What Happens When Mom Goes On A Secret Strike

This weekend left me a little, shall we say, perturbed. I attempted to handle it with grace with a semi-sweet letter to my kids, but if I'm being honest I've been feeling a little taken advantage of lately.

We mothers do it all really... We hold down full time jobs (even if you're a SAHM), we cook, we clean, and we care for our families day in and day out. There's no such thing as a sick day when you're a mom. Sick or not, tired or not, we're still required to live up to and deliver on the expectations of our children and significant others.

I know that jealousy and envy are B.A.D. but sometimes I just can't help it. Both James and I work all day long... The difference, I get home and the immediate question is "What's for dinner?" Most nights I don't even have my shoes off before they're already asking. I also hear things like: "Hun, I need a clean uniform for tomorrow, you're going to need to run laundry tonight." and "Hey mom, can you come here?" ::walk into room:: "Can you go get me a water bottle?" Um, did I not spend all day working my butt off too? Why is it that I'm responsible for dinner and uniforms while you play iPad? Did I not just come from the exact room in the house that contains said water bottle? Is there any reason you can't stop watching Netflix for 60 seconds and get it?

But alas, I'm evidently little more than the house elf personal servant these days and no one thinks it's absurd to ask mom to fetch things for them so they don't have to get up.

So this week I silently declared that I was on strike. I didn't bother to announce it, because honestly, who's listening to what I say at this point anyway. I did make dinner, but that's because if I hadn't Lena would have consumed nothing but Pop Tarts and Golden Grahams (no matter how irritated I get she won't be eating sugar coated sugar for dinner). Instead of just automatically running around policing up everyone's mess, I simply let it go.

This is only 4 days of my secret strike...

AND FINALLY!

Hmmm.. I wonder what would happen if I went a whole week? Have you ever been on a secret strike?

Toddlers in Tiaras - Are These Parents For Real?

Thanks to the seemly endless amount of of snow days we've had so far this year, Lena has become best friends with our Netflix account. Usually I'm an advocate for limiting the amount of TV intake the kids are allowed. I'm one of those mean mom's that force their children to go out and play instead of sitting in the house rotting their brains away with hour after hour of electronic entertainment.

High five if you catch my reference!

However, the temperature has refused to budge above zero almost the entire freaking month for the last 4 days. There is no where to go and I don't have enough indoor activities up my sleeve to keep anyone entertained for the 64 waking hours of subzero temperatures we've just endured. So... I gave up... The brain melting-inator was all hers!

When I came home Monday evening though, Lena wasn't feeling her very best (despite not being allowed out in the frigged tundra) and all she wanted was to cuddle up with mommy and watch Netflix. Seemed like a perfectly reasonable request to me... What I didn't know is that while I was away at work, she'd stumbled upon Toddlers in Tiaras and that I was about to be subjected to it for the reminder of my evening.

I have never watched an episode of this show prior to this and now I know exactly why. Those parents are absolutely nuts! While the princess phase is long gone in our household, I was certainly never opposed to letting Lena prance around in fluffy dresses under and atomic cloud of glitter. It made her happy and that's all that mattered to me.

But these parents have taken it to a whole other level! Personally speaking, I think pageants are just a little too much. Our daughters will already have to suffer through years of feeling bad about the way they look once they hit middle school anyway. So why in the hell are these parents putting their kids through that before they're even able to walk? It seems to me that they're setting them up for potentially a lifetime of low self-esteem and that's something that no girl needs help with!

I watched in absolute horror as one mom said that she takes her 6 year old spray tanning to help cover up "her imperfections." Excuse me, she's 6 years old! What imperfections could a little girl that age possibly have?

I wanted to reach through the screen when Pageant Dad said he needed to go talk to his toddler because she didn't do her best today. Seriously? When my kid was 2, I thanked my lucky stars when I made it passed the candy in the grocery store without a meltdown and you're disappointed because she didn't blow kisses at the judges??? If you ask me, someone has their priorities way out of whack!

