Her saving story.

I was all ready to go home with my new family. My mommy told me that is just what dogs do and she told me that I would be taken care of. This was a new chapter in my life and I was really looking forward to what new adventures I would embark upon with my new family.  I was brought to this big house and they kept me inside. I had to learn how to go outside and that was ok.  There were lots of children.  This was going to be great!  While it was noisy, it was nice to be loved and the children could not get enough of my attention.  But then something changed.  There came this new dog. She looked white as snow and she got bigger than me fast.  We ended up being put in a cage by the front door.  I looked forward to being put out by the tree where I can stretch my legs and see the world outside my little cage.  I would spend all day out there and it was not so bad because I could still see the children and there were other children too.  Life was still good. Sometimes I knocked my water or food over and it would be a while before someone checked on that but it was ok. Life was still good here for me. 

The next thing that happened was the fluffy dog went away and a new dog came. He was little like me but had long hair and was not a puppy like me.  We stayed on the porch for a while but then our cages were moved behind the house.  We would spend all night and most of the day in our cages. It was still not so bad. Only when it rained and was cold.  We slept a lot and got let out most days. I had a chair I could sit under and I had my water and food then.  I was starting to think that there should be more to life than this, but, then again, I was being taken care of and it is not so bad.  I don't think.  What I didn't like was that, when it rained, my cage got water. My people tried to put something on top of the cage but it did not keep the water out and they didn't come see me so much. Most afternoons, they would let us out but when me and the hairy dog would try to talk to our people (who were at the front of the house) they would not come and see us.  Sometimes one of them would come and talk to me but not for long and sometimes there were mean children who would come and tease us.  There were people in other houses nearby and they would talk to me and I would talk back but it was not so happy anymore. I started to get sad. I tried to be happy on most days. Especially the days I would go visit my chair.  The sun would be warm and it was not so bad. Not really. I dont think it was.   This is how life was for a really long time. I wondered if there were other things to do. I seen a white dog next door and she would run around and be free. Ah, to be able to run like that. Maybe that was just something my people did not think I needed but it would be wonderful.

Then, one day, my people came to me and they picked me up and gave me to that lady that lives next door. She smelled strange to me but had a warm loving grasp. My people said bye to me and patted me on the head. I wondered what was going to happen to my friend. What was happening to me?  This lady, I had seen her before playing with the dog next door. She always cleaned the yard over there. She also always talked to me. How did she know that was what my people called me?  She immediately took me into the house where I see the dog next door come close to. She put me in water and I was terrified but it was clean water and it did not have a funny smell to it. Well, until she put this green stuff on me that turned fluffy white like clouds. I was really scared and did not want to be in that box anymore with the water. I did find that her voice was soothing to me and she held me with those nice, gentle paws that people have.  I was not long in that watery place before she took me out and wrapped me in this soft warm thing. It took all the water away and she took my ratted collar off me. I was glad to be rid of that thing. It was itchy and smelly. Wait. The water place took away the itches I had! Wow! I was given food and allowed to roam about the house. This is nice. It feels perfect in here. I even was allowed to meet the dog that I had watched for so long from afar.

These people had little people who played with me and guess what?  I got to run free in that yard just like the white dog and I have a new friend!  These new people call me Mollie just like my old people did and my friend is called Roxie. This is great! I love my new place. I have a blanket and am not left alone all the time in a little box. I get to run free in the yard and it has toys and is so clean! Sometimes I see my people from before. Most of the time they don't see me but when they do they wave. I try to tell them to come see me so I can tell them how great things are but they do not seem to be too interested. Sometimes I will even forget who they are and bark. I try not to forget but I am so busy being with my new people that I cant keep it in my mind who they are. I guess they will always be there. I cannot dwell on the past. I have loyalty here. I am loved. I am fed. I am warm. I am special.

Life is good. Make the best of it.

The hotel gurus of the beach are what will bring forth the Zombies

I went for a ride the other day with my Calvin and we decided to cruise along Ocean Boulevard.  For those of you that have not been to the beach in the last 5 years, there has been a great deal of change in the infrastructure and aesthetics of the Boulevard.  It was approximately 10 a.m. and I noticed that it was rather cool for a sunny August morning. Then, it occurred to me.  There is no sun on the Boulevard?  This is because, when the city opened a construction window, all of the smaller hotels were replaced by behemoth hotels that literally block out the sunlight unless it is high noon.  Upon further inspection, I realized that it was on both sides of the Boulevard that these buildings had been placed.  This would mean that the only sunlight to reach the street level on this road would be at…wait for it…high noon.  That leaves a very small window of sunlight for the street to be lit up. 

I found that to be horrible.  People come to the beach for sunlight.  Not inner city appearances.  I understand the need to accommodate more people, I do, however it is terrible to decimate the landscape like that.  Not to mention the fact that you are quite possibly changing the weather patterns for miles inland.  The breeze off the water is wonderful and it makes for quite a windy area when the wind has nowhere to go but up.  Some of it will not go up but waift around on the beach front for a while before dying down.  This makes it warmer further inland when the only wind in the forecast comes off the water.  Sure, it can come in through the space between the buildings but mother nature is a finicky sort and is not too fond of people interfering with her art.  She gets angry and lets humans know with her wrath. 

Why would a greed sumbish want to do that and cause economic hardship that could ultimately hurt his own pocket?  I may be grasping for straws but let’s look at the big picture here.  The buildings at the waterfront reach to nosebleed heights.  Then there is no sun on the Boulevard and you affect weather patterns that come off the beach.  The weather patterns themselves can be catastrophic if there is a massive hurricane or tidal wave.  Even flooding could hinder the foundations of the buildings and end up in required condemnation for repair.  Then you affect the weather inland.  For the farmers, they have to find other ways to protect their crops and even spend their hard earned money on different equipment to irrigate their land to ensure that their crops are growing properly.  If they are spending their extra money on equipment due to scorching weather patterns due to unnatural fixtures at the beach, then they are not going on vacation to come and spend money in your shiny new hotel that you just built on the beach.  In turn, they have to raise the prices on their goods or sell their land off to developers which results in higher prices for the consumers and allows for consumers to purchase things other than going on vacation from the homes they already have.  Higher prices for necessary goods like food and clothing causes consumers to travel less and they will not come to the beach either and stay in your shiny new hotel because they are too busy trying to survive on the money they have and are only purchasing necessaries. 

Now, all your stuff in this new behemoth of a building is shiny and you may have the nine pools and other amenities.  But people come to the beach for sun, sand, and surf.  You are creating a society of cave babies because they are too busy spending time in doors and not enjoying the relaxing areas that mother nature provided for us to use in the first place.  Cave babies will turn into zombies and then we have an apocalypse on our hands and you definitely get no riches then.  If a zombie apocalypse occurs, life goes back to a simpler time and those with the big face money in their pockets and no idea how to survive are no longer rich and become the bottom of the food chain or even a zombie themselves.

These rich hotel owners spend their lives sucking the life out of people by making money the most important thing ever and forcing people to aspire to some material god that they fail to realize they are their own downfall.  What kind of world is that to live in?  Where do we go from here?

I know that, without a doubt, my family will survive and will be quite “wealthy” were there every be some catastrophic thing as a Zombie Apocalypse.  Thanks frivolous hotel owner for bringing it upon all of us.  If I ever see you being chased by one of your creations (Zombie) I will sit on my roof top and chuckle.  No worries, I will use your newfound “friend” as target practice….after it is done with you.

What do YOU think?

