Pencil Thin

Many women I know complain that their husbands don’t do anything around the house. This statement is not true about my husband. The man never sits still and seems to constantly be cleaning. Today he decided that my office supplies could be arranged better than they were. This led to him building me a new set of shelves and completely reorganizing my work area. I have to say he has a real flair for organizing stuff and making room for everything. Now I will just have to familiarize myself with where everything is. That is the only thing that bothers me when someone else organizes my things. I am however thankful that he isn’t the type of man to sit around wait to be asked to do something.

I have seen several advertisements lately for draft stoppers. Several years ago I had purchased a set of these and have been very happy with them. This was before the price tripled. I could not believe when I saw these for sale at Walmart and they were priced at almost $16.00 for a set of them. When you consider that all they are made of is essentially pipe wrapping foam and a cloth sleeve the price seems really crazy. I just made 4 of these for $4.00 using pipe wrap and some fabric. If you have sewing machine and can sew a straight line this is a cheap do it yourself project.

This has been a pretty dangerous season for motorcyclists in our area. It seems like every other week there is an accident where someone is very seriously hurt. It has become so significant that people have started putting signs in their yards suggesting drivers watch out for motorcycles. The only thing this slew of accidents seems to be good for is if you are Oakland motorcycle accident lawyer. There certainly would be more than enough to keep you busy if you were a lawyer in our area. I don’t really know what the reason is behind all of these accidents but I wish there were something that could be done. We know at least three families who have lost loved ones due to motorcycle accidents in the last few years.

I have this goofy theory about people who decorate for Halloween. I don’t quite understand why some people go crazy decorating for this holiday. My theory is that these are people who secretly love the darker side of life. I am someone who loves to decorate for Christmas. It is to me a wonderful holiday based around the good and generous things of life. Halloween on the other hand seems to be based not so much on generosity but extortion. Consider that the notion is to go door to door panhandling for candy in exchange for not “tricking” the person who gives you candy. It makes me think that the people who go above and beyond the call of duty in preparing for Halloween somehow aspire to dark things and this one holiday is an appropriate venue for venting those desires. Silly I know but just what I am currently pondering.

There is one question that I get asked every single day that just drives me bonkers. The question is “what is for dinner”. The reason this question drives me crazy is because I hate cooking dinner. I wish I could just hire someone involved in Syracuse catering to handle the cooking for me. Cooking breakfast and lunch don’t bother me in the slightest but coming up with dinner is just something I put off. I really should try to start and plan dinner ahead of time when I am not feeling under the gun to come up with something. I keep telling myself that I am going to do this but it doesn’t seem to materialize. I even tried suggesting that we eat breakfast for dinner but no one seemed interested in that idea.

My littlest boy seems to have allergies. I have debated about taking him for allergy testing but hesitate. When I took our older son he was about the same age as the little guy is now. It ended up being a very traumatic event for him. So traumatic that he remembers it even now almost 7 years later. The little guy has a bumpy rash that keeps coming and going making me very sure it is and allergy type of thing. I have been treating it fairly successfully at home and am keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn’t get any worse. The little guy is so much more intense when it comes to doing things that I can only imagine how bad allergy testing would be for him.

Last year we bought our son a miniature schnauzer puppy for his birthday. We had promised him a dog for his 10th birthday but decided to get him one a year early. It has been really nice to watch the relationship between boy and dog develop over the last year. “Sammy” is very clearly his dog. She watches his every move and gets very nervous when she can’t see or hear him. He on the other hand fusses over her needs. He reads about caring for her and worries if we have the right pet supplements to keep her healthy. I doubted whether he was mature enough to take care of a dog but my worries were misguided. There has never been a more pampered puppy or more loved.

This weekend my older son spent the night with his Grandmother. It always feels weird when he is gone. You would think as a parent who spends virtually every waking minute with her children I would welcome his departure for the night. I can’t describe it but it just feels odd without him here. I love that he gets to go and experience fun things with his Grandmother but always look forward to his return. Even his little brother keeps walking around asking where he is. I hope this connection between them always remains as strong.