I also have to mention that in this particular episode, the moms were also competing against their daughters. Evidently it wasn't bad enough to be teaching these children that their worth is in their looks, they felt the need to add in fiercely competitive adult women and have them face off their kids for whose prettier. I know that sick and twisted helps create better drama (I watch American Horror Story after all) but I don't think it should ever be at the expense of kids. Not now, not ever.

Miss Spray Tan My Imperfect 6 Year Old at least handled that part with some amount of grace, while another mom actually bet her 9 year old that she would do better. She told her daughter that if she scored higher then the daughter was going to have to make her bed for a week. Her logic behind this... because it makes her do a better job in the pageant!

I don't ever claim to be a perfect mom. In fact, I'm very far from it. You can find evidence of just a couple of my many parenting failure moments here and here if you're interested. But I truly feel these parents should have been / or should sterilized. There is no way they should be allowed to reproduce ever again and have the opportunity to torture their kids with makeup, fake nails, false eyelashes, hair extensions, and spray tanning just so they can capitalize financially on their child's looks.

Okay, I'll get off my soap box now... Please feel free to share your thoughts too.

A Letter To My Kids - The Maid Will Not Be Coming

My Dearest Children:

Your father and I are what is commonly known as the working class. While this means that we are slightly above poverty level and can still afford to do things like take you to see Disney's Frozen, it also means that we will not be hiring a maid, cook, butler, or any other form of domestic help anytime in the near future.

That being said, I would like to share a couple things that are on my mind from this weekend:

1. Please stop putting your clean folded laundry back in the basket. I'm not entirely certain which one of my lovely children decided that it would be better to pile the dirty laundry on top of the clean laundry, but as I went to start a new load this afternoon I discovered several pieces that I could swear I just washed a few days ago. Based on the fact that it was still neatly folded in the basket, I'm certain you assumed it would just be more convenient to have me wash it again then to actually put it away. Should there be another attempt to be clever when cleaning your room like that again, you will be responsible for washing your own clothes hence forth.

2. An entire bag of Doritos is not an option for lunch. On Saturday I made a large pan of Taco Bake. Since I already knew we had a lot of running to do today before the next polar vortex swoops down and possibly buries us alive (for the second time this month) I prepared a meal that would be easy for you to simply pop in the microwave so that you had something both warm and filling in your bellies. I can appreciate that seeing me walk in with several armloads of groceries fueled your appetites, but I do not believe that you were so starving at that exact moment that you couldn't wait 10 minutes for me to put it away so that you could get something to eat. Your attempt at trying to sneak away with an entire bag of Doritos was extremely brave, I will give you that. However, I will never be so distracted that I would allow you to eat a bag of chips for lunch instead of the food I spent 2 hours preparing. Nice try, but no dice.

3. You do not need half a roll of toilet paper to wipe your butts. I know that 5 people can demolish a roll of toilet paper in no time flat, this is why we buy it in bulk from Costco. I have a hard time believing though that you've peed enough to go through 2 rolls in a 12 hour span of time. There are two possible options here, either a) someone has a serious bladder infection and needs to see a doctor or b) someone just keeps rollin, rollin, rollin, when they use the potty. Since no one has complained about a burning sensation and based on the fact that I had to plunge it twice in one day... I'm thinking it's B. Please refrain from wiping your behinds with enough paper to make a quilt going forward. With the snowmageddon on the horizon, it would be a crying shame if you had to use your hands while we wait for the plows to come dig us back out again. We all know that could take a couple of days and mom will not be braving the snow drifts and black ice simply because someone decided they needed it to feel extra fluffy when they wipe.

In closing my dearest children, know that I love you all, I would not trade you for the world, and all complaints should be forwarded to dad...

Sincerely,

Mom

Okay Mother Nature, I'm Calling Uncle

The average January snowfall in Chicagoland is approximately 11 inches. I heard on the radio this morning that we've already suffered through 30+ inches this January and that there's still plenty more to come.

This is currently our 5 days forecast...

We really need to move to a state where it doesn't snow... I told James we can even take his ex-wife so this kids won't be an issue. So far it's a no go. All I have to say is....