My Hot Beverage Part Deux

Those of you who are my dear readers know my affinity for coffee first thing in the morning. I made a discovery regarding my morning ritual. 

I have discovered that while I am a morning person, I am not so much without the warm mug I carry through the house as I get my morning routine going.  This morning, I thought it would be nice to do my morning chores (feed the dog, chickens, fish, scrub the dishes left from the midnight marauders, sweep out the barn, etc.) WITHOUT my tasty hot beverage.  The whole intent there, was to enjoy the coffee while I was sitting at my desk ranting about other things that I have had bouncing around in my head for a couple of days. (Sorry, this is a digression I don't want to take right now because it will go off on a tangent I am not ready for yet.) Boy was that a big mistake. I even reached the point where I forewarned my dear Calvin that I would bite as I had not had coffee yet.  What a brave man he is, however, he still approached me with a warm hug and kisses even though his life was in danger.  This is why I married him! (Ok, there is the digression! Hehe.)

Point being, my discovery is that I am NOT a morning person at all. Well, without coffee I am not one. I am a vicious, snarling, black widow who has been backed into a corner and is ready to strike when you get too close. In reflection, I was not very nice this morning. However, I have calmed a great deal as I have to reheat the second portion of my preferred hot beverage.  Yes, reheat.  Go ahead and get the ews and yucks out of the way. Part of my coffee routine.  I do the same to those of you with the foam and the double mocha lattee with just a splash of some other black oily substance.  I get about as fancy as putting flavored cream in mine and call it a day. Yea, I have tried that other crap but to tell you the truth, why am I going to get up, get dressed, fight the stupid drivers, stand in a long line and spend eight dollars on a cup of coffee that is truly crap once it becomes cold. Those things are not reheatable and I can take my eight dollars and drink coffee for the whole damn month and never have to deal with stupid people before I even get my caffiene injection in the morning. 

Yea, yea, it is trendy to put a second mortgage on your house to visit your favorite barista first thing in the morning. Go be trendy.  When my house is paid for, and your doctor tells you no more caffiene, you will think again about that 8 dollar mug of YOUR steamy goodness in a different light huh?  By that time, I will be paying only taxes and insurance on my home and sitting on my porch relatively stress free with my preferred hot beverage (likely decaffinated....**shudder**) watching the grand children play in front of the house smiling. I will be retired and you will still be trudging away AND, likely still at the local coffee shop every morning.

Ah yes, me and my tasty hot beverage. Friends for LIFE!

What do YOU think?

I love my hot beverage.

Every morning, without fail, I wake up and am unable to officially start my day without my first hot beverage. Coffee. Similar to many people in this world, coffe is a staple in my home and life is simply not plesant with out it. I absolutely love it with my 8T of french vanilla, irish cream, or caramel creamer. (Preferenced in listed order.) After the first sip, I can face the world and life is good. **Excuse me while I go put my fathers "tea pot" on with some water to boil.** Now, I have come to the conclusion that life is just as good ending the day with a different hot beverage. I prefer hot chocolate. In the past, I was not hip to hot chocolate in the winter. While I enjoyed them then, I prefer to have a cup o' cocoa on a nice summer evening as a perfect end to a summer day. While most people have tea or a drink, I prefer the old stand by. I have discovered that it has become more of a habit this summer and it is a great way to relax for the evening. I love it almost as much as I love my morning coffee, actually. I guess it was a given since I don't mind my sodas warm and can drink on a 20 oz soda for the better part of my work day. Normally that starts out ice cold, right out of the cabinator, it is not necessary for it to remain ice cold. Are there benefits to drinking hot beverages? I would certainly like to think so. However, I put enough fattening junk in mine to warrant any healthy promotion off of such a waste of time. If I am out of creamer (or marshmallows) I will simply have my beverages just as they were conceived for. Plain, and black. I have even become accostomed to having my cocoa made with plain water. While the watery variety of even the top shelf cocoa varieties is less than brain sparkly, it will suffice just the same. I guess you can say it is the experience. (Yes, you can say the morning is more of necessity but the evening is truly the experience.) Conversely, I prefer my water to be ICE cold. I find water that is anything warmer than just below freezing to be absolutely awful. Not sure where that came from. I am VERY picky about where my ice comes from. So picky, in fact, that I refuse to take ice in my drinks at any restauraunt or fast food establishment. There is a story behind that. Let me explain. My first job that was working for corporate America was in one of the more popular fast food chains of the time. It was with in walking distance of my home and it was the perfect job. I was used to working for family and was exposed to so much more of what the very fabric of this country was made up of in the REAL working world. During my first few months of working at this wonderful establishment (at $4.25 an hours, seriously! A servers wage by today's standards,) I noted that the icebin that normally hangs on the side of the ice machine had a slanted flat bottom and would stand on its own were it left on the floor. (UCK!) One day, during a particularly busy Saturday afternoon, I noted that the ice bin was not hanging on the side of the ice machine but, on the floor. I then watched a co worker (who had worked there for at least 2 years) pick up the ice bin, scoop it into the ice and then proceed to walk it to the front counter and fill the ice pockets at the cash registers. Absolutely beside myself, I then looked at the floor which was slimy with grime and stamped gook from the grill area. I about croaked! I vowed from then on NEVER to get ice from a restauraunt. If I "accidentally" get ice, I will refuse it and make the person fix me another in a different cup. Mind you, I worked in food service and I know some things. If you allow the person to take the cup back, they will dump it out in the drain and use the same cup to fix your beverage with no ice. NOT GONNA HAPPEN. Ah, but I digress.... Back to my hot beverage. I now hear the water boiling happy in the tea pot. In reality that is simply a small sauce pan. Nothing bigger than to hold a standard can of green beans. Just small enough for an amount of water for an evening beverage. As I sit here and watch the steam come out the rim of my mug, my mouth anticipates the hot chocolatey goodness it contains. I fancy grabbing my mug, my King novel, and a blanket. I will curl up on the couch and wrap up another day. All with my hot beverage. Yes it is made with water today and yes, it is truly an experience... What do YOU think?

OCD. It is in all of us.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Or Obsessive compulsive disorder. Or obsessive compulsive disorder.

I know that this is what some people would consider a disease.  Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is where someone constantly does some habit over and over again in an attempt to maintain control of the world around them. While that is not the standard definition, that is my layman’s take on it. I believe that we all are a little OCD about things in our lives. Some have OCD more than others.  I believe it becomes an issue or something that is considered wrong with the person when the world notices and becomes bothered by the behavior or the mere doing of the said behavior becomes so exhausting for the person doing it that they are unable to live a normal life.  For my dear readers that know how I love to have my nose stuck in a book, you can expect a story reference in this rant. You can pretty much bet it is also from a King novel.  “Ayup” as King’s characters often say.  You nailed it.

This one story in Just After Sunset was so obsessed with counting, touching, and placing things, that it became exhausting to even breathe.  Every step was counted and it had to be even numbers, every color, lines and circles of objects meant to ward off evil, checking and quadruple checking every lock in the house to ensure they were all locked.  Not THAT was exhausting just writing about it.  There is true OCD. Textbook even.  Still there are others that have it and can be noticed by those around them or have become so accustomed to the behavior that they can actually live and not let it overcome their entire being.  Psychiatrists would say they have a control on the OCD behavior.  Maybe it is something like washing their hands all the time or lining up a pile of something that is randomly sitting there (a pile of buttons, for example.) Even so much as to not walk on painted pavement or step over the cracks in the sidewalk.  Those are not so bad. Not so crippling. Maybe hurtful every now and again when the cracks are to infinite to step over or around or the whole damn parking lot is painted over…solid.  That could certainly lead to a bad day. I understand that.

