A 3 year old...'nough said

Okay, for those of you who do not have children, I want to say that they are a blessing and they bring so much joy to our lives. For those who have very young (read less than one year) children, this is a warning!

Luke, my beloved 3 year old son, the love of my life, did something today that he was so proud of. He needed to go potty this morning (gotta love it once they're potty trained!) so I said go. And he went. Although after some time I realized he was taking quite a while and it was very quiet. Just as these thoughts were going through my mind, I heard the toilet flush and he came out with a huge smile on his face. So I thought to myself, he must have gone poop. That usually takes a while. But then he said, "Mommy, come see what I did!"

Uh-oh...the words that strike fear in the hearts of parents everywhere. I just thought to myself, he's proud of whatever he did. Don't get mad. Be prepared for the worst. The worst doesn't even prepare me for what was to come. I figured he had just played in the sink and had gotten water everywhere. Oh no, that would have been too clean. Too easy.

We walked into the bathroom, and he showed me his masterpiece. Kitty litter in the toilet. Not just regular kitty litter. The clumping kind. And the toilet was getting ready to overflow. Let's just say that in my mind I was freaking out, and screaming, and yelling. But on the outside, I got down to Luke's level and looked right into his eyes and calmly said, "Luke this is a no-no. This is very bad. You broke the toilet. Did you hear me? You broke the toilet. You can not put kitty litter in the toilet." He looked at me with his big blue eyes welling up with tears and asked, "Can we get a new one?"

Well, for the next, oh, I don't know, half hour to 45 minutes I scooped as much kitty litter out of the toilet as I could. It had gotten down into the hole, so I couldn't get it all out. But thank God for American Home Shield. $35 later, the plumber had come and snaked out the toilet. And it's a good thing he came when he did, because what I didn't realize is that the toilet had started to overflow again. There was water and kitty litter on the floor all around the toilet.

I think Luke has learned his lesson. Everytime I ask him if you can put kitty litter in the toilet he looks at me and says, "Noooooo, mommy." Good enough for me!

A friend in need...

Do you ever long for a really good friend? I feel like all my life I've looked for a best friend - someone with whom I connect spiritually, emotionally, mentally. Now before anyone tells me that my husband should be my best friend, I am here to tell you that he is. I love him and we do have a good relationship. But I'm talking about a female friend. It's completely different. Throughout my life, I've had probably two friends that I would consider "best friends".

The first is Vanessa. We met while our family lived in New Zealand. For the first six months we lived there I had a hard time making any real friends (I was 14 years old. A terrible time in my life.). But then, somehow, through mutual friends we just clicked. Although we have little contact these days, I still consider her one of my best friends. It was just one of those relationships that was a gift from God.

The second is Jennifer. We've known each other our whole lives, going to church together. I guess it was after we had graduated from high school that we just started doing everything together. We had some great summers together, memories that are so sweet and fun - nostalgia at its best! I love getting together with her and reminiscing. But just like so many friendships, things change, people change, and we drifted apart. Nothing bad really happened, we just kind of stopped calling. She had started hanging out with a co-worker, and I had gotten married. We were just in different places in our lives.

So, it's been a long time since I've had what I would consider a best friend. Probably about eight years or so. I've got friends, but no one that I really share anything with. That's what I'm looking for. And ideally this friend would have a husband that my husband could be good friends with. I guess I'm looking for community. And I don't have it - at least I don't have my ideal of it. We are very close to my sister and her husband...but I really want someone outside of my family. Someone who gives me a different perspective.

I guess that I need to turn back to God for this. It is by answered prayer that he gave me the above mentioned friends. If I'm truly looking for a friend that will be what is good for me...He is the answer. He knows best the kind of friend I need.

I'm being sucked in!

I went to an MLM party tonight...you know the kind. The home parties where you can buy anything from dishes to sex toys. (Yes, I said sex!) Anyway, I am a consultant for an MLM company. It's okay, but I'm not really a sales person and I'm not very aggressive so it's mostly just a periodic hobby. But tonight I went to an Arbonne party. It's all my sister's fault! She invited my mom and me to go to a mutual acquaintance's launch party.

Now I have to tell you - I love makeup! I try not to spend too much money on it, but if I could have every color (that looks good on me) of every type of makeup, I would be a happy girl. But I digress. Everytime I go to these parties I always think, "I could do this. This is a good product. I could convince people to buy this. It's only (blank) dollars to join." I need to slap myself. Tonight was no different. I think I might want to sign up to be a consultant. The products are excellent, and I would get a discount. That's what appeals to me. So now, I need to take the time to tell myself that I don't need to do this, I don't need to spend the money, and the makeup I use now is just fine. I'll keep you updated on how well I convince myself.

Antarctica Fever

Our homeschooling co-op has been studying continents for the past eight months or so...and we finished up this month with Antarctica. My friend and I were in charge of putting together this one. I didn't think it would be all that interesting, but it really was.

We didn't do major research - we just hit the highlights. Basically you have to fit all your information into a 2 hour time span. We had the kids create lapbooks with all of the pictures and facts about explorers, research stations, types of ice (did you know there are 6 different types of ice in Antarctica?), how you get there, what you wear, and animals that live there (very few!).

