I'm Putting My Kids in School and Preschool

Man, I need a break. I'm whipped. Aron's going to start traveling again, and it gets hard to maintain the house and the cooking and to keep everyone clean and cared for. Then you throw homeschooling into the mix, and forget it ... my day is shot. And, well, my writing career is taking off and I really need to nurture it while people want my stuff. It won't wait around for me forever.

The other day we went to the private school to buy trash bags. We get bugged a lot about sending our kids there by people who work there when they see us at church or wherever. Last week this woman really made sense to me. She was like, "They'll have fun here all day. What would you do with yourself all day?" They happen to have a preschool program also where I could put Eva and Sam for at least half a day.

What WOULD I do with myself, being a normal mom and all that? I would exercise and meditate and make thousands of dollars writing (well, about $7,000 or so per year would have to go to the school and preschool, but who is counting?). I would keep an immaculate house and cook things like duck a l'orange and coq au vin. My kids would get a first-class private education.

So in the fall, there they go. I'll miss them and all the fun we have homeschooling. They don't want to go (well, Callie kind of does), but I have to do this for myself. I'll also miss my homeschooling friends. I guess I'll see them around sometimes. Better take down my Facebook homeschool group page.

Sorry, guys, I'm really bad at this kind of stuff because I'm just a bad liar in general so I don't even try ...

Happy April Fool's Day, people! And happy birthday to my niece Lia! We love you ;-)

Anything Bad in Your Life ... You Brought It On Yourself, Dummy!

I sound like an old person when I say: they don't make things like they used to! I'm telling you that THE DAY AFTER our warranties run out lately, machinery is BROKEN! Broken, I tell you, broken.

So here is me standing over my washing machine that doesn't know how to fill itself up with water, the big dummy. And I am so stubborn that I am NOT calling the flipping service center to have someone charge me $100 to PEER inside it and tell me I owe another $300 to fix it.

Poor Aron is getting annoyed with all the broken crap in our home. There's some New Age writer person who says we all bring crap upon ourselves. Cancer, miscarriage, house fires, car accidents, you name it ... you made it happen, you all-powerful negative dummy!

I've pondered this a lot and am not sure I agree with it. You think on it and let me know where you stand.

In the meantime, I will be hand-filling (with a hose) my washing machine and attempting to remember to go down twice to do a rinse load to get the detergent out. Aron probably thinks I'm crazy but I REFUSE to give in to the MACHINERY MAN (Kenmore this time) on this one. I am grateful to have a washing machine and am grateful that all I have to do it stand there and fill it up with water instead of washing clothes down by the crick (creek to you) on a washboard.

Catch you Monday!

Flashback Friday: Disneyland 1998

It's a little fuzzy, but this is indeed myself and my husband at Disneyland just mere days after getting married in October of 1998. We took off to California ... San Diego and Laguna Beach ... just a couple days after the wedding. We took Sunday to open wedding gifts and left on Monday for a one-week honeymoon.

Almost 14 years later I still dig the guy, even though we both look a little bit different and have the wonderful distraction of children and a house and homeschooling.

I love him even when he moves my stacks of papers to prominent locations in the hope that I will do something (ANYTHING!) with the stack instead of let it sit next to the potatoes on the shelf in the kitchen.

You have to be pretty understanding to be married to someone like me ... an only child who always had her own space, someone who is kind of a creative type who has papers and ideas all over the house, someone who isn't the greatest at cooking or cleaning. We're probably half "Opposites Attract" and half Similar.

I love you, Babe!

Bloggy peeps, I'll catch you later. I'm off to see The Hunger Games movie with my mom and oldest son.

America's Favorite Coffee

I also asked on my The Kerrie Show page on Facebook what everyone's favorite coffee was. I gave them the choices of Scooter's or Starbuck's.

My dad wins with this answer:

"If I had that kind of disposable income I'd probably go on meth. For $5 I can have Folgers Black Silk all week! Besides, Scooter's sounds like a place where dogs with worms would go."

Somebody else answered, "Keurig chocolate mudslide." Intriguing. I've been thinking about those Keurig thingies. One in-law said theirs clogged a lot, but another in-law loves theirs. I love the idea of a fresh cup of coffee whenever I want it or when company comes and wants coffee. I have a coffee-maker that doesn't have a warming spot and now have no microwave, so if I could get a Keurig for cheap to try, I might just have to do it.

Aren't we spoiled, Americans? With our $5 coffees and our fresh cup of coffee whenever we want it at home? It's sickening, really, but I will try to enjoy it if I must.

Me personally, I like Starbuck's better but it's not good for my wallet. I had a gift card that I kept loading up and putting purchases on so I could get a fancy gold card with my name on it, but one of the naughty kids took it out of my wallet to play with it and there ya go. A sign from God that I should stay away from 'buck's?

Fast fact: In a book called Cloud Atlas (soon to be a movie), in the future a coffee is just called a starbuck.

There you have it, readers: the word on the street. Or the word on Facebook making it's way to this blog.

America's Favorite Donut

I recently did a little Facebook question about donuts and it was "Krispy Kreme or Dunkin' Donuts?" The answers were varied, but my favorite was from my friend in Colorado that I went to high school with named Stephen:

"Never KK!! It's like they put their chocolate frosting on with an eye-dropper! What are we, rationing for war?!"

Me personally, I like Dunkin's coffee drinks, and they are cheap. The huge iced coffee I get is only $2.29 (the caramel turtle is too sweet, and if I'm sayin' that, a normal person will be in a diabetic coma within 4 sips), and they have a punch card so you get a free one after a few purchases. I like KK's donuts better. I'm sure I would love the Mom and Pop shop donuts like Lamar's or Daylight (Kansas City specific places?) if I gave them a chance.

I just got my last freebie coffee last week and have to stay away ... need to fit into my swimsuit and the shorts I bought last summer AND save money for that new roof we need next year. The joys of home ownership!

Where is your favorite donut in America and what city are you in?