Not So SAHM

Daughter Dates and Daisies

As soon as we found out our first child was a girl we started thinking about how we could maintain a close relationship with her throughout life. It was especially important to us that she have a good relationship with her Daddy. He is her example of her heavenly Father here on earth.

One of the means we are using is Daddy Dates. Du tries to take the girls out once a week to spend time with him. As they get older he’ll start talking to them about life and about boys. How boys should treat them and what they should expect from them. Reagan already loves these dates and would rather go on a Daddy Date than almost anything else.

Today I got to go on my own Daughter Date with her. Today was her first Daisy meeting (of the Girl Scouts) and we were going to see the play Charlotte’s Web. Reagan loves going to live performances so she was pretty excited about it…not to mention that she was officially joining up with the Girl Scouts. After the play we stopped by Starbucks for some iced chai lattés and a snack. We talked about the play and about other little girl talk and then went home. I enjoyed being able to spend one-on-one time with her (where I wasn’t being asked to pretend to be something, like a dog or a pony, or to treat her like a dog or a pony).

Daughter Dates are so easy to do. They don’t require a lot of forethought (at this stage) and the girls love just spending individual time with the parents. I think it fosters a deeper connection with each other as well. At least I like to think that.

I can’t wait to do this same thing with Ashlyn. Except, we’ll probably go tp someone’s house together.

NOT SO SAHM: Nominated for an award!

THIS IS A STICKY POST that I plan on keeping up here until 20 November.
For fresh, new material scroll down a couple inches.

Not So SAHM has been nominated for Best Diarist in the 2008 Weblog Awards. Nominating lasts through 19 November so can you help a girl out? Head over to the Weblog Awards blog site, Best Diarist Page. This link handily takes you right to the comment that mentions Not So SAHM. Click on the little green plus sign. You do not have to submit another comment nominating me. Just click the little green plus sign. That’s it! And if I make the nominations then you’ll have to go back and actually vote for me! I don’t normally ask so much of y’all do I? But then again, you’re awesome readers who think I’m a really good diarist aren’t you. Thank you in advance!

Flitty Friday

My mind is in about a hundred different places so a post about one specific thing just won’t do.

1. First and foremost: I just read some posts from a new blogging friend, Cassoulet Café, and they brought a sense of nostalgia and desperation over me. Her way of expressing life and her emotions and what we all feel and go through but don’t really know how to express (maybe that’s just me) really spoke to me…I told her it makes me desperate to hold onto memories and try to preserve them, to not let go because I fear that I’ll lose them.

Life is so short (on this earth anyway) and why am I waisting on the useless when I have a husband and two children to be with and Kingdom work to do. Julie, your posts (about your time with your sons…good and frustrating) leave me feeling the same way. I want to build a little cocoon around my family and be happy in it until Jesus returns. But there’s real life to be lived and real work to be done.

There will be hardship and heartache and I know bad comes with the good, and the bad can be worked to make good. It’s not a sadness that I’m feeling, but more of a sentimental alertness…like I said at the beginning, nostalgia and desperation.

2. Who’s ready for Thanksgiving? Is it really just two weeks away? I’ve got to start grocery shopping more than once every two weeks. And that’s not because I’m Miss Martha who has planned her whole meals for the month and only has to go for things like milk and bread. I can’t even get my act together to figure out what we’re eating for dinner each night. So why go to the store when I can just dump a couple of canned things along with some leftovers into a pot, heat it up, and call it Vicki’s Secret Ingredient Goulash. So far we haven’t died.

What does that have to do with Thanksgiving? Well, I need to kind of plan on what we’re going to be eating. Thanksgiving is not something that you can just wing, which I have taken quite a fancy to doing. The transformation from OCD Vicki to Lazy Loser Vicki has almost been completed. Not till after Thanksgiving please. And Christmas…presents require prethought as well.

3. People, Why are you not submitting your posts to Best Posts of the Weekyet? I blog about this every week, and will continue to do so, so you might as well jump on board. Send me a link of your best post this week. I’m not asking for a kidney or even a kid. Everyone’s got a best post, even if you only wrote one. Don’t be self deprecating. And if you think I’m writing this to you then you’re right. I’m also writing it to him, and her and her who may read this blog and not submit to the other one. (Do I really have any hims that read this blog?)

5. I’m really jonesing to go to Europe again. We lived there for four years, but that clearly isn’t enough. I’ve come across so many blogs lately from authors who now live in Europe or have so recently. I want to be one of those, but I’ll take traveling. I’m thinking it must be a God thing, right?, if I’m coming across all these blogs at the same time? I’m not going out searching for them (I really honestly am not), so God is bringing them to me, right? I love how I rationalize. I am now in the convincing stage with the keeper of the finances (which could be eternal). But that would mean that OCD Vicki would have to bind and gag Lazy Loser Vicki to actually plan a trip that wouldn’t break the bank (I can do it honey, I promise!!).

6. Also: Everyone here enjoys The Onion, right? Good. You have got to watch this. No matter what side you were on before the election you’ve got to admit there’s some truth to this. And it’s not Obama bashing. And you’ll laugh. I promise! You’ll at least snort under your breath.

The picture below is a link to a video. You must click on the picture to get the full effect. If you like you could just stare at Obama, but it won’t leave you laughing.

Thank you to Angela from The Rock Pile! Now, everyone can admit that they knew/know someone who fits that description, no? I have a particular friend in mind. It’s not you. He doesn’t read this blog…I don’t think…

Well, that’s enough. Let’s jump off this crazy train. I hope you’re still here…

The poison control number: a good thing to know

Did you know the Poison Control numbers vary by state? The number Du has in his phone is the Missouri Poison Control. Fortunately they were kind enough to help out even though we don’t live there anymore. I have since re-discovered the national number: 1-800-222-1222. I knew that it had 2s and 1s in it, but thought it was more like 2121212.

