Turmoil and upheaval...

... of both the emotional and physical kind is going on in my life right now, and unfortunately this is a new enough blog that I don't have any back-ups ready to be published as a simple way to distract myself from everything. However in the coming days, as things settle down and I can start trying to pick up the pieces for me and my children, I'm sure at least SOMETHING will come to mind to write about. That is all, enjoy the remainder of your evening.

Weird observations...

Have you ever had a memory from childhood, something you haven't thought about in years, come back when you least expect it, and have it be just like it happened yesterday?  That happened to me in the shower the other day.  I was reaching for my shampoo, when all of a sudden I remembered being about 4 or 5 years old, and deciding that I was going to "save" some hot water in an empty conditioner bottle for me to use the next night in the shower.  Now, I don't know why I thought I could do this, or where the idea even came from, but hey, I was little.  Well, the next night, I got in the shower, turned on the water, and poured the bottle of "hot" water into my hand.  And wouldn't you know?  It was ICE COLD.  Ooh, I was so ANGRY!  I was certain, as certain as my little 5-year-old mind could be, that one of my older sister had STOLEN my hot water and replaced it with this cold junk, just to be mean to me!  So that night, I filled TWO bottles, and hid one, just sure that my ingenious plan would work.  But of course, as I'm sure you've figured out, the next night BOTH bottles were cold, and I was so upset.  I don't know how long it took me to realize that my sisters didn't CARE that I was trying to save hot water, neither of them had touched the bottles, that the bottles were losing heat because that's what they do, but I think I was mad at the two of them for at least a week.  And this all came back to me, thankfully with a smile, as I was getting ready to wash my hair.  The random things that come into my head sometimes...  :)

Poison oak is no fun!

So about this time last year, I managed to get exposed to poison oak. This was not a pleasant experience, and I still bear the scars of my encounter today. In the end, after a week of agonizing pain and anguish, I went to the local ER and ended up on a steroid and an anti-itch medication.

This was taken about two days before I went to the ER and yes, it really was that bad. I wasn't just on this leg, it was also on my opposite upper thigh, various parts of both arms, and on my jawline as well, I just didn't get pictures of those. But this was the worst of it, as this is where it began, the rest was spread by contact. Now, a year later, it seems I have gotten into it again, though this time in a much smaller amount, and now I know how to treat it, so maybe it won't be as bad! This time it's on my left wrist (of course, because I just HAD to be left-handed, didn't I?) and I think I actually came into contact with it off my daughter, who his not in the least bit sensitive to it and has no problem touching it.

She has also discovered the wonders of making her own "magic paste" and just LOVES using baking soda and vinegar on every teensy tiny itch she comes across! lol The other day, I swear both of her legs just COVERED in it, because she "got into an ant nest, Mommy!" Yet strangely enough when it flaked off a few minutes later (thank goodness my 11yo loves to vacuum! lol) there wasn't a single mark anywhere on her! My Littles are so silly! :)

Racing thoughts...

So tonight has been one of those nights where my brain just will NOT let me sleep. It has been running and racing since about 10:30, when I first thought to myself, "Hey, maybe I should try going to bed a little earlier than usual tonight." Guess that was the trigger, because my brain went into super-overload-crafting more, and I haven't been able to stop. I've had ideas and projects racing through my head nearly nonstop ever since. So I decided, what the heck, maybe I should try a few of these ideas out, right? Maybe it'll calm the brain enough to sleep. And this was after straightening/ cleaning under the bathroom sink, too. So I tried out three projects, though one simply involved modifying one previous, and I think I can finally sleep. Biggest problem? Totally forgot to take pictures while I was working. >.< Ah well, I've a feeling I'll definitely be doing all of these projects again, so I'll just have to remember to take pictures then, won't I? :)

Anyway, tonight's projects that I just couldn't get out of my head were bubble dough, (which didn't work so pretty good the first time I tried it using a generic version of Dawn dish soap, so I used a pretty smelling shampoo and that worked nicely, but it looked NOTHING like the pictures/ description on the site, though it was still neat to play with) even better bubble dough, (again, looked/ behaved nothing like what I expected from the site, but was still neat. And yes, I added glitter to mine as well, because glitter rocks! lol) and rainbow rice, (I left out the scent on the rice and so far I've only made two colours, and I made VERY tiny batches of them, just because I wanted to test the technique). But I'm okay with that since I know I'll definitely be making more again, though likely not before we leave to go visit Daddy for a few weeks, given how things have been going. But now I'm going to go try again to sleep and hope I'm more successful this time around than I was the last time. Wish me luck! :)

Peacock Springs, or What We Did for Father's Day

We currently live over 300 miles away from my husband, and the Littles father. This is by choice, but not because we are separated, because we're not. We live so far away because the school system in the county we were in wasn't helping my 11yo when he needed it, and the system where we are now absolutely IS helping him. But Big E hasn't been able to get transferred up to this district yet, so the kids and I are staying with my parents (>.<) while we wait for him to get the transfer. So basically, I've been mother and father this last year, though I never really thought of it that way.

