No no Daddy.....

It wasn't a long time ago

It was the day after yesterday!!!!!!!

Dude (says the Daddy)

The day after yesterday is today.

Some Musings from the Middle

So - I have this middle child.

Any family that has a middle knows that the middle can be....

stubborn and sensitive and very quiet and remarkably loud and incredibly easy and unbelievably hard

all at the exact same time.

Well - I decided to honor our middle with this post today of funny things that she has said - literally all in the last two days.

From the Middle Bowhead Age 6

Scene set up: bedtime, rain beginning, thunder rumbling gently, Daddy finishing up his goodnights, Mommy coming in to begin hers.....

"Mom - Daddy says that thunder is just the angels in Heaven bowling."

I say, "oh really?"

She says, "yes - I really wish they would pick a quieter way to have a good time."

Scene set up: The opportunity for her to talk on the phone with a BFF from Texas alone in the car with Mom driving down the road. The BFF has apparently relayed some story about helping her little brother....

"oh yes but you see if you have a bigger sister and a littler brother than the bigger sister has to help the littler brother do everything and you don't have to do anything. It's Awesome."

Same phone conversation

"I don't know, friend in Texas, I have really only been here a short time and I really don't know all the answers yet."

In the same phone conversation, every time that she wanted to ask me a question or move in her seat she would very carefully hold her hand up to the phone to cover it and say primly,

"Hold Please"

Scene set up: Mom running errands and lets everyone know that there is only one more and it is a quick one.

"Yes but Mommy - sometimes you say that and it really isn't so quick. Sometimes I worry about you and the clock in your head."

I love that Middle. Couldn't have a beginning and an end without the middle!

A post about teaching the children

So - when you have a huge life change - like say...

moving from one state in the middle of the country to another state at one of the ends

You get a little side tracked from day to day life. I have been so busy with the move and the houses and sort of well

surviving

That I feel like I am finally getting back to what is most important

My KIDS

I am blessed to be a stay at home Mom. I genuinely like staying home and while I will one day, possibly, maybe, depending on where life takes me, teach again. For now, I stay home.

Now - remind me because I will go OFF on my soapbox about being "THAT Mom" as well as my soapbox about the stay at home Mom VS working Mom "debate".

I will not step onto either one of those soapboxes at this moment because - hey - I need to spread out my blogging material where I can.

Anyway - I digress

As usual

Long story short - I stay home - I like it. Period.

Soooo - Husband and I have been talking a lot about teaching our kids. This is a competitive world that we live in and every time I turn around I am being tempted to drop hundreds of dollars (times 3 for me) on

pianotennisviolinswimguitarsoccertromboneadvancedcompetitivewrestling....

lessons

(You get my point)

Now don't get me wrong - I see the value of these things and I am willing to pay for them when called for but Husband and I are also realizing something

There is A LOT that we can teach them. A LOT!

I do not have to sign my son up for cooking lessons - I am teaching him how to cook every time I make cookies and let him help.

I do not have to sign my kids up for fitness classes - I can go out back and play with them.

I do not have to sign my daughter up for beginning piano. I can read basic music and follow an elementary piano book and grind my teeth while watching my life slowly pass before my eyes every bit as well as the piano teacher can.

Will there come a day when I need a more advanced piano teacher for her - maybe. But especially starting them - we can teach them.

Now - I am not a perfect parent and I do not pretend to tell you how to parent. The reason that I feel compelled to tell you this (beside from the fact that it is filling up a blog post) is this is my blog. Mostly I just try to remember this time in my life. I will not lie to you dear readers - if you have made it this far into the post you know that I will go to great lengths for a laugh but that is not the reason for this long winded post.

I think that there is so much that we can learn from one another in this community of parenting. I am constantly seeing or hearing things that other parents are doing and reminding myself to try that so here goes - try this.......

Tomorrow - teach your children something. Slow down and teach them. Show them how to do something that they don't know how to do.

Now some of you might say, "psshhh Holly - I am constantly teaching my kids all the time. Heck we just wrapped up our advanced studies in Latin as our bedtime story." But some of you will look back over this day and you will remember pick up and drop off and activities and playdates and telling them to do their homework and brush their teeth but

Did you teach them anything?

