Living At Wit's End

I usually write at night, so what I write is posted on the next day.   Because I was writing on the 29 th for the 30 th I forgot that I wanted to post this on my actual child’s birthday.   So here it is a day late. Yesterday was a milestone for the Informer, she turned six!   Six years ago, I went into labor 26 days early; she just couldn’t wait to make her grand entrance!   She has always been a fiery, tough, little imp!   She is tiny, petite and has the most beautiful, feminine name.   Yet, for the most part she is more of a tom-boy, who looks like pig-pen, much of the time.   As much as she likes to dress-up, and be foofy like her sisters, it doesn’t last long at all.   A couple minutes after the hair has been done and fancy dresses put on, she is back to her untamed hair, sticking out all over the place, and usually some sort of mix, matched, wild, outfit.   She always says what’s on her mind and makes no bones about what she thinks everyone else should be doing.   She makes

I was recently on a writing hiatus because I had two projects that I absolutely had to finish.   The first a garage sale, the second a video project I agreed to do. At the beginning of the year I talked the Director into taking Dave Ramsey’s’ Financial Peace University class.   We had taken a Crown Ministries class in the past.   In fact we took a couple and led a few.   So it’s not like we were completely clueless when it came to money.   But, I had heard great things about FPU ( Financial Peace University ) and felt we could always use a refresher when it comes to money.   He agreed. We have had very little debt since taking Crown Ministries, but recently we had been thrown a few curve balls and accumulated a small amount.   In class we learned about Gazelle intensity at paying off everything.   Dave suggests that you do everything from sell off your stuff in a garage sale, to getting another job, in order to live like no one else, so that later you CAN LIVE like no one else.

Growing up I was not in the “IN” crowd, nor was I popular.   The majority of my grade-school years were spent at a Catholic school.   I remember classmates as far back as first grade but a best friend or even good friends I had very few.   My first memory of a best friend was in fourth grade.   I had one for fourth, and fifth.   Then I had a couple of friends in sixth, and seventh but no best friend.   Actually I wasn’t really liked much at all, in sixth and seventh grade.   Thinking back on it, seventh was my hardest, I was what would be considered today, bullied.   Some of the girls put my school shoes in the toilet while I was at P. E.   I was made fun of, and a whole host of other things, I don’t care to remember, throughout all of seventh grade.   Eighth grade was a bit better, the two queen bees that led the girls the years before, had left the school and I bonded with someone.   We were like Laverne & Shirley  (we even had our own Lenny and Squiggy).   I remember thinking we

Everyone in our house, except the Director is sick.   I don’t know what’s worse, everyone including mom, being sick at the same time or having one person at a time get sick.   I mean if we did the one person at a time thing, our household could potentially be sick for two months!   Then again having everyone sick at the same time is really hard too.   Especially when the little ones won’t succumb and just rest, and all of the older ones, me included just want to sleep. So what do we do when we’re all sick?   Well, I try to use natural remedies as well as conventional western medicine, but in the end sometimes it just takes time.   In the mean time I always make the following as part of our healing process. From my absolute favorite cookbook and one of my favorite authors, More Home Cooking, A writer Returns to the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin.   As Laurie states, “There is nothing like roast chicken.   It is helpful and agreeable, the perfect dish no matter what the circumstances.   Ele

I would like to make a clarification to yesterdays post.   After sharing my blog with the morning crew of the Christian radio station I listen to and receiving a comment back, it became apparent to me that I had not expressed myself clearly.   My intent at mentioning the comments I heard on the radio stations was more my own surprise at how different my viewpoints and feelings are.   In all fairness I was not able to listen to the complete morning show.   The Little Man was sick, crying and I was listening while driving to and from the doctors and pharmacy.   I was made aware that many of the “happy the kids were going back to school” comments from parents were because the kids were bored.   (This is something else as homeschoolers we don’t understand; there very rarely is any boredom at our house.  If one of my children tells me they are bored I can always find a chore or extra school work for them to do.  The response is usually, “no, I can go read or play something”; even my 17 year

I’m back!   I had intended for this first post to be an explanation for my absence but something came up today that I had to write about.   I will explain my absence later. Today was the first official day of school in our county.   As homeschoolers we don’t have an official first day of school in our house, mainly because we school most of the year.   I’ve found that the kids retain much more, and it’s easier to stay on top of things if we just keep going year round.   Also, my kids hardly ever finish all of their books at the same time.   Schooling this way allows them to move on to the next book when they’re ready, continuing in an area they may be strong in and spending more time in an area of weakness if needed. I’ve always known our family is different; we do most things counter culture.   We’ve accepted it and don’t think much about it.   We feel that a single income family, with a stay-at-home, homeschooling parent is the best thing for our children and our family.   We feel

