{Random is the "New Normal"}

I say that random is the "New Normal" because that is what I seem to do best these days. Whether in my mind or in my life or in my blogging. Between Random words of the day and random posts about anything and everything, I dare say it IS the "New Normal."  (Not sure why that needs to be capitalized, but it does!)

I worked on this puzzle over the weekend.  Its been sitting there, barely started, for a month.  This past weekend I spent (way too many) hours working on it. I became a bit obsessed.  I finished it on Monday and wouldn't you know...there is a piece missing. Right in the center of the puzzle. I am trying not to be too upset about this.

I have been doing Level 1 (because two and three are two hard for me) of Jillian's Michaels 30 day shred off and on for a long time now.  This is an "on" time again.  Sometimes, while I am working out and huffing and puffing, in my head I think little things like "I hate you, Jillian Michaels.  I hate your pretty ankle tattoo and your flat stomach and your perky little voice and your glossy ponytail."

Last night, I picked up Subway for dinner.  I get so tired of the rush of getting home from work, quickly making supper and rushing off to Bible study that one night a week.  So I decided to just skip the "making supper" part.  It was awesome!  Kendall was like "Thank you, Mom, for bringing supper from Subway."  Apparently, Subway is a better cook than I am. 

I woke up this morning to a daughter who was starting with pink eye. Which I happen to know she got from a girl at school whose parents sent her to school with pink eye. I didn't want to repeat the cycle, so guess what Nikki is doing today?  Spending a whole day with her Grandpa.  I made sure she had some coloring pages and papers for drawing and she packed up her Polly Pockets and a lunch and I dropped her off (with her freshly streaked, pink hair, which I am sure Grandpa loved - not!) before taking the boys to school. It almost made me feel like a little girl...dropping my daughter off with my Dad.  Like, I could almost BE her. Spending a day with my Dad. Does that make any sense?

Two times within the last week or so I have come downstairs to find the patio door on the other end of the basement partially open.  I didn't even tell Jeremy, because I knew he would be more upset than I was at whichever kid left the door hanging open.  You know what freaks me out the most about that?  A critter could wander in and be living in our basement and I would never know until one day I open the closet in the spare bedroom and beady eyes are staring back at me!!!

I wore this to work yesterday. Boots, leggings and a short(ish) skirt.  I see this on people all the time and I like it.  I have worn this sort of an outfit before.  Yet, every time I put this outfit on I feel a whisper in my ear that says I look like a  _ _ _ _ (insert word of choice here. Not complimentary.)

And then I hear those same voices say "Well, the reason you feel that way is because you shouldn't be wearing that outfit."  (Only certain people with similar upbringing to mine will understand this!)  Sometimes I do not know how to distinguish between actual Holy Spirit versus voices in my head from years gone by.

Nikki drew this at school yesterday. I totally heart my kids' drawings. I wish I could keep them all. This is a castle, by the way.

I started house cleaning my house, room by room, and now I am finally done!  You want to know when I started?  THE BEGINNING OF AUGUST.  Three frickin' months and I am finally done. And you want to know what else?? The part where I first started doesn't even look like it was organized anymore and I could totally start all over again and go through the rooms in rotation.  But I am NOT doing that!!!

My book club calls itself "The Skinny Girls" because we like to drink "Skinny Girl Margaritas."  That's all well and good until you go into the library to request the book for the new month and you have to say "Its for the Skinny Girls".  And then you feel like they're all checking you out and you have to explain  your muffin top and you're kicking yourself for not wearing your Spanx that day!  Maybe you should even make a promise like "I swear I'll lose 5 lbs. before I come in next month."

There is hardly anything that breaks my Mother heart more than a child's unadulterated hope and enthusiam about something that you know will likely not happen.

From downstairs, I overheard this conversation yesterday.

Derrick -- "Kendall. You only have one bucket of acorns left."

Kendall -- "Yeah."

Derrick  (very excited voice) -- "You better go out and pick another bucket full of acorns.  Because what if you get orders for two buckets in one day and then you won't be prepared."

Then I hear them getting all geared up to go out and pick more. And I just feel this sadness for them that I can't exactly explain.  And it spills over into the rest of life and how many disappointments they will face and how I can't protect them and it makes my heart ache.  Seriously. I could almost cry. 

A guy from work gave me this old calculator/planner/electronic address book thing that he never uses. I thought that the kids would have fun playing with it.  Only problem...we can't get it to turn on.  So Nikki was still pretend typing her name into it and playing with the calculator.  I guess maybe it doesn't need batteries after all.

Halloween is my least favorite time of the year.  Hands down.  We don't get into Halloween at all, which is very counter cultural.  I give my kids the choice whether to attend the Halloween parties at school or not and this year Nikki is attending but both the boys are not.  I never grew up doing Halloween and I didn't miss it, and I honestly would just rather skip the whole thing.  Its not that I think it is wrong to dress up and go out and get candy. I can see that it would be fun.  And I don't mean to judge anyone who is into Halloween. Please don't take it that way.  But so much of it is dark and evil and I just can't get into it at all.  It just makes for quite a few awkward discussions for my kids and myself and its really not that fun. 

My kids (boys especially) have been SO into playing Legos lately. This whole setup is on our coffee table right now. And that little bunker in the front...I took a close up picture of that because that is where they have been collecting all the cool little Lego pieces they find in their digging.  They literally spent probably 5 hours playing Legos last Saturday with our neighbor boy. It made me so happy! And there was pretty much zero bickering or fighting.  I love Legos (for my kids) and the creativity and fun that is involved.

Derrick is supposed to do an essay on Veteran's Day for school. He is in 4th grade and there is a contest and there will be a winner announced when they decide who had the best essay.  When he brought that home, man, my competitive spirit kicked in. It was almost like I was back in school myself. I started researching stuff for him on the computer, I brought up 2 books from downstairs for him, and I printed off some inspiring stories of Veteran's for him to read.

Apparently, the dream to win the 4th Grade Veteran's Day essay contest is MY dream and not his!!! Finally, after much disinterest in the great materials I had discovered for him, I said "Do you want to win the contest??" and he just looked at me and said "No. Not really."  And that is when I knew I had to step back.  This is not really my problem. 

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