Our Cat Family >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I just discovered how to make a montage of the cats that have been a part of my family recently. They're over there in my side bar. We found a good home for two of these guys, but kept all the rest! Yep, we take care of five of these furry critters! Can you guess which two are the spoiled indoor cats?

This one, Bo Bo, is the character of the bunch! Yesterday when I had the kids out on the front porch painting water colors, he kept sneaking up on them and stealing their paint brushes out of their hands! He would grab the end of the paint brush in his mouth and take off with it. He is also the cat who enjoys going on stroller rides with the kids! :)

What I have to do

It just seems that my daughter's behavior has gotten bad ever since I quit taking medication for depression. I can't help but think that she is being affected by my behavior. I really wanted to be able to completely stop taking it, but that doesn't seem to be the right thing to do. I just want to be happy around my kids especially. I get sad way too often over tiny things. I am going to call my doctor today. I think that MG suddenly acting up at the same time of my ending the medication is just too much of a coincidence for me to ignore.

Knitting the Worries Away

Over the weekend, I taught myself how to knit. I stayed up till 3AM one night trying to figure out how to do the "knit stitch" after learning how to "cast on". I figured it out, and I love it. It is the perfect thing for me to keep my fingers busy. I love to make things and this really satisfies that urge to create and it is very relaxing. My first project is a miniature blanket for MG's "babies" which are her toy lizards and stuffed animals. After that, I am going to make a baby blanket for my brother's baby who is expected to arrive in December. I had a rough episode with MG today. It's hard, but we're dealing with it and trying to help her. Sigh. Now I'm going to go watch an episode of Andy Griffith, eat a little pop corn and knit! :)

Remind me to tell you about the soup diet that I'm trying. I'll start it tomorrow.

PBSing, Bologna Throwing and Blankie Surfing

PBSing - "I'm gonna say that PBS word!" That was the puzzling thing that my daughter announced to me yesterday. I was very puzzled at first, but had to LOL when I realized why she was referring to a curse word in this manner. She has overheard me calling it the "F" word or the "Sh" word or sometimes I even spell it when discussing it with Mark. She couldn't remember exactly what combination of letters I use, so she chose the acronym that she is most familiar with. She watches PBS shows like "Dragon Tales" and "Sesame Street". She also calls the UPS truck the PBS truck.

Bologna Throwing - This has become MB's new pastime. He begs for a piece of bologna from the fridge, he takes one bite and then he throws it like a Frisbee across the room. Sometimes I see it flying through the air, but other times I don't find it until I step on it barefoot. Did you know that it's as slippery as a banana peel?

Blankie Surfing - This is a new sport that I invented recently. MG had left the fridge open, so MB ran to it as quick as lightening and grabbed the eggs and was raising them over his head to smash upon the floor. I screamed and ran to the fridge and stepped on his blankie half way there. Then I surfed the rest of the way to the fridge. This gave me just enough speed to save the eggs!

To Spank or Not to Spank

This is my big dilemma. Before having children, I decided that I did not believe that it was right to spank. I just felt deeply that it was wrong to belittle a child by striking him or her for any reason. I also dislike causing physical pain. I hate it, in fact. Well, now I have felt the need to spank my child. It was a last resort when taking favorite toys away and time-out failed to work. It was one smack on the bottom, but it worked. It was the only thing that made my child stop and listen and quit the bad thing that she was doing repeatedly. But it made me feel horrible because it goes against my philosophy of no spanking. Why is this the only thing that worked in this instance? I'm very disappointed in myself for not being able to succeed in punishing in a different way. I think that sometimes I'm too wishy washy and too much of a softie, so my daughter doesn't understand that I mean business. Ah, but I don't like to yell either! I was spanked as a child. I don't feel that I was abused. I was spanked when I did something unacceptable. The only problem is that I remember a few times of being spanked, and I really didn't understand what I'd done wrong. Gee, after all that, I still feel terrible and that somehow I failed by spanking. Maybe there were other things that I could have tried, but I was completely low on patience. : (

My questions for you:

1. Do you use or have you used spanking as punishment?

2. If so, is it as last resort when nothing else works? or Is it a loss of patience moment?

3. Were you spanked as a child? And do you think that it damaged you for life? Or do you think that it was beneficial means of punishment?

PS. Did you like the picture of the nifty time-out bench at the top of the page? I think that my kid would purposely get put in time-out just to sit on the cool "bad girl" bench. :)

Sleeping In

Wow...it's 9:15 AM and all is quiet in the house. The kids are just getting over being sick AGAIN, so I'm letting them rest as long as they want this morning. I have a little free time, too. :) I was up last night upset about my childhood friend that I told you about in the last post. My Mom sees her husband and youngest baby at church, so she keeps telling me that he asks for his mother every time she sees him. It's hard to get that image out of my mind, and it has made me sad. I spent two hours taking apart and putting together the kids' train set because it helps me to think. Making something also is therapeutic for me. After that, I got out my bible and read and prayed. That seemed to help even if I did read from Job.

