2006 End-of-Year Meme

This is my third year doing this year-end meme. Wow! Unfortunately, the year is kind of clouded over in my mind with negativity, so I have left a lot of blanks so as not to be too boring or pitiful. If you decide to meme 2006 let me know in the comments!


1. What did you do in 2006 that you'd never done before? Opened a Baby Boutique!

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I had hoped to lose weight and found it extremely difficult. I am not giving up though, and have another plan to do the same in 2007.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? A couple friends from church had babies this year.

4. Did anyone close to you die? Only figuratively.

5. What countries did you visit? None.

6. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006? More time with my extended family.

7. What dates from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? Our Christmas visit at my mom's was especially great. This is also the year that I lost my best friend, so I'm stuck with that memory as well.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? The growth of my business ventures and book writing.

9. What was your biggest failure? Not sure. There definitely were some, though.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Probably but I don't remember much of it.

11. What was the best thing you bought? Can't think of anything. There weren't a lot of extra purchases made this year.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Can't think of any.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and disgusted? I won't go into that here.

14. Where did most of your money go? Bills, as usual.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Getting to go to my mom's for Christmas.

16. What song will always remind you of 2006? Can't think of one.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? sadder
b) thinner or fatter? fatter
c) richer or poorer? about the same

18. What do you wish you'd done more of? being happier

19. What do you wish you'd done less of? being sad

20. How will you be spending New Year's Eve? with family

21. Did you fall in love in 2006? nope

22. How many one-night stands? none

23. What was your favorite TV program? Six Feet Under

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? nope

25. What was the best book you read? Outlander books by Diana Gabaldon, again

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?

27. What did you want and get?

28. What did you want and not get?

29. What was your favorite film of this year?

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 35 and I don't remember what I did.

31.What one thing would have made your year measurably more satisfying?

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006? Wear what you have and try to be thankful.

33. What kept you sane?

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

35. What political issue stirred you the most? Political issues don't stir me much.

36. Who did you miss?

37. Who was the best new person you met?

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

So how was your Christmas?

We had a great time visiting my mom, her husband, my grandmother, and sister for Christmas. The kids had a huge blow out Christmas and are still enjoying all the goodies they received. One of the highlights of the gifts was that my mom had gotten the kids two of those kid-sized battery-operated cars plus a kiddie dirt bike as well. It was raining on Christmas day so we surprised the kids the day after with a walk outside that showed them their new vehicles. At ages 3, 5, 6, 8, and 10, they were pretty excited and rode all over the yard and driveway. We have a big back yard with a hill, so they are going to love cruising all over the place.

Since returning home I've been busy trying to put things back together. Fortunately we had the house pretty cleaned up and picked up before leaving, but there had been a lot of stuff to find places for, etc. Plus I got a big u-shaped desk from my mom to use in my office, so we had to set that up plus transfer all the computer equipment to the new location. (I spent one night til 2am working on that)

Our mouse infestation seems to be getting worse despite my efforts to leave the house with only glue traps and no food on the floors, counters, etc. Now I have learned that mice apparently enjoy raw potatoes, or at least will eat them if desperate enough. No mice caught, but I have seen them and their...evidence....since getting home. Very annoying!

I took down the Christmas tree and decorations today and am glad to have that finished. This year my kids broke about 3 or 4 ornaments, all of which were new ones we had chosen. Gladly, we don't normally have this problem, but I was tired of it and decided enough was enough.

No big plans for New Year's Eve here. I guess we will come up with something fun to do with the kids. Any ideas?

So, there is an extremely boring blog post. gag.

Recommended Films

Recently in my search for something decent for my kids to watch I turned to the documentary section of Netflix. I have been very happy to find some really interesting, clean films that my whole family can watch together.

A quick roundup:

Mad Hot Ballroom takes us to New York City where 5th graders are involved in a 10-week long ballroom dancing course. We see the children at the start of the class kind fo shy to touch or look at each other. By the end of the class the kids do amazingly well and work very hard to be able to go on to ballroom dance competitions.

I love ballroom dance and am still holding out hope that one day I'm going to get to take lessons. This movie was really fun to watch, and my kids enjoyed it too. At first they thought they would not want to watch something about ballroom dancing, but that was for about 5 minutes until they could see how interesting, difficult, and beautiful some of the dances were.

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill is the story of a kind of loner man that takes an interest in a flock of wild parrots near his home in San Francisco. Over the course of a year he manages to get the parrots to trust him enough to eat from his hands and come into his house. The parrots are very beautiful and interesting in their antics and personality, and the man is very interesting (not in a weird way, either!) as well.

Rivers and Tides is a film I watched last night and I loved it so much that I am going to see what I can do to be able to offer it in my next business, Supermom's Health and Wellness. Rivers and Tides is a documentary about Andy Goldsworthy, an artist/sculptor that works with nature to create his art. This man amazed me because he would work for hours and hours under difficult conditions to make something in nature, knowing that many of these works would be lost within hours to nature itself. (for instance, washed out by the tide) Andy has many very interesting and thought-provoking things to say about nature and art, and I felt like his perspective helped enlarge my mind to some things I would not normally have thought about.

I watched the movie with my 14 year old son and 10 year old daughter, and all three of us were very enthralled with each of Andy's pieces, and the things he had to say. It's a very peaceful movie, but not boring at all.

The filming of this documentary is probably the most visually beautiful and exquisite work I have ever seen. The beauty, simplicity, and complexity of nature are shown here in amazingly gorgeous ways. It made me think that I need to spend more time observing nature and just appreciating the perfection and creativity of it.

NOW I know what I can do about email forwarders!

I just got this in my inbox, so now I know how I can respond to the people that send me obnoxious forwarded emails. Maybe it'll help you guys too.

Moms, are you wasting your potential?

I got inspired today and wrote an article to encourage moms. It's over at the Baby Boutique Blog.

The Passion in Compassion

Two Sundays ago our sermon at church had to do with following the things God tells us to do even if we're not sure how it's going to work out. (that's a short version, I don't have the time or energy to tell you the long one)

The message brought up some questions in my mind. Do we have the personalities we have because God gave them to us? Or are our tendencies faulty by a default sin nature? How do we know when to harness our urges, and when to let them run wild? How do we balance the grand things we'd like to do to help others, with logic and practical reality?

One of the young ladies at our church is getting ready to go live and work in Haiti for a couple of years, at an orphanage that she has done summer missions work at for the past 2 years or so. The pictures of her on her trips, holding, teaching, and playing with these adorable, parentless children, only reminded me that about 8 years ago we did some serious thinking about adopting children from Haiti.

Adoption and foster care just burn in my mind, and my husband is very similar to me. We are the type of people that see ads for sibling groups that need to be adopted out of the foster care system, and our first impulse is that we should DO something. We should help. We could maybe somehow find a way to take in these kids.

I have cried many times over photos and bios of kids needing to be adopted. One day last year I was at the library and they had these gorgeous pictures up with information about these kids that need homes. I got all choked up and had to scurry out of there, feeling terrible that I'm really not in any position to add more children to my family.

