Pamela Faith

I am currently changing all of my baby’s onesies into t-shirts. I’ll try to take some pictures and post them soon.

It’s never too early to plan out your homeschooling for the next year. Considering that we had a few bumps this past school year and had to change our curriculum and schedule midway, I thought it would be nice to create a more flexible school year for 2010-2011.  I know I need to plan for 180 days, so I have decided to scatter them out over 11 months beginning in July 2010. We are going to average about 18 days each month except for November & December 2010. I will be excluding June completely from our schedule. Princess and Motormouth are whining about schooling year round, but I think I can get them to come around to my way of thinking. I believe they’ll see how much nicer it is than regular schooling schedules.

It will also help with planning, I hope. With no baby coming (well there better not be) this school year should be easier on us all. I got a bit crabby around November and December of last year and the beginning of this year I was so sleep deprived that I didn’t even know my own name most days. It’s a good thing those 2 little people are old enough to read a planner and do the assignments on their own. I guess the alternative, My Sweetie, being the teacher helped to encourage a bit of independence.

Speaking of My Sweetie, he’s heading on a 2 hour journey with his parents to a funeral home. His uncle died a couple of days ago. I hate funerals. I haven’t lost anyone close enough to me that I see the point in dragging the pain out for days with a bunch of people slanging snot that I don’t even recognize. It’s cold and mean, I know. I think people deal with death differently. When I’m hurting emotionally, I prefer to curl up in bed and cry alone. I don’t like hugging and handing out tissues to everybody else. On the flip side, if it was (I hate to say this) one of my children or siblings, or people real close to me (not very many on this list), I would probably feel some kind of comfort to sit next to their body for as long as I could.

I try to wash at least 1 load of clothes each day. Several years ago I would do all my washing one day a week, but my Sweetie pointed out that it would be easier on me and less likely to stress me out if I would do it one load a day. I’m not so sure about how I feel on this. I never have clothes sitting in a basket waiting to be folded, but I always feel like I’m behind on laundry. So for old times sake, I washed a few extra loads and got my clothes sorter nearly emptied. I felt a sense of accomplishment in doing this. I’m not ready to do it all in one day again right now. My baby girl would make it impossible to finish. It took me all day just to balance my checkbook the other day.

When I got pregnant with my last baby and even right after she was born, I was telling everyone how I would like to have maybe one more baby before I call it quits. After many days and nights of losing sleep, I don’t want to think about going through all that again. If there’s one thing that I love most in this world (excluding my kids) it would be sleep. I’m an evil, loud, and mean momma without enough sleep. I will yell at you for even the smallest of infractions. I will try to ignore every plea for attention. I will try to hide in the shower and sometimes even in my van for just a few minutes of peace. I will eat more sugar and drink excessive amounts of caffeine only to become more angrier when the sugar high wears off and I can’t go to sleep (thanks to a baby who thinks that one and half hours of sleep at a time is enough).

My Sweetie, who doesn’t get why I can’t sleep at night, suggests that I learn to tune out the constant demand of my baby wanting to “lay on the ninny”. I’ve become so flustered lately. I even broke out the can of powdered formula the hospital sent home with me. I was sort of hoping that sky would come apart and angels would fly down from heaven singing hallelujah songs when my baby grabbed the bottle and sucked it dry then fall into a deep sleep for about 8 hours. None of that happened. She looked at the bottle full of curiosity and even allowed me to place the nipple into her mouth. She took a tentative suck, then another. Then she pushed the nipple out with her tongue and out come the formula all over her shirt.

We tried for several minutes before I had to change her wet clothes. This was followed by a very long nursing session on the bed where I tried to nap for a few minutes. It’s all coming back to me now why I hadn’t had a baby in 9 years. Unless I enjoy, which I don’t, the constant whining and crying of a baby, I must hold my baby and play with her.

