fair trade

  
Good helpers. Blue supervising. Sneaky mom picture. Shhh don’t tell. They are front yard raking for chocolate cake I’m baking. Fair trade. I’d rather be raking with them than doing dishes. 
October 25, 2015

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Mother’s Day

The birds serenaded Blue and I on our early morning walk. Thankfully the pouring rain from earlier had stopped, though we’d have walked anyway. Enjoying breakfast now and some quiet time before the boys wake up. I love being their mom. My oldest son gave me my Mother’s Day gift early by going to the Good Friday artist reception and service in April. My younger son wrote me a poem that I’m not supposed to know about, but I saw the rough draft on accident while looking for his weekly report. Since he was out sick three days last week his awesome teacher sent it home with Friday’s homework with a post-it, “For Andrew’s Eyes Only :-)” I didn’t peek! Hope everyone I know has a blessed day filled with abundant love that overflows. Hug each other close. I had no idea how much my parents loved me until I became a mom. I get it now. Love that knows no bounds.

May 10, 2015

So, there was a little hostage situation here last night…
My youngest son, age 10 in fifth grade, asked for the yardstick to measure the dog’s long, fluffy tail. When I didn’t immediately hand it over to him, he began taking items out of the pantry one by one, reading their labels aloud, stacking them on the kitchen counter as he stockpiled hostages. Along the way he found the yardstick and Blue did NOT want his tail measured, so my boy resumed taking pantry items hostage. Not just the extra food, also batteries, straws, flashlights, lightbulbs and the broom. Then, since I made white chicken chili yesterday, and the crock pot found itself surrounded by other hostages, that boy blocked his captives off with the yardstick and declared the crock pot hostage too. What?! The crock pot was an innocent bystander! Just sitting on the counter, minding it’s own business, after working hard all day, when it found itself surrounded by hostages and a crazed madman brandishing a yardstick about. Too funny really, both in the moment and as hindsight. Love him. The older boy too. He had his own smiling, trying to get my goat, way of pushing buttons last night. His grin said he knew he did too. My narrowed eyes didn’t convince him to move because my grin gave me away. He showered. Such a simple thing, but heaven forbid it be one. Thursday morning now. The sun rose. Both of my sons rose too, even though they were still rather tired, grumbly and wanting more sleep. Oldest is delivered to school and youngest is en route. Blue has been out twice. Time is 8:30am. I stayed in my flannel pjs and am making coffee now. Errands and cat duty and miscellaneous whatnot will all fill in the hours until those two boys who hold their mother’s heart return home again. I may have agreed to make a chocolate cake last night to free the hostages. I sort of think I did. I better make one, to appease that crazed madman, age 10.
~Janean

January 30, 2014
There is a new moon tonight. The second new moon of January 2014. There are two super moons this month, on the first and thirtieth, but actually, there were three because of the full moon in the middle. I have a feeling “moon effect” had a little to do with the antics at my house last night. The rest was a very creative, witty and hilarious way to avoid bedtime.

mom stuff

Children both to school.
Dog walked.
Big sigh breathed aloud.
Wednesday today.
All day.
Thankful for a quiet house.
My chance to recharge.

January 29, 2014
9:32am
a twitter poem
*chirp*
Today is the first day back to school after the weekend, plus two “snow days” with no school due to sub zero temperatures and double digit windchill. Six snow days were used this January and 2014 is still young. February, March and April are yet to come. It’s winter weather in Illinois, anything can happen!

Minecraft lesson #2

Week two of Xbox 360 Minecraft lessons from my sons. My youngest boy was my teacher today. He made, “Blow Crap Up World” and taught me how to use TNT. It is kinda fun… I’m grinning after playing for around thirty minutes, before saying, “Enough.” Cooking up some bacon for two sleepyheaded boys for breakfast next. My incentive to learn how to move better, with the foreign feeling controller, was that if I could track and catch him, I could have a dog. I caught him. Hearts appear. Now I have a virtual canine companion too. Cool. Minecraft has a dragon in a dark portal lair. My youngest son slayed him. Proud Mama here. Said aloud, “I’m not an Xbox Girl.” My sons think there is hope for me though. Well, of course there is. I’m A Hope Full Woman for sure. A long time ago, I played Frogger on Atari. I even remember when Pong was cool. Yes. I’m that freaking old, typed with a smile and a bubbling laugh, because at 42 I feel like I’m just getting started. I am.

January 19, 2014

Christmas sleuthing

I hope my children haven’t been snooping. They wouldn’t have to try very hard this year. Their gifts are still unwrapped, tucked in my bedroom closet. Evidently I left both the bedroom and closet doors open when I left my room earlier this evening. Left both lights on too. I didn’t plan to fall asleep! Practically an invitation to say, “Come on it and see what’s going on!” Doggone it! Thankfully now, they are asleep. Christmas morning is nearly here. The rest of tonight and then one more sleep. I’ll wrap tomorrow for sure. Tonight it is time to zzzzz.

December 24, 2013
12:25am, a new day just beginning, Christmas Eve Day is here.

morning wrangling

Laughter is meant to be shared and there was LOTS OF IT here last night. Blue and I are the only ones awake now. Those wild at bedtime because of the full moon outside boys are groaning and rolling back over to zzzz a l’il more. That’s why I said, “Bedtime” before 9:00p. It takes awhile to settle down. Oh, it was a new level of zany in a week filled with LOTS of zany. It’s rather marvelous, really after a lot of really hard.

December 18, 2013

rumpus time

There are more pictures.
My youngest son is a blur.
Just Blue’s tail is in some of them.
There is a picture of my oldest son on the ground.
The pencil his brother threw hit it’s mark.
I’m not posting that one, but if I did the caption would read, “It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt.”
Wildness continued.
Mayhem is another term.
Full Moon Effect.
Walking Blue for the last time now and then I am going to bed.

December 17, 2013

bedtime mayhem

I said, “It’s bedtime.”

My oldest son heard, “It’s time to put on a stormtrooper helmet, grab a noise-making blaster, blare the Imperial March from your back pocket, and come down to the main floor looking for a fight.”

My youngest son minded by getting pjs on but heard, “Grab a sharply pointed pencil to wield like a lightsaber, while simultaneously threatening your big brother with a glass of ice water, and moving quickly from here to there dodging blaster fire.”

Blue heard, “Mom’s tired. Everybody GO CRAZY!”

December 17, 2013

I’m standing with one foot on the ledge between the kitchen sinks, and one foot on the adjacent kitchen counter, twisting a hook into the window moulding to hang a birthday treasure. My youngest boy just says, “Hi, Mom” as he ducks into the half bath off the kitchen. Blasé. No big deal. Curiosity not piqued at all. Even though, for the record, I am not often found counter climbing. In other news, both of my feet are back on ground now, even if my heart is soaring a bit, as I daydream and smile at the blue crescent moon made of glass now dangling over my head. On sunny days the faceted clear crystals will add colorful rainbows to my kitchen walls. I can hardly wait! Until then, I’ll smile at la lune and dream about the kind of moments that happen just once in a blue moon. Smiling crooked crescents are my favorite moon phase, other than half, three quarter and ginormous full. I sort of love them all!

December 8, 2013