Mothering Many

Remember that lovely menu I posted on Monday? So far we have had tacos (not on that menu), beans and rice (not on that menu), and chuck steak (not on that menu). Tonight dh will be bringing home deli chicken (not on that menu). Are you noticing a trend (not on that menu)?

I haven’t been grocery shopping because the kids are having practice almost every night. The coaches keep them until they need landscape lighting to see their way home. There was no practice last night, but it was called off so late that I didn’t have the list made yet. I’m planning to go tomorrow night–my early Saturday morning WalMart runs having been canceled due to ball games.

I mentioned not too long ago that I was considering giving the children an allowance, and I’ve done that. We’ve had three weeks worth of allowances, and I have docked Batman 20% of his new shoes (he lost his other pair), and I have docked Country 60% of a set of blinds (she broke the old set). Luckily for her, I charged her based on the replacement cost of plain vinyl blinds and not the nice wood blinds that I’d like to be getting. Interestingly enough, those charges came out of the first week’s allowance. It seems that once the kids figured out there was money to be had, but that I would withhold it for negligence, it became worth while to be paying attention. Go figure!

Believe it or not, I think I’m actually saving money!

My kids have been on a wild ride for a few weeks now. In fact, It’s been a Maximum Ride 3! I recieved this book in order to review it and I have to tell you what has happened here because of it. My review is late, partially because I have been crazy busy, and partly because every time I want to see the book, I have to chase SomeKid down to wrench it out of their grasp.

I first let 14 year old Country read it. She loves science fiction, so I figured it would be right up her alley, even though I’d heard it was for younger kids. Elapsed reading time: 1.5 days. She enjoyed it so much and talked about so much that Diva (12) grabbed it before the back cover was fully closed. It took her 2 days to read it. And then Stuntman (9) started it. He passed it by for other things, but Spidey (7–yeah, he’s SEVEN, ya’ll) is reading this book and he’s just enthralled. It’s slow going for him, but he’s slugging through it.

Now, I have to be honest, the storyline did not appeal to me, and I did not really enjoy this book. Winged people things are just not my cup of tea. But I enjoyed watching my children enjoy it, ykwim? The excitement in their voices was palpable, and their frantic cries of “where’s that ride book? Mom, make her/him give me a turn!” were pleasing as well. I don’t have to like something myself to admit it might be good, LOL! I’m recommending it, because it’s my belief that a child who loves books is never without a friend. (Yeah, you can take that to mean that some of my best friends are folks I’ve meet between the covers of a book.) And not only did they enjoy this book, but they just had to go to the library to get the others in this series! How awesome is that?

So here it is:
Maximum Ride 3 by James Patterson.
Science fiction intended for the young adult, but devoured by all ages. Enjoy! We sure did!

Okay, I readily admit that I have an..interesting sense of humor. However. Some things just defy rational explanation. For instance, I just went to a Dansko shoes site, and my eyes were met with the descriptive phrase “toe thong”. Now, maybe it’s regional, but I have never heard a real person utter this phrase before. I thought for a couple of seconds, and said to myself, “Why, I bet they mean flip-flops.” And I was pretty much right, but these are some nice flip flops! And if you read my other blog, you might already know that I have a passion for a cool flip flop. It’s a character flaw trait that I am passing on to my daughters. And of course, being right there at the site, practically on the page even, I had to click over and see the Dansko sandals. Frankly I like the clogs better, but then, that’s not a great shock either. I think I could live in clogs and flip flops, and except for Sundays, I do, LOL!

I didn’t bother looking at the Dansko boots. We haven’t had winter here in the past three years, so I’m not worried about it. Last year my “get ready for winter” consisted of pulling out a few turtlenecks.

I’m talking about the total lunar eclipse I forgot about this morning! And also constellations! And meteor showers, and! and! and! Now, you know stuff like that is much easier to see with the proper equipment, right? With binoculars, the beauty of the celestial bodies is just almost overwhelming, and BuyTelescopes.com says they have the best astronomy binoculars. Myself, I’d rather have a telescope, but only because I can focus it on what the children need to look at, and then have them step up to it. That way, I can be sure we are all talking about the same thing!

