My stomach hurts. It's that pain you get where it hurts so bad, you wonder if you have an ulcer. But it's not. My head hurts. It's that throbbing pain that gets worse when you think about how much it hurts. and no medicine will help. I'm just miserable. All I want to do is go curl up somewhere and sleep till it's over, but I can't. I have to clean up the house. I've been letting it go becuase I just didn't want to deal with it and now...now, I really need to deal with it. I'...

The walk to school is 7 blocks, 8 if you count the extra long block as 2. Usually, my concern is with keeping my pre-schooler from trying to walk the whole way by himself and to keep the peace between the 3 kids who walk together. Today on the way home however I was ready to pull my hair out by block 4. My darling daughter, who is nearly two, decided that since she couldn't get out and play in the mud she would SCREAM. Nothing I did would make her stop. By block 5, I had the urge to s...

So our house is 1150 sq ft. It is becoming increasingly cramped as our two children grow. At some point we need another room. We have a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house that isn't cutting it anymore. Right now we are looking at adding a 16x20 room on. That means evaluating contractors, talking to the bank about a loan or equity LOC, weighing the costs vrs the payout later. I've talked to realtors to appraise the home's value now and with the addition. That was a nightmare, but it only served...

Okay, I wasn't outsmarted like the title implies but my kids did deliver a hefty shock to me this morning. It all started about 2 weeks ago.... I knew school started at 0730 and that to get to school ontime we would have to leave at the LATEST by 0710. Since my kids sleep in till 0730 or even 0800 then I figured it was time to start enforcing a bedtime again. No more staying up till 9 or 930. We were back to 8pm bedtimes. Plus I need to start getting up earlier so I can be dressed and...

Just as Discourses of a 4 year old and Thoughts of a 3 year old covered my son's life.....this series is about my daughter. I figured that I better start writing down the crazy stuff she does or I'll never remember it to use as "embarassment ammo" later! My son insisted that all liquids were milk. Water, Juice, everything. My daughter found a baggie of water (remains of an icepack) and has been walking around, peering through it as though it's a magnifying glass. and she makes sure t...

So today in the bath, my 4 year old yells, "MOOOOOMMM" I come running. "What's this?" (Internal sigh.) "That's your scrotum." (Brace myself.....here it comes. Think: Do I have to deal with this already?) "What's it for?" "What's it do?" "Why do I get one?" "You have it because you are a boy. That's just the way it is." (Please leave it at that. Please.....) "oh, okay. Did you know that I am as strong as Superman?" (Thank goodness)

My son is full of unique sayings and habits. One of them was cute.....and now is quite annoying. When he hears a loud noise (or a reprimand) he covers his ears and complains that the noise is "Nooy-ing". But while he may pick some things that really drive me crazy, he also pops out with some pretty cool stuff. This afternoon he was playing video games with HW and he explained how in the "bad guy city" there are lots of different bad guys. Some of them are ghosts and they are "trap-para...

I know you have heard them. If you are a parent, you probably have used them. The THREAT. The ones that are completely ridiculous that spew out of your mouth when your kids drive you crazy. "If you don't stop hitting your brother, so help me, I will sell you to the gypsies." You will hear the phrase, "so help me", "when your father comes home", when I get you home" interjected into many sentences like extranious punctuation. Here's my list. "....I'll beat you with a pickl...

This is my daughter. My little girl is learning about temper tantrums. She is trying to perfect the art of throwing herself on the floor as dramatically as possible and bursting into tears. She's very good at it. Except when she looks up out of the corner of one eye to see how the judges are rating her performance. While I am sure there will be many many cute stories and tales of her adorable, cute behaviour, I am putting this on the record today. She is a drama queen. ...

I accomplished my dailiy chores (in about an hour as per the Flylady routine) and I got my laundry folded, so I decided to try and do something extra. I looked on Flylady.com for the detailed cleaning of the week. She has zone 1 listed. According to her schedule, that inclueds the entrance, front porch and dining room. The dirty yard chairs that have been sitting outside, unused for over a year are driving me crazy. Everytime I see them it bugs me becuase when we need them, we don't ...

I hate housework. This is not to say I dislike it. I really HATE cleaning. Toilets, tubs, floors, laundry. blech. I hate feeling like a maid. I hate feeling like I'm the only one who cleans up or does the distateful jobs around the house. I also hate to live in a pigsty. I love when my home is clean and sparkling. I like to relax in a well organized home where things are put away and I can have people stop by without fear of embarassment. These two attitudes don't mesh well...

I am now part of the suburban dream. One of the frenzied crowd of moms driving a minivan full of carseats and kids. Gone are the days of coolness.....welcome to accepting the fact I am an adult. I fought growing up as long as possible and the day has finally arrived. sigh. At least my minivan is cool. I have a 2006 Honda Odyssey EX-L (leather, DVD, Navigation system, voice recognition etc etc.) I have more bells and whistles thank I ever thought possible. HW will have to write t...

"Mom. I need to excercise." "um, okay. What should we do? Jumping jacks?" "no" "Running?" "no" "pushups?" "no....um YES!" *commence said pushups* "Now should we touch our toes, then reach way up to the sky?" "MOM! I can't touch the sky, my arms are too short." Once again, the obvious answer bit me in the butt. Thanks, kid. You really are smart. And girl is catching on too. She was playing in the computer room (a no-kid zone) and I was encouraging her to...

"Mom, I need to go outside and eat a peanut butter and sandwich." (smirk) "Peanut butter and what? Peanut butter and pickle?" "MO-OM." (eyes roll) "A peanut butter and Jewwy Sandwich...I need to eat it outside" "Well, it's a little cold out, I think you should eat inside today." (sigh) "Mom, sometimes a little boy just has to eat his sandwich outside." I am still surprised when you say stuff like this....you sound so grown up for a split second....and you sound like your...

I'm cleaning the bathroom and I hear my son's voice calling me from the other room. It's that sightly urgent, but not quite an emergency voice. "Mom! MOM! MOM!" (me) "What's up?" "Do you like rectangles?" (me) "Well, um, sure. I never really thought about it." "Oh. Okay." The end. So where did that come from? So what's your vote on the rectangle issue? Are you pro-rectangle or pro-trapiziod? Now, remember, this could be important in the next presidential election!...