I'm loving Kris Allen this season of American Idol. He's good looking, humble, an amazing singer and performer and he loves his wife unabashedly. What's not to love. I'd love to see him in the Top 2. I'd love even more to see him win. But I don't think the Adam Lambert hype will let up enough for that.
read more | digg story
So, for some reason I'm fascinated by word verification. Every time I leave a comment I look to see what weird combination of letters will pop up. Sometimes it almost makes sense. Sometimes it makes me laugh. Sometimes it borders on obscene.
So...
Here's the game.
Comment as many times as you like and type the word verification into the body of your comment so we can all laugh at what comes up.
I'll love you forever.
So, I stole this poem from my friend, Melody's blog. But I love it. And thought it was a good fit for poetry month.
---------------------------------------------------------------
How to Read a Poem: Beginner's Manual
by Pamela Spiro Wagner
First, forget everything you have learned,
that poetry is difficult,
that it cannot be appreciated by the likes of you,
with your high school equivalency diploma,
your steel-tipped boots,
or your white-collar misunderstandings.
Do not assume meanings hidden from you:
the best poems mean what they say and say it.
To read poetry requires only courage
enough to leap from the edge
and trust.
Treat a poem like dirt,
humus rich and heavy from the garden.
Later it will become the fat tomatoes
and golden squash piled high upon your kitchen table.
Poetry demands surrender,
language saying what is true,
doing holy things to the ordinary.
Read just one poem a day.
Someday a book of poems may open in your hands
like a daffodil offering its cup
to the sun.
When you can name five poets
without including Bob Dylan,
when you exceed your quota
and don't even notice,
close this manual.
In no particular order:
I love LDS General Conference. Two times a year it speaks peace to my soul, renews my resolve and reminds me of who I am and my important role in our Heavenly Father's plan for His children.
I loved this video, which is a quick compilation of many of the talks given. It was great to have a ten minute reminder of the important things said. I hope you feel as happy while watching it as I did.
I copied this cute idea from my sister-in-law's blog. Copy this note, ask your kid(s) the questions and write them down exactly how they respond.
It's kind of fun to get this kind of perspective. :)
1. What is something I always say to you?
Kaitybean: Good night.
Scud: Hello
Mashuga: You love me and I'm so cute.
Coc0: Bird
2. What makes me happy?
Kaitybean: Me getting my jobs done and hugs and kisses.
Scud: Seeing your children.
Mashuga: When I come home from school.
Coc0: Happy!
3. What makes me sad?
Kaitybean: This one's hard. You're very slow-tempered, that's for sure. It's pretty hard to make you sad.
Scud: Me ripping up your flowers.
Mashuga: When I don't obey and I don't clean my room.
Coc0: Sad.
4. How do I make you laugh?
Kaitybean: When you tell me stories of your childhood.
Scud: I don't really know.
Mashuga: I don't really know.
Coc0:
5. What do you think I was like as a child?
Kaitybean: A little bit quirky. A space case like you are now. Sweet and gentle. Definitely fun.
Scud: Sad, lonely, watching Sesame Street.
Mashuga: Small and cute and loving.
Coc0: You!
6. How old am I?
Kaitybean: 31?
Scud: 30
Mashuga: About, like, 30.
Coc0: Look, a fly!
7. How tall am I?
Kaitybean: About 4 1/2 feet.
Scud: I'd say about 5 foot 2.
Mashuga: About 5 feet tall.
Coc0: You.
8. What is my favorite thing to do?
Kaitybean: When you can get away from us, sleep.
Scud: Garden.
Mashuga: Just cuddle down with me and love me.
Coc0: Mommy hug me.
9. What do I do when you're not around?
Kaitybean: I don't know. I'm not around you when I'm not around.
Scud: Party.
Mashuga: Cuddle down with Coco and love him.
Coc0: Laughs...
10. If I become famous, what will it be for?
Kaitybean: Singing.
Scud: Paying me thirty dollars a week.
Mashuga: I can't think of anything.
11. What am I really good at?
Kaitybean: It's not personal, it's just a fact. You're good at changing Coco's diapers. I'm no good at that.
Scud: Feeding.
Mashuga: Loving and cuddling down with me and loving me.
12. What am I not really good at?
Kaitybean: That one's tough. I just really can't think of any.
Scud: Playing games which you don't understand.
Mashuga: Being mean.
13. What is my job?
Kaitybean: Mothering.
Scud: To be my primary caregiver.
Mashuga: To stay home and love your siblings. (Do you mean my kids?) Yeah.
14. What is my favorite food?
Kaitybean: Cake.
Scud: I don't know. Lettuce?
Mashuga: Healthy food.
15. What makes you proud of me?
Kaitybean: I'm not the only space case in the family.
Scud: When you make lasagna.
Mashuga: Cause you always cuddle down with me and love me.
