Thanksgiving Memories....The Smell of the Holiday...

As a child I had two found memories of Thanksgiving, the first was the fact I had a couple of days off of school which was always a plus and the best thing about the Thanksgiving Holiday in my book. The second was being woken up by the aroma of my fathers cooking.

I can remember laying in my bed smelling the wonderful aroma of good food cooking. My father must have gotten up at the crack of dawn to start cooking. I would drag my lazy butt out of the bed and out to the living room where my parents would have the TV so we would not miss the parade. Our big dinner would be early afternoon. After dinner the football game would be watched. Football was a staple at my house and one that I have not ever gotten into. Our Thanksgivings always consisted of my siblings and their families. We never had any other family members over.

My family stopped celebrating Thanksgiving as a family when my farther passed away. Now its time for our own traditions to start. Hmmm what can we do.....

I haven't thought of any real cool ideas as of yet, but I'm sure I can and it will be better then the hotdogs we had for the big day one year. I have never been a big fan of the parades, football or turkey. Yes, I'm American just not much into the day. I like to focus on the day as the day of giving thanks for everyone and all the great blessing that have been bestowed upon me.

Now Anessa does the cooking and we help her. Hopefully someday it will become a great fun family tradition of having huge gathering of families and friends. The day will be filled with love, laughter, smiles, hugs and being thankful for the great life we all have. My thought to being one step closer to being deliriously happy.

Our Disney Journey....

Traveling with the babies to Disney. The dreaded car ride.

Hands down driving at night with the babies sleeping was heaven. The kids slept off and on. They were tired and quiet. No fussing was heard except from the middle child. Props to the babies but not to the middle child. I could listen to some good music and enjoy the drive. Not to mention the traffic was great. Wide open roadway, who could ask for anything more.

The the middle child who is home from Korea drove me insane on the trip down. She complained about everything. First she was to hot then she was to cold. She complained about the music. She did not like it or it was to low, to high. It was constant non stop. Next time I am taking Benadryl with me. Yes, she will get a dose or two plus some duct tape to boot. (Not really but the thought will be there LOL)

We all enjoyed playing I am going on a trip game. To my surprise the kids did an awesome job with this game. We had some great belly laughs with licking lollipop lion, wait I am wrong again. Darn it!! It is a lion licking a lollipop. For the life of me I could never get that one right, but hey in my defense I was driving in all that night traffic. Good excuse to me. This was a good way to kill some time and keep us all awake.

The ride on the way home. Never again will I travel during the day with the babies. All I heard was...you guessed it...How much longer before we are home? Yep, the first time I heard this I knew we were in for a long trip. This question replaced the middle child issues on the way down. The DVD system did not help. Of course the rain all the way home did not help either because traffic was jammed from accidents.

I wish hotels would do half rates for people who travel at night. I would definitely sign up for that.

We stopped once on the way down and a zillion times on the way home. Another reason traveling at night is better in my world anyway.

Lets not forget we not only had the luggage to contend with on the way home. We now had added suvioners and a stroller to the mix. Thought we were squished on the way down, on the way home we were beyond squished and no one except me had foot room. I think I could use a smaller vehicle. LOL

We finally played the I am going on a trip game five minutes before we were home. Oops, next time that will be the first thing we will do half way into the trip.

Two Single Mommies Preparing For Vacation

Getting ready for our first family vacation as single moms. Anessa's may be their big sister and my daughter but she is just like a mom to her younger brother and sisters so I will put her in the mom category. Thank God she is the planner or we would be in trouble. LOL She loves to be in charge so half at it, sister as I say. Just let me know what I do NOT need to do I tell her with a smile on my face. I do voice my opinion when needed, course I have to be listening to her to do that. I have so enjoyed having her take over some of the responsibilities with the little ones. Yes, I'm so lucky.

My major concern was making sure we have some type of navigational system to use. We have no sense of direction. As I tell everyone I got lost trying to find the line for understanding directions when I was being made. Maps are useless to me. Seriously since there are no left or right directions on a map I can not read them. Heck I have no idea which way leads to Florida from my house; North, South, East or West. In one word, I'm clueless. So I did my job and we will have one. Oh, wait I forgot I have to figure out how to use the GPS.....we are so doomed.