I receive Above Rubies magazine regularly, and in the past year or so they have featured the need for orphans in Liberia, Africa, to be adopted. The editor's daughter Serene and her husband have adopted 6 (I think) of these children this year, and now the editor of the magazine and her husband, who are in their 60s, have decided that they, too, will open their home to more children, and are in the process of adopting some teenagers from Liberia! I was just so touched at the willingness of these people to see the need, and ask the hardest and most important question of all: How can *I* help?

I've also been thinking a lot about Zoe Children's Homes, and the extremely important work they do there, rescuing children from the evils of human trafficking. Knowing that there are good people working every day to love and nurture these children, and that they are putting their lives on the line regularly to rescue these children, well, it makes me feel like I either need to pick up and go there to help, or do something drastic to be able to give them more money. This organization always needs more money to keep on feeding, clothing, educating, and caring for these children. It is not uncommon that the worker at Zoe in Thailand will know about specific children that they would like to help, but without additional funds, they will not be able to do so.

Can you imagine the difference a little bit of your money can make?! When you can help rescue a child from the most evil crimes imaginable?! You can do this! Consider making a donation today.




Each month we have a virtue at our church that we emphasize. Yesterday I was looking at this month's virtue: Compassion. And I noticed that PASSION is the root word. Made me think once again, how am I to best use the passion I have to be compassionate to the needs of others?

I already have six children and am far from doing all that I would like to or feel I should for them. Though I would like to reach out and do more radical things to help others, I have to be passionate about my ministry I have already with my current family. But that doesn't change the fact that my husband and I care more than the average bear about kids that need a home. I often feel in suspense as to how this will be used by God in the future.

Growing Pains and Melancholy Holidays

In the past I've talked about how I'm not going to be one of those empty nesters that lives in the past and bemoans their kids growing up. It's true. I'm not! But every now and then something happens and I realize: this is one of the things I will miss. Recently I realized a thing that I am already missing. When kids get older, you don't get to touch them very much.

When they're little you carry them, hold them, nurse them, help them, dress them, hold their hand, snuggle, snooze, and are generally in close physical contact with your kids. Once they are 14 or 10 or 8, like my three oldest kids, the natural opportunities to touch them are much less.

A couple weeks ago I had this sudden, painful realization that my son (14) is growing up, and I almost never got to touch him. I actually forced him (playfully--he was laughing) to sit with me and let me hold him a little bit. Interestingly, though he pretended to struggle away from me, he seemed to like getting to be near his mom for a few minutes. I think he probably needs that stuff still but is at the stage where it's not cool to get it on your own.

One morning a few days ago my 10 year old daughter gave me a hug in the morning. It was only because she did so that I realized how rarely she reaches out to me in this way. Wow. I loved it. (I asked her "A hug! What's this for?!" Her answer? "I just realized I hadn't hugged you in a long time.")

Since then I've been more purposeful about reaching out to my older kids, making sure there are plenty of hugs. I have shared some little stories from their babyhoods with them, to let them know how greatly loved and adored they are and have been for their whole lives. I guess it's just given me a new appreciation for the time we have with our kids, and a good reminder to make the most of what we've got.

I think that if all my kids were big and not hugging me or sitting near me any more, I would probably be ill from hug deprivation. We need hugs to be healthy and happy! I believe it! My hope is that with the age spread I've got here, that I might be a grandmother and have little grandkids to love on before my youngest kids stop wanting to hug me....

As for the melancholy aspect of this holiday season, I've not yet recovered from my funk after reading Captivating. It was a good book in many ways, but for my current situation the book's message felt like one more "this is how you should be" book. You know, I can't be all deeply relating to people that don't exist or don't want to deeply relate to me! Sometimes it feels like there are just no people available to be real friends with. And that really stinks. I've been greatly tempted to just hibernate, stop going to parties, small group, or anyplace with people that could potentially make me sad. I am only continuing on with these activities because of head knowledge that I have to keep trying, to take chances, even if people let me down. It would be easy to stay home and isolate myself. I like being home! But, it's probably not the best policy for having a meaningful life.

We are planning to spend Christmas with my mom and her husband, my grandmother, and my sister. I am so glad that we are going to get to do this. I have not seen them for 18-24 months (except for one day that I saw my sister while attending my grandfather's funeral). My brother is out of the country so will not be able to be with us, which is a bummer. My grandmother lives with my mom and has Alzheimer's, so I am so glad that we are going to be able to visit with her while she mostly still knows who we are. But it's so sad to know how fast her memory is fading out, and that this might be the last time that she is really the woman I have known for my whole life. Maybe it's selfish to want those that you love to know you. I don't know. All I know is that it feels sad and hard to have your loved ones slip away, whether by death, by distance, or by choice.

I guess I'm just feeling a little hard-hit with loss right now. Despite the fact that I have a lot to be thankful for. I'm feeling stuck in a rut and can't seem to find my way out.

Why I Do Not Homeschool

I was directed to a two-part article on a blog, entitled Why I Do Not Homeschool. (Read the article here and here) Seeing as how I homeschooled my kids for about a decade, and have had one or more of my kids enrolled in public school for the past 3-4 years, I was interested to read what he had to say. He made several points about their decision to have their children in public school that I appreciated and gave words to some undeveloped opinions of my own. It also reminded me of how easily people can become polarized about the issues surrounding the education of our children.

It is tempting for many people to feel superior, defensive, or judgmental about their beliefs. In my homeschooling days I read a lot of "supportive" magazines, web sites, egroups, etc. that all fed me a bunch of extreme ideas about what happens in public schools that I now know to be exaggerations, lies, and isolated incidents. All that this did was cause me to develop sinful attitudes, to become ignorant of facts, and to delay doing what was really the best thing for my children (putting them in school).

The truth is that homeschooling is not always the best thing for kids.

The truth is that public schooling is not always the best thing for kids.

The truth is that private schools are not always the best for kids.

The truth is that other people do not know what is best for your kids.

The truth is that your kids may or may not get a good education at any school option.

The truth is that you need to think, check things out for yourself, evaluate your situation, and pray as you go for wisdom.

The truth is that you will probably make mistakes. Lots of them. Almost all of the time you and your kids are going to be ok even when mistakes happen. So, go ahead and be brave. You all aren't so breakable. Move forward, give things a chance, and see what happens.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: however your kids are educated is a tool. And the same tool is not right for every job all of the time. You may need to change tools or get a new tool every now and then. It's ok. The point is to help your kids get what they need, help your family get what it needs, and trust God if the way to get those things done doesn't seem like the way you thought it should.

Make your blog Search Engine-friendly

Hey folks,

I know that a lot of you are fellow bloggers that would like a greater readership or to make money through your blog. One of the factors involved with this is making your blog content search engine friendly.

You can get a new report "7 Tips To Make Your
Word Press Blog Search Engine Friendly” by going here.

The price is currently around $3.00 and increases a nickel per hour, so the sooner you get over there, the better the bargain. :)

The report shows you how to get your Word Press blog posts indexed within a few hours rather than a week or more. There are step-by-step instructions to make it easy for you. :)

Hope this helps!

Free Phone Number

Do you ever meet people that you want to communicate with but don't really want them calling your home?

Do you hate to give out your phone number when filling out surveys or order forms on the internet?

