Relaxing weekend?

Finally a summer weekend when I don't feel rushed!  You see previous years we would book our camping trips with only one weekend at home between them.  This meant that that weekend was spent trying to unpack and repack for the next trip!  Not all that relaxing!  This year we more sensibly left two weekends between our trips and booked a few longer trips.  

That means that today is house clean up day..it looks like Hicksville around here.  I have piles of clothes on the floor, a pile that is too big for me, a pile that is too small for the kids, a pile of clean washing that needs to be put away, a pile hat needs altering and fixing (yes I sew), but you get the picture!  We also need to mow the grass and do the yard work, and valet the cars cause not only the inside of the house looks like Hicksville!  The poor monster dog is having to bound through the garden so she doesn't get lost in the grass, and the neighbours must think we have vacated the lot....but no, they probably saw us sitting outside with our friends across the road last night.  

Tonight I get a girls night out with my two bf's from the street, at least that will give me some down time to recover from my day of cleaning - we all know I'm not used to that sort of manual labour.

Oh and to start the day off right, Diggle is wondering around the house with orange stripes in his hair, and princess with pink stripes, I guess they are my kids after all!

Things I used to want for my kids

I used to want them to always be dressed cute, to always look nice.  Now I just want them to be wearing something without holes and preferable no food stains.

I used to want them to have time alone from each other, develop their own personalities - more so because they are twins and always with each other.  Now I just want them to play together so I dont have one complaining they are bored and that their sibling does not want to play

I used to want them to eat, to grow and gain weight (they were born preemie),  now I wish they would stop nibbling on anything they can find.

I used to want them to have lots of friends, ok I still want them to have lots of friends, I just wish they would stop wanting them to come inside and play...its nice weather outside, go out there!

I used to want them to stand up for themselves and each other, and yes I still do, just not to me!  The backchat and arguing with me needs to stop.

I used to want them to have the best of everything, now I just want them to get through the day in one piece, without any new cuts, scrapes, bruises and emotional trauma.

I used to want them to be successful when they grew up, now I just want them to be happy and healthy...-although I would not complain if they earn enough to keep me when I am older ;) 

I used to want them to always love me, and always love each other,....hey, what do you know, I still want that, although I am willing to concede that we will not always like each other. ;)

1st camping trip of the season

Yesterday morning my wonderful, adorable kids (if I type what I thought at the time someone would call child services) woke up at 6:00am and decided to help me by packing their own clothes for our upcoming camping trip.   I looked in their cases this evening and they had packed every pair of underwear they own,  at least 7 pairs of pajamas each (both summer and winter), and a few pairs of shorts.  Oh and every swim suit they could find, both last years and this years.  There were no shirts, no warm clothes, oh and did I mention we are only going for 3 nights?  

On one hand at least we know they are excited and looking forward to it, on the other, I had to spend a whole bunch of extra time this evening putting all their clothes back away.  I guess I will repack the cases myself tomorrow while they are at school.

Of course they could just be excited that they get a day off school on Friday, which I will admit was always enough for me to get excited about when I was their age.  

I still have a ton of packing to do, because as usual I have left most stuff till the last minute. I have done the shopping, but the clean clothes are still all piled on the chair needing to be put away before I can even think about what to pack for myself, and then I still have to do all the little things like pack food and medicines - a major job because I go to the extreme of being over prepared in case someone gets mauled by a bear or breaks a leg on hike. If you are reading that and thinking WTF?? well, meet my family! 

The whole packing thing seems to come together in the end, so I won't stress too much about it, after all I have another whole 24 hours before I need to panic.   

Mothers day

To all the wonderfully dysfunctional    mothers out there....happy mothers day.  We are what makes the world interesting.  I hope you get a day of peace, where no one fights with each other, no one pees on the floor, and maybe the kids remember to flush for a change.  A day where the kids let you sleep in past 7:00am, and give you an extra special hug in the morning.

I know we often beat ourselves up on our mothering skills,(ok, maybe not, maybe we realize that we are not perfect...but being perfect sucks anyway!) but look around, I am pretty sure it's not hard to find kids a lot worse behaved than yours.....we must be doing something vaguely right.  

In our family we don't usually do anything overly special for mothers day, the kids give me something small,  I know they have made something from school, as they would not let me look in their bags on Friday (Diggle is getting better at this secret keeping thing).  DH helps the kids make me a nice breakfast and then it's pretty much a usual day.  We will be packing the trailer, as we never got it finished today, I will be doing laundry and maybe if I am lucky I can use the fact that it is mothers day to bribe some good behavior from the kids.

