Thanksgiving

I find this holiday the most disgusting holiday of the year and I am thankful to not be a part of it.  I never really thought about it until Evy started school and they explained to her the history of Thanksgiving.  At least, the glossy version of it.

Sadly, the truth is that when the "Indians" showed the pilgrims how to live on this land, it facilitated a genocide unmatched in human history.  This was a heartless, torturous, hunting of the people who lived here.  Yet, annually, people choose this time to be thankful for what they have in the same fashion that the early Europeans did.  Thankful for the "freedom" bestowed by discovering this land.  "Freedom" that the people who originally lived here were not afforded even after being so kind.

Interestingly, as a side point, the usually savage Norwegian Vikings were exempt from this as a whole.  Part of the reason why Norwegians were granted naturalized citizenship status back in the gold rush days when they came over from Norway was because of the fact that Leif Ericcson (Eric the Red) had brought many over from there back around 1000 AD who had stayed and settled the land in harmony with the other natives.  In short, Norwegians were already native to the land when other Europeans got here.  Technically, this makes Norwegians Native American.

I find it ironic that people choose this holiday to be thankful for the blessings they've been afforded to them, though it has such a terrible and cruel past.  I also find it ironic that this holiday kicks off the season of pushing and shoving, which results in deaths every year in the wee hours of Black Friday morning as people are trampled to death because others just have to be first to get to worthless "stuff."

Every year, I am thankful to not have been an "Indian" back in the day and I am thankful to have no part of this holiday.  I am also thankful that Jehovah made turkeys so yummy and that they can be eaten anytime.

Today's Serenism...

...is brought to you by our shopping trip to Sam's Club.

So, we're out stocking up before the baby comes and apparently everyone else is also.  Seren insists she needs to go to the bathroom so I take her and wait by the cart with the other children.

As soon as Seren runs in, she runs back out to say, "Mom! I can't go potty! All of the toilets are clogged!" Me: "They can't all be clogged; go to the next stall." Seren, very insistently says, "I DID! BUT the toilets are ALL CLOGGED WITH PEOPLE!" Me: "Then please go back and wait your turn, sweet pea."

My 15 minutes

I stole a moment this morning to take a relaxing bath...

Evy and Penny were awake.  Evy was doing her homework.  Penny was playing with kittens while drinking a sippee.  Yes, they're finally big enough to defend themselves, so I left the kittens out with the kids.  Seren was asleep at this point.  I had a half hour before I had to get everyone ready for getting Evy out the door to school.

About halfway into my bath, I could hear screaming over our very loud exhaust fan in our bathroom.  I concluded that Seren must be up and about.  I also concluded that the crying I heard from Penny must have been only a tantrum because Evy had not unlocked my bedroom door to come knock on my bathroom door and inform me of a disaster.  At least, that's what I was hoping.

Terrible thoughts filled my mind, like a boogeyman fills a child's closet when the unknown becomes the catalyst of fear.  It was at this point that I wished I had the Tween & Toddler version of an old buddy's recently developed electronic teenage pager system.  This electronic system is designed to page teenagers over any electronic device being used in the house, like a laptop, smartphone, or other device they may be involved in, to get their attention.  What I need is the Voice of God, basically an indoor speaker system like most rich people have running throughout their houses (or like the ones schools have) where I can just tap a button and inform my kids that I can see what they are doing and they'd better behave.  As a person with an accounting background, I quickly dismissed this idea as one too expensive to implement.  However, an affordable version would be two-way walkie-talkies.  I can see it now:

Me: "Evy, what's going on in there?"
Evy: "PENNY IS PULLING A LEG OFF OF A KITTEN AND SEREN IS HOLDING THE OTHER ONE WITH THE SCISSORS!  IT ALREADY HAS A BALD SPOT FROM WHERE SHE CUT ITS HAIR!"
Me: "SEREN! Put the cat DOWN! Put the scissors AWAY!"
Silence.
Me: "Evy, did she put the scissors away?"
Silence.
Me: "EVY!" I start to get out of the bathtub.
"Hi Mommy," I hear over the walkie.
"Seren?"
"Yes," Seren says in the sweetest little voice.
"Seren, did you put away the scissors?"
"Uh-hmmm (yes)," she says in her sweet voice.
"Did you put down the cat?"
"Nooooo..." she says as I briefly hear water running in the background.
"Seren, put the cat down and stop playing in the sink!"
"But, he's getting a bath right now..." sounds of screaming cat briefly make it through.
"SEREN! PUT HIM DOWN!"
Silence.
I grab my towel and run into the other room to find water everywhere, but the cat safely got away.  However, the walkie-talkie sitting at the bottom of the sink was not so fortunate. End of two-way intercom.

