The Freedom of the City

Mr. S and I are going to NYC this weekend sans the two lovelies pictured in the previous post. Actually Mr. S is leaving tomorrow and I'm joining him Friday. We'll be back on Sunday.

I've been contemplating what we should do while there, and I've had several ideas. You know, shop, go to a museum, wander Central Park. All of the usual things. We may do any or all or none of these. BUT, this morning I was struck by an idea. Something I WILL do while in NYC. Are you ready? I'm going to use the bathroom with the f-in door closed!

Our bathroom downstairs has a sliding door and the lock doesn't work so well. There's nothing like your 20 month old opening the door and leaving it open AND trying to climb onto your lap whilst you're using the facilities.

TMI? Sorry.

At any given moment at home, I have Sparkle on my lap, the dog at my feet and Twinkle hovering behind me. Yes, I know it sounds odd, but I'm looking forward to a little SPACE in NYC. I've been there many times, so yes I know there's really no such thing as personal space anywhere. But, I know from past experience that I will feel less claustrophobic in that crowded city where you can't always see the sky because of the tall buildings than I do in my own home.

I hope that this trip will be as rejuvenating as it has in the past. I (and Mr. S... and Twinkle...and Sparkle....and the dog....) need it!

A First

I don't think I've done this before on here, but since I enjoy seeing others' kiddos on their blogs I figured I could do it. Just this once.

Twinkle

Sparkle

Put on Your Bunny Ears!!!

Just Kidding.

It's Easter weekend. As head of the altar guild at our church, Holy Week means I'm busy, busy, busy.

On Maundy Thursday, after the foot washing and Eucharist, everything is taken from the Sanctuary.

On Good Friday, there is only a black cloth on the altar.

Today, everything that was taken out on Thursday had to be put back. Guess who does that....the altar guild. It's not that big of a deal - when enough people show up. I guess putting in the email this year that "Fr. D has expressed some concern about the low attendance" for this job over the past few years wasn't the motivation I thought it would be. Still, the job this morning is one that I, strangely, enjoy most. Today was a bit different. I've been stressing over a piece of cloth all day. A piece of cloth that was last in my hands to be washed and pressed and taken back today with 4 other pieces of cloth. These five pieces of cloth make up the interior of the "tabernacle" where the blessed elements are kept. It's kind of important cloth.

Anyway, I spent a great part of the day incredibly stressed because I couldn't find this cloth! Guess what. I found it 15 minutes before tonight's service was scheduled to start. At my house. Sigh. And ugh.

Tonight, is the wonderful Easter Vigil service where the light is brought back to the world, or at least our Nave. It's a fantastic service. Since it begins in darkness, it starts at 8pm. 8pm, the same time as the kids' bedtime. This would be the down side of all of your babysitters going to your church.

So, I'm at home while Mr. S is at the service. I sent the piece of cloth with Mr. S to the service with specific instructions that it be given to one of two people so that it can at least go in its place before tomorrow morning. You know, when you've stressed about one specific thing for almost 12 hours, it's kinda hard to stop.

Even though it is now 9:30, Twinkle is still up. You know what is on TV?? Of course you do. It's on every year. The Ten Commandments! Moses has yet to be called by God to deliver the Israelites. Whew. I just got to utter a sentence I never thought I'd utter, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Twinkle asked, "Is that God talking?" Me: "No, honey. That's Charlton Heston. He's definitely not God."

Ah, the stress may finally be leaving my body. That comment may have just been the thing to do it. Is there anything that can't be fixed by joking about Charlton Heston?

Epiphany #482

My Children Annoy Me More When I'm Actually Trying to Accomplish Something...


I have known this for a while, but I'm reminded of it daily. Today started off just fine, until I tried loading the dishwasher after breakfast. Sparkle wanted to "help". I just wasn't in the mood to continually take knives out of her hand - dirty ones at that. I went from pretty serene to tense and frustrated in about 30 seconds. The problem is, once I get on edge, it's hard to go back to serene. So, the trip to Target, and a couple of other stores was tinged with annoyance. I was annoyed by the wind, for heaven's sake.

I'm really working on ways to 1) not go all the way to extreme annoyance so quickly and 2) getting back to serene more quickly and easily.

Tips?

Etsy Artist of the Week

Go check out my etsy artist of the week on my jewelry blog. Too cute!

Noise Comes in Many Forms

It's been building. And building. The mess, oh, the mess.

I've been a little lax the past couple of weeks with various housekeeping tasks. And since I'm pretty lax to begin with, you can only imagine how things have been around here. Part of the reason for this, as I'm sure every mother feels several times during her life, was the fact that it seems I'm the only one trying to stay ahead of the mess....picking up toys, dishes, shoes, toys....

To his credit, (his extreme credit) Mr. Swizzle has cranked through laundry and about every stitch of clothing in the house is clean. It's all piled in our bedroom floor, but it's clean.

Tuesday night, it got to me. I told Mr. Swizzle I wanted to rent a Bobcat and drive it through the house. Well, instead of doing that, I worked my butt off yesterday and cleaned...the kitchen. Didn't even make it to the dining table that's technically part of the kitchen, but by heaven I CLEANED the kitchen.

You know what? The house, well the kitchen at least, seems QUIETER today. Hmmmm. I've know that visual chaos affects my mood. I didn't know that it makes everything louder.

Maybe tomorrow, I can move the silence into the living room, or better yet MY room!

Our President...A Master...

of understatement...

