Summer
Mood:  special

Well, I wish that I could tell everyone of the amazing plans our family has for summer, but gas prices are ridiculous, so it looks like we'll be laying around the house staring at each other. With the tremendous amount of gas that 4 males produce, you would think we could power a whole fleet of SUV's, but no such luck.

If any of you has any exciting ideas for things to do this summer from the comfort of our own home, I'd be glad to hear it. Here are some fun ideas that I thought of on my own:

1. Post comments on every blog we can find. Make them as obnoxious as possible and see how many threats we can get from others. For every threat we receive, the kids get a token at Chuck E. Cheese. This will motivate them to really get into this "blogging" thing.l

2. Teach the kids how to be pick pockets. This way they will have plenty of spending money. I will rake my 10 percent off the top and that will give us a little gas money. Remember, no one ever suspects a 7 year old when their wallet is missing.

3. Rent out the kids to others that are thinking about having kids of their own, but have not made up their minds yet. This way, I get free babysitting, and I can charge them for the rental. This would be a good service, don't you agree?

Let me know if you have any more good "summer family ideas" for us. We should have time to do a few more things after we do the 3 I listed. Hope you all have a great summer!

Orange Conference
Last night, a group of us from church returned from the Orange Conference in Atlanta. There were 3 days of worship and classes focusing on the best ways to help our kids learn about and love Jesus. It was very uplifting, to say the least. There were over 5,000 people in attendance from countries all over the world. It was really amazing. The music was incredible and the classes were very insightful. One of the classes I attended focused on "Mobilizing the Next Generation." Having a boy that is almost a teenager, I found this to be particularly helpful. It seems that we tend to repeat those things our own parents did with us, without even realizing it. We have been pretty adamant about making Jake do the things that we want him to do, when he would rather be building his website, making movies that he creates with his brothers, and drawing. Of course, we have encouraged the drawing and we love the short movies he makes, but there are always things that we push him to be involved in that he is not necessarily interested in. Then, we are surprised when he does not excel at those things that he never wanted to do in the first place! The speaker for this class was Stuart Hall and I am told that he has written a couple of very helpful books on dealing with youth in ministry. If you get a chance to look up the Orange Conference, you can get an insight into what it is all about.  I am uplifted right now, and I hope to stay that way for a while!

Sleepover
Mood:  cheeky
My middle son, Logan had a sleepover for his birthday. These are crazy, hectic affairs where the primary goal is too make sure that everyone has so much fun, they get sick. And I think that all of his friends, eventually, did. First, we went to a Japanese restaurant. Here, the 6 boys, ages 7 to 12, went crazy. They ate too much food, chewed on some chopsticks, and provided entertainment (free) to the whole back room of the restaurant. We were happy to be of service to so many quiet families that obviously would have been bored had we not been there. After we were stuffed to the gills, we took the kids to play Laser Tag. Here, my youngest son told everyone that he was on their team and then shot them in the back when they were not looking. 7 years old is not too young to start your kids on the path to cheating. If they learn young, it will just become a way of life. We were so proud. He won, too!   And, as we planned, it began snowing while we were at Laser Tag. Nothing is too good for our son. We planned the snow at least 2 weeks in advance - and we were not disappointed. We came home and the boys sled down our front yard for 2 hours. They really did have a blast. It was wonderful when we finally fell into bed around 4 am. It was the best early morning sleep I can remember having in a long time. Those 3 hours refreshed us beyond words..... Anyway, everyone had a good time and it was a party that will be remembered. I always wondered what it would be like to be a zookeeper - and now I know.

Cleaning House
Mood:  caffeinated

My philosophy on cleaning house is this....I keep my house looking like this so my friends will feel better about the way their house looks. You can really make lots of friends if you do everything just a little worse than those around you. You always make them look good. So - don't judge me for having a messy home, just relish the fact that yours looks better.

The Cat is Insane

Does anyone actually have their cat on bi-polar medicines? If so, where can I get them? Will my veterinarian write a prescription for them?  The reason I ask is that I have a totally insane cat. To protect his privacy, I won't name names, though. He would be really embarrassed to know that I was writing this about him.

I often compare him to Jack Nicholson's character in "As Good As it Gets." He has to make this huge circle around the family room before he will go out the door. As he is going out the door, his feet can touch no metal.  He goes through periods of time where he just walks around the house staring at me, but will not let anyone touch him. At other times he won't leave me alone and claws me in the back until I DO touch him.

I guess it is a blessing that he cannot talk.

 

New Blog Site for other Insane Mothers
This is the first entry on my blog. Hopefully, someone out there will actually read it. As I posted on my website, I live in a house that is overrun by the male gender. Even my cats are boys. In other words, NO ONE LISTENS. You ladies out there with husbands that don't listen to you - it is not their fault. They are born that way. This blog spot is a place for me to perform self-therapy by unloading all of those things in my life that I try to unload at home. Sweet as they are, men should be born with hearing aids (to hear what we are saying) and glasses (to help them find what they are looking for without asking ME to find it for them). Please leave your comments - and if you are a friend, I'd really love to hear from you!