The Gramma's House Hangover

People say that there are only two inevitable facts in life: death and taxes. I believe they have forgotten an inevitable fact when it comes to people who have children. After a weekend at Gramma's house... They come back a complete brat!

Lena spent the weekend at my parents' house so we've been dealing with invasion of the body snatchers for the last two days now. My mother calls her Perfect Angel. In her eyes Lena can do no wrong and there's no such thing as her Perfect Angel having a serious attitude problem. I completely understand that this is the benefit of being the grandparent and not the parent, but after 3 days in an environment where you're never told no, ice cream is breakfast food, and bedtime is mythical thing you faintly remember, home starts to resemble a concentration camp in the eyes of an 11 year old.

Since Lena is in her tween years we're already navigating the minefield that is my little drama queen on a daily basis... Don't get me wrong, she's a good kid who I rarely have any trouble with, but she's been trying on her sarcastic big girl pants more and more frequently these days. She hasn't exactly mastered the art of it all just yet and sometimes she pushes just a little too far. We're working on it, but we still have to correct her when some of the things that escape her smart ass lips are more hurtful than funny.

Trips to Gramma's No Rules Wonderland just seem to amplify the thoughts that she can do and say whatever she pleases... I assure you, this is not the case. Last night, she managed to push me just a little too far.

On Sunday evening I finally established a work out routine for myself. I restarted the 6 week challenge on EA Active for our Wii and have stuck to it all week so far. This means that I'm setting aside 30 minutes each evening just for me. Lena, thinking she was clever, thought she'd take advantage of this time while she was supposed to be working on her homework. Before I started my workout, I told her to work on her writing because I know that takes her longer and that when I was done we'd work on her math together. Made perfect sense to me...

The Step Aerobics workout is split up into 3, 10 minute segments (so you can get a drink in between sets) and during the end of the first set I suddenly hear Lena in her room talking to someone. She didn't realize that I got a break I guess because when I walked into her room she had a look of total shock on her face. When I asked her who she was talking to she told me she'd called her friend... For help on her homework of course!... However, she was supposed to be working on writing. Last time I checked, you don't need help from your friends to work on a creative story of your own, but hell, I could be wrong.

At first I was kind about it and told her that she knew the rules and she needed to say goodbye. Homework time is homework time, period. Then the Gramma's House Hangover kicked in and what she said to me flipped my meltdown switch...

"Well, you're too busy doing something you want to do instead of helping your kid. So, I called J for help on math instead!"

"OH HELL NO! YOU DID NOT JUST SAY THAT TO ME!"

I made her hang up the phone immediately, made her hand it over promptly, get on her writing homework, and she was now required to leave her door open. Then, I went back to my workout like nothing had happened.

As soon as I was done we tackled her math homework and I tucked her into bed. After I kissed her the tears started to well up in her eyes. "Mom, I'm really sorry I'm such a brat. I shouldn't have said that to you."

I explained to her again, that sometimes the things she says are hurtful. I explained that no matter what though I would always forgive her and that I love her. I told her that kind of behavior simply will not be tolerated. She knows the rules. I kissed her again and I told her I loved her more than anything in the world. And before turning out the light...

I told her if she ever talked to me like that again that they would have trouble finding the body. Sweet dreams!

Siblings are a Blessing and Occasionally a Curse

I have an insane number of siblings! If you count the bunch to the left, you'll see that there's a total of 9 of us. I could bore you with the details of which kids belong to which set of parents but it's hard enough for me to keep track of it all, let alone for someone without an emotional investment in the group. That being said, I'll spare you the genealogy lesson.

I have always been extremely proud of my younger minions siblings and I've loved having them in my life. They have defined a lot of who I am and how I see the world. When you look at life through 8 different personalities and 16 additional eyes you tend to get a really broad view of what's really important and what's not. But not every moment in my relationships with them have been smooth sailing. Sometimes, quit frankly, they've annoyed the piss out of me.

