Wednesday, March 28, 2012

I don't care.

Here are some things that I should care about, but I don't...  Because I'm tired.


Sure, go for it.  
1.  When I am vacuuming, and there is a sock on the ground, sometimes I try to just vacuum around it and not pick it up, which takes way more energy.  That never works.  It gets sucked up and I don't care.










2.  I always turn on the garbage disposal when the sink is full of dishes and I have no idea what's at the bottom of the pile precariously resting against the food grinding blades.  It's always a spoon in the disposal.  All of our spoons have roughed up parts, where the got chewed up by the blades.  Only the spoons ever fall in.  We are always buying new spoons and it never fails that every single one gets chewed up.


3.  My kids don't always brush their teeth every night.  Okay, I have to say, I care about this, but my husband doesn't.  He just wants to get them to bed as fast as possible, and be alone with me.  They always say, "I'll brush them in the morning, mommy."  (No cavities, don't worry!)
This is just scary.
4.  My kids don't believe in the Easter Bunny.  Nope, just couldn't do it.  I think it would be freaking scary for them to think a huge rabbit comes into our house in the middle of the night.  I think things like the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy, diminish the power of  Santa, which they do believe in.  Santa is a Saint and Jesus wanted all the children to have presents on HIS birthday.  We don't push the chimney thing.  He's magic.  There is magic to Christmas.  We all feel it.  The Easter Bunny is scary.   They know we hide the eggs and they even help me fill them.

5.  My kids like to watch TV.  I don't let them watch stupid crap like Sponge Bob or anything like that. Yo Gabba Gabba freaks me out.  I don't allow any shows with people dressed in big weird costumes,   (except Sesame Street).   If I think a show will only kill brain cells, and not grow at least a few, they don't watch it.  PBS:  Arthur, Curious George, Caillou..  Nick:  Max and Ruby.  The Hub:  Strawberry Shortcake and My Little Pony.  They love Modern Marvels on the History Channel, and Myth Busters.  They watch the History Channel.  They love Cupcake Wars and decorating shows on DIY and HGTV.  They even like Project Runway. Michael actually insists he is going to make me a beautiful dress all by himself,  he just "needs my sewing machine." "Mommy it will be a special dress and you will look beautiful."
Just no.  Just say no.


They like to watch TV and I let them watch TV.  Too much TV.


6.  Stella calls Springfield "Sprinkafield" and we don't correct her. It's too cute.  


7.  My kids see me naked all the time.  We have a very private yard and no neighbors.  We go naked in the hot tub and whatever.  There is no mystery.


8.  We have never had a big party for our twins' birthday.  No little kids have been invited.  Small immediate family dinners and cake, and we sing to each of them separately at the very moment they were each born:  6:33 and 6:34.  This is a special moment between them and us.  We would rather be alone, just our little family, than with anyone else.


9.  My children spend 90% of their time at home in just their undies.  They have never liked getting dressed, and especially feel more comfortable in undies when home.  They play in the yard in their undies.  Last year they called warm weather "undie weather."


10.  I shop online when we have no money...  Now this bothers me greatly and I feel extreme guilt afterward, but at the time of pressing confirm order, or place bid, I don't care.  I feel good.  I want that stuff.



Thursday, March 22, 2012

Zombies and Blasphemy.



"It's a dead issue when you stop talking about it.  Let's move on for christ's sake!"


Someone just wrote this to me recently and there are a few problems I have with both sentences.  Let me start by saying one should never take the Lord's name in vain, but it's particularly offensive during the Holy season of Lent.  I can't stand people who just throw around "Jesus Christ," like it's an expletive.  I'm pretty sure using it as an improper noun does not help any situation. 

Ash Wednesday: Beginning of Lent.
I'm guilty of minor blasphemy.  I have always had a habit of exclaiming, "Oh my God," but every single time I do, I remember my mother telling me, when I was a little girl, "You shouldn't say that.  God thinks you're talking to him now and you had better have something really important to say."  We're Catholic.  The Act of Contrition opens with the words: "Oh my God, I am heartily sorry, for having offended thee."


Yet, in contrast, my students think it's hilarious that I say, "What the hang?" which apparently I learned from my grandmother.  By the end of the school year, they all say, "What the hang?" instead of "What the Hell/F#$K?" (They learn many important things from me).


Save your brains!  Communicate!  
And secondly, I don't think any issue can just be buried.  It always comes back when people and emotions are involved.  When you try to bury them, they just come back as freaking, really scary zombies.


Better to talk all your issues through as soon as they arise, (and every time they arise), or you're suddenly --with no warning what-so-ever--going to find your brains are being eaten.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Avalanche.

Yesterday I was in the basement doing possibly the 10th load over the last two days.  On one side of me was the clean laundry table, (piled almost to the ceiling), and on the other, the dirty laundry, which had been dumped on the floor, was almost up to my waist.  Avoiding the basement and pretending this problem didn't exist had not been the best idea.  And in my head, I was trying to blame Sam, who was always bringing laundry down, dumping in on the floor, and then coming back up with empty baskets, like he'd accomplished something.


"Did you move the wet stuff to the dryer?  Did you put a new load in the washer?"
"Yes," he always replies, and NO he did not do either of those things.


I get really fired up when I go down after a few days of him "doing the laundry" to find the same stuff sitting in the washer from a few days ago, which now needs to be rewashed because it smells funny.  What a waste of water, and oil to heat the water, and... Grrrrr...  Then I remember that I was protesting my plight and didn't just come down here to do it myself. My fault. My fault.
M and S diving into mountain of clean laundry.
        
So, there I was surrounded by clothes, and towels and sheets and blankets, and I just sat down on the dirty laundry and cried a little bit.  But doing that, just like avoiding the basement, was not productive.  My life will consist of doing laundry, all day, every day.  That's my life now.  I left teaching to do laundry...


Yet today, renewed with my purpose, I brought all the clean laundry upstairs and dumped it on the freshly vacuumed rug in our family room, ready to fold it all and put it away.  "I'm going to do this," I thought,  "Yeah!"  As I went up and down from the basement, one basket at a time, I felt sweat on my brow.  I have a terrible cold right now, and I was really feeling tired.  Whew.  My children were instructing me where best to dump it so they could jump from sofa to table to pile.  It's all still sitting in a huge pile, down there, although I feel like I achieved something by getting it out of the basement.


But now, I kind of want to cry again.  Because all of that fabric down there is a result of all the shopping I have done. Whether bargain buys or not, a lot of money was spent.  I look in my closets and think, How much do I need that money right now?  If I could undo all the shopping, I would.  I don't need any of it.  And I would have a whole lot more money, and a whole lot less laundry.