I've decided I need a style. I know I've mentioned my wardrobe woes before but I totally blame this latest post on the fact that I watched way too much Style Network over the weekend with my sister-in-law. Oh and the Oscars. I loved Cate Blanchett's earrings. Too bad I have weird ears...
Anyway I may be in luck getting my fashion act together this year. Neutrals are in! I can so do black, khaki, and white. It's those pesky colors that screw me up. Now where's my Visa card?
A couple of pictures:
Ally, me, Emily, Thinking Day
Ally, snowman, Emily
In other news, Greg's safe and sound (and tired) in New Orleans, Kyle may have croup (he has the barking cough), and I have to make some phone calls because the lady I put in charge of contacting the school for our Brownie meetings has royally screwed it up so now we may not have a meeting place. And that is why I prefer to do everything myself in the first place...
What a weekend! Let me see if I can get a coherent post out of it...
Thinking Day went well. As well as being stuck in one room with a bunch of moms and a hundred Girl Scouts of all ages for 3 hours can be.
And then Saturday we had lots of running around, the twins were invited to a birthday party, Zach had a scout thing, plus I had to drop off all the outfits and decorations used for Thinking Day. We ended the day by going out to dinner.
Sunday... Okay so I make fun of people around here who start to panic when the words "winter storm" are uttered. The forecast said 1-2 inches of snow, maybe 1/4 inch of ice changing over to rain. At 9am it started snowing. And snowing. And snowing. We ended up with almost 6 inches of snow by 3pm. (It changed over to rain finally at about 5pm.) It was really pretty to look at and I even went outside to throw a few snowballs and take pictures.
The downfall of all this snow was that it delayed Greg's flight out yesterday to a health care conference in New Orleans. He missed his connection at Houston and at 1am this morning he was driving across Louisiana in a rental car since the airline couldn't guarantee him a flight until tomorrow morning. I haven't heard if he made it yet, I hope he didn't go off the road and get eaten by an alligator...
At least the schools didn't close today, just a two hour delay. So that brings the total number of full days attended in February (I'm guessing they will have a full day tomorrow and Wednesday) to 10. Ten. It's a wonder that parents aren't clearing the roads to the schools and teachers' homes with shovels.
I've decided I wish I was Indian (as in someone from India).
That's the country the Brownie troop is presenting at Thinking Day this year. And I'm so jealous.
The cool colorful clothing, the jewels, mendhi (henna), bindis, the dancing. And the biggest trait that is making me envious is their skin tone. I'm so tired of being pasty white with freckles. And the sunburns with peeling and no tanning. Blech!
Although I'm not a big fan of Indian food other than rice.
I have to say it's great living in a culturally diverse area like our part of Maryland. We have two girls in the troop who parents or grandparents are directly from India. So all the girls are wearing authentic salwar kameez, bindis, and mendhi (henna) to our Thinking Day event this weekend, including me.
Yep, this pasty white Irish/English/German American girl is going to wear traditional Indian clothing. Too bad the great skin coloring doesn't come with it.
I'm rather crabby today. I don't really know why.
Maybe it's the gazillion and two items that are out of place around the house. And when I put them back into place (shoes, coats, toys, papers on the fridge, crayons, books, dishes, kids' homework, clothes) they magically pop back out of place within minutes. It.is.driving.me.insane.
Or maybe it's the Girl Scout Brownie troop. Is it possible to be "burnt out" after only a year and a half? We have a meeting today and a big event on Friday and people are flaking out on me right and left. grrrrr...
It looks like Sarah will be getting the jeans since I haven't made it to the gym in weeks. I should probably just give up and buy clothes in the size I am right now instead of putting off clothes shopping until I lose 10 pounds. Although honestly losing 10 pounds isn't the only reason why I keep putting off clothes shopping. (money, time, no desire to be frustrated with lunatic clothing designers...)
It's Ash Wednesday and I completely forgot to buy fish at the grocery store yesterday. No matter since I have to go out again today to finish running the errands scheduled for yesterday since Kyle and Kelly were complete pills and I couldn't take it any more after 3 stops. Why did I ever think that shopping with babies was hard? Sure they may cry a little but that's nothing compared to 2 pre-schoolers hell bent on making their mom crazy.
