Mothering Many

Is there an author on this blog? I think there is, and I think it used to be me, but lately time to blog has been rarer than Arizona luxury real estate. It’s not that I don’t have things to say. As if! It’s just that I’ve been busy mothering many instead of writing about it.

But I tell ya, I never thought I’d see the day when I had over a week’s posts on the front page.

Boy howdy! It is indeed fall, at least according to the calendar. I went shopping the other day, and let me just say that my market research indicates that the price of clothing is not falling. BUT! everyone was happy because everyone got something (even me) (ya’ll— hoodie dresses for the baby girls at the Walmart–just sayin’). Look, two parenthetical statements in one sentence. Go Cass!

So, where was I? Oh, yes. Everyone got something, but we also reached a milestone. Country got her first pair of heels.

Look at world, here she comes! In a wobbly sort of way.

My menu is totally lax this week as I just went and bought what was on sale, because dh got home early one day, and I knew better than to wait to go ashopping, having learned my lesson last week. None the less, here it is, such as it is:

chicken
chicken
spaghetti
hamburgers
tacos
hamburger helper
pork chops

I hope everyone is a little better organized in this department than I am this week, LOL

Do your kids ever come up with really cool ideas? Mine do. Now some of them are just crazy. Cool, but crazy. But some of those “what ifs’ are actually cool in a realistic way. Like, what if a dvd player could clean the dvds before it played them (we had a dirty dvd last night). If you’ve ever lost your place in a movie because you had to take the dvd out and clean it, then you can see this would be a totally cool thing. And with hordes of little people, you can bet that’s happened to us quite often.

Now, today, I read about a site, aptly called RaiseCapital, that allows people with cool ideas to present them to investors. Young (or not so young) entrepreneurs can create a a marketing pitch for their idea, including video and other media, and then potential investors can have a peek. Venture Capital Funding can mean the difference between getting an idea launched and letting it languish.You know there are people who are just waiting to invest in the next great idea? Not having the money to develop an idea doesn’t have to mean the death of it. If it’s a good enough idea, there are people lined up to offer the money to develop it. RaiseCapital even emails them when someone posts a new idea in their field of interest.

I’m glad I found out about the site, because the next time one of my kids has a knock-out idea, the first words out of my mouth don’t have to be, “do you know how much it would cost to do that?”

And yesterday, there was art. Art of the plaster and paints sort. We made frescoes. I had never worked with plaster of Paris before, so that was quite interesting. I will tell you that it is lighter than water, and so you need more of it by volume. The instructions are to mix by weight. Because, yes, we all have precisely calibrated digital scales in our kitchen, right? Whatever.

I took pictures. Now I can prove to you and them that we do fun stuff in school, occasionally.

It’s been almost three weeks! I cannot believe all we’ve accomplished in school in that time! I’ll be writing more plans this week, believe it or not. I”ll post a littl eon it, but nothing like the in-depth series I did when I charted the term. In fact, I plan to use those posts I wrote befre to help keep me on track when I write the next 3 weeks worth of plans.

Things are a bit tighter for us this period, what with the sports and all, so I’m glad there isn’t much to buy. The way the term falls on the calendar, I won’t need anything except art/craft supplies until after Christmas. And that’s good, because I really don’t want to deal with private student loans at this stage of the educational game, ykwim? We all know that leads to student loan consolidation later, and with the number of students I have, I don’t think even student loan consolidation would help us out of that debt spiral.

Back to the art stuff: The kids seemed excited in a rather vague way about a couple of projects in the DaVinci book, but not enough to remember the projects when I asked what they wanted to do. However, frescoes were covered in the history I do with Batman and Spidey, and they were quite intrigued with that, so that’s what I bought supplies for. Not having to go to BigTown to get what I needed did weigh heavily in my decision, considering that Sunday was the only day I could do that, BUT the brakes on the van were gone to the point that I could hear metal on metal, and Sunday was also the only day dh could do that, and so, brakes win. Anyway (darn those rabbit trails), I got pie pans, plaster of paris, pipe cleaners, watercolors and brushes. We will make a mess and have great fun, and perhaps some art will even occur, as if by accident.

Lately, dh has been taken everyone but Dababy with him to practices, and today, he took them again to the afternoon/evening games. We have a bag with the equipment in it (and I really should throw a few medical supplies in there, just a couple of bandaids and an ace bandage, maybe one of those new fangled ice packs) and he just grabs it and they take off. I have had a houseful for so long that playing mom to one is …. interesting.

It’s quieter, and I get to spend time snuggling and watching and being with just her. It’s frustrating because she’s used to a houseful of company, and a lot of stimulation, so she demands a lot of attention. It’s really cool, because when she sleeps, as she did TWICE yesterday, I can do other stuff, like sew. BTW, she has totally claimed the quilt I am working on. OTOH, if she needs help, there’s not another set of hands here, so it’s all on me. Different days, different seasons. Just different.

So that’s my blessing this week … time with just one.

This tip is as much for me as for ya’ll. I’ve been meaning to do it, so maybe this post will get me off my can. When you assign your children a room to clean, leave them a checklist. It’s easy to overlook sweeping the kitchen when it’s late and you are tired, but if the checklist is tucked discreetly inside a cabinet door, you’ll have a little reminder. A little “employee self evaluation” before they come tell you they are done can keep you from appearing to be an ogre. I’ve heard this reminder list works for big people, too. *cough, cough*

The guy from Family Movies called me this week. He always sounds like a recording, and he always starts with
“have we done something to offend you?” He actually called twice. He had called while I was teaching and after I said I was busy, he said it would only take a minute. Umm, no, busy is busy, and this reading lesson won’t wait, so I hung up on him. When I have a new reader, I DO NOT allow those earliest lessons to be interuppted. They are very short, less than 5 minutes some times, but they are foundational, so they are the most important thing for that amount of time. Then, he called at 8:30 in the morning. And while, really, no time is good for a solicitor, that was just over the top. Finally, I told him not to call back, and that yes, he had offended me by calling at that time. I really like the company, I really believe in what they try to do, but………..don’t give them your phone number, ok?

What kills me is that I got on their list because I bought from them. They didn’t buy my name from a list broker like Martin Worldwide, who makes it their business to create lists of people who are known responders to solicitations. No, they got my name because I heard about their product and called them first. And then they called and called, always at a bad time. So, they lose

Oh my goodness, but we ate well tonight! Dh got through with his work early, so I ran off to the grocery store before Stuntman’s practice (yay, he has to be at the football field at 7:30 AM tomorrow–yes, that’s in the “at morning”). Provisions were obtained, and tonight the table fairly groaned with all the goodness. And I don’t have a dinky table, people. Mine is larger than many conference tables I’ve seen. We had shake&bake pork chops, green bean casserole and homemade macaroni and cheese.

Technorati Tags: homemade macaroni and cheese