Should Pets Be Restrained in Cars?

I saw a woman the other day driving her car while talking on her cell phone.

Big deal. Happens all the time. I do it myself every now and then.

But she was also petting her freaking dog as he hopped all over the car.

I expected her to also whip out her mascara wand or lipstick tube or toenail polish, but alas, I was disappointed.

Don’t you think that maybe, just maybe, animals should be restrained while in the car with you? You pet lovers are going to skewer me for this one, but I just don’t get it. Someday I will get it … when my kids are all gone and I get some $300 tiny purse dog that I give more attention than I give my grandkids (not!).

Okay, it’s like when I used to have to drag my cats to the vet and stupidly did not put them in a pet carrier. They would climb all over me. They would crawl under my feet while I was trying to drive and, you know … BRAKE.

Kids have to be restrained. Why not pets? And don’t even give me this “my pet is my kid” crap … you wouldn’t want your kid flying through the windshield, right?

No Artificial Birth Control for Us

I don’t really think that often about the ways I’m different from regular folks (even though technically I’m a total outcast hippie freak).

Then I realize something like how I haven’t been on The Pill since 1996 (amazing how those headaches disappeared!) … .that’s 15 YEARS! This also includes nothing else going into my body or on my man’s body.

It’s a wonder we only have 5 kids, right?! (don’t forget that Natural Family Planning is NOT the old rhythm method … I’m not even going to capitalize it because it doesn’t deserve it because it failed more often than not I’m guessing).

At a cost of at least $10 per month for the Pill (actually, our copay is probably double that), I’ve saved about $1800 … so far. Natural Family Planning isn’t just good for the Catholics; it’s also good for those who want to go green, do something natural for their body and save a ton of bank!

Future Breastfeeders of America

January 26, 2011

Today 15-month-old Sam wanted to nurse and I was busy, so Callie lifted her shirt for him to nurse.

He looked at her funny and pulled her shirt down for her.

Then he headed back to me, saying “nay nay” (nursing), which he’s been saying for months.

Someone recently asked me if size matters when you’re nursing (his wife has big ones, apparently). Nah, size doesn’t matter. My breast is always bigger than my newborn’s head, and, amazingly enough, I haven’t smothered one yet.

Wordless Wednesday (Kids on Computers)

Textercising Video

Everywhere I go I see people texting and multitasking.

I almost ran over my neighbor at the Quik Trip one day because she was walking across the parking lot while texting and wasn’t paying a lick of attention.

I see people walking down the sidewalk while texting.

Hanging out with friends while texting.

My advice: grab your head with both hands … and pull it out of your butt.

I have a Textercising video if you want to really multitask. I really didn't want to go the YouTube route, but Blogger wasn't uploading the video in less than like, a YEAR.

Slipcovers: A Blessing and a Curse

If I had Internet access more often I would post a video on this blog of me putting a slipcover on our couch. It would be very popular, either as a humor video or as an exercise video.

You should see me struggling to put the dang thing on. I cuss and I shoo the little kids off of the couch. Then I shoo them off again. Then I get the slipcover part over the bottom cushions.

Then I put the main slipcover on the main part of the couch. Then I physically remove the kids from jumping on the couch.

Then I try to put the bottom part on while holding up the top cushions so I can slip the bottom cushions underneath the slipcover/top cushion part (like trying to put my boobs into a bra these days).

Shoo the kids away from playing ring-around-the-rosey with the couch since it’s pulled out from the wall.

Get slipcover all situated. Pull bottom strips around the back and fasten.

Voila.

Twenty minutes later and I have a new couch!

Now, where’s the heating pad? I think I threw out my back.

I Hide Organic Liver in Meals

So we get organic beef from a farmer and have for a few years now (Craig Sharp in Humboldt, Kansas, 620-473-3588 or 620-473-0511). We love it, but we end up with too much liver. It piles up because we don’t love it. I even give it away to whoever wants some, and I still have tons left. Every now and then we flour it and fry it up, but it’s not always a hit.

