Ramblings off the topic of December Holidays

the Holidays are upon us.....looming ever closer. And what do i have to say about it? Run away! Run away! I mean don't get me wrong I would have been handing those Maccabees dudes rocks and I always known that Christmas celebrates the birth of the Messiah. I mean I don't know exactly what day Jesus was born on that night so many years ago but I do know he was born to a human mom and step-dad. I like Easter a bit better because we know that the Last supper described in the New Testament was a Pesach Seder (Passover Seder) so it has to coincide with the dates of the Hebrew calendar. Funny how the powers that be determine otherwise sometimes. (a-dohy). Well I'm stating to fell a bit rushed but it's just schoolwork and the kids driving me batty. I think I need to spend a bit more time listening to music as I work so I have something other than the news to concentrate on. After losing our house I don't want to hear how millionaires are crying. Sell your cars weinies ;o). I think of student's I taught in the inner city, kids who didn't have furnature to sit on in thier apt. and consider myself lucky to feed and cloth my kiddos. 

I think I'll post more often.

new place, new post

It's not in me right now to go into the list of why we moved. shall I play the innocent as I'd love to do, as one of my many friends would have me to do? Should I have fought harder against my dh, called people, taken days off of work, checked over everything I was told instead of believing blindly that i wasn't being lied to? Snooped around my own house, my dh's desk, ripped open mail, shown up at his job? I don't know. I just know we lost our house (not really lost-I know right where it is, the address is still the same) and we were three days away from living in a shelter. Yes peoples it happens, even to soccer moms who drive (although it's 12 years old) a van.We gave up all of our animals, my little dog had to be put to sleep because he was elderly and having strokes, falling down the stairs, walking into things, probably aggravated by the stress of us running around packing up. 

I didn't know what dire straights we were in until we had two weeks left in the house, then it was just a constant state of panic, looking for an apt, packing, moving stuff into storage unit but trying to keep some semblance of normalcy for the two boys. I know I was a little wild - eyed. My gal's Sunday School group really helped put things into perspective. My sister showed up  the last weekend driving 10 hours to to help pack during the last weekend along with friends from church who had a pick up truck and together the three of us man-woman handled furniture over to the storage place. My sister then took the boys back with her because we weren't sure of where we would be sleeping for the first 4 nights locked out of the house until the shelter opened up. I found an apartment right after that but it didn't matter because we were flat broke.  My MIL (God bless her) came through with a depo and rent money only because the dh told her what was up, he was too embarrassed to tell her everything before and she was was sick right when the poopie hit the fan. She had a big long talk with the two of us, telling us "no more secrets" Already he brought up stuff at that meeting he hadn't told me..aaaahhh, same old, same old.

Well, I met my sister 1/2 way over to pick up the boys and I will have to see how they cope. One week they have a house (a broken down, drafty, falling down one), 5 animals, have to wear uniforms (public school), and all the stuff that school entails and after staying with their aunt and cousins for two weeks they have to share a room in an apt (a very nice apt, i think- I'm thrilled!!) no animals (1 cat 1 dog went to friends for "fostering", 2 cats went to the cat animal shelter),  new school (but no uniforms).  the younger kiddo keeps talking about getting a new pet, but there are NO animals allowed here, as a matter of fact I kept looking for SOMEPLACE that would allow any animals and it was near impossible.

I had to get this out of my system and now I did.  Finished.  

Soccer seasons past

Watching my two sons play soccer this past weekend and going to a local high school soccer game brought me back to the first season my older son and played while my dh coached the sport. The caliber of the team was something out of  the  "Bad News Bears" if you are familiar with the movie.  No, the coach didn't drink, and no, there was no swearing on the field, but there were definitely moments of cringing and turning away as we parents watched our kids flounder on the field. 

First of all My dh was coach by default because the year before the regular coach tended to be late or not show, so the dh would have the kids run around the field, and do some basic stuff.

The following year he decided to coach a team. The other coaches in the town picked thier players which really wasn't in the spirit of a  recreation league but his team took on all kids. As you can guess the first practice was quite a sight. I was hanging with the parents a couple of whom said they had signed up their child so that he could get some exercise because they were always in front of the tv or game. As our kids were huffing and puffing around the field for their first lap we were starting to yell out encouraging words "Go ____ Go!, Run! Just DO IT!" Then one of the parents made a comment that she thought her kid would run faster if she put his Nintendo on a stick in front of him, that had us laughing, another mom was thinking about tying Kentucky Fried Chicken to a piece of string on the ground and pulling it. We were in tears. I didn't comment on what would have made my kid go faster - the latest installment of the Harry Potter book he was completely immersed in them at that time.

Well, the season went on and the kids learned skills, they never won a game, much as we parents tried right up until that last game! I'll never forget the score was 0-8 and our team had the ball. A bunch of us parents were running down the field pointing to the goal. "Over Here! Over Here! Kick the Ball OVER HERE!!" Sounding like lunatic cheerleaders, soccer moms and dads gone w-h-a-k-o, trying to stop another game from being a washout but .. but.. tweeeeet! The referee blew the whistle and the game was over. One more game we picked out every thing that our kids did right and pointed it out on the was home, and this time instead of wait 'till next week it was wait 'till next year.

Yeah for school! Yes I did say that!!

School has started, for me and the m&J boys. Yes, some normalcy WILL return to this house if i have to force it ovr it's head with a shovel. Surprised there was very few school items to purchase. Now it's just the energy factor - do I have the inner energy after a day doing a job where I am on my feet, teaching, keeping peppy, physically lifting and troubleshooting to come home and now rev up my 13 year old who is disorganized and ritually against doing homework? Plus cook, and all that other house cleaning paraphenalia? I guess that's why God invented the tea leaf and coffee bean. And don't forget music....yes music. But that is for another blog because my relationship to music is too deep to just touch on here.

Yarn Won and Lost... 8.10.08

A not so stretched tale of yarn and boys....
This tale starts out like many others, happy and looking up but aaah, there is evil ahead, and let you be forewarned, it ends up becoming a twisted knotted bed of lies and intrigue.
There once was a happy crocheting mommy who was creating an afghan for the family couch during her two son's soccer games. The younger son seeing the blanket being made asked (as was his usual - being the younger, more demanding) when are you going to make ME a blanket???? So after a time they went to the large craft store where after 45 minutes the son could not make up his mind on a color ("whatever color YOU are happy with mom sigh..."). A search through mom's Harmony stitch dictionary and he becomes inspired for his mom to make him a blue tunisian stitched blanket with white pinwheels throughout so he then could have a dragon stitched in red over that. Back to the Local Yarn Store for supplies and home to have them wound on the wool winder. Everybody happy? Good the end for those of you who like happy endings.
The following Saturday the two happy sons wake up before their parents and have cereal, watch some t.v. and play with the family pets. That's the story they are sticking with. What their mom found was numerous balls of yarn thrown around like basketballs, now some unwound, tangled, other yarns mixed in and two boys pointing the finger at each other saying "he did it!" So that is the whole frayed tale. I may use the yarn for water bottle carriers, I really want to make one. hmmmmm.