When the kids were babies it was actually a lot easier to blog. Now that they are older...not so much! They actually keep me a lot busier NOW than they ever did before. Seems the older they get the crazier life seems to get. Oddly enough I always thought life was crazy before when they were little and that somehow it would just get easier as they got older. In some ways it HAS gotten easier. I mean I don't have to chase them around the house making sure they don't try to swallow small toys or stick something up their nose or something like that. However I do have to play referee a LOT more often now days! I also have to remind them to do their chores and home work which I didn't have before. We still have tantrums, just not over something small and trivial like a small do on the coffee table that they can't remove because it's a knot in the wood and is PART OF the coffee table (Why yes when they were younger we seriously had tantrums in our house because of that knot in the wood and they didn't like it and were mad they couldn't take it off because it was STUCK on the wood...) Or explaining to the kids why their favorite show wasn't on TV RIGHT NOW when they want to watch it. That was fun too. Sorry kids but Mickey Mouse Clubhouse does not run 24/7. Cept now days they want to watch shows like Angry Birds, or Total Drama Island, or Pokémon, Power Rangers, Chowder, Star Wars, Chuck the Truck, Daniel Lion, and a bazillion other things. Thankfully we also have Netflix now too. So now their tantrums are over who is going to pick the show, and throwing a fit when a show IS chosen because that's not the show THEY wanted to watch (doesn't matter, wasn't your turn to choose, don't like it...go play a board game or go color or go read a book, or do a chores....clean your room....play with your Lego's.....you get the point).
The kids had a fantastic Christmas and had a lot of fun. Santa was good to them, even though I personally feel he should have yanked them onto the naughty list at the last moment. However, Santa has a forgiving heart, but he left them a letter letting them know what he thought of their behavior and they WOULD end up on the naughty list next year if it continued. That made the kids freak out a little.
So far they've started the New Years with a smile and on the right foot. Tomorrow marks the 4th day back to school and SO FAR, so good *knock on wood* please let that continue, at least for this whole week. Preferably till the end of the school year but I'll take my goals one week at a time please and thank you very much.
I'm still finding that balancing work, and kids and house stuffs is completely kicking my ass. The last time I was a working Mom my daughter was in her first year of life WHOA BUDDY, it was a totally different scenario. First of all, I didn't have to hunt down a sitter every time there was a holiday. My husband and I worked split shifts so WE were always home with our daughter and RARELY needed to find a sitter. Plus...she wasn't DOING anything yet. I mean other than a few playdates here and there she didn't exactly have a social life and no extra curricular stuff other than some Parents as Teachers get together and those play dates I mentioned. Other than that? It was laid back happy go lucky.
Now fast forward a *few* years and add a couple of kids and YEEEEESH!!! I cannot keep up. My head is going a mile a minute. Which end is up? What's going on today? Who is doing what and how much is it going to cost me? Sad thing is, my kids aren't even IN that much stuff. (Scouts and sports).
I spent like five or six years home with the kids and I both loved and hated it. I missed the human interaction, however now that I'm back at work (for a year now may I add), that I also completely HATE the human interaction and I completely suck at it and I just want to crawl back under my covers and never come out again. I suck at this whole going back to work thing. It's breaking my heart and my spirit, but it's something I have to do. Not much of a choice in the matter, I gots to work, bills don't pay themselves and money doesn't magically fall from trees. It's not the work part I dislike or suck at I think I do fine there, it's the HUMAN end of it I freaking hate. The interaction with others. I used to be a people person, until people ruined it (That's been my motto for several years now). Making friends is something I COMPLETELY give up on. Unless you are an online friend, then it's cool. Or if we are friends in real life but we never talk or see each other because life is too crazy and busy or we live too far way from each other now to actually get together. Otherwise...I am just basically sucky at all things adult and life.
Currently I have a sink full of dishes (which I rarely had before). My laundry is a mountain (though it is slowly shrinking and I am ACTUALLY getting the laundry put away, GO ME!! I am winning that war!!) My bedroom...wait...do I even HAVE a bedroom anymore? It's more of a storage unit gone wrong.
However, my kids have spotless bedrooms, they always have clean clothes, they always have full tummies and good meals, we spend a lot of time together as a family, and we have a lot of awesome memories. I don't need an empty sink and perfect house to have a happy family.