Do you wish there was a good way for you to avoid telemarketers?

Do you want to cut down on the amount of times your phone rings each day?

With this free service you can get a normal local phone number that will always answer with voice mail. You can personalize the voice mail with your own message. You will get an email notification when you have a new voice mail, so you'll never miss a call! You can check your messages by calling in to your voice mailbox, or you can check it online. Cool, eh?

One other thing that is fun to do with this phone is that you can use this service to embed voice messages onto your blog! Too fun! You could use it to record your baby babbling, your kids singing a song, or anything else.

It's cool for a lot of things. I like it. Check it out!

Get a FREE local telephone number!

Holiday Meme

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot chocolate

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? We never got into Santa here. Not because we thought it was terrible or anything, just that we never wanted the people that were so generous with our kids to not be acknowledged for their gifts. Our kids talk about Santa but think of him more as a guy who turns up at the fire department Christmas party and gives them a little bag of candy and fruit.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? We don't do outside lights. Inside I would prefer white lights that don't blink, but my husband wanted to let the tree be kid-friendly, so we have colored lights that do about 10 different options of blinking, fading, etc. I don't like them, but the kids think it's fun.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nope. I thought about getting some this year, but, know what? It's really kind of ugly. I decided not to.

5. When do you put your decorations up? Some years we do it the day after Thanksgiving if we have relatives visiting that we are going to celebrate an early Christmas with. This year we just put our tree and decorations up 3 days ago.

6. What is your favorite holiday food (excluding dessert)? I don't know. I can never do just one favorite of anything. I look forward to really good mashed potatoes (they are best with sour cream and cream cheese in them!).

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: Every Christmas Eve we would go to my grandparent's house to celebrate Christmas with my uncle and his family. We would have a big dinner and then open gifts. It was fun to see our cousins, and of course kids always like to open gifts. On the way home we would drive around neighborhoods that had really good lights and outdoor decorations. I loved that drive on the way home, and I would always look out the window to look in the sky and see if Santa was out there flying around......

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I think I just figured it out gradually, once I knew that the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy weren't real.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Some years we do. We don't have a set rule about it.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? It's all family memories. As I shared in a recent post, we only get ornaments that are meaningful to us. So, each year we now add 8 or more ornaments to our tree that each member of our family has chosen. So, no theme or coordination for us, other than family. :) Which I think is pretty good.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? A little snow for my kids to enjoy is fun, but I am thankful every single year that I no longer live in Central New York. I don't think I would ever want to live anywhere with a lot of snow again.

12. Can you ice skate? Well, I was able to as a teenager. Ice skating and hockey were a big thing where we lived. I don't know if I could skate now, though. I think it would probably be too likely for me to get hurt.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? A few memorable gifts over the years include a Barbie townhouse (it even had an elevator that you could make go up and down the three floors of the house!), stuffed animals that my parents left unwrapped and looking very cute sitting on top of presents by our tree, and contact lenses when I was a teenager.

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Family and experiencing good stuff that makes happy memories.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Apple pie.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Purchasing special ornaments for each family member.

17. What tops your tree? A rustic star.

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving? Both!

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? I still like this one from high school chorus that was something about "Pinecones and holly berries, popcorn for you, apples for me, red striped candy, nutcrackers handy, kettle a-bubbling, holiday tea....." I don't know the title of the song, but it was really fun to sing and has stuck in my mind for all these years. Actually, now that I think of it, I think the song was "It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas" but had those lyrics as a bridge/vocal overlay during one part of the song. (like a round) I honestly do not like most Christmas carols. Most loathed Christmas carols include: Silent Night, Oh Little Town of Bethlehem, and What Child is This.

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? I like the little ones ok, but would prefer fudge any day!

a funny

Though all my kids have brown hair, I have one that sometimes seems to be a natural blonde, if you know what I mean. ;) Sweet as can be, but oftentimes adorably clueless.

Today was a teary day at our church because one of the most involved and dearest families is moving away. This was their last Sunday with us and so a lot of people were crying by the end of the service.

When we got in the car after church my "blonde" asks, "What was everybody
crying about at church?!"

So I explained that this family is moving away today, so people
were really sad to see them go and have to say goodbye to them. He
didn't recognize the family by their last name, so I explained to him who they were by using their stage names, since they are actors in our weekly production of KidStuff. I said, "You know...the people that are Artie and Mrs. F."

He says, "OH! Yeah. Them..... Aw....I'm gonna miss Marty!"

Classic. Just classic. He's seen Artie on stage for 2 years now and thinks his name is Marty.

Later at dinner he asks where these people are moving to and I tell
him Michigan. He thinks about it for a few minutes and then says, "Do
they even know how to speak Michigan?!"

We have gotten a lot of laugh mileage out of that kid today.....

Christmas Ideas for Couples

Some recent goodies over at my other blog:
Need a sexy, inexpensive gift for your husband? Try this!

This year my husband and I are going to fill stockings for each other. Here are some ideas about that. (and, honey, if you're reading this, don't click!!)

Panty Power

Well, now that I've got your attention.....(snort) I wanted to tell you that I went all hip and daring the other night and bought Spanx Power Panties! If you haven't yet heard about Spanx, it's about time you did. Spanx is a line of products that is made from super duper strong stretchy fabric. You wear 'em under your clothes, to help suck in your fat and giggles, and rid your look of any panty lines or bulges!

Anyhoo...I got the Power Panties (what a hoot!) and I can tell you they are good entertainment while getting them onto your body (I laughed and laughed), and they work pretty well, though I think I could have used the industrial strength ones to push in even more flab. If you've got to wear an outfit that isn't all that forgiving of your flaws, you may want to get yourself some Spanx undergear to smooth out the rough spots and help you look your very best.

On a related panty note...get this!

The other day my husband comes into the house from getting something in the car, and he's carrying a pair of my underwear! He gives me a waggly-eyebrow look and says,

"How on earth did a pair of your underwear get under the front seat of the car??"

I'm looking at him, the expression on his face, and say, "I have absolutely no idea...."

He wanders along, holding my underwear like it's a very interesting scientific discovery or something, and heads toward the laundry room. I follow and catch him looking at the underwear...looking for evidence, methinks!

"Are you examining the crotch of my underwear?!?!"

Him: "NO! I was just trying to figure something out....."

Me: "What's that?"

Him: "How I could have ever forgotten it if we had ever gotten so crazy as to lose a pair of your underwear in the car......"

Yeah. Right.

(Cuz if we get crazy in the car I always collect all my clothes before leaving!! ha HA!)

(More likely, they have probably been there since we took our trip to NY in the summer. I imagine they fell out of a bag somewhere along the line and have been waiting to be rescued ever since. They were totally clean and void of DNA evidence...)

Tradition!

I wrote about my favorite Christmas tradition over here. It's a good one!

Captivate U soy bath and body products

I'm woefully behind on some product reviews I agreed to do, so tonite I am finally getting around to Captivate U!

This business specializes in soy candles, bath and body products, and gifts. If you aren't familiar with soy candles, you should be!

