And so the break begins

The beauty of a teachers schedule is that when the kids are on break, so are the parents. Well Damien and son started their vacation last week, while mine started at 10pm Thursday night when class ended. Two whole weeks where in theory I am not bound to a deadline and nearly three weeks until my next assignment is expected. Woo Hoo!!

To commemorate this exciting break I took the two oldest kids to the library yesterday. Thinking about how long it has been since I read a book by my favorite author I snuck over to the paperback section and checked out a newer title by Dean Koontz. After getting it home I read it from cover to cover stopping only to eat (btw, I left dinner up to the man and though it was merely hamburger helper it was an exceptional meal as I did not cook it, nor clean it up).

After spending five hours on a book then heading off to get some groceries the kids managed to convince the folks to put on a movie. This is when mom got it in her head to make this a better than average viewing since what-the-heck, we’re on vacation. So we drug out the projector, and speakers, and watched Shrek 3 theater style on the living room wall, while snacking on cheese-its and pb & banana sandwiches (menu decided by the midgets of the house). It was turning out to be a great day until about 1/2 way through it, with a nine year old and two year old glued to the screen, hubby chimes in to point out that it is 12:30am. Wow, where in the world did that day go?

Today has also already wasted away doing nothing much more than sitting on a computer. Pretty soon we are going to have to start digging ourselves out of the surrounding mess, but it sure has been relaxing.

Silly Pet Peeve

A few of you may know that I was a single mom for four years. By single mom I mean I raised my son on my own. No government assistance, no handouts from others, no free programs which covered daycare, and no help from another parent. Single by every definition. Therefore the burden fell on me to handle it all. Not just finances, but the whole kit-n-kaboodle. Discipline, morals, entertainment, and transportation. It didn’t leave much room for change in jobs as I had to match schedules and required a specific income.

Now, my point in explaining all of this is not for any pats on the back or otherwise as I have been truly blessed from the beginning with supportive friends and family and have no regrets in how my life has turned out, however recently I have begun to hear the term “single mom” used very loosely. It has turned into an annoying pet peeve of mine to hear a woman with a child (or children) who have separated from their partners calling themselves single moms. Meanwhile they have weekends off, financial assistance, or a simple person to call on when things aren’t going so well. Weather you hate your ex or not, if they are still in the picture and participating, you are not a single parent, it’s called co parenting. I can see that doing it from sepparate house while you are taking on the bulk of the burden may stink, but it is still not single parenting.

Single moms do not get weekends off without finding childcare, and that is a rare event. It isn’t something that happens every week, or even every other week. If you hate your job, you can’t just quit because you are the only source of income. Unless you have exceptional childcare, there is no one to call on when you have unplanned changes in scheduling. If your kid gets hurt, or in trouble, no one else is there to call on for help or to lessen the burden by having another parent to bounce it off. Granted, having a second parent doesn’t mean that all your troubles are solved, as I am certain I was better off raising my son on my own than having his loser father in the picture. I am simply saying if you have a somewhat involved second parent in the picture who cares for his kid(s), then stop calling yourself a single mom and count your blessings that you can come up for air sometimes.

Another day in paradise

Do you ever feel like you are on a practical joke show? You know, one where so many things are going wrong in such an exaggerated manner that you have to wonder if it could possibly occur outside of rigged television? Well today I had a moment where I wondered as much. See, my van looks as though our entire party of five actually lives in it. Complete with back up outfits that are dirty because they have already been swapped in a crunch, stacks of ads that never made it in from the mailbox, toys for long road trips kept in case of tantrums on the road, and crumbs everywhere. In fact, I even had shelving, a tv, and dvd player that were given to me which had never made it in the house. So I decided it was well past the deadline to clean this mess out. The first step was to bribe the 9 year old with a trip to the movies in an effort to get help. Next I pulled out the center set of seats and removed all unrecognizable fragments of candy stuck to the carpet and drug the vacuum out to finish the task. This is where it went awry.

Bouncing back two weeks ago, the 9 year old was cleaning his room and busted the vacuum. Luckily the next week I was fortunate enough to pick up a used one off of my local freecycler. Unfortunately it was free because it gets clogged and can’t seem to maintain suction. So after dragging it out and rigging it to stretch, it was off to option number two, the free vacuums at the local car wash. Leaving the middle seats in the front yard planning on rushing home, and hoping the sprinklers were not set to turn on, I pull up ready to finish the job. Well the first vacuum was out of order, so I moved to a different stall, where the next one was missing the tip and wouldn’t pick up fuzz, on to the next one which excitedly had the tip and turned on, but wouldn’t work either. Hmmm. Beginning to wonder if someone was out to sabotage my attempt at driving a clean vehicle, and determined not to be taken down, I headed back home.

At this point I am thinking that even though our original vacuum is squealing really loud from what would seem to be a busted fan, it at least still has decent suction, so I drag er’ out to get it all done and wouldn’t you know it, I start smelling a really foul scent similar to burning rubber, or rather burning plastic. Which is precisely what it was. As I turn back to see why it is so strong, I find that the 5th vacuum I have attempted to use to clean out the car, is now on fire. This has got to be bloopers practical jokes right?

Chew on this

About a month ago our littlest family member started drooling and chewing on everything in sight.

Though my first instinct might have been that she was teething, she wasn’t quite 4 months old, so that didn’t really seem likely. So I waited to start any teething aids except supplying the chew toys (yea, I know, now she sounds like a puppy).

A couple of weeks passed and on top of the drooling, and chewing, was a sad fussy girl who wasn’t getting much sleep looking like this:

Shortly thereafter when mom and dad were completely sleep deprived and exhausted trying to walk with the baby we were believing to be extremely gassy, because no front teeth had still yet appeared, a discovery was made. Not two front bottom teeth like usual, nor the next set in sequential order, instead we found her bottom fang teeth had popped through. Yep, the ones that are not scheduled until around 2 years old. So now this:

and this:

are making much more sense. I suppose when I see her doctor in a couple of weeks and he tells me this is perfectly normal I will feel better, until then I will be dreaming of strange dental procedures like when my son had to have an extra tooth pulled at 4 years old. Maybe spare teeth run in the family.

Modern Art

I tried thinking of a Thursday Thirteen, but couldn’t, so my next best thought was to share the predicament I found myself in last week when I returned home from school. I came home, got comfy, and realized my two year old was being far too quite upstairs. Though it was ten pm and I should have assumed she was sleeping, I knew better seeing how hubby was in charge (ha ha, sorry hun). So I attempted to sneak up on her only to learn that not only has she mastered the ancient art of door opening, but that she also decided to follow in Picasso’s footsteps. This is the scene I snuck up on.

Thursday Thirteen:

One of the perks of having two kids in a relatively short time frame is that you get to use all of the goodies from the first one. This has come as an extreme advantage since our tiniest one is not so easily subdued most of the time. Therefore this Thursday Thirteen is dedicated to the objects that attempt to entertain little britches through out any given day. Be forewarned the manufacturer of most of these toys are “we suck batteries dry in mere minutes” aka “we keep back ups for our own peace of mind”.

The Snugglie, Guitar and Bath are the big guns that come out when all toys, meals, & means to a nap have been exhausted.