Except it’s already Saturday…

When the new year started, I assumed this was it, I would be serious about blogging.  And then silence.  I only had one week left before the boys went back to school, and really, I needed that time with them.  So that was my excuse.

I managed to write the new year’s post.  It was important to me.  To offer some words, to acknowledge my friend’s loss and pain.  I can’t imagine it, but there it is, full on pain.  Pain I can only remember from 15 years ago.

So before I begin, I ask prayers for my friend and her grandchildren.

They need them.  Today, tomorrow and forever.  I am not sure the pain ever goes away.

I have a ton of posts pending…

Apparently, I never wrote about my mom’s birthday…I suck.  I will leave it at this:  I have the best mom.  Period.  Not because she watches my children at a moment’s notice, but because she was an amazing mother.  She stayed home with us and did a great job and I am forever grateful to her.  When I get frustrated and yell at the kids, friends will ask, did your mom yell.  Sure she did.  But I can honestly say her temper was way more in check than mine.  Some people are better parents than their own.  I am not.  So thanks, mom.  I love you for so many reasons, you are truly the best.  I am beyond blessed to have had you for a mom, and my kids are blessed to have you as a Mimi.

Back in December, Goose participated in his school’s spelling bee.  Why is this noteworthy?  Well, go ahead and check out the demographics for Rogers.  Then come back and congratulate him on making it to the top ten!  Oh and my poor child had a 101 fever.  Yes, I sent him to school that day and had him participate.  That was a Tuesday, he missed the rest of that week due to a constant fever.  Super effing proud of him.  After he was disqualified, he sat next to me and spelled every word correctly.  Exactly like Paul did when he was dq’d many years ago.  I kept Paul and Lance up to date during the bee.  Not sure they liked the constant text updates.

Snax came home with some artwork that I hung up.  Upon examination, I realized that he had spelled our last name incorrectly.  Upon further examination, I discovered it wasn’t a one time mistake.  I am unclear how this happened.

We all know I had a little girl after four boys, such a sweet and caring little girl…and she is the one who draws on the walls and just this week stuck a bead up her nose.  She came to me asking to get the bead out.  It must be a mom thing, because I knew exactly what she meant.  THANK YOU, GOD, that this didn’t require me going to the doctor to get it removed.  I do think she has learned her lesson because she keeps telling us, “I’m not going to put a bead in my nose, that would be trashy.”  Telling her something is trashy is the best thing we can say to get her to stop a certain behavior.

Christmas was wonderful, stressful and at times, I wondered if all parents secretly hated it.  It’s a lot of pressure planning gifts for this family, staying inside a budget, seeing everybody while still keeping our immediate family traditions, planning feast days, staying happy and more.  A pleasant surprise to me this year was that our Christmas card was the least stressful part of the holiday this year.  After a failed attempt to go to Austin one Saturday morning, I came home and ordered the kids to go outside.  Ten minutes later, we had our picture.  I even had several choices.

I mailed 55 cards.  In return, I got 28.  Something isn’t working.  I’ll excuse my 90 plus year old grandmother for not sending me a card, though my cousin’s Meme sends me one and she is pretty advanced in age as well.  And I’ll excuse a few more people.  The rest….Lance says to cut them off the list.  It sounds harsh, right?  My mom would say “do you send cards to get them in return?”  Um, yes, most definitely.  As Lance says, anyone who wants to see the kids, can look at the blog.  I tried defending some friends who never send cards, his response was that those people wouldn’t mind being cut from the list because cards clearly aren’t most important to them anyway.  So this year, the list gets smaller.

I have tons of Christmas pictures I need to post.  Fingers crossed that my pictures actually load without timing out and making me want to throw my computer.