Well, on Father's Day this year, my sister, who is a single mum, decided she wanted to go swimming at one of the Springs (we have two different branches of Blue Springs near us, and they are BOTH delightful!) so I gave in and let the kids have a day of fun at the Springs. We chose to go to the one a county over from us, as it was more likely to have less people at it, but when we got there, it was closed!! However, the very nice ranger told us about Peacock Springs, which neither of us had ever heard of, and so we decided to go there. It was an adventure, to say the least! But it was well worth it, as when we got there there was almost no one there. Peacock Springs is a cave-diving Spring, as there are caverns below the surface of the water, that are apparently wonderful and beautiful, but as I don't know how to scuba dive, I wouldn't know. However, there is also not much actual land to sit/ stand on here, so getting my Littles into the water wasn't easy, believe me!

There were rocks out a bit from the steps, but once you were at the bottom of the steps there was about a 20-foot drop to the bottom of the Spring! Scary thought! And boy oh BOY was that water COLD!!! But it was definitely worth it, the water was so clear and BLUE!!! I will definitely be going back, whether the kids want to or not! :) I had wanted to add some pictures to this, since the Springs were so very lovely, but it appears that I'm having issues doing so from the iPad yet again, so it will have to wait until I can get to the computer, sync my phone's photos, and then do it manually that way. Ah well, such is life! :)

16-year-olds...

This is my 16-year-old son, A. He is more than a handful, to say the least. Do you remember being 16? I do. And I NEVER remember acting the way he does! In fact, if I had tried 1/1000th of the things he does, I probably wouldn't be sitting here tonight writing this!

The 16yo in question

I love my kids, I do, each of them is special and unique in their own way, but this boy... I'm more than half ready to put him on a plane to his biological father and let HIM deal with the next two years of the kid's life, cuz I really just can't take much more of him!!!

Maybe...

I think I've figured out how to get pictures up while writing from the iPad or the phone, and it only took downloading one app to do so, yay!!! So le'ts see if it worked, shall we? :)

I like to take pictures of the sky at different times of day. I generally take them in the mornings when it's foggy, since I love the fog, it's so... Yeah, I dunno, there's just something about it that I just adore. I also like to take pictures of sunrises, sunsets, and any time the sky is just looking particularly lovely. This was one of those times.

I've also discovered that I can't add more than one picture at a time, otherwise the page doesn't allow me to add text before and after the photo. Nice, huh? >.< But hey, I'll figure it out soon enough! :)

Crafty much?

Sadly,Vi haven't yet figured out how to post photos from the iPad to here, so for now, I'll not be posting anything with pictures. Which sucks, cuz I've gotten into a crafty mood lately and have been making a bunch of things recently. So far I've made a pair of wraparound shorts, a cute matching top, and a few skirts for my daughter, and I've been working on some little toys as well. I'll figure it out, or I'll get rid of the kids long enough to go on the computer to put some photos up, but if anyone knos how to get pictures uploaded from an iPad, please let me know, I would love to make this more colourful and visually friendly! :)

A bit of honesty for ya...

I'll be the first person to tell you that I can't sing. I'm not exactly tone-deaf, but I really can't hold a tune in a bucket. I can tell when someone hits a wrong note in a song, and I can tell when something resonates properly to me, but when it comes to actual singing? Yeah, beyond lullabies, I tend to confine my singing to when no one is around to hear me. But then... But then sometimes, I just can't help myself, and I start to sing whatever I happen to be listening to at the time. Well, I usually take great pains to make sure there is no one around when I'm singing, so as to not hurt delicate little ears, and I had THOUGHT that the kids were all outside feeding the animals, but apparently not, because shortly after I started to really belt one out, my oldest came into my room, a pained look on his face, BEGGING me to please STOP, before his ears started to bleed! (He's not too dramatic a teenager, is he? lol) And of course, this makes me... That's right, you guessed it, SING LOUDER! lol I just couldn't help myself, it was so funny. He closed my door, I opened it, he closed it again, I opened it again, he crawled in on his knees, I laughed. It was probably one of the more amusing interactions we have had lately, truth be told.

But today has been one of those days for me. One of those days when I feel like... I guess when I feel like flying into a thousand pieces and just freaking out on everyone. We are suppose to be leaving to go visit the kids Daddy in two weeks, and the chores the three of them were given in order to be able to go are not being done. And here's the thing. If they don't do what they're suppose to, regardless of how much any one of them or my husband is looking forward to this trip, we will NOT be going. Period. On this I will not budge, because if I give in on this, I'll have to give in on everything, and I don't think I'm ready to lose that much authority here. So while the kids continue to fight with me about doing what they were told, I'm afraid it will just mean the cancellation of everything we had planned. Oh well, not my concern! Getting this place in a decent condition so as to not come home to a horrifying mess is my one and only priority and nothing else will happen until that does. PERIOD. So I'm a mean mommy, I won't give in and let the kids walk all over me and still get what they want. Yep, that's me, mean old Wicked Witch of the West evil mom. And I think I like it that way, at least for now. :)

