Same Song, Umpteenth Verse

I don’t like that I only posted once last week. Granted, it was a pretty good post. Unexpectedly good. I never thought bed making could be such a hot topic! It was kind of intimidating, too. I mean, how do I follow that? What could I possibly say now?

And I keep having the same issues with balancing my Internet time, writing time and homemaking time. Something always gets pushed aside and neglected. Writing was sorely neglected this past week. And I really need to be spending more time writing because I have that MarriageHacks gig I mentioned before. Actually, that’s turned into an “editor” position for the site. I’m excited about it and nervous, too. I still need to be writing but I’m also responsible for overseeing the site and the contributors.

But I don’t want my personal writing to suffer. I hear, though, that that is what generally happens.

Priorities, right? I have them, I just need to make sure I keep them straight.

Made My Bed, Please Don’t Lie In It

So, how many of you out there are bedmakers? Do you make your bed everyday? Occasionally? Only when company’s coming over?

Are you particular about how your bed is made? Do sheets and bedspreads and pillows need to be tucked and placed just so?

If you’re married, do you share the bedmaking responsibility with your spouse? Do you make the bed solo or does someone help?

Forgive me if I sound nosy…I’m just curious.

In our house:

I make the bed. I make it most weekdays, usually not on the weekends. I am extremely particular about how the bed is made and I do not want any help making it. In fact, as the GMan has learned, you can not even be in the room while I make the bed. If you need to converse with me while I obsess make the bed, please stand in the doorway, out of my way!

Marriage in Real Life

Movies and television and books that feature marriages just don’t compare to the real thing. Marriage can look pretty fabulous on screen and paper but it’s not, well, real. Sure the directors, producers, writers, etc take elements of real life marriage to create fictional marriage but it’s always lacking something. Marriage in real life is so much better. Sure, our fights aren’t resolved in 24 minutes and our house isn’t perfectly clean and s-e-x doesn’t usually get the benefit of flattering lighting and a well chosen soundtrack. But, we are continually growing in love. We are always learning things about each other.  We mature together and challenge each to be better people. We rest in the comfort of living our lives with someone we can be wholly intimate with.

Marriage in real life is having a partner, not a poster boy.

Marriage in real life is trying to change yourself for the better, not make your partner change.

Marriage in real life is about compromise, patience, honesty and a whole lot of forgiveness.

Marriage in real life means sometimes you will go to bed angry.

Marriage in real life has lots of tears. Some from sadness and many more from laughter.

Marriage is real life is wonderfully, truly…real!

Friends

First Day of Preschool

Today we started the traditional “first day of school picture on the front porch” with The GMan.

He such a handsome feller!

Like his sister before him, when his turn came in the drop off line, he was out the door and headed to class with hardly a glance over his shoulder or a, “Good-bye” for me.

And so it begins…

Cluttered

The current bane of my existence is our dining room. It functions as the hub of family activity. We eat, do homework, get on the computer, teach and play in that room. And for months now it has been a complete and utter mess. Every flat surface, such as the table, my desk, the bookshelf and the buffet are covered in piles and cluttered with odds and ends. Corners are stuffed with boxes and bags, assorted and sundry toys, clothing, shoes and the occasional hair brush or lost sock. Every time I manage to clear off the table, it’s covered again within 24 hours. Same with my desk.

And it’s driving me crazy! I must get that room cleaned up. Problem is, I don’t know what to do with most of the stuff that’s in there. Quite a bit of it is there because it has no other place to go. Some of it is waiting on a new home, like our upcoming consignment sale or Goodwill. And then there are the piles of papers. I keep trying to go through them, file things away and recycle stuff that I don’t need anymore but I still have so many piles!

I don’t know if this is a plea for help or encouragement or advice. I just know something needs to be done about that room before completely lose my mind.

Week in Review/Weekend Recap

My head is reeling from the realization that we are already halfway through August! Last week was a bit of craziness. First week back at school. GMan’s Snoopy Day. I managed to make two non-swimming pool trips to the Y. More chiropractor appointments. (I’m really feeling improvement. Yay!) I attended a parent meeting for the Nashville Children’s Choir which JBelle is participating in this year and I scheduled a parent meeting for the Brownie troop. Got to see/hear Shaun Groves perform at our church Wednesday evening. That was cool.