I don’t like to waste food, so I had to figure out a way to cook this stuff and use it.
So I’ve decided to find a way to disguise it.
I’ll cook it like normal … flour it and fry it in a pan until it’s nice and dry.

Then I’ll chop it all up super-fine with a big ole knife.
Then I’ll sneak it into stuff like shepherd’s pie, tater tot casserole and hamburgers.

Nobody will even notice. I’m not wasting food, and everybody gets their iron. We all win.

Got anymore ideas for where I can hide liver, besides in Aron’s underwear drawer?

Goodbye, Fair Treadmill

I sold my treadmill last month using the wonderfully amazing Craiglist. We’d (me and the treadmill) been pals since 1997 when I saw it, had to have it, and put it on my Sears credit card. It was a few hundred bucks and took me forever to pay off, but I worked my butt off on it. It was tall and built.

I’ll miss it because it represents my single days. Those days when I could walk for an hour straight on it while watching

Melrose Place

and 90210 on tape. When I could walk on it early in the morning without worrying about waking anyone up or being interrupted.

I sold it because we need the room in the family room for a loveseat because we have lots of butts to seat. I sold it because it was just sitting there gathering dust. Because I’m rarely home alone to use it. Because when I use it and the kids are home, they want to get on with me. Sam cries and wants me to hold him when I’m on it. I don’t want to put it in the basement and use it … I get creeped out. I kept making excuses NOT to use it, so it was time for it to go before I became a Hoarder.

And the extra money was nice, too. Know anywhere I can get a used loveseat for less than $50? I’m not too picky; that’s what slipcovers are for.

My Husband, Mr. Aron McLoughlin, Blood Donor

We met 15 ½ years ago. We were inseparable from the start. We weren’t friends first. We dove in with both feet and have never looked back. 

Something I love about Aron is that he regularly donates not just his blood, but also platelets, which is a 2-hour process. He has a rare blood type, and also has some special thing about his blood where he never got some childhood illness that most kids get, so his blood is coveted.

The boy is a Blood Donor Star. Things arrive in the mail from the donation place because you can choose prizes according to how much you donate.

He never gripes about it hurting or acts woozy after doing it. He just does it. I am envious of him because I have these dinky, rolling veins that make it difficult for me to give blood. Then I get all woozy and have to lay around for hours even eating cookies and drinking juice. If I could just give blood when I’m pregnant, the blood bank would have a fridge full of my blood. When I’m pregnant my veins are huge and I have all sorts of extra blood.

Anyway, Happy Valentine’s Day and a big I love you to my husband, who subscribes to this blog so he can get it in his email box at work when I post.

P.S. Why is January blood donor month? Shouldn’t it be February, since it’s a heart-y month and the heart pumps blood?

Arrested Development

I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching lately, which may be very boring for you to read, but it very fascinating for me, so bear with me.

When I was 11 my Great Aunt Eva died.

When I was around 13 my Nanny (great grandma) died.

These women were very important to me.

BREAKTHROUGH.

Now I understand why I am so immature! My emotional development was stopped when I was a tween!

Now that I have my life all figured out, I have to decide if I even WANT to start acting like a true adult.

Nah.

Insert Friends Into the Deep Freeze

I read a book a long time ago about organizing (may have been The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Organizing Your Life), in which the writer suggested cleaning out not just your material stuff, but also your relationships.

You basically write down all the people you know and put them into different columns, like those you can’t live without (spouse, kids, parents, best friends), those who are just okay, and those who really add nothing to your life or who are negative and/or suck the life/fun/money out of you and need to go into the Friend Deep Freeze.

After I had Joel and did my freaky attachment parenting it became clear that there were people who would naturally fall away from my inner circle and those I would need to kick out with my steel-toed boot.

I did the harsh, honest Deep Freeze to one person and hated it and still regret the way I handled it. Recently, I just don’t return phone calls, which is something I hate when it’s done to me, but I think it lets people down a little easier. I am a huge fan of honesty, though, so if someone asks me what’s going on, I will tell them. Reasons include:

our kids hate each other (or your kid, say, beats on my kids) and we aren’t good enough friends to keep getting together

you say crappy things to me like “why are your dishes still greasy after you wash them?” and “don’t you feel guilty writing while your kids are watching TV?”

you ask me too many judgmental, personal questions when we are just getting to know each other

And I totally get that I have also been Deep Frozen before, maybe because I’m too permissive of a parent or not Catholic enough or because {insert reason here}.

