Friday, April 29, 2011

The frog princess

It's official. Per the English Royalty, I am officially drab, fat, and dull.

Never mind that I woke this morning with the unshakable conviction that I need a vacation, and badly. From my whining, screeching kids. My whining, screeching, clinging, needy children.Whom I homeschool because they're so non-neurotypical that the public schools don't even know how to start. Both of whom woke me at 1:30 am today -- one to be tucked in and the other because his legs were twitchy and he believes in monsters. (No, not my mother! Other monsters.) Then the cats walked all over me until morning, and I woke with a sore throat.

I didn't even see Kate's dress -- sorry, Catherine's dress -- until the evening news, and now I'm totally bummed. I need to lose 40 pounds, 20 years, and two kids. And boy, oh boy, the money the Middletons spent on orthodonture was well spent, wasn't it? At first I thought the dress was too casual and a bit dowdy, but having seen her in it for a while, I'm convinced it was the right one. She looked modest and comfortable, not the least bit self-conscious about what she was wearing. She looked great. And happy!

Lucky Prince Harry has now graduated to Most Eligible Bachelor in the Kingdom. But it's not the same. ;)

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Dinner at the Ritz

Well, if I'm going to keep this blog, I may as well write in it, eh?

Let's see. Last night, I left the kids with my mom and went to a university function with The Husband. It was just a little dinner, but it felt like dinner at the Ritz. I had a beer and everyone at the table used silverware. Woo-hoo!

The Boy was totally terrified by my mother. I mean, she is intimidating, but really? She barked at him once or twice. ("Get back here and finish setting this table." "Don't let your sister beat the laptop on the table!") She initially was not going to let him play Wii after dinner, but relented when they established that he usually does. But after the laptop incident, he just sent himself to bed, as preemptive punishment. He told The Husband and me outrageous lies about the "mean" things she did to him, including denying him dessert and Wii, as well as "swinging the cat around by his tail and throwing him at The Girl". Heh? The anxious brain is a mysterious thing...

Anyway, I had key lime pie and adult conversation, so it was all okay.

Last weekend, I steam cleaned all the carpets in the house, so this weekend, I'm going to paint The Girl's room. The weekend after that is for stripping and waxing the kitchen floor. Can you tell I'm having company in May? Yeah... I'm also planting a lawn. What the heck, why not?

Speaking of gardening, both of my orange trees are a-goner. The navel is just planted too close to the elm, so it has permanent sooty mildew. (Who knew that elm tree would be so wide?) The pineapple orange is dying, and I'm not sure why. I'm thinking it was the "severe" cold this winter, but who really knows about these things? Oranges have so many freaking blights that all bets are really off. I was just starting to get reasonable fruit from that tree, too. If I replant, I'm getting another pineapple orange. Mmm. Lots of seeds, but delicious.

Anyway, that's about it. This week in homeschool, I found that The Husband is nearly too short to be a Roman Legionnaire. And he wouldn't be allowed to marry me anyway. ;) I'm sure there's more, but hey, everyone has stopped sleeping again, and I can't remember much more. Gotta start locking my door again.

In the mean time, I'll be plotting my escape again -- maybe next time to Taco Bell!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Life as I know it.

Well, another day, another post. Today I woke, showered, made the bed, emptied the dishwasher, fed the kids, made their beds, cleaned up their rooms, and started the laundry. Then I did The Girl's OT exercises and taught for a few hours, followed by mopping the kitchen and dusting/vacuuming the entire fecking house. (No kidding -- master bedroom, two kids' bedrooms, office, living room, family room, plus two couches.) Then I made a foray for a huge load of groceries, put all of them away, taught another hour of school, and CRASHED for a nap. Can you say "hot dogs for dinner"?

Green Girl had a recent post of things she loathed. I'm adding "sweeping the kitchen and then watching little bits of the pile scurry away back toward the baseboards". Eew.

While I was out getting groceries with two wacky children, I also stopped so The Boy could get a haircut. Yes, he wanted a haircut. Yayy! My hair is starting to get kinda limp and fuzzy looking at the ends, so it's about time for another of my thrilling spa afternoons at The Hair Cuttery. (I love the high life!)

My hair is finally starting to show grey streaks, and I'm thinking I have basically three choices. First, ignore it, let it grow out, and look like a hippie Earth mother. Second, dye it and have roots all the time. Third, remove all mirrors from the bathroom.

What do you think?

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

That last 20 pounds is never going to go away at this rate

Chick Fil-A's peach milkshakes -- like crack cocaine, only more addictive. Even if you've only had it once, you're still hit with occasional uncontrollable cravings. Thanks, brother-in-law!!!


AAAK!! I just googled the peach milkshake, and it was a limited-time offer!! I'm doomed to a life of no peach milkshakes! It's like being in detox. Fortunately, there's still this. I'm never going to shake this last 20 pounds unless I get some sleep, am I?