However, there are even others who KNOW they have an OCD behavior but are not so overcome by the event that it is catastrophic if it is not done properly.  They do try to exude the same behavior whenever the need arises, but they are not stressed out by the fact that it did not go according to plan. Let me explain this one because I can partially relate.  Let’s say, for example, you have a bag of m&m’s.  There are five colors in said bag. (I know these are not the exact colors, this is just an example folks.) These colors are red, yellow, blue, green, and brown.  While sitting in a meeting, everyone has a bag of these chocolate covered bits of heaven to keep them occupied and awake during the most boring meeting of the day. Now, most people would either pour them into their hand out of the bag, pluck them out with pincher fingers one by one, or dump them on the table and randomly eat them.  Not you, no way.  There is a method to your madness.  You have to dump them out and either separate them into piles by color or line them up in straight lines by color. You always eat the browns first (your least favorite color.) Then proceed to yellow, red, green and the blues are always last.  Yes, because green and blue are your favorite, even though all the candies taste the same, you do this with every bag of m&m’s you have ever eaten. They are just better that way. 

Of course, the people around you notice what you are doing. But, it is not so bothersome that they stop what they are doing to gawk at you. Afterall, you are only eating your m&m’s and you are not too noisy about it. Maybe even the person to your left will lean over and say “OCD much?”  That is not going to bother you. You may even accidentally eat a blue one first. That is ok so long as there are still blues left for the very last.  This is not wholly life consuming, nor is it tiresome behavior.  It is just something that makes you happy for the moment and it is not taking over your life. Besides, next time, you will NOT eat a blue one by mistake before all the other colors are gone. It didn’t kill you.

Even further down the spectrum, there are ones who have some sort of OCD thing going on in their life and it may be so ingrained into them or such a valid part of their personality that nobody notices it. Even the person with the behavior does not notice it either. This is not as simple as putting your seatbelt on every single time you get in the car to go somewhere.   It is something like ensuring that your pen is sitting on your desk in the perfect spot while you are talking on the phone at work. It can even be that when you put your shoes on, it is always the right and then the left.  It is not a skipped heartbeat if it is not that way, just makes you feel better is all.

My query here is this:  What happens to people that makes them surge from the minor end of the spectrum that I just described to the other end where it takes over their entire being and they become so stressed about it that it simply wears them out?  It has to be some sort of experience that triggers the behavior for that to occur.  I can pinpoint what happened in my life that has me so off about mildew in the shower or anything but a pristine toilet.  But what horrible thing can possibly cause someone to believe that they have to have that sort of control on the world around them. So manic to the point that they have to continuously control everything.  It makes me tired just to think about it.  I can certainly feel for those people because living life to its fullest and keeping up with normal stuff can be tiring. Not to mention it also depends on how busy you are.   I think I am going to look into this further because I find the topic fascinating.

Am I sounding like a nerd?  Well, of course because (secretly) I am!  Off to the people that know about this stuff! I am definitely going to rant more about this topic. 

What do YOU think?

Relationships

I had a co- worker mention that she would like to read something about relationships. While I am no expert, I wondered: Did she mean ships that were relation? OR relations that had ships? OR simply relatives and their ships? OR vice versa?  Ok, so maybe she meant social or love.  Ya, that is not something that I am adept at providing information about but let us see what my warped mind can come up with.  You already got my two cents about ships and relatives. Not that any of my relatives HAVE ships or are even remotely close enough to purchasing one, it was quite witty. (If I must say so.)

**Love**

I love my husband dearly. I love my kids. All of them are why I breathe. I love my dog. I love my various other pets, plants, siblings, and my parents. I even love my mother in law.  All of those are very different situations.  Being said, that means that I assume my take on this one would be to live right and the rest will follow.  Don’t try to fix something that refuses to be fixed. (My sister hasn’t spoken nicely to me in years.) Also, don’t walk away simply because it gets too hard. Every relationship will run into rough waters. It happens.  Especially between those who are in love with each other.  I can tell you, my husband I have been through thick or thin. But we have never walked away from each other and said “I quit.” For us, that is NOT an option!   We just keep chugging along. I guess that attributes to our longevity as a couple! J

I have nothing more on that particular subject. I am no expert. I just know what is right for me. Each situation is different and it is all a matter of trial and error.

**Family**

Not speaking to a sibling?  What about your kids?  Try to fix it if you believe it to be necessary. If the whole spat is something silly or this long complicated thing, just let it ride. There will come a time when you will need to speak to each other and that may be the day that things will come full circle.  Blood is thicker than water and while some blood may never be happy around each other again, that may be for good reason or no reason at all. Just live life right and to the fullest and the one who is in the wrong will see the err of their ways one day.  You will see.  No expert here either but this is what is working for me.

**Pets/plants/strays/other things**

If you don’t have some sort of bond between you and your pet or a connection of sorts or if you simply hate them; get rid of them. They need to be loved too, just like humans and they DO have feelings.  It is not right to simply have a pet to bring out and put away as you please. Would it be fair to lock your children in a cage when you did not want to deal with them?  Well, the same goes for your pets. If you don’t have time or it is not in your heart, find a better or more appropriate home for them.  While it may be a hard decision, it is the better one. 

Plants?  The same. It drives me up the wall for someone to get a plant and not try to keep it watered. It is not horribly difficult to do. Some plants you just water when the soil feels dry, others you water more often. Most store bought plants come with instructions on how to water and what kind of light they prefer. Like anything else, it is trial and error but, if you do not have time or you are travelling a lot, give the plant to someone who will care for it. They are living things too and need care just as a pet or fellow human would.  Heck, when I was a kid, I was convinced that talking to my plants helped them grow. What I didn’t realize was that it helped me too because you can tell a plant a secret and they will never turn on you!  While a bit eccentric, it is great therapy! I promise!

Strays?  Well, this is something else entirely.  You can feed a stray once, but they do come back. If they find it a very cushy deal for them, they will bring friends. Be careful in doing this because it may cause issue.  Also, turtles belong in ponds. This is especially true if you find them in your yard or on your porch.  Just take them to a pond and turn them loose. No lost love there. Easy peasy.

Other stuff?  Stuff is just stuff. While you may have a heirloom or sentimental value, it is nothing compared to your own life and do not let your stuff consume you to the point of intervention.  The first step of letting go is always the hardest but you find it easier the second and third time. It is ok to keep things and keep little trinkets that are sentimentally significant, but do not take it to a level where it damages you and your other relationships…or relations with ships their ships will sink if you load up their ships with your stuff and they will not want to be related to you anymore….

What do you think?

WAR....Good God Y'all.

I found myself watching a music video which had used scenes from  the movie Saving Private Ryan.  This video was also set to my favorite song and that may be what has me started on this emotional rant. While watching the video, I found it to be quite graphic and began to imagine how horrible it would be to actually live through something like that.  I am not referring to survivors remorse or PTSD or any other after effects of war but just to have the experience and the images that result from it burned into your memory until you either lose your mind and forget or pass on.

I have never been a fan of war and find it silly that there are people willing to go fight and put their lives on the line for some aristocrat (or politician, if you prefer) that they have never met. All for the sake of “saving the country.”  Are they really doing that or are they pawns in a chess board that these evil leaders have and are being pushed around to see how much chaos they can cause for the peons that depend on them to rule the masses.  It truly is something to think about.  Think about it I have. ALL DAY LONG.  There was some lag time at work and we were sharing YouTube videos to keep each other ‘s momentum for work.  Usually, they are funnies but this particular day it was all music.  Not so interested in what other people listen to, I went on my own and began watching the video I mentioned earlier.  Since then, I have been thinking about this war issue and it is eating away at my very gut because it is a horrible, horrible situation to put people in and they go into these thing so willingly and blindly and come back disturbed, maimed, damaged, dead, or not at all.

