So I Was Just Thinking

Today is a school holiday. Most holidays there is still daycare, but today there is no daycare. Today my son woke up telling me that he has a toothache. I looked where he is pointing and there is already a filling and a crown. I can't imagine what else could be wrong there, but sure enough, that side of his face is slightly swollen. This happens when there is no dentist available and when I will have no more sick days on the last week of school. The whining and whimpering begin. We move on from this to the backyard. "Mom! Caitlin won't push me on my horse swing!" Whaa Whaa Mmmmwhaaa. This is followed by a shout to my thirteen year old to go push her brother. Next comes the park. Mind you, it's 98 degrees outside, but I figure he needs some more run around time. The whining starts about the tooth again, and I remind him that he will have to take some Tylenol (store brand since it is all recalled) when we get home. He tells me that Tylenol is for when you are sick. ...

It is 16 minutes, but worth it.

My life is pretty much chaos most of the time. The laundry is never done. The kitchen is never truly clean. (The moment it's clean, someone comes along to mess it up.) There are very few areas of life that I have control. Today I had a brief moment of anxiety because of a little chaos that happened today. I had just bought a package of permanent color markers so the kids could color some "stained glass" pictures to hang at home. It was a classroom of 2nd and 4th graders who have been reading buddies all year. There was a cart with Sharpies and a table with Mark It pens. Each student could come and get one color and then put it back where they got it. They worked really hard to keep the Sharpies and the Mark Its separated, but no one told them that placing the pens in anything other than color order would make Mrs. Victory completely INSANE. By the end of the class, the pens looked like this: I didn't feel better until I made it look like this. They are still not ...

I have such good friends, always sharing things with me to help me prep for my long awaited trip to Norway. (Insert *sigh* now who are ready for me to go so I can stop planning.) Well, in a series of clicking blog loves of Norwegian friends, I encountered Hilde Iren . After my posting on her jewelry blog, she caught on that I was headed to Norway in just 1 month, 3 weeks and 3 days. :-) She has since shared with me a neat railway to the top of Bergen and today sent me a link to this video. (It is from television show.) (I can't get the video small enough, no matter how I size it.) It is just lovely, Hilde. Thanks for sharing it with me. I tried to add it to my blog playlist but there was only one song that featured her and it wasn't this one. I will have to add it to my traveling playlist when I get an iPod. Just 1 month, 3 weeks and 3 days more and then you won't hear me planning it, but then you get to put up with me sharing all my great travel pics. Get ready!

Today, we had to drive an hour and half away find a pair of gold shorts for Caitlin's dance routine. She had a pair but lost them at the last competition. James had to be dragged around with us and was very well behaved. He entertained us from the back seat. First, he decided to make a paper airplane. I don't have a picture of it, but it looked a little like this: Remember he is only 5. Then, he said, "Now what is it?" Can you see it??? No?? It's a shark. Finally, he showed me this: Do you see it? Give a guess. It's a saw. Later as we were winding our ways down the country roads, we encountered the usual dead skunk. We usually hold our breath until we think it is safe, but James came up with another solution. He hummed. Every time we came across a skunk he hummed. He hums one long note. Try it. Find an onion or something malodorous and hum while it is in front of your nose. See if you can smell it. I bet you can't because humming require that you exhale. ...

So I was reading Jacque's post on Little Red Studio today where she let people know about a sweet giveaway over at The Vintage Workshop . I hopped right over to see what was up. Well wouldn't you know it they were talking about gardening and sponsoring a giveaway of some goodies with a vintage gardening theme. You should pop on in and visit them. Great stuff. So it got me thinking (as I am prone to do) about the last time I tried to garden. I have decided that I have a black thumb. Everything I try to grow turns out bad. The only one time that it seemed it was going to turn out fine, we had to move before the potatoes matured. :-( So I dug them up and showed my daughter what had become of them. It was exciting, but after everything else that I killed, I decided that gardening is probably not for me. The gardeners in my family are my mother and her sister. My mother loves container gardening, mostly flowers, but she does have some herbs growing out front. Her sister however, do...

Passport - Check Travel Guides - Check Language CDs - Check Plane Reservations - Check Hotel Reservations - Check, Check Tranportation Arrangements - Check, Check, AND Check Great Travel Companion - SUPER CHECK! Things left to do: Finish working summer school Buy travel clothes Buy comfy shoes Look up Trondheim activities Clean house I have been chatting with Miruspeg via email. Planning, deciding, collaborating. Do you want to go by bus? Is this hotel okay? What do you think about staying this long here and there? Doesn't the train sound like fun? Oooh! Check this out! If you were inside my head, you would have to be a ninja to avoid the flying thoughts. Thank goodness for the internet. In the past, a person would have to rely on a travel agency, word of mouth and travel guides from the book store in order to plan a great trip. Where would we be without Google Maps , Expedia , Google Search and Google Translator ? This vacation started out almost three years ago as a wish, a drea...

This week started with James having a fever and having to go to the doctor. Normally a fever doesn't bother me too much, but this one was accompanied by big red cheeks. Every indicator said, Fifth Disease. Mom took James to the doctor who checked for strep with the in office "quick test." She said no strep and that it WAS Fifth Disease also known as Slapped Cheek disease. She said if his fever was gone the next day, that he could go to school as it was no longer contagious. However, he needed to stay indoors ad sunlight exacerbates the rash. Tuesday, I took James to school and gave them the doctor note allowing him back to school along with a note from me asking that he stay indoors the remainder of the week. When I picked him up after school, the teacher said everything went fine. Wednesday, I went in with the same instructions, but this time when I picked him up he was covered in head to toe dust - an indicator that he had been outside. I questioned the teacher in the ...

I saw this on Marit's blog : REPOST YOUR 10TH POST Feeling A little nostalgic I decided to play along. The Simple Things It's the simple things that make life worthwhile sometimes. Example 1: Today I was looking for supplies in my cupboard at school when I realized that I had an unopened box of Girls Scout Thin Mints. There they were just calling my name. I was good and resisted tearing open the box and having a handful right in front of my students. Instead, I waited until I finished my healthy lunch of Progresso Chicken Soup, carefully pulled out three and enjoyed them one by one. I did have to resist the urge to leave the open box at the table and eat them freely from the box. (A habit I broke many years ago.) Example 2: Another simple thing is the ability to hit the snooze bar. I love it. It feels like I am getting over on someone. Sure, I have to wake up early to enjoy this, but somehow it is worth it to be able to slap that button a couple of times. Otherwise,...