One of my sisters managed to accomplish that last night. See, some of them live close and some of them live far. The one's that live nearby have a tendency to randomly show up on my doorstep from time to time. I never mind. I like that they want to stop over and hang with their big sis, but I mean it when I say different personalities. Not a single one of us is exactly alike and that means that sometimes we have different views on things. For instance, with this whole not being a fat slob trying to live healthier journey I've started my household on.

James made the silly mistake of mentioning it to her when she was busy looking through our kitchen for a snack. Being in nursing school she felt overly compelled to share her opinions on the subject. To use a cliche here, Rome was not built in a day. I'm not expecting to move a mountain in less than a week. I'm just trying to introduce and guide my family in making some healthier choices at the moment. You know, baby steps? However, the mere mention somehow morphed into a complete nuclear attack on the eating/exercise decisions we've made.

"Well, if you're going to be healthy you have to stop buying white bread. It's terrible for you and that will need to go!" Ummm...

"You really need to join my gym with me. You don't have any excuse not to. It's only an extra hour out of your day." Well, my dear, you don't have kids. When I get a grand total of 4 hours a night at home, I will not be giving an hour of it to the gym. Me and Wii are getting along just fine thank you.

"Your diet has always been complete garbage and a lot of that is how much pop you drink." I'm fully aware that pop is not good for you. I get it. That's why I limit myself to one 12oz can a day.

Ultimately, I'm very aware that I haven't always made perfect decisions. If I didn't know this, I wouldn't be making any attempts to change anything. And it's very easy for all 110 lbs of her with her magical metabolism to sit in judgement of my decisions. News flash though my precious one from the lucky side of the gene pool... I don't however plan on halting all the joy in life (it's a little obvious I have a bit of a food addiction, okay?) just so I can be thinner. I just want to feel better and I want my family to feel better. No more, no less.

Most days things are like this between me and my siblings....

And some days... Well... They're just not.

The Top 5 Reasons I Hate Shaving

Yep, this is my house.
Image found here.

I wouldn't trade being a woman for anything in the world, but I do have to admit that when it comes to certain things men just get off easy. They're not responsible for hauling around a bowling ball in their bellies for 9 months, they don't know what it's like to give birth, they don't have to endure the utter horror of sitting on a public toilet seat, when they decide they want to lose weight it just starts to melt away with a few workouts because they don't store fat like polar bears the way we do, and if you see a man in heels it's because he wants to be. We women endure some serious medieval style tortures in order to live up to societal expectations of who/how we should be.

In my personal opinion, shaving falls right into the medieval category.

1. Acquiring the proper tools is freaking expensive! I'm not entirely certain who decided that $15+ was a "fair" price to charge for a package of 3 tiny scraps of metal wrapped in plastic, but I'm certain that they're rolling in dough from the highway robbery prices they charge. Granted there is the less expensive option of purchasing disposable razors, but I only recommend that if you enjoy being covered in Phineas and Ferb bandaids. I do rock a mean Perry though!

2. The amount of time it takes to shave one's legs is also nothing short of torment. Due to the time factor alone, I tend to resemble Chewbacca more often than not. It's not because I'm unwilling to make the effort, but because I'm lucky enough to have enough hot water left after 3 kids and a significant other to wash my hair, let alone to tame the wild jungle hidden under my jeans. All showers that need to exceed the 10 minute allowed limit of hot water left for mom must be taken after 10pm (if I can stay awake that late that is).

3. There is a certain ability for contortionism required in order to shave your legs properly. I truly believe that no shower was ever made with this particular activity in mind. You're always battling to either a) not wash all the expensive shaving cream down the drain while sitting in the tub (not to mention trying not to drown yourself) or b) trying to accomplish a Barnum and Bailey's style balancing act while hopping on one leg as you attempt to glide a sharp object across your skin. I don't care if you're capable of folding yourself into a human pretzel, this is just not fun no matter what way you slice it.