Looking at the excerpts from Saving Private Ryan, it was a reference to the D-Day invasion at Normandy.  I am certain the movie creators did their best to depict the raid historically accurate and with the technology available during that particular war, people were watching their team mates and friends blown to bits not even inches away.  That is something I cannot even fathom.  To be in the middle of all that fire and all that destruction; trying to cover your own ass and not get killed yourself and to turn your head and see the person you have become best friends with or the person that “has your back” simply explode into bloody hell has got to be a very sobering experience, no matter how cold hearted you are.

Yet people do it…..every….single….day.

For powers that are who could care less about them as an individual. Only that they are of the masses that are sent to fight a war that likely started off as a spat between two spoiled people with a bit of power underneath them to intimidate and show that they can run things. Horrible, horrible, horrible.

Now, for you readers that know my philosophical side must know that I am to touch on the whole good vs. evil argument and the Utility of it all.  Because of the very nature of humans, they have to have some sort of control over things or there would be mass chaos.  They even have to exhibit control over themselves or there would be no such thing as good at all.  Life would be unbearable and mortality would be as close to triple digits as it can get without eradicating the whole species.  So, there must be control and not everyone is a leader.  Those of us who choose to step back and let others do this messy business of being leaders remain the sheep, or the pawns in the chessboard for the ones who WANT and DO lead (yes, not can and are able to because not all leaders can lead and not all leaders are able to lead,) to push around and play their sick little game. I refer to it as a sick little game because when people find themselves in positions of power, they tend to become corrupt and use it for a personal agenda instead for that of the greater good.

We have the evil people in power pushing the “good” people around the chessboard. These good people would continue on with their lives without even knowing that there is a spat going on amongst them in power and would not care in the least about it. HOWEVER, the powerful use the masses to push their agendas of greed and such and it directly affects the masses and they are pushed into the conflict. When that happens, the masses become aware of the powers conflicts and begin to form an opinion of sorts while others simply go off to fight whatever fight they have been sent to fight blindly believing that they are doing something for the greater good.  Maybe it is to protect their own lands but they are away from their homes and families.  In the modern world, that is protecting the home land from afar but at what cost?  Yes, there are horrible bombs and things that are capable of mass destruction but when there are multiple nations involved, what is it really protecting? Sure, we have so called friends and allies that we have agreed to help when they are being bullied by another country but, think about it.

You are fighting in a war because those in power are having an angered dispute about something political or some selfish disagreement has occurred and those people are causing YOU….the insignificant non leaders in the human race to go an risk your lives to watch yourself be horribly disfigured or to watch someone you have come to know as your friend or acquaintance blown to bits right in front of you.  For you to sit there and inhale their blood-spray or to eat a chunk of their flesh as you scream in horror at the atrocities that are going on around you, is unspeakable.  All this mayhem while the political aristocracies are sitting in their big rooms throwing about orders that will get you and your brethren killed. You believe this is the right thing.

Here is something else to think about. Why don’t THEY go out there into some foreign land, wearing countless pounds of warfare regalia and fight amongst themselves to resolve the issues they are spatting about.   Let them spray their  blood on the sands of the beaches and end the wars that way. What then?  Would that fix it or create mass chaos?

What do you think?

Well if that doesn't condone a Hitler-cannibalistic attitude toward life.

Have you ever paid attention to that cereal commercial where the cereal devises underhanded ways of eating each other?  In a world where bullying is a real issue in schools and the great movement to actually curb such behavior, we sit back and laugh and snicker at these fool pieces of cereal.  To what end?

Is that not the very thing that we are seeking to prevent the children of today from doing?  Is it not condoning cannibalism?  What if some child, who knows no better, ends up doing that to a peer?  Then what? Blame the parents?

Yes, the parents are to blame but only partially.  It is up to the parents to talk to and teach their children the difference between right and wrong and it is up to the parents to certainly tell their children that cannibalism is not something that people in this society do anymore.  We need to talk to our children about the things they are exposed to and to let them know what is reality and what is simply make believe. We also need to teach them that some forms of behaviour that are seen on television are certainly not appropriate for action in real life.  Would you not agree that the same needs to be done when they see one of the cartoony poptart commercials?  Those commercials are teaching kids that it is alright to treat a certain type of living thing a cruel way simply because it is funny.  Those kids trap pop tarts (who are personified) in toasters and devise ways to get them into a warm place simply to toast them alive.  Well if that is not teaching torture methods, then what is?

Yes, it is funny to watch but you need to realize that some children are exposed to this and are never taught that it is wrong or immoral.  They are exposed to these behaviours and see these characters laugh and giggle at their own behaviour and believe that off the wall things like locking someone different than you in a creamatorium is funny.  What the children aren't exposed to is that you cannot take behaviour like that back. 

Exactly, it does not show the consequences of said "funny" behaviour.  So tell me, who is going to guide our future generations along the path of salvation and non bullying behaviour.  Well, it certainly starts at home, with the parents that HAVE TO TALK TO THEIR CHILDREN. We were talked to growing up.  The only difference between then and now is that we had to live life and not be sucked into electronics hours and hours a day.  As a parent, you have the control to change that and encourage our children to treat each other with respect and as human beings. Put the electronics aside and let them know, cannabalism-you can't take it back and it is wrong. Toasting those that are different from you-you cannot take it back and it is wrong.  The latter even being Hitler like......eck.

What do you think?

Trees have boo boos too!

Ever since I was a little girl, I would imagine what it must be like to be a tree in "these modern times." I was taught in elementary school that trees were living things just like humans or animals and that they should be treated with respect and not to hurt them. Plants too for that matter. I was also taught that if you were lost in the woods and became cold that you could hug a tree and it would provide you with a little warmth as it was alive and produced heat of its own. While I am not sure about that, when you are freezing even the most ridiculous would be worth a try, I'm sure.

Ok, back to being a tree. Every once in a while I look around and take note of all of the things that are made of wood around me. I am even more aware when we are in a park or something. There are houses, benches, wood piles (for fire of course,) and even the handles of some of your tools. If trees had eyes... 

Here I am a stately oak tree and I look around and it must be like a cow hanging out in a meat freezer. I see all of these things made from the flesh of my comrades and they are all put on display like some trophy or prize. How sickening it must be. Those humans will cut down a tree, make a bench and think it pretty to put it at my roots?! What do I want to look at one of my murdered own for? Their priorities must be skewed. What would they think if I were to hang one of them amongst my branches like a piece of jewelry. Of course that will not do.

I know it sounds kind of off but imagine what it must be like to be a tree today. I know they do not have eyes or emotions but, if they did. Imagine how they must feel. 

Yea, yea, I do think about odd stuff sometimes, but who doesn't. I am just a little more out in the open about my thoughts. Look at the picture below. This tree was hit by my son's pedal car a couple of days before this picture was taken. Yes, it was at full speed. By that I mean as fast as my five year old could pedal it and WHAM! right into the tree. (Gosh forbid he mess up the fence, right?) See, the tree 'bled.' It got a boo boo. A rather large one I may add. Poor tree. As humans, we take things for granted and the natural resources that are left on this planet should be allowed to grow and replenish and we should not be so wasteful. It is not like there are vast other worlds where we can go and consume them into nothing. This is the only planet we have got. 