This story involves Ashlyn. Surprised? I took Reagan to dance yesterday all by myself. That meant I didn’t have a little tag-a-long friend there to “play” with me for the whole hour and fifteen minutes. She was home with Daddy who had the day off. When we got home I could tell by the look on Du’s face that he had had a stressful and tiring time (welcome to my world is what I wanted to say, and what I have said plenty of times…fortunately I held my tongue this time).

Me: How’d it go?
Du: Well, I just had to call Poison Control
Me: (Trying not to freak out because I try to be calm and collected during the crisis and then fall apart after it’s all over) Iseverythingok?Whathappened?What’swrong?
Du: Ashlyn ate some of her diaper rash cream.
Me: How much? The petroleum stuff? How much? Here, let me smell her breath…

What happened is that she got hold of her diaper cream, A&D, which is really Vaseline with some smelly stuff in it. It’s hard to squeeze out of the tube so she didn’t get much out. And fortunately she chose to eat her snack right in front of Du. She carried the tube from her room to where Du was then proceeded to smear the stuff in her mouth. He was able to finger sweep most of it out…at least we think…as long as she hadn’t noshed on it before she went to find him. He then got a wet cloth and tried to wipe her mouth out. I think the only lasting effecting was the slightly greasy poop she had this morning. At least, that’s what I’m blaming that poop on.

But I must admit, we had to call Poison Control for Reagan too when she was a toddler. She got into some furniture polish. The European kind that is a paste and very stinky. The kind that doesn’t have a word of English on it. The kind that a first-time mom is freaking out about because even the poison control specialist isn’t sure what to do. In the end she turned out ok. She probably didn’t even ingest any.

We used to have a Poison Control sticker plastered on our phone when we first had Reagan. The numbers on it slowly wore away to where it was only a white dirty blank sticker on the back of the phone. So here’s your warning to keep that Poison Control number on speed dial, no matter what state the number is from. Go check now and make sure it’s easily accessible. Because as I’ve found out two times over, even kids that aren’t “mouthers” can put things in their mouths. And it only takes once.

M is for mnemonic and other lofty words

I asked for it. Kelly and Danyelle, sisters, both took the challenge on their blogs and I wanted in. The task: list 10 things that you like that begin with a certain letter. I was tagged with M…by both of them. Collaboration? Sister telepathy? And since they both chose M I will not take the easy way out. I’m going for twenty. Here goes (in no particular order):

10 + 10 Things I Like That Start With The Letter M

Manarola, Italy (part of Cinque Terre)
München, Germany (Munich for the uninitiated. So, technically, I should have said München, Deutschland)
Montgomery, Alabama (I learned from good-ole Wikipedia that Montgomery City and Montgomery County are named for two different men…)
Mascarpone and all other types of cheese. Even goat cheese.
M&Ms (any kind really, but my fave is peanut)
Mommyhood (and my own mommy)
Medicine for headaches. Any. Please. (I will go take some Motrine right now.)
Mobile devices
Mompreneurship
Moon gazing…along with all the other celestial bodies
Munchies (not having the munchies, but eating munchies)
Mealtime (when I don’t have to cook)
Manuscripts that have become the Bible
Multiple days off teaching
Maid service (I wish)
Mo and my other meowing animal, Buzz
Memory keeping in all its forms (blogging, sewing, scrapbooking, letters to my daughters)
Matrimony
Making our way throughout the whole world (traveling for those of you not obsessed with M’s today)
Mandibular mastication of magnificent morsels

And to continue playing along I will not tag people to do this. If you think you’re up for the challenge let me know and I’ll assign you a letter. And to quote Kelly, “Probably not even Q.”

My lethal weapon

I have a lethal weapon. I don’t conceal it. I don’t warn people about it. In fact, I usually don’t think about it. I’ve gotten so adept that I usually use it without even thinking. And if we’re getting all technical, I actually have two.

MY ELBOWS

Yes, as Du and many others will attest my elbows are powerful, stealthy and downright razor sharp. I have pinged him on the head so many times we’ve stopped keeping count. At least I have. He tends to go to sleep before I do. I’m left reclining on my pillow reading (never blogging…not any more at least). So when I’m done reading I have to lean over, place my book on the night stand and turn off the lamp. Then, naturally, I have to readjust myself in the bed. More often than not I tend to nail Du in the face with my elbow while flopping around. Why does he always put his face in my way?

I’ve jabbed others as well. My daughters, my cousin, my mother, friends. No one is imune if they are in my range of motion. And you better hope vital organs (or sensitive body parts) aren’t at elbow level…as my cousin can confirm.

But as I’ve heard, we tend to point with our elbows at what we desire. So, obviously I think Du is really hot. His face at least. And my cousin’s boob.

Lethal weapons one and two. Most ladies name their, ahem…chest area. Since I have no basis to do that I will name my elbows. Except, I’m not that clever. I wanted to go for Nikita and Lolita but just now, while running that by Du, he looked at me and rolled his eyes. And Thing 1 & Thing 2 just doesn’t seem to do it. So I’m enlisting your help. Now, I fully expect Dandelionmom to pull out all the stops here and come up with two fabulous names. But she’s having her own troubles naming her new cows right now (I voted for Georgia and Talullah). No consolation for me.

Help a lethal spy out will ya?