It Seems As If...

everyone is leaving. I have tossed the idea around a bit the past month or so. And then I think that I don't have the time to even write on here so I don't know what good it would do me right now to get "greasy."

As for me, things have been hectic but well. I have spent a LOT of time working on things for Grace and school. Or maybe I should say "Grace's school." And I don't mind it. It's nice to do something that is considered to be worthwhile and gratifying. But it seems as if I have spent as much time working on those projects as I have doing anything else the past few days.

I had to head down there today because I had roped a newscaster into coming in and reading a story to the kids. Somehow between the time I got there and the time I left I had managed to volunteer to take seeds in tomorrow and teach the kids how to make planters out of eggshells. I still am not real sure how that happened, but I headed to Wally World tonight to pick up some chives for the funky eggshell people hair.

Thursday morning Grace's teacher will be here for a home visit. Yay. I had planned on really cleaning (I mean *really* cleaning) my house tomorrow, but then the whole eggshell thing happened. And I had totally forgotten that there was an appointment scheduled for the girls to have their birthday pictures taken. Ugh. It's going to be another really long day.

Friday we head to the Burgh for another grueling day of appointments. I think mom is going to go with us this time. I usually don't mind the trips, but the girls will be in tow and it gets a little tedious for them. I do hope that mom goes. At least that will be a bit of a help in the diversion part.

And then Saturday Princess Grace has her birthday party. That probably means that I will be running around like crazy Friday night to get everything organized. We did manage to pick the little goodie bag gifts up for the boys tonight. I somehow forgot to buy separate bags for the boys and girls, which my friend F will look down on. But I would hope that the kids are just happy and grateful to get things such as small toys and stuff and not give a damn if they're in princess bags or not. I know my kid would. Then again, I am quickly learning that not everyone raises their kid like I raise mine.

So I came across that wonderful tidbit of news today that 1 in 4 teenage girls have a STD. What the fuck (no pun intended)?!?!?!? We weren't even really having sex as teenagers. Okay, there was a girl, Andrea, that was having sex. And she was having enough for everyone, earning some not-so-desirable nicknames in the process. But that was it. We just weren't doing it as a whole. And I don't get it. What is lacking in kids' lives to make them think that they need to rush such things? What are we as a society teaching them to make them think they need to rush such things? I truly hope that my fairy godmother sprinkles her magic fairy dust upon my head when it comes time for my girls to have those urges. Gawd. That statistic truly horrified me.

I have a cat in heat and she keeps bellowing her mating call into the baby monitor. That makes for a relaxing night, eh.  "Row. Row." In fact, she does it so often that Mak has now made a game of it. She will come off with a "Row" of her own and then proceed to mimic the cat for minutes on end. I don't whether to laugh or be apalled.

Have I mentioned that my oldest daughter is turning FOUR next week? FOUR! And my baby will celebrate her first birthday on Easter. Someone once told me that the older we got the quicker it got. There was more truth in that than I ever could have imagined. I can't believe my babies are growing up so fast. It makes me want to savor every last bit of it. You know, the cuddles and the babbling.

I was turned onto a new discipline technique last night called "1-2-3 Magic." The main gist of it is that when your child is demonstrating a not-so favorable behavior you say, "That's one." If they don't stop you in five seconds, you say, "That's two." If after another five seconds they still don't stop, you say, "That's three. Take five." The child is then sent to their room for five minutes. When the five minutes are up the whole incident is over. There are no lectures, no apologies, nothing. It's just simply over. I decided last night that I was going to give it a go. Then again, Grace has always been on the "You know you're pushing it when mama starts counting" plan. I very rarely ever get to three with her.

So I explained to her how the whole system was going to work. In fact, I explained it to everyone in the house and so far so good. I have counted to two so many times this evening....She's tired. And this time change has kicked all of our asses. But it worked so far. The man in the video guaranteed that your child's behavior would drastically improve within a week. And no, this wasn't something I picked up at Blockbuster. Ha. It was shown to us at a meeting last night for parents of Head Start. But so far, so good. We'll see if it keeps working.

Okay. It's going on two in the morning and I desperately need sleep. It's so strange for me not to have some deep post ready to fill the screen. Lately I seem to have displaced my muse. I think a big part of it is that everyone is leaving and I don't seem to have the time to catch up with anyone on here, let alone a new site. We'll see. I am a big sentimental idiot, so I hate to just pick up and leave here. I've had some tremendous journeys on this blog. It's hard for me to just walk away.

*sigh*

Okay. Goodnight. Or good morning. Which ever seems most appropriate. :-)