Missing the South

Happy Fat Tuesday, ya'll! I am missing the deep Southern culture this time of year. The yummy stickiness of King Cake, the spice of boiled peanuts and the fabulous parades throwing beads, stuffed animals and moon pies into the waiting arms of my cheering children. Ahhh, Mardi Gras, how we miss you. I did purchase a King Cake this year, but had to find one at a specialty grocer. ...sigh... and when your children reminisce about how they miss their Mardi Gras school break, you know we're missing Alabama.

So a little feel of the Soul of the South from a band with our {{Albama}} love goin' on...

The Old Saying...

Ya'll know the old adage your parents parroted to you as a youth? It goes something like this..."if your ______ told you to jump off a _____ would you do it?" The correct answer here is "No! Of course not!". Hmmm...if your name happens to be Gavin and we filled in the blanks with "older brother" and "2nd story bedroom window sill" the answer would be "Yes, I would and did. Ninjas can jump that far." *sigh* His poor guardian angels work over-time keeping that kid out of the ER.

Reality Vs. Imagination

And the dead shall rise...no, not a zombie apocalypse, just something worthy of resurrecting my dead blog. What is worthy of such feat? Imagination. Yep, boys and girls, I have found the secret to a happy existence. Imagination. The secret of life is learned from a little child. My beasties have a LARGE repertoire of imaginary scenarios to choose from. The idea occurred to me last night as I was tucking my youngest son into bed. He insisted on wearing a black cloth around the lower half of his face due to the fact he was the "lightning ninja" and ninjas wear black masks. After explaining he might just suffocate during the night and there could be nothing more un-ninja like than that, he settled for clutching it in his hand with the promise of wearing it in the morning. Why would this inspire me? Well, what I haven't explained is he also didn't want to go to bed until he realized ninjas sleep is also like training...you need energy and ninjas can sleep anywhere, anytime (ok, there might have been a little brain washing from me on that one). He decided bed wasn't such a bad idea. Hmmm...maybe we're onto something here. Yep, this morning the wheels were turning and I thought I'd try a little of the imagination thing for myself. And let me tell you, it is AMAZING! See for yourself.

Scenario: I am lounging in my bed.

Imagination: I am lounging in my bed against soft and fluffy pillows dressed in a lovely grass green peignoir. My hair is naturally, of course, cascading softly over my shoulders in large curls and I am darlingly fresh-faced after a rewarding night of beauty sleep. I am relaxing to the sounds of my children laughing and playing downstairs, while I read an enlightening book and munching on calorie-free bonbons (uh, lets make it red-velvet cherries from Albanees, yum).

Reality: (brace yourself) I am lounging in my bed against soft and limp pillows-probably due to the fact they are not much more than dust mite fodder. My hair is a relative rat's nest, yesterday's curls are not handling beauty sleep becomingly. I am not wearing a beautiful peignoir...I am wearing an old tee of Kit's and exercise pants-hmmm, smelling slightly stale...could be due to the fact I have worn them to bed a couple of nights already this week or maybe because my sheets need to be washed. Could be. I know I have dragon breath and the darling sparkles in the air are caused by dust fluttering down from the blades of my fan as it spins. My children are playing together downstairs, but the laughter is starting to get that shrill edge to it, a sure indication of intervention needed soon. No enlightening book, just me clicking away on the laptop, And no red-velvet cherries. Sigh...probably a good thing since they are not calorie free and I would be stuffing them down my throat as fast as my greedy hands can scoop them up. I am chewing on a broken nail, though.

See, imagination is so much better than the reality! The images make me smile...

You may think my reasoning silly, but when I'm smiling sweetly as I separate laundry (Imagination: I'm Cinderella {a beautiful dark-haired version} sweetly going about my chores my wicked step-mother created for me) and you are begrudgingly doing yours, you might just buy into my secret of happiness.

'Tis the Season

And for some reason I am not feeling jolly. Could it be my shoes are too tight? I don't know, but I've been less than into Christmas this season. I started my shopping/budgeting late this year and I HATE trying to figure out money and gifts. Ugggh...if only I had an endless budget to give the best gifts EVER. I know I'd be an amazing gifter. It is my favorite thing to do!! Sigh...Behind and feeling stressed is not how I wanted my season to go. I had grandiose ideas of the things we'd do and experience and I truly haven't accomplished anything much. Blahhh!

