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). 

A happy Jake the Great with his birthday bike. Notice our brick patio that we built ourselves! 

Hey Mom--I have no idea why he was doing his eyes that way, but this is what he got from you for his birthday. It's a camel back water thingy. Booboo used it at camp, too. Works great! 

You carry water in here! 

No School

The kids have a day off from school today because of some teacher in-service thing. Mine have been running around having a great time. I upped the fun-o-meter by stopping by the local hardware store to see if they had any big boxes I could have. Sure enough, we got a huge dryer box. I cut a door and windows for them, and they have played happily ever since. Good, clean, free fun. Can't beat it!

Be Careful What You Pray For!

Today I have made great progress on my book, and since I know you were all on the edge of your seats wondering "What about the lice book? We must know!!" I didn't want you to suffer any longer.

It was a few months ago that my husband and I started praying in earnest for our business to pick up and start making some money. And here we are now, with so many opportunities dropping in our laps left and right, it's c-r-a-z-y!! But fun. It's just very, very intense.

I tend to get all fuddled up with all the plates I'm trying to spin. I get really focused on one thing for awhile, and then all of a sudden one of the other projects rises up and bites me in the butt and I'm like, "Holy moley I forgot about that one!" This morning I actually got out a bunch of paper plates and labeled them with the various projects I have going, so I can put them on my wall and have a visual reminder. My husband's comment when I told him what I'd done? "Oh great! Now you'll have to go buy more paper plates!" hahahahaha

Seriously, it helps me to have a visual of what it is I have going on. Otherwise it's easy to forget, and I don't just want to have a handful of mediocre businesses. Gotta tend those gardens or they get weedy, ya know.

Due to a combination of work issues, child issues, weather, and husband's work schedule issues, I didn't get to work out yesterday or today, and it's looking like I won't be able to go again until Tuesday. Sounds like I'm going to have to get my Richard Simmons Sweatin' to the Oldies video out!

Why is it...?

Why is it that I can write and think of great ideas day in and day out, but when it comes down to needing to actually churn out some decent writing I go blank? Even when I have at least 60-80% of the writing done (in various formats that need to be found and dissected and tweaked)!

In Anne Lamott's book Bird by Bird (which is all about the process of writing), she talks about how every day she sits down to write, and most days she becomes very, very interested in "gathering wool" as she puts it. Basically, having your brain go blah-de-blah-blah and finding urgent needs for you to get up and leave your writing such as multiple trips to the bathroom, cleaning little tiny details of things that you would not normally notice, or learning new stunts like balancing your pen on your finger. That's me right now. Blogging because I can't write! How stupid is that?

(I got a bee in my bonnet today to finish up an ebook idea that I had set aside. I need to finish it. It's so close I can taste it! And here I sit, one paragraph victorious at least, but the kids will be coming home in 10 minutes so my time is done for the day. All that skipping around the house cheering myself on and congratulating myself for a brilliant introduction...and now I have to wait til tomorrow. What is more likely is that right in the middle of helping someone with their homework or hearing about some social woe, I will suddenly get a HUGE burst of inspiration and have to go running to the computer to get my thoughts down before they escape......)

What are we here for?

I found this great post today and thought it was worth passing on. Whether it passes by snopes.com as true-blue or not doesn't matter to me. The message is a good one regardless.

Dog Tired

Worked out today, including a harder cardio than I had previously done. The question I had on my mind after an hour or two of being home was, when does this start to feel better? Supposedly people feel so much energy when they exercise regularly. Well, for me, I feel tired and sore. I exercise, am proud of myself, want some lunch and a nap. The end.

I asked my husband this question and his answer went something like, "Well, if you aren't feeling good and energetic after you exercise you probably need to work harder on your cardio....if your heart rate isn't getting up high enough blah blah blah..." at which point I had to tell him to stop or else I was going to be very tempted to injure him. He didn't quite get it that I was serious. After I, uh, explained it more clearly, he decided to go out and mow the grass. heh.

I worked my way through the oodles and oodles of clothing to swap out for the kids. Got rid of 3 garbage bags full of clothes, and found that I won't need to buy much at all for the season. That was good news. Had my newest Six Feet Under disc here, so I got to find out what happened to Lisa.....

Found some new items to include in the baby boutique so that gave me a little mental boost. I need that new stuff coming along to keep my wheels turning for the current project.