4.  Men are not forced to live up to the same standards that we ladies are. I believe that if we're required to keep our legs and underarms smooth and even occasionally  tame the rain forest, that men should have to meet the same standards with their faces. James and I are constantly battling over him keeping his goatee nice and neat. Personally, I'd prefer he just shaved the whole darn thing, but I can live with a little well groomed facial hair. What I don't like is when he doesn't bother with it for days at a time and it becomes the equivalent of having to kiss an electric sander. Sometimes I use the tarantula legs as a bargaining chip. "I'll shave when you do..."

5. And the #1 thing I absolutely hate about having to shave my legs... Two days later my legs start itching like I've leisurely rolled around in poison ivy! When the hair starts sprouting back you might as well hand me over a hairbrush, because I'm fully prepared to take off an entire layer of skin to JUST. MAKE. IT. STOP!

What about you?

50 States Printable Flashcards

Report cards finally came yesterday after some delay due to the arctic blizzard we had a couple weeks ago. I was thrilled to see that the hard work Lena has been putting in this quarter is paying off. The areas she'd received an unsatisfactory in have moved up to progressing. We're not at the finish line yet, but we're getting there.

One of the areas she still needs help in is Geography. Since they're only one test per quarter on the states and capitals, it means we have to get it right on the next test to improve her grade. At first we tried using an app for her Kindle. Honestly, it's a really great app, she just couldn't get into it.

We moved on to writing them 5 times each in hopes that maybe the repetition would help it stick with the capitals the same way that it does with the spelling words... No such luck.

This time around, we're doing flashcards. I found a great site last night that had TONS of options so you can print out which flashcards you need. You can check it out here. I spent over an hour last night making friends with Elmer's Glue and a stack of index cards. I'm fairly certain I have a permanent indent in my thumb from the scissors, but if this method works it was well worth it!

Anyone Wanna Be My Buddy??

Monday marked the beginning of a new journey in our household thanks to Christopher Titus: Love Is Evol and his question about "Ask yourself, are you within 5% of your first date weight?" Thus far, I've been doing pretty good the past couple of days. Or at least I think so...

1. I have not had a single bowl of ice cream. That's a pretty monumental event for me. Ice cream is simply part of my nighttime routine. Get home, change, make dinner, homework, shower, tuck in... ICE CREAM! Even though we still have one of those gallon sized tubs screaming my name from the freezer, I have managed to ignore it.

2. I actually went out and bought some Lean Cuisine meals to take to work for lunch. I will say, there's nothing like a Lean Cuisine to make you suddenly start day dreaming about cookies (or ice cream), but I figure I can't really screw up the "healthier choice" factor if it's pre-made for me. Coincidentally, I also purchased some organic noodles, green pepper, and green onions to use when making last nights dinner. This may not seem foreign to some people, but believe me, Lena thinks I've been abducted by aliens right now.

3. I've started researching recipes (thank you Pinterest) that I can make that go outside my "normal" dinner menu. I'm a pretty big supporter of the chicken nuggets folks, but they will no longer be on the menu. I suspect the children will last about a week before they revolt and you see the missing person news broadcast.

I have yet to...

4. Start establishing a workout routine. My sister offered to add me to her gym membership, but getting to the gym still currently seems next to impossible. I don't get home until 6pm and by that time I have things that need to be accomplished (see #1 above, please exclude the ice cream). I do have the Wii and a couple workout games to go with it, but I haven't figured out how to pry the big TV away from James just yet.

5. Step on the scale. I probably need to do that to see what I'm starting with here. I know when I mentioned it back in October I started using the My Fitness Pal app for iPhone, but it could certainly use a bit of an update. If anyone is currently using the app, please leave me a comment with your username or add me on there so we can link up! Maybe getting some friends on there will help kick my ass into gear lend a little more encouragement. As you can see, I only have 4 friends on there right now and most of them haven't logged in anytime recently. They do say it works better with a buddy right?

Something else I've noticed though... James hasn't done anything yet. After his bedtime outburst that he's had enough and he'll be joining a gym this week (which I support) and his comment about how I used to look much better before, he hasn't made a single effort. I know for a fact that he's gotten off work on time the last 2 days (3:30) and that when I got home he was sitting comfortably on the couch watching TV. Part of me wanted to throw something at his head last night for it, but I know that I can't force him to do it if he really doesn't want to. Not to mention it would be like the pot calling the kettle black here, because I've said it plenty of times and done exactly that.

