Getting the idea

Yesterday, my son got dressed for school before coming downstairs but as he took a bite of his breakfast, he whined that his throat hurt.

"It really hurts, Mommy. And I'm not lying this time."

This time.


(Perhaps his worries about Purgatory aren't as sinister as I'd feared.)

Tidying up

Thank you for the kind responses to my last post.  I am happy to have an ending!

I went for a run on Monday, hoping the fresh air would blow the cobwebs out of my head and I could figure out how to sort out all of these scenes, words, chapters...

I did come up with an answer and I think it will make a better book.  But I have to dump over 30,000 words.

I really hate that.

Sitting in the middle with my thumb in my mouth

Finally, I have an ending for the WIP I've been trying to finish up.  I have most of the major details and many more minor ones typed up in separate files but now I have to put it all back together.  

This part is more overwhelming than coming up with an ending!  I have all the pieces but they're scattered--like the toys and clothes in my son's room.  I have to sort through and decide what to throw out, what to keep and where to place the pieces I'm keeping.  I just to have to figure out where to start!

Not exactly clouds in my coffee

I try not to waste food or drinks in my house, so when my son left an almost full glass of milk on the table after breakfast, I decided to pour that into my coffee cup.   Milk however, should not go "plop!"

(My kids are currently enjoying "Vita Worm" vitamins.  My daughter tried to toss one onto her brother's plate in the morning but missed--it landed in his cup.  She gave him another one and he never knew--nor did I, until I almost had vitamin-enriched coffee!)

I don't want to know

My son was asking if it was possible for him to go to Hell before he'd made his First Reconciliation. Now that he only has two months before making that First confession, he has moved on. Now he wants to know how much time people spend in Purgatory.
Hopefully attending Catholic school will be good for him--he certainly knows Someone is watching him--but I'm a little worried about what he has been up to!

and round and round we go....

I was thinking that school starting would bring some sense of routine and calm back into our lives. I forgot how much I was looking forward to the end of school in May! Whew! We're back...the baby and I are back volunteering at school and magazine sales have already started, along with volleyball (for the girl) and tennis lessons (for the boy).

We just returned from a family reunion in Michigan this weekend and as I was emailing photos and going through my mental checklist for tomorrow, I checked the forecast/Fay update for Florida.

That was all it took to remind me that I can't complain. Sure, just when I thought dinner was almost ready, I spilled frozen corn all over the floor--and I have a crawling baby that eats ANYTHING in his path--but Fay is literally circling my baby brother's home and headed for my parents. A lot of dirty dishes and some spilled corn just ain't that big of a deal! It was a beautiful day here and I can see the moon tonight. I may not be able to predict how much sleep I'll get each night but living on the edge of the cornfields, I know that tropical storms and hurricanes are not going to make it this far!

I hope you are warm and dry!

Quiet time for mom?

My sister and her family went back home to Florida for a visit and took my daughter with them for a week!  My son spent the night with a friend last night and both the baby and husband are sleeping.

I have my coffee and quiet time at the computer.  Thus I am sitting here, hoping my son slept OK and hoping he behaves today while I dash to Ohio to retrieve my daughter.  Hopefully she'll handle the additional 4-hour drive back home well after her journey.  The baby should sleep most of the way there and back--he does well in the car--but maybe I should go ahead and wake him up.

I don't know why

Watch what you ask for--and what you post on your blog.

The baby has not actually eaten any live creatures--at least, not that I am aware of.  He has not actually tried eating a spider--but I have seen him try to catch an ant.  (It was a tiny, fast ant trying to escape a big, clumsy baby--no real danger for either of them).

The day after my last post however, a fly was hitching a ride with us in the car.  Everyone else can shoo him away but the baby is still learning.  My older son kept yelling things like "the fly is on his nose!"  Then he really started shouting--"J is going to eat the fly!"

Luckily, the baby's reflexes are not that fast.  Otherwise the fly could have been in danger.  

I know an old lady who swallowed a fly

I don't know why she swallowed the fly.

Once upon a time, I was worried about spiders biting my unsuspecting children. How foolish of me. The older kids can spot a hairy invader from 20 yards away--no unsuspecting victims, here!
The baby, of course, senses no danger but is curious about everything. He has perfected his pincer grasp and he's on the move. I was once worried about spider venom being poisonous but now I wonder what will happen if a child ingests the entire creature.

I justify smashing the critters with my shoe not just as a means of protecting my children but also as a type of mercy killing for the unsuspecting bug. If I were a spider, I'd rather go quickly than have to wriggle and jiggle and tickle inside of anyone.