Lets love our mother earth, she provides for us and we should respect her enough to take care of the things she gives us to survive. 

My blurb for the day, just wanted to let you know what I was thinking. 

The Marshmallow Test

I recently seen a thing on TV where they took a group of 3 year olds and gave them a marshmallow and told themt hey had to hold it but wait to eat it. Those that did wait about 15 minutes or so were rewarded with a second marshmallow and they could then eat them both.  Those that didnt wait only got the one.  Simple enough.  They they followed these children through out their lives and into their early 20's or so.

They found that those that could accept delayed gratification were less streesed and better off in their lives than those who did not, overall.

O.o all over a marshmallow? 

Well, not really, it was an experiment related to parenting styles and that the parents that successfully taught delayed gratification to their children were setting them up to take disappointments in life with great stride.  Wow, such a simple thing can teach us wonders.

It makes you really consider how your parenting style affects your children and exactly how much they imitate what they see and how they adjust to life depending on the life lessons we teach them.  I try to teach my children to be survivors and I am guilty of the instant gratification thing. However, I wonder how whiners get away with it. I mean if a child will whine enough, most of the time they get their way and if they catch on to that, watch out. A lot of nerves will be pinched and a lot of teeth will be grinding.

I mean think about it. Children are great at manipulating their parents in some form or fashion. No matter the parenting style.  They are also great at imitating what they see and the stories they hear about "when I was your age."  I have seen it happen all to often that a parent will say to a child:

"Do as I say and not as I do"

Then the child will grow up and be exactly like the parent or even worse and then the parent wonders where they have gone wrong.  I can assure you that if you talked to them a lot along the way, they will file the good things away and reflect upon them when they make their own mistakes.  So long as you have not been abusive, or horrible to them, they still may turn out ok.  They do have to make their own mistakes and learn from them. Even when they are grown you can still talk to them. Still teach them by giving them the marshmallow and delaying the second one to see their response, if they cannot wait to eat the first one before getting the second one, then you have some work to do and we as parents can still work with our children to make them better people even if they are fourty years young.

They are still your children no matter how old they are.

What do you think about the marshmallow test?  See the link below for more information:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2012/10/16/science-marshmallow-test-delayed-gratification/1636207/

Explore with your children. Let them get dirty.

I love a teachable moment with the kiddos. Especially about life lessons and doing things the way they were done without electricity.  I can assure you that, if the world were to go to shit, my children could plant and grow their own food. They could raise farm animals, purify and store their own water and rig up the house to fend off anything short of a nuclear holocaust.  They can shoot and throw and clean with the best of them. 

They can also do their math homework without a calculator and they certainly know how to read.  They also know that if there were no power, they can use their imaginations to play and make their own toys.  We have also discussed how to survive should there be no houses left either.  No, we are no survivalists and there are no "bug out bags" randomly stored throughout the house.  It is nothing like that. What this means is that we are teaching our children the basics of being self sufficient.  They can also make their own cooker out of wood and aluminum foil and other things. Yes, they know all about technology and can fix a computer with the best of them and they have their electronic gadgets and know how to operate a computer and a calculator. We do not prohibit those things, but if there were ever to come a time for survival. I know that our children can survive without assistance or help from a stranger. I know that they can grow up and figure out things on their own.

We let them get dirty and dig holes and let them color and paint with melted crayons.  That is what children do.  They argue and fall down.  That is what baths and band aids are made for.  They are allowed to fix their own disagreements with each other to learn social graces and human skills.

This is all something that many kids do not know.  I cannot tell you how it makes me cringe for a mother to break out the hand sanitizer every time her kid touches something off the ground.  They do not have to get up off the ground at the playground rolling a ball back and forth because it is "dirty."  I am here to tell you if you stop treating them like porcelain dolls, there would be a lot less asthma, allergies, and other things that people spend their whole lives with.  Did you know a vaccination is an injection of the disease it is seeking to prevent you from getting? If you take your children outside on a regular basis and let them get dirty from time to time, they will be a lot less sick in the long run.  They will be exposed to the stuff that gives people asthma and allergies at an early age when there are no issues and they will not become allergic to them simply for a lack of exposure.  It will also give them room to grow because they will run and play and simply be children. 

Each of my children went on an exploration day in the yard with me  when they were crawlers.  I found a nice day, took the baby outside and we explored the REAL world around us.  We lifted our faces and felt the warmth of the sun. We felt the bark on the trees and watched the ants crawl in the cracks.  We felt the grass with our hands and our feet. We felt the warmth of the sidewalk in the sun and the cool of the driveway in the shade.  We twirled a leaf between our grubby little fingers and blew a dandelion weed and watched the seeds. We pointed at squirrels and birds and bugs.  We felt the wind in our hair.  We felt the difference in the feel of the shiny leaves from the trees and the roughness of the rocks in the ground. We let dirt sift through our fingers and felt the running water out of the hose from the side of the house.  We didn't die.  We didn't get sick.  We went inside, washed our hands and went back to playing with our things.  However, the baby learned about the world and learned more than anyone will ever know.  Further, there was a special time only you can share with your child.  For me an mine, it was a day of discovery.  A couple of our children hated the way the grass felt on their feet and one other loved rubbing his feet in it. You learn something about your children.  How their curiosity works as well as discovering things on your own about how they perceive the world.  One of ours shied away from the bugs we were looking at.  This helped me figure out what would give him the willies-he seen a bug and they make him spaz out because he is afraid of bugs. 

I exposed them to the REAL world and I let them get dirty a little bit. That is what children do. It is in their very nature to be curious. They want to play and jump and run and explore.  While it is up to you to keep them safe and be their parent, let them play and jump and run and explore.  Further, explore with them. It is one of the best things you can do. 

What have you done with your child today?

Don't move to the beach. Its a trap.

Living at the beach is not all it is cracked up to be. Sure, if you have lots of money and are in the upper middle class it is a whole lot easier than living amongst the cogs that actually make this place work. For the longest time, I could not understand the idea of someone coming here for a visit and getting left then fully believing they are "stuck" here for no lack of a way home.  You have feet right?  Wrong.  Once you become a cog of the machine, it reels you in, sucks the lifeblood out of you and never lets you go.

Never.

The work is seasonal, you cannot afford anything and you have to work like a slave during the season just to barely scrape by in the off season. Even then, it only works if you can save your money and not let anyone know that you have a nickel to spare.  That leads to the lifetime beachers.  Those that have accepted their fate that they are here for life or those that have spent their entire lives at this beach and have no ambition to see other places or simply leave.  They are like vultures sitting on the side of the valley just waiting for you to drop dead so they can peck your eyes right out of your face.  They move in on you at the slightest twitch of weakness and then they hone in for the kill and suck the lifeblood out of you and then you assimilate and become one of them. Lifeless, bloodsucking, feelingless wretches that do nothing but suck you dry and leave your carcass for the wind to carry it out to sea.

For a long time I loved it here. It was nice to be able to go to the beach whenever you felt like and I love hot summers so this was a great place for me. But then we moved here and I still loved it but it slowly changed for me.

