Tune Twisters

(to the tune of..The Eensy Weensy Spider)

The fuzzy, furry Webkinz
Went to the Wheel of WOW.
It likes to play,
Whenever it is home.
Don't call it Zango
And try to shake its W-globe.
Cause it will start to scream like a girl
And say, "Cut that out!"

(to the tune of Frere Jacques)

I'll wear goo-goo goggles
To the spelling bee.
You'll wear wings
With some antennae.
Everyone will laugh a lot
When they see us spelling.
We'll look loquatious.
Quick lets sub-verbalize.

O-N/O-F-F Indicator

The Maven, font of wisdom that she is, wrote once "I am both overwhelmed and underwhelmed." Underwhelmed in the sheer mediocrity of the daily, repetitive, thankless, unnoticed tasks that make up such a large portion of my everyday life. Sweep the floor and one meal later, it needs swept again. Dusting the school desk takes 15 minutes, but who notices when it gets done. Dusting the miniature shelf takes even longer. Laundry--sort wash dry fold hang. Clean behind the toilet, every day, because Little Guy's aim still needs work. Come check the toilet every time Little Guy pees, because if he gets it all *in* the toilet, he gets a popsicle stick in his cup. Four popsicle sticks equals a Webkinz special recipe food item that he gets to pick out, sit on Mommy's lap to make on her account, then mail to his account through kinzpost. Fuss at Sweetling who is reading over my shoulder and not doing her vocabulary....

These are the things that consume my day.

And I love being a stay-home mom. And I love being a homeschooling mom. LOVE IT.

But every now and then the "underwhelmed but overwhelmed" thing really bugs me. Especially the overwhelmed part. Yesterday the mediocre housework just didn't get accomplished. Very little in school got accomplished either. Why? I have no idea. It wasn't because we had a Webkinz holiday. Or a playdate. Or errands to run. Or fun phone calls with friends. Or a good book to read. No. It just didn't get done. We were home all day. We were *trying* all day. The gears were turning, but the train was in neutral. And nothing got done. So, overwhelmed because I can't get whats on my plate done.

Foremost among these frustrations was the dishwasher. One puts the dirty dishes in. One puts in detergent. One turns the dishwasher on. One goes about ones happy little life until some later time, when one comes back to take the dishes out. It is NOT that difficult. So, when one continuously, continuously misses one of these ever so simple steps and comes back to find that the dishwasher is still, in fact, full of dirty dishes and now so is the sink....one becomes frustrated with oneself. One rants at one's husband. One rants at one's Sweetling. One rants at one's mother. One rants at one's Mango on the phone. One rants on one's blog.

Then the next day, when one is ever so proud at one's clever self because she did indeed remember to run the dishwasher, only to go downstairs to discover that the dryer is still full of wet clothes because one forgot to push the start button....well then one is completely justified---completely justified, in ranting some more.

Sweetling suggests that I should reward myself when I remember to run the dishwasher by giving myself a piece of chocolate. This positive reinforcement should better train the Mommy. Sweetling doesn't know that Mommy has a brownie mix in the pantry that is going to shortly become Mommy's consolation prize.

Its beginning to look a lot like

We take turns each year deciding how we should decorate our Christmas tree. The Jedi decided that this year it should be Little Guy's turn. Little Guy, when asked what should go on the Christmas tree, said, "Fragile things and lights and a birdhouse." (Later he added candy canes to that list). Then Berean put up a Christmas tree and covered it with Webkinz. So we start putting up our tree yesterday. Little Guy decides that our tree should also have Webkinz. Lo and behold, Christmas tree with Webkinz.






We added candy canes this afternoon. Since children would be taking Webkinz on and off the tree all month, Mommy decided it was best to skip the fragile things. The Jedi suggested my pegasus should be our tree topper this year, cause you know, wings and all. You cant see it in the pic, but there is indeed a pink pegasus serving as our tree angel this year.

Three Cats

Oh how descriptive and inspiring my blog titles are.

Mom has three cats. Mom needs to have zero cats. Mom is allergic to said cats and the medicines she takes for her allergies is giving her high blood pressure. If Mom goes off her medicine, she gets sick. If Mom doesn't go off her medicine, she risks a stroke.

Bottom line, three cats need a new home. I'm thinking my brother the Tornado has three kids. These children need Christmas presents. Three kids who need presents....three cats who need a home... It's a genius plan.

Nine and nightgown

Its 9:07 and I'm still in my nightgown. My children are both bundled up playing in the snow in the backyard. Little Guy cannot get enough of snow. He loves it! We got a couple of inches overnight on Tuesday. The Jedi had arranged with work that if it snowed, he wasn't coming in till 9, so that he could be home to take Little Guy out in his first snow fall. I had been assuming that Little Guy would love the snow, up until it touched him and it was cold. Little Guy went out in the snow, with Sweetling right behind him. He quickly discovered that he could make footprints, and this was very cool. Then he discovered that he could throw it. This was also cool. Sweetling proceeded to demostrate how to make and pound a little brother with a snowball. A skill which she executed with remarkable accuracy. Remarkable, hit my little brother right in the face, sort of accuracy. Little Guy stood there stunned and horrified. The Jedi came to a quick rescue and got the snow off of Little Guys face and out from down the neck of his coat. Little Guy made a swift recovery. The Jedi pulled both children around the front yard a few times in the sled, and then was off to work. We stayed out for a little longer (more snowballs were thrown, snowangels made, and big, big snowpiles full of brown leaves were scooped together by Little Guy.) Then Mommy got cold, and it was time for breakfast, so in we went.

