State of Obvious

When Camping: Do : Check to make sure you have a luggage rack actually installed on your car before you buy the fancy luggage rack mounted bag and spend an hour (plus) packing it neatly. Don't : Expect all your stuff to fit. Do : Wear sunscreen even if it's not that hot outside.  Especially if you plan to sit next to a lake right around lunch time.  Don't : Forget to pack the aloe.  See above. Do :  Find a campsite with plenty of privacy trees for your latrine. Don't :  Bring your dignity. Do :  Dump your shoes out in the morning before you put them on. Don't :  Be surprised when you find a bug crawling around inside your shoe.  See above. Do :  Set aside some extra funding for popped tires. Don't :  Plan for anything to go as planned.  Do :  Relax and leave behind your busy bee inhibitions. Don't : Forget to pause and appreciate the total isolation.  No phone, no internet, no TV.  Bliss.

We've been having a good time down here on the farm. We don't really live on a farm, although we do live in the sticks.  30 minutes from the nearest Target, I am barely surviving. Instead of going to Target, we've been off adventurating.  That's not really a word, I just made it up.  If you just play along it could become the next redonkulous.  People say that, really.  It's redonkulous. Anyhow, we've been places like here: And, can you believe this little bit of fancy was tucked down inside? Eric was scared to go all the way up the ladder.  It was amusing. We also visited this little Pueblo town.  I am in love with New Mexico's churches. And finally, we went camping.  Can you believe this was our first actual overnight camping trip as a family?  Me either.  We are planning to go again this weekend. Life is good. p.s. All this wonder is within 2 hours of our house.  Teehee, you look a little green with envy....

I am baffled. I know this happens so regularly that no one is surprised.  But what me has me all turned around today is spite.  In particular, being mean for mean's sake. I think of myself as a nice person.  It is one of the few qualities I have that I rarely doubt.  I like it when people smile, when they laugh, when they feel good.  I like seeing someone brighten up or walk taller.  When someone feels good, I feel good.  Happiness is contagious. So is politeness. So is charity. So is respect. Lately there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of respect going around.  Especially when we throw in things like marriage, religion, politics, rights, weight, money, choice, standards, morals.  Let loose any of those words and suddenly perfectly normal, sane people turn into lunatics.  Raving, rude, disrespectful lunatics. We can disagree and still like each other.  We can have a different viewpoint and still understand the other ...

Written on the inside of an empty Twinkie box: "Hey, try and save some for other people!  Twinkie Aholic" And my reply on the lid: "Maybe I did and U just don't know where they are doo-doy!" And his reply to my reply: "FINE!"

I am not a fan of Mother's Day. This year I really just wasn't into it.  I tried to pretend but I didn't want to read sappy articles about how wonderful moms are, and I didn't want to write them either (hence a post full of funny faces to mark the day) .  I didn't want to look at cards or chocolates or any of that dribble.  It has nothing to do with my own mother, I'm pretty lucky in that department.  And my mother-in-law was an angel before she ever left the earth.  It has nothing to do with my kids or husband, they honored me suitably with breakfast in bed and a week of no chores.  It was more about how Mother's Day reminds me of nots . I'm not able to have more children for whatever reason.  And although I've mostly come to terms with that idea, it still burns.  I am not patient, or kind, or thoughtful.  Shoot, I can't even remember what I've promised to do/finish/help out with/supply.  I'm too wrapped up in ME to think ab...

People sometimes complain that if you are a mother, you are woefully underpaid. I must, respectfully, disagree. Money comes and goes, but this is forever and nothing NOTHING in the world is worth more: Happy Mother's Day!

Life's a blur, much like this picture that I artistically altered for your viewing pleasure.  Or displeasure, either way. Carly graduated for preschool today.  It was kind of a big deal.  Cake and music and diplomas.  The mayor of the town the preschool is in declared it Carly's day.  Officially and all, along with the rest of her graduating class.  The kids didn't care, but it set the adults a-flutter.  There was a giant, inflated bouncy thing.  (That's a technical term right there.)  There was very sweet punch and camera flashes that put the Oscar red carpet show to shame.  I managed mostly fuzzy pictures myself.  The fancy camera aludes me and the non-fancy camera is broken.  All I'm left with is Picnik altered paraphernalia to mark the day. That and a tiny graduate that insists on growing up.

You are approaching the end of your sixth grade year.  This has been a big year for you, a stressful year, a year of change.  You left your native Michigan behind, though you still consider it 'home'.  You got taller and started to notice that girls were different.  You struggled a lot in school but you also triumphed too.  You are starting to form your own opinions and habits, and for the first real time I see my own choices etched on your reflection.  I fear, in many ways, I have failed as your mother.  I have not given you enough of my time.  I have not instilled faith and integrity well enough.  I have shown you how to be lazy and thoughtless, how to forget and procrastinate.  I have shown you impatience and anger far too often.  I wish, sometimes, I could go back and erase all of those bad things and replace them with what I should have done or said.  But I can't. I hope I have also shown you that mistakes are part o...