One Man's Quest to Be Penniless

Yes, it's Men Living Simply on the show this week, people. Check out this little gem I found and love. Could you do it? Of course you could do it. But if you have kids and do this, you would get them taken away. As a married person, could you convince your spouse to do it?

The county appraiser's website says my house is less than 1,300 square feet big. Currently that's too big for us ... and if it starts to feel cramped, I just get rid of more stuff. My closet is so sparse I think I might have a penis. Wait, except my husband has like 3 times more clothing than I do, but I bet I can convince him to kill some of that. I think he might have more shoes than I do, too. But he has a regular job, too, and needs to look nice sometimes.

What's my point? My point is that I need to go out and start collecting designer handbags or something to be more like a female. I paint my toenails pretty colors; does that count?

Do you, like me, catch a show every now and then with hoarders in it (or visit an actual hoarder house) and then go home and get rid of 3 trash bags of stuff?

Have a great Cinco de Mayo. We'll be in town still. I get to go to a CDM party that was supposed to be at my house but our plans got changed so often that my good friend is taking it over at her place. I get to hang out with a bunch of fellow hippie-ish homeschoolers and it just might be my first adult party in like 10 years .... taking the kids, of course. I will be calling everyone a hot tamale.

I love this site so much .... check out someecards.com for the funniest stuff you'll ever find online.

A Man Quits His Job

You hafta check out this friend of mine's blog post. He has voluntarily quit his sweet job so he can spend time with his daughter while she is young. You see, he's a stay-at-home mom trapped in a man's body. Click on the words "blog post" above to be escorted there digitally.

This guy and his family live next door to one of my very best friends, who also homeschool. The house next to them is in foreclosure and I'm thinking if we bought it the neighborhood could go to homeschool hell in a Chanel handbag!

By the way, does anybody else know how they get all those lightening bug butts in glo-sticks? I mean, is there a lightening bug farm somewhere?

Animal Tales at Crown Center

The Animal Tales exhibit at Crown Center in Kansas City is going on right now, and it's a blast! Here are some pix I snapped before one or another of my kids had to pee and we had to take a little hike to the bathrooms and then didn't go back because we played in the fountains!

Momma Guilt and Confirmation

I know the other day I said I wouldn't be blogging this week, but I had already written this one and just moved it up in the schedule! Enjoy!

Michael says he doesn't look directly at the camera because the light bothers his eyes, something I never knew.

This is a picture from Jordan's 8th grade Confirmation recently. I have 3 stories to tell, the third being about this photo, but they are all about Confirmations.

1. The first year I was a Confirmation sponsor Sam was only about 6 months old. Aron wasn't in town, so I took the other 4 kids with me and they sat with my friend. Sam was fussy so I put him in the sling and carried him in during the procession of the 8th graders. I was a little embarrassed to be carrying in a baby when the focus was on the older kids, but I didn't want to leave him crying with my friend upstairs while we lined up, processed outside and then into the church. That's just not the kind of mom God made me, and I've learned to not worry too much about what people think about that. When it came time to present my Candidate to the Archbishop, Sam was still fussing and I was going to just take him on up, knowing it's not probably general protocol, but also thinking, "I have 5 children and now God wants me to take care of them, even in front of the entire congregation." My friend took him from me at the last minute before I went up, and I heard him crying all the way out of the church. I know he lived and is fine and won't remember, but I hate that sound!
2. The next year I was able to leave all 5 kids at home with Aron for over 3 hours, which I had never done until that night. There was an after party but it was like 9:30 and I had to say no. I wanted to hang with my Candidate, but I felt called to go home and put my kids to bed.
3. This year Aron was going to have to be gone again and I was scrambling for a helper since Jordan was the Candidate and she's pretty much our only sitter! I left the kids downstairs with a family friend while we processed in. Sam was sleepy and needed a nap and I was worried I would have to carry him up to the Archbishop and all that later, so I prayed about it. Jordan said she was okay with it and would not be embarrassed, but she is such a sweetheart that I knew she would prefer it to be about her, and rightly so! I fretted and worried and prayed until time to present her. Then I handed Sam to Joel in the pew behind me and he was FINE for just those few moments! Jordan got her moment, I got to focus on her, it all worked out. Then Sam crashed on me for the rest of the night, as you can see in the picture above!

Anyway, it chaps my butt when people refer to Catholic Guilt. I don't really have that, but I do seem to eternally have Momma Guilt about something or other!!!

Going to Wyoming ...

Well, after a lot of flip-flopping back on forth on deciding, we decided to go to Wyoming after all. Aron sounds really down out there and needs our kind of craziness in person for sure. You can't work 14-hour days every single day of the week for weeks on end without the lovin' of your family, the hugs of your kids, the adoring glances from your wife, a home-cooked meal every now and then ... and we all know I'm a mediocre cook, so if Aron is missing that, he is really missing US in general.

So here's that blog post from a few weeks ago when Aron sent pictures of the kids' stuffed animal travels. It looks gorgeous where we are going. I have a lot to do before we leave, a road trip to plan with 7 people crammed into the mommyvan. I have lodging rates to negotiate even further down because we don't have a lot of money to work with from the company. By the way, always negotiate on rates during the off season! A place could get ZERO or they could get half their normal rate. Half still means they make money.

Anyway, just wanted to let ya'll know I don't know how much I'll be around here this week. Stop by just in case, or just sign up for the email subscription or get the blog on your feed reader. If you're my Facebook pal, you know knew posts pop up automatically on there for your viewing pleasure.

I'm looking forward to quite an adventure, and can't wait to share pictures with you here!