I really don't mean to be grouchy. I'm just not feeling very Pollyanna-ish today. At least alcohol is allowed during Lent. Although that would mean an extra stop at the liquor store. I wonder if they deliver...*
* (Joking, I honestly haven't had a drink since New Year's Eve. And besides we have over 40 bottles of liquor and wine in the house already...)
Does it make me an awful mommy to say how happy I am that the kids are back in school?
(And the predicted snow for tomorrow will just be rain because the temps are suppose to be above 50F, woohoo!)
I like having the kids at home, I really do. I just don't like it so unexpectedly. I like my usual school day routine as shabby as it is. If someone had warned me ahead of time that the kids would only attend four full days of school at this point in the month of February, I would have been okay with it. I would have planned better and have been mentally prepared. (Mentally prepared for my own children. I'm such a rotten mommy...)
I've been more scatterbrained the last few weeks and have kinda lost my motivation for writing and crafting. It's been rather hard to concentrate on anything. I'm not even sure I can put into words how frazzling it's been. All my usual to-do lists have been thrown out the window and replaced with finding gloves, tripping over snow boots, reminding the kids for the millionth time to put their stuff away, zipping coats, picking up coats, doing extra loads of laundry to keep up with 3 wardrobe changes to dry clothes per child per day, and feeding the bottomless pits of the kids' stomachs. Oh and cleaning up after all those meals and extra snacks. They couldn't seem to go one hour without needing hot chocolate or popcorn or something. There's got to be a medical condition where the presence of snow and ice causes kids to no longer put their stuff away and they must eat like it's going out of style.
Ack, enough. I'm starting to get the shakes just thinking about the craziness again.
They are back in school. Just Kyle, Kelly and I are here again. I even have a to-do list for today, how's that for wonderfully normal?
All of this has reminded me that while I may be looking forward to summer weather-wise, I'm not necessarily looking forward to summer break.
I don't know whether to be annoyed or intrigued by the latest surge in mom blog link sites.
Sure there's always been blog link sites like Technorati, Blog Explosion, Blog Shares, Blog Flux, Blog Topsites, and a bunch more but I'm getting tired of creating links.
But lately, it's just about the Mom Blogs. Which is all fine and dandy since I suppose I'm considered one but it just seems a little weird. Especially with all the pink. Why does being a mom involve lots of pink?
First there's The Mom Blogs Hmm... I'm listed in the "Popular" blogs but not the "Best" in the Family Life category. Oh, I have 2 votes of 5 stars, ha!
Today's Mama has been around for awhile and now that I click around a bit, I thought I was listed there (because I've been getting the emails!). But I don't seem to be in their blog list any where. Oh well, at least their website isn't pink.
That latest and most "huh?" blog list is Top Momma. I think you are suppose to click on my picture to keep me on the front page and there's something about a Hall of Fame. Why do I feel like I'm asking for votes to be the Homecoming Queen?
And while we're at it, there's the Best of Blogs Awards going on again. (hint, hint)
So back to the intrigue. I keep thinking "why?" What does one really get out of these websites? And why do people keep making them? Can there possibly be money to be made out of gathering a bunch of blog links? Cause to me, it's all about the money (and that's probably the funniest statement I've made all day). Or maybe I'm just not looking forward to paying the $$$ bill to renew my website hosting for another two years.
The.kids.are.still.home.
But they go in at 10-ish (2 hour delay) for a few hours of socializing and driving their teachers nuts (instead of me, weeee!!!). I'm going to write in permanent marker on Zach's forehead: "I need my coat." He's been wearing an odd combination of a long sleeve shirt, sweater, and hooded sweatshirt when outside these last few days. But he really does need to bring his winter coat home. It's kept his cubby at school warm long enough.
I suppose I also need to chip away at the mass of snow and ice deposited at the end of the driveway by our wonky snow plow. The van hasn't moved in days and for that matter, I haven't left the house in days (Days, ha! It's been since Tuesday). I hear there's a great big world out there to explore (or mostly I feel the Target clearance aisle calling my name).
I'll give you a sneak peek of next week. The kids don't have school on Monday (President's Day) and there's snow in the forecast on Wednesday. So I figure they'll be in school on Tuesday and maybe Friday. Can't wait...
