When is a toothpick not a toothpick? When it's turned into a city.

Confessions of a mommyblogaholic

I love mommy-blogs.  I seek them out, and I probably add a handful of them to my Google Reader each month.  This probably wouldn't be so strange if I were a mom, but I'm not.  I am a woman one month away from being married; shouldn't I be obsessing over wedding blogs or something?  No, I just love me a good Mom blog.  

Good mommy-blogs carry certain characteristics.  Being a mom who blogs does not earn you a spot in my blog reading list.  If your blog consists of mostly give-aways, there is no way you make the cut.  If you have more than two children and you homeschool them your chance of passing my quality control tests are much higher (extra points if you are Catholic and celebrate lots of feast days!)  I also enjoy reading the blogs of moms of multiples.  Let's face it; being a mom of multiples cannot be easy by any stretch of the imagination, which automatically ups the interest-factor.  One of the biggest requirements, however, is that you must be able to write in a way that hooks me.

One might question why I spend so much time reading these blogs.  Over the past few months, I have begun to wonder the same thing.  I have come to a few conclusions.  The first one is probably pretty obvious; kids do amazing things and no one can relay that amazingness better that the people who brought them into this world.  Another possibility, and probably the most accurate conclusion, is that I want to be a mom; I pray that God blesses my upcoming marriage that it may be fruitful.  I love children and cannot think of a greater blessing than to get to parent one or many with the love of my life by my side.  Most other conclusions I have come to pale in comparison to this one so I think I'll leave it at that.

April Showers...

April has started, and we have rain showers which reminds me of this:

April showers bring May flowers, and Mayflowers bring pilgrims!

Yes, it is ridiculous, but it makes me smile.

Reasons my students think I am ancient...

...I remember when computers were not common place in households.

...I have actually used an abacus before

...I remember when the Austin Powers movies came out in theaters 

...I can remember 9/11/01

...I remember watching Bill Clinton's 1st inauguration

...I went to high school with other teachers that they think are ancient

...I say things like "thems the berries" 

New word...

I was singing hymns tonight, and Ish started to fall asleep. When he came to, he coined a new word.  I was not singing hymns; apparently, I was singing lullahymns.

lull⋅a⋅hymn (lŭl'ə-hĭm) n. 

1. A song of praise or thanksgiving to God used to lull a child to sleep

Origin: [Obsolete lulla, word used in lullabies (from Middle English lullai, from lullen, to lull; see lull) + Middle English imne, from Old French ymne, from Latin hymnus,song of praise, from Greek humnos.]

5 things I love about Fall

(in no particular order)

1. Foliage- I am a  New England girl.  Fall foliage hear in MA is a vibrant canvas of colors.  It is hard to explain the wonder and amazement this transformation has on me each year.

2. Apples- Apples happen to be 10 gazillion times better in the fall than at any other time of the year.  They are so crisp and a perfect balance between tart and sweet.  Fall apples also make the best pies and apple crisps.

3. Pumpkin- I have a strange love for foods containing pumpkin.  These foods are featured all over the place in the fall.  I do not, however, like pumpkin pie.

4. Sweater Tights- Fall is  a great time to pull out these warm, soft, thick tights. Since I am generally freezing and I pretty much have made the switch to wearing only skirts and dresses these tights are high on my list of seasonal favorites.

5. Post-season Baseball- Post-season baseball is great.  It is baseball at its finest.  Too bad the Red Sox didn't win the ALCS this year.

No circulation
Icy cold fingers and toes
I am turning blue

When you can't sleep write a haiku!

I can't get to sleep
Weary eyes refuse to close
Insomnia wins

I was bored...

...so I found an online quiz on political identity.

What is your inner political identity? Bible-Thumper Well, only if Jesus says so...

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

Bad ideas...

--having caffeine after 6PM when you have to be up early for a doctor's appointment

--scheduling an early morning doctor's appointment

--not wearing socks on a fall evening when you don't have the heat on in your house 

Old-fashioned tools...

I haven't really been writing on this very much lately, but I have actually been writing up a storm otherwise.  I have been a sucker for good old fashioned pen and paper lately.  Maybe some day I will get up the nerve to type some of my more interesting writings up.  I  think sometimes sharing what I think or how I feel is difficult for me in the blogosphere, but it is a totally different story when I am armed with my trustworthy  all-purpose notebook and a LePen in any of a variety of colors--currently I favor grey.  