You always think identity theft happens to other people. It isn’t until it happens to you or someone close to you that it becomes real. My brother recently had his credit card information stolen and used by someone to make a number of purchases. The trouble he has gone through to straighten out this mess has really made me think more about identity theft protection. I have already taken a few steps to protect myself but can’t help but wonder if it is enough? It seems like no matter how or where you shop you are at risk for having your information stolen. So few people use cash anymore but I am really thinking about relying less on plastic and more on paper in the future.

It seems to early in the year to be true but I already have a cold. In fact the entire family has a cold. I never want to see my children sick and know that a cold is a small in the big scheme of things. It still always bothers me when they are ill. If I also have a cold I feel like I am somehow not giving them all the attention they deserve. This isn’t true and is likely just my “Mommy” guilt but I can’t help it. Hopefully, they don’t turn into hypochondriacs in the future to get attention because they didn’t get it as child when they had the sniffles.

Many people laugh at the stuff I order online but I don’t care. I live in a pretty rural area making my shopping choices limited. There are two places in town where I can buy groceries. I feel this is not enough and doesn’t allow for truly competitive pricing. By shopping online for everything from tires to groceries I never have to worry about getting the best price. I love the fact that there is always speedy order fulfillment and delivery is right to my door. Dragging the kids out in a winter storm isn’t something I like doing and having groceries delivered to my door for free and at a better price than my local market just makes sense.

There is an article out on Yahoo that the government is pushing for longer school days and years. This is an interesting idea but not something I would get behind. As a parent of a virtual charter school student I can see how easy it is to accomplish a great deal in the day in a short amount of time. I don’t believe students need longer school days but instead a more efficient manner of delivering the information they do receive. Teachers should be held more accountable for the time they spend with students. I noticed when my son was in traditional school just how much time was wasted standing in line and waiting for activities to begin.

This year we have taken up a few new hobbies. One of our favorite new hobbies is geocaching. We try to find at least three caches each week. When we go away we look up caches in the area where we will be staying. This has been an incredible way to get to know the area in a unique and non-touristy manner. So the next time you are staying at one of those Myrtle beach vacation rentals I urge you to give geocaching a try. Aside from the cost of the GPS system it is a really cheap and fun hobby for everyone. We have yet to hear our children whine about being in the car when we are out “treasure hunting”.

Tonight we took a walk around the neighborhood for the first time in a long while. I absolutely could not believe how bad the mosquitoes were out tonight. I had read in the newspaper that due to budget cuts our state had not been spraying for bugs as they have in previous years. You wouldn’t think this would make much of a difference but it REALLY has. We could hardly stand to be outside even while walking at a brisk pace. I guess this is just more evidence of just how far reaching the recession really is. At least something is prospering in all this gloom.

The first place we visited journey was our back yard. This might sound silly but you would be surprised the number of children in this world who don’t spend time outside playing. As much as you might was to take the family for one of those orlando vacations I know that this isn’t always possible. You would be surprised how much children love to just sit with a small shovel and a bucket and dig. Yes, I know this means they get dirty and that the yard may not look picture perfect but is this really important? The way I look at it my yard will always be there but the wonderment my children have about exploring the world won’t be. When my son asked if he could dig a hole to China my gut reaction was to say “No”. My new philosophy is to let him find out for himself if this is feasible. We never made it to China that day but we explored our world while learning about assorted plants and critters that live right in our back yard.

This summer I decided that it was time for me to take a break from the craziness that had become life. I cut back on everything and began to refine my priorities. It had become clear that while I was very involved in raising and educating my children that I wasn’t really engaging them in living life as a family. Over the course of the summer we began doing more and more activities in the great outdoors as a family. This I believe became a real turning point for our family in terms of feeling united. As I step back into sharing the details of my life in this medium I hope that maybe I can inspire a few others to do the same.