You're not that great

Yes parents, I'm talking to you. Of course, our parenting skills do have a lot to do with how our kids turn out, but not nearly as much as some parents like to think. There are some parents out there giving themselves huge pats on the back and looking down their noses at the rest of us simply because they were blessed with great kids. If you have a great kid, you would have to be a TERRIBLE parent to turn them into some sort of little monster so you can stop patting now.

A hot button issue to me is "babyproofing". Making sure a young child cannot get electrocuted by an exposed outlet is not a sign of weakness or poor parenting! Come on people. "But MY child knows better". Really? That is dangerous arrogance. Babies and toddlers, and preschoolers, and teens, are not little versions of adults. Not even close. They don't think like adults. They CAN'T think like adults. And as smart as your child is, he or she can still do something incredibly dangerous. Why? Not because you are a bad parent, but because the idea was too appealing to resist for reasons we may never understand.

New parents especially need to realize that protecting your children, going with your instincts, and playing it safe is one of the BEST parenting decisions you can make. After all, what do you have to lose? Or, that's right...your CHILD. How would you deal with the fact that your child got seriously hurt or worse because you were too prideful to cover an outlet, put a gate at the stairs, or lock up the kitchen cabinet containing the knives?

Not funny

I have made several attempts to post already. Now, while I know I am not a wonderful writer I do at least like to believe my quirky sense of blunt humor adds a bit of interest and helps to lighten subjects that can be taken too seriously. I have had a lot of negative situations over the course of my life that I have been forced to adapt to. My chosen method of survival has been humor. So imagine my surprise when I deleted sentence after sentence because NOTHING WAS FUNNY!

I feel like a part of me is missing. But it's not like I can put up signs in the neighborhood (now see, yesterday I could have spun a few hilarious sentences on that thought alone!) or go buy a new sense of humor.

Since I have become a mother, felt myself sinking deeper into the fibro pit, aged, put on weight, and lerned to survive on very little sleep I feel like I had lost a lot. But my sense of humor????? Seriously? Cruel. Very cruel. I hope it is just temporary. Actually, I think the people who know me would hope even more for that. Without humor I got nothing folks!

UGH

Before Lily was born I used to plan the budget and meals etc. I am good at it. Correction, WAS good at it. I just found out that, after 4 years, that part of my brain has rebelled against me. I don't know, maybe it got tired of being neglected? Or maybe it withered away? I am hoping that stored somewhere deep in it's recesses are the memories of how to crunch numbers and whip up awesome, healthy, tasty meals without having to win the lottery first.

And holy cow have prices of things skyrocketed!!!!!! Grocery shopping has become an exercise in "cross your fingers and hope you have enough". But there are things I will not scrimp on. Namely MEAT. I won't buy the grocery store meats, and especially not the budget cuts because I can't eat them. They will just go to waste. And I refuse to feed Lily anything but natural, local meats if at ALL possible. If that means I have to do without shampoo, so be it :)

But I am having the most trouble planning a simple weekly menu. We have become so dependent on take out since the increased demands Lily has placed on my energy and time that I am a disgrace to SAHMs everywhere! I can cook. Just barely. I would love to cook like many of my mommy friends...3 course meals, all from scratch, including dessert, without breaking a sweat! But I am just not at that place. That place actually scares me.

So here I sit, blogging instead of doing what needs to be done. Like somehow i am going to have an epiphany and the menu will just magically create itself through me. Hopefully it will get easier with time. I hope! I do not want to spend the rest of my mommy years stressing over what to make, how to make it, and saying "oh crap, I'm missing an ingredient AGAIN!"....

Any tips from my pitifully few friends who feel sorry for me and stop in here every now and then?

Randomness

Nothing really interesting to blog about. So this post will most likely come out as scrambled as my thoughts. Mmmmmm, scrambled eggs. I miss eggs. Ever since we found out Lily was allergic I found it easier to just not have them in the house. But, now there are a dozen organic eggs sitting on the top shelf of my fridge calling out to me..... quietly though, so Lily doesn't hear. Actually, it's more like a whisper. But a whisper that is making me want to haul out the pan and cook them, consequences be damned! Is it wrong to wish hubby would get Lily out of the house so i could eat eggs?

Oh, here's another totally random event. And the reason hubby is no longer allowed on the library website! Just like everything he does, overkill is involved. Serious overkill. I love to read. I especially love to find books I am interested in and then put them on hold at the library and just be able to pick them up. I am not an "oh, let's browse the millions of books on the shelf and kill and entire afternoon" kind of girl. I don't have the patience for it. Not to mention the sore neck from trying to read the spines sideways.

