Teaching by Example

It's scary just how much Soren and I are alike.  Take this morning, for instance; I had just herded the kids into the car for a quick trip to the store to get milk for breakfast.  I dutifully buckled them up, then wandered around the back of the car to make sure our little sand buckets weren't going to get crunched while reversing.  As I hurled myself into the driver's seat and commenced the usual seat and mirror adjustments, Soren sheepishly piped up from the back with, "Um, Mommy?  Can you buckle me up?"  "What," said I?  "I already buckled you in, what happened?" Soren's classic mommy-brain reply came quietly and with a tiny, embarrassed smile, "Um, I thought we already got our groceries and came back home."

He has officially joined the ranks of braincell-deprived (and sleep-deprived) women who return the gallon of milk not to the fridge, but to the cupboard.  Women who put the dishes away in the microwave instead of the china cabinet.  Women who frantically ransack their homes in search of the spectacles perched on their heads.  Women who purchase their groceries then resolutely march out of the store without them.  Women who unintentionally yet regularly misplace, rearrange, and redistribute all the moving parts in their lives (whether that's kids, milk, or dishes), in frequent moments of absent-minded survival mode.

Gotta get Dan home early tonight so he can do some damage control on Soren's new mommy brain.

Hm.  I wonder how one would accurately describe the "daddy brain?"

Pee and Toothbrushes . . .

. . . two words that should never be part of the same sentence.  Unfortunately for Anders tonight, they were.  As Dan and I obliviously watched the American Idol finale, our rapscallion boys apparently snuck out of bed and off to the master bathroom to "do their worst."  Once their disobedience was discovered by my expert reconnaissance, Dan and I strategized and conspired to jump from the shadows and startle our kids, thus making them never want to leave their beds again.  Upon execution of our brilliant plan (which very nearly caused Soren to experience a mild myocardial infarction), their worst, their most dastardly deed, was revealed.  Anders - sweet, innocent, kissable Anders - was tagging along behind Soren, contentedly munching on a spare toothbrush that I had, just today, used to fervently scour Soren's generous pee-pee accident from my flip-flops.

Ew.

Misconceptions About Homeschoolers

This was too funny to not share!

By the way, if you're interested in learning more about homeschooling, I've added a whole heap of links in my bottom sidebar for browsing. Most of them I've only given a cursory glance, but I want to come back to them later so I've included them anyway.  There are links for parent resources and then more links to kids' sites for free educational games, activities, crafts, print-outs, and lessons.

All Alone

So here I am. Home alone. The boys have gone camping with their daddy for the ward father/son camp out. This is the first time they've ever been away from me for a night. It's odd. I don't think I like it.

I've been sitting at this computer since they drove out of the garage swaddled by an orange-glow sunset. It's like I'm here clinging to a familiar friend so that I don't have to acknowledge my empty (dirty) house.

Granted, I am accomplishing something quite necessary on the computer. It's not all Shootsacs and Facebook. But I think it might just truly be time to tuck the keyboard away for the night and take up with my novel friends Sparhawk and Sephrenia again.

See. There I go from one place of comfort to the other.

I might be just a wee bit delirious right now.  Yes.  Most definitely.

Oh, and let's not forget to mention that I'm so stressed out about taking wedding pictures tomorrow (today) that my hands - which have been relatively eczema free for the last few months - have literally exploded in tiny blisters and itchiness. And I'm not even the primary photographer! I hate eczema. I hate being stressed.

I'm tired.

My eyes feel like sandpaper.

My shoulders hurt from slouching over the keyboard.

My dirty house didn't get any cleaner tonight as was my plan.

I miss my family.

I need to stop saying "I" and "my."  I sound conceited.