I didn’t have enough to do so I’ve created a Facebook group for women who aren’t motivated enough to cook until their family is starved enough to make their own feed the children video for late night television. It’s basically a club for us women who’s always being asked, “What’s for supper?”. I make out a list of the meals we’ll be eating the next 7 to 10 days, but I do many repeat meals. I admit that I play with recipes every now and then, but I usually stick to the easiest and fastest.

Whenever we receive food from outside sources, you can hear my family making the oohs and aahs like they’ve never eaten before. My kids have begged to eat at the neighbor’s many times.  I think possibly I need to adjust my cooking style and at least give them a new flavor twice a month. Tonight I cooked pinto beans, fried chopped potatoes, macaroni, and cornbread. I admit that we have this about 2-3 times a week.

What’s For Dinner is going to be a fun way to get back in the apron and try again. It works like this…I assign you 2 cooking buddies. You pass a recipe to one of your buddies for them to cook. They must post a picture of the finished product on Facebook for the rest of us to see and learn from (whether it be what to do or not to do). While that cooking buddy is busy working on the recipe you’ve chosen for them, you’ll be working on the recipe that your other cooking buddy has assigned to you. The coolest part is that at any time you need a different recipe for whatever reason, just send a request to your buddy and let them know you don’t think that one is right for you or your family.

Our goal is to work on fixing 2 new dishes a month with your buddies. I will change up buddies after 2 rounds unless you specify otherwise. It’s a great way to meet other mommies and have fun cooking at the same time. We will also be hosting a group recipe. Once a month the group administrators will post a recipe for everyone to try and post pictures of. You don’t have to do the cooking buddy to do the monthly recipe. Heck you don’t have to do anything but sit and watch the rest of us play in the kitchen.

I’m thinking about working on something that will allow everyone to post their plans for breakfast or supper if they want to that is. It might help the rest of us decide what we want for the family meal in our own home. I hope to see some of you join us.

I’ve had the good fortune of finding a fellow blogging mother that I absolutely love to read her stories about her life. This said blogger has given me The Stiletto Award. The funniest thing about the whole award, I’ve never seen a real life pair of stilettos and I’m not even sure of what a stiletto is. I’m assuming it’s a pair of high heels that would break my neck if I wore them. However, back to the award, apparently my blog buddy (ok so maybe she hasn’t really said we were buds) thinks I deserve this award. I am extremely curious about the reasons, but mostly I’m just tickled to get my first blogging award.

Since having this last baby I’ve been pretty busy spoiling my bundle of joy (holding her so she won’t cry). I have squeezed in some homeschooling for the older two kids and I manage to keep the family fed and in clean clothes. Besides the few weeks I farmed on Farmville with an addiction compared to that of alcoholic, I’ve not spent enough time with my blogging. Writing on my blog, but mostly reading other mommy blogs are my favorite things to do on my computer.

Now that I’ve been recognized among the other mommies, I think I will be looking for an upgraded look for my weblog. Before this award, my Sweetie wouldn’t have approved, but surely now he will see that I need a makeover for my fans. If anyone wants to suggest their favorite web designer who charges just enough to put food on the table for her family, please drop me a comment with a link.

One of the rules to receiving the prestigious Stiletto Award is to nominate 5-10 other bloggers for the award, so here goes nothing:

1. Lizgizzy, she would have been my first pick regardless of the fact that she chose me for the award.  She’s a down to earth momma who loves her little family. Her writing will keep you interested and waiting for her next post.

2. Mama Kat, this blogger will keep your mind sharp. Not only does her writing perk up the senses, but she also encourages everyone else to get out their pens and papers (ok – computers) and blog using her convenient topics. This is how I found Lizgizzy.

3. Because I Said So, I love reading about her 6 kids and what they get into.  Her blog makes me miss and remember how wonderful it was to have 6 siblings growing up.

4.   Heathen Family Revival , I just have to go and see her pictures of Wardrobe Wednesdays. This is truly someone who is artistic and not afraid to show the world.

5. Julie of Momspective, don’t read her blog unless you keep an open mind and oh yeah don’t mind a few curse words. I like her style of writing a lot. She says (writes) the way I would if I wanted to be single and ostracized in my neighborhood (worse than what I am already).

