Two Traditions

I have two non-negotiable traditions for the holiday season. ( I actually have several but these two are the only ones it's actually time for.)

1. I always put my Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving. Don't know why, it's just what my Mom always did, so it's what I do. It's a bit of a headache coming on the heels of all that work being done the previous day but it's always worth it when you see the end result. My boys are old enough this year to really enjoy looking at the tree so it's really been a labor of love. Plus, Lukas got to help hand the ornaments to me and Grover while we put them on the tree. Jakob? Well, he just played in the Christmas tree box. Wonder how soon he will start redecorating for us.:)

2. I never, ever, EVER shop on Black Friday. It's stressful, nerve-wracking, and if you're not careful, dangerous. All of these people lining up at 4 in the morning to stampede through a store just to save a little money. I'll spend the extra or I'll do without thank you very much. Some people thrive on it.....I am not one of those people. My mother used to love it and used to drag me to the sales every year on the day after Thanksgiving. Not a tradition I decided to keep. I did venture out today to buy some Christmas decorations and I kinda wished I had stayed at home. Why are so many people so darn mad during the Christmas season? Isn't this supposed to be the season of happiness, good will and peace on earth? (Yeah, I know it's supposed to be but oftentimes it's not.) If you're gonna be angry stay at home. If you're going to be rude, stay at home. If it's not your cup of tea, stay at home. If everyone did that the stores would not be nearly as crowded and I could get some shopping done;).

I'm going to go eat some turkey soup now, along with turkey sandwiches and turkey salad. Hmmmmmm......wonder if anyone has a recipe for turkey cookies??

Peace alllll..........

T Day:)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE !!!!!

Hope everyone has a safe and lovely Turkey Day with the ones that you love. God Bless!

Peace alllll............

Painting, Puberty and Pumpkin Pies

Okay, so this is the weirdest thing to happen to me this week. Grover and I (and Rachel too) were painting a house for this lady. Didn't start off too bad, really. We were contracted to do the kitchen, living room, hallway and two bedrooms. So, after we had finished painting the kitchen, hallway and living room and pulling the paneling from the bedrooms (which is pain in the tuchus let me tell ya!), we were ready to begin the painting in the bedrooms. Now, we had told the lady that she needed to move her furniture, or at least the bulk of it, out of the bedrooms so that we would have room to do the job in there. She knew she had to do this but did she? Of course not. So she left the keys with us over the weekend because she was going out of town. So we are in this house, alone.

We start moving the furniture out of the bedrooms, blah, blah, blah. And this woman has a collection of Barbie dolls. You know, the seriously collectible ones, like the holiday Barbies, etc. in the original packaging. Well, I thought that was interesting, considering this lady is in her late 50's but hey, to each his own. She also had a fabulous Mickey Mouse collection. Anyway, I'm moving all of this stuff to a third bedroom and I finally get to the closet which of course needs painting also. I move some stuff out of the way in the top of the closet and guess what is staring me in my face? A Sleeping Beauty doll........in a glass coffin. A real miniature glass coffin. WHAT THE HECK? She could have told us about this before I ran across it in a strange house, alone in this room in a strange neighborhood in the almost the middle of the night! What kind of weird woman is this?? I mean, yeah, I had a Sleeping Beauty doll when I was like 6 but it wasn't in its own little coffin. Morbidity aside though, the glass coffin thing was really kind of pretty......but disturbing.

Lukas decided the dog was hungry today and dumped a 50 pound bag of dog food in the bedroom floor for her. Not so worried about the mess, just concerned as to how a 3 year old could drag a 50 pound bag of dog food into the bedroom and flip it upside down onto the floor. What, am I raising the Hulk here?

Jakob has decided to start calling me and Grover both Mom. Guess just one of us isn't doing the job well enough;)

Joshua had his first "puberty" class in school today. You know, the one that we used to call "hygeine" or "watered down sex ed." He was more than a little disgusted by the fact that he and a room full of boys had to watch a video showing nothing but penises for 30 minutes. (I can understand this....penises are not the most attractive things in the world...but I don't guess they have to be to get the job done huh?) One of his classmates made the remark that he wished they had accidentally switched the tapes so they could have watched the girls video (disgusting little troll;)) but like I told Josh, what women have is just as ugly as what men have so don't sweat it. They aren't going to be entered in any beauty contests anyway. (although I wonder who would win "pretty penis of the year".....okay, now I'm just grossing myself out)

Two things I want for Christmas this year....the entire set of Little House on the Prairie books (I love those) and.....The Magic Bullet! Have you seen the infomercials for that thing....pretty nifty.