The fun and glorious packing. The kids have out grown their sneakers, pants and shorts....all their clothes so new wardrobe for all. Lets not forget all the personal necessities such as sunscreen, hats, sunglasses, curling iron etc. Please you have to pack so much to take with a family of six that it comes down to it you either take the family or the luggage but both will not fit in the vehicle. LOL! The winner is........The Luggage! We will work it out. The kids might be completely covered by luggage.....it will interesting.

We need to find some type of entertainment for the ride down. Music is a must the CD player will be loaded with our favorite music and we do have Sierras radio so music COVERED. We will bring movies for the DVD system. I wonder if I will have to listen to movies all the way there or will they be sweet babies and put on the head phones? We also have to find room for snacks and drinks. I'm so happy I will be doing the driving. I will not have to squished by luggage and snacks.The kids will have a fight or two because one of them will have an inch more of room than the other. I can see the pit stop breaks open up the car door and everything falls out. Lets not forget the dreaded HOW LONG BEFORE WE ARE THERE. LOL

My Haunted TV and Microwave.....

A story to tell for Halloween/All Hollows Eve. This story is not scary but strange and perfect for the season.

Let me set the stage.

We moved into our house 5 years ago this month. When we moved in our house our belongings were still in MI so the people we brought the house from left all the things they did not want behind. One of the things they left us was a console TV. How cool or so we thought. The TV had a mind of its own or was controlled by something other then us. For the 3 yrs and 2 months (yes, I remember how long) the TV would come on and shut off as it pleased. You would turn it on and it would shut off at some point. It could be minute from the time you turned it on or an hour. Whenever you would turned it back on and it would shut off again. This could happen many times, just once or not at all while you were watching TV it all depended on what 'mood' the TV was in. Yet other times the TV would just come on all by itself. We joshed around about our TV saying it was possessed. We got rid of the TV 2 years ago this Christmas. The new TV has not had these issues, BUT..........

Our Microwave took over. Yes, indeed it did! Our microwave is possessed. Right when we got rid of the TV the microwave started. It comes on as it pleases. You shut kitchen cabinet door or the microwave door and the microwave comes on. ( so you know there is no time on the microwave and its off) My favorite is when you hit the "0" button and the number "6" comes up. The buttons on the microwave will work when they want to. We laugh and joke about it. At times we say we need to have a priest come and bless our house.

Yes, there has been people who have been here when these odd things happen. Needless to say they are just amazed and entertained by our strange happenings. We are not scared, I'm sure there is some logical explanation or NOT. For now we will continue to be amused by our strange Microwave.

One step closer to being deliriously happy.

Kids and Grades....

I recently had an opportunity to share some thoughts about homeschooling and grades. Wow! I have not given thought to grades since I was in college and took an American Culture class where the Professor stated we would all get A's in his class as long as we participated. When he stated that we all could not believe what we were hearing. Remarks were made and he defended his belief, what do grades mean. When you graduate do they look at your grades and say WOW! you got a 4.0, do you get a pay increase for graduating with a 4.0 and so on. Another professor stated he would rather have a C student taking care of him in the hospital then an A student. His rational was that rarely do you have a book smart person with common sense which is needed in life. I understood both of them and respected their beliefs. I worked my booty off to graduate with honors at the top of my class which I have to say has not given me any extra privileges though I'm sure it would have helped if I continued on but that topic is for a different time.

My thoughts on grades.

I had a daughter who would get upset and depressed if she did not get 100% on all of her school work. We took family skip days when she started getting stressed out. Her teacher and the school counselor were in agreement about the skip days. My son on the other hand was bored with school and most of his teachers thought he was lazy and that he need remedial classes, when in reality he was bored. How do I know that you ask, he aced his MEAP test and classes he liked.

My wee ones are homeschooled. Their homework is sent in and graded and emailed to me. They have no idea what their grades are nor do they ask. They get all A's but don't even know it. They simply get to enjoy their studies. They do not stress or worry about their grades. We concentrate on making sure they understand what is being taught. It makes our job of teaching easier and it is less stressful for them. It is a win-win situation for us.

In my opinion grades do not make a person and grades do not have to control a person’s outcome. There have been many people who graduated at the top of their class and they never amounted to a pile of beans and others who barely passed who have become very successful. They had ambition and the will power to succeed. Some extremely smart people I have known committed suicide because they could not handle failure and the need they had to be on top. One cannot help but to think this may have been focused on at an early age because of the stress to be at the top of the class. Many kids are bored in school for one reason or another which diminishes their ambition to learn. Everyone has their own way of learning that works best for them and schools are set up for kids who can sit at a desk quietly and work. For everyone else, it makes it a bit harder to learn. The main thing is not everyone who gets 'good' grades comes out on top and not everyone who barely passes is stuck at the bottom of dead beat job.

