Myspace.com

OK....here's the deal. Myspace.com has become quite a force on the internet. EVERYONE uses it, it would seem...everyone except me.

Well, that's not entirely true. I went on to find another friend's blog. She is on myspace. I "peek" at her list of friends...I know a lot of people in her list...and they are all on myspace. I WANT FRIENDS IN MY SPACE...not the site, but in my little circle of friends.

So today, I go to this site and click the button to leave a message. I had to create an account. EEEEK! Did I just succumb to the status quo? Did I make a deal with the devil? Well, I don't deal with the devil, but I think I'm now in the traffic pattern of ordinary society.

What a disappointment. I always considered my self EXTRAordinary. Hmmmmm...so the dilemma is now this....do I move my blog? Do I go on myspace.com in order to gain new cyber-friends? You know...I didn't join a sorority just for that reason. I always did it my way. (Oooohhhh, flash to Bon Jovi - "Like Frankie said, 'I did it my way.' I just want to live while I'm alive. IT'S MY LIFE!" (sorry...that was TOTALLY a tangent. )

Anyway, I'm just now figuring out my blog stuff To consider moving now is a bit insane. I don't know. We'll see. I will give it a bit before I decide. I just have a hangup. And that is a whole "nother" blog....but I'll peek into it a bit.

First off, my biggest peeve in the world is when someone says "a whole nother." What is a "nother?" Grrrr. My hangup is this...there is SO MUCH to do and see on myspace.com. I don't like that. I like my little corner of the world, under my rock, with not a lot to look at and get lost in. There, I said it. I'm plain. I'm boring. And I flat don't want to move.

Myspace.com...I'll visit to see my friends, but I probably will not take up residence there.

Oh, be careful little eyes what you see!

There is a book out there titled The Pilot's Wife. It was quite popular several years ago. There was even a TV movie based on it. My best friend called one day, a few years ago, and asked if I had read it. She said that I needed to. I think that even Oprah had it on her book list or something.

I have never read the book, but I've heard enough to get the idea of what it is about...and it's awful. It is basically about this guy...a pilot...who marries two women and has two families. The two lives collide when he is killed in a plane crash and the two wives try to claim his benefits.

Being a pilot's wife, I do not read such trash, nor do I entertain the idea of all the possibilities. My hubby and I have discussed stuff like this many times. We have chosen to trust each other, be honest and guard our marriage. We both have opportunity. (But frankly, having 4 kids probably doesn't lift me too high on the "desirability" ladder. :D)

We have discussed the "what ifs" of unfaithfulness. Do you forgive? Do you separate? Well, I would kill him. I've told him that. He believes me. LOL!!!! I'm serious. He knows it. However, this is not the point of this entry.

DH and I have discussed how we view married life and how we are to participate. We know that marriage is NOT give and take. It is NOT 50-50. The person who wrote that is probably divorced. Marriage is 100-100 and it is give and give. Anyone who goes into a marriage with a different idea is headed for divorce court.

We have based our family with God as our head-of-house. We are faithful in church. Our children are involved. We pray as a family. We tithe as a family. We play as a family. We ARE a family.

DH and I have been married for 15 years. I KNOW that we will never divorce....I won't even have to kill him.

SO, be careful little eyes what you see. Be careful little eyes what you see. For the Father up above is looking down with love. So, be careful little eyes what you see.

Hobbies

Do you have a hobby? Do you actively pursue it? If you put a hobby down for a while....say about 7 years....is it still a hobby? I don't know.

I have a hobby; or I had one. It was astronomy. Please reread that...ASTRONOMY, NOT astrology. I love to study the stars. Several years ago, I was really pretty good at it, especially considering that it was just something I kind of picked up on my own.

It is truly amazing, the wonders of the sky. Anyone who sees the rings of Saturn, or the Great Red Spot on Jupiter and doesn't believe in God....well, there just isn't much to say about them.

I think I will pull out my telescope, dust it off and go star-gazing soon. Hmmm...have to find all the tools to calibrate it and such, BUT I'm sure my handsome hubby would love to step in and assist. Wouldn't you, honey? PLEASE?

Responsibilities

My husband has told me a few times, in our life together, that if I didn't have a stressor at the moment, that I would stress over that fact. Hmmmm....what do I think about that?