For now, I'll just be proud of me and continue to take it one day at a time. That's all I really can do and I'm okay with that.

Ask Yourself, Are You Within 5% of Your First Date Weight?

I'm sitting here eating my last few slices of left over pizza today that we'll be having for a while. Since James had surgery on his shoulder back in May he's been feeling extremely anxious about his body and the physical limitations that the surgery resulted in for him. He's always been a sports nut for as long as I've known him: baseball, racket ball, flag football, etc. Regardless of the season he's always been active in something. Since they literally had to cut away pieces of his muscle, the doctor told him it would be a year at least before he'll be able to be fully active again like he's used to.

In the beginning it was just annoying for him. Since he was still in pain for a while though, there wasn't this strong desire to run out and jump right back into something right away. As the months have passed by, the pain has gone away, the anxiety has started to build, and he's reached his breaking point. He talks constantly about how much he misses playing sports and that he's really unhappy with the amount of weight he's gained. Personally, I still think he looks great and he's certainly nowhere near fat. In fact, he's only about 5 pounds over ideal weight according to the physical he just had last month. For him though, it's a really big deal. He says he feels huge and he's tired of constantly being, well, tired.

We introduced Paige this weekend to Christopher Titus: Love Is Evol (which is by far the most hilarious comedy skit on the planet) and it evidently snapped the final straw for James. Christopher Titus asks the audience if things are not as "hot" as they used to be. Then he asks you to honestly ask yourself if you're within 5% of your first date weight. "Now, you can get mad at that OR you can get a treadmill. Up to you!"

If I'm being totally honest, things are not as hot as they used to be. We've been struggling for several months now because quit frankly, he has no sex drive and it's making me absolutely insane! Everything else in our relationship is great. We don't really fight, we have 3 happy healthy kids, and I'm still crazy in love with him. Probably more now than I was when I first fell for him. I've tried just about everything... Romantic candlelight room, sexy jammies, massage, hell, I even went and got him a testosterone booster from the Lion's Den... Nothing has improved. As we were going to bed after the skit, he mentioned that he's going to find a gym this week because he's done feeling like this. What it comes down to is that he doesn't feel sexy even though I think he is and that's killing it for him.

I fully support the idea of him doing some strength training to get his shoulder back where it needs to be. He's not really ready to be swinging a bat just yet, but I think he could handle slowly building up that muscle again without doing any damage. But this decision of course sparked another comment from him about my weight. I fully recognize that I'm not within that 5% mark of our first date weight this time around. I am however exactly the weight I was the first time we dated several years ago. This last time, when we'd first started dating I had just left 3 years working as an assistant manager at a Brazilian Steakhouse. I was the thinnest I'd ever been. Granted, I was also running on nothing besides salad, steak, and enough caffeine to power a small country. While I was thin, I constantly felt like garbage. Mostly due to severe sleep deprivation.

His comment though, was "Well, you did look better." Which went off like an atomic bomb in my head. He's been claiming for months that it's just the way he feels about himself as to why we're not as active as before. That one little comment however tells me that it's also that his attraction to me on a physical level has diminished. It stung like hell to hear, but if I'm being honest with myself, I can understand where the comment came from. I had posted back in October that there would be no more excuses, which by the way didn't happen. But if I learned anything this weekend, it's that I really need to stick to that and do something about it. I don't want to be his roommate, I want more than that, and if that's how we get back there then I'm all in!

The Technology Addiction

I'll be the first person to admit that the idea of forgetting my iPhone at home is enough to make me hyperventilate and come down with a case of the cold sweats. If you're like me, you're whole life is stored in your phone. I'm nauseatingly punctual, but I would be more willing to be late somewhere then have to go even an hour without my phone with me.

But it struck me today, just how ridiculously dependent we are on the technology of our phones (and other devises). We're so dependent in fact, that we literally forget basic functions of "outdated technology."