Most gals like candles, but the soot that collects around the top of our regular jar candles is ugly, and it's annoying when the middle of the candle burns way down to the bottom, leaving lots and lots of wax build up all around the edge. Well, soy candles are SO much better! They don't have soot and they burn evenly, so your candle burns clean and isn't wasted!

Regular candles are made from parafin, which is a petroleum product. Every time you burn a parafin candle you are breathing petroleum vapors, which isn't healthy. Soy wax is natural, biodegradable, and completely non-toxic, plus burns about 50% longer than parafin wax!

Shan, owner of Captivate U, sent me some of her soy hand and body lotion. It goes on smooth and has a really nice vanilla scent. What amazed me about it was that even though I wash my hands a bazillion times a day, that scent just lasts and lasts! I asked Shan how she gets the scent to do that, and she told me it's a secret! :)

Captivate U is a business born from the desire of Shan and her business partner Tina to be their own boss while doing something they love to do. Shan makes the candles, air fresheners, and incense, while Tina makes the bath and body products.

I am not the only one that is impressed with the quality of their products and the fast, friendly service. Go check out Captivate U and see if they can help you finish up your shopping!

The Cinnamon Bear Is a HUGE Hit Here!

Hey--I just wanted to let you guys know that my kids started listening to our copy of the Cinnamon Bear radio shows today, and they LOVE them! I wrote about it at my other blog. You can check it out here.

FREEBIES!

Hey folks!

I have some freebies available for you when you shop at my online businesses this month:

At Supermom's No-Lice Advice you will get a FREE eBook "Creating an Old-Fashioned Family Christmas" with every purchase. This great little book has decorating ideas, nature activities, other fun holiday activities for the whole family, and lots of great recipes, including my personal favorite, Dangerously Easy Two-Minute Fudge!

I am also giving away a wonderful 26-episode collection of The Cinnamon Bear to every Baby Boutique customer in December!

The Cinnamon Bear is a classic radio program from 1937. Families used to
enjoy listening to one Cinnamon Bear episode a day from Thanksgiving until
Christmas. What a precious way to build family memories!

The CINNAMON BEAR is the classic story of Judy and Jimmy Barton who search
for the family's Silver Star which goes on top of their Christmas tree.
They discover the star has disappeared from the attic. Then they meet The
Cinnamon Bear, and fly to Maybeland in his Soda Pop Airplane in pursuit of
the Crazy Quilt Dragon, whom they believe took the ornament. They meet a
host of characters, including Crazy Quilt Dragon, The Wintergreen Witch, Fe
Fo the Giant, and even Santa Claus.

Each customer will also get a FREE downloadable Cinnamon Bear coloring book!

You can learn more about the Cinnamon Bear audio presentation giveaway here.
I am also giving away the Cinnamon Bear audio presentation to those who purchase Supermom's Complete No-Lice System.

I also have a great freebie that will be especially interesting to homeschoolers and those of you that just love learning! For every purchase of my Healthy Home Products each customer will receive a FREE eBook, Globalmania: Master World Georgraphy in Just 7 Months. This is a brand new, not-yet-for-sale resource that has a $12.95 value.

The Healthy Home Collection now includes:

Homemade Laundry Detergent Kits (make your own healthy laundry detergent and save money too!)

Natural Dishwasher Detergent (stop washing your dishes with chemicals)

Handmade Soaps (We love them! My personal favorites are the peppermint and the cinnamon, oats, and honey. I'll never go back to regular soap!)

Peppermint Shampoo Bars (My new favorite way to wash my kid's hair. Awesome! I posted a product review about it here.)

and a nice Healthy Home Sampler Pack so you can try it all!

One Word Meme

Saw this over at Morning Coffee and since I'm still kind of sick, figured...why not?
This is actually challenging for me, because in no way am I a "one word" kind of girl.
When my husband and I attend any sort of gathering where there is an "ice breaker" question that goes something like "Name your favorite....." neither of us is capable of telling one thing. We usually have multiple things, that include side stories...... Some might consider this a personality flaw, but I don't. Life is too rich for "just one thing." (plus, adjectives! I love them so very much!) Still, with this meme, I'll try.

Yourself: thinking
Your partner: warm
Your hair: thick
Your Mother: exceptional
Your Father: tall
Your Favorite Item: cozy
Your dream last night: business
Your Favorite Drink: water
Your Dream Car: paid
Your Dream Home: paid
The Room You Are In: family
Your Ex: none
Your fear: disapproval
Where you Want to be in Ten Years? better
Who you hung out with last night: myself
What You're Not: small
Muffins: yum
One of Your Wish List Items: books
Time: afternoon
The Last Thing You Did: comfort
What You Are Wearing: pajamas
Your favorite weather: moderate
Your Favorite Book: Outlander
Last thing you ate: cereal
Your Life: full
Your mood: sniffly
Your Best Friends: family
What are you thinking about right now: much
Your car: Suburban
What are you doing at the moment: computing
Your summer: spent
Relationship status: relational
What is on your tv: nothing
What is the weather like: warm
When is the last time you laughed: today

Current Tally

1 mother sick with a cold for 3 days running
2 kids with fevers
4 kids with coughs
1 kid that threw up a little while ago
1 dad that is gone to work.....

Good times.

The Bad Perm Story

My mom reminded me in a comment for the last post about the bad perm she gave me. So, yes my dears, you get to hear about it.

Once upon a time I was a happy child with long brown hair, and I wasn't concerned about my looks one way or the other. I ran around all summer wearing a bathing suit made by my mother (and my little sister had matching suits), never combed my hair, played all day, and was content.

But my mother wasn't content. No sirree.... One day she started leaning on me. She wanted to give me a perm. Of course, being about 10 years old, I didn't really even know what a perm was. She explained that it would make my hair curly, and somehow she considered this to be important, essential, even, to the overall quality of my life and my appearance.

Well, I didn't want the perm. I told her that. She kept bugging me about it. Begging me, in fact. The Perm! The Perm! It was all about the perm with her.

Eventually, in a desperate attempt to force me over the edge, she told me that she wanted to just try out the perm. Just a try! To see how it would look! And, like some cheesy available-on-TV-only product, if I wasn't Completely Satisfied, she would get my hair straightened. Yep! Just like that! Straightened back out, goodbye to the perm, hello regular hair.

So, being a typical child that believes her mother would not lie, I relented to the perm. Because I mainly just wanted to get her off of my back and stop having to listen to the nagging about the perm. I didn't want it, and I knew it wasn't anything I wanted, but figured she could do it, I could prove that in fact I did NOT like it, get my hair straightened back out, and go on with my life.

She whipped out her at-home perm kit (this was probably 1981) and went to work coiling my long dark hair into the odd little rollers, and polluting my virgin scalp with chemicals.

After a couple hours of stinky perm torture, the rollers were taken out and I burst into tears at the horror scene that was my head. Upon my ultra-thick, 70's mega-layer-cut hair was a mass of tight pin curls, turning me into the only white kid in my neighborhood with an afro!

Immediately I told my mom, blotchy-faced with tears streaming down my cheeks, "OK. I've tried it, and I hate it. I want to get it straightened!!"