Try it tomorrow - slow down and show them how to do something. Even if it is as simple as how to start a load of laundry or where a stamp should go on a letter.

Slow down and try it - it is like broccoli with cheese - I promise you will like it.

A blogging lag

Ok so I a little bit think that blogging is like exercising or mowing the lawn or matching up socks - if you get out of the habit of doing it - it is hard to get started again.

I think it is one of those - so much to say - don't know where to start kind of things......

So - here goes

First off - we lost a dog this week. Penelope Anne the Pug died quite suddenly and it was actually very upsetting and to be perfectly honest - I don't want to talk about it. I did feel the need to mention it in the ol' bowheads blog because I have been blogging about her since we got her. I also think she is part of the reason that I have been stuck with the blogging. The whole - feel like I should say something - don't know how to say it thing.

Anyway - enough said on that subject.....

Frank the pug got a perfect bill of health from the vet yesterday - phew! (He did have to switch to diet treats and has been trying to figure out a way to stage a non violent protest.....)

The weather here is crazy - we did not get out of the 50's today. In 20 years I have not spent an entire day in June in jeans and a sweater and guess what - that is what I did today. I am not complaining mind you - that Texas heat is so rough and I am sure I will have plenty to complain about come winter so for now all I can say is - the weather here is awesome.

We went strawberry picking last week and I have been making myself strawberry smoothies and let me just say - so so so good.

For those of you that have followed since the cupcake weight loss days - I have started phase two of cupcake weight loss. I am calling this phase - the cupcake on skis phase because I figure I better be as light as possible when I start careening downhill this winter.

I am obsessed with pinterest and cannot stop pinning things. I get the best ideas and I love love love love that I can keep them all in one place.

Now I am rambling so that is good - the blogging juices are flowing - hopefully I will be able to come up with something witty and charming and wildly interesting for tomorrow......

Well - one can only hope.

;)

Going where you are led.....(AKA - the great pediatrician hunt of 2011)

So - here is how today went.....

6 year old wakes up with an ear ache - sort of a mysterious one that has been coming and going for days. No fever - we have been watching it for days and we have a big weekend planned. She has a tendency to get sick on big weekends so we wanted a clean bill of health going into said big weekend so the decision was made to try out a Massachusetts pediatrician.

Now - two weeks ago I went and dropped off paperwork at a pediatricians office right up the street. They seemed nice enough and the office was so quiet when I went in there so it seemed like a decent fit.

I called them today and asked for an appointment.

They said - "we can see you tomorrow at 11"

I said - "that is totally unacceptable"

and thus - the great pediatrician hunt of 2011 began.

First off I called up to the little bitty and I mean little bitty, make a double wide look spacious, kind of office of a local family medicine doctor that I had seen a couple of weeks ago for my long overdue physical and confess my wrong doings to Echo. Now I am a fan of that Echo as she is the chief, cook, and bottle washer of the whole operation. She answers the phone, takes your blood pressure, takes out the trash - the whole 9. Anyway - I tell Echo I need an appointment, she says sure and by the way - call and check your insurance and make sure that you don't need to declare a primary caregiver.

I call our Insurance and guess what they say?

Nope you can't guess....

oh wait you did?

Yep - they say - "um sorry - we are no longer your insurance - your company dropped you on April 28th.

It is possible that I said something along the lines of

"SWEET SARAH JESSICA PARKER"

on the phone - not sure - might have happened.

Anyway - turns out that husband's company switched us when we switched states and we somehow missed that memo.

We were now covered but by a totally different group. I start calling pediatricians and then

I started to freak out.

As if I wasn't freaking out enough already

Because - guess what - I didn't like any of those ladies on the phone

And any Mom knows - those ladies on the phone hold all the power in their hands and it is pretty important that they find you charming and funny and not strange and irritating. It is an important relationship.

So - I finally call a practice and I basically in two long run on sentences I spill out my problem to the powerful lady on the phone

"soitotallyblewitandihavethesethreelittlekidsandireallyneedapediatricanthatcan

seeusonthedaywegetsickplusitwouldalsobereallyniceifwelikedtheofficeandifyou

wouldtakeourinsuranceandmy6yearoldhasanearacheandiamkindofstartingtopanicbecause

iamnothavingalotofluck...."

She says, "oh honey - we need to look into those little ears right away! Can you be here at 3:45?"