It's true, I suppose. I'm so busy being busy that I don't stay busy at what NEEDS to be done. Let me rephrase that. I know you, my intelligent reader, are able to comprehend the above statement, but I feel the need to clarify what I mean.

I have a lot of responsibilities. Everything I'm involved in NEEDS to be done. It does not, however, have to be done by me. I have enough to keep me busy at home. My problem is that I take on so much outside "stuff" that I don't get my "stuff" done at home. The family joke (an all too serious joke, I must add) is that I will do ANYTHING to get out of doing laundry. It is a sad fact.

Now before you start feeling sorry for my family, we don't walk around wearing dirty undies....well, I won't get into that when it comes to my 5 year old. BUT, the laundry gets washed and dried. And that's about it. LAUNDRY IS MY NEMESIS! It has taken me many years to get here. I haven't always had this problem...well, that is a lie, I guess. I've always had a distaste for the art of laundering, but it was always manageable. Now that I have 4 monkeys and 1 full-grown ape...then there is myself, the zookeeper...well, THAT, my friend is a bunch of laundry.

But I digress. My point is this: because I involve myself so much into other duties, the household duties, such as laundry, are neglected.

I do love to be involved. I'm not guilted into doing any of these things, I just volunteer for pert near everything that is brought up. I have really started to look into this more because of MOPS.

MOPS is an acronym for Mothers of Preschoolers. (My dh wants to know when I'll actually learn to mop....laugh it up, fuzz-ball!) Anyway, we are going through the book "What Every Mom Needs." I am starting the discussion tonight. The topic is growth. The idea is that moms tend to lose themselves when they become parents. Two weeks ago, we MOPpers lost our identities...today our growth is stunted.

I have been reading and preparing for this talk and I have begun to realize that I'm not growing. The very first "barrier" the book brings up is busyness. THAT IS ME! I'm too busy. I made it a bit harder on myself last night. I was at a PTO board meeting (yes...I'm on the PTO board.) I went to talk to my kindergartener's teacher about the upcoming Thanksgiving Feast. I'm the homeroom mom. Somehow, I have found myself involved very deeply in this feast. Instead of just offering to bring paper goods, I'm now coordinating efforts, to be shared with all the other K5 homeroom parents, for the feast itself. If my dh is not home on that day, I will have to find childcare for my two cherubs that are still home, make my way to the school to help with the Indian headwear and the pilgrim collars before going to the cafeteria where about 125 VERY excited and antsy 5 and 6 year olds will be waiting to partake of turkey lunchmeat, dried fruits and other feast quality quisine.

So while that is in the back of my VERY PACKED head, I am planning my MOPS talk, planning a teacher training for Sunday School teachers and planning the next event for the teachers for PTO. I'm burning at both ends and feeling a bit soft and "melty" in the middle....HEY...CUT THE FAT JOKES!!!

The fact is...I love it. I love the adrenaline rush that I get from being on a time constraint and in the end (after MUCH belly-aching...both verbally and literally) coming out having accomplished all that I wanted in a semi-acceptable way.

So my hubby is right. He is such a smart man. If I only had house duties, I would be bored from lack of stress. Is that sad? I really don't know.

I will return in a few days having accomplished a few of this week's tasks and, I'm sure, having picked up a few more.

Blessings~

Time Flies

Why is it that time flies? Have you noticed that the older you get, the faster time goes by? Is it that we are so distracted by our lives? Or is it that time is literally going faster? Hmmmm....I have my own theories on that last question, but I'll save that one for when I have more time.

You probably don't know this, but I did NOT abandon this blog. In fact, I only posted a few days ago.....RIGHT! It was September 13, I believe. As I said, time flies.

It is said that "time flies when you are having fun." Is that what it was? Some of it was fun, that is for certain, but not all of it. Nothing bad happened....just life got in the way of my nasty computer habit.

We have had so much happen in the last month. My husband, who is a pilot, started training in a new plane. The perk to that? Well, he hasn't actually FLOWN a plane since mid- August. AND HE STILL GETS PAID! How cushy is that? He is gone quite a bit for said training and other "piloting duties," but still is home enough to help out with the big and/or unpleasant tasks of yardwork, auto care and the like.