Our power was out yesterday from 4:30 to 11:30pm due to the sleet/freezing rain (we received over an inch) knocking down trees and power lines. Kinda ruined the nice romantic Valentine's Day dinner I had planned to cook. At least we ate our cold food over candlelight, right?
To further put things into perspective, I realized that as the electricity came back on that there were many spouses sitting at home alone on Valentine's Day because their significant others were out in the bitter cold working to restore our power. So thank you very much electricians and road crews (and their spouses), I appreciate you!
Oh and school was canceled today. I love my kids, I love my kids, I love my...
I should stop right there but I'd like to say at little something about Valentine's Day. I know some people hate it as a Hallmark/flower industry holiday and think that we shouldn't need a special day to celebrate the ones we love. In that theory we shouldn't need Thanksgiving to be thankful or the 4th of July to celebrate the USA or even Easter and Christmas to celebrate Jesus. Holidays are holidays for a reason: to give us a little break from the norm and think about aspects of life that sometimes get overlooked in boring daily routines. I say enjoy the holidays you like, ignore the rest, and don't feel guilty about your decision.
Personally I like to receive flowers and chocolates and random little gifty things on Valentine's Day. (Greg did well this year, actually I think he may have gone a little bit overboard but don't tell him I said that.) Same goes for Mother's Day. But I don't expect gifts for my birthday or Christmas from Greg. For my birthday I like to not have to cook. We went out to eat last year and it was fabulous. For Christmas, it's so insane with all the other gift giving and receiving that I really don't want to add to the stress by expecting something from Greg (or me having to buy for him). So we both pick out something nice for ourselves that we wouldn't normally buy and purchase it. This is what works for us. At least I think it works for us. Greg?
Totally off topic but why does Kyle think that coughing is the way to prove he's starving? He's not, he just ate lunch an hour ago. (I think he's bored.) I swear the kids are determined to eat an entire week's worth of groceries in one day.
Happy Valentine's Day!
(The kids are home from school, help!)
In junior high we had to take 8 week courses of odd ball classes like drafting, accounting, wood shop, metal shop, cooking, and home ec. The fact that I've only had 8 weeks of home ec ever in my life and now I'm a home maker for all intensive purposes is rather amusing in itself but that's a story for another day.
(Zach left his coat and Ally her gloves at school, this is making it difficult to get them ready to
Today we are talking about my 8 weeks of metal shop. And for some strange reason I was the best welder of the class. Scary, huh? I actually won the "Metal Shop" award that year. Did your school do that? At the end of the year, who ever had the highest grade in a certain class won an award for it. I also won the "Chinese Language" one too. I guess I've had a weird academic life.
(I don't have any mini marshmallows for hot chocolate, the kids are threatening mutiny.)
On Saturday Greg came home from Radio Shack with a bag full of stuff. He was installing a CB in the Jeep and was concerned about the fact that he had to solder together a few wires and he had never done that before. Soldering is basically welding on a very small scale so I mentioned the above award.
(The girls are crying because school is out on Valentine's Day and they've been working on their Valentine's Day cards for over a week. The drama of 2nd grade life.)
So he hands me the bag and says, "Here's your Valentine's Day gift!"* Which I used on Sunday (pictures although there aren't any of my fantastic welds). I also used my scrapbook heat gun to shrink the plastic wrap covers.
(Why does Mother Nature and the school board hate me?)
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to brush up on my Mandarin. Ni hao! Qing he pijiu!**
(I swear I'm moving to someplace that doesn't even have a word for snow in their language.)
* He better have been joking...
** Translation: Hi! Let's drink beer!
Edit: I almost forgot to add how this all ties into my embarrassing old pictures post. I was looking for the above mentioned "Metal Shop" award in a box. I still haven't found it (good chance it's still at my parent's house) but I did find the "Chinese" one. And I added a band competition medal for good measure. Click for picture.
***
Update at 1pm: I spoke too soon, the schools are closing early. *sigh* And for my dad, here is a picture our snow plow (from last year, we barely have 2 inches of snow outside at the moment):
So it's not a bulldozer. But it's not a typical snow plow either. Sorry it's not a great picture, I was kinda shocked at its weirdness and it moves pretty quick when it's done plowing.
