my plate always has room

I will be starting cooking classes in my kitchen this week....
It has come to my atttention that there are some simple skills that need to be taught to some of my dear friends, so I must do it!
This week's lesson:
Roasting poultry
I figure if I have it mastered, anyone can do it!
Giddyup!

damn you, liddle people

The couple who adopted Lacey brought her back. The poor woman stood in my entry crying and shaking for 10 minutes yesterday. I felt for her, but also for Lacey, who is just a normal puppy in need of comfort and structure. You can tell people what will be required of them, but they don't really hear what you're saying due to the floppy ears and wet nose effect. Ah well, the positive is that I will have more time to work with her and make her even more attractive to a potential new family.
The thing is... we already committed to taking not one, but TWO ten week old red nosers that are due to arrive on Thursday! Am I nuts?! Am I spelling rhetorical correctly? I yuess it will be the dog days of winter for me. Do they let human's into doggie heaven? My sister says I'm going there and I'd hate to be stuck at the gate with melting frosty paws in my bag.

cycle, though it is possible to forget how to ride it

Wasn't Thanksgiving two weeks ago? Three? Ooh...nearly ten...
I'm trying hard to not let time slip by like that, but I'll be damned if I can figure out how to do it. The holidays merged into snow days and dog adoptions and more freaking snow days. I was feeling so lovey and blessed for my sweet children at the end of December... that's over. And, as I recall, February is not the kind of month that makes everyone feel all shiny happy better.
No worries! I have solved my February doldrums before they will happen! Two, not ONE, but TWO puppies will arrive here on February 10th. Two fuzzy, little, snuggly, silly joyful fur balls to lighten everyone's mood and give us something to giggle about. J is going to name them and we will have the fun of training two clean slates to be the best family dogs ever. These two will be exposed to every possible scenario. Cats, kids, babies, noise (nothing like some call of duty to numb you right up), other dogs, being held and smushed, and, most fun... snow! Puppies + snow = giddyhappylove. There is NOTHING like baby animals to make your heart swell.
I feel so lucky to be able to foster dogs at our house. I have this "save the world" thing in my head and I feel this incredible NEED to do something about it. I love these dogs and I seem to have a knack for training them, so I have to save as many as I can. SO far, two. I wonder how many I can help in a year?

I've been writing in my notebook instead

Working titles for my book:

"No" And Other Things I Should Have Tattooed On My Forehead

Pee On The Seat... Life With Boys

My Family Is Crazy Part 1 of 27

For The Love Of Boys

My Busy Brain And What I've been Doing With It

Wouldn't Change A Thing : My Life So Far

hibernation time!

It's been a whole month since I have written anything except a list. I can't use the excuse that I don't have time, because I have plenty of time. I hate that excuse! It's the worlds biggest lie! We all have time and we chose to use it in different ways, but , really, if you WANT to do something, you'll have time for it.
I've been using my time to walk in the woods, train with the dogs, invent in the kitchen, snuggle any kid who will let me... clean this massive house. The usual, boring, wonderful stuff. I am happy to have no drama in my life, save the natural teen stuff that occurs here and there. I resolved in 2010 to eliminate the negative from my life. Funny thing... it's pretty quiet now:) The crowd has thinned and my shoulders feel less tight for it.

baby it's cold outside

Watched Elf with the biggest boy last night. He's so funny, all squished up on the love seat, looking a lot like Will in the tiny chairs at Elf school. J chose the smaller couch, he always does. Not sure why, either, but he contorts himself in odd ways to stretch out, and over and off. He's always trying to fit into places where he "shouldn't" be. He, like his mother, doesn't quite understand the concept of "should".
He and I had a long-ish talk throughout the movie, during commercials, of course. We talked about how easy it is to take for granted all the wonderful things you have in your life. He told me that all his friends talk about how good our house always smells and that J is so lucky to have a mom who bakes him cookies almost every day. He went on about the Christmas decorations that I always make from "nature" and how comforting that has been for him, no matter where we lived or what was going on. He could always count on cooking and pine boughs.
I had no idea he even noticed those things. I figure that I bake cookies all the time because the kids (and hubs) love them and they make the house smell good and feel warm on cool days. And, let's face it, these boys need a lot of things to eat! It's what my mother taught me to do... and the decorations, too. She and her pal Nancy always took us kids into the woods to gather greens for wreaths and garland. I don't know if the plastic stuff was available yet, but our mothers did it the way their mothers and grandmothers had done it before them.
Talking about it all with J made me so grateful to my own mother for giving me these gifts that I use to create a memorable and joyous life for my family. All the little things that I worry so tirelessly about are just a waste of my energy. J didn't notice that when he was 5, we were poor and had to walk to the grocery store to buy milk and bread with loose change in the middle of a snowstorm. Instead, he thought it was so cool that I allowed him to walk all that way catching flakes on his tongue and see the big plastic horses and the train tracks and that half dead bat next to CVS. "Remember, Mom? Those were the days!"

WOW

Some people are just fucking brilliant. It's impressive and I'm in awe.
And, then... well, then you change you're profile picture and you actually belive that clicking nonsense will help to fight child abuse. And, you're so fucking proud of yourself, that you post and repost the reason you did it. Oh, you, you big philanthropist. Doesn't anybody think for more than a milli-second about anything?!
I feel like Facebook might actually be the final destruction of life as we knew it. They've added all these new "words" to the dictionary and at the same time , seem to have removed "sense".