Little Guy played in the snow outside of church on the way into wow. He played in the snow on the way out of wow. He stomped on the groundcover outside of Berean. He got out of the car and stomped around in Pinkie's front yard. We all went to Telephone's house. Telephone and I worked on a dance for Saturday and all the children (hers were off cause school districts down here are wimps) went outside to play for about an hour. Her front yard has a little hill, so more sledding was done. We had hot chocolate at Telephones and came home. Little Guy wanted to go back in the snow. We didn't, because we had to get ready for church. We went to church. More footprints were made. We came out of church. Footprints.

We woke up this morning, staggered into the school room where Mommy was reading a weeks worth of emails she hadn't had a chance to read yet. We said "wanna play in the snow Mommy?" before we were even awake enough to have our eyes fully open. Mommy, being mean like she is, made us eat at least a banana first. Then both children got bundled up and out they went. Sweetling is now standing on the edge of the snowcovered cliff that is our backyard thinking about it. Little Guy told the Jedi last night that maybe we could get a hill in our yard for Christmas, so we could go sledding all the time. The Jedi told Little Guy "good luck with that one." In the meantime, Little Guy is out there contenting himself with making snowpiles. And has found a bucket. Snow can go in buckets. Its an amazing thing. Snow in buckets can be dumped on unsuspecting sisters. This is even better. Snow is also edible, despite how many times Mommy has tried to explain that after the snow has been walked in and has laid on the ground all day, it is no longer clean.

Zero schooling has been done all week. Which isn't completely accurate. Sweetling did one morning devotion and one history lesson. Little Guy has insisted on doing calendar. And spent one evening while I was making dinner arranging his magnetic letters on the fridge in ABC order...a task which involved frequent running trips to the school room to check the alphabet on his desk to find what letter comes next. And Sweetling has been playing Quest for Glory. I'm not sure how that can count as an educational experience, but in the middle of December, it does somehow.

We took Monday off for Mommy to recover from the Children's Musical, which was wonderful. We made a go of it for an hour or so on Tuesday, then went and picked up Smurf. Wednesday was a snow holiday. Today there is no good reason for us not to be doing formal school lessons...except that its Thursday, its 9:29, Mommy is still in her nightgown and children are outside playing. There is a weeks worth of laundry that needs folded and put away...and we have tomorrow off cause Daddy's home. We will make a nod at getting a few lessons in, but in general, this week is a wash when it comes to progress on the K12 curriculum.

If its a measure of how little time we've had for seatwork, I didn't even log on to webkinz once yesterday. And I missed the dragsters in the curio shop. Boo hoo.

My life is measured by lessons completed and webkinz events. I can also sing the Super Why theme song as well as the Word Girl theme song.

And I need to come up with nearly twenty fake poinsettia flowers between now and Sunday without spending any money on them. Its only the first week of December, and I have seriously, dangerously, overspent my 'freespending' allowance. Without the Jedi's knowledge. But the good news is that my ultracool phone is NOT lost at church as I feared last night, but merely left at Telephone's house. A rescue mission before the Jedi notices its absence is in order today. And no, the Jedi doesn't read my blog, so I'm totally safe in writing this here.

But for now, I shall retrieve children from the wintery wonderland and feed them breakfast, take my shower, and start school.

There's one tree, a little one, in our backyard that still has green summer leaves all over it. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one unprepared for December.

Quinlan the Penguin

I have a cookie update, that I'll make as soon as pics are downloaded from the camera. (Ok, short version...we got the cookies done and delivered Saturday! Sweetling, Little Guy, and Sweetling's good friend, Pinkie were a HUGE help!)

Second update, our Christmas musical, The Mystery of the Manger, was on Sunday and it went REALLY well. Sweetling and Pinkie both had speaking parts and Little Guy was a shepherd. The Jedi was put in charge of the camera, because I was doing leading the choir's choregraphy. ( Side note, why is spelling so evil?) Anyway, I'm hoping for some pics of that to share as well.

In the meantime....I shall share screenshots of Quinlan the Penguin. I have shared his story on WI, and now I'm sharing it here. By copying and pasting my WI post of course.

First of all, my husband came home on Monday night with new Webkinz reindeer for each of our two children. He was supposed to just stop on the way home and get milk and bread. Instead, he walks in with the grocery bags, asks how everybody's day was...did they listen, how was school, etc. After listening to me talk about our day....he reaches into the grocery bags and pulls out reindeer! There was much rejoicing :)

Then, on Thursday, I walked in and found a Webkinz penguin sitting on my keyboard :) I had been not so subtly dropping hints about wanting one for Christmas for a while. My Christmas started early. Everyone gathered round to watch Mommy adopt her new penguin and decorate his room. (After I had agonized for a day picking out his name. A name which was finally found by my daughter, who got online to find cool names for me.)

THEN I thought Quinlan the Penguin's room needed some decorations. So I got on WI to look at how other winter themed rooms were decorated. I kept calling my daughter in to ask her where I could get the items I was seeing. It turns out the things I wanted were exclusive items. (A sparkle plant and an arctic window...PSI for the polar bear.) This morning my daughter told me I should log on to my account, because she had sent me a present. Let me say that I had many things to do, and we were running late for a dress rehearsal for our Christmas musical...but I hopped on because she was so very excited. AND OH MY GOODNESS! She sent me a sparkle plant AND the arctic window!!!!! She had a polar bear, and she sent me his PSI. I about cried.

I told her I couldn't take Frosty's window...so we agreed that I would decorate my penguin's room and do a screenshot, then send it back. Well, this evening, my husband calls me downstairs to look at his computer. He bought a polar bear code, just so he could get the arctic window and send it to our daughter...so we both would have our own.

Isn't that just awesome??