I was going to be profound this evening. I was going to write something that would bring the masses to tears. A blog entry that that would make you stop and think. Something that may have even had you muttering under your breath, "Damn, that girl is good." That was my plan. Then I began to sweat.
It's hot here. I realize that I was just complaining last week about the unseasonably, frigidly cold weather we were experiencing. What can I say? There is no pleasing me. Suddenly, rather out of the blue, it is 88 degrees in Minneapolis. The relative humidity is about 99%, I am pretty certain. I know this because everything in my house is sweating—myself included. My toilet bowl has so much condensation on the side of it that a puddle is forming on the floor. When you sit on the toilet, a stream of water trickles down your leg. Unnerving, to say the least. I poured myself a Diet Pepsi a few minutes ago. Within seconds, my glass was soaking wet and it was puddling under my laptop. I debated turning on the air conditioner, but I am being stubborn and refuse. Ruanita would call me weak. I put my kids to bed in nothing but their underwear this evening. My hair—that typically has just a barely perceptible, itsy, tiny bit of wave to it—is suddenly kinky and curly. My gray hairs, in particular, are forming an afro as I type this. So....as you can imagine, I am a bit cranky sitting in a pool of my own perspiration. So that profound blog entry I had imagined has pretty much dissipated. Instead, you are going to regaled with a list of my mundane observations about my day. Lucky you.
1. Ruanita and I, being eternally optimistic (or naively moronic), have decided that we are getting a dog. Possibly as soon as this weekend. We adopted our cat a little over a year ago with the intention of her being the kids' pet. However, she does not like the kids. She pretty much barely tolerates everyone who lives in this house. So our kids are still in need of a pet—at least one that can stand their mere presence. So we are heading to an adoption event through Homeward Bound Animal Rescue this weekend and have our eyes on a couple of their rescue dogs. We are open to prayers, good thoughts, well-wishes, Novenas to the Virgin Mary—anything you've got that may help us through the fallout from this questionable decision.
2. I am wondering this evening just how long I am required to hold onto the kids' “art.” I say that because I just had to move a stack of artwork to get to my laptop. Sophie and Lucas, in particular, are extremely prolific artists. At least four or five times a day, at minimum, Sophie will bring me a page from a coloring book or a picture she has drawn or sometimes just a white piece of printer paper she has covered with stickers. She is obviously proud of her creations and I feel compelled to ooh and aah over them. But quite frankly, it is getting old. There is only so much gushing that I can do. I try to sneak them into the trash can once they pile up and began to fall off every flat surface in the house. However, the kids patrol the trash and I have been busted on more than one occasion. So what am I supposed to do with all of the stick figure drawings of our family? All of the dragons Lucas creates? All of the Hello Kitty coloring pages? I am drowning in “art.” Perhaps I should start selling it on Etsy. I've seen much worse on there.
3. The sky is green and it is hailing all of the sudden. I hope I do not need to get the kids out of bed to head to the basement. Oh man...sirens now. Crap. Blogging over. Here comes Lucas....
About Me
- Shannon Ralph
- I am a 48-year-old lesbian mom of three. A breast cancer survivor. A snowflake liberal. A lover of books and all things literary. I am a nerdy displaced Southerner living the dream in balmy Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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4 comments:
Hope you are okay. A psychiatrist once said to me as long as your family is going to the dogs might as well get one. Terrible advice, I might had. Also, I only kept one good thing a month. Ask your kids what they would like to go in their life folder. They can only pick one or two a month. When I recently converted my garage to an art studio. Both sons flew out and picked over their crap and I will say took home almost nothing. The baseball cards that were worth something, one trophy and two team jackets. A couple of other souvenirs and a couple of reports and a couple of paintings. The rest went in the trash cans, the neighbors trash cans and recycling bins.
We have an plastice storage box called the "art box" under the bed. Every "treasure" the kids make gets put into the box. I am "saving" them. Then every now and then I go through it when they aren't home and get rid of a bunch of stuff. They have never noticed things are missing and I keep the good ones.
I take pictures of the best and then toss almost everything. We too are overflowing with art. If you are worried about being busted, take them to the trash outside (do you have a big bin out there?). I usually let things sit around a week or two and then scoop and dump.
The art thing gets nuts, doesn't it? I have one spot where all the art goes, and I select a couple pieces per month to scan into the computer, in addition to their 'firsts', like first time writing their name, etc. The intention is to produce a photo book via Shutterfly with their stuff in it every 3 or 4 years or so. I might add in some schoolwork as they get older.
This will have to wait until the new baby is amusing itself :)
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