Headline, TheBetterHalf »

(also known as, i don’t have the time to post anything substantial but want to connect with you anyway.)

For your viewing pleasure - this is a picture my husband did completely on Gimp on the computer.  Wow.  My husband is so talented.  He did this computer graphically one night of his own hand.  I stand in awe.

I now have pics uploaded on the computer for the posts i mentioned earlier, but still haven’t gotten around to.

Someday, people, someday.

Today my husband went back to work for a full day for the first time since before Christmas.  So far my children and I are having an adjustment period missing him.  We won’t be starting back to school just yet - got to do something about that printer first.  Plus, you would think that Christmas just happened and that we threw all cleaning out the window for approximately 3 weeks.  Oh, wait we did.  So, I declare today, cleaning day.  It must happen for my sanity.

I sit by the window now and see that it’s raining.  Cold rain.  Why?  Arkansas, why?  Let it snow.  So that my 3 1/2 year old girl will not be distraught about seeing noggin talking about a winter wonderland and not understanding why we don’t get snow.

And if you want to win some cool stuff - go over to Heart of the Matter - we’re one year old this week.  And it’s a celebration, folks!

TheBetterHalf, TheFriends »

I only included a detail here, please go see Stephen Cefalo’s full picture of Matt at his website.  Matt sat for our amazing friend yesterday for about an hour and this is the first of several sittings.  Unreal.  Un.Real.  I saw it and teared up.

TheKiddos »

Christmas Morning

While looking through my newly uploaded pics I was struck still once again.  How did they all get to be so big?  A boy with an MP3 player and a never-to-be-removed baseball cap?  A princess I hardly recognize except for the required tiara in her hands.  And a baby - who’s not a baby any longer.  TheMiddlest is just as shockingly old, just not seen here.  When?  How?  I promise I haven’t blinked once.  And yet..

(No, Santa didn’t deliver on a new camera - turns out Santa gets tax returns - I expect something grand come March, but he did bring a shiny new external hard drive - and isn’t that what everybody dreams of anyway?)

TheAnimals »

Remember the four fish TheOldest got for his birthday a short 3 months ago.  I seem to be keeping with my stellar abilities to keep animals and plants alive.  I thought that since I’ve managed to keep Daisy Doodle Cat alive for almost 10 years now, Chikezie Dog has been ours for almost a year now, and Frosty Cornflakes Cat is goin’ strong, that maybe it made up for the fact that I somehow killed off all our hermit crabs last year.

I knew some of the fish were kinda sickly lookin’.  My husband pointed out one day recently that the gold fish we bought were losing their gold.  One was particularly white.  Enough so that he bet me the time of his death.  I took the bet - right down to 10:30am Christmas morning.  I know, don’t tell my children.

Christmas morn came and went without incident and I was oh, so proud.  I had won the bet and the fish had won it’s life.

Then on Deconstructed - one of our newest fav sci-shows they tore apart a fish filter and talked about the toxicity of ammonia build-up.  Guilted into cleaning out the cloudy fish-home, I set to work on cleaning out a holding tank while their permanent home was scrubbed out and set with water to adjust to room temperature.  I grabbed a jar that I had previously kept flour in (c’mon, I am a clean person - I always bleach everything before it’s ready for human consumption stuff again).  And rinsed it out really good.

Or so I thought.

I made the transfer.

By the next morning the sickliest of them all was on the bottom of the bowl.

And two others were swimming sideways.

So, the good mother that I am told my children and ‘fessed up.  C’mon, you know me better than that.  I stacked dirty dishes in front of the container until they were all dead (or so I thought) so that I could deal with the drama all at once.

Yesterday morning I brought all my children to the kitchen table and gave a talk on the extremely short life span of a gold fish (shut up, you do too know that they only live 3 months).  We looked at the bowl.  We wiped tears away.  My daughter said we should pray for them.  I explained they were through, no prayer’s gonna help ‘em now, but we did thank God for letting us have fish for a time.  Then we discussed mercy killing of the fourth that was now swimming sideways, but Daddy started singing “I’m a survivor” and we (against my will) saved it.  My view is “he’s almost dead, why prolong the pain?”  Yeah, I’m compassionate like that.

We then went and gathered ’round the potty, think: Huxtables, and said our final goodbyes.

Who of Fish, Penny, Oliver, and Pirates of the Caribbean Enemy survived?  Your guess is as good as mine.  TheOldest suggested we call TheSurvivor a combination of all the fish names in memory of the other three.  Sounds good to me.

Live on OliverPennyPiratesOfTheCaribbeanEnemyFish.  Live on.

Much O' Nothin' »

Maybe it’s being without photos.  Maybe it’s the hullabaloo of busy-ness that surrounds Christmas.  Maybe it’s just me.  But I’ve been thinking about going simple with the blog again.  So here she is.  Of course, a work in progress (always) - because I don’t even have all my old links over here and can’t figure out how to put y’all’s comments on the sidebar.  But I kinda like the white/minimalistic look.  I’ll eventually add all my usual bells and whistles - so stay tuned.  And be sure to tell me what you think.  I can take it.

TheFriends »

Chickadee’s little girlie has arrived!  I know no details.  A mutual friend live-blogged what she knew, so I pass that on.  Here is the link to read all about her very long day. All I know is that they are both doing fine.  And be sure to stop by A Familiar Path and let her know you’re praying for her.

