This is What Happens When I'm Gone for a While

My life has been so boring that I haven't really bothered writing about it.  Sometimes my kids will say something I want to remember but it's few and far between so I just end up boring my Facebook friends with the info instead of writing about it in detail here.  Now I can give a big boring update all at once.  Ready?

So, since I've been here last we've celebrated two birthdays: my baby Henry turned 2 on March 30 and my daughter Amara turned 7 on April 19th.  Henry got everything he wanted- babies, a football, basketball, baseball mitt and a bunch of other sports crap.  He is obsessed with sports.  He never put his cake in the oven for "you and me".  Instead he did it for "baketball hoop!".  It's cuter than the 2 year old singing Adele.  I should record it.  He also wanted more motorcycles, Legos and Zoobles and got them.  Then promptly lost almost all of it.  Amara didn't want a whole lot- she asked for an Ipod.  When I told her that little kids in our house don't get $200 presents she apologized for asking for something so expensive then asked for a camera, mp3 player, some dolls so she would have toys to play with when her friends came over, Zoobles, Xia Xia Pets, Lego Friends and a pull up bar for her doorway (yes, I'm serious).  After some discussion she decided she wanted to upgrade to a second-hand Nintendo DSi (she had the Lite) with games and accessories and I surprised her with a nice tea set and a Xia Xia home (junk).  Her brothers got her a Xia Xia shell, an itty-bitty stuffed bunny and a Lego Friend set.  Her friends and family ended up getting her everything else on the list (except the pull up bar), so she was a very happy birthday girl.  She also received money and decided she wants to save it, so now I'm searching for a bank that offers youth banking.  The credit unions have some awesome accounts but I don't know if they can become a member if their parents aren't.  I might look into it if I don't get distracted by something new.   

I was a Cityville (on Facebook) addict for a while.  Recently I've almost stopped playing, going from a few times per day to barely once a week and only for a few minutes each time.  Go me!  
I'm still a Pinterest addict.  I love my Kindle like I love water.  I enjoy both necessities and rarely leave the house without them.   
I guess I scratched my eye a few weeks ago after taking an hour nap in my contacts.  I have glasses but I can't see out of them very well.  I have another pair that I can see better with, but they don't stay on my face.  Every time I think my eye feels better I put my contact back in, only to have my eye explode in pain again after a few hours.  Then I look and my eye is incredibly bloodshot and I'm back to square one.  It hurts.  I don't have insurance and it looks like a visit to the eye doctor will be necessary...this is going to cost me.  Suck. 
There's absolutely nothing else to say about me.  I'm just not that interesting. 
Oh wait, it seems that everyone in the world has become an advocate of me getting married.  I guess that's interesting.  It sure was interesting one day when a handful of people, unbeknownst to one another were planning, discussing or commenting on our upcoming (unknown) marriage.  The discussions are still trickling in every few days too.  Jason and I have been together for 11 years and our kids think we are married.  My daughter was horrified when she asked for the ring, dress and photos and I had nothing to produce.  I maybe should have told her then that it's because there was never a production date but it was just easier not to have that potentially long conversation.   So I picked out a ring (that I'll never get because you can only order it online and that's too big a committment to make online) and decided on Jason's metal then made dinner and promptly got distracted by other stuff that doesn't cost as much money or time.   

My 4 year old has been cracking me up a lot recently.  Just the other day Jonas was with us at Cracker Barrel and we had just been served our meal.  Jason and I always get breakfast and the little boys got some kid food.  He saw my grits and freaked out.  He said he didn't want any of his food; he just wanted "that".  Being the nice mommy that I am, I took Jason's grits and gave them to Jonas.  He polished them off in seconds and...said, "May I please have some more porridge?" .  I laughed so loud that the entire restaurant was probably giving me dirty looks.  We live in Pennsylvania.  It's not okay to laugh in public.  But seriously, what kid asks for porridge?  Where did he hear it?  I'm still laughing.  Then the following day he was browsing through my kitchen (I'm pretty sure that if he doesn't become a police officer he will be a chef.  He could really go the extra mile and be both), grabbed something and ran to me.  He said, "see mommy, you still have a spatula!"  (I had thought I broke them all) then went on to say, "Now, can you make me some flapjacks?".  This wouldn't be a weird word except that I have never, in my entire life said the word "flapjack" unless I was talking about the word.  No clue where he got that one either.  Oh, and Jo is FINALLY potty trained.  FIIIINALLLLY! 

Henry, who was practically trained by about 20 months completely quit trying.  Those two are constantly on opposite ends of the spectrum. 

