Ditto

People always ask me how I'm doing, what's new in my life. This is a hard question for a SAHM (stay-at-home mom). I could say a million tiny things or nothing at all. I tend to opt for the second answer. But here is the answer. This is the answer I didn't write but it still expresses myself 100%. My friend Hannah sent this blog post, so I thank her for giving me the words that expresses the answer to that common question of "How are you doing?":

Domestic Monastary

Bible reader

I do read the Bible regularly - I really do. I find much encouragement, wisdom, and insight from its' pages. However, I also enjoy novels immensely.

This afternoon I picked up my current novel "The Septembers of Shiraz" by Dalia Sofer to take outside with me to read while the boys enjoyed playing in the warmth of a fall afternoon. Zac and Benji wanted to move to the backyard, so Zachary asked me to come to the backyard with my Bible.

Apparently, Zac thinks anytime I'm reading a book, it must be a Bible. I am sorry to burst his bubble that his mommy really isn't as holy as he thought I was!

(By the way, "The September of Shiraz" is a good read if anybody is looking for a book.)

Congratulations and Argh - all in 5 minutes

I was disciplining Benji in his room today while Zachary, completely on his own, went to the bathroom, took off his pants and his diaper, scooted the stool to the toilet to sit down without the potty seat (because he is a big boy now and he just can't stand that baby potty seat anymore) and proceeded to poop in the potty all by himself. Pretty impressive for someone who just turned two a few weeks ago! I quickly went to another room to do some *small* thing after offering him much praise. Well, in that *short* time he managed to get off the toilet, somehow smearing poop on the stool (but there was none on his foot so I really don't know how that happened) and putting the ENTIRE roll of new toilet paper into the toilet. And that's the 2nd time he did the whole toilet roll in the toilet trick - the first time was a few days ago. Congratulations and Argh - all in 5 minutes.

Big mistake

Benji intercepted the "One Step Ahead" kids' catalog in today's mail. Big mistake. He now is in full-swing coveting mode and has about 100 things he wants for Christmas. It's better to not even know that so many toys exist in this world. Oh well, I guess he's going to be one disappointed little boy on Christmas day.

The power of cheese

If you want to win the hearts of our sons, give them a piece of cheese and they will love you forever.

(Kristin is currently number one on their food list since she gave them cheese on Thursday.)

Benji with his block creation

These are the same blocks my brother and I played with as a kid. My mom doesn't throw much away, which is lots of fun for me because all my old toys are re-visited.

Sweet brothers

Benji's plans

Benji just told Shearn Yoong on the phone that his plans for the afternoon are to go to Barnes and Noble, kill deer, and ride bikes at Mud Creek. Too bad for him that none of those three things are on MY to-do list ... especially not the killing deer part.

At least he provided me with comic relief.

Clothing woes

Basically I feel like complaining so that is what this post will be about.

It is getting colder here in NWA so I went through my long pants. What a depressing event. I knew I had put on a few pounds, but I didn't think it would be that bad. It is. Unless I am looking for the skin-tight look with fat hanging over the waistline. I am not looking forward to 1) wearing the same 2-3 pairs of pants all winter long or 2) spending more money on clothes. We'll see how long I can last with the same boring choices until I do number 2.

I went through Benji and Zac's clothes this past weekend. I have no idea how I bought literally twice as many pants than shirts for Benji for this winter. This means he can get grass stains in the knees but better not have too many spaghetti stains up top.

Zac's short and seems to have a small waist, so even though I have tons of 2T pants, most don't fit him.

The only one of us without a true clothing issue is Shearn Yoong. He's lost some weight from riding more lately. Technically, he has a clothing woe because some of his pants no longer fit. But I think if clothes are too big that does not count as a woe.

Deer hunting

We saw a car today with a deer strapped onto the top. We couldn't tell if the deer was killed from hunting or from a car accident. But whatever the cause, this gave Benji the idea for him to get his gun (which he has none) and go kill some deer to eat the meat. Here's what my 3 guys are doing in the back yard right now.


Now, I'm not against hunting. I know that I have friends whose husbands hunt. That's fine. However, I have to say that I'm glad that my husband doesn't. But it appears that our sons might coerce him to start - at least with bats.

And why am I sitting inside here at the computer? I told them that hunting is a "boy thing." This is my way of getting out of anything I don't want to do. I works quite well. Shearn Yoong did point out that Sarah Palin, the famous moose hunter, would not have approved of my answer. Too bad. :)

Why is it...

Why is it that Sunday is the only day of the week that the boys consistently sleep past 7 a.m.? And today is the only day of the week where we have to be somewhere (church) at 9 a.m. on the other side of town. We had muffins in the car for breakfast today. Maybe we need to switch to the later service.

Cutest frog I know

Zac

Least likely

If there had been a poll in high school as to who would be the least likely to get a nose ring (like all those polls that go in the year book), I would definitely have been one of the top 3 choices.

But my friend Britni and I went to get a nose ring (actually, a stud) yesterday evening. As two SAHMs, we stood out just a bit from the other folks going in for piercings and tattoos. I had gone to vote in the school board election on the way. I also had brought my knitting to do in the car if I had to wait for Britni. I doubt that the other patrons were into voting in school board elections or knitting. But being out of the box is more fun than living within expectations all the time. UPDATED: But who knows? Maybe all the other patrons are hard-core knitters and were campaigning for school board positions. If I don't want people to judge me, I shouldn't judge them, right?

Turns out that it doesn't hurt too much and only takes 2-3 minutes.

I was going to include a picture but if you've seen one nose ring, you've pretty much seen them all. So I'll spare you a close up on my nose pores.

UPDATED:
Here's a picture for you Hannah. You need to click on it to make it bigger to actually see the stud.

Snuggle time at the park

Water anyone?

We came home from Bible study this morning and when I went to fill up our water cups for lunch, I realized that we had NO WATER. Yikes! [There is a busted pipe - the City is working on it.] We drink a lot of water around here. What to do? Thankfully Shearn Yoong had accidentally left our sports water container full of water from the weekend. Of course, I'm sure the boys would have been just fine to exist on juice alone for as long as necessary. But we'll make a grocery store run after nap if the water isn't back on. This also means that I guess I just can't cook dinner tonight. It's a tough life.

CD Player troubles?

We've been having issues with our CD player in the Civic off and on for a while now where the CD just won't eject. Lately, we can't even insert a disc nor play the CD. The kids ended up having to listen to NPR or Family Life or whatever Laurel may be in the mood for. Not too shabby in my opinion, but Laurel finally said that she would like the player fixed or replaced. I finally was able to carve out some time this afternoon to see what's up with the player. As soon as I slid it out of its bracket and turned it face down to unplug the connectors, I heard some metallic clinking sound coming from the inside. Uh-oh, this can't possibly be good, I thought. In my mind, I was thinking this is so bad I probably need to replace it. So took it into the house to open it up. I told Laurel, "Listen to this". Her first reaction was that it sounded like coins inside. Coins??!! Who would........ Why would..... nevermind..... In this household, that *could* and *would* be a possibility. I opened the top panel up and sure enough, a quarter was peeking at me from underneath. In fact, I dug up two other quarters in there.


Good news is, we didn't have to spend money to buy a new one. In fact, our CD player just GAVE us 75 cents to spend. Can't beat that! Now if only there's some $100 bills in there somewhere....

Happy birthday Zac

Dreds like Hannah