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! :)