It's ok if our coffee table is sometimes covered in "LIFE" (Lego creations, school papers, Lego magazines and Jr. Conservation magazines, a hair brush, a lotion bottle, eh winter is KILLING our skin here people, it is NOT BEING KIND TO US). Life happens. It's ok if the kids sometimes just toss their coats in the chair and kick their shoes off. It's ok if I don't ALWAYS clear the table off immediately after every single meal. Usually we tag team everything and do I together as a family and make it fun, that way not ONE person is feeling like they are doing all of the work and missing out on the fun. It gets things done quicker when we work together, and not fret about perfection. Then we can move on to the fun things. Like bowling or playing soccer on the Kinect (because it's too freaking cold to play soccer outside right now!!)
My daughter will be starting up in basketball again here pretty soon, she's excited she really loves basketball and she does try HER very best. She has a great coach who is very patient. Very. Patient. My daughter is also going to start selling Girl Scout cookies again VERY soon (this is her third year as a girl scout! She's a Daisy this year!!)
My sons are in their "off" season for sports. Soccer will start back up again soon enough though. So they are just doing Cub Scout stuff at the moment. Meetings are only once a month for them so they don't keep me too busy so far. They are in a new troop so things are just getting started.
There always seems to be something going on at school. My sons had their Christmas program at school last month and they were SOOO cute! (Says every mom everywhere about her kids in the Christmas program).
Then there are family activities at the school, and all kinds of things like that. Thankfully I avoid the PTO scene (oh thank you for that LOL I have a whole post on why I'm NOT a PTO mom! It's ok for some moms...but not for me, maybe I thought it would be at one point but no...just...no. Kudo's to all you mama's out there rockin' the PTO, I appreciate you doing it...so I don't have to). Also much love to the coach's out there too you get my serious respect too, I coached Tball ONE summer, and I will NEVER EVER coach again. (Weeeeell I might if I didn't have to coach my own kids...)
Most people set those pesky New Years Resolutions. Not me. I prefer to not set myself up for failure right away. C'mon, I know I'm not going to stick with those cheesy resolutions. "I will lose X amount of weight by X date" Puuuuhlease. We all know it ain't gonna happen. (For me anyway, maybe for you).
Instead I try to stay positive for the New Year, which again...I've failed at. Mentally it's already been a rough year for me (see the portion of sucky human interaction skills, and there you have it, that explains all you need to know...I just have decided...I don't like people). I need to become a hermit.
Which sucks because I DO like people. I DO, I just suck at the interaction. Meh. Oh well.
Who says you can't still be an awkward idiot at thirty one. Some people never out grow that stage, and I am apparently one of them. Go me! I'm not a klutz in the physical sense but in the verbal and communication interaction sense I'm the biggest klutz you've ever met. I'm just going to buy me a roll of duct tape and wrap it around my head. That should fix my issues, mostly?
Good thing my kids love me, and my very patient husband, and my dogs. My dogs adore me. The cat? I don't think he likes anyone he's kind of an ass hole. Although the stray cat outside seems to adore me but I think that has to do with the fact I always put out a bowl of cat food for him. Otherwise, he'd probably be an asshole too.
So now that Christmas is over, and a New Year is under way and I'm officially already losing my mind, I figured why not pop on over to the good ol' blog. Tell the lovely folks how life has been and what our big ol' family plans are for the new year. So far I've got a big ol' fat NOTHING. Not a thing. I mean we have some SORT of maybe kind gonna happen things. Nothing etched in stone though. Right now it's just sort of written in sand....
We'd LIKE to take the kids on a hiking trip this year, a real one. Not the pathetic one we go on around the local lake we BBQ and swim at in the summer every year. Go to an actual hiking trail. The kids got compasses for Christmas and they can't wait to test them out. Me either, because I suck at directions and couldn't find myself out of a wet paper sack, should be interesting to see how quickly I get lost.
We would love to take the kids to see the little Lego Land thing that is a few hours away (not the fantastic AWESOME AMAZING Lego Land in like California or whatever that the kids would REALLY love to go to as would I, but a much smaller portion of it a few hours away). While we are out that way we'd like to see a museum too, and maybe another zoo.
Speaking of zoo's we'd like to go see a couple of different ones this summer (the kids have never seen the St. Louis zoo, and we'd like to go back to the Des Moines zoo again this summer like we did a couple of summers ago).