Really, as this played through my head, I realized that ignorance was probably the most blissful.  However, I couldn't shake the proverbial boogeyman so I got out of the tub and got dressed as fast as possible.  I turned off the exhaust fan and didn't hear a sound.  As anyone with kids knows, silence is the best and worst sound you can hear in a house full of small children. 

I cautiously open the door of my bedroom and step into the hallway.  I hear sweet little voices coming from their room where they all sit happily reading to kittens as they cuddle them.  In this case, silence was golden.  Everyone survived the fifteen minutes I took to feel like a human being again. ;)

I know my maternity belly is big when...

...it sets off the faucets with automatic sensors when I approach the faucet to wash my hands and I haven't even leaned to reach the soap yet!

Grim & Grey Bring Sunshine to Everyone...

"Sunshine, eh?" my husband would inquire...yes, sunshine even for him.

As many of you know, two weeks ago we got new kittens.  We were originally going to name them Crash and Bash, but it got too confusing to keep up with who is who.  So, we named the gray one Earl Grey because he is calm and cool, but named the black one Grim Reaper (Grimmy) because he tries to inflict death upon our toes every night.  "Sunshine?!" I can hear the ogre saying at this moment.

Yes, the kittens are obviously the happiest that they have ever been, despite the kids trying to yank their legs and tails off while carrying them around.  Evy is really good to the kittens and Grey has become her homework buddy, falling asleep on her desk when she is at it.  After the first few days of being shredded, Seren has learned to be gentle too and now carries each one around like a baby.  Penny is as gentle as she knows how to be, carrying each one in a headlock, two breaths away from passing out.  All in all, the kittens seem to be excited about playing with the girls.  Although, as Grimmy was snuggling me yesterday, he heard the pitter-patter of Penny's little feet coming down the hallway and by the way his eyes turned black and his ears turned backward slightly, I could tell he was a bit concerned.  I had no choice but to turn over the "merchandise" and Penny went running happily down the hall with her newly confiscated black "purse."  "Sunshine???"  Yes, it is sunshine when, by the end of the day, both of the kittens and the kids have been worn out.

Personally, I've been happy to see the kittens running about and sliding across our laminate flooring, scattering everything about.  Well, except my dust piles.  I swept up the floor into one spot, turned around to get the dust pan, and when I turned back Grimmy had already scattered the entire pile to the four corners of the room again!  "Remember, you asked for this," the ogre said.  Yes, I did.  I have been wooed by cute little kittens, but the ogre should make no mistake: he has been wooed also.

"Wooed?!" he'd say.  "Wooed by pee all over my clothing?  Wooed by them chomping my toes? Wooed by changing the catbox 3 times as often?  Wooed??? Humph!"  Well, they've been successfully housebroken the last couple of weeks and his clothes have all been freshly washed.  Despite his toes being chomped, I'd say he's still wooed and enjoying the sunshine brought by Grim & Grey.  How can I tell?  Every time Grey gets snuggly and starts falling asleep, the ogre will find the softest, most cuddly blanket to wrap him in and snuggle him.  Wooed, I'd say ;)

How about our other cat, Grumpy Thissy?  As expected, she threw a literal hissy fit for a few days.  Two weeks later though, I catch her sleeping with them or playing with them.  If she notices I'm there, she'll hiss at them for my benefit.  Pretty soon that won't be the case.  She seems to be enjoying the company.

Speaking of sunshine, Evy has drawn the solar system and made it a poster for her club, which is made up of her siblings.  Her siblings have been lableled each under their own planets.  Since Seren still wets her bed from time to time, I find that it is quite appropriate that her name is under "Urinus."

I love toddlers <3

Thanks to Penny, I knew something was up when she yelled, "OUT OF THE CHICKEN!"  I figured something must be going on in the kitchen.  Before I could go check it out, Penny comes in to tell me, "A Seren, a waters!"  She's just two, but I could tell that Seren must be in the water.  When I enter the kitchen, I find a bowl of water next to the cat crunchies (the bowl is new) and there is a spoon next to the bowl.  There is water all over the kitchen floor.  I'm not sure why my 4 1/2 year old would be in here with a spoon in the water bowl.  At any rate, it was confirmed to me that Penny didn't do it because she couldn't access the bowls.  I know Evy didn't do it, even though Seren insisted she did.  It's out of character for Evy, though not Seren.  This is why her nickname is Moat Serie.

Anyways, I just love that Penny is expanding her vocabulary.  Take heed, please stay out of my chicken when I am cooking ;)

Today's Penny Thought

Mommy puts lunch away in Fridge.  Penny say: "Nilk!"  Mommy digs around for sippee in Dishwasher for milk. Penny say: "Mommy, out of the chicken!" It's very good that Penny knows to stay out of the kitchen since we cook lots of hot stuff in there :)

Five reasons to never go barefoot in a house with children:

5) There's always a toy or child where you're trying to step
4) Your foot will always be in the path of where a child is running
3) Surprises can't be stuffed in your shoe if it is already filled with your foot
2) "Mystery" spots on the floor
1) Diaper failure

Presents from Grandma can be very useful for executing revenge...