One step closer to becoming deliriously happy.

The Sweet Songs of Babies....

The joy of fussy kids! Are they really fussy or are they just singing songs out of tune? I have 9 babies and have not figured out the answer to this question.

Are their fits to get their point across or to drive you utterly insane. I know, they are learning at a young age which buttons to push to drive you nuts and which buttons push to get what they want. The have a photographic memory which holds the answers to these questions and they are able to retrieve the data at a moments notice to use it to get anything they want from you. They are cunning but oh, so lovable and fun.

The cute beautiful sneaky creatures that they are, so brilliant and deceiving a great combination! They fool you with those cute little checks that are so irresistibly pinchable and top it with sweet innocent smiles. The icing on the cake is all the kisses and hugs their unconditional love. One of their greatest gifts that they bestow on you.

With all that being said, I have figured out away to get them back a tad all in fun of course. I love to irritate them, bug them with hugs and kisses. Chase them and pick on them. Do all sorts of silly things which have the wee ones fussing and the big ones yelling "MOM". I'm the cunning devious mother who has way to much fun irritating them. A goal which I accomplish everyday according to them. LOL

We have lots of FUN everyday. There is not a day that goes by that kisses, hugs and I love yous are not passed out to everyone along with me bugging them. I would never trade the babies in for anything in this world. No matter how fussy they are, for if they were not here to drive me insane and irritate me who would do that and what would my life be like. mmmm wait minute, what am I saying. I would love to have a quiet life with no fussing fit throwing kids. If only I would of thought about that before I had kids. Just kidding; maybe!

To me having kids is one step closer to being deliriously happy!

Kids and Social Media...A Great Combination.....

There is a new social site created by three kids who wanted to make a change in their life. They wanted to start a business so they could move to the beach, start a charity, and create the life that they have been dreaming of.

Jem started twitting with me when she was 8 years old. She instantly fell in love with it and wanted to learn more about social media, blogging, and about our business. She wanted to blog so away she went and the domino effect happened with the other two kids who were 6 and 10 at that time. As a blogger myself, I find it hard enough to get people to read your blog; can you imagine how hard it is to get people to read blogs from kids. I came up with an idea while I was blogging for Saronti, a children's website, I thought how great would it be if this site had an area for my kids to blog. The owner of the site thought it was a great idea, so we did a feed and she published their blogs. I will never forget that day, the kids excitement and sense of accomplishment to see their blogs published on Saronti. It was very exciting to me as a parent because who would have read or even published a kids blog. It is no longer a pain staking task to get them to write. They write about all sorts of things from dinosaurs to whats going on with them. It is a way for them to express themselves as individuals.

Jem still was not satisfied and eager to learn more; wanted to help with business. One week she made enough money to pay for the majority of the babysitting fee for there special babysitting day. From that point on, there was no stopping her. We had a family meeting and she announced that she wanted changes in her life and she was ready to do what she had to move to the beach. Jem asked if she could start a business to help make money to move. The other two kids again jumped on the bandwagon which bought about the birth of their business.

They love connecting with kids from around the globe. A social site was created with their help so they could meet more kids and make a difference in the world. Connecting with kids from other parts of the world/country is a great learning experience for kids. They can learn how other kids live, what they think about, and what they have in common. They can also play games with educational value, practice their writing skills with blogging, learn to put what they think and change it into thoughts, create groups to voice their opinions and make a change/difference in the world. Kids connecting with kids to make the world a better place. Who says social media has to be just for adults.

There are so many teens and adults who are on social media sites these days but what about the kids? I know there are virtual worlds for the kids but there isn't nothing quite like this. The kids who created this site made it so you can blog, create groups, chat, upload videos and pictures, get free things, forums, educational games and create your own profile. The security is very high and everything is very well monitored so the kids can have a safe and wonderful experience.

Social media has made the world a smaller place and has forged relationships that we normally would of not had the opportunity to have. It plays a role in every aspect of life today from the mommy blogger, to the actor, to news media, corporations, churches, and even some schools. Social media has made it easier for people to connect, whether it be for business or for friendship. Technology has come such a long way over the years.

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