***
Okay enough of memory lane, where was I?
Oh! There's white stuff falling from the sky and the kids are in school! I'm waiting for the devil to skate down the street. (Not that our particular cul-de-sac is hell or anything.)
Um, Valentine's Day gift post, still working on it.
I should have ordered groceries last night to be delivered today but I didn't because I should use coupons and Safeway online doesn't accept coupons. Long story short, I have to go to the grocery store today. And they'll probably be out of milk, bread, and toilet paper since it's snowing.
I don't want to go anywhere, it's snowing...
Quote of the Day: "I hate women because they always know where things are." -Voltaire
First Saturday's Confessions post and now this...
Old terrible pictures of me!
I really set out to write about my early Valentine's Day gift so I was looking through an old box for a certain item to add to that post (haven't found the item yet, still looking) when I came across these. The perms, the braces, the glasses, oi vey...
This is the oldest picture I found today. 4th grade I think:
(I apologize for the off center scans, I'm going to the yarn store later so I'm in a bit of a hurry.)
And this is 6th grade (year: 1988), I loved this sweatshirt back then. Oh and a perm.
This next picture should never been seen. Terrible perm, icky glasses, braces, and why were turtlenecks and cardigans ever in style for teenagers? I know I was wearing rolled jeans too. Although now that I think about it, that all really needs to come back into style in 5 years or so (the twins turn 13 in 5 years in case you don't want to do the math). *deep breath* 8th grade (1990):
Freshman year wasn't much better although at least you don't see metal mouth:
Stupid glasses still, sophomore year:
Did I ever mention I was on my high school's dance team? You wouldn't believe the weird outfits we had to wear. What is up with those shorts? Freshman, Sophomore years:
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And Junior year (the puffy shirts, what fun!):
Oh and of course we can't forget the highlight of every high schooler's life. Prom! Thank god, I finally got contacts. Junior, Senior:
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I'd write off all my school year pictures as disasters but you know what, I actually really liked my Senior pictures (year: 1995). Although I am slightly annoyed that we finally got over puffy shirts and weird shorts and bought real dance outfits just as I was graduating. Don't get me started about how the band went to Disney World or that they finally built an auditorium so that concerts/plays weren't held on the gym floor the year after I graduated. Anyway two Senior pictures to redeem the rest:
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Whew, that was fun. Now I need to go burn all the diaries I found so my children never ever read them. (Teenage girls are insane!!!) Have a nice Monday!
It seems to be Confession Day around the web.. Which is fitting since Zach, Emily, and Ally made their First Confessions at church earlier today. (Zach was quick and Emily took forever, I was starting to worry. But I bet she just got hung up saying the Act of Contrition.)
So in the spirit of things, here's mine:
1. I often wear the same clothes two or three days in a row as long as there are no obvious stains. No one other than the kids or Greg sees me two or three days in a row anyways.
2. I don't make the kids take baths/showers as often as I should. Like only once a week if I'm not thinking about it and make them take another mid-week.
3. I hate clipping the kids' fingernails. Which is bad because Zach's seem to grow an inch overnight. And a couple of the kids chew off their fingernails now which is a terrible habit and I feel really guilty about this.
4. None of the kids know our address or phone number (although the phone number changed a few months back but we have been in this house for a year and a half).
5. I haven't seen the dentist for myself in nearly 2 years (cause technically I saw her a few weeks ago).
6. I sometimes let Kyle and Kelly make their own lunches so I don't have to get up from the computer. (They make pb&j sandwiches and help themselves to some fruit or yogurt.)
7. I throw away stray crayons and pencils rather than putting them away. And then the kids complain they have no crayons or pencils and I tell them they should take better care of their stuff.
I'm not sure I feel much better admitting all this though...
The kids are off school today (teacher in service). Did I mention they had a half day yesterday? And there was no school on Wednesday due to two freaking inches of snow. Is the school district getting kick backs from pharmaceutical companies for causing stay at home moms to go on meds?
It's just the wrong time of the month (year, decade, millenia)... It's too cold for the kids to go out and play. Not that they haven't tried. But of course it's too cold and they are back in and leaving the door hanging open and OMG, the electricity bill!