It was a lot of fun, but I am exhausted! I went to work this morning, so I could do co-op this afternoon. So basically I've been going nonstop all day. Now I know I shouldn't complain, because the majority of our population works all day, but I don't...and I'm not used to it at all. I feel like I could lay down and sleep till the morning. So I'll definitely sleep well tonight! I can't even type straight!!! I keep getting all my letter mixed up. I should leave it like I'm typing and see if you can figure it out!

Anyway, Brian's out of town again, but it has been a much better week this time! No freak outs on my part. And the dog is behaving herself. That's a blessing all by itself!

Happy Easter!

Well, this is the second time I've written this...Luke turned off the computer, and I had forgotten to save my blog. So here it goes again...

We had a wonderful Easter weekend. It was a time of fun and renewal and new things! On Saturday, our neighborhood had a BBQ and Easter Egg Hunt. Then on Sunday we got to celebrate Easter in our new meeting place. We're renting a hall on a weekly basis, and it was so wonderful to meet in a place that felt like "church". Meeting at my parents' home was nice for the time being, but it's time to move upward and onward. So we had the best Easter service I've been to in years (IMHO).

After church we came home, had a light lunch, and then the boys hunted for their baskets. And after that we went to see Disney's "The Wild". It was okay, but not up to Disney standard. However, the boys enjoyed it, and it was a nice break. Dinner at my parents' was next, again we had a wonderful time...the food was delicious and we had good conversation and laughs.

I hope your Easter was just as wonderful as mine!


The semi-annual family picture


The boys, looking slightly deranged,
after their Easter basket hunt

Holy Eggbeaters, Batman!

I'm sitting here reading blogs, and my boys (all three of them) are watching a Scooby Doo movie. The one with Batman & Robin. It's a crack-up to listen to all of the "Holy Fill-in-the-Blank, Batman!" comments.

But the one thing I love about Scooby Doo is that Paul laughs hysterically at this cartoon. And I love to hear him laugh. He's a pretty serious kid, so he doesn't do it often. When he does though, it's like music to your ears. I think hearing my boys laugh is one of my favorite sounds in the world. They were cracking each other up tonight at dinner, and it just makes you want to laugh right along with them. We should all lighten up, and laugh a little more. I think we'd be a lot better off!

"An excellent deduction, Robin."

This is the life

Being a mom is never dull. Yesterday morning Paul came into my room and said, "I gave Luke some milk to drink because he ate nail polish." It was so matter of fact, like it was no big deal. Just thought I'd letcha know, Mom. The funny thing about it was, I thought it was pretty smart of Paul to give Luke milk. I don't know if it was the right thing to do, but it was clever.

Needless to say, I'm not sure Luke really ate the polish, so much as he got some in his mouth. There was polish all over his face, his fingernails, his hands, his toenails, and his legs. He looked charming with coral colored polish everywhere. I should have taken a picture...oh well, maybe next time (ha!).

Not only was it on his person, but it was on my carpet. Thanks to the internet I got most of it out. Rubbing alcohol works wonders. However, there's still a stain there. I need to try scrubbing it some more. I just got tired of scrubbing yesterday. The blessing of it is that the stain is behind the couch. Luke was obviously hiding because he knew he was doing something wrong. A guilty conscience...at least he has one.

Okay, okay

I've really had a chance to get back to normalcy with Brian back home. But I'll tell you what happened to Paul that Tuesday. It seems so long ago, now.

A couple of Tuesdays ago, we went on a field trip with our homeschool group to the movie theater, which was a lot of fun. Afterward, the some of the moms were standing around talking, and the kids were running around, goofing off, and generally just playing. Well one of the boys tends to have a violent streak, and I saw him starting to rough house with Paul. So I went over, and firmly told him that that was unacceptable and not to mess with Paul. (The boy is 8, and Paul is 5.) It was fine, just kids being kids, and I did my job as a parent. Then a while later, a second little boy thought it would be funny to grab Paul's arms and hold them behind his back, because he didn't like the way Paul was swinging them around. Well the first little boy saw that boy #2 was holding Paul's arms, and saw that as an invitation to punch Paul in his side.

I LOST IT!!!!! I told both boys under no uncertain terms were they to ever touch my son again, and if they did, they would have me to deal with. And the second boy, who's a friend btw, was told that if he ever did anything like that again, that he would never play with Paul again.

At least my friend was supportive in what I did and she made her son (the friend) write a letter of apology to me and one to Paul, and punished him. I'm not sure what happened with the first boy. His mom apologized to me while we were there, but I never heard anything more about it from the boy.

After that though, I was basically an emotional basketcase the rest of the day. And I realize as I've written these past three posts that I sound like I'm emotional basketcase all the time. I'm not....really! It was just a bad week. And, (guys close your eyes) I was dealing with PMS which seemed to hit really hard this time, for whatever reason. So that was my Tuesday while Brian was gone. Things seemed to be better after that, and now things are back to normal...like I said earlier. Yeah!!!

Now here's my lesson I need to learn. Lean on God. I didn't do that at all. And if I had, I know my week would have been so much better. So if you see me write a post like that again, send me a note that says, "Remember the lesson you learned...lean on God!"