You're not holding it right

The guitar...That's what my husband said literally in the first 2 seconds of my very first guitar lesson; "you're not holding it right." I was holding it how it was comfortable. I did, however, acquiesce. One thing we had to agree on before we started the lessons was that he would try to be patient with me and not just want to show me how to do it right, and I would do what he said. So I tried to hold it "right." (I put right in quotes because I still think the way I was holding it was just fine). After we got past the holding it right part, I learned the G chord! Any of you who know anything about the guitar are probably laughing because you know that D is the easiest chord out there. You put one finger on one string and strum. There ya go. A, G chord.

My husband is very musical. He's very talented. He not only plays the guitar, but the drums (and anything percussion oriented) and the bass guitar. He knows what he's doing. And not only that, but he's good at it. He tried to explain some theory behind what he was trying to teach me about the guitar and about 5 seconds into it, I could feel my mind clamping shut and my eyes glazing over. That's probably why I could take 5 years of piano lessons and still not know how to play the piano. Our oldest daughter, Kristin (who is 7 by-the-way) may have taken after her dad a bit. We got her a recorder for Christmas and she has done really well with it. It came with a little instructional song book and Paul taught her the basics. A week and 1/2 into it and she already had learned and mastered at least 4 notes, how to read them and play them and how to play 3 different songs.

I do wish I was musical. Much in the same way, how I wish I could sing. *sigh* I am still waiting for the voice that I know is hidden somewhere deep, down in my body, to break free from it's prison and for me to be able to sing like Ariel from The Little Mermaid. (When I was a kid, I used to think she had the most beautiful voice! Come to find out, friends of ours at church actually know the woman who was the voice of Ariel!!) I pretend I can sing. I sing (loudly) to my I-pod while doing the dishes, I sing loudly at church (who'd going to criticize me at church?), I sing to my kids all the time. Grace (now 4) actually used to cry when I would sing. No lie. When she was a baby, every time I started to sing to her, she would cry! Paul, standing right beside me would sing, and nothing. He would stop, I would start up again, and WHAAA! It was actually hilarious. I always meant to get it on video to send in to Americas Funniest Home Videos, but never did. Elliott (2), however, loves for me to sing. It's always the same 2 songs; Jesus Loves Me and The ABC Song. She will request for me to sing. Grace no longer cries, but she's not asking for it either. I know I'm no Ariel, but I always thought I could at least carry a tune! I don't know what it was about my singing voice that never failed to bring her to tears.

Anyway, so far, only 1 guitar lesson. Hopefully there will be more. He taught me 2 other chords along with the G, but I've already forgotten the names of them. Pretty pathetic, huh? I'll get it though. Before long, we'll have the family band going that I know my husband secretly dreams of.

What do I do now?

SPOILER ALERT!!! If you haven't read the Twilight series and are planning to or are in the middle of it (Lisa), don't read this post!!!


It took me 4 days to read the 4th and final book in the Twilight series, Eclipse. It took me about 2 weeks to read all 4 books. I'm a little sad now that I'm done and at a loss for what to read next. I can't go back to a political thriller, not now, not after Twilight and Edward. If you read my first post about Twilight, you know my thoughts on Edward. After I wrote that, I thought of several more qualities that add to his perfectness. There was one flaw though that did occur to me. He's not funny. He never cracks a joke. Sure sometimes he can be a little sarcastic in a humorous kind of way, but he's not someone you would find yourself wanting to be around purely for the laughs. Most girls I know like guys who are funny to some extent. Most guys I know like to be funny. It doesn't really matter though. When you are a beautiful, rich, intelligent, multilingual, boat sailin', fast driving, beautiful, value lovin', immortal vampire who's faster than the speed of light with super human strength and the self control of a rock, you don't need to be funny too. Ahhh...Edward.


Even though I did enjoy it, book 4 was not my favorite. My friend, Susan described the whole book as having an epilogue feel. I tend to agree. The author did a good job of wrapping up all of the characters in a way that was pleasing to the fans, yet still managed to be a little surprising. (To me anyway. Maybe some of you were better at figuring out how the Jacob/Bella/Edward love triangle was going to work out than I was.) My guess was that Bella's mom somehow was part vampire. That would explain how Bella was so good at being a vampire from the start and how she seemed to have special powers (the mind blocking thing) even before her transformation. I was wrong. Not the first time. The author completely left it open for a whole other series though. Maybe my guess will turn out to be right some day. Maybe Stephanie Myer will read my blog and get the idea from me!