I'm not big on amusement parks so we'll be avoiding those.
If you met my kids, you'd understand why I hate amusement parks now. I would probably have a heart attack at the amusement park because my kids would be scaring the shit out of me and I would just die from anxiety. We tried to go on a simple horse drawn carriage ride during Christmas time and my kids had me so tensed up and fearing for their lives that I didn't even enjoy the carriage ride. I was so annoyed when we got done. My kids have never even BEEN to an amusement park and I already know it would not end well. The carnival and fair here in our town is not an easy under taking and I have enough mini heart attacks there (like the year the freaking kids roller coaster broke down...with my children ON IT and one of them COMPLETELY LOST IT), and I was stuck with all of the other parents....watching the drama unfold...unable to help my kid. Nope, sorry. Not a good time for me (or my kid).
I'm just a weeeeee bit high strung for some situations.
So please explain to me why I allowed my children to get a bebe gun the other day? I'm perfectly cool with that. Cool as a cucumber. No problem. "Eh, ok fine let's get one, works for me".
The kids are thrilled. They've been begging for a bebe gun for quite some time now. CS#1 in particular has been BEGGING for a bebe gun for at least a year now and last month WOW he was REALLY pleading for one. He did not get one FOR Christmas but the husband and I talked and we got them one the other day. This spring I think we'll get them a Jr. Archery set.
I think it is good for kids to know proper gun safety. How to properly care for a gun, how to properly USE a gun, and how to shoot a bow and to properly care for and stay safe with a bow. Potentially useful skills. My husband and I may not be into hunting, but who knows our kids might be. I may not want to walk out into the woods and shoot Bambi and drag him home, but let me tell you what if my family needed the food...Bambi would be a complete and total GONNER along with all of his furry animal friends.
Some people would be like "OMG YOU GAVE YOUR KIDS A GUN!"
First of all, when I was growing up it wasn't uncommon for kids to get their first bebe gun when they were four or five, and get their first 22 by the time they were 8 or 10, and shooting their parents hunting rifles during deer season by the time they were like 12. (NOT ME because I wasn't and am not a hunter, I was more of the "FREE THE ANIMALS" child....). Plus, regardless of WHAT my Mother says (we had this discussion tonight on the phone actually) she was not a gun fan. Her memory apparently doesn't work like mine does because I distinctly remember being a child and not even being allowed to have a squirt gun that actually LOOKED like a gun. I could just have the ones that looked like a giant syringe thingy. She was NOT a gun fan (I don't care what she says now, but I VERY MUCH remember our conversations on WHY I couldn't have a bebe gun or anything else gun like). I always figured it was because my Dad had killed himself with a gun so I was like "eh whatever".
We own only one gun, and it's actually a family heir loom. My husband inherited an old hand built 22 that was his great great (possibly an extra great, I forget now) grandfather's. It will be passed down to OUR oldest son eventually. We used to go shooting with it all the time. However the last time we went target shooting with it was the day before we got married in 2006. A lot has changed since then I guess!! (I wonder if I can still out shoot my husband???)
We also have an air soft gun, and a pellet gun thing. Don't ask me technical names, ok? All I know is the air soft gun fires little plastic bebe things that DO hurt, yet dumb asses still go out and go "air soft gaming" and wear 'armor' and shoot each other. How do I know this?? Because my husband used to enjoy going. He'd come home with these little bebe sized bruises and welts. Seriously. What is wrong with men?
However, I do enjoy a good game of paint balling! At least then you come home colorful.
Our pellet gun shoots metal bullet things, that are NOT bebe's these look like they could actually do some damage and would NOT be fun to mess around with.
All of these things?? Have been locked up tight for a long time and the kids didn't even know they existed until recently.
Surprisingly enough I have heard that bebe guns were a pretty popular Christmas present this year and in fact the store was SOLD OUT of bebe's which the guy working that area says has never happened in all the years he's been working there. We had to go to a farm and home store to find bebe's and even then we got the last container they had on the shelf. I found it mildly ironic.