DB attended a practice/coaching retreat with the Music City Chorus on Friday evening through Saturday afternoon. Saturday I took the kids to a park in the Hillsboro Village area and met up with Shauna & Pea. (Also saw a friend from church & her kids.) We stayed a couple hours or so, had a picnic lunch and played and played.

On the way home we stopped at Las Paletas and happened upon CeeElCee and his significant other! I love serendipitous meetings like that.

Today we said goodbye to our nieces who are going off to college. One will be here in Nashville but you know, she’s still “going off” to college, the other heads East for her college adventure. We’re going to miss them!

Haven’t watched as much of the Olympics as I’d like but what I’ve seen has been amazing! There’s this dude named Michael Phelps, you may have heard of him – he’s won 8 gold medals! Wow. Incredible! Of course what do I do while watching the Olympics? Eat ice cream. Homemade peanut butter cup ice cream to be specific. It was good. Emphasis on was…’cause it’s gone!

Snoopy Day

Orientation Day is known as “Snoopy Day” at our preschool. The children are invited to come and “snoop” around their classrooms, meet their teacher and classmates and play on the playground while Mom and Dad sit in a meeting with the preschool director. Today was GMan’s “Snoopy Day”. He’ll start his regular preschool classes next week! We were pleased to see several of GMan’s friends from church in his class. It’s been two years since JBelle was a student at this school and we’re very excited to back and for GMan to be attending!

Excited to be in his classroom!

Sand = in his element!

GMan just informed me that he was making a soufflé!

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My latest post at MarriageHacks is up! Check it out (pretty please)!

Would You Like S’more?

Most of my cooking catastrophes are born out of lack of attention. As is the case with the story I’ll tell.

Last fall, I was a new, eager Girl Scout leader for my daughter’s Brownie troop. I was full of ideas but short on time…because I procrastinate. I had planned a super-duper meeting that was already falling apart at the seams (almost literally) since I couldn’t make the “Sit Upon” project work. Add to that my ignorance in not having someone else take care of the snack and you have one distracted, frazzled, stressed Brownie leader who had no business trying to make a homemade snack for the meeting! I mean who was I really trying to impress here? A gaggle of second graders? My co-leader? Who knows. But this was the perfect snack for a Brownie meeting. S’More Brownies! S’Mores are the quintessential Girl Scout snack and this was a Brownie troop!

I waited until the day of the meeting to make the brownies so that they would be fresh from the oven. I used a brownie mix instead of making from scratch (as the recipe indicated) so save some time, which it did. The last part of the recipe instructs you to:

Remove from the oven and carefully position a rack about 6 inches from the broiler and preheat on low. Layer marshmallows across the top and toast under the broiler until golden, (keep an eye on it, it can go quick), about 2 minutes.

Yeah, about that “keep an eye on it” part…that’s really important! I placed the marshmallow covered brownies in the oven under the broiler, stepped away from the oven to quickly check my e-mail (my computer is like 10 feet from the oven), walked back over to the oven to check the “toasting” progress and low and behold, my brownies were ON FIRE!!!

I screamed and jumped back from the oven. Most, most, most fortunately, DB works from home. He was up from his computer and in the kitchen almost immediately. I don’t exactly remember how it all happened, but he got the pan out of the oven and blew the flames out. The very tops of the marshmallows were charred black. I started crying. Then I started laughing. I thought they were ruined but DB managed to remove most of the charring and salvaged the brownies.

I never made brownies for a Brownie meeting again!

First Day of 3rd Grade

Here’s our traditional front porch picture for first day of school. We’re very excited about third grade! JBelle has the same teacher this year that she had last year (called “looping”). We’re quite pleased with that. The class is in a different room though. This is a good thing because their classroom last year was on the Kindergarten hall (long story). This year they are in the third grade wing close to and next to other third grade classes. From looking at the class roster it looks like about 60% of last year’s students have returned to this teacher’s class. A few chose to have a different teacher and a couple others have gone to different schools.

We have a third grader!