Chickens

We have 15 baby chickens in our dining room right now. Why, you ask? Because that's where the incubator is, of course. And also, because the barn hasn't been put up yet. Six years and it's still laying on the ground. >.< And the greenhouse is still in pieces in my bedroom closet. Guess it'll all be put up one day, but today is not that day. lol Anyway, we have them separated into older and younger chicks, because when we put the younger chicks in, (there's about two weeks separating them in age) the older ones were beating up on the baby-babies. So for now we have chickies in our dining room. I suppose it's better than calves in the living room, but honestly, how would we get those things up the stairs? lol But back to the chicks in the dining room. This morning, one of the older chicks managed to escape his/ her brooder box and went on a mad dash all over the house. I'm not really sure why he/ she decided to do this, but that chickie seemed to have a grand time running about the house trying to escape our attempts at capture! But once s/he was back safely in his/ her box, we were able to go about our day again. It really was amusing, and as they get bigger, I fear it may start happening more and more frequently!

Whoops!

Have you ever gotten so involved in a project, one of your kids has to comes to you and say, "Mommy, what's for dinner?" before you realize you not only have NOTHING planned, but it's also PASSED THEIR BEDTIME!? And then you realize you still have to drive 20 miles to your sister's house to retrieve some things your son left with her, so you load everyone into the car, go all the way over, it takes three times as long as necessary because you sent the kids in without supervision, thinking to yourself, "How long could it possibly take?" and of course it takes FOR-FREAKING-EVER because you had the temerity to think that to begin with! Yeah, it was one of those nights tonight. But everyone got fed, and the project is well on it's way to being completed. I just hope I manage to get it completed before too late tomorrow, I have so much to do it's not funny, and with my parents suppose to be coming back tomorrow, that makes this project all the more crucial to finish before they arrive. Which reminds me, I should get back to it before I fall down from sheer exhaustion. :)

Ssshh!!! I'm holding summer hostage.

I'm a mean Mommy.  My kids aren't allowed to "celebrate" summer break until they get their bedrooms clean.  School officially ended here on 5, June, and they aren't doing anything until that cleaning is DONE.  And oh, did I mention that I AM NOT DOING IT MYSELF?  Yep, I am making THEM clean up their messes, though I have agreed to take care of the things that are mine.  Which is probably why my bed is currently buried under baskets and baskets of clothing that needs folding, and why I am seriously thinking of getting still another dresser to contain MY clothing, since most of it can't hang in the closet.  Oh, and this ban on summer includes a trip scheduled for later this month to go spend several weeks visiting with Daddy, who is really looking forward to having some regular "family" time again, even if just for 2 or 3 weeks.  Until our part of the house is clean again, including under the beds and in closets, we will do nothing summer-y or fun.  Not a single thing.  And it's working so far.  The messiest of the two bedrooms is more than half done, which is a minor miracle considering at one point the one part was nearly 2-feet-deep in child-related detritus.  Yep, it was THAT bad.  O.o  So until further notice, none of the fun stuff on my summer-related Pinterest boards is being done.  Not a SINGLE one.  I'm really hoping it will all be done by Saturday though, we have a planned outting with some friends to go to one of the local Springs, and I _REALLY_ want to go!  So here's hoping we can get the 1 1/2 rooms left done before we go to bed Friday night!  :)  Wish us luck!

Life...

Kids are weird.  Anyone who has kids will agree, even silently, even if they would never dare say anything like that in public, and would likely feign shock at my saying so.  "MY children aren't weird!"  Well guess what?  All kids are weird.  And there is nothing wrong with that.  Kids are kids, and as an adult now, I see that kids really are, well, WEIRD!  Take my 11yo for instance.  Today, he is suppose to be helping with a major cleaning job around the house, that needs to be done by Friday.  He has gone out of his way to do everything BUT clean, his final stall tactic being to show me a tiny splinter in one finger and told me that he "just noticed this" yesterday.  Well, judging from the level of mild infection, he knew this splinter had been in his finger more than just a day!  So I did the only thing I could think to do.  I grabbed a pin, sprayed it down with rubbing alcohol, and went to work removing the splinter.  Believe me, with him being the middle of my three kids, this wasn't my first go-round at splinter removal, and likely won't be my last, either.  I put a tiny hole in the top near the brown spot I could only assume was the splinter...  And that's when the WAILING started.  He was writing around, wailing that he was in AGONY, and I wasn't even touching him!  lol  Then, to try to work some of the infection out, but also hoping it would carry the splinter with it, I gently, GENTLY, rubbed the pin shaft over the spot.  Oh, BOY you would've thought I had just cut off his finger!  Now don't get me wrong, I know that it probably DID hurt a bit, but I've had to remove splinters from my own hands, and in worse condition than his, so I'm fairly certain it didn't hurt THAT badly!  The splinter took about ten seconds to remove once I got him to stand still, but then of course I had to clean the area.  I sat there for a good three minutes, not touching him other than holding that finger, as he wailed at me that IT HURT!!!  SOOO BAD!!!  It was seriously the funniest thing I had seen all day.  And then, OF COURSE, he couldn't help with the cleaning because his finger hurt "so bad!"  lol  I love my kids, but they sure are weird!  :)