Parenting Woes, Cat Gender & A New Look for The Blog

Camp News
So my daughter didn't like camp this week.

Look at those droopy shoulders.....

That's ok, no one is going to like everything. I know that. She has her reasons, I understand them and respect them.

Tomorrow is the day that they get ready for a party and the parents come for the last 1/2 hour of class to show what they have done. She's been busy working on craft items all week long and told me today she doesn't want any of them. (That's ok, I know what some of them are and I'll be happy to keep them!)

 At the end of the day today she cried and asked that she not have to go tomorrow.

And I have no idea what to do about that.

On one hand, we want to raise her not to be a quitter. To finish what she starts. To show up when she's supposed to. To fulfill her responsibilities.

On the other hand, If I were taking a class of some kind and it didn't agree with me (For the same reasons she's given me) I would stop going.  I wouldn't force it. Life is too darn short and busy to spend it doing things that don't resonate with you. I feel like my leisure activities are mine alone and I get the right to decide if they nurture me or not. (This class is not nurturing her. Don't get me wrong, it's not harming her at all.)But as an adult in her position, I would stop going. In my eyes this does not make me a quitter. It means I know myself and what's good for me.

Does letting her decide to skip the last day empower her to make decisions for herself about her own happiness or does it mean she's going to throw up her hands every time she doesn't like what she's doing. Sometimes we all have to do things we don't want to do. Is it better to get her to understand that now or is the world a harsh place that she's going to have to deal with anyway and so what if she wants to skip the last class of a camp she doesn't like?!?!? I have no good answer for myself on this.

We're leaning towards having her go anyway in case you are wondering. But it does kind of make me feel like a hypocrite.

Cat News

We've officially welcomed our GIRL kitty Amelia into the family. Ameila, after Amelia Earheart because the cat was lost without a trace for HOURS the other day. We finally concluded that our daughter must have let her out after searching the entire house MANY times. Just when I was done crying she sauntered into the kitchen and was all "Here I am." about it. Bitch.

But she's actually really my kitten somehow. (Seriously those of you who know me, who would think I'd be uttering those words.) and she's a doll-Exploring daredevil that she is.

Blog News

Look for a new blog theme next week! I'm getting tired of my current theme and haven't been sticking to it anyway. I'll still be doing the Adam posts but eveything else will be a little different.

Throwing Out The Last Airbender or Where I Am Pushed Over The Edge With Plastic Toys

Today I threw out The Last Airbender.

I've tried people. I really have. I try and save all of those horrible little plastic toys that make their way into my daughter's life-I don't even know where half of these things come from. Some are second hand. Some are from trips to McDonalds with the grandparents (hence weird arrow head guy). I'm not gonna lie, we have a lot of plastic dinosaurs and lately, silly bandz seem to be multiplying like rabbits. I'm partly to blame. But only partly. Half of this crap I don't even recall ever SEEING. They come from grandparents and garage sales and birthday parties and read-a-thons at the library and pre-school.  The list goes on. Why are we plying our kids with such temporary useless junk?

I stick them in the donation box for the Salvation Army whenever I can. I amass them to give away for free at garage sales. I pawn them off on others when I can.

And now I've just HAD IT. There are way too many. WAY TOO MANY. It's too much overhead. Too much mental energy I'm expending trying to determine how to dispose of all this little junk. Precious moments and brain cells that I will never get back because I've spent them managing PLASTIC SHIT. Hell, I'm even spending 30 more minutes writing a blog post about it.

And I'm pissed.

I'm pissed off that I have now resorted to just throwing things like this away. As I did it, it crossed my mind that in 100,000 years people are going to wonder what in the hell we were trying to convey with a plastic figure of a boy with a clear plastic arrow in his head because I'll tell you, that damn little toy will probably still be around.

I sure like to meet the person(s) who think that creating a gazillion small plastic pieces of crap out of the earth's resources is a good idea. Really... If you feel like it is, please come to my house because I'd like to punch you in the nose.

It just needs to stop. Currently there are enough plastic figurines to supply every child in the WORLD. (Ok, I haven't done a study or anything but I bet there are.) Just like Christmas ornaments, we have enough. We ALL HAVE ENOUGH. Nothing bad would happen if another plastic elmo was never produced in China. Really. The earth would probably take a deep breath and exhale.

(Sorry about the language folks, I tend to swear too much when I'm agitated....)

We're All About The 19th Century Right Now

Oh my goodness we are all about the 19th century this week!

Picking Vegetables

I have great cucumbers this year

 Saturday, Deanna came over and brought her girls and we prepped for Laura Ingalls Wilder Days at the museum Sunday. We churned butter, made cream biscuits and Johnny cakes and I made the girls do chores like picking beans and digging potatoes.

Churning Butter

Yesterday  we headed to the Museum for the actual event. Deanna had her camera, I didn't have mine with me.

Camp Today

While we were signing up the girls for the fashion show Dean Bulter walked up so I introduced myself. He was nice and told me he thought I did a good job on the interview for the blog. He was very friendly and very normal and very tall. I was frankly shocked how tall he seemed standing next to me. We talked for a few minutes and when we left I asked Deanna why she didn't take a picture. She had left her camera at her seat. It doesn't matter though because she's probably the only person who would think this is as neat as she does.