So - off we go to this place where we have been led

led by a set of circumstances that led us to the place that is actually an incredibly important part of the move - the kids doctor is - well - super important

As we walked in the front door I said "oh please let me like you"

And guess what - I did.

They were awesome.

We walked into the office 45 minutes early. (I tend to run really early and even more so when I am feeling worried about something. I was worried about getting lost so we got there in Holly time)

They called us back before I could even sit down

The guy taking us back was wearing a mask (you know like a germ mask) and handed a little mask to my 6 year old. (Sounds creepy but I tend to be a little germaphobic so I almost hugged the guy - didn't though - on account of the germs). My 6 year old literally held the mask dangling by one finger away from her body like it was on fire or something. The guy just smiled and took us back and said we would work on the germ mask routine.

Anyway

The office was big and clean and sweet people smiled at all three of my kids

There was a small wrestling episode that was broken up by a resident with stickers.

The office has 4 attending's and 4 residents - basically doctors coming out of their ears.

They got on the phone with the doctors office that wouldn't get us in and figured out how to get records transfered that were on their way from Texas to the busy pediatrician and not the new good pediatrician.

The resident we saw was darling, funny, and totally got a huge kick out of my very quirky 6 year old. Big bonus points there. She even complimented her bow.

The nice lady in the office with the phone and the schedule and all of the power laughed at my jokes

twice

I am so glad for the round about day

I am so grateful that they switched our insurance

I am relieved that I just followed where I was led

and glad to check another thing off of my "moving to a different state" list.

A recipe, the gift that keeps on giving, and finding my center

Well first - a recipe - I sent this to some friends this morning and it seemed like decent blogging material so I decided to share it with the world (read - my 139 followers plus Facebook friends)

Below is the email that I sent:

Subject Line: Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce

(taken from the Fix It and Forget It Cookbook)

Let me preface this with - try it once - don't give up on it before it has cooked. I put it in my crock pot and thought - yuk - no way my children are ever going to eat this. Then the slow cooking magic began and oh my - by the end of the day the children were throwing themselves against the countertop like dogs it smelled so good - seriously.

I have been looking for a solution because I like to make my own sauce but it is just so easy and cheap to buy good organic sauce out there and it is such a beating to make your own sauce from scratch. Well I think I have found my solution. This was easy easy easy and so good!



Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce

1 lb ground beef
1 medium onion chopped
2 cans diced tomatoes with juice
1 can tomato paste
1 can tomato sauce
1 bay leaf (I did not have - don't worry about)
4 garlic cloves minced
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt
2 tsp dried basil
1 TBSP brown sugar (I actually completely forgot to put this in!)
1/2 tsp dried thyme (also omitted because I didn't have it)

Brown meat and onion in saucepan. Drain well and put in slow cooker with all other ingredients.

Anyway - enjoy!!!!!

Now on to the gift that keeps on giving. On Mothers Day we went out and got me my new super duper awesome, love a whole lot, can finally vacuum pet hair off of many different kinds of floors, light weight, no I am not being paid to advertise for Dyson, vacuum.

It turns out - it is the gift that keeps on giving because you know who has taken a real interest in it? Yep - that's right - 4 year old boy. At first I resisted - but then I decided "hey - if the little man wants to vacuum - let him vacuum".

He spent 20 MINUTES today working on the stairs - yep 20 minutes of totally concentrated little boy energy focused into a physical task that involved a gadget PLUS - he did the stairs.

Like I said - the gift that keeps on giving.

And finally - because I am feeling chatty,

I have been going to yoga twice a week and I am working hard to find my center. I know it is in there somewhere (underneath the v-neck T-shirt, zip up hoodie, mom jeans, and last 10 pounds) and I am really getting into all of this yoga stuff. Today she had us tighten up our muscles and clench and then throw all the stress and tension away and tighten and throw it away and so on and so forth. I managed to avoid the yoga giggles which I am somewhat prone to (if you are not familiar, they are a bad case of church giggles only in loose fitting clothing) and I really enjoyed myself!

Well - that's all for now

Happy Tuesday!

Holly

Happy Mothers Day

I couldn't help myself - it's Mothers Day - had to go for the shameless plug ;)

Hope your day was as good as mine!

Holly