Mostly Quiet Weekend

Zach decided to go home with his Mom after school on Friday because they were going to a weenie roast. This was fine with me, but he left his room in it's usual mess and I told him it had to be cleaned when he got home. He got home about 3 this afternoon.

He's still in his room.

His room is still not clean.

We've been fighting already since 3:00 pm, I've screamed, he's screamed.

If his room isn't cleaned tonight by bed time, I'm going in there tomorrow and taking out his TV, his play station, his game cube, and taking away his laptop.

Things are going to have to improve around here if I'm going to retain even a smidgen of my sanity.

My very soul is tired dammit.

Quiet on the Home Front

For a few more minutes, maybe.

I was so tired last night that if someone had looked at me funny, I'd have started crying. Trying to do everything the kids want to do, and everything I need to do in town, on the same day, during the same trip, is exhausting! But I'm doing that this summer due to the gas prices being so high (it takes over a $100 bucks to fill up my truck these days!).

It's also exhausting for me, emotionally, when each one of the kids wants to do, eat, read, play, something different, and argues about it.

Constantly.

With every breath.

Krysten (aka Sissy) is back from her holiday with Jami's friend and she also has ADHD, much worse than Zach, who is doing plenty of bouncing, and ripping and roaring all on his own.

Little Abby is still staying with Alexis, (they're doing some major summer playing) and she's the quiet one, but I'm sure Jerri is suffering through some of these same feelings at her house.

I know the kids are doing all the things that kids do, and have done since the beginning of time, but believe it when I tell you, it's not as easy to handle all the things that kids do when you're older. Even when you've already done all this before, it's harder.

You get tireder.

And they can move and think faster than you.

Kiddy Fishing Rodeo

The Beans with her prize catch. She was mighty upset when Jerry put the stringer in the water so the fish wouldn't die, she wanted to "pway wif him"!

Alexis with her first catch. I think she caught 3 or 4 little fish and ended up winning a bike in her age group for the most caught.

Zach and Abby got nibbles, but no cigar. They all looked as cute as little bugs.

Nanaw has been up since 5:30. Nanaw is HOT. Nanaw's hair looks like she stuck her finger in an electrical socket. So she's going to go take a load off.

CPI, Recession, and all that Stuff

I don't know about y'all, but regardless of the numbers the good ol U.S. government is throwing at us, I do believe we're in the midst of a big, fat, recession.

In the US, the judgment of the business-cycle dating committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research regarding the exact dating of recessions is generally accepted. The NBER has a more general framework for judging recessions:

"A recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales. A recession begins just after the economy reaches a peak of activity and ends as the economy reaches its trough."

I'm not quite sure what most of that means, and I'm almost certain that it's not meant that I do (takes a degree in economics to know what the hell is going on). What I do know is that around the delta here, wages and salaries haven't risen even a penny but everything else sure has and my figures aren't gee-hawing with the Consumer Price Index numbers. Do the folks who come up with those CPI figures use the same calculators that the rest of us do?

The CPI claims that food prices, overall, have only risen 4.2% from March 2007 to March 2008, but I haven't seen even one item in the grocery store that hasn't, at least, increased that much. Many of the basic food items have increased so much that it feels more like I'm shopping in a jewerly store than a food store.

According to the CPI, beef prices have only increased 3.1% from a year ago. When I do the figuring I come up with an 87% increase, but then I'm only talking about that one package of 2 steaks that I could afford to buy a year ago. CPI figures eggs increased 29.9%, where I shop the increase figures up to a 68% increase, that's a big difference in calculations there. Maybe I need to put on a suit and tie so my brain will work better, ya think?

I've also been reading little tidbits here and there that the same good ol U.S. government is considering a tax on snack foods to combat obesity. Holy Shit, who can afford snack foods? I believe if they'd get their heads out of the fairway holes and their asses out of those plush chairs at the Country Club restaurants, they'd be able to look around and see that the normal, everyday working stiffs are having to supplement their meat dishes with a load of starchy foods such as pasta and rice (which has also risen ridiculously in price) so they won't go to bed hungry. That'll combat obesity right there, yessiree.

Dare I mention that it costs $1.50 more in gas for me to go to the grocery today than it did a year ago?

What's going to happen to the folks on fixed incomes, the ones working for minimum wage, the ones who haven't seen a raise over the past 2 or 3 years, the ones who were barely making ends meet to begin with?

Let's just fire all those folks over there in D.C. and start all over. I think we should buy them a Wal Mart calculator too.





Jerri took the two photos above of Jordan and Alexis at their ballgames. Jordan's team came in 2nd in their tournament last weekend and Alexis's team have won one and lost one.

Zach went fishing with his Pop-Pop on Sunday morning and all he brought home was this little dude. I told him that sure didn't look like a fish to me!

Monday Again

Monday's aren't as bad right now because school hasn't started back yet and we can still sleep in. And they aren't nearly as bad as they were back when I had to get dressed and go to work.

Ok, done with it being Monday, I've got a Jilly Beans story to tell.


On Friday I took Zach over to swim with the Beans and Chick, and Jaylen and Jordan and they were all happily splashing around in the pool before 11 a.m. Jillian is an in and out kid, she's get in and swim around and play, then get out and play around in the yard. She knows, kind of, that if she's going in the pool she has to have her floaties on. We watch her close when the ladder is in place because sometimes she forgets.

She'd gotten out of the pool and wanted her floaties off before going back outside so I was standing at the door watching to make sure she didn't climb back in with the others. I saw her wiggle a little and then she reached down and took her swimsuit bottoms off. I thought maybe she'd peed but no,,, she shook the bottoms and then took them over to the wading pool at the bottom of the ladder and was swishing them around. I knew then what was going on and started laughing. I called Jerri over and we both stood there laughing at this child who was trying to hide the evidence.

She gave up the swishing after a few minutes and just threw the bottoms into the wading pool. She looked around and found her little watering can, went back to the wading pool, and dipped out some water to take over to where she'd been shaking the bottoms. She sprinkled, and then sprinkled some more. Then she looked around, saw her little bear float, walked over and grabbed it, and threw it on top of what she'd been sprinkling with the water.

When she finally thought she had the evidence hidden well enough, (and at this point, Jerri and I could hardly stand up straight from laughing so hard) she came inside to get her butt wiped and have a bath.

I can see the future is going to be full of stories from this family!

I've just been over to visit Miz Pea where she has a link to 5 Mintues for Mom who has a contest going on. The prize is a Insignia® 37" Flat-Panel LCD HDTV from Best Buy. Ya'll go on over and leave a comment so you can be entered to win.

I'm Trying

Mockingbird nest with eggs in one of the Rose of Sharon shrubs.

Hmm, wonder what they were discussing here.

Jordan building sand castles.

Jaylen doing a little digging but she was prepared for anything!

I'm doing my best to post more often but much of the time my mind goes blank when I sit down down to do it.

I'll try to do better.

A Most Excellent Day!

The kids did a little fishing, did a little playing, and did a whole lot of swimming. The adults kept an eagle eye out and sat around enjoying the lovely day. ( Nanaw looks and feels a tad like a crispy critter right now). We had an easy lunch of sandwiches, cookies, and cantalope, and some cool drinks. It was a wonderful day!