optimistic

Today, I saw (close up!) a baby owl. It was gray and furry looking with its feathers all downy, and it was opening and closing its eye like my 2year old does when he's really drowsy.

It was one of the most adorable sights I have EVER seen. So, next to this cool iced chocolate drink I've discovered at our local drive-thru, I now have a new reason to live.

Cute baby owls.

I am not kidding. I SQUEALED in the car on the way home. Had my 3year old asking 'What did you do that for?' And in my very grown up way, I explained that sometimes, we just feel so happy after seeing something so... awesome... that we just have to squeal, or our heads will explode.

Had said 3yearold laughing though. Which was another good point to my day.

This was before I forgot snacks I had signed up to bring for my mom's play group. And the recipes for the recipe share. And lost my keys between the sign out at my son's preschool and my car (which were situated a whopping 10 feet from each other), which led my hubby to having to spend his lunch break unlocking my car and helping me 'find' the keys the whopping ten feet I misplaced them from said car.

But, really, all in all, a good day. I have compromised with 2yr old regarding his binky use (which is to say, I allow him to use it as much as he wants, and he allows me to not listen to him scream all day. But, to his credit, he does have some MONSTER canines coming in), so he's been less apt to bark at me (kid really has an affinity to dog-talk right now), and did I mention I saw a real live baby owl today?

Awesome.

And now, for the update.

I no longer want to be a writer.

Yeah, I'm totally kidding. Actually, I have followed through! I have successfully been sticking to my goal of meeting my daily word quota. And tomorrow, I'm going to pick up the volunteer paperwork for the Raptor Rehabilitation House, where they rescue and rehab hurt or orphaned birds of prey.

Yeah, no kidding! I have had a thought, and I am now following it through to its conclusive end. As in, I am doing something.

Seriously: Applause all around.

I can't even think of anything left to say... I'm just proud of myself for doing something that requires more than just talking about it.

More later

Adam got to school only 5 minutes late today, courtesy 1 forgotten backpack and 2 emergency vehicle needing the road more than me. Not bad, all things considered. Pulled out some shorts for the boys last night to wear today, since yesterday was pushing 80, so of course, it was raining this morning. Still pretty mild, though, so half of them kept the shorts anyway.

Good news, though! I have officially followed through on something. I have been consistently writing, every day, 99% of the time reaching my quota of 1000 words or more. So, maybe I'll post some of those here. I think I'm getting better at getting to the point (ie. conciseness), but as that's never been my strong suit...

Adam is officially done with ice skating, until October, which is forever away for my 7 year old, so he's been a bit in grief over it. At least, he was, 2 nights ago. But that was before we took him out to ice cream last night to celebrate his last lesson of the season.

He seems okay now.

Cole is really into the talking, watch-me-doing-everything stage. Of course, Adam is still in that stage, so maybe it's not so much a stage as hopefully his verbal energy catching up with the rest of him. Anyway, he loves the frisbee right now and can do a mean high kick.

Andrew is into sorting, sorting and more sorting. This morning, he's been busy sorting the magnetic letters/numbers on our washer by color, matching letter/number, and now, he's putting them in order of the alphabet. Such a kick.

Ben is sleeping, bless his cranky little soul.

Someone needs to get to sleep before 9:30 tonight. He thinks he's so funny, running up and down the halls while his brothers are tucked in their beds, asleep. He takes his little puppy and barks at us when we tuck him back in. I think he's pretty convinced that anything with fur naturally barks.

New goals

As of yesterday, I now have a new goal to add to my burgeoing schedule of watching kids, followed closely thereafter with watching kids, which is then invariably followed by watching kids. Ahem... Anyway, my nw goal consists of..wait for it..writing. Which shouldn't be hard in and of itself since writing is just like talking (which I'll admit, I have an almost eerie plethura-ness of), only, when you write, you never have to stop to let someone else have a turn. The best of all worlds, as it were.

But, seriously, I'm attempting to cultivate some self discipline into my daily grind, and if I'm serious about being a writer, then I need to start where I am and at the very least develop a more consistent habit of actually sitting down and spitting the words out on paper, metaphorically speaking of course. About the paper, because, how wasteful would that be, to be scratching draft after draft on non renewable resource when I could just as easily be typing (although pecking might be the more accurate term on this awesomely tiny i-thing). The spitting might become metaphorical too, although I'll give that one a little time for my inevitable rising level of maturity to catch up with my mind.

Writing is the one thing I've never not wanted to do. Seems like everything else will wane now and then, still a steady level of interest, but writing seems to be the constant I keep returning to. I really think I could do something with it. In the end, even if nothing comes of it, I don't think I can't not.

Course, I've wanted to fence my whole life too. Not sure where that burning desire came from, although I suspect Wesley and the ROUSs had something to do with that. So, better make that two goals. I wanna write at least 1000 words a day, and I wanna learn to fence. Told the boys I'd take them to the library tomorrow. I hope they have a good weapons section

What happens when you mix dragons ham and sugar

LET ME SAY FIRST THAT THIS WILL BE MY FIRST POST FROM MY (NEW!) ITOUCH, WHICH IS RIDICULOUSLY FUN, NOT TO MENTION PLAIN AWESOME, BUT AS SOME HAVE BEEN aBLE TO GUESS, I'M STILL , SHALL WE SAY, GETTING USED TO THE ITTY BITTYNESS OF THE KEYBOARD (I KNOW, PART OF SAID AWESOME),AND THIS DEVICE OBVIOUSLY FEELS LIKE I HAVE SOMETHING ImPORTANT (OR LOUD,I'M NOT SURE ENTIRELY YET...WE'RE STILL IN THE INFANCY OF OUR OWNER/POSSESSION RELATIONSHIP HERE) , BECAUSE EVERY TIME I TRY TO SWITCH OFF THE CAPS LOCK, IT CLICKS ITSELF BACK ON...ALMOST AS THOUGH IT WAS ACTUALLY THINKING OR SOMETHING.

Yes, the day will come when machines will conquer the world.

Okay, now it's totally writing normal. And my dad always says that the computer can only do what you tell it to. To which I say, yes, unless you happen to be an evil computer bent on world domination....I mean, come on....we all know the types..."he was such a quiet guy, always so polite..."...yeah, very normal til that off day when he casually guns down the neighborhood because "I hate Mondays."

This is the logic I'm working with here.

But, moving on: Easter weekend was interesting here, in a not at all bad way. Grandma sent treat bags with the boys, cute little animal eggs included. We ate ham and had the egg hunt outside, and have succesfullymade it through three...excuse me...FOUR..nights with the boys camping in the office while we've (meaning Mike) been refinishing the original hardwood floors in the front part of the house. Which is so much a bigger job than I can give justice to with mere words. Let me just say with the utmost sincereity, that I truly love my sweetie.

Speaking of affection, the boys might have found something as deserving as pokemon when it comes to their precious time and single minded devotion: they went to see 'How To Train a Dragon' with their cousins this last week, and it is all they can talk about. Really. Cole has had his red three headed 'Drago' since Christmas, but his brothers never expressed any interest themselves until this last weekend, and now, Adam is insistent that he must have the black small one that they sell at Borders. I told him that he could put on his list, and maybe in the next little while, if we happened upon it on our grocery runs, that I would definitely most probably consider it. That went over just about as well as the segueing conversation that mostly consisted of Adam asking 'Why?' and me giving a very organized speech regarding delayed gratification, financial budgeting and the opportunity costs of time vs gas money on segregated errand running.

Wow. When did I become such a mom? I guess it was sometime between the car seat purchase and obsessing over playdoh recipes, but darned if I know.