I'm feeling way too anti-social to take them all out someplace. If I hear one more "Are they all yours?" I may snap and knock over a Godiva's store and wallow in chocolate. Plus how many static electricity shocks can one sustain from getting out of a vehicle before there's long term damage?
Please don't ask me to write today. I'm really struggling to find the Pollyanna "I love my kids, it's a blessing to have them all at home" attitude today. It might be under the mountain of laundry or stack of breakfast bowls or pile of school papers or miles of toys strewn everywhere.
Until I find my good mood again, I'm dusting off my mantle for the "Meanest Mommy of the Year" award. Cause I know I'm getting one because Kyle told me I'm the meanest mommy because I won't buy him a foam finger and I won't let Zach annoy the twins and I won't let Kelly scream at the breakfast table because Emily took the last of the Frosted Flakes and the twins are mad at me because we only have one ream of printing paper left and I won't let them have it to color and cut and make a general mess and...
Is it bedtime yet?
PMS Censor in Effect
I should so not be dealing with people today. So of course I have 3 parent/teacher conferences this afternoon.
I'm going to hide in the pile of laundry. At least it doesn't scream, kick, and fight over cereal. I even bought bags of cereal instead of boxes and now they fight over who gets to set the bag in front of them. I think my children need help.
*censored, censored, censored*
Have a good day...
Quote of the Day: "This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays." -Arthur Dent from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
OMG it snowed!!!!!1!!
/sarcasm off
If you've ever clicked on one of my profiles at any of those silly blog list sites (remind me to post about this phenomenon another day), I usually say something like "writes about daily life and how much she hates snow."
It's not that I hate snow itself. It's just white frozen water, it's no big deal. I hate how people react to the stuff.
Yeah, school was canceled today because of 2 inches of snow here. Where I grew up it had to snow like a foot overnight to even consider a delay. Canceling school for 2 inches of snow makes me grumpy. And it makes me even more grumpy because I had to cancel a very difficult to plan Brownie meeting today.
Back in October the Brownies decided they wanted to collect food and pet care items to donate to a local animal shelter. We did an insane shopping spree at a local pet store in December. Today was the day we were going to tour the animal shelter and donate the items.
To schedule this, I had to work with two different people's schedules at the animal shelter, one in charge of donations, one who runs the shelter tours. And then 3 moms who all originally said they could go along canceled. Scrambling at the last minute I found a new mom but she only had a car (the other moms all had mini-vans or bigger). Luckily we only had 10 girls going along with my 3. I can take 11, she could take the other 2. Until yesterday when another mom called up and said her daughter wanted to go. I should have been mean and said that the mom would have to drive (she works outside the home) but I try to be nice and accommodating so I told her I'd figure something out.
There was an optional after school program scheduled for today only that Zach could possibly participate in. I called the school and worked out the times so Zach would stay at school and woohoo, we were back to the lucky number of 13 going.
And then it snowed 2 freaking inches. Grrrrr....
The cold weather is making me crabby.
(So that's what I'm blaming it on, huh?)
No really, I'm in a generally good mood. The kids are well, Greg's fine, I have fun craft projects to do, nothing pressing on the schedule or to do list, the bank account is...
Well due to this cold snap, the bank account isn't going to be happy.
Our current house is a sieve. I'm not joking. You can be in the house and hear a conversation being held outside several feet away. I bet the outside temperature a foot away from the house is near 60 degrees. And walking near the windows, you often get a gust of cold air. It makes me crabby to heat the outdoors, just ask the kids as I yell at them when they leave the door open for more than a quarter of a second.
Another reason I know this house's insulation sucks? This morning the thermostat was set at 70. It doesn't really tell the current temperature of the house because occasionally it'll be set at 63 and there's no way I'm happy at 63 degrees inside. I've decided this thermostat is like those Comfort Sleep System numbers, just pick one that feels right. 70 is a bit higher than normal (it's usually 67) so I turned it down to 65. And went about my morning routine of yelling at the kids to get ready and cursing the tea pot for taking so long. Then all of a sudden I was really cold.
The stupid house had dropped 5 degrees in less than twenty minutes.
