Fumbling on Friday

:: Chew on This
Chew Toys for Kids. My 5yr old is orally gifted. ‘Orally gifted’ is another way of saying, the kid puts everything in his mouth. We keep waiting for him to outgrow this sucking and chewing phase, though we’ve stop holding our breath.

His habit came to a head earlier this month, when his teacher found a rubber band in his mouth. ‘Danger. Danger. Danger Will Robinson.’ (How sad it is that many readers won’t have a clue about the “Will Robinson” reference. My age is ever apparent. I digress.)

After the rubber band incident, I made it my mission to find a chew toy my 5yr old could use to (safely) satisfy his addiction. And, I found it! Though, when I showed him a picture of the chew toy, he balked. Telling me he didn’t want it. My response? “Too bad, so sad.” I placed an order.

The order arrived. And, this just in …. he loves it! He is looking forward to taking his chew toys to school. We’ve been given the approval by his teacher and the school director. Apparently, the school was growing tired of losing rubber bands.

Curious as to what I purchased? Chewable Jewels, created by a dentist.

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Socks and blankets; fingers, too.
Anything is good, when you like to chew.

Paper and pencils, sleeves and string.
Clearly, chewing is his thing.

From hand to mouth, so it goes.
When it stops, no one knows.

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:: When I’ll get to it becomes I forgot it.
The boys wanted to light the candle in the pumpkin one morning. With the fast pace of week day mornings, I wasn’t sure lighting a candle was the best idea. In the back of my mind, I wondered if I would remember the candle was lit and blow it out before leaving the house. I told myself I’d get to it. Well, while driving the boys to school, I remembered I forgot to blow out the candle in the pumpkin. What I was going to do became what I forgot to do.

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Joe had a field trip for school. I drove him to the location of the field trip, and I was told to pick him up at 12:30. I had a busy day, with work deadlines prior to Joe’s pick up time. I was confident I’d remember to pick up my own child, though I thought about setting the timer as a reminder. Later, the phone rang at 12:45. “Ms. Joe’s Mom? Are you coming to get Joe?”

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Today I am helping Joe’s class with their Halloween Party. The party starts at 10:30. Due to the number of tasks I needed to tackle prior to going to his school, I set a timer to remind me about the party. I suspect the timer will go off soon, as the morning is passing quickly. In fact, a quick glance at my watch and “Crap! It’s 10:45! What happened to the time?! Crap! I forgot to click “OK” on the timer!”

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Trying to remember each item on the list.
Tying little strings around both of your wrists.

And during every task, you remember something new –
Though it was not included on the original ‘to do’.

With each and every side track, the time passes by.
You put your hand to your head and let out a small sigh.

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:: What I Know
This past weekend, I went out of town and spent time with a girlfriend of mine. We had a great time together doing a whole bunch of nothing. Well, included in the whole bunch of nothing was two great games of Scrabble, one in which I kicked her butt and one in which she kicked my butt. (Though her kicking was not nearly as hard as my kicking.)

In addition to enjoying the time together, I learned a few things about myself. First, because I am in a constant state of juggling during my normal day to day life, it takes me at least 12hrs to get to a point where I can start a conversation and follow that conversation to completion. What I mean by that is when I first started chatting with my girlfriend, I started one conversation, quickly turning a corner to another conversation, only to start a third conversation, simultaneously forgetting the original conversation. Fortunately, by Noon on day two, I was able to complete one conversation before moving to another conversation.

Second, I learned I am a walking ‘What not to wear’. This is not news to me. I believe I’ve admitted the fact in the Blogosphere before today. However, this past weekend, I had actually saw one of my ‘What not to wear’ outfits, and I shuddered. Funny thing about full length mirrors – you get to see what you look like. Fear not, with my friend’s blessing, I still went out in public looking perfectly horrid. I fit in quite well with others, though. I mean, we were just going to Wal-Mart. And, no, I have no plans of altering my ‘what not to wear’ style; instead, I’ll avoid full length mirrors. No need to give myself nightmares.

Finally, this weekend I learned that my friend and I both use the word “Really” when sarcastically questioning the judgment (or lack thereof) of someone’s decision making process. My friend and I said ‘really’ frequently. Seriously. Really. We said it all the time. It is an addiction. A really annoying addiction. Here are some examples:

“Really? You don’t think I know about how people say ‘Really‘? Really?”

“Really, Joe? You thought it would be OK to cut Charlie’s hair? Really?”

“Really Lenore?! You’re wearing that out in public? Really?!”

“Really? You think it is cute when your kid passes gas and says ‘I farted’? Really?!”

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What? I’m sarcastic?
You have a problem with that?
Oh Really? Really?!

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Be good to yourself, and be kind to others. No. Really.

