Tweets for Today

• 08:56 Lost two more pounds! 52 down, 27 to goal. Imagine how much faster I could do this if I didn't eat cookies/dough every other day. Hmph. #
• 09:11 Came in to find HY and EZ throwing bottles of various extracts down the length of the kitchen. "It's ok. We're just vanilla bowling, mom." #
• 11:30 Organizing the junk drawer. Next project: the top of the fridge. #
• 15:20 Enjoying a good laugh. www.passiveaggressivenotes.com #

Tweets for Today

• 16:16 Dinner tonight: Manicotti. A vast improvement over last nights--hot cereal. #
• 16:16 It's been a great day! #
• 17:30 Q's I've been asked in the last 15 min: Do ducks walk under water? Is salt strong? How do babies get into your tummy? Can lightning break? #
• 22:23 Reading Dad's blog. It's a nightly ritual. #

Paying it Forward

Rules:
*Be one of the first five bloggers to leave a comment on this post, and you will be given or sent a handmade gift from me! (read: homemade treat of some type)

*Winners may choose to post this challenge on their blog, or they can just 'pay it forward' in some other way.

*Basically we are starting a chain of 'pay it forward' kindnesses.


---

I got this from my friend who had this post on her blog yesterday. (I modified it a bit) Though it is definitely not my style to do this type of thing (forwards, games, surveys, etc) I have to admit, I was totally pumped to be one of the "winners." Originally you are supposed to win a great homemade, home-crafted item. But anyone who knows me knows that I don't have that great talent. Instead, I will make you something good to eat. I promise.

Then you can go on and do something nice for someone else.

(And yes, Meridith, this includes you. And yes, Meridith, I promise this time to really send you the cookies and not just take the box to the post office where I sit in the car, open the box, then eat all of the cookies while I talk to you on the phone...)

Can sand break? and other impossible 4-year-old questions

In the car today, Hy was doing his usual--barraging me with random questions about the world around us--when suddenly the conversation turned.

Hy: "how do the babies get in your tummy?"

Me: (where in the world did that come from?) "they grow in my tummy"

Hy: "no, but how do they get in there?"

Me: (weighing my options...) "after a mommy and a daddy get married in the temple they decide to have babies come to their family"

Hy: (exasperated) "no, how does the baby get in?"

Me: (hmmm...) "the daddy helps the mommy get the baby in her tummy then the baby grows bigger and bigger until mommy goes to the hospital and the doctor helps the baby come out."

Hy: "how does the baby come out?"

Me: "the doctor helps it come out"

Hy: "but, where does it come out?"

Me: "from my tummy"

Hy: (after thinking for a minute)"but your tummy doesn't have any cracks in it...where does it come out?

Me: (after thinking for a minute) "mommy's have a special place where babies come out"

Hy: "only mommy's have it?"

Me: "yes"

Hy: (long pause) "I want to see it."

Me: "ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm"

Hy: "next time you are in the hospital I want to come and see where the baby comes out"

Me: "Hmm. That might be interesting...actually when your wife is going to have a baby and you are big like Daddy, then you can go to the hospital and see where the baby comes out."

Hy: (thinking) "alright"

Tweets for Today

• 07:08 Ironing shirts and watching Curious George. #
• 11:53 Another sunny day. If only we could go to Lagoon. Now that would be fun! #
• 11:56 Starting solid foods--ASH, not me. The beginning of the end. Once you start 'em on food, you have to do it every day...messy gooey fun. #
• 15:46 Dinner tonight: Penne with roasted vegetables, Grilled chicken and balsamic glaze. #
• 21:06 Seriously scared after Obama's speech tonight. Is anyone listening to this? #

Tweets for Today

• 12:22 Cold day. Trying to get motivated to clean the house. #
• 12:48 Opening a particularly well-sealed box. Helpful EZ: just came running around the corner with a butcher knife. Oh, thanks Dude...scary. #
• 21:02 Watching "Fiddler On the Roof". Can't help but sing the whole time. TRADITION, tradition, da da da da da da da da da da, Tradition! #

Tweets for Today

• 15:08 Eliz and fam spent the weekend with us. I Fell way off the wagon. Can I get back up and go on? #
• 15:14 At least we went on a hike today. That's exercise, right? #

Tweets for Today

• 15:36 Wanting chocolate. #
• 15:38 Just made white chocolate covered popcorn. Ate half of it with the girls. Eliz is here. Let's make cookies. #

Tweets for Today

• 11:01 Feeling good again! Got the tax return, worked out, actually showered before noon... #
• 21:53 Long weekend here we come! #

Tweets for Today

• 12:37 I just don't feel like myself lately. #

Tweets for Today

• 15:57 Bad morning. Feeling sick, tired, overwhelmed, despair, etc. Spent the morning in tears along with the kids. #
• 15:59 Just got back from Walmart--the boys enjoyed their first corn-dogs and I commiserated with every tired looking person I could find. #
• 16:37 Note to self: don't let EZ eat an entire corn-dog again. He will throw it up on the carpet. #
• 21:13 I feel like I've bullied the children all day. Now I'm going to bed with guilt and pain for the innocent children that have me as their mom. #

Tweets for Today

• 09:16 Woke up with a fever and raging headache. Kids have fevers. Going to be a long day. #
• 14:38 Bored. Long long long long long Sunday. #
• 19:33 Stayed on calories today. Just took a 600 mg Ibuprofen. Feeling good. #

Tweets for Today

• 21:20 Just bought furniture at Smiths. Yes, that would be the grocery store... It was an impulse buy. #

Tweets for Today

• 08:53 Dear EZ, please stop slamming the toilet seat down. You are driving me crazy. Love, Mom #
• 15:28 Just got home from a family walk in the rain. I love Friday Family ventures. #
• 21:28 Put all three kids to bed at 6:30 p.m. Hooray! Estimated wake up: 5:30 a.m. Not as much hooray. #

Tweets for Today

• 21:59 I am tired. There is never enough time to get it all done. Someone is always awake. (And I never seem to be asleep.) #
• 22:00 At least I'm not eating cookies...or cookie dough. That is progress. #

I saw some long ago friends hanging out together tonight.

Seeing them caused me to step back and wonder about the decisions I have made in my life. I decided to get married. I decided to have children. I decided to stay home with them.

I decide to live on a pretty strict budget, and put a little away. I decide that extracurricular activities are a distraction, to me, away from what I'm trying to do right now. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Though these decisions are extremely satisfying in the long run, some nights I look back at my day and wonder "Deborah, are you getting boring? You used to be such a blast."

And then I remember that I have lots of friends and sisters that are also, at this very moment, dedicating their lives to wifehood and motherhood--and that I am not alone in this, sometimes, lonely endeavor.

Tweets for Today

• 07:25 Re-living last night's Taco Tuesday. Not something we will be repeating. #
• 08:53 Making griddle cakes (pancakes with cream of wheat in the batter) with EZ. #
• 08:53 @suznews Yum! #
• 09:15 Instead of eating the pancakes, EZ pulls off the pats of butter and eats them alone then declares "Mo bubba." A man after my own heart. #
• 11:45 Me and the boys rockin out to Michael Bolton. Nurturing the 47 year-old woman in all of us. #
• 14:50 Just found an open box of cake flour under HY's bed. He must have thought there was a cake inside... #

Tweets for Today

• 13:01 Looking for granola bar recipes. #
• 15:36 Dinner tonight: Spaghetti Bolognese #

Tweets for Today

• 20:28 Taxes are filed. Time to play. #