They became the predators and I became the prey.  There were other factors that led to the change however, this is the overpowering cause. My family was happy and we had everything we needed.  While we had not yet purchased a home, we had each other, we got along and there was not any strife among us. Then things began to change. These people are needy.  No, I am not talking about the ones that have things going for themselves.  I am talking about the cogs of this society that have to work for a living and scrape by from check to check.  They look at us 'outsiders' and say, "hmmmm....they have more than me.  We shall change that." And like vampires in the night, they do everything they can to make that happen.  They call at all times of the day and night and expect you to take them all over hell and creation.  This runs up your phone bill (if you are on an allotted minute plan, otherwise, it is just nuisance,) it puts a great deal of wear and tear on your car if you become their taxi service and they want to borrow shit.  ALL THE TIME.  You get promises of gas money and for return of your things and that will never happen.  Then they figure out what your schedule is and do everything they can to interfere with your home life with the incessant ringing of the phone (shut it off, now NOBODY can call you,) dropping by, take me here at 3 am.  Its bullshit and rubbish and needs to stop.

But it doesn't beause you write this person off then the next one does the same thing.  How can people live like that?  Do they not want better?  I have lived many places in my life but never one like this.  They also like to play mean jokes on people but that is for a different day.  Have you ever lived in a place that makes you feel like you have found Rancid Armpit, USA?  Tell me about it....

Sesame street got me to thinking.

 I just sat down and my little desk racking my brain.  I had a severe case of writers block this morning. I had to take the day off because of an ill child. (Not a happy day for my pockets.) I came across a post from a Lawyer I am acquainted with and it made me think a little bit. (Ugh, and I have only had TWO SIPS of coffee.  Ya, I had to turn the fan on from all the smoke.)  At any rate, it is pretty sad that we have to add a new muppet to teach children about how to deal with and talk about incarceration.  Yes, it does rank right up there on the "that sucks" ladder with death and divorce when a child has to deal with a parent being locked up.) 

Viewing that post made me think about a time when I had to teach a group of girl scouts about divorce and being a step parent.  I actually got thrown into that discussion and was caught quite off guard. I had went on a weekend camping trip with out oldest girl and about 60 other third, fourth, and fifth graders.  While I loved to tromp through the woods, many of us were quite worn out by the end of the first day.  We did a scavenger hunt on the grounds of the camping area. When we were all hunknering down in our sleeping bags on the floor of the cabin, I chose a great place where I could sleep up against the door. Strategically chosen so as to be quickly ruffled when an intruder decided to open the door.  Looking back, I guess that was the perfect place for me should I have chosen to bolt when one amazing child decided me to ask a doozy of a life question.

This lovely little girl looked me square and said "How come you are here and her mother isn't? (As she points to our oldest child.)"  O.O  I wanted to run at that point because it did not occur to me that every single child that was in that room had BOTH of their parents still and I was a step mom. As I scanned the room, every single set of eyes was upon me awaiting my response. This included the half dozen other moms that were accompanying their respective children on the trip.  In hindsight, this was one of the first of many obstacles of being a step parent that no body tells you about or mentions when you read the accompanying pamphlets advising you of what you should and should not do.

Being the child that I was, I took this and went with it instead of being mortified.  After my initial shock at such a question, I talked only to the child who had the query but spoke loud enough for every one to hear.  I began to explain to her that sometimes, mommies and daddies are not happy together and that they have to move on or separate and live apart.  I went on to explain that while some mommies and daddies do not live together anymore, they are still mommies and daddies and that they do not love or want their kiddoes any less than before.  It was like story time because everyone remained silent until that one little girl was satisfied with my explanation.   I told of how they make separate lives but still want to include their children and how there are now two houses that most children have.  Kind of like having two rooms and two separate sets of stuff.  I even told her the ones that really have their childrens feelings in their mind all the time, even get along better when they are living apart because they do not want to fight all the time in front of their kids.  Sort of like best friends who are not best friends anymore but just ok friends.  I explained also how important it was in our situation for me and Anessa's mom to get along and that she could not make it cuz she had to work so I was like the "substitute teacher" that everyone likes.

That little girl finally had a lightbulb moment and said "OK! I get it now!  You are still a great mom!  Even if you are not a real one!"  I took that as the best compliment I was going to get because I believed that some of those kids thought me to be an intruder as I may have been perceived to be an intruder of sorts.  Later on, I was told by some of the other moms that I did wonderful with the situation from the night before and how they could not have handled that so eloquently.  PROUD MOMENT!!!! 

So, for those of you who are step parents.  There are moments that only you will have and only you will endure but hold your head up and prosper.  Because it is in those moments that we become stronger and even closer to the children that are ours but they are not.  Each step family has their own challenges but you are still just that: a FAMILY and while I love mine, they are still MINE in my heart!  We may not always get along but we do have our endearing moments and that is when the appreciation for each other shines like no diamond ever can!  I will never trade that weekend for anything in the world.  Anessa and I became closer that weekend and it was a good beginning for us as her father and I had only been together for about a year or so.  We had a blast and each child and both Anessa and I learned something.  It is one of those great step family moments that are few and far between.

I raise my glass to my fellow step parents and children of such. It is a learning process, indeed.  Remember, your kids will even call you Mom sometimes.  While the meaning is different, it endears just the same. :)

Proud moments as a mother.

Not long after we moved to the beach, I had set a cheese board to smoulder on the stove.  Calvin was at work and I was sitting with the oldest son and youngest daughter assisting them with their homework at the dining room table.  It was dinner time. You know mw, Ms. Multi tasker (even at seven months preggo, I was pretty good at it.)  Well, the dining room table was off from the kitchen, sort of in the living room.  It also happened to be about five feet from the back door.
While cooking, I happened to turn the wrong burner on to boil a some water.  Ikept a small, wooden, cheeseboard on the back burner and THAT was the burner I turned on instead.  While we were not in the kitchen, it had a chance to fill our small kitchen up with a great deal of smoke. Then the AC kicked in and smoke just ROLLED out of the kitchen.  Everything else seemed to happen at the same time.  At the instant we noticed the smoke, the smoke detectors went off.  I immediately knew what I had done as I do that chit all the time. So I got up an took two steps toward the kitchen.  My mind was racing and focused on getting that cheeseboard off there and into the sink before it burst into flames. At the same time, I also thought of the kids. I turned around, and CJ was still sitting at the table...totally not knowing what was going on. I am certain he knew exactly what I did.  There was not a fire....YET.  I turn to look for Alyssa and all I see is the back door swinging.
I lean just a little bit to my left and see a tiny face of a five year old, about twenty feet outside the back door trying to get a glimpse of what was going to happen next.  I will take the time to tell you I could not have been more proud of our baby girl in that moment. I immediately took care of the cheeseboard, no fire, just a lot of smoke. Whew!  Then retrieved our daughter and covered her face in smooches and filled her ears with praise.
She had done the right thing.  In hindsight, it was cute and funny because she got the Hell out of Dodge Jack!

Now, lets move forward ten years:

My dear readers know that I am a WAH professional and I work from home.  The other night, I was working and a thunderstorm came through.  Just after I shut down my computer and systems, there was a terribly bright lightening strike as well as horrible thunder.  I heard my kids in the next room scrounging around.

When I finally got everything settled, I walk into the hallway to a pitch black house. What happened next would have been a good scream scene for a horror movie (provided that I screamed, of course.)
The darkness began to speak to me in children's voices. O.o....I held up my phone as I was not near a light switch and seen that my children were all sitting on the couch, in the living room, in the dark.  Well, well, well.  I found out later that Alyssa corralled the children to the couch and turned all the lights off to be safe during the storm.  Another proud moment, I must say.  However, when the ten year old got up to use the bathroom, (I had joined them in the darkness, of course, it was quiet and I was NOT going to pass that up) he turned the light on so he could see.  Here comes Alyssa "All that electricity!!!!"  Hahaha.  Yes, she was being overly cautious, but she was being safe all in the same breath.  Yes, Momma is proud!  Daddy taught her that and she absorbed the safety knowledge well.