This, that and another Friday

.:: Wait a second; who put that there?
After dinner out one night this week, Rob and I were walking to our car. Rob started walking to the wrong red car. When he realized it, he started laughing.

“Remember when my parents borrowed my car, and I used my Mom’s car for a week?” He asked.

“Yes.” I replied.

“Well, I took my Mom’s car to the grocery store one day. When I came out of the grocery store, I got in the car and got ready to drive away. But, I noticed something.”

He continued, “The seat was leaned way back, and I didn’t remember reclining the seat at all.”

Then he started laughing hard. “I looked around inside the car, and I realized I was in the wrong car!”

I laughed and said, “That’s funny. I have a similar story. I didn’t share it with you because I was too embarrassed.”

“During a trip to Target, I walked away from my cart to look through the clothes. I didn’t find anything, and I went back to my cart and continued shopping. I went to the card section to buy several birthday cards. I was probably there for 10 minutes. When I was done, I put all the cards in the cart. Then I realized, it wasn’t my cart!”

Rob and I start laughing.

“I went back to the clothes section, where I got the cart. I parked the cart, and slowly walked away. I pretended to look through the clothes, again. And, I noticed a woman come and take her cart away without a word. I felt like the biggest dork. I waited awhile before I went and retrieved my real cart.”

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Lost in thought with so many things on your mind.
All sorts of distractions, basically leaving you blind.

Where are the car keys? Who put that chair there?
I know I’m going some place; I just don’t remember where.

You make it home, thinking things could be worse.
You unload your car and realize that’s not your purse.

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.:: It’s All a Daze
Week two of my overnight part-time job. I am so glad Rob and I decided not to have a third child. Though the reasoning behind the ‘no more kids’ decision was based more on me being psycho and our relationship struggling than the genuine desire to increase the family.

Lacking a full-night’s worth of sleep for two days out of the week is really taking its toll on me and my over 40yr old self. I’m not more cranky without the sleep (Rob may beg to differ); I am just plain tired and lacking any sort of motivation and focus. (Though really, motivation was hard to find even with sleep.)

My son’s teacher is celebrated her birthday this week. My son came to me with an elaborate idea to make a special craft for his teacher’s birthday. He wanted to make a lesson for his teacher, similar to one she uses in his in class. I was impressed with his grand idea, and I wanted to see it through to fruition. Well, the day before his teacher’s birthday and a day after no sleep, I asked him if he was ready to start on the project. He said ‘no’.

If I was working with a weeks worth of sleep, I would not have accepted his ‘no’ response. In fact, I would have said, “Okay, Joe. You need to start working on your project.” However, because I am lacking sleep these days,  I said, “Ok.” And honestly, I was impressed with his idea; I thought his teacher would appreciate it; and, I was looking forward to having him tackle the task. Alas, I was too tired to push for it. This is one of those times where I will have to find satisfaction in knowing he had good and creative intentions. Then again, I’m so tired, I’ll probably forget that part, too.

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Sleep deprivation
Loopiness and no focus
Ooo pretty colors

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.:: Don’t go back to Rockville
Sleep will find me this weekend. In addition to sleep –  junk food, movies and great conversation will find me, too. This weekend, I am taking a road trip to meet a girlfriend of mine. (Meeting a boyfriend of mine would be a bit odd, seein’ as I am married.)

I met my friend when I moved to Rockville, MD back in 1992. I moved back to Georgia two years later, after my father died. (No, I didn’t move back because I thought, ‘Woo hoo! My dad is gone. I can go home now!’ I moved back to be closer to my family, because I wasn’t able to get to my Dad in time.)

Even though I moved back to Georgia, my girlfriend in Maryland remained and remains one of my best friends. So this weekend, she is driving south, I am driving north and we will meet in the middle. Woo hoo! We’ve booked the hotel, and we’ll both arrive within minutes of check-in on Friday and leaving no earlier than check-out on Sunday. We’ve already discussed the junk food we’ll have in the room, as well as the movies. And, we’ve loaded ourselves up with books to read.

Though we are prepared with a plethora of entertainment, we’ll also bask in the quiet free time. Because we both have young kids (6 and 4, 5 and 4), we have a greater appreciation for quiet free time. Aaaaaah….. quiet free time.

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Hitting the road and heading out.
Spending time with a friend is what it’s about.

My time I’m a’wasting. I need to publish this post.
So, I can get in the car and head for the coast.

The coast is not really the destination this time.
But, I need to hurry, and I am trying to rhyme.

Okay, I’m going; hug hug – kiss kiss.
I didn’t even have to shave for this!

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Be good to yourself, and be kind to others.

Friday! Glad you’re here.