Whatever your situation, take whatever love and kindness is shown to you and embrace it knowing you deserve it and a million times more, because without us Moms around ......well Lord of the flies springs to mind.

Oh and this is the card I expect to get from DH tomorrow ;)

My split personality

I am crabby, irritated and generally don't feel like talking to too many people at the moment.  So don't call me unless you want to compliment me, tell me how amazing I am, or give me money.  Otherwise its very likely I will just be irritated with you too.

I can't tell what has got my panties in a bunch, it just happened.
Too many people making stupid postings on facebook, showing off how simple minded they are - perhaps.
Too many people wallowing in their own misery to even contemplate what else is going on in the world, or that there are people out there with real problems - perhaps...but then again isn't that exactly what I am doing too?
Too many people who just don't communicate - definitely...how much easier would the world be if we could be mind readers?  Of course we would all be in deep trouble too, just think no more secrets....ok maybe not such a good idea!
Maybe its just that I dont feel like doing any of the multitude of things sitting here needing my attention I guess I will just pick the easiest ones for today!

..................................................................
I typed this yesterday, thankfully today I am in a much better mood.  People can call me again and I promise I will be nice.  Its Friday, the kids have a birthday party tonight and if DH is not sick and miserable we can even consider going out for a dinner date while the kids are probably catching some germ at ChuckECheese.
This weekend we have have to finish all the work on the trailer and finish packing it, cause next weekend camping season starts!!! - <---yes I am looking forward to it!

I had a Mommy fail this morning when I realized I completely forgot to send back the kids placement forms for next year for school, so I have to run those in to the school and then get started on all the complex things I ignored yesterday.

Now if this headache would just go away I may get motivated......

10 random things you maybe did or didn't know about me

• I have been held at gunpoint, suspected of being a mercenary come to assassinate a President of a small island nation. - Nothing like a group of teen soldiers pointing AK47's at you to make you realize how quickly things can go wrong.
• I have dived with Sharks, dolphins and a lot of fantastic people!
• I hitchhiked as a teenager in South Africa, with a little pocket knife as protection! - I think I had a guardian angel as a teenager ;)  - If I had to put all the stupid things I did on here, my family would no longer talk to me and the list would be way too long.
• I was known as coffin kid as a teen, cause I used to do the whole goth/all in black thing - yep even wore a mohawk a few times.
• I have been in two car accidents, once as a driver (not a very serious one, and involved a highly inebriated old lady), once as a passenger (wrote off the car totally - not a fun night), and one boat accident when we flipped a dive boat in the rough surf.
• I once divemastered/assisted training for a platoon of British Army guys (Queens Guards) for their Openwater diver certs. 
• I don't drink tea.  My Mom used to make us have tea with nearly everything, and I rebelled, so my hot drink of choice is pretty much coffee, since hot chocolate does bad things to my thighs ;)
• I am the youngest of 4 children,  I grew up with three older brothers.
• I love saving money, especially when I have to spend to save....ok, yes I love shopping and getting a good deal.
• I really need to join over planners anonymous, as I over plan and speculate about everything, and yet some of the best and most amazing things I have done have been on a whim with little forethought.  

10 things I am thankful for

Firstly let me start by saying this 10 things series is hard...hence the reason you have not seen any posts.
I have a couple of posts started, but I cant seem to come up with 10 things to say on each topic...how sad is that?
Anyway this should be an easier one to complete, after all being thankful is easy, and always helps to put you in a good mood when you realize how much you have to be thankful for.

I am thankful:

• for the fact that my children can play out on the street without me having to be out there with them the whole time.  I guess that boils down to also being thankful for the great neighborhood I live in.

• that I have the ability to stay home and raise my kids myself.  As much as some days I would far rather be at work with adults,  I am glad that even though I am not going to win any mother of the year awards, they can come home and be with me.

• for technology that allows me to stay in touch with family and friends so very far away....I would be so lost without you.

• that the monster dog has finally stopped eating my shoes

• that spring is here and we will soon be camping

• that the taxes are done and we are getting a nice refund.

• that I have the most amazing mix of friends ever

• that this weeks spelling tests are over and I  no longer have to try and teach my kids the abysmal words that were on their list last week.  

• that I actually lost weight last week even though I went out to lunch once and dinner once and ate desert that was about 10000 calories.

• that the kids are now in bed and I can relax and watch some tv and read.

There that was not so hard....yay, now I am also thankful that this is done!