Anyway, for those of my friends and family who have issues with the traditional Thanksgiving greetings: happy day before Turkey Murder Day....or Anniversary of Native Americans Getting Screwed Over by the White Man Day. (I'm half-Cherokee so I can use that one freely while stuffing my face:)).......I'll eat your piece of pumpkin pie if you don't want it....you being so ticked off and all.

Now, I have to go see if all of my Christmas tree lights work.....and hope that the dog doesn't try to eat them if they do.

Peace alllllll..........

FGM and Free Piglet

Couple of things have been bothering me lately.

1. Was reading the other day about a bill being proposed in Nigeria to ban female genital mutilation (FGM), otherwise referred to euphemistically as 'female circumcision'. Most people are in favor of this bill and, in my opinion, anyone with half a brain would be. However, there is a very vocal opponent to this proposed bill. This person is a doctor. This person wrote a very eloquent dissenting opinion, preaching the value of FGM as a cultural and religious 'tradition'. This person just happens to be a man. Now, may I ask, what does a man really know about this issue and having to live with it? He doesn't have to deal with the fact that he will never be able to fully enjoy sex due to being cut on. And as long as it's not happening to him, I can see where it would be irrelevant as to what millions of others want, especially if they happen to be just women.

This is the kind of attitude that a lot of governments around the world have and it is just sickening. I know that to a lot of people I sound like a man-hating feminist with an attitude problem. I assure you this is not the case. I just do not understand why so many areas in the rest of the world live in this backwoods existence and with the belief that women are no more important than, say....cattle or a loaf of bread. It's this kind of thinking that has so many little girls languishing in orphanages in places like China waiting on someone to validate their existence as humans. In this country we pat ourselves on the back for our 'progression' in the area of women's rights but how can we do that when we ignore so many little girls and women being mistreated, tortured and killed because of 'tradition'??

2. There is a group of Muslims in Great Britain who have complained about the use (advertising) of Piglet...you know Winnie the Pooh's Piglet..because they feel that because he is a pig, it is an offense to Muslims. And now, in response to this coercion, London and number of other cities are removing any and all images of pigs, i.e. Piglet, piggy banks, etc. You get the picture. Can we get off of it please???? I mean, Jews don't eat pork, 7th Day Adventists don't eat pork. But the difference is, they don't care if YOU do, as long as they don't have to. I can't pray freely in public or read my Bible on a street corner without getting harassed. If a pastor in Canada says that homosexuality is a sin, he runs the risk of going to jail for 'hate speech'. So why in the name of common sense are entire governments bowing down to one religion's wishes in the name of 'tolerance'? You wanna be a Muslim, be one. That's your business, but please don't think that I am going to set my beliefs aside to make you comfortable. Tolerance and forebearance work both ways and I am really having an issue with non-Muslims being expected to make all of the concessions here. (And yes, I have discussed this issue with my Muslim friends and most of them can't make heads or tails of it either). So, I guess the squeaky wheel really gets the grease huh? While the rest of us just get greased.

Okay, I am now going to finish painting my "Free Piglet" t-shirt while I cook a pound of bacon and feed my dog some S'nausages.

Peace alllll..........

Easier Said Than Done

This is a list of the thoughts that have gone through my head at least once this past week since I decided to be a SAHM.

1. I didn't have a clue that this house was this dirty.
2. How many mismatched pairs of socks are in this house?
3. If I run across a body in this closet I won't be surprised.
4. Is that cheese?
5. Is this candy from this Halloween or last?
6. Can you name dust bunnies?
7. I'm glad that Cheerios are flushable.
8. I'm shocked that my husband doesn't know how to build a fort with blankets and chairs.
9. I'm not so shocked that my husband doesn't know how to really clean a bathroom.