I am confident, as a parent that she will be safe and have an emergency plan when it comes to nature bringing forth her rage.  I can only hope that it will spill over into her interactions with people when she goes off to college or begins to have a more colorful, (yikes, and even less structured) social life and as an adult.  We parents spend our entire lives teaching our children to be safe and to be their own person and can only hope that the values we establish for them to mirror are the good ones and that they apply them to their own lives and go on to be productive adults who get to live long, healthy, and happy lives.

This is the direction I believe our daughter is heading in and I could not be more proud.  What proud moments have you had (like these) with your children?

Have you ever had a moment that was potentially catastrophic and hilarious all in the same moment?

Write letters to your children. Often

This morning, I woke to some movie where a group of kids were graduating high school. I imagine it was one of those where they did some epic journey to get there and they have come to the realization that their lives are all about to change. No wonder I was pondering the things I sat on the side of the bed and realized.  As a parent, they were very sobering thoughts.
While I know everything that my children are doing right now, something finally sank in.  In the same year, we have one (our youngest) graduating Kindergarten and another about to start high school.  Still the third is about to transition from the little kid to the big kid and enter the fourth grade.  I have one word for that.
                                                                            WOW.....O.O
Our children really do grow up so fast!  I know that they will always be my babies.  My heart holds that to be a fact but they are becoming their own people.  While this has been quite an eventful year so far (for lack of a better description,)  I cannot help but celebrate their achievements and be their biggest fan.  Even with the oldest two out and doing their thing, they are all still my children and I am still their mother and I could not be more proud.  Love your children folks, no matter how distant you are and no matter what they have done.  They are a reflection of yourself and you should be so proud.
One thing that I have done over the years is I write letters to our children.  No, they don't get them and I am not sure if they will ever read them.  However, if they do, I certainly hope that their love of reading will kick in and it will be the best read ever!  I know, you are all like: Wha?????  What I mean is that I do write them. I write them often and every chance I get.  While this was supposed to be some exclamation on my death bed, I want them to know right now that their life stories will be chronicled through my eyes so be on the look out for that when I go home to live with the angels.  I write these letters and I keep a chapter for each of them.  Sort of my gift to them when they are grown.
I write these and I put them aside.  I want them to know the joys, heartaches, and celebrations I had as having the best job on earth. Being their mother.  No holds barred folks.  Anger, joy, revelation, and simple observation encompass each page and I can only hope that they will even read a few.  I have always believed that the best story is your own. No matter what ups or downs you may have had.  I think it to be the best thing I can leave them. No amount of property or money or bequests can replace what your life story is.  Oh, it is illustrated too. Pictures, school work, write ups, little things from the heart they gave me.  That is the whole purpose of a file cabinet.  Not to hold receipts and important documents but to hold MEMORIES!  I love it when I go through my moms things and she has the little things I have given her over the years.  Especially true as a kid.  For example...She has this treasure chest thing.  She would always let me play with it when she would clean out her jewelry box.  Fond memories there.  Inside it right now is some trinket I gave her as a little girl.  Some years back, some lovely person created this "floam" stuff.  We allowed our daughter to stay the summer with my mother and when we picked her up, that treasure box was covered in  the stuff.  Artfully done, it still has that intrepid junk on it but I look at it and imagine the memory of MY daughter sitting next to her grandmother on the bed as they went through the jewelry box and the treasure chest was given new, colorful life with floam.  Memories are the best. Even a bad day is made better for just a moment by a great memory.
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNGGGGG, mini digression there. (Pun intended.) It is never too late to write letters to your children.  Even if they are teenagers or grown for that matter. WRITE THEM!  You have so much to say if you are not starting the day they were born!  Most of us do it (in a fashion) anyway if we keep a baby book through age five.  Why stop there?  No, there is no strict schedule.  Just when the moment behooves you to do so.  They can be a half a page, a few sentences, or a mini chapter.  Write them!  Let them know where they are in your golden years and make them promise not to peek until you are their angel watching over them.  It will enable them to remember the good times and to see themselves in a different light. Through their mothers eyes!  Yes!  Nobody sees them quite like their mother.  What a wonderful gift to give your child.
Write them when they are little. Write them when they get married.  Write them when they fell down and got the "biggest boo boo ever."  Write them for no reason.  Write them because you have started when they are adults and you have so many stories to tell.  Write them to say "I love you and I am proud" and nothing more. Anytime will do folks!
I know that many may not even like to write and that is ok.  Leave them something for them to know you were in tune with them no matter how busy you may have been.  Over the years, there are flowers, drawings, simple little what nots that were given to you from the heart and for your children to see them again when they become their own people it something that would bring joy to their hearts.  All of the no's, and groundings, and attitudes will be forgotten and, just for a moment, they will remember what you are...........Mommie! (Dads can do this too, it is not limited.  Just because I am a mother, I am writing to the fellow moms out there.)

Back to Work Reality Check

I have been back to work about three weeks. I understand that it may not call for a reality check and no, I have not been out of work for years. It has only been about two months. I have finally found another WAH job that I love and it is certainly keeping me at 40 hours a week.

I fail to remember that working at a job you love does take up a great deal of your time and you no longer have the luxury of doing things like you did when you were not working. I feel that people should work at least a little bit. It keeps idle minds from getting up to no good and it keeps you focused and goal oriented. I remember when I was not working it was simply a chore to get up and actually clean the house! Yes! Now that I am working. I still have a momentum built up when I get off work and am able to at least straighten up and get dinner and laundry started.

Of course I sound like a career stay at home mom. I am!  Only that I have a forty hour a week (getting a paycheck) kind of job and that is just like getting out of the house and going to the office everyday. Only I do it in my fuzzy slippers!

Working from home is a lifestyle and not many people are prepared for it because it takes dedication and some changes in your current lifestyle to ensure that it is successful. Many people believe (erroneously) that they can work from home and still have the daily interruptions of the dog barking, their children constantly in their face, or even be able to get up and run to the door should someone ring the bell.  That could not be farther from the truth.  You have to have the gumption to sit at your desk your entire shift and work.  That is what they pay you to do. Especially these companies that pay you by the hour and they take out taxes like a regular paycheck.  They pay you to work and you need to be at your desk working.  Whether it be chat support, phones, or letter writing, you are paid for the time you are working and it is a real job.

Sure, there are draw backs.  Nobody wants to have the highlight of their day to be the point when they get out of the house to go to the store for a soda run.  That is no fun.  There is a delicate balance that needs to be considered and it takes some practice to put it all into play.  While the opportunity for more hours is endless, you do need to make time for yourself and your family similarly to how you would do at a traditional office job.  It just takes a bit more effort than normal.  Also, don't fall into the staying in your jammies all day either. That is a bad habit and not healthy!

So, while WAH is not for everyone, it is a great opportunity to do something that is beneficial to American society and it brings the much needed customer service jobs back home. Just don't mess it up or the great companies that provide this service for their clients and employees will go by the wayside much like traditional jobs have been sent to South America,  India, and the Phillipenes.  Keep these jobs at home.  Literally!

The dresser never had a chance against rage.

After experiencing one of the most mind blowing weeks I have had in a long time, I have to sit down and reflect upon how I am going to pick up the pieces of my shattered demeanor and continue on.  I have just experienced a nightmare involving three of my children and various accusations and other anomalies to our lives.  While they range from the grave to the trivial, it has thrown a great wrench into our lives and now it is up to me, their mother, to pick up the mess and continue on.