My boots...

I have a new pair of boots.  They make me taller, if only temporarily.  They also make me feel invincible--odd, I know.  Maybe it is the grown-upness of it all.  The only other boots I have owned are Little House on the Prairie style boots in 4th grade and rain/snow boots.  Although I appreciate my yellow rain boots, there is something different about these new boots....

....I suppose the invincibility factor faded a bit when I tripped on the stairs...

....twice.

"Mary in a half shell"

In the free section on craigslist today someone listed a statue of Our Lady however the ad had one major mistake. The advertisement reads:

If you are into collecting concrete lawn statues, or you just plain, love Mary Magdalene, then PLEASE, come get this thing out of our yard!

I have a feeling these people aren't very well versed in scripture.  I think I may write to them.

Things to be thankful for...

--Ish

--Miraculously healed blisters

--Livia coming to visit tomorrow!!!!

Sleep walking?

I didn't think I was going to post from Delaware, but the odd occurrences of the last half hour or so deem it worthwhile.

Ishmael and I were watching Ratatouille when apparently I turned around and belly flopped on him and told him "I'm gonna throw". He asked me if I wanted him to get me a bowl and I said "No, I want you get me some food". He stood up and walked into the kitchen and I apparently stayed on the couch and said "Hey, Ish." He responded "what?"; I told him that I loved him. After that I stood up from the couch and followed him into the kitchen. He asked me what I wanted, and I said "I want a new stomach". We explored food options. He tried out the bread that his sister gave us today and I took a bite of his slice; I informed him that I liked the bread; I wandered into the dining room and crawled under the table and curled up. Ish says that he walked into the dining room and asked if I was awake, and I did not respond. Whiler Ishmael was making the executive decision that we were eating pasta for dinner, I made the while sleeping decision to eat the leg of one of the dining room chairs...or at least to gnaw it a bit. Ish removed the chair from my mouth (thankfully!). Afterwards, I slept some more and
made sounds that indicated to Ishmael that I was probably in pain....

A bit later, I awoke under the dining room table, totally spooked, having no clue where I was or how I got there. The last thing I remembered doing when I woke up was watching Ratatouille. I have no recollection of any of the events inbetween. Apparently I appeared quite coherent during all of the interactions that happened between the couch and waking up under the table. Ish says my eyes were open and I appeared totally alert. Oh and when I woke up my stomach felt fine and I don't remember it hurting before I went to sleep either. Is it possible to sleep walk while appearing totally awake and coherently interacting with others? I am totally weirded out...

Monty python lego remix

Fire...

I have a bizarre attraction to the beauty of fire.  I do not tend to like to handle fire as the potential of burning myself is not one that seems worth it.  I will light a match so I can light a candle, but it took me a while to not be totally skittish about the whole procedure.  I don't mind holding a lit candle at all; despite it's ability to go from innocuous to devastatingly harmful in a matter of seconds, I find candles to be beautiful.  One of my favorite types of fire to observe is the campfire.  There is something awe-inspiring about the containment of something so completely harmful yet so wonderfully useful.  

Sore feet haiku

My feet are sore. Ouch!

I have walked too much today.

It's time to relax.

There is something really unique to my neighborhood.  Even though I live in a city, my neighborhood has no traffic lights.  There are a few businesses in it--a convenience store, a deli, an auto body shop, a barber, a real estate agent, and a sail maker.  We also have an elementary school and two churches.  We are attached to the rest of the city via a causeway.  You can imagine the hilarity when the causeway is having work done on it and the construction crew puts up the signs stating "Under Construction.  Please seek alternate routes".  Umm...what alternate route?   I can pretty much get to water in 5 minutes or less on foot in every direction from my house. This has led to sunset and sunrise being my two favorite times of day.  I love sunsets over the water. 

Run away!!!

It always amazes me how when I need some sort of encouragement to slow down a bit God sends me lovely, somewhat explosive, reminders.  Today I was racing for the phone and managed to have my height adjustable desk plummet to its lowest setting.  My jade plant went flying--scattering soil everywhere.   All sorts of papers went fluttering down around me.  

The results:

My plant went kaput, and I made the sad decision to dispose of it. Otherwise, nothing was broken (I managed to put the desk back to its normal setting and tighten it).  Most importantly I have taken a step back and managed to slow down a bit; I am taking some time out to breathe.