...at least Penny (my youngest) thinks so. Grandma Sheri has sent a few jelly-like caterpillar toys that glow when dropped or whacked against something for each of the kids to play with. Penny chooses to whack Seren with it in order to make it glow. I'm sure the caterpillar finds some sort of justice in this as Seren has completely dissected one of its brothers and the glowing innards have been disrespectfully kicked around the house. Additionally, Seren also has this fascination about cutting with scissors and the other caterpillar brother is completely shaved. We have one left that is is relatively unscathed and Penny uses it for the sole purpose of whacking Seren. The fact that it glows in the dark while it's whacking something adds a bit of sweetness to the thought of revenge sneaking up on Seren in the middle of the night.

I almost feel sorry for Seren because she has a little sister just like herself, who treats her just as she did sweet Evy. Sweet, sweet, Evy who is a model older sister for her younger sisters and they completely disregard her self-sacrificing spirit. At least her sweet demeanor prevents her from being whacked with the caterpillar in the middle of the night ;)

There comes a point in every cat's life when...

...the cat must learn to look before it leaps.  Usually, this lesson is best learned as a kitten and hopefully doesn't involve a toilet bowl as a steady stream is pouring on in.  My husband has unwittingly taught many a kitten this lesson the hard way and last night was no exception.  Needless to say, the kitten got a bath, not just once, but twice.

I'm really hoping this kitten has learned his lesson by this one experience.  We've had other kittens in the past who needed more than one lesson.  We had one cat whom I think had never learned.  This particular experience happened a number of times with this cat, named Stitch.  Although Stitch eventually learned that the toilet is no place for curiosity, she never learned to look before she'd leap.  More than once, I would be running a bubble bath and she would unwittingly hop right in and then hop right out, into a wall. Later on, she would be walking the length of an ironing board and keep on walking long after the ironing board ended.  Honestly, we wondered if there was something wrong with her: bad eyes, bad hearing, bad depth perception, until one day we saw her outside hunting a bird.  "Oh this is going to be a disaster," I thought to myself.  There she was: crouching low to the ground about 15 feet away from a robin.Robin was pecking away at the ground with his friends, none the wiser.  Soon, Stitch was 10 feet away, Robin was slightly concerned. Stitch moved closer a couple more feet and the whole flock took to flight, specific Robin included. While the birds went flying, so did Stitch, and Stitch caught the Robin about 5 feet in the air! She had a quick and scrumptous meal; a perfectly executed dining experience.  It was then that I realized that there was nothing wrong with the cat at all; she was just an idiot! An idiot savant! She became one of the best hunting cats we ever had until we had to give her away because we were moving.  It is my understanding that she'd live for weeks hunting in the forest.

Another cat who didn't look before he'd leap was our Kitty Bear, the one responsible for melting the Ice Man's heart toward the idea of having cats. Kitty Bear was tons of fun to play with. Of course, he was a full-grown adult cat when he adopted us. He played games differently than other cats we're used to having. He employed strategy to his games. Yes, he liked the typical fishing with string game or chasing after jingle balls game. However, he also liked to play Surpise and Attack! Often, I'd home home from work antsy to go to the bathroom, so I'd enter a dark bathroom and turn on the light while this BoogeyCat would jump out at me from inside the bathtub and almost scare the pee out of me. He looked so smug. This game quickly turned into Peek-A-Boo Surpise where he would run and jump into the bathtub every time I walked down the hall. It would be a contest of who would jump out to startle the other first.

It wasn't too long when I decided to put a whole new twist on this game by adding water to the bottom of the bathtub. I certainly couldn't do it the moment I got home because Kitty Bear was way too smart for that. No, but I did run about 3 inches of bathwater in the tub before I left in the morning, wondering if he would find his suprise sometime during the day. I snickered at the prospect even though I wouldn't be there to see it.

I returned home that evening and events carried on as usual. Even I forgot about the water in the bathtub. I entered the bathroom, turned on the light, and like clockwork, Kitty Bear raced in after me to jump into the tub. A perfectly elegant jump turned spread-eagle-with-talons in mid air as he took stock of what, exactly, he was jumping into and attempted to execute a change in plans. The only thing he successfully executed was my shower curtain in true Freddy Krueger type fashion. I can't remember if he glared at me with daggers the entire night or even if I was afraid to fall asleep, but I do remember shopping for a new shower curtain the next day.  To my recollection, we still played Peek-A-Boo Surprise, but he was much more cautious about the bathtub from that point forward.