6. Casey at Half As Good As You, again don’t read this blog if cursing offends you. I love to go and visit this blog because the way it’s written keeps me smiling for hours. This blogger tells all the dirty details or at least I get that impression.

7. Keely, a great read and the owner of Random Tuesday Thoughts. She has the coolest supermom site out there. It’s a must see.

8. Thrifty Tiff, this blogger is the one who makes you want to clip coupons and buy organizers. She’s got plenty of tips for you.

Here’s how I do laundry with my 3 month old baby. I lay a blanket (there is usually a clean one in every load of laundry) on top of the washing machine. I use another blanket (yep, there’s usually another blanket in every load) that I fold and put under her head. Then I use her tummy to fold all the clothes.

She will grab the items that look (tasty) pretty. My other family members are always asking why the clothes feel damp. (I silently snicker, what they don’t know won’t hurt them.) I tell them the clothes were stuck together in a ball, but they were dry enough that I didn’t cycle it again. This makes sense and so they go about their merry way with baby drool covered clothes.

Jugs of Water Soak Vehicles In Car Wreck should have been the news title of my first and only car wreck.  This wreck happened in February of 2000 when I was pregnant with my oldest daughter and my son was 13 months old. It was around the time of the Y2K scare. I had recently purchased enough gallons of water to fill up one of those tall water towers you see with the city’s name printed on the side. For some reason I thought having water would be the key to my family’s survival. No food, but at least we have something to drink.

I was on my way to our office, we had rental property back then, when I was coming up to a red light with 6 lanes of traffic, plus the middle turning lane. The vehicles ahead of me had left a gap that I couldn’t see because of an 18 wheeler so a dude could turn into Krystals.  I never saw the truck, but I sure felt the impact. His vehicle shoved my van up into the grass and I came to a stop right under the big Krystal sign. If it had been a movie I’m sure the sign would have come loose and crashed down on top of my head.

So there I was crying and screaming. No one seemed to notice me though because of the flood coming from my van. I remember the police opening the backdoor to see what was happening. He should have had a surfboard.  Everyone was fine and dandy. I had a bruise across my stomach, but it did not affect my pregnancy at all. The driver of the truck that I hit was a total jerk. He tried to tell the police that I switched lanes to hit him on purpose. When it was all said and done, I got a new vehicle and the jerk’s insurance went up.

I laugh every time I hear this phrase. A few years back my Sweetie and I thought it was a good idea to open a flooring store in the city next to our hometown. We made some money and hired a couple of people to help out. My helper was my sister-n-law and her brother. One Friday I noticed they seemed to be relaxing and watching the clock so to speak. When I mentioned this, my sister-n-law replied that it was Fun Friday and nobody does any work on Fridays.

Cool. I don’t know how other employers feel about paying people by the hour to play (work), but I for one think this should be mandated by the government. The only thing I would change would be the day of the week. Instead of Fun Friday, I would change it to Mooch on Mondays.

I may get some flak for saying that I believe many more teachers should be fired than what was fired in Rhode Island. For the most part I try to avoid conversations about public schooling because I hate a particular ex-teacher and ex-assistant principal  I realize that not all teachers and schools are the same and don’t deserve to be bundled together.  Many people probably think homeschooling is lame, but sometimes the alternative is much worse.

Let me tell you about my last experience with a public school teacher.  We’ll call this school, Teacher Clique Academy, and the ex-teacher, Mrs. StuckonMyself. We’ll include the assistant principal at the time and call her, Mrs. KissTeachersButts. Unfortunately, I had submitted an article to the Gadsden Times about homework and sealed my fate with the school my children attended.  Apparently they do not teach freedom of speech, individuality, free thinking, personal opinions, or self expression. Duh. I only attended this school for a few months as a child and it was the worse school I’d ever attended and I’ve went to plenty of schools, sometimes more than 2 in a school year. My Sweetie attended 13 years and we were carrying on the torture tradition.