I'm crabby because it's cold (13 F, -10 C) and I'm crabby that dollars are leaking out of this house. Freezing and losing money for no good reason are definitely high on my list of pet peeves. So I'm faced with a dilemma. Be cold and save a little money or have warmth and a lower account balance? I'm a Libra, I hate decisions like this.
Remember how I said I'm ready to move to the rain forest? This site will hook me up! Although I need to ask about high speed internet access first...
The Colts Won!!!
I wish the Bengals had made it but after living in Indiana for 17 years, I figure I've earned the right to cheer for the Colts. And it kinda cracks me up that the Indianapolis Star newspaper has a 40 page insert about it.
Back here in Maryland things are pretty boring. It's cold (like "freeze your nose hair" cold, windchill is -2 F, -19 C) so I'm totally wimping out and not going anywhere today. I'm so ready for summer. In fact I wore a tank top last night while watching the Super Bowl because it was blue and white. It worked for the Colts, maybe it'll work for Mother Nature. Or I just need to look up real estate in the rain forest.
WOOOHOOO!!!
Although I can't decide if I'm going to pre-order through Amazon and wait until mid-day for delivery or attempt a midnight buying at a local bookstore. I'm kinda bummed I won't be able to buy it the same way I did book number 6.
Have a lovely weekend all!
katiefleck's Unofficial Guide to Surviving 3 or more children under the age of 6
Volume 9: Pets
(Volumes 1-8)
A sane non-parent type person would say, "you have 3 (or more) kids running around the house acting like cute miniature terrorists and you want to add in another messy demanding creature who won't support you in your old age?" Well yeah! Of course you've already proven your lack of sanity so what's one more to feed and clean up after?
The way I see it, pets are split into 2 main groups: not caged and caged. Dogs and cats are the "not caged" group; rabbits, hamsters, birds, lizards, fish, lady bugs, etc are considered "caged" pets. Technically there's also livestock but since I don't live on a farm I'll leave that topic to someone else. Although I don't suppose the Amish are into blogging.
Note: I'm writing this from the perspective of getting a new pet. For those with pets already, skip down to the Death or "Kitty went to College" part for future reference. I'm also glossing over most of the issues of basic care and costs and instead focusing on how the pet would work in a house with 3 or more kids under age 6.
First before I go any further, no matter what your oldest promises "cross my heart and hope to die with sugar and a cherry on top", you will end up taking some or all of the responsibility for the pet's care. The good intentions may wear off in a week or eight years but at some point you'll be scooping kitty litter or changing Goldie's fish bowl water. In the very least you'll be purchasing the pet care items. How many 6 year olds can drive themselves to the pet store to buy Fido's dog food? Now then...
The "Not Caged":
Cats and dogs are definitely fun pets to have. They have their own personalities, decent life expectancies, and easily become "one of the family." (Has anyone ever said that about a guppy?) So right off the bat, they have a check plus in their column.
However they do have their downsides. Like claws, teeth, poop, pee, and fur. They also need training (litter box, obedience, etc) and regular vet check-ups with shots. I've never decided which is less fun, pediatrician or veterinarian visits.
Which brings me to the biggest consideration when deciding on a cat or dog as a new pet. In the beginning it can be a lot like having another child that you didn't give birth to. Abet a "child" you can legally leave home alone and won't ask for help with its homework. Still the attention and care for a new cat or dog can easily rival that of a toddler. I remember cleaning up messes from my potty training child and that of our puppy at the same time. Not much fun but just like potty training children, with encouragement and proper training your pet will figure it out eventually.
If you feel like you are barely keeping it together right now, please don't get a high maintenance pet like a cat or dog. Too many animals are in shelters right now because their original families couldn't handle the extra responsibility. Off my soapbox and onto...
"Caged" (aka small mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles, insects):
The nice thing about cages animals is that for the most part they stay in one place. I say for the most part because I don't want to count how many times I've had a gerbil loose in the house. Whoever said gerbils don't like to escape obviously never spoke to our gerbils.
However caged pets lose some of the fun factor of dogs and cats because they usually don't play fetch or climb Christmas trees. They can often seem like "living art" and that they are just there to look at (good example: fish). Which in my book isn't always a terrible thing.
