Mom to the Screaming Masses

Unknown Facts Related to Raising a Big Family

I was prepared, somewhat, for the amount of laundry and the cooking. I knew that, realistically, I'd be stuck in the laundry room and the kitchen. I was ok with that - I like to cook and don't mind the laundry, except for the folding part. (That gets me every single time - I'm a whiz at powering the dirty wash through, but getting it put away can take a few days.)

I wish I had known two very important facts about having multiple children. Number one, that I'd spend an inordinate amount of time and money in doctor's offices. My kids are relatively healthy, barring the asthma and allergies - but it still seems like we should have our own room. I know everyone by name and feel lucky if I'm in only once in a month.

The other little factoid I wish I'd been privy to is the overwhelming amount of STUFF that gets lost/misplaced/just flat out disappears every single day. This morning was a prime example. I did not represent for the Moms of Big Families well. As in, at all. As in, if anyone had seen me, it would have been a direct recommendation for double forms of birth control to be employed at all times.

A Reader Asks a Blended Family Question and Ponders Soul Mates

Jennifer asked:  Hi Carmen, two ideas I'd like to hear about.. You've said before that your husband has other children. How do you handle being a step mom? I'm not a stepmom, but a step daughter and would be interested to hear how you work with that. And the other idea: I know you and your husband met and married fairly quickly. How did you know he was "the one?" What are your thoughts on soul mates and the like. Is it a matter of timing? do we have multiple "soul mates?" Just curious!

Part One: the Stepparent/Stepdaughter part. This will be (mostly) brief.

I don't talk about my step kids.

My husband asked me years ago to add my step kids to the list of off limit blog topics - for the record, those topics include politics, religion, my birth family, my husband's family and world peace. I probably could have ignored your question, but I didn't want to do that. Suffice to say that we all get along.

Now, BEING a person who HAS a step mom - that I can talk about. It's my own privacy issues, my own borders - and we all know that I have none of those. (Plus, I have clearance from my step mom.)

A Late Night Phone Call

My phone rang at 9:45 and it shocked me.

Ok, so, technically, 9:45 isn't THAT late. But it's late enough for me. 

When my daughter answered the phone - for, really, if the phone rings it MUST be for her, especially since she's grounded (again!) and can't use her cell phone - I could tell from the things that she said that she didn't know who it was on the phone, but the conversation wasn't going well. I signaled for her to hand the receiver to me.

I Admit It - I'm Obsessed

With party planning, that it. After all, I'm only turning 40 once. And this is my first birthday party since, well, I don't even know, and I'm not planning on having another until I turn 50. (If I live that long.)

So I'm planning.

I've already picked your brains regarding the music playlist. (Which, by the way, there were some awesome suggestions - I'm thinking I have some major music purchasing in my future!)

Now I want to talk food. Specifically, what's your favorite party food?

I wrote on the invite for people to bring a dish to share - which my son informed me is extremely rude and very bad manners, but whatever - but I want to have a bunch of stuff here already. I'm not planning on a big cake, but want to make several desserts that I'm "known" for - Rum Cake, Darned Good Chocolate Cake, and my ever beloved cupcakes with a new marshmallow icing recipe that I just discovered, as well as Pioneer Woman's Chocolate Sheet Cake - and then I'm thinking chicken nuggets from Chick-Fil-A and a veggie tray.

What else screams "PARTY!!!!!" to you?

Well, besides the rum.

Lay your best party food (recipe too, if needed!) on me.

Mom To Mom Newsletter - Did You Join??

Yes, again, I'm pimping this project. I can't help it - I just think it is really cool and honestly, I think it is going to be something that you will find interesting month after month - it's definitely more interesting that some of the stuff you get delivered to your inbox right now! To read my newest efforts at NaBloPoMo, please feel free to come back tomorrow. But! Before you do, please do me two very big favors. Skip on over to Zwaggle and read my newest post, where we discuss, in great detail, our dealings with the H1N1 and how it gave us so much trouble. And!Then!Please to register for the wonderous Mom To Mom newsletter - I can promise it's great, being that I wrote it - for one lucky winner will earn themselves a wonderful prize packet from me - chock full of goodies just in time for the holidays.

Written by a mom for moms, the Mom to Mom newsletter will focus on the four things a mom needs to live a healthy and balanced life: Food, Fitness, Family and Fun...Each month you can expect to see family-friendly recipes, ways to get fit together, and learn about activities that bring the family closer together. Proving that good health depends on more than just what you’re eating, it’s about the happiness and well-being of the whole family.

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Randomosity

Otherwise known as, day 2 of NaBloPoMo and she's stretching ALREADY? You all gave me some great writing ideas - if you have more, let me know!

Check over at Scrutiny, where the two $100 visa gift card giveaways are still going strong, you can win a $50 gift card to The Children's Place, a copy of Ice Age, and, quite possibly, a bottle of laundry detergent. Score on all counts!

I saw this on A Girl and Her Life and many of the categories fit my life so well I swiped it.