Is this where I admit that I have never seen the rings of Saturn except in pictures? And that I really, really want to hear my children GASP when they do? I’m seriously considering this Meade 70AZ-AR Altazimuth Refractor for us. It’s not too terribly expensive, and…..I want it. I really, really want it.

I’ve been watching something happen that has been pretty amazing. When I decided to go ahead and bump us back to a full CM school experience, I knew it would cost money, and probably a substantial amount. I decided what I wanted and then I gasped at the amount of money it was going to cost, and had a real crisis of faith. I thought about it for awhile, and then I said “God pays His bills”, and I clicked the submit order button. I did wait until I had enough in paypal to pay for the first major purchase, which happened to be LLATL (times 3 students). Then I started looking for the rest of what we needed. I figured I might end up having to put some of it on a low interest credit card, but that it was worth it.

And then I watched in amazement as God did exactly what I had said He would do. It was incredible to watch, and it gave me goosebumps as I watched payment after payment roll into replenish that paypal account. I ordered the materials for composer and artist study, and I got notices from paypal that I had received money. In almost the exact amount I had spent, ya’ll. It was crazy.

Now, I do still need a few items, things I’ll pick up in town and not order online, mostly art supplies. I”ll end up putting those on credit cards, because I still don’t have a paypal debit card. But there is money in paypal to cover the expense. Now don’t read more into this than I am saying. There have been years where I’ve needed to compare credit cards and worry about interest rates and just such as this. But this year? School is paid in full.

I told you yesterday about the daughter who loves to watch movies, and the one who like to draw and the one who designs clothes. But little Drama, she like to dress up. (Diva still does too, but we don’t mention it, and if we do, we call it “testing a design”). When I saw these fairy tale costumes at Halloween-Store.com, I just knew she would enjoy them. This pixie is just “her”, yk?

Speaking of things kids would like, it’s about time to start a serious Christmas list. Where has this year gone?

I was looking at a website today. Nothing much new there, LOL. See, I’ve been eyeballing digital picture frames for quite awhile, because of how many pictures I take. I mean, is there a better way to show off digital pics than with a digital picture frame? The spender in me says no. The saver says at least wait until they go on sale! The mom in me just says awwwwwwwwwww.

I really do like that you can load these frames with multiple shots, so that your frame is rotating through the pictures. And the larger ones come with a memory card, so there’s no added expense, and you can use it just as quickly as you can click, drag and drop. Hmm, I need at least 8, don’t you think? Maybe ten, because I do take pictures of stuff that’s not my kids, LOL! I know that’s hard to believe, but it’s true!

I told you not too long ago about a search engine that could help you find appliances locally. Today, I am going to tell you about a different search engine, and this one is just for baby stuff! Whether you need a pediatrician, a product review, or just need the address of the local baby shop, Lilaguide can hook you up! It’s a “word of mouth survival guide for new parents”. From slings to stroller, toys to diapers, you can find the scoop here– You’ll find 120,000 reviews of more than 32,000 local baby and parent-friendly businesses in 5,000 neighborhoods cities. And the geo-targeting technology that allows moms and dads to find the items they want to buy within a one-mile radius of their driveways is priceless.

Man, we are really struggling with this lately. Ok, I am struggling with it. Dh just says “no” and moves on or he says “yes” with no rhyme or reason. Especially this week, with money going out for football and cheer-leading (oh, yeah, the girls will be doing that), I’m in the no-zone. See, instead of giving the kids an allowance, DH and I cover their expenses, and while I am not yet ready to get into a prepaid teen card, I am wondering about starting an allowance system of some sort.

In addition to having to eat a chunk of change in registrations and uniforms and equipment (it’s 5 kids, you do the math. STOP! Sit down first, because your knees will buckle) we’re having a real problem around here with stuff getting broken and just not taken care of in general. It’s frustrating, and I am really thinking that if they had to fork over some of the replacement costs, they might take better care of things. Would they leave the clothes they paid for on the floor? Maybe they would, maybe they wouldn’t. But I bet that seeing what they had purchased being walked on wouldn’t bother me nearly as much as seeing what I bought abused.