PSA: Inappropriate Questions

I’ve had very few inappropriate questions in regards to adoption.  I’ve been waiting for someone to ask me something so I can wipe out my list of pithy responses, but so far, no such luck.  I wish I had a pithy response for the question aimed at the kids that has been coming up way too often.

“Do you have a girlfriend/boyfriend yet?”

I have not been single for a long time but I know people who have been & it’s a question that is universally hated.  My sister & I used to come up with funny retort’s for her to use before family gatherings.  Things like:

• He’s on work release & has to spend his weekends in jail
• He’s on vacation with his wife
• His visa was revoked
• God is single too & yet I don’t hear you bugging Him about it
• Priests aren’t supposed to date so we’re keeping it quiet

In general, it’s not a great question for adults.  Specifically, it’s a bad question for children.

First off, my boys have a vague understanding of dating relationships.  They are 5 & 9 & don’t really need to know about dating yet.  What they do know is very age appropriate.  They’ll grow up fast enough – we don’t need to make them little adults while they are still young.

My biggest complaint about ‘the question’ is the insinuation there is something wrong with them if they don’t have a girlfriend.  Sure, my boys aren’t questioning that now, but as they hear the question over & over, pretty soon they are going to wonder if they need to have a girlfriend.  As they get older, the societal pressure to date mixed with the insinuated pressure to have a girlfriend might do some real harm, especially if they aren’t interested in dating or are a late bloomer.

I think as a society we pressure our kids to grow up way too fast.  Can we just not ask the question?  Can we just let the kids be kids?  Can we just be okay with single 6yr olds, single 12yr olds, single 18yr olds, & single adults?  Is it any of your business anyway if someone is dating?  If there’s a new relationship to know about, you’ll know about it when you need to.

That’s my Public Service Announcement.  Don’t ask the question.  Just don’t.

If you are just looking to make my 9yr old squirm, ask him to help with the dishes instead.

K~

S-Q-U-A-N-D-E-R-E-D

I knew I was going to pay for yesterday’s little burst of fitness ambition.  Today was just as beautiful as yesterday but I wasted it by taking a nap on the couch.  I think the only one here who enjoyed today’s weather was Ethan, who was forced to play outside since all of his favorite toys have now become my property.

Oh well, isn’t napping what Sunday’s are for anyway?

K~

G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S

That was our day.  It was in the 70’s & there was not a cloud in the sky.  You can’t ask for much more than that in November.

I prodded everyone out of the house for a hike at a local state park.  Ethan was supposed to be our out-door enthusiast, after all, he owns 2 seasons of Jeff Corwin, but Gavin has proven to be our little hiker.  Tova is our lights & siren.

Nothing was going to ruin my hike though.  Not Ethan complaining & Gavin scaling everything in sight & Tova pitching a fit every few feet.  NOTHING.  I enjoyed every moment of being outside;  crunching leaves, skipping stones, & the sunshine.

I enjoyed it so much I later decided to go for a run.  I ran a mile & a half .  I think I will be paying for that tomorrow.

How is it our 11yr old dog can still pull me when we go for a run?  Shouldn’t she be slowing down a little?

Tomorrow’s forecast?

Sunday


Mostly
Sunny
Hi 68 °F

Yippee!

K~

Old Ladies Chit Chatting In Water While Pretending To Exercise

Otherwise known as Water Aerobics.

I tried what was called ‘Deep Water Exercise’ last night.  There was water & it was deep but the exercise was a little lacking.  I was hoping for 50 mintues of cardio in the water (my back & knees are a little sore this week).  What I got was 20 minutes of stretching, in water, followed by 20 minutes of water walking & an occasional water sprint, finishing up with 20 minutes of stretching, in the water.

I would have achieved the same heart rate at home trying to force the kids to eat their supper.

K~

600

This is post 600.  I’ve been feeling really burned out on blogging so this is almost as much of a milestone as the 500th post.

To celebrate, you get pictures!

 

Scarecrow Gavin

Ethan conquering the school's climbing wall

Monkey Tova

 

Creating Chaos since 2000.

K~

Maybe This Is The Reason Why We Moved

Today my small group was talking about ways to renew ourselves physically, emotionally, & spiritually.  Over the last 7 months I’ve really struggled with the emotional renewal as one of my biggest outlets, Mom’s Night, has disappeared.

I loved Mom’s Night.  One night a month, we would gather at a local restaurant, sans kids & hubby’s, to eat & laugh & relax.  Sometimes we’d extend the night with a trip to DQ, other times we’d all run our Walmart errands together.  Once we did a mass grocery shopping trip.  Of course, a lot of times we wouldn’t leave the restaurant until really late so there was no time for the ‘after party’ errands.  For me, it was always a wonderful opportunity to leave my responsibilities at home & be off the clock.

When I mentioned this today, more than a few people looked at me like I had 2 heads.  A lot of the woman just don’t do that.  Taking time for themselves feels wrong so they don’t do it.  Or they feel guilt about not spending that time with their spouse.

During the conversation I discovered  two things;  my purpose in this move – introducing a new set of woman to the joys of leaving it all behind, at least for an evening, & that I have a really great husband who has never balked at Mom’s Night & has always encouraged me to take time for myself.

There was definite interest in getting out.  We’ll see if we can manage to drag the most reluctant along & go out more than once.

K~

 

 

Trend Time

It’s NaBloPoMo.  Or National Blog Posting Month.  Never one to pass on a trend, I take it as a challenge to blog daily for the month of November.

Yes, I realize it’s Nov. 3.

Details.

I have been a huge slacker on the blog, hopefully this will be the jumpstart I need.

I’ll try really hard not to cheat with WordPress’s post date option.

