tiffany's spot

Two things I learned about myself today, that I probably already knew. 1. Sometimes, I talk too much. Sometimes, talking more doesn't make things better.  2. If I paint a wall all on my own, I'm less likely to lay on the floor and take breaks, and more likely to just motor on through.  Who knew. 

I read the other day that the more things that make up our identity, the less stressful it is when any one thing is threatened. It got me thinking. I used to feel, and sometimes still do on an off-day, that I have nothing. No hobbies, no interests, nothing new, nothing to write home about. I thought about running, how I began running years ago as a weight loss tool, then ended up loving the training. Any time I'd extend my distance, or quicken my pace, I'd be over the moon about it. It was something cool that I did because I wanted to, and not because someone I knew did it. I ran my first half marathon. I was on cloud nine. I had been anxious and excited leading up to that time, and had trained like crazy. I'd run between 7 and 8 miles, several times a week and then longer runs on Saturdays. It began to feel like it wasn't even work. I felt great. My half marathon was awesome. I was more than happy with my time and I felt strong from mile one through the finish line. I...

It always seems like a week off is a long time, at least until it's Sunday and you're thinking about whether you feel like going shopping so you can make the kids real lunches, or just filling baggies with dry cheerios. We didn't do much. Well, we did a few things, but our ten days was sprinkled, nay, blanketed, with lounging about at home. Home is so nice sometimes. What did we do when we weren't in day three of the same pajamas and unwashed hair? Alright, I'll come up with something. Some Spring Break-Type Stuff On Saturday my Aunt Marie invited us over to her house to join her and her lovely children and step-children for dinner. It was delicious and plentiful. The kids tired out the dogs, splashed around in the hot tub, and ate multiple pieces of pie, which is odd because they were way too full to finish their dinner.  On Sunday, Steven's mom and sisters and nephews came here for potluck Easter dinner and cards and chips and a little rum. A good t...

This: Is not how I put socks and underwear away. Steven's undies are now better organized than mine.

I really didn't. I would never do things that would make people shake their heads, or smirk, or any of that other stuff. People shouldn't anyway, because that would be unkind , especially since I don't mock people . For instance: Let's just get ingress out of the way, since Steven thinks it's incredibly nerdy and I'd hate to give him more ammo to make fun of it all: I did not relentlessly heckle complete strangers from opposing factions (in communications, not in person) when they came through town just before the weekend, and destroyed only two of my portals. That wouldn't be good sportsmanship. I also did not avoid having a Thanksgiving drink all weekend with my husband, just in case the bad guys came back through at the end of the weekend (okay, I'll admit, I had serious suspicions. Probably because he said "see you soon....") I also did not ditch Steven with dinner prep at 4:30 tonight when, after following the communications lo...

This is a weird Thanksgiving weekend for us. There have been years where we have had to squeeze two or three gatherings into a single weekend, sometimes a single day. This year? Nada. I'll admit, there were times this weekend when I was a little pouty about having four days off and no plans, but on the other hand, it was kind of nice to have a weekend without a bunch of running around. It seems our weekends fill up really fast these days. Today (on Sunday, because of course I'm not backdating this, that would be Blogtober Cheating , and I'm nothing if not completely honest), I got up at 7am and decided to go for a bike ride. Keep in mind I'm more of a runner/walker, and when it comes to biking, it's more for leisure or family time. But no, today I was going to make this my exercise, so I went alone. I must also add, that, should you think it unkind of me to ditch my kids and husband to go biking, when clearly, everyone loves it, remember that I spend a lot of ...

I've started running again. I'm not sure if I ever "officially" stopped, but I only ran twice in August, totalling about nine miles, so I kind of felt like when I restarted in September that I was, well, restarting. This is probably not even blog-worthy. It would probably be better served disappearing into the chasm that is facebook, but I need blog topics, so here it is. I once had a friend (coughcoughangelacough) who said that she didn't run outside because she was afraid that just maybe, she ran "funny," and people would see her. Being an awesome friend, I insisted that surely she didn't. I lied. I have never even seen her run. I have just recently decided that she does run funny. Wanna know why? (as if spell check didn't underline 'wanna') Everyone runs funny. Quite seriously, everyone . I prefer to run outside, because the treadmill sucks my will to live, and a mile or two in I turn into a sighing, eye-rolling teenager, o...