And she was standing there in the corner of the kitchen, looking at the wreck she had made of my hair, knowing she had made a Big Mistake, and had the nerve to say to me, "Well....we can't get it straightened right away.....we have to wait awhile....You can't do more chemicals on your hair for awhile or it can mess it up worse...."

"How long do we have to wait?!" I asked.

I think the answer she gave me was something along the line of Months.

Have I yet mentioned that I was due to start the school year at a brand new school in about a week??

Yeah. Great.

So, my mother betrayed me, and I had to go to school looking like an afro freak instead of like the normal kid I used to be. I was also sporting horrid big glasses, and two scars on my face (one on the eyebrow, one on the chin) from wiping out in a bad bike acident (20 stitches worth!). As if I didn't have enough going against me, I was now cursed with The Perm From Hell.

She never did offer to get it straightened, either. And my hair holds a perm longer than anybody you know.

So, my mother lied through her teeth to coerce a young child to change her hair style, sentencing me to a new, painful awareness of my pitiful looks. The only good things that came from it were probably that I continued to learn how to function at least semi-confidently despite feeling unfashionable or somehow not good enough, and that my mother pretty much swore off meddling with other people's hairdos.

As proof that children do adjust, I can tell you that even though my mom played this one dirty trick on me, I still went on to like her all through my teen years, and she's one of my closest friends still.

There you go, mom! A tribute to one of your less stellar moments of motherhood. Shall I now tell about the time you left me at the gas station as collateral when you accidentally forgot to bring money to pay for gas?? (YES YOU DID!!!)

School Blues

Last night my 10 year old daughter washed her hair and then asked me to braid it all into tiny braids. She wanted to take out the braids this morning and have her hair be all crinkly.

Well, she succeeded.

And she has just returned home from school to tell me this:

"At school today I was called a poodle and asked if this was my bad hair day."

Her 8 year old brother tried to cheer her up by saying, "You don't look like a poodle! You don't even have a tail!"

(The sad thing is, he was totally serious)

Christmas Activities

I've got a few Christmas ideas articles over at my Baby Boutique Blog with lots more to come. Feel free to come check 'em out. :)

Thanksgiving Chin Song

For a good chuckle, check this out.

Mice Creep Me Out

The other day my oldest son told me that he thought there had been a mouse in his room. This didn't come as a complete shock. We've had mice before, and frankly, our home is a mouse paradise. Take six children and two laid-back, somewhat messy parents, and we're probably legendary within mouse lore.

Well, this morning, I saw one. Yep. Right in my family room office. Right behind where I work at the computer for most of the day. Eeegads....they may be small, but they creep me out!

I got out two glue traps that I purchased just the other day, and set them up near where I had seen that little rodent.

It was only a couple of hours before the glue traps did their job, and a nasty gray mouse was stuck.

The one thing I hate more than a mouse about the house, is a squirming, struggling mouse stuck to a glue trap that *I* have to dispose of. The way their bodies look like lurching bags of jello as they try to get free just makes me gag.

Sadly, I know all too well that there is no such thing as "just one mouse." Gah. More glue traps have been set up. Hopefully we won't have any surprise appearance or *evidence* while my husband's parents visit us for Thanksgiving....

Thanksgiving Planner

Are you still struggling to figure out what you'll be eating on Thanksgiving? Check this out:
Thanksgiving Planning Guide

Captivating

I've been hearing about John and Stasi Eldredge's book Captivating for quite some time now, and have had it sitting on the top of my fridge waiting for me to get around to read it. As so often happens with things on the top of the refrigerator, I forgot all about it for weeks, and then rediscovered it, at just the right time.

Have you ever heard the saying, "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear"? Well, that has been true for me so many times that I basically expect it now. When my heart and mind are ready to learn something and needing direction, I happen upon a book, sermon, web site, conversation, or something that helps me move along my path and shine some light on the situation.

I read John Eldgredge's book Wild at Heart a few years ago and sort of liked it, and sort of had no idea what on earth he was talking about. The concepts gave me a slight foothold on some new ways of thinking, and a little itch that was never really satisfied. Well, that book was written to men, about men. No wonder I didn't completely understand it. Captivating is for women. And it got my attention right from the start.

One of the first things i loved about this book is when Stasi shares the observation that most messages for women (and especially often in books for Christian women) are these:

1. You are too much.
and
2. You are not enough.

That is So. True.

Everything I've complained about in the books Christian women go for so easily are centered on these two ideas. Everything about you is wrong and going in the wrong direction. All of your desires, thoughts, and feelings are much too big for the little box you should be living in. And, everything that you *should* be doing.....well, you are falling short.

The sad punchline is that by following most of the advice given in these books, women will continue to "fail" these standards. Why? Because the books are lies. And Captivating is giving me some insight into what the truth is.

One major truth that this book discusses is a woman's God-given desire to be captivating. To be loved, adored, desired, admired, and worthy of it all. Wow! So many things that we've been telling ourselves not to want, think about, or need.

I needed this book so much right now. It's been a hard year. After already internalizing many messages in years past that others did not respect or value me in the ways that I would like to be, I took a huge blow this year when someone that I thought I was close to let me know that I was not valuable enough to deserve a part in her life. After 12 years of friendship.

Although I have come to a place of peace with the loss of that relationship, what I haven't been able to come to peace with is the *pain* that comes from knowing that someone I trusted and would have been a loyal friend to for the rest of my life considered me to be disposable. I took the risk of showing my strengths and weaknesses, the good and the painful stuff in me to this person....and she decided that she wasn't interested in being a part of that any more.

Probably most women have experienced this. I had an acquaintance sitting in my living room about a month ago because she was here to pick up her daughter. This woman shared with me a very painful thing that she has gone through this year. During the course of the conversation I asked her if she had a close friend that she could confide in about this stuff. Her answer? Not really. She talks to her sister some, but basically she's had friends that she trusted and then got burned by. She said, "After you get burned a couple of times, it seems to risky to have friends."

So we choose to be alone.

I have felt the same way. It doesn't seem like people have the time to develop relationships, and of those that do, they seem painfully sure to break out hearts. When we marry and have children we know that we will forever be vulnerable to pain in relation to those we are bound to in our family. Pain from something bad happening to one of them, pain of loss when someone dies, or pain if the relationship is difficult or disappointing in some way. But, this is our family. We are bound for better or worse.

With friendships, those are optional. Do we want to sign up for more pain? Do we want to take the risk of being disposable? Do we want to trust someone with our junk, and see if they will still consider us worthy of a piece of their life?

Frankly, no I don't. I don't do well with gut-wrenching pain. I don't do well with people deciding that I'm worthless.

The trick is that for me to not have significant relationships in my life, would cause me to live life as a fraud.

I'm MADE for relationship. I'm a person that longs for deep, abiding relationships. I love meaningful conversation and a meaningful life. For me to purposely insulate myself from the potential pain of relationships would mean I'd have to sell out who I am. But it seems to go hand in hand with disappointment, rejection, and pain.

I'm not done with the book yet, and it is a little bit hard, painful, and sad to read through it. But I think it's a really valuable book for women. Particularly Christian women who have been scolded and scolded and stuffed into some false God Box for most of their life. I may write more about it later after I've finished it.