THINGS I CAN'T STOP BUYING ALTHOUGH I DON'T NEED ANY MORE:

• cereal
• dvds for the kids
• magazines
• sprays and such to straighten my frizzy hair
• t shirts, especially funny ones

THINGS I HAVE TOO MUCH OF BUT CAN'T GET RID OF:

• gray hair
• laundry
• sarcasm
• fat
• exhaustion
• single socks - for when I do, the mate appears. It's a curse.
• dishes
• half empty boxes of cereal with ripped lids that everyone is tired of eating and no one wants to finish
• "important" pieces of paper from my little girls
• Lego pieces. I swear that they reproduce at night.

THINGS I JUST CAN'T DO NO MATTER HOW HARD I TRY:

• teach my kids to clean a bathroom
• meditate
• stay off the injury list
• stop eating cupcakes
• get my kids to answer the phone without checking the caller ID first
• pull ups
• understand the Vampire phenomenon
• understand why I've been seeing Christmas commercials since Oct 1
• understand the words to many of the songs my big kids enjoy
• rationalize why many boys wear their pants around their butt crack
• knit, sew anything more elaborate than a sun dress or pajama pants
• motivate myself to do sit ups

On Notice

Effective IMMEDIATELY, the following things are on notice with me:

• sickness, illness, and any derivation thereof. For the first time in two weeks, EVERY kid is going to school - do not trifle with my enthusiasm. I'm looking forward to peeing in peace tomorrow.
• Mouths on children that are better suited to grown up persons.
• My behind.
• My winter clothing, which is embarrassingly tight and signals a need for increased cardio - starting now.
• Baseball - which needs to be over, already, so I can watch Glee this week.
• My toenails. I AM going to get a pedicure this week, even if I have to cut someone to do so.

That's it. That's all. It's an embarrassingly short list, and the only real aggravation on there is the smart mouth attitude that I've been privileged to enjoy this weekend. Seriously. I've had enough of that nonsense and it's going to stop now.

In other news, it's November, which signals three things - NaBloPoMo, which means agreeing to blog every single day for the month of November - and my birthday, which occurs smack in the middle of the month - and Thanksgiving, which is my very favorite holiday ever. Since I know that I will plan to blog every day, and then absolutely nothing will happen and I'll run out of topics by, say, Thursday - any topic suggestions? I've been asked a lot of questions about food allergies lately and I remember that I was asked before about how I came up with my kids names - but, really, that's only two days. Any ideas?

Of course, with my luck, someone will get sick and November will be another month of sickness blogging.

It's The Little Things, Really

Day "I lost track of all the numbers because it's been so long" of the PIGGY FLU continues. Emma's fever finally broke, after 7 days, but she's left with a horrific cough and sounds like she's about to hack up a lung. Mackenzie fell Thursday and has the same cough. I've been told that the cough lasts at least a month. WONDERFUL.

Riley did a favor for Gabriel. I don't remember what the favor was, but, as it was shortly after his birthday and he was flush with money - he gave her $5. She was IN HEAVEN. She had big plans for what to buy - a doll, a new iPod, a phone, a bunch of candy. She toyed with a trip to McDonald's and maybe one to Sonic for a slushie. My husband took Gabriel to the toy store to spend his birthday gift certificates on Legos and a Nerf pop gun - because,really, the 73 fake guns that he already has are not sufficient for his fun - and when they arrived home, Riley pouted and cried because SHE hadn't been able to go to the toy store - that Nirvana of the under 10 set.

A Meeting With The Nutritionist

It's here! It's here! My very exciting news that I can't wait for you all to see! I'm pleased to be partnering with Diets In Review to publish the Mom 2 Mom newsletter! Written by a mom for moms, the newsletter will focus on the four things a mom needs to live a healthy and balanced life: Food, Fitness, Family and Fun. Would you take a minute and sign up? The newsletter will be delivered directly into your inbox and I can promise it will be chock full of interesting and helpful information!

Last year at this time my oldest son weighed 138 or so pounds. He was about 5'4". Today he weighed in at 111 pounds and stands 5'8". 4 inches taller, 27 pounds lighter. Does that seem, well, odd behavior for a 17 year old to you? Especially one who eats just about anything he can get his hands on. I've blogged before about our trips to the doctor and the blood work we've had done. He's been tested for just about everything that we could imagine, and it all came back negative. Meanwhile, the 10 15 20 pounds became 22, 25, 28 and the kid is all bones. You can count his ribs, his hip bones jut out sharply and the center of his chest, the spot where the ribs meet (that spot where you place your hands when you perform CPR - I'm too tired to look it up) sinks in. He's exhausted all the time and if he's not sleeping he's on the coach. BUT. His cross country times are the best they've ever been - his last 5K time was around 20 minutes. As the doctor put it, how sick can you be when you can run a couple of sub 7 minutes in a row? Indeed.

The next step was a trip to the sports nutritionist.

The kid runs cross country 3-5 miles every day. Up until a few months ago he took boxing a couple of times a week. Maybe he just burns off more than he takes in.

The Ultimate Playlist

I'm thinking about my upcoming 40th birthday party, while I'm holding down the fort with my trusty selection of Tylenol, Motrin, tissues and the thermometer. Oh, yeah, baybee - we are still sick like pigs over here.

I want to create a playlist of music to run while the party is ongoing. If you had to pick just one song, to create the best selection of music EVER - what would you choose?

I'm going first. I choose Crazy Train by Ozzy Osbourne. OR If I Ever Leave This World Alive by Flogging Molly. Tough choice.

What would you pick?