Maybe this is wrong, but the book of Job has always seemed so unfair to me. With my friend's suicide, I keep saying to myself "why does God let this happen?" It's the same feeling sometimes when I wonder why my Dad died. Right after he died, I don't remember who it was, but someone told me that it was meant to be. I just can't believe that terrible things like this happen for any good reason. Have any of you ever struggled with this? I want to go to church, but I'm a little mixed up on what I believe right now. I can't stand sitting through a service with a preacher spouting off things that I can't believe. I guess that's food for thought for another time. I hear a little boy waking up. :)

Brandy

Update about this- Apparently, Brandy had bipolar disorder. I don't know if she was getting help for this or not, but she was diagnosed with it at some point. It really bothers me, and makes me realize how important it is to get help when you're having depression problems. The more I find out about this, the sadder it is.


A childhood friend from my hometown committed suicide two weeks ago. I just found out today. She was just 26 years young. She left behind her husband and three young children. The youngest is 1 and 1/2 and my Mom heard him crying for his Mommy. This is the first time that I've ever known someone who committed suicide. I remember this happy laughing little girl who I liked to pretend was my little sister. She went to my church and her Aunt used to babysit me, my brothers and Brandy. We used to all play together along with her cousins. She was just this beautiful little girl with big violet blue eyes who was always smiling and laughing and happy. That's what I remember. How could this happen? I ache for those poor babies. The poor dear things. This is just horrible. I don't understand it. I just don't understand. Please say a prayer for her family.

Pooped All of the Time

I'm so extremely tired virtually all of the time. I really hate feeling this way constantly. I wonder if being overweight is causing me to feel this way. It's been even more intense this week because MG is going to preschool and MB has been sick and I've been exercising more. I have some problems with change in routine, too, so the extra stress of that makes me even more tired. Maybe there are a few things that I need to do to help me with this problem.

1. Get some sleep at night & get everyone in bed before 10:00 PM (Including myself)

2. Keep eating normally until I get used to the exercise.

Gee, that's all I can think of. I guess if that doesn't help, then maybe I should see the doctor. Any advice? :)

Volcanic Eruption?

I don't normally write about controversial issues, but I wanted to write just a bit about Mary Winkler. I never watch TV, but I thought about watching Oprah today for the interview with the woman who killed her preacher husband. Then I got sidetracked with the kids at 4PM, so I had to read it online instead. I found the verdict and sentence so disturbing, but I wanted to hear her speak.

She grew up just down the road from my grandparents' house in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Literally about 2 miles down the road) She graduated from the same high school that my dad attended. She is close in age with me and is a quiet, shy person... like me. She says that she was an abused wife and something snapped and that she does not remember shooting her husband. I just don't know what to think.

I believe that it's possible that she was abused for years and that things built up because she repressed everything completely. If someone continually represses their pain, especially a shy and quiet person, I think that they have the potential of exploding like a volcano. According to her Oprah interview, and if we believe what she says... her husband got angry at her one year old child for not sleeping and covered the baby's mouth and nose to try and make her "pass out". Maybe this scary abusive thing that he did to her baby was the final straw that caused Mary to explode. I don't know. One problem with everything is that we don't know for sure what really truly happened, because it's all Mary's account of what happened. We can't hear her husband's side of it, because he is dead.

I guess that I really have problems getting this out of my mind because Mary wants custody of her children. This really bothers me. It's all just a terrible horrific situation. I think that the fact that she could blow up and kill someone and not remember doing it would make her a danger to her children. Couldn't she have the potential of getting mad at her child and then exploding and doing something horrible? I do feel sorry for her especially if she was abused, and especially if her children were abused.

It also disturbs me that she didn't try to work things out with her husband. She was quiet and shy and repressed and just let everything build up. Believe me, I know this type of person. I'm a hold it in or bust type person in many ways. Fortunately, I have mini-eruptions and I do get things out of my system when I'm upset. But at one time when I was younger, I held everything in. Being married to my hubby has helped me. He will not let me go to bed mad at him! I'll try to do it, but he just won't let me and will push me till I let the anger out and get it out of my system. Thank God for this! It makes a person very sick to always hold in the anger and pain. It really does, and I think that this must have been what happened to Mary.

Even so, like I said before, we can only hear her side of this. Even if she doesn't remember doing it, she killed her husband. She took her children's father away from them. She took her children's father away from them. She took her children's father away from them! What a horrible thing. It's so sad. My father died in an accident when I was a kid. This was painful, but I can't imagine the pain of what her children have to go through with their daddy dying by their mother's hands. No, I don't think it's safe for her to have sole custody of her children, but I won't be surprised if she gets it. It scares me. And imagine what her in-laws are going through.

I'll stop after this paragraph, I promise. I just want to say one more thing. It really is too bad that there was a loaded gun in that house. What was a loaded gun doing within reach of children anyway? I sure hope that her children will be OK. The poor little things. I am interested in viewpoints of my blogger friends. I thought that you might like to hear mine since I am a quiet, shy person who knows a little bit about volcanic eruptions. What do you think about this whole situation?