My first day of maternity leave...and Evy's business plan

I have big ambitions of things to get accomplished in the next week or two and I have already made good progress.  The problem is that my pregnant body gets tired around noon and I am forced to "putter" the rest of the day, if I can even do that.

Spending the day with my girls was wonderful.  I got Evy (my oldest) out the door an hour early and we did her Bible Study with fancy drinks from McD's before I dropped her off for school breakfast. 

I came home to a freshly made breakfast, courtesy of my husband.  Being home for breakfast on a Monday is a luxury I am no longer accostomed to.  I'm really hoping that I get sick of it over the next four months so I can gladly return to work.

I spent a lovely day cleaning with my girls, then they took a long and peaceful nap.  So did I ;)

I picked my Evy up from school and she traveled with my to my appointment.  She waited patiently in the lobby for me.  The doc says I'm dilated 1 whole cm! I'm 36 weeks along.

On the way home, my Evy and I discuss when she will start learning to drive a car.  She is 7 going on 17. I explain to her that it will be at least 10 years before we teach her.  Then somehow we get on the subject of what age she will be when she decides to move out.  She insists she'll be 20; I inform her she can leave as early as 18 if she wishes, but she'll have to have a job to pay for it.  Evy explains that she will make money as an artist, then launches into her business plan.

Evy's Business Plan, as explained by Evy:

"I will sell my artwork for $.25 each painting.  I don't want to be expensive because I don't want people's feelings hurt if they can't afford to buy one of my paintings.  If someone is getting the art to give to someone else, then they can have it for free.  BUT, if they're planning on reselling it, then I will charge them a dollar.  I will have a gallery store at the bottom of the building and I will live above it.  My hours will be from 10AM (when most people get up) to 8pm, except on Sundays because those will be different."

This kid cracks me up!  Already planning her own business at seven years old.  We'll see how it turns out ;)

Tomorrow is my last day before I go on maternity leave

And I have short timer's syndrome SO bad!  Yet, I have so much to do before I leave tomorrow.  Oh well, it should get wrapped up as well as possible.

I'm not the only one who had an eventful day.  Mike has been trying to get some work done around the house, but Seren has kept torturing kittens all day.  Also, it seems Penny was partially guilty for "carpeting" our floor with cat crunchies.  Yes, apparently she felt they were pretty nummy too cuz Mike says her icky diaper smelled suspiciously like cat food.  ICK!

I have a busy weekend ahead of me.  My baby shower is on Saturday and then a friend is having us over for dinner on Sunday.  After that, I will be totally nesting.  I am really looking forward to being home with my babies <3

So, how was your day?

My day consisted of 10 hours worth of work while having a stuffy head because of my cold.  I'm trying to cram everything I need to do within the next couple of days as I am taking my maternity leave on Monday.

Mike's day consisted of screaming children, trails of water-soaked cat crunchies acting as floor covering throughout the house (has it been raining Pennies from Heaven?), and well buttered, slightly snacked on, raw potatoes.  Seren insists that those were the results of Pennies from Heaven.  I'm still skeptical since Seren is the only one out of the two girls who could reach the butter in the Fridge.

In just a few more days and this will again be my everyday life for about the next four months.  What on earth will I do with myself?  Maybe it's the hormones, but facing my last week at work (for awhile) is making me kind of emotional.  On one hand, I have prayed to come home every single day since I've started so I can be with my babies.  On the other hand, can I pull it off if I'm able to stay home again?  I've been working for the last 8 months and almost feel as if I've switched out of mommy mode and into breadwinner mode.  I suppose my only hang-up is where Xander will fit into all of this when he gets here.  He needs his mommy desperately over the next few months and I intend to give him every moment that I can get away with. But what do I do after that? Only time will tell, I suppose.

In many ways, I'm still stuck on the idea that I should be the one who is home with my kids.  However, I cannot help but take notice of what an awesome job my husband is doing being Mr. Mom.  He probably does a better job at it than I ever did.  Maybe this makes me feel insecure.  Although, I rest assured that he is lacking in one very important thing, as Xander would so aptly point out once he gets here.  The rest of the kids seem to have adjusted to these changes quite well, although some of their behavior tells me that they miss my special touch of being at home with them.

In the end, I'm torn about going back to work after the baby is here.  If I do, I will never complete the schooling I've started because I can't do it all.  On the other hand, would I ever need to?  Although I feel that I could expand my knowledge of my career field, I'm already quite marketable because of my experience.  Not to mention that I have a "for life" type job and those rarely exist anymore.

Of course, I may not be so torn about going back to work because I may not have much of a choice, which is why I went to work in the first place.  I guess I just shouldn't lose sight of the more important things: the family will be fed and cared for, and the kids will always have one of us parents available for them.  So, with this in mind, I look forward to my four month paid vacation with my babies.  I'm really looking forward to making the most of it!