If I had to decide between the two pet categories, I'd have to go with caged pets for the "3 children, 6 and under" group. Less overall work, contained mess, lots of variety to chose from, and if you go with the "living art" route, safer for the children and pet. The downsides are they can easily be "out of sight, out of mind" and generally have a short lifespan. So our next topic is...
Death
Death is a part of life. At some point our children will all be exposed to it. And it'll be hard no matter what. Even if it's a $1.75 goldfish. Have a funeral, remember the good times, and let your kids talk about it as much as they want. You should stress the good aspects of having a pet, the learning and enjoyment while trying to get away from the bloody gerbil massacre, floating fishies or road kill kitty part. And then move on. Maybe with the same type of pet, maybe with a new species, or take a break from the food buying/poop cleaning cycle for awhile. Life will go on even though your pet's didn't.
"Kitty went to College"
No, I'm not hiding a dead cat from the kids. If a pet dies out of the children's sight, you really should be honest about the death in the first place. Otherwise they'll be looking for their pet forever. "Kitty went to College" is just that. We sent our cat to live with my sister who at the time was still in college (although in her own apartment).
I know I said above not to take on a new pet if you don't think you'll be able to handle the added responsibility. However sometimes your "pre-children" pet doesn't react well with your children. (Sometimes I don't react well with my children.) This was the case of our cat. She joined our household when Zach was a baby. She was okay with the twin's arrival. A little iffy when Kyle came along. But by the time Kelly was born, she had had enough. Poor Kitty was a mess of stress and anger and generally not enjoying life at our household anymore. She showed this by hiding, snarling at the children, staying outside (she was an indoor cat), and peeing on everything (the last straw that broke Greg's back). It wasn't healthy for her or us.
It's always sad to let a pet go due to the above scenario or old age and illness. Again be honest with your children about the situation. Do your best to find your pet a good home and use the animal shelter as the last resort. Bonus if you can keep "visiting rights." Kitty is always so thrilled to see us when we visit my sister. (Not really.)
In the end, it's all about doing what's best for your family. Maybe having a zoo full of animals works for you or maybe having a single "pet" lightening bug puts you right on the edge. The best part about having a pet is that your children can finally fill in that line "My Pet's Name is..." on their "About Me" papers. Kidding! The best part really is teaching responsibility and empathy for all living creatures. Although it is nice not to have that blank line anymore...
ARGH!
So I woke up this morning to the kids fighting over the Nintendo 64. Wii, what? Xbox, who? PS3, huh? Yeah, we're old fashioned like that.
Next breakfast... I swear they are just going to get toast and water from now on. Stupid cereal box designers. So 3 of the 5 kids were holding onto boxes of cereal that they didn't want to eat but look at while screaming at the other 2 children that they want the box the other was holding to eat. And no one wanted to give up the box because they have to look at it. I poured the cereal and took away the boxes to much crying (mostly on their part).
All the while I'm repeating in my head: 30 minutes til they get on the bus...
And then I sat down at my computer to check my email and I had 3 notices from the school. 2 hour delay. NOOOOOoooooo...
Here's the amazing amount of snow we've received this morning to warrant a 2 hour delay:
What snow? And there's no ice out there either.
I'll post the new "unofficial guide" after I clean up the mess from my head exploding.
So I woke up this morning to the kids fighting over the Nintendo 64. Wii, what? Xbox, who? PS3, huh? Yeah, we're old fashioned like that.
Next breakfast... I swear they are just going to get toast and water from now on. Stupid cereal box designers. So 3 of the 5 kids were holding onto boxes of cereal that they didn't want to eat but look at while screaming at the other 2 children that they want the box the other was holding to eat. And no one wanted to give up the box because they have to look at it. I poured the cereal and took away the boxes to much crying (mostly on their part).
All the while I'm repeating in my head: 30 minutes til they get on the bus...
And then I sat down at my computer to check my email and I had 3 notices from the school. 2 hour delay. NOOOOOoooooo...
Here's the amazing amount of snow we've received this morning to warrant a 2 hour delay:
What snow? And there's no ice out there either.
I'll post the new "unofficial guide" after I clean up the mess from my head exploding.
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