They have a high drop out rate in the high school and if you include the kids that leave to homeschool, it’s quite pathetic. In my opinion, some of the teachers there (not all of them) have a really stinky attitude.

Mrs. StuckonMyself gave me the speech one day about her credentials making her better than me when she assumed I’d dropped out high school and was white trailer trash. I may have a little white trailer trash in me (who cares), but she was wrong about my education. I actually graduated in the top 20 of my class with a grade average of 93. I was also in the Beta Club, got chosen to be in a college typing competition my senior year, got chosen to travel to Central America with the Spanish teacher (only 3 got picked), graduated with an advanced diploma, and was a teacher’s assistant several different grades at different schools.

I didn’t want to rub it in her face, because I don’t have to prove myself to her ego, but my family business filed over $200,000 last year.  Some Teachers don’t get paid enough that’s for sure, but for Mrs. StuckonMyself to think because she went to college to be a teacher makes her more successful than me is stupid.

Unlike her, I don’t shove my success at other people to look snooty. It was actually funny to me, which only pissed her off more. I guess she couldn’t understand why I’d laugh at what she thought was an insult. I’m happy with my little 1400 square foot home brewed dwelling that my Sweetie built with his own hands. At least now we have a paved drive way (yeah, I still get teary eyed over that) and an in-ground swimming pool that costs too much to maintain. We own 2 vehicles and paying on the third. Those of you who know me are laughing. Two of our vehicles are more like yard ornaments because to actually drive them require hauling gallons of water to refill the thingy on the front that overheats and the other needs its batteries recharged before every journey.

Anyways, the newspaper article caused quite a stir. It caused me to be banned from the school’s open house that year for fear that I’d cause other parents to rebel against authority. I find this interesting because apparently I was the only parent who had ever complained about the amount of homework their child had to do. If this was true, why were they so worried that I’d cause a revolution? Wouldn’t the other parents just look at me strangely and wonder why I had a problem with the beautiful idea of hours and hours of education being shoved down my kids throats during bedtime?

Like I said, this is a very touchy subject for me. Although, the whole mess was a “blessing” for my family in the long run. We are enjoying vasts amounts of free time to learn how to be free thinkers, individuals with opinions, exercising the right to freedom of speech, and self expression (thanks to Rock Band & Guitar Hero, Facebook Games). As soon as the weather warms up, my children will be enjoying recess and physical education in the pool, while her fat butt is plopped down somewhere in a school building making children hate school and parents wonder what they did so wrong to be looked down on by a crazy woman who thinks she is better than everyone else.

Playing Battlefield Bad Company isn’t the same. Where did all the people go? Has Call of Duty finally raped our game of its players?  When I get to play (not as often as I’d like), I want to have 12 people on both sides of the war. Trying to play the game with only a few people is too hard and boring all at the same time.  (My Xbox 360 Gamertag is GroovyClown for anyone interested in playing sometime.) You might want to mention this blog or I’ll ignore you. For some reason there are some men who play on the xbox that will harass you to no end when they find out you’re a girl. I recently changed my gamertag to a nongender name. I used to be armygirl1978.  It’s hard to convince the menfolk that you are a mother of 3 kids and are happily married. All they see is a chick that likes to play video games.

Anyways, my family had some steamed veggies tonight. I steamed a mixture of cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots. Then I fried some potatoes to go with it. I find this to be a strange meal, but in respect for the vegetarian in the family, I’ll give it a shot. However, she ate the potatoes and left the rest of the veggies on her plate. I don’t get it. The veggie mix was delicious. I didn’t even miss the meat.

Our swimming pool is falling apart. Not only is the liner tearing, but now we have a massive crack in the pipe where the filter is because of the ground settling around our pump. My Sweetie is reminding me daily how much easier an above ground pool would have been. What can I say? I really love a pool with a diving board. There’s nothing like doing a cannonball and splashing all the water out at the same time. This past summer I didn’t get to use the diving board because of my pregnancy, but I intend to use it this summer if we can ever keep the water in it.  Stupid leaks.