This morning I took my daughter to the museum's Summer Sampler class, Living A Long Time Ago. She's going all week and even got a costume to wear.  The little kid's class ends at noon so I took her out to lunch for a slice of pizza on the way home. I'm fairly certain the men at one of the tables thought she was Amish and wondered what a woman in work clothing was doing eating pizza with a small Amish girl. She did take the house cap off to eat though.

July 11-15, 2010

July 11, 1910 

After supper I did some painting. Ma, Ray, Oscar, Riley & Kate to supper. Kate & Bess up to see Ethel & the baby. Gertie better. 


W. Cool Windy
 R 11:30


Well that's a big relief about Gertie...



July 12, 1910


Kate & Kathy went home. Bess not well. It rained in the afternoon & after supper. & I sat on the porch & I squeezed some currants for jelly.  Up at 2:30 am. It was pouring. 


W. Hot
R. 10


Oh, he's squeezing currants for jelly. How I LOVE that. I also feel honor bound to mention this reference to Kate & Kathy going home. It seems to me that they have been staying with Adam & Bess the entire length of their visit. It's  likely that the prior entries where I thought he was complaining about giving them his bed, was just an observation that he had regarding the out-of-town guests. Now I feel even more shameful that I was suggesting Adam was 1) Wanting sex. and 2) Was not being a gentleman. My money is on that he did want sex. (after all, he's a 26 year old man) but I know in my heart that he probably was too much of a gentleman to mention it in the diary. Besides, when Clara his sister sleeps over, he's made reference to the fact that she's slept on the settee.  Just like the phone assumption, I think I was wrong about this. 


July 13, 1910


After supper I did some painting & retired early. 


W. Cooler
R. 9:30




July 14, 1910


Did some painting before breakfast. Up to S.A.B.C. at Daves. & met Bess at Park & Ball st. 


W. Fine Cool
R. 11:45


July 15, 1910


Painted after supper. 


W. Fair
R. 10


I think he's really tired from all of the painting.

I Am Victorious!

Did you ever have a wish, a hope, a dream. Something you've been waiting for. Not quite sure if it's something you'll achieve. Something out of character for you?

I have.

Actually I have a lot of these kinds of things.

However, yesterday, one of them came true.

When I got home from work, there on my front porch was a box. I so LOVE getting boxes in the mail, even if it's something I ordered myself. This was not something I ordered myself.

It was a birthday gift from my loving friend Jacquie. And you know what was in this nicely wrapped gift shipped from North Carolina?!?!

DO YOU?!?!?!!?

You got it...

A LEOPARD PRINT SNUGGIE!!!!

I love that girl!

Not only did she go to 8 (count em') 8 stores looking for the leopard print one, her search spanned 2 cities and included a trip to SuperTarget with her husband when they were supposed to be having a date night. Is that devotion or what??? Knowing that I would be embarrassed to purchase such an article and frankly, embarrassed FOR me about this post she decided she needed to get me this for my birthday. She finally had to purchase it online. Yes, the Wild Side Snuggie is mine. It even came with a book light.

I did have a momentary panic this was some kind of commentary from her about my quickly approaching 40's but she'll be 40 before me next year so I'm sure it was not. I think she just wants to make sure that I become a cougar with style. Well maybe "with style" is stretching it a bit. I mean it is a Snuggie. However, she does live in the south now.....

Did I mention I love that girl!

I Have A Cool Job

Because today I got to interview Dean Bulter. You know, ALMANZO WILDER from Little House on The Prairie!!!  COULD YOU JUST DIE!!!

You can read the interview here! 

Here is what I didn't write on the museum blog.

Dean Butler was super nice and even though I told him I would only take up 5 minutes of his time, he talked to me for 1/2 hour!

The kicker for me was that (and I know this sounds silly) HE SOUNDED JUST LIKE HIMSELF. I mean I think if he called me out of the blue I could have probably told you who it was. I almost asked him to call me Beth. Ok, not really, well maybe a little, not really....

And in addition to being on the show, his production company has made documentaries about the real Laura and Almanzo so he's also pretty knowledgeable about that part of Little House.

For someone who grew up watching this show this was really fun!

S/He Who Shall Not Be Named

Until we find out his/her gender for sure!!!

Yes folks, we thought it was a boy, but it looks like our new kitty just may be a girl. If you've never seen a kitty butt before, it's actually kind of hard to tell. Saturday I had both my husband and Leighanne studying illustrations from the internet and then gazing quizzically at the kitty's nether regions.

Whatever it is, it's a cutie and we're all settling in nicely together.

The first night it was pretty docile and I thought "Well isn't this just about the easiest thing, having a kitten." The next night it RAN ALL OVER ME. ALL NIGHT LONG.  And continues to do so. Why was I sleeping with it you ask? Well, the first night it decided it was not sleeping in it's new kitty bed AT ALL and as I was laying there it's started clawing it's self up the bedspread and landed up at my head. It thinks that is where it belongs. And I don't know how to convince it otherwise because it just keeps climbing back up.

It's actually smaller than it appears in these pictures.