Six Things that Make Me Cry

6. Singing the national anthem

5. Tragedy

4. Cheesy moments in movies--I am so embarrassed by this.

3. Realizing how far away I am from who I should be

2. Witnessing the performance of beauty

1. Having Beulah and Janey fight. When they were little they loved each other and played so well but for the past five years it's just gone downhill. I hope it will be better someday.

Maybe I've just have a rough weekend. . . .

Now that's Exciting!

Here are a few things that thrill me:
Getting the chance to eat something new and different that someone has made
Harvesting food from seeds I have planted
Playing in waves at the beach
Beating Husband when playing games
Taking a successful, uninterrupted nap
Reading a good book
Watching my children play cooperatively
Helping kids at school learn
Finding good deals at DI

Have We Taken this Princess Thing Too Far?

The other day at dinner Goose had spilled some drink on her shirt. She does not like to to be wet and she started screaming, as usual. And then I listened to her. She yelled, "Take off my shirt, I command you!" We all turned and looked at her and then kids all burst out laughing.

T-Bone is slowly adding to his Lego Castle collection. I like to see him absorbed in fantasy play. Having our tv (and hence PlayStation) out of commission for a few weeks after Christmas was the best thing ever because it forced him and Cheeseball to play with their toys.

Beulah babysat her cute little cousin at our house the other night. She spent most of the time with him and Goose downstairs in the toy room. Who knows what they were doing but it must have been fun because he was sad to leave.

Janey has handled loosing Boon pretty well. I think it still pains her that I talk of it with such ease.

Cheeseball was in our room at the crack of dawn and said, "It it St. Patrick's day." "No," I mumbled, "that's in two days." "Well," he said, "today's the last day I can make the leprechaun trap for school." "Okay, we'll do it later." I said and then rolled over back to sleep. I guess it's time to get cracking.

The Deed is Done :(

Today I brought Boon to our animal shelter. I had posted an ad for him on the online classifieds, but once I decided he had to go, I had to do it as soon as possible so the kids couldn't talk me out of it. Last Saturday he had gotten off his line--again--and was in someone's yard jumping up at her kids and freaking out their dogs and just wouldn't go away. She tried calling me once she learned it was my dog, but I was away. I didn't find out about the specifics until today. Anyway, it's just happened one too many times and I can't have it on my conscience that my dog is over in someone else's yard driving them crazy and causing them to be unhappy. And unfortunately, Boon can occasionally manage to get off his line, not to mention the times when Goose inadvertantly lets him out of the house. The three middle kids have taken it badly--Janey and T-Bone came with me to the animal shelter to say good-bye and it was hard to hear them crying. It's probably the hardest to have my sweet and tender most middle child be sad. The dumb dog just needs a good fence, and we don't have one. While I was at the shelter, someone called from the add (of course). She called back later and I told her that he was at the shelter and she sounded interested enough that she will probably go down and at least check him out.
I felt so cold about the whole process; I wasn't even sad as I signed the papers and shut him up in the kennel, I just knew it had to be done. It makes me a little sad now; he is a sweet, cute dog. But we just didn't have what he needed. On that cold November night when we got him 16 months ago, I had a little voice say to me that this would be a mistake. But we had gone too far and I didn't want to disappoint the kids. So know instead of disappointing them, I've devastated them. I don't think any of them were truly attached to him the way some people love their dogs, but they liked him enough that the feel the lack of him.
I hate being a mean mom.

Nothing New Under the Sun

Here is my problem with Obama: Everything he is doing (wanting to get more involved in health care, raising taxes on the rich, giving goodies to unions, bowing to environmental lobbyists, etc) is old, old news and straight out of the Democrat playbook of the past century. I realize that everything I want (less taxes, less federal government interference with health care and education and land rights) is straight out of a conservative playbook too. But the thing is, Obama's rhetoric was so fabulous that somehow everyone thought he would be different and do something new. But it's the same annoying policies wrapped up with dashing eloquence and I'm so annoyed that I emailed my congressman and told him I didn't want taxes increased and charitable contributions made less deductible.
As I look back over the past year, there was only one politician who really seemed to say something different and bold to me and it was Ron Paul. Why didn't I support him? Maybe I'm like most Americans in that I'm scared of bold change and instead prefer to whine.

PS I don't have complaints about Michelle but I am weary of her coverage. Do you think the newspapers would rave over Cindy McCain's bare arms or just accuse her of being tacky and self-promoting?