To finish my earlier thought; book 4 was not my favorite partly because it seemed that all of the characters went under some pretty drastic transformations, not just Bella, and not all in the physical sense. I had grown to like the characters as they were in the first 3 books. Edward was not so perfect in this one. His human side showed through a lot more. Maybe that made him more attractive to some of you but not to me. His whole appeal for me was based on the fact that he wasn't like anything or anyone I've ever known. Ya, I know, I've never before met a vampire! Can you believe it?! That's not really what I mean. You know, he was perfect. He was a rock of strength and moral character. In book 4, he was ready to kill his own unborn child and when that didn't happen, he spent his time in such physical and mental anguish that his flawless facade disappeared. I know, I know, it was supposed to be all romantic because he was suffering for the love of his life/existence. But I liked him, calm, cool and collected.


Jacob's personality also went through some changes. Yes, like I said before, I was glad the author gave him an avenue of happiness and that he wasn't left burned and bitter, but he just wasn't the same after that. And Bella, of course, experiencing the most drastic change of them all, was different too. I know that couldn't really be avoided being that she pretty much died and came back into existence as a vampire, but I kinda liked the crazy, stubborn, dependant, clumsy Bella from before. Of course, it was totally cool that she can now kick but.


Another thing that made #4 not my fave was the baby thing. The speed at which this baby was supposed to have grown freaked me out a bit. The whole time I kept picturing that computerized dancing baby from the 90's. Remember? I think it was on Ally McBeal a few times? Anyway, like my friend, Nancy, I am wondering how they are going to make this one into a movie. I guess if I'd actually read Lord of the Rings before I saw the movie, I would have wondered how they were going to make that one a movie too, but they did.


I could sit here and disect the book from a Christian worldview, but I can't expend that kind of mental engery right now. All I know, is I am a Christian. I'm 34 years old. I'm married (almost 9 years) and have 3 kids. And I liked Twilight.


I do wish it wasn't over. At least I know I have 2 more movies to look forward to!

My Cleaning Journal

I thought I'd keep a little journal of my experiences this week as I attempt to stick to my cleaning schedule. My intent is to put them together all in one post to prevent you from being inundated with my inane rants about cleaning.


Monday:

Vacuum and sweep house


First of all, I need to amend my schedule. I don't know why I said I would only sweep once a week and then sweep and vacuum on the same day. I certainly can't be expected to sweep and vacuum all in one day. Even without the schedule, I usually sweep every other day if not every day.


I'll admit it was a bit difficult to motivate myself to even just vacuum today. After all of the other straightening and just general cleaning, I felt done. Not that I didn't think the house wasn't in desperate need of a good vacuuming, I just didn't feel like it. However, how much of a failure would I be if I couldn't even stick to the schedule on the first day. So I vacuumed. The whole house. ( I usually only do a couple of rooms at a time, the ones that need it most). Let me just say that I think I would have made a good episode of I Love Lucy or Amelia Bedila, take your pick. That stupid cord. If it's not abruptly coming out of the wall, it's getting stuck around a corner, wound around the vacuum or wound around me, getting in the way of the vacuum, somehow knotting up and just making it more difficult in general to rid my house of random bits of dust, crumbs, paper, food... Why in the world, with all that man is capable of, cannot someone invent a vacuum cleaner, with intense suction, that does not have a cord!!?? I can put raw bacon the the box in my wall and push a button and have beautifully, crispy bacon in less than 5 minutes. I can sit here and write on my computer and push another button and you all can see what I've said in and instant!! Man on the moon!! No cord there! Why not on a vacuum cleaner!? That's all for now.


Tuesday:

Laundry and Dust house


First of all, it was tough to wait until Tuesday to do laundry. I was determined to stick to the schedule though, even if it meant a couple of the kids had to wear something I dug out of the dirty clothes basket. Second, dusting is not going to happen on the same day as laundry. I don't know what I was thinking when I scheduled that. Laundry is an all day, all consuming thing for me. I did it though. I got 4 loads washed, dried and folded. I do have to admit that it did not get put away until the next morning. I have an excuse for that though. Usually, as far as household chores go, I clock out at 8 PM, when we put the kids to bed. After 8 is my time, my husband's time. Time that I can do nothing if I want to and not be interrupted. Time that I can have a grown up conversation, and not be interrupted. Anyway, in order to keep to my schedule, I was not able to clock out at 8. I did have to finish folding. That meant that by the time I was done, the girls were already asleep therefore preventing me from being able to put their clothes away.


I did get it put away, first thing the next morning though.



Wednesday

Mop

Mopping got done. The floors are one of the biggest areas where my cleaning prowess is most lacking. If I was ever fortunate enough to have a house keeper, floors would be on the top of my list for her. It got done though and I do feel better for it. I usually mop when a) I can't stand it anymore because they are just gross b) when I have time. Yesterday I didn't really have the time, but I made the time. So, they are clean now. Yeah.