16. If I were a cartoon character, who would I be?
Kaitybean: Woody Woodpecker
Scud: Hmm... Daffy Duck
Mashuga: I'd hafta say... Garfield!
17. What do you and I do together?
Kaitybean: Well, we've watched Twilight lately.
Scud: Watch movies while being lazy on the couch.
Mashuga: Clean my room.
18. How are we the same?
Kaitybean: We're both Nacnuds.
Scud: I have brown hair. You have brown hair.
Mashuga: We have ears, mouths, nose and a neck.
19. How are you and I different?
Kaitybean: I like Twinkies and you hate them.
Scud: I'm a boy. You're a girl.
Mashuga: We have different color hair and we're different sizes.
20. How do you know that I love you?
Kaitybean: You take care of me. And you say it a lot.
Scud: You give me allowance. You feed me. You buy me presents for Christmas and for my birthday and you don't make me your personal slave.
Mashuga: Cause you cuddle down with me and love me.
21. Where is my favorite place to go?
Kaitybean: Bed.
Scud: I'd say your room.
Mashuga: Home from a store to see your siblings. What I mean by siblings is, like, your kids.
Maybe I should write a little.
Though, I will warn you. My recent inability to stick to any type of subject or form a coherent post still stands.
Am I the only one who wants to put herself on voluntary bed-rest while pregnant? Maybe it's just today, but I am so, so, so tired.
A lot of things that were troubling me have kind of just melted away. Isn't funny how that happens sometimes? Time and patience and perspective just make things seem smaller and then sometimes they even just resolve on their own.
I'm still figuring out Scud. Right now I am reading The A.D.D Book by William Sears and (somebody else). It has been an enlightening and rather humorous experience. I have joked that both JDub and I have some form of ADD or ADHD. But, reading this book and the diagnostic criteria and the case studies from inside the brains of people with ADHD is just hilarious. Because it's like I'm reading a book about my own brain that also explains the behaviors of my husband and at least two of my four children. Also, I joked on facebook that I'm trying to read this book, but keep getting distracted... but it's true. Sometimes I have a hard time sticking with non-fiction books. With no plot to keep my engaged, I start thinking about a kazillion other things and sooner or later I find myself in a completely different room doing something I never really planned on doing with no idea of how I actually made it there. But, I will finish this, because it seems to have some very good options on treating ADD that I think will help Scud as well as the rest of our family. I am particularly interested in this book because it covers several non-drug options and I am VERY leery of introducing stimulant medications into my child's developing brain unless it becomes the last and best solution.
Coco is darling lately. One of my favorite Coco-isms is this:
Me: Coco, I like you. (or I love you.)
Coco: You like me? (Said in the most adorable voice you can even imagine.)
Me: Yes, I like you.
Coco: You like me LOT?
He is really coming into his little-boyhood and asks a lot of questions. "Why?" is chief among them.
He also throws gale-force temper tantrums that can last up to an hour at a time. Then, they blow away as quickly as they come and he is his sweet, happy self again. He asks for juice or a book and looks at me like he has no idea why I could possibly be so exhausted or disheveled. I'm starting to find that the principle of putting a persistently crying baby in the crib while you take a break also applies to toddlers. Some days when I just can't take it and he is completely out of control, I will put him safely in his room, shut the door and walk away for a few minutes. It makes all the difference in the world. And sometimes without me acting as a backboard to bounce his frustrations off of, he finds a way to comfort himself.
We refinanced our home. For more than the original purchase price of the home. Which seems weird, but our interest rate is significantly lower and our payment is lower and the loan is still significantly less than the appraised value of our home, so I suppose we come out on top in the end. Or at least for now.
Kaitybean is so cool. She is just a neat person to be around right now. She is incredibly opinionated right now about all kinds of things. Abortion, children's rights, animal abandonment, war, global climate change and the end of the world. I remember feeling intense like she is when I was her age. It's interesting to see how I probably came across to the adults in my life. She is also singing and playing the cello right now. I went to her orchestra concert with her last night and it was so much fun to watch her play. She gets so into it. She loved listening to the high school orchestra and getting a glimpse of what is to come if she keeps this up.
Scud and I are having lots of fun in school right now. Switching math programs has made all the difference for us. He loves Singapore and so do I. It is organized so much better and teaches concepts in a much more concrete, meaningful way than does Saxon. And it feels like we're making progress rather than being trapped in a mathematical hamster wheel.
Oh, did I mention on my blog yet that we found out we're having another boy? Yep, another boy. WOWSER! I cried the first day. But switched gears pretty quickly and I'm excited now. We already have a name picked out for him. (Unless he's born and looks more like a Homer or a Cletus.)
Well, this is enough for now. It's hardly everything going on. And not much of anything, really. But it's what I've got right now.
That and two cute two year olds just walked in my front door to play and they really ought to be supervised. Or I might be sorry.
