I'd Be Lost

I'd be lost without my handy dandy cell phone.  Truly lost.  

It's smudged and chipped.  It's been through many falls.  It almost landed in the lake three weeks ago.  Oh my gosh! I would have died.

(My wallpaper is Grover in a chrysalis. Not a scarf, a chrysalis, as so beautifully done by my 4-year-old God-daughter who recently had her own caterpillars transform into butterflies.)

It's been said that every time a woman has a baby, she loses a quarter of her brain.  I have four kids. Do the math.

Actually, I must be pretty smart to use my phone to compensate for my brain degeneration, though I would argue my brain is just fine and it is the pure chaos of my life that leaves me mentally challenged.

My phone has a calendar.  Each event on the calendar can have a reminder alarm.  I use this on every event in my life.  (To think my calendar used to serve more as a record of the past since I never forgot my appointments.) As an extreme precaution, I even use it for my set work schedule.  When the alarm sounds, my husband will say, "What's that beeping for?" I usually say, "I don't know. I have to check."  It could be anything from "I have to go to work now" to "remember to wash your children's sports uniforms."  

This phone also wakes me up every morning.  I'm all for consolidating gadgets because we have so many possessions in our house with six people living here.  Alarm clock was acting funny. Tossed it.  Use the phone.

My little sister and I  hate talking on the phone, but love sharing random daily happenings from the benign to the intense to the strange.  We text... a lot.  It's how we stay connected and close.  I love my phone for this!

My phone takes crappy pictures.  But, hey, it takes pictures.  You see, I have four kids.  They are adorable and there are always things to take pictures of.  However, I have yet to set an alarm on my phone to remind me to take my camera with me when we go out, so I don't usually have it.  At least I have my phone.

Did I mention it is also my mp3 player?

I'd be lost without my LG.  I love it!

Coloring: Rated E for Everyone

My baby loves to color.  She likes to see the color appear as she strokes the crayon on the paper. And, she likes to see how many crayons she can hold in her miniature, pudgy hands, then let them drop to the table and roll to the floor.  That's a very fun game.  And sometimes we'll catch her chewing on a non-toxic Crayola. (Bad baby!  Ok, not really.  She's an angel. I could never call her bad.)

And her mommy loves to color too!  (That's me.)  I just can't seem to help myself from coloring on the pages with her.  My favorite art is the mix of toddler scratches and creative coloring/shading on the pages of a coloring book.  Maybe I'll frame some one of these days.  "The Mommy/Baby Art Collaborations," I could call them.  Maybe I could put them on display at some free and innovative art gallery.  I can see it now.... the flash bulbs of reporters, the interviews, the national coverage...   Oh. Ach hem.

Anyway, I'm just saying... I love to color with my baby.

The 8 Question Query (from my baby sis)

My sister recently responded to an 8 question blog request from a friend. She extended the challenge to me, so here goes:

1. What are your top 2 cities in the world? (It's okay if you've never been there!)

London

Moscow

I've been to both cities. Well, mostly London, which I LOVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  My Moscow experience was the airport, a cab ride on the freeway past IKEA to McDonald's, and back to the airport. Does that count?  I want to really see Moscow though.  I am fascinated by Russia and it's history. Such an interesting, artistic culture mixed with success, oppression, pain and brilliance.

2. Are you doing what you love or doing what you have to?
 Yes and no.  I love being a mom and I love my job.  One of my biggest passions lies in worship ministry, which I am not doing.  I have to trust God's timing on that one.  I miss it.

3. Coffee or tea?
Yes!  See T is for Tea.

4. Describe the moment in your life when you felt the most loved.
This question is a little too deep for my generally light-hearted blog.  My God makes me feel the most loved, usually through rough times and intimate moments.  My mom, hubby, sister and children make me feel most loved too.  

5. Who do you think had the single biggest impact on your life so far?
The death of my sister.

6. What song lyrics say exactly what you're feeling right now?
"I hate that stupid old pick-up truck..."

7. Pro sports or college ball?
Dude.  Pro all the way.  Go Packers!

8. What book do you really, really want to see made into a movie?
Hmmm.....   Hmmmm.....  I never really get to the good books until they've already been made into a movie.  I'd love to see The Shack as movie, but it would be impossible to capture.  It would dumb it down to our visual limitations.  Not acceptable.  I guess I'll wait until Heaven...

Nerf Initiation

My little sister is engaged to a kind, wonderful, conservative boy.  Okay, he's not exactly a boy.  He is a recent college grad entrenched in the madness of the upcoming election, and he is stationed in D.C.

It seems reasonable that he hasn't found the time to journey to Wisconsin to meet his future sister and brother-in-law, nephews and niece.  But, I would like to submit to you that his busyness has nothing to do with it.  I think he's afraid of this...

And this...........

(Yes, that big boy is my husband.)  

Mr. Wonderful... we are waiting to meet you.  What's the problem?  Are you scared of a little Nerf dart?

Actually, we've seen pictures of his semi-automatic Nerf, of sorts, and we only have these little guns, so there is seemingly reason to falter. Still... there are many of us. We are not afraid.

Seriously though, once the Nerf-pelting is over, which is just a normal part of our day, we cannot wait to hug the future Uncle to my children and welcome him right in.

School Supply Stress

School supply organization, recycling (as in using last year's supplies which are still usable) and shopping is getting more and more stressful each year.  I have three boys in school and the oldest is now in middle school.  For him we had 2 full backpacks, a crate and a bag's worth of supplies to cart in on the first day.  Also, everything needed to be labeled.  Insanity!!!

I actually made a spread sheet for shopping and detailed list for each child.  I purchased items at 3 different stores and returned the ones I found to be more expensive to Shopko. (Wal-Mart is the overall cheapest, but the grocery store is where I made out on the loss-leader sales.)

I spent around $80 this year on everything, including a 2GB flash drive and a TI calculator. That is actually pretty good.  I accredit this to my recycling, ad watching and all-around awesomeness.  In moments like that, my kids sometimes ask, "Do you feel like Supermom right now?"  Had they asked me, I would have firmly and resoundingly said, "Yes!"

Despite that feat, all the inventorying, labeling, sharpening, sorting, appropriating, distributing, packing, delivering, re-organizing and discovering what was missing was just a tad anxiety inducing for me.  So glad it's over.  Until next year...