What I'll most certainly lie to you about, and other things I've discovered about life...

Whew! It's been awhile since I've really been here. I had to dust off a few cobwebs, but things seem fine here otherwise. Just a bit sad and unchanged, much like my hairstyle.....

Come to think of it, it really shouldn't be legal to neglect a blog as badly as I've neglected this blog!

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The phone rings. It's 10:00 at night, or 12:30, or even sometime in the afternoon. It doesn't matter, really. What matters is whether or not I'm sleeping. More importantly, it's a matter of whether or not you will ever know the truth!

Now, I don't know why I do this, but I always lie to someone about them waking me up when they did, in fact, wake me up! It might be because I hate the feeling that I have when I know that I've woken someone from their slumber with a phone call. There are a few people in my life who have less-than-traditional sleep schedules and I might be waking them up no matter when I call them. I actually try my best not to call them unless I absolutely need to because I hate the way it makes ME feel when I'm the one who wakes them up!

*I just realized how self-centered that actually sounds*

OOPS!

Soooo....call me and wake me up and you'll probably never know it!

Moving on...

I've made an interesting discovery when it comes to my kids recently. First of all, let me tell you how I acquired this little snippet of information: My neighbor. We all know someone who just seems to have 'it' together a bit more than most people, don't we? They are not perfect, but still seem to manage a home a family more consistently and efficiently than the rest. Well, she's THAT neighbor and I really think I could learn a lot from her when it comes to routine and priority. And discipline.

So, we were visiting her a week or so ago. School had just gotten out for the summer a couple of days earlier and she was mentioning that she's already had to pull out the 'I'm Bored Bowl' for her seven-year-old son. She then showed me the bowl, which was just a plastic bowl with a lid full of several folded scraps of paper. Anytime her son comes to her claiming that he's bored, he draws a slip of paper from the bowl. Some of the scraps of paper have fun things scribbled on them. Some don't. He runs the risk of either getting to watch a movie, play a video game, dust the living room, clean the bathroom, or doing a math worksheet with every claim of being bored. The funny thing is that he's actually excited to carry out these things and the pressure is taken off of his mom as far as being the 'bad guy.' I mean, he's drawing his own fate so it's not her that is making him clean his bathroom. She told me that she actually got the idea from another mom awhile back. Still, I think she's a flippin' GENIUS just the same!

I decided that something like that would be great to implement into my own home. Afterall, I have three kids of my own and one that I keep 10-12 hours a day during the week. Then again, my kids never really come to me claiming to be bored. They are quite content to entertain themselves and leave a trail of destruction that often ends in me having to threaten violence in order to get them to clean up after themselves. There just has to be a better way. And I think I might have found it....for now!

I put my own spin on her concept by making two separate bowls. While we don't have a problem with actual boredom in this house, we still have your typical bugging, pushing, tattling, and non-sharing problem that seems to be universal with most children. So, we have a 'Good Bowl' and a 'Bad Bowl' instead. The Good Bowl is filled with all sorts of different things that the girls would enjoy. They could draw me a picture, play with Barbie dolls, jump on the trampoline, paint their nails, have a popsicle, or even do five somersaults each when they draw from the Good Bowl. I even picked up some Play-Doh and some more foam letters to add to options in the Good Bowl. Our first couple of days with this system were a complete success. Fighting, bickering and tattling are no way to earn a drawing from the Good Bowl so they have been more than friendly to one another. Too much of that poor behavior can lead to one or all of them drawing from the Bad Bowl.

Which brings us to yesterday: The first time we drew from the Bad Bowl. 5YO and B5YO were just bickering and fighting and tattling to no end. Well, there was an end to it all once 5YO scrubbed ten sections of grout in my kitchen floor and B5YO picked up some trash that the wind blew down the driveway. Other possibilities included putting one's nose against a wall for five minutes, putting all the shoes in the house (which always end up in a box by the back door!) in the correct rooms, or even sweeping the hallway and front bathroom. Some of these are worse than others, but none of them seem too difficult or cruel for the children. (Not they they would AGREE, but you know how it goes!)

We try to emphasize the Good Bowl, for obvious reasons. Days can consist of several drawings from the Good Bowl. These kids are suddenly eager to find out their destiny and happily play nicely with whatever is drawn. They even clean up after themselves without being asked to do so in order to see what the bowl will let them do next! I have complete control over the contents of the bowl and can add or subract as the day goes on. If I'm not willing to carry it out, I take it out of the box! We painted nails last week, and I will keep that option out until I'm ready to do it again! The contents of both boxes are constantly evolving and changing. And my house has never been cleaner and the kids (for the most part!) have never played so well together.