Have you read Captivating? I'd love to hear your impressions.

Pipe Bomb Fun

My son had fun at a friend's house today....blowing up a "little" pipe bomb. My kid is the one in the red hoodie (no hat).

Long Time No Nuthin

I feel bad--I've basically abandoned this blog! I'm so busy every day working on my businesses that all I would have to say each day is the same thing I said the day before. "Worked hard--more to do."

Things are going well. I am continuing to make improvements on the baby boutique and am trying to add content to my blog over there daily. I guess I have worked myself into a job that will never end.

We're expecting my husband's parents for Thanksgiving next week so I have all the house stuff to do.

We have a mouse about the house, so now I have to try to lessen the appeal of our home, AKA Mouse Paradise, what with all the crumbs, cereal bits, and other goodies all over the place. Good times.

Boring post. Sorry. Goodbye.

Attention Homeschoolers!

There is a completely HUGE and awesome special sale going on right now that I have to tell you about. I am in an egroup for people that self-publish their writing work. One family has had a medical emergency with one of their children this week. So, a different member of the group has put together a gigantic sale of ebook resources, audios, interviews, etc. and all the proceeds are going to the family with the medical emergency. This sale will only be available through Friday noon, so get yours fast, and spread the word!

Tuesday Tip

I've started posting a helpful tip on Tuesday's at the Baby Boutique Blog. Today's top:
How to get blood out of fabric. Everybody should know this one!

Link Exchange

For those of you sweet, pretty, and kind enough to want to help me out, my baby boutique blog can be found at http://www.thebabyboutiqueatwombswindow.com/blog/ . Let me know if you link to it on your blogroll. I will be happy to do the same for you. :)

If any of you want to get involved, I will be looking for contributors to the blog. I will be needing:

-birth stories, breastfeeding stories, any experience stories about motherhood

-product reviews that would be of interest to women that are pregnant or have small children

-funny kid stories

-tips/advice for moms

You can send any of those to me at supermomshealth (at) hotmail.com

Thanky!

Today's the Day! Grand Opening!

Hello!

The day has finally arrived--the Grand Opening of The Baby Boutique at Womb's Window!

There is a TON of stuff on sale, freebies for the first 90 customers, and FREE SHIPPING on all orders in the US!

Go check it out, and if you would be so kind, talk it up on your blogs, egroups, forums, bulletin boards, or whatever you've got!

Happy Halloween!

I have been dreading Halloween this year, mainly because my husband is working so I would have had to take all the kids a-beggin' on my own. I lucked out, though, because it's been pouring rain all day. :) To make up for it I went out and bought them some candy, made up some goodie bags, and ordered pizza for dinner. They got so much candy at school, it really would have been ridiculous to go out for more.

So, I got off easy this year. Hoorah!

Now I have to open my store and lead book group discussion tomorrow. Oh..and fold about 10 loads of laundry......

Another week's worth of progress...

Things are moving right along here. After much ado, my baby boutique site is coming along and looking B-E-A-yoooootifull!!

My awesome mother surprised me by buying me a new computer too! She knew I was limping along with a geriatric computer, and all of my work on the web site was taking me probably 5 times longer than it should have. Every stinkin' thing was so. darn. slow, it was horrible. I was spending most of my time at the computer waiting for it to digest downloads and photo resizing. Gah! Now I've got this nice, new, unadultered computer that nobody but me will ever get to use (yes I am serious!) and my work is getting done at lightning speed! I have gotten lots of products into the shopping cart and it is all looking great.

I moved my office down to our family room where the kids watch movies and play. It is a good arrangement since I can now work more while also being with them more and supervising more. Plus, I have 5 sunny windows!

As I get closer to the baby boutique's grand opening, I am looking for fellow bloggers and web site owners that would help me out. What I need is:

1. Links! I will have a baby boutique blog for you to add to your blogroll, and would be happy to add your link to my new blogroll as well.

2. Mentions! Would you be willing to tell your visitors about my boutique when it opens? Maybe you'd like to take a stroll around the store and then write up a review of the offerings there.

3. Emails! Maybe you'd be willing to let your friends and online contacts know when the baby boutique opens. You can just send 'em a link and tell them a little about it.

Keep checking in here to find out about the progress, or you can email me at supermomshealth (at) hotmail (dot) com if you have any questions.

Thanks!

Out of the mouth of babes..

My 3 year is is rather precocious. (he's precious, too, but that's not what that says) He says stuff like, "Hey Mom, can you come help me with this ridiculous thing?!"

Yesterday I had to go to his teacher conference. For some of my kids these conferences are really needed, but for this kid it's kind of a moot point. He's probably doing better in preschool as a 3 year old than any of his 3 older brothers were when they exited preschool as 5 year olds.

So, I heard that he's doing well, advanced for his age, etc. etc. no surprises.

The hubby had been supervising the kids on the school playground while I had the meeting. Once we all got back into the car I turned to the little guy and sweetly say to him, "Your teacher says you are doing very well in school! That is great!"

He looks at me with boredom and says, "Yeah...whatever."

I laughed and laughed over that one.

Hyper! Hyper! Hyper!

Those of you that have been with me for awhile may remember how hyper I got when I was getting ready to unveil my awesome blog design that I still love-love-love.

Well, that was almost *nothing* compared to how excited I am about how my baby boutique design is coming along. My designer is doing a beautiful job and I feel like it is going to be the most gorgeous baby boutique site on the internet! It is very thrilling to see it all coming together, and I am really looking forward to being able to show you the place when it's all set up. :)

overheard...

I was just setting my kids up with a movie. A preview came on that said "coming March 2005." Izzy Man was muttering to himself, "March 2005....March 2005...that means you have to march!"

I love the literalness of little kids.

Organizing Papers

Paperwork is one of my worst things. When I need to put my hands on social security cards, receipts, birth certificates, or my business license, it is always a stressful search for a needle in a haystack.

I started out filing back when we first got married, but somewhere along the way it fell by the wayside and for a long time now it has been really really out of control. Now that I have my businesses getting busier all the time, the paperwork issue has been creeping up on me more often. I found myself stressed out and slowed down every time I needed some paper that I wasn't sure where it was. I have had "filing" listed in my "Plagues and Nuisances" list for months, but haven't made any progress on it until the other day.

Then I went to visit Very Mom and there she was, talking about the same thing. She had found a filing system called Just Organize Your Stuff (JOYS) and she has some pictures up showing her progress through conquering her papers.

Some of the things that appealed to me about this system:

The idea that all I needed to do to start was break down my big piles of papers into smaller categories, and then work on them one by one. This is much better for me than taking out each individual paper and putting it away (if I even HAVE a place to put it away!).

I like the way the papers are located in different places according to your need and their importance:

-the everyday file is an open-topped file that would be in plain view. Here is where you will put and find the stuff you have coming and going day in and day out (receipts, bills, etc.) (I love it that this makes putting stuff where it goes much, much easier)

-the reference file would go in the top drawer of a 2-drawer file cabinet. This is for the stuff that you would look at sometimes and want to have handy (like your refrigerator manual) but don't need to see every day.