I mean considering the President recently declared an EXECUTIVE ORDER about guns and all. I understand where the President is coming from. I am all for people having guns, you know...like...HUNTING guns. Go for it. Collect all of the HUNTING guns you want. However, why do you need a freaking machine gun, or automatic crazy military grade weapons?? Especially if you aren't IN the military?? Or it isn't in your job description to have a gun like that. I don't see anyone taking a machine gun out to hunt for a deer, you'd have swiss deer meet, there wouldn't be anything left really. So they aren't a weapon that people necessarily NEED. People say they need these weapons for protection. How many people do you have busting down your doors to where you need all those automatic crazy ass guns?? I think even a simple hunting rifle could do a pretty good amount of scaring the crap out of a would be burglar coming into your home, even if he was feeling froggy and came in anyway, your gun is still going to do some damage.
I don't mind people doing open carry or concealed carry. I would actually love to get a license to be able to do that, even if I choose NOT to, I'd still like that license for if I ever WANT to. It's not a bad thing to have. Just like when I got my hunter safety license in high school. I didn't hunt, I didn't own a gun but it was something I felt was important incase I ever needed to be around a gun or decided to hunt or whatever. As soon as my kids are old enough they will be taking the hunter safety course as well, our whole family will take it again, together.
We are not about to just hand our six and eight year old children the bebe gun and say "hey go shoot your eye out in the back yard." Nope, that's not quite how it works. They don't have free reign of their bebe gun. It's a use only with permission item (like using the tablets, they have to ask and they have to be in our presence the entire the item is being used and their are safety rules in place). They have strict rules to follow when shooting it and if they disobey they lose the privilege of shooting their bebe gun. I will not tolerate my kids being dangerous with them. The sucker is locked up with the others, padlocked. Up high, out of reach in a closet that is also locked. All ammo is locked up in another case in another room way up high hidden where they can't even see it. Keys, are in another location out of sight and out of reach. They aren't allowed to let their friends come over when we have the bebe gun out, their friends aren't allowed to shoot the bebe gun. They can ONLY shoot at the targets that my husband and I set up for them in a safe area. No crazy talk about shooting someone or anything else, that WILL NOT be tolerated, at all. I don't care if you are joking, or not.
The kids have had the same rules with their NERF guns for the most part (don't point them at each other, don't shoot the animals, don't shoot at windows, don't shoot at your friends etc etc). However, I cannot lie, our family loves a good NERF gun shoot out, where we go crazy and go all Rambo style shooting up the house with our NERF guns. Sooo yeh....we may or may not have shot each other with them from time to time...just like we do with the water guns too. I think by a certain age, most kids have figured out the difference between a NERF gun and a bebe gun (at least I would hope so, but it's all about talking to your kids, educating them and working with them). And I'm pretty sure that when the kids are older they are going to LOVE some paint ball gun fights too.
It seems like all people can talk about these days is guns. Our right to bear arms, how they are angry at the president and his decision, how he's trying to take guns away from us, etc etc. I don't have too much of an opinion on that other than what I've already said (hunting guns are cool for people to own and all, but why do we REALLY need to own military grade weapons or whatever?) Besides I don't think Obama's 'gun safety' rules would have stopped my Dad from finding a way to kill himself, if it wasn't a gun, it would have been something else I'm sure. It wasn't the gun that made the decision, it was my Dad.
Then I found it ironic how the President has been on a big huge anti gun thing lately, and then I notice and others have noticed how suddenly popular bebe guns have been for kids this year. I guess it's the people of America's way of saying "F YOU" don't want us to have guns??? We'll give our kids bebe guns and teach them how to shoot early. I'm just like "Meh...no statement making here, giving my kids a bebe gun is something I always planned on doing anyway." Husband and I just felt they were the right age for one. So far the kids haven't used it at all. We've been too busy. I figure we'll get around to I this spring, by then the boys will be seven and my daughter will be eight and a half and we'll have gotten to discuss safety and stuff a little bit more too. Some people would be all "OMG my kids are NEVER going to own a gun" or "They aren't old enough" Ultimately, it's kind of a personal decision. Every parent knows their kiddo. We've laid down strict rules early, with swift discipline should the rules be broken. We want them to respect guns, but not be completely terrified of them, or be absolutely care less with them. I'd rather they learn gun safety at home, early, with their parents in a safe environment than learn it at like a neighbor or friends house who may have a gun we don't know about and the kids stumble across it or something and have zero knowledge about it and what they should do if they encounter one (as in, leave it alone, tell an adult immediately and don't let any other kid touch it, just go get an adult, quickly!!) Don't pick it up, don't mess with it, period.
So with that being said I hope everyone's New Year was off to a great start!
Mom Circus