How do you sever friendships gone bad?

Boundaries and Standing Up for Ourselves

Do you set boundaries in your relationships? In your friendships, in your marriage, with neighbors and acquaintances, with your parents and other family members?

I never used to, but I’m sure learning. First, I got some pink duct tape and started taping myself into squares that nobody else could come into. “Do not come into my square; that is my boundary and my own personal space.”

Just kidding!

Really, though, I generally let people treat me however they want until I get fed up and blow up and take off. Not very healthy, right?

Some of my problem is that I often have trouble determining if someone is joking or if they are truly so rude or stupid that they would say something so hurtful. When I think back on a situation or know someone longer and realize they really ARE so mean, I start to stew. Then every interaction after that is: me looking for a chance to let them have it.

Sometimes someone will deny they are trying to be hurtful. Maybe they don’t even know they’re doing it. But your instincts tell you the deal. Trust those instincts in your relationships. You are not crazy, and you deserve to be treated well.

Melody Beattie says in her book “Codependent No More” that “We may become so familiar with verbal abuse and disrespectful treatment that we don’t even recognize when these things are happening. But deep inside, an important part of us knows. Our SELVES know and will tell us if we will listen … We sense something is wrong. We start feeling crazy, but we can’t understand why because we can’t identify the problem.”

Why is it we would die for our children, yet we let people walk all over us? If my kids don’t see me stand up for myself if someone is repeatedly rude or lies about me, how will they know that it’s okay to stand up for themselves?

Sea Monkeys Still Rock!

Sea monkeys are all over their little habitat, reproducing (or are they eating each other? we can't really tell!) and havin' babies left and right.

So much fun!

Cheap fun, my favorite kind!

The kids are thrilled and it's a nice homeschool science experiment for our household.

Highly recommended!

Too Old to Have Babies? NEVER!

I know a lot of people who think they are too old to have children, and they are infecting my household. Because they have their opinion and I have mine, I want them to think about a few things.

So I ask you this: would you (potentially) rather go to your child’s graduation or wedding in a wheelchair or would you rather live with the knowledge that you killed that baby due to abortion? I know what I would choose, because the regret of abortion is unfathomable, believe me.

And sure, you could die before you see your kid have kids, but you could also get hit by a texting driver tomorrow!

The time you are spending griping about this issue could be instead spent exercising or researching and purchasing some awesome vitamins, minerals and other healthy supplements. Put down the fried chicken strips and pick up a salad, people!

This whole thing might seem silly when you’re 100 and healthy and your kid is 50. Hey, John Travolta and Kelly Preston just had another kid at ages 56 and 48. Yeah, I know they're rich, and they have a lot of amazing potential guardians to choose from.

If you know someone who had a baby over age 40, please send them here to comment. I’d love to know the good, the bad and the ugly (and the positive and the miracles!).

LL Bean Pima Cotton Sucks

I was so excited when I ordered my LL Bean Pima Cotton long-sleeved T-shirts. I usually spend about $5-10 per long-sleeved shirt at Target, but they don’t last long, they fade and they stretch out and get holey. So I figured I’d drop $20 per shirt at LL Bean since they got rave reviews about lasting almost until the end of time. I love the V-neck and the crewneck, but the boatneck definitely isn’t for those of us of the large-breasted variety of women. And the worst part of all was …

THEY ALL SHRANK IN LENGTH.

For those of us of the rounded tummy variety of women (gimme a break; I’ve had 5 kids and love chocolate), this is the kiss of death in a shirt. We want our butt half-covered and our belly fully covered. Shrinking upwards is not acceptable.

Guess I’m heading back to Target until I can drop some weight … I mean, I'm chunky cute and proud of it, but I still want to look my best, ya know? What's so wrong with that?!