-the important papers file is in the bottom drawer of your file cabinet, and this drawer should lock. Obviously, it's for your imortant papers that you don't want to lose!

-Vital files (birth certifs, soc security cards, deed to your house, marriage license, etc.) go in a fire proof box so they stay very, very safe.

This is so logical and is much better than what I was doing even when I was filing.

The other night I took a laundry basket full of papers plus several other containers and piles and sorted them into their categories. I did this while watching a movie and it was painless. (I also threw away a garbage bag full of papers I no longer need!) Now I need another movie night so I can work on each category. Tomorrow the kids head back to school so I will have some time coming up soon.

Inspiration in the form of an author and his fans

Two weeks in a row we were blessed to meet two of my son's favorite authors: Eoin Colfer and Brian Jacques. (pronounced Jakes for those of you that are still saying it the French way!)

Inspiration? So many middle school aged kids coming to meet their favorite author! Kids still read--and aren't afraid of big, meaty, challenging books! I saw kids that appeared to be soccer kids, prep school kids, long-haired shaggy kids, baggy pants kids, conservative homeschool types, and everything else. There wasn't a person in attendance at either event that made me think, "What is the world coming to?" Instead I felt great hope at knowing (and meeting in line) so many people read, think, celebrate literacy, and are sharing in the inspiration that comes from these books!

Brian Jacques was my favorite author to have met in person. (far better even than Diana Gabaldon!) His talk was very entertaining--he is most definitely a skilled storyteller! He is approximately 67 years old, and it really inspired me to know that Redwall is just 20 years old. Brian was nearly 50 when he became a celebrated author! I always love to know about people older than me than find their niche or make a major career change in life. It's thrilling to know that I may just be barely getting started!

Brian spoke about the underlying message in his Redwall books: Be a warrior! He explained that warriors are heroic and brave, that they value truth and their families, and they are willing to fight for what is right. It nearly made me cry to see the enthusiastic applause from his fans, knowing they are embracing this message.

At 67 years old, I also felt so blessed to be able to see and hear this man in person, and blessed that he has given all of us so many wonderful books. (my son has probably read every Redwall book at least 5 or 6 times each, except for one that he says was too sad) May he live on for many years, continuing to share great stories to teach and inspire us all!

To learn much more about Brian Jacques' books you can go visit his web site here. There are so many beautiful illustrations and fun facts for the Redwall fans.

Time for newsletters!

OK kids, now is your chance to sign up for my FREE newsletters.

The one for the baby boutique will feature sales, new products, contests, freebies, and articles of interest to parents of little ones.

Supermom's Health and Wellness is still in the works but when the newsletter starts going out it will feature product reviews, sales, helpful articles about issues related to healthy living, and lots more.

You can also join the No-Lice list and get reminded to check your kid's noggins each week to keep the cooties away!

Just enter your email address and then choose the newsletters you want! Easy as pie.

Sign Up For My Free Newsletter! Email:

blah de blah blah

Hello from the swamplands of Dollymamaville, where I have been too swamped with life to say hello for a few days.

Contributing factors to the swamp:

1. I've been super busy getting the Baby Boutique ready to open later this month. It takes SO much time to get all of the tedious details taken care of when setting up an ecommerce site. A million details to comb through repeatedly....seems like it never ends.... Still--I have high hopes that we will be open for business by the end of the month, and that is EXCITING! I have found the cutest of the cute, most adorable and unique items for babies and moms. Really, I think the baby boutique is going to be an excellent store.

2. On the go: Last Wed. I took my oldest son to meet Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl series, among others. Colfer is my son's second favorite author. As luck would have it, we arrived at the book store to discover that his MOST favorite author will be at the same book store tomorrow night. Who is it? None other than the highly talented Brian Jacques, author of the Redwall series, and the Castaways of the Flying Dutchman series! (is that what it's called? I can't remember) We are VERY excited to get to meet him in person. Quite thrilling for us.

3. Roofing: God has provided us a way to pay a large bill that we have coming up, in the form of my husband getting hired to do some roofing work. This is a great blessing and comes at a good time for us. Unfortunately, it has made for some craziness in the scheduling and car juggling departments (seeing as how we only have one car).

4. My kids are on their 10 day fall break this week. It's nice to have a week off, but kind of bad timing as far as my work needs for the boutique, the roofing job, and other stuff. At least we're enjoying nice weather, and have been watching a Survivor series on DVD, which we all find fun.
5. Appointments. Yesterday I actually forgot about my kid's eye exam appt. The receptionist called when I was already 15 minutes late. Since the kids were out of school I just hadn't looked at my calendar for days. ugh! We had to scramble to get everyone dressed, shoes on, and to the appointment which is 30 minutes away from here. What a nightmare. We got through it though, and now I have to go back for 3 kids to get glasses. There goes the rest of our money!

6. Other odds and ends include that due to our car shuffling and so on, I have missed my workouts for over a week. I don't know if I am going to be able to go at all this week. What a pain!

I am also considering the future of Dollymama Strikes Again! I started this blog for an anonymous place to vent and share my opinions without alienating real life people. Now that I am expanding into my businesses and will be starting blogs for each one of those, I am asking myself some questions.

I love my Dollymama blog, but it seems destined to no longer be anonymous. Anybody reading will soon know my full name and contact information. Anybody in real life that does a search for my businesses will find this blog in the results. Anybody who knows even a small amount of information about how to find stuff on the internet can sniff this blog out in less than one minute.

If I keep on with Dollymama, it will no longer be anonymous. Do I go back through the archives and take down any posts that aren't meant for reading material for real life contacts and relatives?

Do I take down Dollymama altogether and resign myself to only business blogging and knowing that my real life contacts could be reading?

Do I go into stealth mode with a new blog, forsake this blog design that I still love with all my heart, and never, ever mention my businesses?

Once I am keeping up with multiple business blogs, business newsletters, and the daily workings of several businesses, am I even going to have time for leisure blogging? I started this blog because it helps me get my thoughts out of my head so I can make room for the next great idea. I think I still want that. It just feels sad to think of feeling stifled here, though I guess I always do to some extent. (some real life people do read, including my husband, so I certainly don't do all the venting I might want to do!)

I don't know what the answers are, but it's stuff I'm thinking about. In the meantime. laundry mountain calleth.

Tried out Arbonne's facial exfoliant. It's like a sunburn in a bottle! I only had the stuff on my face for **three* minutes and was in pain. Washed it off and had a burned face for almost 2 hours. (to be fair, it does warn you on the packaging that a red face is normal, but the sunburn-like pain I was not expecting!) That was the last straw between me and Arbonne. I have found a much, much better all-natural skin care line that I will be offering in my business.  

Cool Sunday

Sunday we had a cool service. It was about noise in our culture and lives. Church started quiet, then added one quiet movie on the big screen. Then one by one various TVs, video games, and music players (that were arranged in the front) came on, until it got really noisy and overwhelming. My husband's comment was that it was like performance art. It was a very good portrayal of how the clutter (noise, visual clutter, too busy of a schedule) can get overwhelming and make it hard for us to hear God or be able to be still before Him.

We also had communion. It was different from our usual. We got these little white drawstring fabric bags that contained an organic cracker and a vial of grape juice. It was a cool way to go about it.

