i must be a horse... right?

...or a cow, pig, chicken, sheep or any number of other farm animals. i've come to this conclusion because at least two of my children (still waiting to see about the 3rd) were apparently BORN IN A BARN! now i don't remember giving birth to any of them in a barn, but the process of childbirth does weird things to you and i've about 'laborland' that people enter while preparing to give birth and perhaps 'laborland' is actually a barn. they exhibit the characteristic behavior - the inability to shut doors. seriously, how hard is it to shut a door? very hard apparently. i couldn't possibly count how many flies are buzzing around in our house at any given time because of this. oh well, what we lack in the absence of disease-carrying insects we make up for in air circulation! right?

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boxed in.

so i’m feeling a little bit stifled right now. when i took over responsibility for shane’s education, i knew i was making a big time/lifestyle commitment. i also figured that layla and eventually, micah would be involved in this endeavor. i knew that i was stepping out into a great unknown, having never completely done this sort of thing before. it was an experiment. in general, this experiment has gone well. not entirely as planned, but well, nonetheless. i mean really, when you’re dealing with kids (or other human beings, for that matter) what does go as planned. but at this point, i have to say that homeschooling is NOT my favorite thing. it’s not that i can’t do it. it’s not that shane isn’t learning. it’s not that i’m excessively overwhelmed or that i feel like i’m failing. it’s not any of that. the best thing i can figure out is that i feel ‘boxed in’. i feel like my time and opportunities are so limited for all of us. it’s not just about shane, and with layla and micah so mu...

meal plan monday… and idiot-proof shopping.

so last week was horrible in the ways of all things homemaking. i think i made more mess and distress than home. but i’m back on the wagon this week so here we go. monday: ham, baked potatoes, green beans tuesday: beef stew, sourdough wednesday: soy chicken, rice, salad thursday: meatloaf, fries, peas & carrots friday: pizza & beans saturday: navy bean & ham soup, sourdough sunday: waffles, sausage now here’s my gripe of the day: how big of idiots do people think we are? a couple of weeks ago, i went to buy a pack of tortillas. i generally buy the soft taco size, since that’s usually what i’m using them for. i was dismayed to see that they now sell them in 3 sizes; small, medium and large. WHAT? no burrito size? makes them sound really authentic, huh? today, i was at fred meyer and i needed a package of navy beans. so i go to the bean aisle. there were no navy beans. ...

how to clean your room

i was discussing this sort of thing w/ my MIL recently and she said there were some books she had when the boys were young that explained things to kids that adults often tell them to do w/out giving them explicit instructions. so i thought about it and decided to write my own. i mean, really, if i expect shane to clean his room, i ought to tell him HOW i want him to clean it, so he knows what i expect. so i wrote them out. keep in mind, these are 9 year old instructions. they would have to be adjusted accordingly. i actually don’t expect him to do much less than i would expect of myself. (bummer for him!) How to clean your room: strip your bed. put all dirty clothes in the laundry basket put all clean clothes in the closet or dresser put all shoes in the rack on the door. pick up everything off the floor and put it on your bed to sort. start by throwing away anything that’s trash. return anything that doesn’t belong in your r...

displeased, at odds, feeling kinda… itchy.

not like in a ‘get some calamine lotion’ way… I’m just kind of in a funk. I seem to do this periodically, when there’s not a lot going on. maybe I just finally have time to sit back and reflect at what is/has been going on in my life because I’m not running here and there LIVING it for a change. we’ve been SUPER busy the last several months… with the house buying and the packing and the moving and the unpacking and the end of school thing and the moms club thing and the pasadena wedding thing and the birthday thing and the stp thing… and all that time it was this mantra… if I can just get through may! which turned into “if I can just get through june!” well, here we are nearing the end of july, and minus a few outstanding commitments and other such stuff I need to get done, I’m sitting here in the middle of summertime ‘life as usual’. late nights, late mornings, little plan of what we need to do or where we need to go… it’s SO nice! unfortunately (or probably the opposite), it gives me...

fillet of sole

so i sat micah at the table today to eat his lunch. he had a plate of food, a fork to eat it with, he was buckled into his seat, and had shoes on his feet. i left the room and came back to find him out of his chair, done with his food, and this scene: want a closer look? i know you do… yes, that’s a fork IN the shoe. have i mentioned he’s a total houdini? the straps are still buckled and it’s impossible to get them tight enough to keep him in. but i’m loving that he left a shoe behind. it’s so cinderella. i’m kind of thinking at this point that i should maybe look inside the shoe, just to be sure he didn’t stash any of his lunch in there. i’ve said it before, i never claimed to have normal kids. at least he ate…

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