It's Blogtober 1st! The day we anxiously await for all year long! Actually, that day would be the first day of May Long Weekend, or maybe even Riel Day, but next to that, and the first day of NaNoWriMi, Blogtober 1st is the best day ever! I'm going to be honest. I was the world's worst student. Whatever your complaints about your kids and their homework and their meeting deadlines, I can pretty much guarantee that I was worse. And handily enough, I came from a home where passing your grade was good enough. My parents never checked my homework, or asked about why I didn't have any, or suggested studying for tests, or went to parent teacher day unless the teacher specifically requested them (that wasn't ever good, someone always had to go to my brother's). The truth is that I just didn't feel like it. Ever . I wasn't even really worried about fall-out. I don't really remember getting homework in the lower grades, and in Junior High (I'm going...

Sometimes, when I check into the internet to read a ton of different blogs, check facebook, and update my word count on my NaNoWriMo page, I wonder if there's a little bit of a dork in me. The other day Jordan brought home a beginner reader book about a bookworm. In her little book the worm is literal, and it eats words, and pages, and entire books. I excitedly told her what a bookworm actually referred to, and was a little disappointed when her joy didn't match mine at the prospect. Sure I'm past the stage where I have X-Files posters on my wall and Star Trek binders stuffed full of laminated episode guides, and maybe coasters with all the different Federation as well as enemy ships on them, but still - I love a good science fiction movie. I was watching Big Bang Theory tonight, and the show poked fun of someone's Blog, and I thought Hey! I have a blog! Why are they making fun of blogs? Oh, okay. I'm totally cool. Like, totally.

Yesterday as we were leaving the pet store, the kids asked if they could have some licorice. I said sure. I gave them each a piece. I was about to give Elliot the last one when Steven said: "Wait, is that the last one? None for me?" "You can have half of this one" I replied, tearing it in two. I handed it to him. He took a bite before I said: "I ripped it apart with the hands I used to play with the gecko." With a pukey face: "Ugh. Didn't you use that sanitizer on the wall?" "I meant to, but I forgot." "Ugh" gag, more pukey face. Continues eating. "I don't know if I can keep eating this." More bites, more yucky face. "And I sat on the floor. I must have touched it with my hands as I got up and down. And I petted a bird. I might have monkeyed around in the hamster cage. There was also that guinea pig, but he ran and hid right away so I didn't touch him much. The bunnies were cute and fuzzy." More...

The thing about Blogtober is that being forced to write everyday ends up meaning that the topics aren't maybe as interesting as they are in posts tossed up here when something more interesting happens. I'm slacking today. On my to-do list for today (the "musts" - the list isn't really this short) are the following tasks: sweep and mop linoleums vacuum put away laundry, maybe wash a load or two more I haven't done any of this. Jordan keeps complaining (she's such a princess) that she has no pants, or is it Mitchell? It could be both. Confession: I had to get Mitchie's pants from the dirty laundry basket this morning. I came home from diaper gym with the intention of quickly vacuuming before getting lunch ready. Then I think I ended up on the computer and then it was suddenly lunch time, and every mom knows that pushing back lunch twenty minutes also means pushing back nap by twenty minutes. That's not about to happen - especially now that I have t...

I'm having a crummy day. It's one of those days where I feel like alternating between yelling at kids and shaking them. I've settled for time outs in the corner. It's still discipline, but probably healthier for us both. My house is messy. I'm going camping tonight. I have a thousand half finished projects and no energy to finish them. It makes me seriously dislike myself. I need to get ready for camping and I'm dragging my feet on that. I feel like I should vacuum, but I probably need to pack more. Instead I sit on the computer. I read something somewhere. I read all sorts of things - books, parts of newspapers, multiple blogs, web pages, etc. I never really remember where I read the things I think of later. Someone somewhere said something about writing down three positive things - maybe each day. Either that was what the writer did, or that's what I thought would be a good idea. I don't know. I keep thinking I should do that, and maybe I should. Maybe...