Two School Shootings in Three Days...

What more needs to happen before schools do more to protect their students, staff, and faculty?

Hire guards. Do bag checks for every person that enters the building. Require photo IDs for every person authorized to enter the school. Get parents to take shifts to work as guards at all the doors. This kind of stuff is not that hard to stop. The question is,

Are we willing to do what needs to be done?

In all my years as a teenager I never did this to my parents....

Guess what I've been doing for the past almost 2 hours? Waiting for my oldest kid to get home.

We gave him permission to ride the bus home with a friend today and he was supposed to be home by 6:30. It's now 8:20.

I used to have the phone number of the people he is with, but now I can't find it.

We only have one car and today of all days I had my husband take it to work, which probably only happens 1 out of 30 times he works. So, no car.

And no phone call from my kid.

This is where mothers start to imagine the worst. Has my child been abducted? Has he run away from home? Has there been a car accident?

So I've been stressed out and on the verge of tears for the past hour wondering where he is and trying to get all the other kids to bed.

And now he has just walked in. "Sorry I'm a bit late."

Yeah, you will be.

(and no, he had no good excuse. Just didn't think it was important to get home on time or call. He's in deep doodoo for this one.....)

Homemade Laundry Detergent Kits

A lot of people have seen the very popular homemade laundry detergent recipe, but I often hear that people have been unable to find the ingredients. I am now offering kits so that you can make your own without the hassle of trying to track down the stuff!

I have used homemade laundry detergent almost exclusively for many years now. It is easy to make (easier now that these kits come with preshredded soap and premeasured ingredients!) and works great. It is safer than Dreft for babies, and is a much more economical alternative to the high priced HE detergents for front loaders. (I have a front loader and never have had a problem using this recipe instead of the expensive HE)

You can get two different basic versions:

Old Pioneer--made from old fashioned lye soap
and
Heavy Duty--made with the regular recipe that includes Fels Naptha soap

You can get either kind unscented or

lemongrass
peppermint
lavender

(all scents are from essential oils)

If you're interested, send me an email! supermomshealth (at) hotmail (dot) com

It Went OUT a Looooong Time Ago!

You know, back in the day when lots of people were computer newbies, it was understandable that they didn't know any better than the thrill of passing on the forwarded emails. I did it myself, and eventually learned how much people resent getting forwards, and about snopes.com.

I have two people in my life that. One is an actual computer expert, and the other is a PhD candidate. Both seem to have missed the memo that sending an excessive amount of forwards if annoying.

The one, a sweet woman that I never knew well, sends me those crap "it's friendship day" "girlfriend day"**and "pass this on to 20 friends in the next 5 minutes and then you'll get a miracle" type things. Now whenI see an email from her I delete it without even looking.

The other, a distant relative by marriage, seems to think she knows my political leanings though we've never discussed such a thing and she barely knows me since we've only spent time together probably 5 times in 15 years. She sends me a bunch of policial activist crap that I have no interest in either. But does she ever send a personal email to say hi? Nope.

And so there is the dilemma. Do we keep being the wimpy recipient, weeding out the wheat from the chaff in our inbox? Or do we risk offending the offenders by telling them that we don't want their stinkin forwards any more?

Once upon a time when I was going through an extremely stressful and difficult time in my life, two people I knew had put me on their email forwarding list. Both were deeply involved in their branch of politics and feel strongly in people needing to be atively involved in politics. The emails they sent were very forceful and presumptuous and I found them offensive and rude. I wrote polite emails to each, explaining that I was going through a very difficult time and had no energy for such emails and that I would like to not receive them any more. One person seemed to feel snubbed, the other sent me an entire SERMON (written by herself) about how political ambivalence was sinful and I was playing right into the hands of the devil by not wanting to get all of her forwards and do what they told me to do. I ignored that, and she kept on with the emails. I actually banned her from my inbox so that I never saw any of her emails again. Buh-bye!

It's amazing how people will behave.

What do you do about junk forwards?

** If she were actually a real friend of mine some of this might be fine every now and then. Any actual friend of mine would know that I would not enjoy those. haha

Wednesday Morning Rant

People are so helpless, it drives me crazy.

For instance:

If I post to an egroup to answer a question and mention a particular product that I like, I can be guaranteed to get at least a few emails asking me, "Where would I buy one of those?" Apparently these people have never heard of google.

If I tell the same group about a web site, such as yesterday's Mom Product Reviews, even after all the info I gave them, PLUS the link so that they can go and read every. bit. of information. there, someone will STILL write to ME to ask, "Well, what kind of things do they want me to review? How long should it be? How do I send them my reviews? How do I contact these people?" For cryin' out loud......what has become of people?! Why don't they know how to navigate a web page, read their native language, and clickety-click with their mouse? Did they only learn email?!

In a large egroup of mine everyone is doing an internet-based business. Every post of mine ends with the same signature line that includes my name, business name, and web site. I have regularly gotten emails from people saying, "That sounds great! Do you have a web site?" My. goodness. These are people that should know to follow the signature line, seeing as how everybody of the 4000 people in the group has one!

I don't know if it's just that the internet has turned everybody's brain to much or what. It's like, if the answers don't jump right off the screen at them, they can't take 20 seconds to look around, actually read the text, and see what's what. Pitiful!

And that completes my rant for the day.

Back At It

I had a few days off from my workouts due to kids being off from school on the same days my husband had to work, etc. So, today I begudgingly got back at it. I would have rather slept all day or something slothful like that, but of course was glad that I pressed on and went anyhow. I do not like to exercise but fortunately the people that go to the fitness center at the same time I go are very fun and everybody encourages everybody else. It's a little like Cheers when Norm would walk in and everybody shouted, "NORM!" I get that (only they don't call me Norm) so it's a big motivator to show up.

One guy that's there every day is the husband of one of the ladies in my book group. He is recovering from a stroke and goes frequently and stays for hours working and walking. He actually has a chart up on the wall that shows the mileage to walk from Moscow to Berlin (it also has a photo of military tanks). He keeps track of the miles he walks and is rocking out to bagpipe music as he walks from Moscow to Berlin. (former military man, of course)

I love it that I live in a small town where everybody takes an interest in Jack's walk, Every time he gets off the treadmill he'll announce how much farther he has to go. "155 miles!" he'll shout triumphantly. I don't think very many swanky city or even suburb workout joints would let Jack stick his tank-and-mileage paper on the wall in front of the treadmill to inspire him every day. I wouldn't want to trade this place...

$30 Richer

Remember back when I told you about the web site that pays $5 for product reviews? Well, that day I spent about a half hour submitting 6, and the other day they deposited $30 in my paypal account! So, now we know it's for real. Get thee to Mom Product Reviews and make yourself some bucks!

My daughter got a new haircut today! 10 going on 20! 

Found a turtle one day. 

Squiggy Magoo coming home from his first day of preschool. 

Enthusiastic Sullen heading to 8th grade. 

First day of school. Back left is my only daughter on her way to 4th grade, back right is Jake the Great entering 2nd grade. Front left is Doodles heading to kindergarten to be a classmate to his slightly older brother Izzy Man (front right).