.:: Drama
“Be careful what you wish for” is something I have heard time and time again. Yet, regardless of the number of times I hear it, I continue to wish for some things and then get smacked in the face when it happens.

Drama. Drama makes for a good blog week. Drama makes for good postings. People don’t want to read boring. So, yes, I find I wish for exciting weeks – not necessarily drama-filled weeks.

Well, color me smacked. Drama payed a visit this week. Big time. This week, Charlie lost his sandals! Dun dun duuuuunn!!

What? Were you expecting a cat fight of some sort? Hmm. Anyway, while getting ready for day care, Charlie started looking for his shoes; specifically, he was looking for his sandals. “Mommy!” He yelled. “Where are my sandals?”

Now, I love Charlie with all my heart, but this kid loses everything. He is a hoarder and tosser all at the same time. Wanting to sleep with whatever he collected during the day, while simultaneously losing his prized collection from yesterday. “Where is my ruby red?” He asks. What is a ‘ruby red’? It’s a small red reflector, which he picked up off the ground at Suzann’s house. He has slept with it for the past week, except during the nights when he misplaced it moments before bedtime. I digress.

Back to the sandals. “I’m sorry, Charlie.” I said. “When you don’t put your things back where they belong, things get lost. You’ll have to wear another pair of shoes today.”

Charlie’s smile turned to a frown and he began to whimper. Fortunately, he had his ‘ruby red’, so the frown and whimper were short lived. Still, every morning Charlie asked me, “Where are my sandals?” And today, as I took the dirty clothes out of the kids’ laundry basket, I found Charlie’s sandals. Yes, the laundry basket. And, no, I don’t get it either. Ah drama. Thanks for visiting.

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A bed filled with a boy’s treats.
All protected between his sheets.

Hey, look what I found, an old box.
I’ll sleep with it and my favorite socks.

Can I sleep with the picture I drew?
What about my paint brush, too?

Oh, I like these rocks I found.
Now under my pillow, safe and sound.

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.:: A Blank Canvas
White towels. I’ve noticed white towels are popular in many homes. I’ve also noticed how white towel brighten up just about any and every bathroom. This past summer, I bought white towels to use for the boys after swimming. And once, while washing the white towels, I accidentally included a blue blanket. Okay, okay. I knew I was putting the blue blanket in with the white towels, but the blanket was old – I never dreamed it would still ‘bleed’.

The blanket bled. My white towels were now a bluish white towel. I looked at the towels. I thought, “I wonder what color I’d get if I added a pair of black jeans.” And with that, I started washing my white towels with various colors.

Behold the freedom and fun of having white towels. Sure, you could do your best to keep the towels the whitest and brightest; or, you could wash the white towels with an old blue blanket that still bleeds with every wash. You could wash your white towels as it says on the label, with whites only; or, you could throw in a new red shirt, creating a soft pink colored towel. You could add bleach to your recently colored white towels and bring back the original white color; or you could add a yellow shirt, a black shirt, a red shirt and a blue shirt and create  – well, I don’t have a name for that color creation.

White towels: blank canvases waiting to be colored. Go color!

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Laundry is an art.
Mixing different colors.
Wash in a rainbow.

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.:: Why
Folks ask me all the time, “Lenore,” they begin. “Why do you blog?”

Okay. So, folks don’t ask me that question all the time. In fact, I doubt anyone has asked me. But, this morning, I find I am asking myself, “Why do I blog?” This week has been an interesting week, which began with an ah-ha moment on Sunday, and ended with complete peace and satisfaction. And today, I know, without any doubts, why I blog.

I blog for my family. I blog, because blogging keeps me happy. I blog, because when I am happy I am better able to provide for my family. I blog, because blogging helps keep me sane. I blog, because blogging helps me keep things in perspective. I blog, so I can get thoughts out of my head and off my mind. I blog to vent. I blog to forget. I blog to remember. I blog to show my love and support for my friends, while giving me a chance to appreciate all that surrounds me. I blog to make others laugh. I blog to make others smile. I blog to make others think.

I blog, because I love to write. I blog, because I love to share. I blog, because I want to promote the fund-raising efforts of my friends and family. I blog to promote Angela’s efforts with Team In Training, benefiting the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I blog to promote my friend Elise’s animal rescue organization, Pick of the Litter. I blog to promote Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, and other charitable organizations. I blog, because I want to help those around me. I blog, because I care.

And finally, as I have probably said in previous posts, I blog so others can breathe a sigh of relief and say, “Wow. At least I am not as crazy as she is. My life is pretty good!” You’re welcome.

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Blogging is something I love to do.
Writing helps me see things through.

I’m not perfect, and don’t claim to be.
I’m just working on being me.

Sometimes I think I’m funny, too.

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Be sure to take care of yourself and others.