On Paper

I have a love/hate relationship with paper.  

When I walk through the stationary section of any store, but especially one with a  lovely stationary aisle , it makes me smile.  I love to look at the designs on the paper or on the notecards.  I think about the person to whom I may send a long newsy letter or a quick "thinking of you" note.  (Yes, I still send snail mail!)  

I enjoy looking at thank you notes, invitations, or even just a spiral notebook with a neat color or design on the cover or a pretty design on each page.  I like notecards that share my faith or my love of natural beauty. I have the same issue with notecards or stationary that I have with books; I like them so much I am surrounded by them and have to put up with that little bit of my own clutter.

The papers I hate?  Besides bills, which are just more clutter, I hate the paper work that comes midsummer that I have to read and fill out for the next year's school kids.  For years I had most of the kids home for school and paper work was not an issue because it was only for one or two high school kids. 

This year, however, we have four in school. And, in my opinion the paperwork is out of control.  I picked up the packet for the grade schoolers, and promptly filled out all requested information (discarding the warnings about asbestos and outside weed control, the forms for non-custodial parents and those having to do with the kids getting a free lunch.) There was a basic information form, an emergency information card, a field trip medical release card, a prepaid jeans day form, a prepaid milk order form, and PTA donation request and of course the "LIST" of what to bring the first day of school.  The page that gets to me the most, however, now that I'm paying all this tuition, is the calendar of days off! 

The next day I received the packet for one of the high schoolers and two days later the almost identical packet for the other high schooler.  The first one had senior stuff in it the sophomore did not need, but duplicates of everything else (most of which hit the circular file.) So much for going green!  

After I fill out all required forms and get the kids to sign the ones they have to sign (no plagiarism, will follow the rules for computer usage, senior privilege and parking privileges) I think I'll head over to Target and peruse the stationary aisle.  Maybe I'll find something fun and send some snail mail. 

750 Words

So, as you've witnessed, my writing has practically come to a stand still.

This is slightly depressing and very annoying.  I find that this typically happens when I have too much on my mind.

So, I've joined a web site that is supposed to help me "brain dump" so that I can focus on writing again.

It's called 750words. com.   It's a sight for encouragement.

The goal is to write 750 words every day. That is three pages.  It is unedited, unsupervised, and unread by anyone but you, unless you choose to give out your user name and password to friends so they can get to your site.

So far I have two 750 words or more days.  I have signed up for the August challenge.  I have decided to that if I meet the goal of 750 words for 31 days straight I will take Wayne for a Yogurtopia!

If you meet the goal, your name gets posted on the "Wall of Awesome!"  If you skip a day or more, you end up on the "Wall of Shame."  Frankly, I don't like the sound of that but it is what it is.  Here's hoping for Awesome.

Now, hopefully, on to more blogging.

Family Room Living

For a week we've lived mainly in the family room.   I took a panoramic photo to display our living space.

There are two couches, a two person rocking chair, a chair and a half, one La-z-boy, and a couple of kitchen chairs to sit on.  The boxes hold our new cabinets.  Then there's the fridge, stove and shelves of food and kitchen equipment. Oh, and 11 people and 1 dog.

The awesome thing about this is, no one seems to mind.  Instead of everyone going off to their bedrooms where they could have peace and quiet (though no food), they have all chosen to spend their down time together in one cramped room.  We have had all kinds of together time.

Not only family does not mind, the kids have had friends over.  We all just move over and make room for another body. Soon (relatively) the kitchen will be put back together and the furniture all replaced where it belongs. 

 But, I think we've made some fun memories in this room.  In fact, within 5 minutes of the television being removed from the room two of the boys sat down and played a duet on the piano.  That alone makes me want to keep the t.v. gone.

We've read, played games, watched movies on the computer and prayed together. 

So, we're managing.  It's not easy, but when we pull together we're a pretty strong team. 

Making Progress

We have a new kitchen floor.  Hurray.  The new hardwood floor was installed Tuesday. Wednesday through Saturday were spent sanding, staining and applying polyurethane. Thankfully, we did not do any of the work ourselves. Stan Gransky, the hardwood floor expert, did all the work with help from one gentleman.  I could not recommend them more highly.