I've been slacking in so so many areas. I do have many many excuses, uh, reasons to go along with the major slacking. S - My house is a mess. It really is. I have this nifty schedule of all the chores I'm going to do each day of the week. If I keep up on the list, it keeps the must-do weekly chores down to about an hour a day. Not bad eh? Of course that doesn't include laundry, toys, etc. It's stuff like bathrooms, vacuuming, mopping, cleaning the fridge and kitchen sink, etc. Anyone who has been in my house lately knows what I'm talking about. Thankfully my friends are kind enough to pretend that my house isn't that bad. R - Kids, four of them. Some days they feel like eight. Especially that one. You know who you are kid who feels like eight kids. I'm constantly trying to pawn him off on unsuspecting friends and family members, but nobody will take him. In real life - I adore that kid, even when he makes me want to pull my hair out by the roots. He threate...

when your four year old heads off to an outhouse at a soccer game with a slice of pizza in hand do you holler at him not to take his dinner into the outhouse with him or do you just pretend you're oblivious to the cheesy sticky mess about to accompany him into the disgusting little box? when your four year old exits an outhouse without his slice of pizza and then remembers it and turns to go back in and fetch it, do you allow it? Thought so.

I have so much crap to do and so little motivation to actually do it. This morning I actually planned a nice, comprehensive to-do list layout. It has two columns, one for the daily breakdown of my weekly chores, and a second column for extra things I need to do this week. Doesn't it sound efficient? Too bad it's only in my head thus far. To Do: make list Sometimes I plan (in my head, where all the best laid plans are soon forgotten) ways to make my plans better. You should see the cute little to-do list book I'm going to buy. To Do: buy cute book to keep ongoing to-do lists in. Of course, I don't know if anyone has actually designed or created my cute little book yet. To Do: patent some sort of cute little to-do list book. All the best moms/wives/indentured servants are entirely on top of their daily tasks and chores. I bet they're all on their couches right now, dreaming of ways to make planning on completing household chores more efficient. To Do: rewrite that las...

Babycenter: (on life with my 5 3/4 year old) No matter how hard or how frequently your child pushes your buttons, try to keep your cool. Anger only fuels hot tempers. Try to remember the guideline: Speak to your child the way you would want to be spoken to. I know, I know, be the example. It's so hard some days. Today is one of those days where I woke up grumpy and try as I may, everything has me annoyed today. Doesn't help that the kids are overly wild. It's tough sometimes to try and turn myself into the parent I want to be. I don't pretend I'm perfect, I know I'm far from it. It's hard to remember that right now is this tough, tiring phase where I have four kids 5 years old and under, but for them, it's their whole life. Their lives, very existence and happiness depend on me for the most part. If I'm grumpy all the time, then that's what they deal with. If I'm happy, they're happy too. There is so much responsibility on Mom sometimes...

I'm Dead Sexy!

I feel incredibly lazy today. I had decided that the kids would be unplugged today - no tv, no nintendo, no movies. I held out until about 2, when they begged to watch a movie. I let them. Of course when they watch a movie I can relax on the couch too. So slack. Luckily I have dinner ready (burgers that I made before and put in the freezer) and the house isn't too messy. Maybe I'll tackle that laundry tomorrow. In the meantime, could you all blog or facebook or something, so that I have something interesting to read on here today? Thanks!

I have this thing - for starting posts with "I have this thing." But I do, and it's sort of interesting in an I've been up since 5am so let me think I'm still interesting at 10:04pm kind of way. There are serious double standards with men and women. Many are beneficial to men, a few fall in woman's favor. It irritates the heck out of me when Steven drinks from my cup. Not because I think he's germy (even if he is) or dirty (I hope not) or because I don't like him (because I do). I think it's because I'm home with the kids all day, and nothing that is mine has sovereignty from them. I pour a drink - someone's little lips are on it. Or they see me have it and want one of their own. Or I leave it on the coffee table and someone whose name rhymes with Gitchie is likely to come along and spill it down the side of the couch and onto the light grey carpet. Especially if I've had a bad morning and picked up a cappuccino on the way home fro...

I didn't mean it Monster Cookies, honest! I love you! nom nom nom nom nomnom