TheRidiculous »

No, you still don’t get any pictures.

1.  On my last post, this was my husband:

Daddy said: Get a job.

Nice.

2.  I started my period for the first time in 4+ years.  Yes, I know I have had 2 children since that time.  It is possible.  I promise, I’m livin’ it.  No wonder I had a screaming yelling fit at my husband Saturday morning for very little reason.  I take no responsibility.

3.  After realizing above said event, I wandered around the house trying to think of who I could call that might possibly understand all these very surprising emotions accompanying this event.

4.  Telling my husband I don’t see how all those women out there do this month in and month out.  What are you thinking?!  I’d rather be pregnant.  At least with pregnancy there’s an end in sight and you get something out of it.

5.  Cramps.  Cramps, for cryin’ out loud!?  It’s like early labor pains only you don’t get a break in between them and you don’t have anything to look forward to.

6.  When talking to a very pregnant friend of mine (not the person to tell you’d rather just be pregnant, by.the.way.) when talking about how long it had been she said, “Did you know what to do or did you have to call your mom.”  Stitches.  That woman keeps me in stitches.

7.  After my husband built a very cool tv shelf in the living room sans doors (hey, we have to wait to buy the materials until after Christmas) I decided I could staple a sheet to it and color a fireplace with markers so that we’d have a place to hang our stockings.  oh.  yes, I did.

8.  I said to my honey tonight, “You know, Christmas has put a serious hurt on my computer time.”  Good.  That’s good.  At least I have my priorities straight.

Much O' Nothin' »

All I want for Christmas is a new computer.  A Mac maybe.  Or a laptop.  Crud, I’d settle for a new hard drive at this point.  I’ve tried for days to upload pics for all these posts I have on the ready, but to no avail.  I’ve filled up the 2 tiny hard drives we have on this computer already and I’ve single-handedly brought the whole thing to halt.  And my camera.  Argh.  It’s dying a slow death and it’s takin’ me with it.  Blurry smudged lens.  Dirty lens part that barely opens when turned on.  Hate.  Hate.  Hate.

I have so many things to share with you.  But you’ll have to wait.  Because I want the pictures to go with them.  And I’m stubborn and spoiled.  So I’m hoping you’ll get more from me when I either get the above listed things for Christmas or I go shopping after Christmas for one of those.

Until then, the (maybe) titles of upcoming posts:

Amy’s Pirates Arrived

The Dollies Got Gotten.  And Then Rescued.

How I Do What I Do: Toddler Tips

Look!  Amy’s cat is Frosty Cornflake’s twin!  All of y’all who left comments lettin’ me know that my four legged friends are not the only goofy ones made me feel so much better!

In January I’m starting a Homesteading Column over at Heart of the Matter.  In addition to the other stuff I’ll still be contributing, I’ll be documenting all the “living off our own land/cooking like our grandmothers” kind of stuff I’ve been trying out and I’m open for suggestions and questions now.  So be thinking of things you’d like to see me try - I’ll do the failing for you!

Other side notes, my Christmas shopping is DONE!  And this is likely to be the best Christmas we’ve had yet in my nearly 10 years of marriage.  Thank you, Father.

We do still have a little shopping left to do.  We’re gonna let each of the kids look with us individually online for each of the other children.  I’m excited about that.  I love seeing what they get for each other, their excitement picking out things, the difficulty, and usually failure of keeping the secret, and the wiggles they get waiting for their sibling to open “their” gift.  So good.

I’m officially on Facebook.  I caved.  My SIL and BIL moved off to Wisconsin recently and my husband’s brother talked him into signing up.  So, of course, my honey then pimped it on me.  And I got on there grumbling my “Real people have blogs” uppity-ness.  Whatd’ya know.  I’m all over it.  Lovin’ it.  So, go find me, if you haven’t already and add me as your friend.

Oh, I guess I do have one picture I can share.  When looking for the medical stuff and finding that last post’s pic, my kids saw this picture and said, “Look!  There’s Miss ‘elissa!”  So, Chickadee, revel in the fact that this is what my children imagine when they think of you!

(never mind, i realized that photo wasn’t free and i couldn’t find any comparable ones for free - imagine a not happy huge pregnant woman drawn all cartoony.  told you that you don’t get any pics.  feel my hate.)

TheySay »

Looking for some doctors coloring sheets and printables for TheOldest your 5 year old Middlest says of the thermometer:

“Look!  I saw that pee stick thing!”  (you know, the pregnancy pee stick)

HeSays »

My husband had some gems.

We were watching Enchanted for the umpteenth time (which I don’t mind because, frankly, Giselle is my hero) I asked my honey how it is possible that one of the last areas left untouched by the P.C. police are little people. How can they be the jokes in Elf and Enchanted and Trapped In The Closet and just about every stand-up comic’s routine? I’m not exactly politically correct myself, ahem, barely at all. But c’mon. So, when asked, he replied, “maybe they have a bad union.”

Later in the day…

We were watching the new Parent Trap (okay, so it’s not new, what with the credits saying “introducing Lindsay Lohan” and all, but since I’m now old enough to remember the original that kinda makes it new) ANYWAY, the kids asked what a “butler” was. While I was stammering to explain it in terms the kids could understand my husband chuckles from the kitchen, “it’s a mama - they do all the things Mama does.” Ha. Ha. Ha.