Thursday

bathrooms

Ok. It's official. I have failed. The bathrooms did not get cleaned according to the schedule. I had a really busy morning. I had a headache in the afternoon and yes, I turned on the T.V. for the kids, and I laid down on the couch. So what are you gonna do?

Friday

ironing

Ya, whatever!

( I did make up for yesterday though and cleaned the bathrooms today. They really needed it).

In Summary...

screw the cleaning schedule! I tried. I really did. It's just not for me. It did teach me a few things though. One, that I'm lazy. Not a lesson I was really hoping to get out of this, but I think it might be a little true (hard to admit). Not that I'm lazy in the sense that I just lay around the house all day. That's not it at all. I'm usually really busy during the days. I'm just lazy in the sense that I don't like having to constantly be moving all day because of some stupid schedule I set for myself. I've always thought of myself as a pretty schedule oriented type person. I'm sure if you asked my in-laws, they'd agree with that whole heartedly. But maybe having a schedule for cleaning, something I don't really enjoy, is taking it just a bit too far for me. It was actually a bit stressful. It made the task of cleaning almost worse.

Another thing that this experience taught me is that if I stayed home a little bit more, I could be more productive around the house. I'm on the go a lot. When I'm not home....the housework doesn't get done. So I've decided that if I can try to choose one day each week to stick close to home, that will be my cleaning day. And on that day, I will only clean the things that need to be cleaned. It might be that I have to do several tasks on one day, but if I plan to be home most of that day, that shouldn't be a problem. Laundry will be done when it needs to be done on a day all by it's self and ironing will be done when I feel like it or when Paul says he doesn't have anymore shirts or pants to wear.

All in all, I do feel good that I am ending the week knowing I have a clean house. The laundry is done, the floors are clean (that is huge for me!), all the bathrooms are clean, the house has been vacuumed and dusted. It's nice. Not sure how long it will last, but I'm going to enjoy it while I can. Of course, the room I'm sitting in right now is a disaster, toys all over the place. We have a play room and this isn't it. They like to be where I am. That's something else I am going to enjoy while it lasts.

To be or not to be...

Spring that is...today is a beautiful day. A no jacket day. The first we've had in I can't remember how long. It's one of those bitter sweet type of days though. Although it is warm and sunny and just fantastically pleasant outside, I know in the back of my head that it won't last. It is still only January after all. This is what is does here in GA. Once we hit the new year, we may start having a warmish day here and there ( I say warm, it actually still in the low 50's, but when we've been having single digit days, 50 feels great!), just enough to get you to dig out the short sleeves and get excited about spring...and then old man winter rolls over and lets out another loud snore. I intended to take some pictures of my kids out enjoying our taste of spring, but alas, this blissful day was even shorter than I had thought. It's raining now. Never fear though. I hear that it's supposed to be a nice weekend. I hope to post some nice outdoor pics later.

On another quick thought...I just wanted to let you know that I did start working on my cleaning schedule this week. So far so good. I have been jotting down my thoughts though on the whole experience. I am saving that all for one, end of the week post.

and so it ends...

Well, that's it. Louis lasted an astounding 7 days. Yesterday at approximately 1:30 PM, Louis passed on. Yes, I know you may be laughing...he only lasted 1 week! In my infinate wisdom on all things fishy, I think something was wrong with Louis when we got him. He never ate. He didn't even swim around all that much. My daughter, Kristin and I were cleaning out his bowl and it seems that the shock of being moved back and forth (and possiblily the fact that I may have had the new water just a tid too cold) was too much for his already feeble fish body to handle. So, in summary, I refuse to believe that Louis died due to any fault of our own, and I'll testify to that in a court of law!

Don't worry though, we have a new one! Introducing, Wilbert.

Wilbert is also a Beta Fish and already, he seems to be starting off in a bit better shape than poor Louis ever was. This fish actually eats and swims around pretty furriously. Kristin had a brief moment of sadness when Louis died and Elliott was appalled when I put him in the potty. She is only 2 though and came to terms with it pretty quickly.

So, one chapter ends and a new one begins. I have high hopes for Wilbert. I have a feeling this one will be around for a while. (If not though, I'll let you know!)

The Cleaning Schedule

I was reading this other mommy blog the other day. She made a post in which she mentioned how excited she was about "sheet washing day," after which she got a lot of comments from readers who couldn't believe she has an assigned sheet washing day. I'm with them. What?? A sheet washing day!! I didn't know you were supposed to wash them!! (just kidding, I do wash sheets, just not with regularity). I also have to say that I was left feeling a little inadequate. I sometimes pride myself on my ability to maintain a somewhat orderly house. That in no way means that my house often is not a disaster area, but for the most part, it is at least straightened. However, it's just a facade. If you were to look closely, you'd see the crud in the corners, the junk thrown in the guest room, the spots of who knows what on the floor and even the occasional cobweb in the high corners. This other mom blogger went on, in a later post, to write about her "cleaning schedule." Again, What?? AND, it wasn't just a vacuum and dust, clean the bathrooms type schedule. It included things like mopping, cleaning the baseboards and washing windows. There must be more minutes in a day in Tennessee (where this blogger lives) because here in GA there's just not enough time in my day to wash any windows. Maybe she has a nanny or something and blogging and house cleaning are her only responsibilities. Am I the only one who feels this way? Are you all going to think less of me now because I have revealed the lack of cleaning that actually happens on a regular basis at my house?



