Me, Myself, and I

So this is what it's like to be alone at home on a week night. The children are gone and the Handyman is out of town for the evening. The quietness is heavenly. Ahhh...paradise.

No rushing around to make dinner for hungry demanding children or to do the dishes immediately after dinner or to have three kids speaking to me at the same time about various subjects. Though I leisurely did some laundry, went for a jog, showered without any interruption, and now writing in my neglected blog, I believe this is better than a few hour long massage or meditation. What a stress reliever to not have to worry about anyone else for the night. 

All the credit goes to my wonderful, newly retired parents that have taken on three over-energized girls for the evening. I'm sure there will be some kind of sainthood down the road. A big thanks goes out to them.

Enjoy your evening!

Back-to-School Highlights

It's back to school shopping time. Yay! (watch out the sarcasm is burning the page, read quick)

I'm trying to make it through all the chaos during this wonderful time of the summer. The dreadful routine preparing for the beginning of the school year that includes:

•     School registration

•     School supplies purchase for 3 children

•     And of course-school clothes for three completely different styled children

Since Child #1 has gone from being a kid to a teenage over night (this is not supposed to happen at 10 years old), I decide to take her clothes shopping without her sisters-not to mention her sisters were at soccer practice. It's basically a logistic thing now shopping for clothes between the children. She's in the XS sizes for the Junior Department (she's growing like a weed-height is passed my shoulder with a full shoe size larger than my foot at the tender age of 10). Great one-on-one attention too except I find myself repeating the same phrase over and over in the Juniors Department. It goes something like this:

"No, those are crotch shorts."

"Absolutely not, those are crotch shorts too."

At what point did the clothes designer think crotch shorts were good for anyone? Seriously!

Anyway, I digress. Actually, there might not be a point to this post so the digression might continue to fall.

Now it's time to take Child #2 and #3 to the store for clothes. At this point, I've already purchased all the school supplies, 1 kid's school clothes, and one registration/orientation down so I'm almost seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Child #1 is out with her dad so we have the perfect opportunity to knock off all the school clothes that are needed. Venturing to the store, the mood is happy and excited. Clothes are being picked out. Now choices have to be made. The mood is slipping. Choices are getting harder to eliminate, but all clothes have been chosen and agreed upon. The mood is okay until the begging for jewelry presents itself. Child #3 wanted one of those best friend half heart necklaces that you give to a friend so you can each have half a heart around your neck. Originally, I said no. Then Child #2 wanted one, but they both wanted to buy one and share with a friend. I'm against this display of best friends amongst other children so I said no again to both. After several whining pleas, I said okay, but on one condition. Child #2 and Child #3 would have to share the necklace with each other. I would not buy it for other friends. This is where the emotions exploded and Child #2's mood ends at the bottom. Child #3 was good with it so I let her pick out the necklace, which concluded our shopping and we headed toward the check outline. Ignoring Child #2's anger and failure to walk with us to the front of the store. Though I checked several times that she was stalking behind us in between the clothes and other aisles.  

Child #3 and I walk up to a line to check out (store was pretty busy). Waiting patiently, a lady with a cart full of stuff steps in front of me cutting in line. Even with all the craziness from Child #2, I smile and keep my cool. I wasn't in a rush. Then the lady in front of the lady that cut me off, yells "Mom hurry up I'm almost to the register." Now the mom pulls up with an overloaded cart of stuff. Again, I kept my cool. No problem for me, but the lady who cut me off is shaking her head and mumbling. I bust out laughing (maybe it was more of a chuckle, but in my head I'm rolling on the floor laughing). Suddenly, a new register opens and the lady who cut me off doesn't move so I take the opportunity to move up to the open line and check out. I felt good about myself. I hadn't lost it through the whole shopping experience. As Child #3 and I are walking out the door, I don't see Child #2 anywhere. We continue on. I figure she'll eventually follow. We get to the car and still no Child #2. Child #3 (knows her sister too well) says, "Should we pretend to leave?"

"Hopefully, she'll be able to find her way home by walking," I say. As soon as I back up the car, Child #2 is running toward the car. The look on her face isn't even close to being sunshine and roses. I stop the car and she gets in. Crying and yelling at me how mean of a mother I am. I shrugged my shoulders and laugh. Then something hits me in the back of the head. Now this is where I loose it. Granted it was only a pair of socks (they both brought a pair of socks to try on shoes), but I flipped out (of course, she wins because she got a reaction out me). I am almost, fairly certain she will never throw anything again at me. Calling her out on her brattiness, selfishness, and her single minded world, opened her eyes a little especially since I just spent a fortune on clothes for her. By the time we made it home, she was remorseful and apologized to me and her sister.

Not sure if there is a moral to this story except for I hate despise school shopping (the rule is not to use hate in our household)..

Favorite Movie Lines

"Shut your mouth when you're talking to me!"

"You have a baby...in a bar."

"You can't handle the truth!"

Big bear. Big bear. Big bear!

"I had no idea you could milk a cat."
"Oh yeah, you can milk anything with nipples."
"I have nipples, Greg. Could you milk me?"

This is ridiculous. It's crazy. I feel like I'm babysitting, except I'm not getting paid. 

Nobody leaves this place without singing the blues. 

What's your favorite movie line?

Elusive Small Forks

Last year, I had to buy another set of silverware because the small forks have mysteriously disappeared. Now that I have two sets of large forks, large spoons, small spoons, and knives, my silverware trays are overflowing. Throughout the year the trays have consistently remained the same except for, yes you guessed it, the small forks. The elusive forks have slowly disappeared again.

I think I need a new plan. I can only speculate where the forks are going. Maybe I should look into buying just small forks next time.

Legal Rule Breaker

With some  responsibility, comes over confidence.

Of course, I know Child #2 is always going to push the boundaries no matter what the rules are. Again the challenge is always going to be to try to keep those boundaries on the right side of the law. What we have going for us right now is that Child #2 does understand right from wrong and that she has compassion for others (most of the time).

So the summer has started out with Child #2 riding her bike with Child #3 up and down our street without supervision. Since we don't have any sidewalks and our street we live on is a narrow, hilly, curvy lake road, I've been fairly overprotective in the past. This summer, I've given them a little slack where they can ride their bikes. They can ride down to the park without me (as long as at least two of them stay together at all times) and I've allowed them to ride up the street to a friend's house about ten houses away from ours.

Naturally this distance wasn't going to be enough for Child #2. After a few rides to the friend's house, she came home to tell me that her and Child #3 made it all the way to the speed hump zone on our road (this is approximately a half mile away from our house). I didn't want to squash her enthusiasm or her confidence to make a decision on her own so I kept my opinions to myself.

I mentioned that I also have let them go down to the park by themselves as long as they stayed together. The park is actually closer than the friend's house, but there is more traffic and more people around (made me a little more nervous). They would go down to swing on the swings and play on the playground. The main rules were not to talk to strangers and no swimming at the beach. After a few successful bike rides down to the park, I thought this was great. I have to admit I loved their new found independence. It gave me some extra time to catch up on housework.

To Child #2's credit, she stuck to the rules. But...I know you were waiting for it...Child #2 decided that she would take her new found freedom to the next level. To Child #2 and Child #3's credit, they were able to keep a secret for a few weeks. Long story, short, Child #2 and Child #3 were buying soda from the vending machine down at the park. The crazy part is that Child #3 doesn't even like soda, but apparently she likes Mountain Dew.

I completely forgot about the vending machine so now the rules have extended to no buying soda down at the park. Note to self: Don't forget to enforce the no soda rule.