Kids are in school. We have homework almost every night. That is no big deal....only about 30 minutes a night. But tack onto that piano practice, church study, baths and VERY NECESSARY play time...not to mention meals and stuff....well, the kids are busy, too. Is time flying for them? Do they have any concept of it going by SO QUICKLY? Is it fair to them that my life is making their lives so crazy?

I have often questioned whether or not the kids should be as involved in things as they are. When you take each child alone, it is not an unreasonable amount of outside activites....in my honest opinion, anyway. But what happens in six years when my fourth decides to be just as busy as my third....who happens to want to do everything that my second has chosen to do...which is, in fact, a carbon copy of the schedule my first follows. Can they do it all? Can I do it all? Is it fair to them? To me?

I don't know. What I DO know is that time is marching on! The drum is loud and steady. All I can do is pray to stay caught up. Time will go by, no matter what we are, or are not involved in.

Hmmmm, my third just came in and showed me that he could dress himself. So, as I sit here, involved in this habit of mine, time is marching throughout my house. I better go jump in.

Blessings.

I will be back sooner than later.

Potty training

All Aboard! We are all on board the potty train. I hate this train....but I like the destination.

I have 4 boys. Two are totally in tightie-whities and my baby is still in diapers. My third is on the train. And let's just say it took FOREVER to get the train into the station, much less loaded up and down the track.

My older two were trained by 30 months. I don't know what I did that was so special, to be honest. I got flashcards and books and sat, for what seemed liked hours, and reviewed colors, shapes, letters and numbers. It helped to pass the time, especially for my oldest. He was always content to just sit for hours, his little legs going numb. He would sit long enough to tee-tee at least twice. We never really had any poop accidents. Hmmmm, I guess that happens when one sits on the potty for hours a day. It's bound to just work out, huh?

My second trained fairly easily, as well. He didn't like to sit as long as my first. He already knew a lot of the letters and such. It was just a boring chore. But, he knew if he just got down to business then he would get his skittles and be able to go play. (Hey, don't knock bribery. Skittles, doled out a few at a time is a small price to pay in exchange for NOT buying diapers.)

Well, I must have gotten a bit over-confident. Maybe some kids are wired differently, Maybe I was lazy. Maybe he was stubborn. But, number three....OH MY GOSH!!!!! I really began to worry about kindergarten and pull-ups.

He was not interested. He would rather sit in poop than on a potty. He would tell me, flat out, "No potty, Momma. DIAPER!" Hello?! I would go change his little brother and he would come with a diaper for himself. He would take off his pull-up and lie down. If he was poopy, he would go ahead and lift his legs for me. He is such a considerate child.

Monday, I finally got tired of it all. I was able to adjust my attitude to get him on the potty. We had a boot-camp of sorts. I set the timer for every 20 minutes. I had pulled out dozens of little undies. I had two different potty seats, books, candy....I was armed and ready for the battle.

The little stinker....he went through 3 pair on Monday, 3 pair yesterday and is on his 2nd pair today. I don't know if it's because he is ready, or if it's all me. Whatever the case. It is finally happening. I will have this kid out of diapers SOON!!!!!

Kid Hell

Kid Hell. This is the title of a recent entry on a blog that I read. And I'll be glad to link you to it...as soon as I figure out how to do so. LOL!

Let's try this: http://myblessedhome.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_myblessedhome_archive.html

In this article, the author is not a fan of nursery, children's Sunday school, children's church or any such programs.

NOW...don't get your britches in a bunch! I was a bit...well, I have no good adjective. I wasn't angry, I wasn't confused...I guess I was intrigued.

I am the CE coordinator for our church. It is quite large. We run about 125 kids in our Sunday school in classes kinder - 6th grade. And THAT'S SUMMER. It will go up next week. My job is to call the teachers that show up every Sunday to see if they need supplies, prayers, whatever. I also have trainings in which we discuss classroom management, as well as "fun" things to do beside read the scripted lesson and pass out the assigned color page.

I was intrigued by the article and it was a GOOD THING! It was good because it helped me to see the way some parents may view the Christian Education program. I want my kids to be safe, well cared for and feel the love of Jesus Christ. This article has given me some WONDERFUL ideas of things that I can do to help the children AND their parents learn the Bible.

So, if you read the article and you are miffed at all...please don't be. It is well-written and brings up wonderful points. Instead, please channel your energies into prayer for me that I might continue to grow in my position and help the teachers AND students achieve all they should.