Zachary, my 10 year old, has made it his life goal to ruin his little sister's life on the pretense that it's she who is ruining his life.  It's super annoying and I'm totally out of parenting ideas so I often just ignore them.  They fight so often and it's practically impossible to split them up because there aren't enough neighbors to ship them off to. 
And I'm ruining his life because I nag him too much.  That's me saying it, and not him.  I know I do it but what else are you supposed to do when a kid won't take a shower, clean his room, leave his sister alone, pick up his toys when he's done with them unless you are on them about it at least 15 minutes out of every hour?  I seriously need to know!  
On a good note, he is doing great in school.  He doesn't try as hard as he should but he gets by with good grades.  Next year might kick his skinny butt if he tries to pull off his first year at middle school like he has been these past few but I know he can do it if he tries.  He's been taking piano for the last few years and he's been slacking on that also.  As far as I know he's doing well, but I think he'd do better if we had a piano in our house.  I'm working on that but I have a lot going against me.  

Did I talk too much?  I'll talk about the nighttime stuff in another post. 

Maybe if I Paid Attention

I am forever forgetting important things at the grocery store.  If I'm making spaghetti I forget sauce.  Today it was tacos- I forgot the taco seasoning packets.  Oops!  I could have gone to the store to get them but I'd probably get distracted by something sparkly and forget again.  Plus I'd have to pack up all 4 kids and drag them along for a couple stupid seasoning packets...that I need if we were planning to have dinner tonight.  Ugh.  
Cue Google.  I would have Swagbucked or Binged but then I'd have to log in and I'm not even willing to buy food to feed my family so that was out of the question.  
I Googled "make your own taco seasoning".  I was SO happy to get tons of results but then was quickly overwhelmed and just chose the first result that didn't look spammy.  I ended up on About.com on a page called Taco Season Mix.  Great!  Can't go wrong, right?  Usually that statement ends in death and food poisoning and bitterness but I actually got a pretty tasty recipe that was super easy to make. 

Here's the deal:

• 1/4 cup instant minced onion
• 2 Tbsp. chili powder
• 2 tsp. paprika
• 2 tsp. crushed dried red pepper flakes
• 1-1/2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp. dried marjoram
• 1 Tbsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 2 Tbsp. cornstarch
• 1 Tbsp. instant minced garlic
• 1 tsp. ground cumin

I play by my own rules so I changed it a little.  I didn't have marjoram and my garlic is powdered.  I didn't put in as much onion and I totally omitted the cornstarch on a hunch.  It was REALLLLLY good!  Really good.  And the kids didn't even notice that it was different from their regular tacos which is a huge plus because they notice everything.  Even better was that I did notice the difference and really liked it.  When I make it again (if I don't forget to buy more chili powder) I will use a lot less salt.  That was too much salt.  After finishing my dinner I looked back over the instructions (which I hadn't noticed before because I was too busy ignoring them) I saw that the recipe was meant to last more than one night. 

Instructions:

"Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and blend thoroughly with wire whisk. Spoon mixture into a tightly closed container and label as "Taco Seasoning Mix". Store in a cool, dry place. Use within 6 months. Makes 6 packages (about 2 Tbsp. each) of mix. 2 Tbsp. equals 1.25-oz. pkg. purchased taco seasoning mix."

That was supposed to make 6 packages, huh...okaaay.  I used it all.  On 1lb. of ground beef.  Perhaps that is why it was too salty, but I would have used the same amount of the other ingredients on 1lb again because it was just right. 

I probably shouldn't even be allowed in the kitchen. 

When I Grow Up...

I like to imagine what my kids will be like as adults.  What they'll do for a living, whether they will have 1 kid, 5 kids or none, will they stay close to home or move far away...that kind of stuff.  Of course I enjoy them as they are now and don't want it to fly by, I just like to wonder. 
I see Zachary as an engineer on a construction site, helping to create awesome buildings, playing video games and spending time with his wife and 2 kids in his free time.  He will take them out for ice cream often.  I picture Amara as a working mom with 1 child and a stay-at-home husband.  She is an entomologist, teaching at a local college or nature center and creates art in her free time.  She may have a few too many pets.  Jonas will be a police officer- a good guy who makes sure that the streets are safe for kids and families.  Maybe he'll have kids, maybe not.  I can't tell yet.  He'll love playing sports.  Henry...well he is going to drive fast cars and motorcycles and play lots of basketball.  He's still a baby and that's what he loves, haha!

