Shabby Miss Jenn

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Anything and Everything.

My children are very smart, but if genius runs in their veins, then, so does a lack of common sense as is typical for geniuses. Or that stubborn superiority, whichever tick they all individually share that allows them to be ignorant when asked to follow typical social protocol. I.E., mommy asked you to clean up your cars about fifteen times, and instead you're playing with your legos. Or watching t.v. Or playing with Barbie dolls. And then your father comes home and because you still haven't picked up your cars, the ultimate punishment: the garbage bag! Horrors!

Sincerely, you would think they would comprehend what garbage means, correct? So why don't they pick them up? A spanking/time out/restriction doesn't aid the matter, instead, it seems to perpetuate it. Further shove them into that little turtle shell of "screw you" that they all wear. Oh, wait, that's not a genius/anti-social gene, it's just children, in general! And all of my children are completely typical. Even if they were Einstein, I'd expect them to clean their rooms. As I'm sure he did, at one point in his childhood.

I hate to watch them cry, so it's gut wrenching to see the toys taken away. It's a sad lesson to have to follow through with, and they all know that mommy really isn't going to actually throw your toys away. Daddy will. Mommy promised to take them to the pirate ship if they cleaned their rooms, all week long, every day a reminder, and still-no clean rooms. Even if I sat in the room directing them, they were never clean. So poor mommy was stuck. I wanted to go to the pirate ship. I wanted them to have fun for a few hours, it was Saturday, after all. But I very well couldn't, in good conscious, take them if it had been a "reward" for doing xy or z. So, we went to Pizza Hut and the zoo, and then the park at the zoo. I know. I'm a horrible mother.


Since Arianna is learning about "Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow" I'll use those subtitles!

Tomorrow

This week is "No Screen" week. This means that we will not be turning on our television cable in this house, for the entire week. We will watch Veggie Tales Easter, but that is the extent of the living room TV being on, at least until Woody comes home and turns on his XBox, hahaha! Will be very interesting to see how my children learn to cope, particularly Arie. She's very television oriented as a reward, and I foresee some temper tantrums.

Today

I am learning that my baby son is fairly artistic. In truth, he reminds me a lot of my brother, Sam. He's incredibly into his older brothers' cars, and he's loving anything musical, and today he's painting with paint dot pens. And he's an angry artist, so it's hilarious to watch him paint. Slamming the pen around, beating the paper up just to do so, and then returning the pen to the paper... as though, the paper is finally in the shape he wants it. Oh wait, there he goes again, grunting, and all!

Yesterday

Last night, Arianna and I completed at least 200 cookies. Okay, Arie just had the honors of holding the mixer, MOMMY baked 200 cookies. At least. I have 5 massive, filled to the brim, Ziploc baggies full. And they are good, wow. I also made a table cloth. Yes. And I cheated. I used that hem tape and my iron. And I'm not entirely sure what takes longer, actual sewing, or the "magic no-sew" tape! I cut up an old ivory sheet for the backing, and used my beautiful yellow and blue floral fabrics. Trimmed in stripes, and voila! Of course, it is beautiful and you can not tell that I used hem tape, and it took me a very long time, all about 4 hours because I was trying to be precise. I stood hunched over my iron in the laundry room for a long time! At least I ironed it while I was going, that has to be the most frustrating part of sewing something of that caliber-back and forth, and back and forth...

I treated my children to at least a dozen dances while listening to this wonderful new found application on Woody's Xbox called Last.fm. I chose a radio station entitled "Edwin McCain", and it played songs with similar sounds. Ahhhh, I was in heaven!!! Hootie and the Blowfish, Pat Monahan, mmmmm. Gorgeous slightly jazzy sounds with a lot of soul soothing vocals. I love this Last.fm, and it's FREE!? Even better! I would probably pay for that particular radio station, however... just don't tell them that! haha. Got a few pictures of my kids being goofy, dancing around and playing with their balls...


And it sounds like it was a good day. I like days like that, where on paper-it looks great. It only took two of my pills to stay awake, about ten cups of coffee, me almost breaking down into tears, and almost blacking out at least twice. It is days like that that serve as a reminder that we don't always know other people's circumstances, and they may be cheerful and kind, but be in the midst of a battle.

A doctor asked my husband yesterday if I was on an antidepressant, and I loved my husband's response: "She is always in a good mood. Always. She's only ever in a bad mood because of me. She doesn't need one, she's not depressed." It blew his mind, because he and Woody had been talking about my disease and he (the doctor) is convinced I had juvenile onset MS for it to be as progressed as it is. And for me not to be on an antidepressant is not the norm. I've thought about it before, but only to manage my stress. I don't really need one, so it's not something I have pursued. If anything, I need something for anxiety to take on occasion. Not daily. And we'll keep that between us, for now; because God is bigger and I'm still saying: "we made it, and today is a new day! Thank you, Lord, for this blessing of a gorgeous day and waking up renewed!"  

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