When I arrived at work this morning, the front counter was in a complete tizzy because they couldn't get a fax to go through to a customer. We're not talking an overly geeky group of tech guys either... We're talking about a group of guys that I thank my lucky stars every day that they've figured out how to turn on their computers. The consistent rejection of the fax was met with a stream of expletives and sheer outrage that this machine was a piece of junk. They complained that they've had problems with it from the moment it was installed and that no one (meaning our IT guy) had bothered to replace it despite they're repeated requests.

Since they were in such an uproar, I took the quote back to my desk and faxed it over to the customer. Once I was finished I went back up front to investigate just what could possibly be going on with the machine. See, they use the same kind of machine and mine had worked without any errors and I've never had a problem with it. After closer examination I discovered exactly what was happening. They were not dialing the 1 before the phone number!

Now I understand that in cell phone land it simply auto-corrects this for you and dials the number you actually mean to dial. Land lines people are just not that sophisticated. So when sending a traditional fax, please remember to dial 1 and then the number. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you!

Back To The Sh*t List For Me

The time has finally come to rejoice... Winter break is over! Technically speaking, it was supposed to be over last Sunday. Thanks to our lovely blizzard however, Lena got a 3 day extension on her's. Little does she know, they're just going to tack those days on in the end. But what she doesn't know won't hurt her and I'm certainly not going to tell her either.

While I am busy doing the happy dance, she's busy giving me nasty looks. Nevermind the fact that she's been bored for about a week now. The news that there were no more snow days seriously deflated all her hopes and dreams.

School means those dirty words again... Reading Time. I mentioned back in October that she was struggling with reading and I have been a bit of a Nazi about making sure she gets in her reading time ever since. Break however, is just that, a break. I loosened the reigns and let her simply enjoy her time off. She was allowed to stay up late (well, at least until I was ready for bed which isn't really all that late) and I didn't mandate her 30 minutes of nightly book time.

With school literally on the horizon tomorrow, I let her know that she would need to do her reading again starting tonight. She really thought I was kidding about that. When her customary time rolled around the amount of shock and disgust she felt was evident in her voice when she asked if I was truly serious.

Yes ma'am I am... So it's back to the shit list for me. Oh well!

We're Still Here!

Oh boy what a week it's been. I haven't been on even though I've been home for the past four days because we've been down for the count with a wicked cold. I slept through New Year's day, I think I was only awake about an hour total. Thursday I drug myself into work only to be sent home and went promptly back to bed. Friday I stayed home because I just couldn't function. Saturday was the same. All I could manage to do was sleep. Finally on Sunday I managed to get out of bed and started cleaning the house. I knew we were not going to get better if I didn't sanitize everything. I stripped all the bedding, Cloroxed every surface, sprayed enough Lysol to put a mushroom cloud to shame, and despite the cold I opened up a couple of windows for a little while just get some fresh air in the house. I'm fairly certain at this point that Nipsco is going to love me for that one.

As if that wasn't enough, the Midwest had a blizzard Sunday evening and the state of Indiana declared a state of emergency. Starting at 6pm Sunday night they had pulled all the plows off the roads and decided it was illegal to be out. So many people were getting stuck that they threatened to issue a $500 fine to anyone caught driving. The risk was just too great and every extra driver on the road was a potential hazard that rescue crews might have to retrieve. They even shut down the two major highways near us. From what I understand, all of Porter County is still under lock down due to the high wind gusts creating insane snow drifts.

Due to the extremely dangerous driving conditions, my manager made the decision to shut down all 7 of our locations today. I'm certain it wasn't a decision he made lightly, but I was certainly glad that he did. We live in unincorporated area, which means that we have to take what you'd consider "back roads" to get to any main street. These of course are the last on any list to get attention from the plows. It wasn't until around 3pm today that I finally started seeing trucks coming through our subdivision.

School is still cancelled for tomorrow for Lena thanks to the negative temperatures, but sadly I will have to return to reality tomorrow. Even though I was sick, I was really enjoying being home. And the kitties certainly have enjoyed having us home too...