Too busy procrastinating!

Yes, that is what I have been busy doing, procrastinating. There is so much I need to do and haven't done. And then I have so many things I want to share with you, but I don't sit down to write them. Nor do I clean the house, or do enough laundry to even put a dent in it, or a host of other things that I should be doing. What do I do then you ask? Some days even I wonder. That's the problem with procrastinating: time flies by and there is nothing to show for it.

Don't get me wrong, I don't just lay in bed all day, unless I have a massive migraine. Some things get done, the "urgent" things...others might call it "the last minute" needs. I tend to do things at the last minute because I didn't do it before. :(

I know there are different names for my "problem", SHE (Sidetracked Home Executive), Messies, and I suffer from CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome). I've read all the books and at least started many of the "methods": 3x5 cards, Mt. Vernon cleaning and flying. I do fine for a little while and then, poof! back to the way it was. Each of these methods are good and have helped many people, just some people (me) seem to have a harder time keeping from falling back into the old procrastination ways.

So now what? Well a change needs to be made. Starting Tuesday (too much happening to even try to change before Tuesday, no really), I will go back to being a FLYbaby. I've fallen before, but this time I will be like a baby bird, and keep trying to FLY. I know I can't do it on my own, I've tried and failed. I'll eventually have to teach my kids and husband to FLY but it can be done. I know that God wants me to succeed. And He has promised that even though I am weak, I can do all things through Christ (His Son).

Are you a procrastinator, SHE or Messie? Have you ever tried to get get your house in order and failed? God gives you the same promise He does to me. He will strengthen you; just look to the Son and we can FLY to Him together. Let me know you are joining me. We start Tuesday. :)

The Start of Summer....I Hope Not!

Today's Cast of characters: Dearest Husband - almost older than dirt

                                          Myself - as old as dirt

                                          Mr. Scientist- 10 yo

                                          Miss Dancer- 8 yo

                                          Destructo Boy- 4 yo
                                          Mr. and Mrs. Neighbor- wonderful neighbors of over 30 years

No, this isn’t about the temperature outside, although at 50 degrees the children thought it was too hot and needed popsicles, of which we had none.

It is more about when you hear a crying child and other children screaming, “Blood, Blood!”

The 3 kids were finally outside playing nicely. They had made an obstacle course and were having a lot of fun. All this exercise then demanded a healthy snack, so oranges were pealed and taken outside. Plenty of water was drank (or is that drunk?) and all was well… or so I thought

While I was doing dishes, thinking how lovely my children were, I suddenly hear crying and screaming about blood. Now, this reaction can result from a small scrape, so I wasn’t too excited. I went to the door, opened it and saw all 3 children running towards the house, like something was chasing them. With the yelling of “blood”, maybe it was a vampire? No, even with all the vampire books and shows, I knew they weren’t after my kids.

 As the children came up the deck, Destructo Boy was crying, holding out his hand and yelling blood. His hand was covered in blood and I ran to the kitchen sink, threw on the cold water, shoved over the clean dishes and got ready to find the source of the blood. That was when Mr. Scientist yelled about  Destructo Boy’s head. Source of blood found and there was a lot!

“Stop the bleeding, stop the bleeding” was running through my head as I a grabbed a clean wash cloth from the drawer. Seeing the gash I knew I could not just apply pressure, but I needed to close the wound.  I stood behind him, leaning him against me I grabbed with the washcloth the skin above the eye and pinched it closed and applied pressure.  Of course while doing this my mind was racing: do I need an ambulance, wow look at the trail of blood on the kitchen floor, how can I let go of him, why didn’t I take a shower and get dressed today, what do I do now? 

I sent Mr. Scientist to go get “Mrs. Neighbor”; he comes back and says, “She wasn’t home but Mr. Neighbor is coming”. OK good, now I’ll have another adult because I’m not feeling very adultish.

Mr. Neighbor comes, looks and responds, “Oh ya, that’ll need stitches.” Hmm, I’m not feeling better yet. I give the job of holding wound closed to Mr. Neighbor and go look for the butterfly bandages. Now, why is it that whenever we need a bandage all we can ever find are the butterfly ones, and now when I need them, I can’t find them? After what seemed like forever, I find some and making sure they were butterfly strips and not Breathe Right strips I take them to Mr. Neighbor.

We go outside, where there is better light and more room, and start applying the strips all the while Destructo Boy is busy looking at his blood covered hand crying that there is still blood. Miss Dancer went and got a wet washcloth to wash his hand. Then we thanked and said goodbye to Mr. Neighbor and let Mr. Scientist and Miss Dancer hold Destructo Boy while I got dressed.

Once the blood was off Destructo Boy’s hand, he never cried again. We went to our nearest Urgent Care (20 minutes away) and met Dearest Husband. Destructo Boy did great. He hadn’t seen his head and when he saw it in a mirror there, he let out an “ouch!” No stitches but lots of glue. The blood mixed with the glue and now his head looks worse than it is. The gash was a little over an inch long and deeper than I wanted to see.

Destructo Boy and his boo-boo. The darkest horizontal line is the gash, the lighter , long horizontal blood is where my finger got glued to him...I'll leave that for another post. 

Everyone is fine today and things are back to normal here. As a matter of fact the kids are playing nicely  outside with sidewalk chalk… Miss Dancer just came in and told me they are drawing “dead bodies”. “We are pretending to stab ourselves with the chalk and then draw the dead body. Mr. Scientist drew me but then he drew me fat!” Yep, things are back to normal.

Destructo Boy wanted his picture taken doing his Zombie pose. (That's what he calls it)

Update: I've been asked how this happened. Well after the obstacle course and oranges they decided to make a balance beam type of thing. We now know Destructo Boy can't balance. And that balancing activity has been banned.

When Mom is Sick

Today's Cast of characters: Dearest Husband - almost older than dirt

                                          Myself - as old as dirt

                                          Mr. Scientist- 10 yo

                                          Miss Dancer- 8 yo

                                          Destructo Boy- 4 yo

You never know what may happen when mom is in bed, sick...

After taking care of a sick and vomiting Miss Dancer all night, I was exhausted and feeling nauseous myself, so I stayed in bed and let the kids get their own breakfast. When I went to the kitchen, a short time later, there was a margarita glass full of lemon juice and an egg floating in it. Yes, Mr. Scientist had been at it again.

Later, I took a short nap and I remember hearing Mr. Scientist and Miss Dancer making Chicken Noodle Soup. Then Mr. Scientist said the soup was hot enough because Destructo Boy couldn't keep his finger in it. I know, most "good" moms would have jumped up to make sure their 4 yo was OK and finish the soup. Well, I didn't (think what you want) and then I heard, yep it is 103 degrees. Drifting back to sleep I wondered how he knew.

After I awoke, I had some saltines in bed hoping they would settle my stomach. At that time Destructo Boy touched Mr Scientist's experiment, a little too hard. He pinched, or squeezed depending on who you ask, the top of the egg and it broke.

To keep Destructo Boy from turning into a science experiment, I decided I had better get up. There were dishes to do so I got busy. Empty margarita glass- reminder of the failed experiment, candy thermometer-so that was how he knew the soup's temp and a turkey baster-what? where was that from? Do I even want to know? Probably not. All the kids we're alive and seemed unharmed. Sometimes don't ask don't tell is a good phrase for a mom to remember...especially a sick mom.