I've never been really good at keeping things structured. But, somehow, this method allows for structure and still keeps things random enough to keep our attention. Unfortunately, this system doesn't allow for as much 'me time.' (Otherwise known as computer, knitting, reading, and talking on the phone time) But, at the end of the day, we're all a bit happier and more content this past week or so. And we laugh a lot more, too.

I've never really been all that disciplined or organized, but this was all just so easy to put into place that I cannot believe I had never heard of it before!

You live, you learn, and try to do it even better the next day!

Where is it?

Sometimes, it seems like the outtakes are the best.

You know exactly what I'm talking about, even if you don't know you do. We're all searching for it: The Happy Medium, The Middle Ground, The Perfect Compromise, The Ultimate Win-Win Outcome.

Most people strive to be successful in their career, but not so successful that the rest of their life suffers for it. I want to be a good mom, but I have to be careful not to get so wrapped up in my kids that I lose sight of who I am. Most days, I know I'm in here somewhere.

I've also been searching for my happy medium when it comes to blogging. It's not that I don't have anything to blog about, it's just that I don't seem to have the time. When I have the time, there is usually so little going on in my life that I have nothing interesting to say. When will the day come where I have as much free time as I do things to write about?

And when will someone actually pay me for my wisdom?

Yeah. Probably never.

We just bought a new car. Well, it's not really new so much as it's new to us. As a matter of fact, it's basically ten years old! However, it's in great shape. There are a few little fixtures and things that need to be repaired or replaced, but that's to be expected when you buy a car almost as old as my oldest child.

I've actually had mixed responses when it comes to this car. We weren't looking for a new car. We have two perfectly working cars. However, one of them gets about 12 or 13 MPG. Unless you live under a rock, you'd know that one would have to be quite wealthy to purchase the gas to keep a car like that going. We don't plan to sell the Tahoe, we just don't plan to drive it very often. But, the kids are getting older and their needs are changing. They don't need someone to stay happy and cuddle with them all day. (Not that that EVER really happens, but you cannot convince David of that! He's pretty sure our days are just one big Norman Rockwell cuddlefest while he slaves away all day delivering boxes. And I cannot seem to convince him otherwise.) Now, they need a taxi service. They need to be taken to soccer practice, softball practice, cheer practice. They have playdates and doctor and dental appointments.

At $4.00 a gallon, we were feeling as if we'd have to cut out most of that stuff. Or all of it. I mean, can anyone really blame us for choosing to pay our mortgage over getting out teeth cleaned?

Realizing that we could not realistically eliminate all (or any) of these things, we opted to look for a third, smaller, more fuel-efficient car. It helped that we knew we'd be getting our healthy little 'Economic Stimulus' check. In fact, the timing couldn't have been better.

And from the crazy traffic on Craigslist, it seems that many others had the same idea.

She's a 1999 Saturn WAGON and her name is 'Ruby.' Guess what color she is. I can fit five people, an umbrella stroller AND a big load of groceries in her. And her gas mileage is SWEEEEEEEEET! It's funny. The girl I bought her from handed me the keys and said, "Her name is Ruby." I've never had a car with a name before! As we were walking away from her last night, the girls said, "Good night, Ruby."

And now David has one more reason to roll his eyes at these females that have him outnumbered.

Poor guy!

So far, I've had a great time trying to make her mine. I've purchased one car in my lifetime that was brand-spanking new. I loved that car, but everything was brand new and perfect and I was never able to make it feel like 'MINE.' I only drove it for about a year before I sold it to my mom. Turns out I married a man who is too tall to sit comfortably in it. Ironically, he's the one who helped me pick it out!

I don't know if it's the fact that it's a small car or what, but it makes me feel younger when I drive Ruby. It brings back the days when I had only driven a small car. I drove faster, played my music a bit louder...and there were not three (or four) kids in the backseat. I had to choose between paying for electricity and buying groceries and I knew exactly how long I could push the phone bill off before they could disconnect my service. I would put my last two dollars in my gas tank to get me through to payday...and that still got me a little over an eighth of a tank!

And I guess it's nice to feel a little more secure in my life, but still be able to zip around town in a small car with loud music. And those kids are just the icing on the cake....most days! And the music is usually something you'd hear on the Disney channel.

But those few moments where I find myself in the car without the kids? I'm 19 again, and just hoping to make it to the next gas station after I've picked up my paycheck!

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Wow! Reading this from the top, it's very obvious how much I jump around! I hope you were able to keep up!