BUT, the true reason for the Christmas Season has been smacking me upside the head quite often. It probably started out with Josiah coming to me and asking the "truth". I believe in coming clean, but also reminding him what Santa is all about. And, Josiah had no problem catching on. In fact, he has been teaching me the lessons. He has been so excited in sharing the joy of Christmas with his brothers. He helps out with Jean Luc (our special Cajun Elf on the Shelf) and gleams with joy when his brothers giggle when they see the funny places our elf hides. He has hemmed and hawed over his Christmas list since he knows when funding for gifts comes from. I have had to remind him to still write a list, Christmas miracles happen. He has come home with treats and ideas from school to share and help his brothers get all excited. And then, he even offered his money. I was looking online making lists for the boys when he noticed what I was doing. He remembered Gavin has asked for a DS this year. He knows they cost a lot and so the next thing I see is him coming towards me with his birthday money in hand. Being the sweet brother he is, he offered it up to help us afford Gav's DS. I told him not to worry about it, but he persisted and finally explained he wanted Gavin to have the best gift and wanted to help out. So willing to give. So willing to love. Thank you Josiah for a sweet lesson on selfless giving.

You gotta watch out for cracken, the weed and Sonic

Another post minus pictures...awful, I know. It is because I used up all of my picture energy printing out a gi-normous stack for my little bro on his mission. Sorry...energy all depleted. So, ya'll get a little post of words. But at least I AM posting.

This past couple of weeks have been red ribbon weeks for my beasties. Gunnison came home shaking his booty to a rap "no, no, I won't do drugs 'cause I love my body too much!" Yes, little pale Gunner had his gangsta moment. Gavin came home full of quips on how drugs hurt your agility, memory and other necessary skills required to perform well in the ninja arena. And then Josiah came home full of good, accurate information. Stuff like "you gotta watch out for cracken and the weed. Mom, that stuff is bad! Cracken makes you all crazy and the weed makes you see things...yep, you better watch out for cracken and the weed." Cracken, huh...hmmm...better make sure I help him understand the real terminology. Wouldn't want anyone offering crack or coke to him and him be like "sure! As long as it's not that cracken stuff. You gotta watch out for it!"

And Sonic...I sure gotta watch out for Sonic. The realization that I am addicted to the jolly Happy Hour at Sonic kinda slapped me in the face. Emmeline is getting quite chatty, mostly gibberish, but real words and concepts make there way out randomly. I noticed as we traveled down Jefferson Ave., Emme will randomly call out "dank-you!!" After a few of these, I paid attention and noticed it was as we were passing Sonic. Hmmm...could that be it? Yep, on a random act of necessary vice-ness, I pulled in and bought a drink for me and some for the beasties. I thanked the car-hop and hear an echo behind me. I pour a bit off the boys' into her sippy (yep, I allow my not quite 2 year old too sugary drinks) and hear another "dank-you". Could it be? Uh-huh. Sonic has been re-named "dank-you". Unfortunately, the addiction realization continued when the car-hop made his early college/high-school rear back to my window to check on us. (By the way, did you know they offer free refills as long as you are there? Yes, that's right. Go ahead, smile as you get a refill on your big ol' Route 44 drink. Fabulousness.) "Hey," he says with a bright-eyed smile. "You colored your hair! I like it darker." I stammer out that this is my more natural color and thank you. He doesn't even know my name, but he has seen me enough to know my hair colors. Been there a little too often. Maybe. Just a little. Gotta watch out for Sonic. It's addictive, I tell ya.

Hmmm...

You know you need to write a blog post when you, yourself, start checking the blog daily to see if a new post has composed itself...

Hmmm...I promise a post will be arriving...not promising it will be much. Sorry, just not feelin' the bloggy cleverness lately.

Noggin

I took Emmeline to her 18 month well-baby check and immunizations today (I know, she's past 18 months). She was on the 1% for height, 1% for weight and 65% for head circumference.

Hmmm...Kit is just waiting for her to stand in front of the TV screen .