Due to the fact that I am unable to get some me time that is quite often noted as necessary by scholarly sources that give advise on parenting, I am unable to find ways to properly proceed in letting off a little steam.  However, there has been this dresser that I keep failing to put on the side of the road come garbage day and it is driving me nuts that it is broken, unusable, and still in the room it has always been in. Upon the notification of the event that caused a great deal of chaos for our youngest child, I could not stand it anymore and the dresser had to be done away with.

We have had this aluminum baseball bat that someone left at our home some years back.  There is not one person in my home that has any interest in baseball other than a passing fancy.  Boy, did I ever give that bat its worth today.  I took that grotesque dresser to our back yard and took that baseball bat to it and totally shattered it and took out my frustrations accordingly.  I must say it felt pretty good. I even enjoyed the cleanup afterwards.  Quite nice.  It was such a rush that I even had to vomit in the corner of the yard when I was done with the demolition.  With stress spent, energy caput, and bat bent all to hell, I began to clean up and felt much much better about the whole thing.

I happen to think that everytimethere is a piece of furniture that is no longer useful in my home, I will beat the crap out of it to relieve some stress.  As I no longer have access to a gym, this worked just fine for me. Now I will be able to take the next steps to rectify this mess that my family has found itself in.

Remember when you see movies where the character is punching the crap out of a punching bag? I imagine this to be the same. Simply ghetto style.   What types of unconventional stress releivers do you do?

Decay begins at the foundations.

When I first began this blog, it was about social decay and my experiences living in povertial america.  A recent roadtrip to pick up my mother reminded me of the very basis of those early writings and the dismay I have at our world today.

When we travel, we tend to drive off the beaten path.  This is to enjoy the beautiful country side and to allow us to become enthralled in the conversations we have with one another while on the road.  Too often, I will see delapidaited buildings in deserted farmland or the promise of a shiny new apartment complex or some industrial building for future benefit of society. I say rubbish to all of that.

This very farmland and the old buildings that occupy such are the very foundation upon which white america built this country.  So far wrapped up in greed we are that we fail to remember where we came from and simply contrive to chew up the resources around us to later spit out like long forgotten garbage.  What in the sam hill have we done?  So many times I hear about how the polar ice caps are melting and the Co2 levels are increasing and all those lovely pictures of children rummaging through mountains of garbage for a mere two cents to eat with. Bleach.

Have we failed to realize that, currently, this is the only planet we have and if we fail to respect that and all that it has afforded us we fail as a species?  Mother nature will find a way.  She sees what we as human beings have done to her lovely cradle she has provided and will one day seek vengance on the very ground all of us tred upon.  Have we failed to understand that we did not learn from the mistakes of the coal powered trains and the hole they sent up to the ozone layer?  Oh, sure, lets put up a few thousand coal powered electricity plants because they are "cleaner!"  CLEANER???????  What in the flip is cleaner about something that allows for the vital oxygen we need to breathe to escape our planet forever!  No wonder we are a society of asthmatics and disease ridden souls.  We are slowly killing ourselves and our children. 

Ugh.  Ok, I have become overy ticked and cannot finish this.  I will be back with more later.  Just had to vent a little.

Mother Nature Needs to Change her Drug.

I love some of the pictures that I see posted on Facebook  I am particularly interested in the effects drugs have on spiders and thanks to my Doctorate in education that I have received from Facebook U, I am full on aware of these effects.  One of my favorites is the one that shows how a common house spider will make a web after being exposed to things such as marijuana, lsd, speed and (my favorite) caffeine. 

This leads me to wonder if mother nature has found said spider's stash and has made the weather of 2013 something that we have to think about.  It has truly been a cold year so far.  We have had a sprinkling of those days where we even become unreasonably optimistic that it is going to be nice from here on out and everyone pulls out the shorts and flip flops. (Well, not me, I wear them year round.)  Only to be smacked in the face with a cold blustery day.  Today is no different.  It is colder than a ducks nuts out there to be late April and for it to be Earth Day, it is ridiculous   I remember having crazy weather but this is certainly something that makes me believe that mother nature has taken a dip in the old cocaine stash of our dear spider.

Or some such nonsense.  I wholly underestimated the cold blustery that was going on outside this morning and dared only a t-shirt.  While I recalled what it was like yesterday and know from experience that it will not drastically change overnight. I did put long sleeves on the boys and allowed Joshua his normal Hoodie, head covering, and gloves combo.  That child STAYS cold so that was nothing new for him. But I tell you the cold was biting me this morning. By the time I got to the bust stop my chin was even cold. I was all like....chatter.....chatter.....O.o.

At any rate, I guess we are going to have to make more of an effort to halfway believe what the beloved weather man says on the news every night and morning. It is the only way I certainly am not going to run into that problem again.  I tell you, cold without snow is uncalled for. What is worse, is that this kind of cold is certainly insane this time of year. I don't do cold well and am so ready for the warm to begin.  I know, you don't want to hear me screaming about the blistering heat this summer but that is what fans are for and I am so ready for warm to be here, I cannot convey it to you in this forum

So, lets all make our wishes now so that this crappy cold weather will go away. At least for a few months. 

The Future of Tech Support

Many of you already know that I am a technical support representative by trade.  Good times.  Goooooood times! (Cosmoism) It never occurred to me that the children pay attention to what I do when I am at work. Yes, I work from home doing this stuff.  In every technical support situation or any electrical "fix it" situation, you begin with checking that it is plugged in properly and unplug everything and then plug it back in one piece of the equation at a time.  Simple stuff.  That will fix about seventy five percent of your issues then it goes into the more complicated stuff.

Before I began to do this, the way to fix things was to beat the holy crap out of the thing or kick it and pray that it continues to work for at least the next three months or so as you begin to save funds to replace the thing being stupid in the first place.  What did your television ever do to you?

With all that background, let me get to what I am ranting about.  I often worry about what our number nine is going to do when he becomes a functioning member of society.  I would hate to think that he is going to work at a fast food restaurant for the rest of his life as a burger flipper.  I know he loves his video games and taking things apart and he can pick apart a game to the very stitch.  That is something.  There are actually jobs out there developing video games and what not.  His math skills are excellent and he loves math period!  If reading were to be as fun for him as math, he would be dangerous! (The next Dr. Sheldon Cooper???) So we talk about that a lot and he loves electronics.  Great!  There is a future there at the moment.

I was sitting in here on FaceBook (what else do I do with my free time?) and there must have been some issue with the living room tv as I heard the following conversation:

Nine: Joshua! Don't hit it! That won't make it stop!
Six:  But that fixes the other TV!
Nine: I know but we are going to try something else.
Six: OK.
Nine: Turn the TV off first, then the cable box and let me check something.
Six: ***turns off the TV then the cable box***
Nine: I have to check and make sure it is plugged in to the wall. We may have knocked it loose playing Xbox yesterday. ***Grunts and mumbles as he crawls behind the TV stand to check the plug***
Six: Can I turn it on yet? I wanna watch Robot and Monster!
Nine: NO! Let me get out of here first. We are going to turn things on one at a time!
Six: ***pouts*** Ok.
Nine:  Ok, now, Turn the cable box on first
Six: ***pushes button***
Nine: Now turn the TV on.
Six:  Yay!!!!! We did it!  It works!
Nine: Told ya to listen to me, we have to do it one at a time or it wont work. You don't have to hit it.

For my fellow WAH peeps that have worked in Tech Support. You can imagine how proud I was sitting here listening to that interaction!  I was beaming so loud you would have thought the Sun came to visit my office.

Anyone else have a WAH story to share?