This is a view from the family room, through the kitchen and dining room.  The living room looks just as nice.  Joey decided to test the 'slidability'.  He took a running start and almost crashed into the wall. 

Tomorrow we will gently return the furniture where it belongs.  I will kind of  (a very big 'kind of') miss the coziness of family room living.   Keep watching for further updates.  Eventually you'll see the whole new kitchen. 

May in Pictures

Wow, May is flying by and has it been busy.

Here's what's been going on:

While our tenacious one made her First Communion last year, her classmates made theirs this year, and so we celebrated with them.  She was thrilled to wear her dress again and have this special time with her friends. 

My travel buddy spent a week in Jackson with her 6th grade class at the CYO Storer Camp.  She had a great time and learned that her teachers are different people away from school.

Oldest daughter, Liz, graduated with her Master's Degree in Psychology from U of M Dearborn.

Second oldest daughter, Caitlyn, graduated from Madonna University with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing. 

And her fiance, Jimmy, graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Business from U of M Dearborn.

My dear one and I celebrated our 30th Anniversary with a trip to Canada and Ohio.  

Why Ohio? you may ask.  Because that was the location of the second fund raiser for Jimmy. It was a great trip and it was fun to see all of the donated items and watch them be auctioned off.  The first fund raiser was at the Big Boy in Flat Rock.  Both were great successes and we are so grateful for everyone's generosity.  

Son, Michael went to prom with his friend, Olivia.  He also passed his driving test and got his driver's license. 

My dear dad had surgery to his great relief.  He is recovering nicely at home and wears his old smile, which makes his blue eyes shine, again. He is pictured with his sister, Pat. 

The last week will bring a dinner out with Caitlyn's future in-laws, a baptism,  finals and the end of the school year.   We are looking forward to summer.  June promises to be busy as well, with graduation parties, and a wedding. 

Roots and Wings

As our children have grown, the advice I have clung to with both hands is, "give them roots and wings."  I feel like the roots part was easy.  Sometimes the wings part is a little harder.

Our sixth child, now 16 years old and a junior in high school got his driver's license yesterday.

Today he drove his siblings to school.

While I have waited all year for this little bit of freedom, for both of us, it was really hard to let them all walk out the door this morning knowing that I wasn't going to be the one taking them.

It's happened before.  Our other children got their licenses and started buying their own vehicles.  They took themselves to high school and then to college and work.  There have been speeding tickets and accidents but they always make it home at night.

Somehow, this time it's different.  I don't know if it's because I'm older or if it's because he is so very confident!

He is an excellent driver.  He knows his way around and he's been in situations, already, that I have never encountered i.e.  an ambulance, with siren blaring, right on his bumper when traffic was so thick he could not move over to get out of the way.  He's avoided collisions when other drivers were being less than cautious and he enters the freeway like a pro.

But, I'm his mom and I worry.

I have given him roots, and now I move onto giving him wings.

Fly carefully number 2 son and know that I love you.

Toothbrush Tales

I don't know about anyone else, but we have issues with toothbrushes at our house.

I was standing in our tiny 1/2 bath the other day and marveling at the fact that there were 6 toothbrushes on top of the toothbrush holder. (Since they changed the handle shapes on the toothbrushes they no longer fit into the holder.)

Ok, so 6 toothbrushes downstairs. I was curious to know how many were upstairs since I know that several of the kids keep theirs in their bedroom to avoid it being used by someone else.  I know, gross. 

On my last Target run, I bought 12 new toothbrushes, four each of three different brands because it is impossible to get 11 different colors so they are easy to tell apart.  

Then, I went collecting.  In three bathrooms I came up with 20 toothbrushes!  I get that there are quite a few of us here, but only 11!

These do not include said toothbrushes that are kept in bedrooms, mine or my dear one's because I know which ones they are or our tenacious one's because she has a battery powered "twirly" toothbrush that I know no one else uses.  

This is far from the first time I have done this.  I've just never counted before to see how many I threw away.  

I will never solve this riddle.  I just felt like sharing!