My dreams for Jonas were crushed when we were driving home from school today. 
Me: Jonas, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Jonas: Hmmmm....nothing.
Me: Nothing?  You have to be something when you grow up, like a firefighter or a teacher. 
Jonas: I...waaaant to be....a.... TREE! 
Me: A tree?  Like those?  (I point to a line of trees)
Henry: Mama, Jonas ook!  Teeee!
Jonas: Yes!!  A tree like that. 
Me: You know, if you grow up to be a tree you will have to learn to not walk or talk.  Trees can't move and they can't say anything. 
Jonas: Trees don't talk?  They don't walk or talk?  Maybe not.  Maybe I won't be a tree.
Me: That's probably a good idea.  So what else would you like to be?
Jonas: Mommy, are you going the speed limit?  You didn't stop at the stop sign. (Hence the police officer career assigned to him)Henry: Mama, mama!  Ook ook.  Baketball!!  Cycle, vroom vroom!  (He doesn't miss a basketball net or court, or the motorcycles)

Me: Jonas, I didn't need to stop at that sign, it was for the other way.  And yes, I am going the speed limit.
Jonas: Okay.  You have one more chance.     

Vent, Rant, a Little Bit of Whine

It's almost the end of the summer...and what awesome adventures have we gone on?  None.  Why?  Well I can't get ANYTHING done.  Nothing.  EVER.  Half way into any chore I get sidetracked by kid A fighting kid B or kid C taking kid A's toys.  Then I give up and we don't get to go have fun.  And this happens every. single. day. 
Ugh.  I'm in such a rut and today started off worse than normal.  Usually I wake up earlier than everyone because I need time to wake up or I'm a monster, and it's the only time I'm awake alone.  And I can maybe get 1 of my 7 loads of needed laundry done.  But today I fell back to sleep because my alarm went off in the middle of a dream (don't you hate that?).  When I woke up I was completely bombarded by my older two.  My oldest is 10 and has ADHD and he won't ever be quiet.  It's "quack quack screeeeeeeeech mommy mommy mommy mommmy guess what guess what I can [blah blah blah] AHHHHH quack reeee eeeeeeeeee!"  How anyone could handle that the instant they wake up is beyond me, and I'm a terrible example of a patient and tolerant person.  My 6 year old daughter LOVES to tattle and loves to scream at the top of her lungs if her older brother makes her mad.  All the parenting books in the world haven't solved that one yet.  It's only 9:30 and I'm already ready to throw in the towel and give up for the day.  1 isn't even awake yet!  
To top it off, it's raining.  Which normally isn't so bad- we play in the rain often.  But there's some pouring involved.  I can't coordinate rainy-day activities because I can't even find a place to coordinate them.  Nowhere is safe from the mess of kids.  With the age ranges of 1-10 we have play spaces in every nook and cranny (of which there aren't many- my house is a rectangle with no closets to hide clutter on the first floor- the living spaces) so there are toys and things everywhere.
My house is a mess (and when people say their house is a mess and there's like 2 things on their counters, maybe a blanket askew, a throw pillow fell on the floor and they might need to run the vacuum over the carpet once I hate them- I want to say "come see my house and tell me that your house is a "wreck").  My house is a real, live, serious mess and I can't even clean it because I'm playing ref to my team constantly.  I can only sit here and wonder when I'll ever be able to clean it.  And organized...well that might never happen.  And boy oh boy would I just love it if my kids would clean up after themselves once, without me having to hunt them down and force them to do it.  So I'm constantly at war with my kids and house and always losing the fight. 


I know some of this is my fault.  I know there are things I could do and steps I could take to prevent these things from happening as often as they do.  It doesn't help I have some sort of issue with being tired all the time.  And not "mom tired".  I am purely exhausted throughout the day, regardless of what I eat or what I'm doing.  At around 6 I hit a wall and almost completely crash.  It takes everything in my power to keep myself going for the next 4-5 hours.  Being this tired does nothing for my stress levels and ability to handle craziness AND being the head of house.  Where's hubby?  He's at work from about 8:30-9pm so I'm going it alone most of the time.  If you read my blog regularly you know that he is on a quest to lose some weight.  He stays after work to workout at the office building's gym.  One day he's going to have to quit and start somewhere that we can all go so that I can get these kids out of the house and give myself some peace.

I just need to vent.  To hear that others might be going through something similar (stories please).  Some SOLUTIONS!                  

Tattletale of the Day

This morning we were getting ready for school and my 9 year old son Zachary comes into the bathroom. 
"Mommy?  Amara is being mean to me.  I went in to say hi to her and she stuck her fingers in her ears and said 'blah blah blah'." 

What's really funny about this is my son wouldn't normally pop into his sister's room to say hello.  He was likely angry that his attempt to make her mad backfired (because, as you know, people are supposed to get mad when you talk to them!) and hoped her reaction would get her in trouble. 

I hope that wasn't my warning for what's coming when they get home from school!  *sigh*