DEATH COMES UNEXPECTIDLY !   My brother loves to shout that line and then laugh his unmistakable laugh, that makes me grin.   You see my siblings have this movie quote gene that I didn’t get (they got a lot of gene’s I didn’t get; cereal eating, the get rid of stuff and laugh a lot genes).   The three of them run around and quote movies left and right, they ALWAYS have a quote for whatever situation you’re in.   And, for whatever reason my brother, The Stuntman, loves to quote this one.   Do you know what it’s from?   Here’s a hint it stars Hayley Mills . This morning that quote is played over and over in my brain.   Death, that life altering event that changes us.   It can change our status, or emotional well being, our outlook on life.   We can be changed for better or worse.   Death, it’s so hard to understand, death, ceasing to be, to no longer exist in this world, for the body to stop working; then to exist in another life, an unearthly life that we can not begin to comprehen

When I wrote about the killer organisms, I was half joking.   Seriously, they totally gross me out and give me the willies when I think about them.   However, I never REALLY thought about them and what they can do to you! The other night I wasn’t feeling real great and when I lay down, I felt worse.   So, I decided to get up, not being in the mood to do much of anything, I turned on the TV.   All the stupid cable channels we have, and there was nothing of any value, worth watching, on!   As I was guide surfing, trying to find something, I came across the title Monsters Inside Me on the Animal Channel.   Now I’m thinking to myself “what in the world can this be about, especially on the animal channel!”   So I decide to check it out, in the words of Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman “Big mistake. Big. Huge!” This show is about all the disgusting, nasty, critters that we can get!   Honestly!   The stories that were told and the pictures they showed were awful!   It made me not want to eat

I have this reoccurring nightmare.   I’m at my current state in life (five kids, married etc.), but somewhere, some government bean counter, has determined that I didn’t meet my high school requirements.   Therefore, I have to go back to high school and complete one more year!   It doesn’t matter that I have this life; I have to go back in addition to living my current life.   It has all the typical, back in high school dream stuff, can’t find my locker, when I do, I can’t remember the combination, late to class, can’t find the class etc.   Where it becomes the nightmare is, it’s the last week of school and I have not done anything all year long!   I’m not prepared for the final exam and I have not completed the report, research paper, or whatever long term project that’s due!   So, I’m going to have to go back and do it over again! I had that dream again the other night.   I began to think about it and wonder why as an adult I’m having this dream.   It’s not like I’ve seen or talked

I’m feeling overwhelmed and frustrated lately.   I have a lot on my plate, and I’m behind on several things.   Not feeling in the mood to write today, I thought, what I would really like to do is plop down in front of TV and watch I Love Lucy or something else that will make me laugh.   Why laughter?   Why not a drama or action/adventure movie?   And is this feeling of need for laughter a physiological need, or just typical feelings of being overwhelmed, not knowing where to start, so I’ll procrastinate a bit longer?   Fighting the urge, I press on; doing what I know needs to be done.   In the end, I know that I will feel really good once I’ve accomplished something and marked something off my list.   But, the nagging feeling for laughter won’t leave.   Maybe I need both.   And while I’m at it, I probably could use some exercise and some good fuel, instead of the junk I’ve been consuming lately. What is it about doing the things I should do and need to do that sends me running to bed

I come from cereal eating people!   My brother lived for Fruity Pebbles.   My siblings would fight to the death for the last drop of milk and/or the last crumb of cereal in the box.   They are all still avid cereal eaters! I married a man that thinks cereal is a major food group.   He eats it in a big bowl, slurping every milk drenched bite, until it’s gone.   He also gulps it dry from a cup, for a snack.   In his younger years he would awaken in the middle of the night, decide he was hungry and go have a bowl of cereal.   (I can’t eat ANYTHING in the middle of the night, let alone cereal.) My kids love cereal!   I don’t allow sugar laden cereals in our home, and I don’t allow putting sugar on cereal, as I once did as a kid.   Still my kids eat bowls and bowls of cereal, dripping with milk.   Or, they eat it dry for a snack or they often beg me to make my homemade “Floor Sweepings” with it.   (Floor Sweepings – any form of trail mix – because it looks like something you swept off the