red heart will sing, for I can’t deny I love bling.
Colors of the rainbow entrance me, eyes aglow
I do not collect bones but do collect rhinestones.
3. I love most the sand, wind and waves; this dragon misses and still craves
days and nights by the sea, I wonder if I’ll ever be
back in the warm sun and soar, to tickle my toes just once more.
4. I have a mean streak did you know? Enemy from within, my foe.
My dark side always here, apart of me I fear
All parts make up the one. Understand that, you’ve won.
5. My mind is so blank I cannot blink, yet I am not a Dink.
Where are they now, my two dink friends? Wish I could spy them with my lens
Can you guess I love new places, new scenes, new eats, new towns and faces?
Wow, just noticed that I topped 10,000 hits yesterday! Whoa Whoo!
Don’t know about you, but I find that incredible. Think about that number in years, like 10,000 years ago; OR 10,000 years in the future. Both ways mind boggling. 10,000 jelly beans. 10,000 fire ants crawling all over you… on second thought, don’t. If they did, you’d probably be dead. 10,000 anything is a way big number.
A few more blog stats: 165 posts (with this one) 519 comments 1,523 spam comments blocked by Akismet
So, just want to say thank you to all my readers out there for thinking that I have something worthy to spend your precious time reading. I know what it’s like to try and prioritize my blog “reading”, let alone posting blogs and comments. It can get crazy sometimes.
Okay. This one I cannot bear to do. The assignment for today was to simply post a picture of the Iraq War and talk about it. Simple, right? Not so simple. I saw some images tonight that are literally still turning my stomach; yet, if I posted a picture of less impact, less GOREY, that would be avoiding the raw truth of what is happening over there.
I think I’ve already mentioned that, as a mother, I am worried sick that my 2 year old son will be recruited, or drafted in the future. After seeing these pictures, I realize how so out of touch I really am with the realities of the wider world. I wonder at how easy I’ve had it up to now and I wonder when/if the shoe will fall. I feel guilty because I have a good life and there are people out there in the world, in Iraq, who are like me, just trying to live and they live in horror, in fear of that shoe falling every day…. I am so weak.
AND the shoe falls every single day.
Time runs on in our little, private bubbles in the U.S.
Just realized that I’ve not written yet on April 3rd’s Topic, so I’ll write my contribution now, ironically, on the eve of the Resurrection of the Prince of Peace. Here are the questions:
Third Tuesday Topic Tuesday, 3 April 2007
Try to imagine yourself as a lifelong Iraqi citizen.
What do you think would motivate you?
How do you think your life would change if foreign combatants left the country?
How do you think you would feel about the United States and other occupying countries?
I can imagine that if I were a life long Iraqi citizen, right now I’d be so totally scared to walk out of my house. I’d be worrying every day if the last person to walk out of the house would live long enough to come back home. I’d be scared that we would need to leave my homeland to escape persecution by every foreigner who was trying to “help” us. I’d want to get involved, but would be afraid to. I’d be a quivering idiot, probably living in the farthest corner of my home, in a closet, afraid of everything.
I have a son, 2 yrs. old; and I’d be afraid for his life. I’d be afraid that a bomb or missile will hit us and he’d be killed. Then I be thinking that maybe living to adulthood for him would be far worse as war and violence has a tendency of warping the young mind. I would fear that my beautiful, gentle little boy will be hardened by a hard, violent life, his innocence being the first casualty to be mourned just as assuredly as his physical body would be.
As I wrote that last sentence, I think that if I could save the young from a fate worse than death, I would work towards that. The young are the future and how we raise our children will affect our future, their future.
How do I think my life would change if foreign combatants left the country? Well, I do not think that life would immediately change all that much. Maybe after awhile, but I can’t see it changing for the better for some time because even if the foreigners are gone, I’d have to contend with my own countrymen who would be scrambling for power at the top. I’d be afraid of my neighbor accusing me of being a traitor just because we had a disagreement. I see these times being very unstable and while I’d have hope for a better day, I would wonder how long that better day would take to get here.
During occupation, I would try to trust those who profess to helping us. I’d try to take each day as it comes to treat them as human beings and not monsters. With that said, I would still not be able to forget that they were the ones in the first place who caused my world to turn upside down. For the better? Only time will tell. Will I be alive when that happens? I would hope so, but hope is a scarce commodity.