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Summer... Yeah...

Well, summer's here. The A/C is on. The pools are open. The swimsuits are in place. Popsicles are in the freezer. I'm whining to get the windows tinted in my car again. But this time, I'm asking for it for my Mother's Day and maybe Teacher's Day. (My school doesn't have much of an end-of-school carnival, but the teacher does get a small token of the students' and school board's gratitude.)

It's not really summer, of course. Not high summer. We're in normal summer now, until maybe mid-June. Then something shifts in the cosmos, and it becomes unreasonably, brutally, stupidly, and insanely hot. Too hot to grill outdoors before sunset. Too hot to go to the beach during the day. Just in time for everyone from Wisconsin to visit Disney. Luckily, Disney air conditions the outdoors, so that's okay.

Ah, summer. (Can I move to Wisconsin now?)

Friday, April 8, 2011

I have each other!

With apologies to real schizophrenics...

The Martyr Diaries

It's not a full moon, is it? ;)

Seriously, the boy woke me at 1am to ask where his yellow colored pencil was. I told him to look in the colored pencil bin on the school table. He says, "Hey! Good idea! Thanks!!" At 2am, the girl woke me to watch her close her window and then then tuck her in again, complete with the entire litany and ritual. There wasn't any genuflecting or incense involved, but close.

Tired today. But that's nothing new.

The kids have taken to covering the carpet with trash and crumbs and then complaining when I vacuum. They're five feet, 90 pounds, and eleven years old. But I just don't have the will to make them vacuum. My husband thinks I'm acting like a martyr. Yeah, ya think?

Martyr (Noun) -- one who suffers for a cause. YA THINK?!!

Thursday, April 7, 2011

STFU

Want to know how many time a person can scream "Shut the feck up!" inside their head without screaming it out loud? You're going to have to trust me when I say, "A lot." Apparently, it's the wind's fault for turning the page back on The Boy's math book, causing him to work the wrong threee problems. Then it was my fault for grading what he did right and erasing the wrong problems so he could fix it. I'm a bully. And I have the cartoon to prove it. (The Boy is such an artiste.) He whines to me, "It's your fault. If you didn't make me angry, I would have finished my math by now." He finished one task today: a five sentence outline, fifteen words. I'm so unfair to him. He's giving up... STFU, boy!

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Oh. No more cream sauce for me...

Ooh. Looks like we're going back on the meat-and-veggies again.

Heh, heh. Just for curiousity's sake, I stepped on the scale this morning. Wuh-oh. Apparently, I'm not built for cream sauce anymore. Or carbs. Or anything but meat and veggies. *sigh* I like cream sauce on pasta, but it turns out that I'm allergic to it -- it make me break out in lumps. ;)

In other news, I have new blueberry bushes to plant. Which means I need to fix the rain barrel, which means that I have to fix the gutter, which means I have to get out the step ladder and power drill. Instead, I spent the afternoon with the RoundUp Extended. That stuff's scary -- no planting anything for four months after spraying. eek.

My dad came for hamburgers on the grill as the weather continues to be perfect. The humidity's coming up, though. Tuesday morning's going to be a low of 67 degrees. We're getting another dry shot and severe weather Tuesday afternoon, but summer is definitely coming. boo! Boo!!

Saturday, April 2, 2011

and pass the Alfredo sauce...

Cooking! Feh!

We've hit a tired stretch when it comes to dinner. Usually, the kids want three piles of food on their plates -- cow/pig/chicken, noodles/rice/potatoes, and a vegetable. This went on for years, but now The Boy is tired of it. He doesn't want to try anything new -- he's just tired of the old food. But if I have to eat one more piece of baked chicken with brown rice, I'm going to scream.

I've tried dressing up what we usually eat -- sauteed veggies in the rice, cheese sauce for the veggies, barbecue sauce on the chicken -- but it only makes it too spicy for The Boy, too gooey for The Husband, and too weird for The Girl.

I've been tired of the meat-n-potatoes diet for years, so lately I've been experimenting. I made crock pot pulled pork, pasta primavera with cream sauce, pizza pasta bake. Do they like it? No. If it's the least bit bland, The Girl won't eat it. If it's the least bit spicy, The Boy won't eat it. And after 20 years of marriage, I find out that The Husband doesn't like creamy sauces. I actually threatened them with hot dogs, and they all said, "Yay!!"

But the real kicker? The coup de grace? The real kick in the panties? Apparently, The Husband does not feel that it is his responsibility to clean up the kitchen when dinner is an experiment. Apparently, "fun" cooking must be washed by the person having the "fun".

When my family complains about the boring/weird food, I always ask, "What would you rather eat? What do you like to eat?" And you know what they say -- "I don't know." Tomorrow, "I don't know" may turn out to be scalloped potatoes with ham in the crock pot. Feck 'em. I'm eating cream sauce.