Things you can look forward to reading about this month:

• Inappropriate questions for children
• Book Week
• Why we don’t do Santa
• Revisiting the Move Fiasco
• Recipes.  I have discovered a fabulous recipe blog.  I don’t know why I no one told me about this earlier *ahem* LESLIE!

Hmmm.  That’s only 5 posts.

I’m sure I’ll come up with something.

K~

 

Need A Laugh?

Last night I was trying to get used to the new Facebook format & clicked on the links tab.  There was a video of the creators of Awkward Family Photo’s on Rachael Ray & for some reason I clicked Play.

I normally wouldn’t do that.

Guess who was the first photo featured?

I’ll give you a hint.  There’s a camel.

Go on, click the link.  I know it’s Rachael Ray but you only have to watch the first 45 seconds & it’ll be worth your time.  Promise.

Go on…

Told you it was worth it!

K~

My Buttomous Hurts Alotomous

It’s now 2 days post workout & I am still hurts-to-climb-stairs-&-sit-in-a-chair sore.  I have no idea where the Monday aerobics instructor gets her sadistic workouts, but OUCH!

Tuesday was awesome.  Tova & I had no scheduled plans so we spent the morning curled up on the couch reading books & watching a little tv.  We went on a leisurely search for Gavin’s birthday present & had a nice lunch followed by a 2hr nap.  A school day doesn’t get much better than that.

After school the kids had a snack & we headed out to go costume shopping.  Toys R us had a decent sale & everyone is happy except for Tova who doesn’t like the boys Star Wars costumes.  The other purpose for our trip was to spend the birthday money that was burning a hole in Ethan’s pocket.  He has talked about nothing but the AT-TE Walker for a week now.  He was able to pay for it all by himself & was over the top excited to finally have the box in hand.

He didn’t have much time to build last night & I had to shoo him back to bed at 5:20 this morning.  I think he snuck out of bed around 6:30, dressed, ate breakfast, & emptied the dishwasher so I’d have no arguments.  What a nut.

I generally hate shopping by myself with all 3 kids.  Usually I spend our time out & about feeling like I am herding cats.  Yesterday was actually fun.  Toys R Us was laid out so the Lego’s & the Playmobil, the boys two favorite things, were right next to each other.  For supper we ate at Fazoli’s.  It’s not my favorite place to eat but wow, the service was excellent!  The counter staff was super friendly & helpful.  It was an absolute pleasure to eat there.  Ethan was so excited he even told one of the workers that this was his favorite dining experience in all of Metropolis.  He didn’t phrase exactly like that, but I was impressed he felt compelled to say something.  He’s not usually one to do that.

The evening ended with me getting an Ugly Cry headache.  The Biggest Loser usually makes me a little weepy but, sheesh, last night was tough!  Good thing Jason wasn’t here to make fun of me…

K~

I Hope You Like Bullets

Even though Jason was home most of the weekend, he still wanted a blog post so he knows what’s going on around here.

My life in Bullets:

• The Proposal was better than The Hangover or Year One, but not by much.  At least is was sweet & had no gratuitous crotch clobbering
• The laptop is sort of not working.  It probably needs to have a bunch of stuff moved off it to the external hard drive but that is safely locked in The Safe Which Cannot Be Opened.
• Don’t buy a Honeydeepplacewhereyoudrawwater firesafe with an electronic keypad.  It eats batteries & when it dies, it dies.
• On the other hand, if you are a burglar, a Beenectarwell with an electronic keypad can be opened with a drill.  You have no idea how reassuring that is…
• I hate typing on the desktop.  The keys are too soft & are at an angle.
• I need a recipe for Cheesy Chicken Tortilla Soup.  There’s a restaurant here that serves it on Thursday’s & I should probably learn to make it instead of going broke buying it by the gallon.
• I’m really looking forward to Tuesday – no MOPS, no volunteer workshop at school, no class at the Y;  Tova & I might just stay home.
• Ethan is very patiently waiting for his aunt (*ahem* Jenny) to get her check in the mail so he can buy his ridiculously expensive Lego Star Wars thing.  He’s very cute about it.  Whenever he talks about his future purchase, he always phrases it “If I get any more birthday money, but I’m pretty sure Jenny said she was sending me some…”
• I was looking at ESPN The Magazine’s Naked People Edition & Tova was reading over my shoulder & singled out Adrian Peterson.  Peterson, as he’s known around here, (he even has 2 Mii’s, one is a righty & one is a lefty) was moderately dressed.
• Jason is very proud.  Not that Peterson was dressed, that Tova knew him by sight.
• I’ve decided to paint the trim in our house.  Yes, I realize it’ll probably take me a year & yes I’ll be sick of the project in a week, but it needs to be done.  The house looks so dingy & beat up, I think fresh trim paint will go a long way.
• I keep seeing more & more Rural City people at Target here in Metropolis.  A friend said that always happened to her at about 6 months post move.  Today it was you Jen E.  I have no idea why you didn’t say hi
• Facebook’s Visual Bookshelf recommended Somebody Else’s Daughter.  I read the whole thing but it was not enjoyable.  The author tried to pack way too much stuff in the book & didn’t cover any of it well or make me care for the characters at all.  I finished it but only because I hate to leave books unfinished.
• Tova’s bedtime routine now consists of a story with milk, prayers, a song (I’ll post a video of her singing it later), tucking in, & now counting to 10.
• She can also skip, just not in her bed.
• Gavin has impetigo & yes, I’ve been sending him to school all week with it, because I thought he was getting Kindergarten acne.
• I fully expect to start some sort of epidemic at the boy’s school.  We tried Hand Foot & Mouth earlier this month & we hoped to introduce the plague that has ravaged the Rural City schools, but that didn’t take, so we moved on to Impetigo.  After that, it’ll be strep or pink eye.  We haven’t had those yet this year.

How was that J?  Are you caught up now?

K~