Yep, this whole stay at home mom thing is a lottttt harder than it looks in the magazines people!

As soon as I get my house clean and the laundry done I'll let ya know. Shouldn't take more than a week or two.....if I'm lucky.:)

Peace allllllll

Done Deal

Well, I finally did it. I decided to quit my job in favor of being a stay at home mom for a while. Well, a part time SAHM at least. The rest of the time I will be working for Grover and the painting company, painting murals. The time that I will be working will be limited and it is something that I really enjoy doing, versus something that I am just used to doing.

So call me Grandma Moses and wish me luck on this, the latest fun filled chapter in my life! (Because right now I'm torn between being reeeeeeallllly excited and reaaaaaalllllly terrified;))

Peace alllll............

Listen Up

The Listener

"For who listens to us in all the world, whether he be friend or teacher, brother or father or mother, sister or neighbor, son or ruler or servant? Does he listen, our advocate, or our husbands or wives, those who are dearest to us?

Do the stars listen, when we turn despairingly away from man, or the great winds, or the seas or the mountains? To whom can any man say- Here I am! Behold me in my nakedness, my wounds, my secret grief, my despair, my betrayal, my pain, my tongue which cannot express my sorrow, my terror, my abandonment.

Listen to me for a day - an hour! - a moment!

Lest I expire in my terrible wilderness, my lonely silence! O God, is there no one to listen?

Is there no one to listen? you ask. Ah, yes, there is one who listens, who will always listen. Hasten to Him, my friend! He waits on the hill for you.

For you alone."

Seneca

The most desperate need of man today is not a bigger car, a bigger house, a better job. It is not more associates and acquaintances. It is not more gadgets to keep him insulated from the rest of the world. It is not cell phones, ipods, palm pilots and computers. It is not entertainment...big screen televisions, stereos. It is not lights and noise and activity.

His real need, his most terrible need, his deepest desire is for someone to listen. Not as an afterthought, not while they are busy doing something else. But to sit down and really listen to what he has to say. Those thoughts and fears and dreams which come from their very soul.

We need to tell someone what we think when we are trying to fiugre out why we were born, what our purpose is, what our legacy will be. And we need responses that come from the heart rather than the latest self-help best seller. We need someone to just try to understand....to listen.

I am sure that you have done a lot of talking today....your parents, your kids, your wives and husbands, your friends, your bosses, your co-workers. We have done a lot of talking but have we really listened?

Who have you listened to today? Whose burden have you offered to take up?

Who have you listened to today? Really listened, with patience and kindness, not while you were waiting to do something else, not while you were waiting on your turn to talk.

We were born with a need to express ourselves without fear. We were also born with a need to be heard, truly heard.

Who have you heard today?

Better yet, who have you listened to?

Peace alllll...............

Reality Check

When I was 18, I was going to change the world. I was going to be different. I was going to make a difference. I was going to be like E.F. Hutton....when I talked, people were going to listen. I was anyway.......

20 years later and I realize that life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. I'm different alright;).......sometimes that's a good thing and other times, well.....maybe not so much.

Who knew that when I was making all of those plans 20 years ago, that today I would be dealing with two toddlers with colds, snotty noses, a household that looks like it was just turned upside down and a dog who likes to chew on the handles of my husband's tools?

Who knew back then that the only thing that I would have managed to change today is my clothes? (and I consider myself fortunate to be able to do that;))

Who knew?? Not me.

And looking back, if I could change anything that got me to this point today, would I change anything? Anything at all?

Not a thing:)

The kids will eventually get over their colds, the house will one day be clean (yeah, right...one day), the dog will understand what a Jumbone is for and I will be able to take a leisurely bubble bath, versus a 5 minute shower with the bathroom door open while the kids are napping. So,things change on their own. They don't need my interference.

So, if I had the power to change it I wouldn't. My life may not be as glamorous or as high profile as I had thought it would be when I was 18. I may not be rich, or famous, or stunningly beautiful. But look what I got in return...Josh, Lou, Boo and Grover. Who in their right mind would give that up?

Not me.

Yeah, they're loud, messy, sometimes grouchy and always funny. But they're mine:)

(See, I told y'all I was a little nuts;))

Peace allllll............