I think I tried to have something like a cleaning schedule once upon a time, way back when our house was literally 1/2 the size of the one we have now and I only had one kid. Even then, I couldn't keep up. Maybe I didn't do it right.



It seems that now, most of my friends have house keepers, or at least someone that comes every 2 weeks. That has never been a luxury I have experienced. It is, however, something I attain to. For now, it's just me. I do clean. I really do. I just don't do what I call "deep" cleaning as often as I should. I sweep on a daily basis, I wipe stuff down all the time. I clean the bathrooms when a ring appears around the toilet and clean the mirrors when there's enough spots on them to make it difficult to get a clear picture of my reflection. I do laundry when it needs to be done and mop when I can't stand it anymore. The baseboards get cleaned when I'm crouching on the floor to look for some tiny doll shoe or accessory and notice that they are disgusting. All that being said, I am in a much better mood when the house is clean. I do get frustrated though feeling like I am fighting a losing battle. When I do "deep" clean or even straighten up (which does happen everyday and is usually what I spend most of my days doing, straightening) an hour later, it looks like I hadn't done a thing. I have 3 tornadoes who literally follow me around as I clean and erase any signs of progress. So what' the point? Does it say somewhere in the Bible that my house must be clean and orderly? I get tired of cleaning all day everyday! I want/need more to my life! I am not a maid by trade.

As I said before, I do seem to be in a better mood when I know my house is clean. So, I am going to give it a try...the cleaning schedule that is. I'm an even number kind of girl, so I plan to start next Monday. (I can't start anything new in the middle of the week). This is the plan:

Daily
Straighten house, make my bed, wipe down counters, empty/fill dishwasher.

Mondays
sweep and vacuum house


Tuesdays
Laundry
dust, get rid of cobwebs

Wednesday
every other week, mop floors, clean baseboards
alternate weeks, change sheets

Thursdays
clean bathrooms

Fridays
iron

I still refuse to commit to cleaning the windows on any kind of schedule. Another problem I have is laundry. Sometimes, laundry needs to be done more like every 5 days instead of once every 7. And then sometimes, (frequently actually) it takes me longer than 1 day to get all the laundry washed, folded and put away. Somewhere in here, I have to find time to play taxi between 2 different schools and gymnastics, get to my 2 day a week exercise class, shower DAILY (I am not one of those moms who goes without a shower every day. This is a necessity for me!), make breakfast, cook dinner, check and respond to emails, run errands and play with my kids. I need to do better on that last one, especially. I feel guilty about that a lot, that I don't play with my kids enough. My time is usually so filled with the things that need to be done that I often don't have much time left over just to play with them. Maybe a cleaning schedule will help free up some time for that!

Well, wish me luck! I'll let you know how it goes!

The Fish

I guess that given the name of my blog, it's only appropriate that we now have a fish. My sister gave one, a beta, to Kristin for her 7th birthday. I had a fish once. It was just one of those little grey fish with the golden heads. I kept it in a glass, round bowl on the top of my book shelf. That's were I kept all the others that followed as well since I was apparently inept at keeping a fish alive. Repeatedly, I would find that fish (or one of it's siblings) floating, upside down, at the top of the bowl, eyes bugged out. Occasionally, I would forget about the fish long enough, that by the time I found it dead, not only would his eyes be bugged out, but he would have started to decompose and get all fuzzy. It was gross. I'm pretty sure I usually depended on my dad to dispose of it. It had no name. Not one that I can remember anyway. Kristin's fish is named Louis. He is a pretty fish, kind of a deep blue with long, flowy fins. Our middle daughter was pretty excited at our addition. "We finally have a pet!"

So the count down begins. Today is day 1 in Louis life as our first family pet. Anyone want lay any bets on how long Louis is with us? I'm betting he's gone before the 1 oz. container of fish food is. Maybe I'll be wrong though. How long do Beta fish live anyway? What's our level of commitment here should we actually do a stand up job of caring for him? I need to look that up. I should also start a countdown to see how long it takes before I walk in the room and find my 2 year old holding Louis while trying to brush his flowy, long fins. She just wants to be helpful and make sure he's pretty!

Anyway, thanks, sis! The girls will enjoy him however long he lasts. It'll be fun!