OH BOTHER!

SO TIRED Monday Night! I got up early and did my work out, went to work, came home and had lunch and then took the kids to a farm and market where they each picked out a pumpkin and some colorful fall flowers. We also got some fresh corn. Corn and pumpkins didn't grow that well here in our garden because of the drought. Then I stopped by the store to print out pictures for our Summer photo album. Neither kid took a nap, but neither kid has fallen asleep yet and it's 10:51 PM!!! UGH!!!! They were both sick tonight, so maybe that's making it difficult to sleep. MG will be so disappointed if she has to miss her first day of preschool, but they seem to have a little stomach virus. And my stomach is beginning to feel funny. As MG and Winnie the Pooh would say, "OH BOTHER!" Isn't that great? She's frequently substituting the bad word with cute things.. :)

Little Bunny Foo Foo

Tom Arma's Bunny
I've been desperate to find a way to curb my daughter saying curse words. Actually, it's only one curse word. Even though I do not say it anymore, she has been saying it to get a reaction from me. And she has been getting quite a reaction. It completely upsets me. Then I found this excellent article on this topic last night that recommended hiding the emotion in my voice when I punish her. (No yelling or crying on my part) I need to be more matter of fact. Also, it recommended using another word to replace the bad word, but choosing a word with a similar sound. This inspired me to try something goofy today.

Whenever she said the terrible word, I would repeatedly and calmly tell her to say "phooey" instead. Then I told her that every time that she said "phooey" instead of F@#*!, it would make Mommy sing this "terrible song" about the bunny. I played it up by saying "Oh no! I have to sing that awful song AGAIN!" This was just hilarious to her, so I've been singing "Little Bunny Foo Foo" over and over today. I've also had to make her sit in time out which she hates, so that has helped too. Now all I have to do is get Mark to learn the lyrics to "Little Bunny Foo Foo" and we'll have this cursing problem nipped in the bud! :) Maybe he can set the lyrics to a heavy metal tune or something.

I've also been keeping up the cooking healthy dinners. It's a little less stressful since I'm doing it more, but it makes it hard for me to get cleaning or washing dishes finished before my work shift starts. These are the dishes that I'm going to try cooking in the days to come:

Lemony chicken stir-fry with snow peas, red bell pepper and garlic searved over rice. (This was tonight's dinner and was very yummy. It was so pretty cooking in the wok.. I should've taken a pic!)

Meatball volcano sandwiches (These are homemade meatballs with cheese in the centers)

Potato Soup (My kids LOVE potato soup & this recipe is so easy. It requires frozen hashbrowns)

Tuna Cakes (These are so yummy. With my version, you mix the tuna with crumbled seeded rye bread, old bay seasoning and eggs. Then you cook them in peanut oil on the stove top. )

Pizza with homemade crust (I've had a pizza baking stone for years, so now I'm finally using it.)

This is really getting fun, but now I'm so tempted to go to a kitchen store and get some new pans and other cool cooking gadgets!

Ending the Fast Food Habit

Did most of you see this documentary three years ago? I watched it back then and realized how horrible fast food is health wise. Do you remember the part where McDonald's french fries were left to rot in a container for several weeks and they looked virtually the same as they did fresh at the end of that time period? The whole thing made me determined to stop eating fast food. The documentary was very eye-opening. Alas, I was such a hypocrite! It wasn't long before I was right back to eating crummy fast food for convenience. This has continued right up till now, but a few days ago something awful happened.

We went to Wendy's and got something for the kids and took it to the park. We've never had a problem with their food before. My son ate 3 chicken nuggets and some french fries before my hubby and I tried them. We could immediately tell that the oil was old! They were absolutely disgusting. I can't even describe how very nasty it was. And sure enough, several hours later, my little boy was very sick with diarrhea. I felt so horrible and sad that we had unknowingly fed my baby bad food. I was on the verge of calling the doctor. He's OK now, so it only affected him for one day.

Anyway, this experience renews my determination to continue cooking healthy home cooked food for my family. It's difficult sometimes, but I don't want my family suffering from eating bad food or unhealthy fast food. We'll never eat at Wendy's again, but not only that, I need to find a way to stop eating fast food all together. There are healthy delis and other similar restaurants that I could go to. Also, I should always taste the food before I feed it to my children.

Laughter and Chocolate... the best medicines

I've been watching the first season of "I Love Lucy" on DVD. It has really cheered me up more than anything during this time of job stress & a few other things going on right now. That show brings back memories, & it makes me laugh & forget about the worries for a little while. A little chocolate helps, too!

And Blog Awards are good medicine, too! :) Barbara gave me my first one ever, so that lifted my spirits quite a bit. I really appreciate it. She says that this award originated from Barb on her blog at Skittles' Place. Here it is... my very first blog award....