Just saw THIS CNN headline:

Bush: 'Economy has slowed'

Ya think? What was your first clue, Einstein?


(Sorry Mr. Einstein)

What a Strange Week

I keep having to remind myself that it is indeed March. Here in Texas, we don't usually see things like this in March.
That was yesterday before it really started accumulating. Now that I think about it, we rarely see that kind of thing at all. Actual snow? Big fluffy flakes of snow? Usually, if we get anything white in winter, it's ice. So this was truly surprising and pretty fun (since I didn't have to go anywhere). We got several inches of snow yesterday. Twinkle played and played in it. When she came in, she was soaked to the bone on her legs. We don't really keep a supply of snow clothes for reasons stated above. She had on jeans with leggings underneath and two pairs of socks. But, she was CRAWLING AROUND in the snow - the better to make a snowman apparently.


This is today.

This picture does not adequately capture how beautiful it is outside. The sky is so blue. The birds are singing. I wonder where they spent the day yesterday. I went out to take a few pictures and thought, "Wow, in two days we've had what takes a few months for people North of us." Pretty white snow everywhere yesterday. Now it's all melting away and you can almost hear the flowers and trees sighing in relief.

Twinkle has soccer tomorrow. It's supposed to be in the 50's and clear. Hopefully it will look a lot like today, but with drier ground.

I've heard rumors it's going to be in the mid-70's on Monday.

I love living in Texas.

Chin Up

I'm keeping my chin up.

I'm a bit disappointed with last night's primary results here in the Lone Star State. I really thought Obama would pull it off AND I was hoping he'd pull way ahead in the delegate count.

I just believe in his sincerity. He seems to have the characteristics that so many people have been wanting in our political process for so long. Maybe I'm naive too or I've been duped. Yes, he has his faults, but I believe he can turn our country around so we don't have to be embarrassed overseas to "admit" to being Americans.

On we go!

Don't You Hate It...

I know we've all done it before, but that doesn't lessen my annoyance level. I'm annoyed with myself, not anyone else.

Twinkle's school opened up enrollment for electives for next school year a week and a half ago. I looked at it last week and everything was still open. Today, I went to her school for a presentation and the principal told me that classes were filling up, so get home and sign up!

When I got online after getting home, almost ALL the classes were filled. Sigh.

The way things work at Twinkle's school is that Fridays are the days they do electives like art, music, drama, etc. There are 6 different choices and 4 time slots to fill. I looked at it last week and just didn't sign her up! Grrrr.

Anyway, I ended up only being able to sign her up for drama and PE. I didn't want to sign her up for PE at all. I wanted drama, art, science and Spanish. She's enjoyed all of her classes this year (though she had PE instead of drama) and I know she'll miss them next year.

I'm just so annoyed at myself for not doing it last week. I've asked about a waiting list, but haven't heard back yet.

I need to just let the annoyance go. It's kinda messing up my day. Just let it go. Everything will work out...

I just feel like I really let her down. I have no one to blame but myself.

Ah, The Balance of the Universe

It's been an interesting weekend here at Chez Swizzle.

Yesterday, Twinkle had her second soccer game of the season. She's been working really hard at practice and it paid off yesterday. She rarely gets her foot on the ball, but yesterday she had some great passes, took the ball down the field, and she scored her first goal!

Now, I know, I know. I basically was dragged into this role of soccer mom kicking and screaming. And I admit that when friends have told me in the past about their little ones scoring their first goal, I thought it was cool, but I didn't understand the pride behind it.

It is only Twinkle's second season of playing soccer. I recognize that. But we've just been hoping for her to get into the thick of things and play the game instead of watching when she's supposed to be playing. I honestly didn't expect a goal yesterday. But she did it. She stuck to the ball and kept it away from others and put it in the goal. I'm not sure what the final score was. I know we won. I know Twinkle's goal was #9 and I know there were a few after hers. I almost stopped watching the game after she came out at the end of the 3rd quarter.

Mr. Swizzle and I both got a little misty eyed.

TODAY. Hmmm. Today the universe has sought to equalize our weekend. Twinkle has been whining about things and arguing since breakfast. We actually made it to church, though about 15 minutes late. AND we left early. Why? Because even though Twinkle was chosen to be one of the kids to carry the elements to the altar before Eucharist, all she could do was whine and cry that she had to carry the bread instead of the wine. She did do her job and came to us and we left. We just couldn't handle more.

That, of course, made her scream and cry all the way home. Even though she was complaining beforehand about going to church, it was a tragedy that she had to leave. Once she gets going, she has a hard time stopping. She's been asleep for a couple of hours now despite saying she wasn't tired. Hopefully the rest will help and the rest of our day will be relatively peaceful.

Really, after we got home it was just a whole series of proofs for Murphy's Law. Twinkle was not happy. Mr. Swizzle was making pasta (and getting the cork out of that wine!). When the pasta was done and he was getting it out of the pot, his spilled quite a bit onto the floor - luckily not on himself or Sparkle or the dog. Then, before the food made it to the table (or the wine to my lips) Sparkle fell and busted her lip. It was kinda nasty.

What kind of mother am I? The first thing I did after picking her up and seeing all the blood coming out of her mouth was take off the cute dress she'd worn to church! It is a loaner after all. We don't need blood all over it. After getting the bleeding to stop, I went back to my wine and my lunch which was less than warm. Sparkle ate a little bit, but was more interested in being snuggled.

Now, the rest of the family is napping and I'm blogging. Gotta get everything out. Hopefully, I can catch a few winks before they all wake up!