So, hubby did me a favor. He decided to put some on hold for me. Well, now I have an entire cloth grocery bag filled to overflowing with novels that are all due back in 3 weeks. I think he got over 20 at one time. It makes a good door stop.

It's almost Lily's 4th birthday! Bad mama.... I don't have any presents for her yet! Worse, I am not even sure WHAT to get her. She is so not the girly girl dress like a princess and feed and care for her dollies kind of kid. In fact, at this moment she is playing video games with daddy and blowing things up and destroying bad guys. She is not happy unless there is mayhem all around here. I don't think Toys R Us carries mayhem.

Time to plan another trip to the zoo as well. It's really boring, not a good zoo by any stretch of the imagination, but she likes it. Or, rather, she likes telling us where to go, what to look at, and what not to do. NOW. But, it gets us all out of the house with a minimum of collateral damage. One day we would love to visit the calgary zoo. I was there on a field trip once. They had pandas. It was cool. But there is no way in hot hell that I will confine myself in a car with her for over 3 hours any time soon. She would go nuts, therefore I would go nuts. And then there is the whole hotel room issues. I bet we'd get kicked out. I have no desire to sleep on a street corner. Or in our car. Well, maybe I'd sleep in the car, as long as I was alone. Maybe it would be peaceful? I long for a peaceful sleep. It's has been probably two years since she has slept through the night with any regularity. I am tired. I feel like changing all of my clocks in the house just so I can FEEL normal. No more "what the heck, it's only 3am" frustrations. If the clock said 9am it would be easier to handle.

why is it so hard?

why can't I ever remember to update my blog??? This is insane. I like doing it. I just never remember to do it.

Well, I'm here now. I mean, I'm always here, but now I'm here. And of course, the millions of things that I could write about, the interesting, the weird, the amusing, have all fled my head.

Now there's a name for a rock band Fled My Head. Or maybe not.

Funny Friday

Ok, so I have to admit I didn't put much thought into this. I was browsing the net and suddenly realized that it is indeed Friday and I once again forgot I was supposed to post. So I'll fall back on an old stand by..... BUTTS. Yes, butts are funny, whether you are young or old, male or female, the life of the party or the wallflower. There is just something about the word butt. Bum is not funny. Tushie is not funny. BUTT is funny. Just say it. See?

So of course, like all kids, Lily is going through her right of passage concerning butts. She thinks they are hilarious and never passes up a chance to say butt. Yesterday she got an enormous kick out of talking about our cat's butt. It was "Maggie's butt" this and "Maggie's butt" that...... and then she decided to add her own creative flair by telling me that a missing toy (that I had been looking for most of the day) was in Maggie's butt. We laughed like lunatics. I know some parents might think I should be discouraging this crudeness and at the very least not adding to it..... but then they couldn't possibly know me very well at all. I happen to think butts are hilarious, still. And don't even get me started on farts ;)

Oops, let's pretend it's still Monday

So I missed my self imposed posting date for my top 5 weekly post. Oh well. Like anyone really cares. I'm one of the only ones reading my words and I don't care! So I'll do it today instead. I think my personal motto is quickly becoming "Better Late Than Never", lol.

MY TOP 5

Things I love about my house:

1. Location location location!

Our house is close to where I grew up so I know the area and am comfortable here. It is also within walking distance (a long walk, but still....) of my parents' house and my sister and her husband's house. The actual lot sits on what used to be an empty field where a stable rented out horses for horseback riding. I have ridden many times over the exact spot that my house now occupies. It is a relatively safe, nice area close to bike/walking paths and near some man made lakes where we can take Lily to feed the ducks in the summer.

2. Our big yard.

No, it is not nearly as big as the yard I grew up with but it is huge compared to other similar properties. I love that we can have a huge deck, a swing set, monkey bars, shed, and a place for the dog to go potty. We also have lots of trees and shrubs thanks to my grandparents' farm and the labor of my dad and hubby.

3. Our bedroom.

No, it is not some fantasy master bedroom with spa-like ensuite and enough space to have a sitting room but it can comfortably fit a King sized bed, and that makes me very happy! The window looks out over our backyard and I can also watch the clouds go by while laying in bed.

4. Main floor "powder room"

No, I do not actually call it a powder room, lol. But just wanted to impress that it's basically a closet with a toilet and sink inside, literally. But it's a very handy thing to have, especially when potty training a toddler!

5. LOTS of Windows!

Yes, having lots of windows has it's down side, but I choose to see them as a huge attribute because I need natural light. I could not live in a space with few windows. I crave daylight. So every room (even the bathrooms) has windows. It is probably the number two thing that attracted me to the house in the first place (number one being, duh, the location).