Sunday, August 30, 2009

Yet Another Way in Which I Have a Moment of Fail

Earlier this summer, I lucked out and managed to get all of Chaos's back-to-school clothes shopping done. I spent a day patiently helping him pick and sort through all the new clothing rack and I felt pleased that we were not caught by the last minute rush. When we got home, we showed Dad all his new clothes.

I decided at that time, however, to wait until the payday before school to get new shoes for him. His feet have a habit of growing and his father regaled me with horror stories of his own foot growth at the kindergarten age, thus, I felt safe in putting off what I considered to be the most crucial part of his back to school wardrobe.

So, last Friday, I sent him with his Dad to get new shoes. My husband, after a child-hood of extra large feet and ill-fitting shoes is fanatical about getting the "perfect" fit for all our kids. I figured this might be a good chance for them to have some male bonding time plus an opportunity for my husband to feel useful. (He always says that I run the house too efficiently.)

After they returned, I asked Chaos excitedly about his new shoes.

"Yep," he replied rather sardonically for a five-year old. (I rolled my eyes here. This is how my Husband replies to me and Chaos thinks it's funny to act like his Dad's worst traits.)
He opens the bag and pulls out...a pair of tennis shoes... in vivid fire truck red.

I stare at them. RED?!?

Everything my son picked out for school clothes happened to be aqua. Bright. Vivid. Aqua. Not a stitch of it was red or anything that remotely matched red.

I expressed this to his Dad later and he looked at me like I was weird.

"But sweetie... all his clothes are blue. Not red. His shoes don't match. They'll stand out a mile away!"

"He wanted red shoes." My husband was firm.

"But they don't match...." I begin again.

"Sweetheart," my husband said patiently while shaking his head, "he's a FIVE YEAR OLD BOY. He doesn't care if his shoes match his purse. At that age, he wants shoes that look FAST."

I closed my mouth at that logic. I think it over. My son always picks out some really nice outfits... then proceeds to wear them in combinations that defy logic. Yellows with blues with orange stripes often get paired with mismatched socks and camo.

Then it hit me... my husband's right. He's a boy. He doesn't have to worry about his shoes matching his figurative purse.

I have to worry about his shoes matching his purse, though... because I'm a girl.

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As a side note: I finally broke down and bought him a few new shirts... all of which match his shoes.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

So close, yet so far away.

Back to school.
It's almost here. I'm patiently waiting for it to arrive.

I know, I know, it doesn't seem like I'm waiting with any amount of patience at all. But, I am.

I love Chaos dearly, but he is SO ready for school to start. It's all he talks about.

Tomorrow there's an open house where we get to go an meet his teacher. I can't wait.

To think, in just one week I'll be able to clean the house without having to work around a child coloring on the floor!

Monday, August 17, 2009

Some days you just have to give in...

I'm up to ears in chores that need to be done just to keep this house functioning. Washing dishes, laundry, taking care of the pets, changing diapers... I end up doing about 99.9995% of the work in this house.

So, it's rare that I give in when Chaos asks me to play a video game with him.

But today, he asked me in "the tone". This is the tone that implies a bit of wistfulness and loneliness at the same time. This is the same tone that a kid uses to ask for a hug when they've had a really bad day.

When his voice finally penetrated my activity level, and I actually HEARD what he was saying, I couldn't help but sigh, wipe of my hands and agree with a smile.

The worst part? After me winning Mario Kart ten times in a row, he decided that he's "rather play something else for some alone time..."

Stinker.

I suppose it's back to tidying for me.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Rebounding Takes Forever

After what feels like a month and a half of epic FAIL, I'm finally able to stand up for more than twenty minutes at a time. This is, of course, beneficial since I'm the chief cook and housekeeper here. (For the most part, I've been prepping food while sitting down and using a stool to wash dishes.)

After the flu of death, came the fractured rib of doom. This was soon followed/joined by the mini-relapse of the flu of death.

My husband seems to think I do too much, too soon.
I seem to think that no one else will get their bottoms off the chairs long enough to clean.

I'm hoping to be able to get my craft-table organized again. As things went, my craft table became everyone else's catch-all. I'm not cool with that. Not at all.

But, in the end, I should be fully up and around just in time to celebrate school starting.
I have the entire first day of school planned out:drop kids off at school with embarrassing hugs and kisses, leisurely breakfast at a coffee shop, a quick doctor's appointment, a calming lunch at a nicer restaurant, a pedicure, trim, and color at the local beauty college, before I get home and wait for the kids to get off the school bus. If it was a good day for them as well, I may decide to splurge on some ice cream cones (sorbet for me) and a trip to fly kites at the playground before the Hubby makes his way home. And I believe that once he gets home, I have permission to order a pizza, rent a movie, and sit back and knit a little.

Yay!

Monday, August 3, 2009

I'm contemplating another blog, this one entirely devoted to cooking.

I was writing my grocery list and I noted that very little on my list was pre-made besides the bacon and pasta.

This gave me pause.

I'm pretty well known among my friends for being the person that rarely buys what I can make. (That's not to say I can't make my own bacon or my own pasta- I just sincerely don't believe I have to available kitchen tools or space to devote to such undertakings.) So, as I looked over the menu plan for the next two weeks, I noticed that while I was making a majority of the items on the list, most of them were pretty simple items to make ahead.

So, my new blog will be born of the notion that it is possible to make two weeks of meals from scratch.

So, I hope you'll also join me over on Two Weeks From Scratch- my journey in providing balanced and homemade food for my family.