Humble pie....

A few months ago I totally lost my cool with the kids. After laying into them about how frustrated I was, I swung open the freezer door where one of my little lovelies had precariously opened a bag of chocolate chips and they all spilled to the floor. It all felt like slow motion as each little morsel hit the wood flooring, I looked up and pointed to the ground and barked in my loudest voice "And you will pick up EVERY SINGLE LAST ONE OF THEM!" Hmmmm..ever heard of the straw that broke the camels back? I knew I was being totally ridiculous, so I quickly headed for the front door to give MYSELF a timeout and cool down on the front porch.

Open the door, and there's the old bishop standing on the front step about to drop off a flyer.....

AWESOME. Chalk one point up there for the O fam.

Last month while driving home from school, Ash was sulking because there wasn't time for a playdate with a friend that lives 20 minutes across town. So I dropped her off on the street and told her she had the rest of the walk home to figure out how to cheer up and then she could come back into our home. Literally-around the corner from my house. So when I'd pulled in and gotten the other kids in the house, she should have been home, but no sign of her. I started to panic inside. Okay, maybe I shouldn't have dropped her off on the BUSY side of the road. Surely she's been hit and it will be something I'll have to live with for the rest of my days here on this lovely earth. So I head outside just in time to see my cute friend turn her car around to see just why Ash is standing in the snow, without her coat on in tears. I hear her saying "My mom kicked me out of the car and just LEFT me here!" Parenting 1 0 1 gone wrong here. That's two points for me...

Actually, I have far too many points to keep up with. So, maybe let's forget about the whole tally thing, shall we? So my question is--why do I love something that I screw up so often?!?!? Holy Smokes some days are rough, and 2-year-olds could make anyone want to check themselves into an insane asylum, but then that same little helium-head voice says the cutest things & looks so cute with her arms wrapped around her favorite long-distance cousin. There's nothing quite like seeing your 5-year-olds face plastered to the window of the Relief Society door looking for you because the lesson has gone over 2 minutes, or the excitement of your 7-year-old about being chosen as the girl that gets blind folded at the party for the Swan Lake production she's in. Come on folks--the blind-folded girl at the party! I'm genuinely as happy for her as if she got top billing because it means so much to her. And don't get me started on the happy, cuddly, stinking cute 10 month old. Makes me want to go snuggle up with them one last time for the night.

But it's ALL of these moments that I need to enjoy and remember--the good along with the bad. I use the computer too often as mini "quick" escapes, but they end up sucking time away from what matters most to me. So I'm trying to cut back, which is why the postings have been a little more sparse and my time on other trivial things is being re-evaluated. Because I obviously have a lot to learn (that darn tally board...) and time is seriously slipping by. I am constantly being reminded of the big picture and know that I can try a little harder to be a little better today than I was yesterday.

30 hours and 12 minutes....

That's how long Ty's vegetarian career lasted. Let's give the boy some credit! That's even after denying himself some bacon that he eyed longingly at the grocery store today. He was bummed when I said it came from a pig, but he soldiered on with his quest. ha ha

It was the option to have chicken nuggets for dinner that he couldn't resist. So we are a happy, meat-eating family again!

Ty-guy the vegetarian

"Leeesa don't eeet meeeeeeee!"

I put Ty & Tink's plate in front of them for lunch today and exclaimed, "Wow, this is a healthy lunch today!" Let's be honest here. I was really kind of patting myself on the back, because somedays it's just mac and cheese or just a quesadilla.

So Ty asked what made the grapes or the spinach salad good for you and I explained on each one. Then he asked about the chicken on his roll and I started telling him about how meat gives us protein, and started talking about how we eat all kinds of animals. Cows, chickens, pigs and lambs, etc.

He dropped his sandwich on the plate almost as quickly as his jaw, and looked up with big saucer eyeballs. "You mean, I eat pigs?!? But they're SO cute!" I walked over to the rotisserie chicken that I'd taken a slab of breast meat off of for the sandwich and showed him how the body parts were like ours. Wow--the lights were turning on and Ty was getting more and more horrified with each realization. "You mean we kill things all the time and eat them?!?!? Oh--I am NEVER eating meat again! I'm only eating plants!"

So, we made a deal to try it out for a week. Casey is going to DIE when he hears this, because he & Ash are serious carnivores. You'd better believe I devoured some more of that chicken breast for the rest of that lunch, because I think I'll miss it a little too. But hey--why not give it a go. Bring on the tofu, the rice and beans, the lentil soup! Bring on Boca burgers and tofurkey!

Next, I think I'll show Ty a video on how hot dogs are made. You want a horror flick, this is in a class all it's own....

To Do:

Update the dadgum blog. Check.