If you Can't Say Anything Nice... then Don't Blog!

Oh, I'm not talking about you!!  The title of this blog has been my own motto for a few years now.  I don't have a filter, sometimes, especially when it comes to blogging.  I tend to stick my foot in my mouth... like all the time!  On a good day, I usually get away with it... I think that's why I have the readers that I do, because they think I am a bit crazy... but that's okay!

But when I am ornery, grumpy, and oh so hard to live with, I can get pretty nasty... and venting on my blog doesn't help my case.  So I made a rule a few years back, that if I want to keep my friends, I need to NOT blog on those really bad days.  Then when it's all over and I can laugh about it, THEN I can blog about it and put my positive twist on it.

These last few weeks, have been real downers for me.  And I can count many reasons I have been in a peevish mood.  Should I share?  Okay, you talked me into it!

Nephi... my favorite 5 year old! 

1.  I am pretty sure now, after taking all the on line quizzes  "Is your Child ADD/ADHD?" that Nephi most likely has it.  He is such a little turd.  I think I mentioned last month that he got kicked out of dance class for behavior issues?  Yeah, he did.  Then his attitude in school is really trying his poor teachers.  He has a really hard time focusing and paying attention and his citizenship is really suffering.  I hate to rush in to get him tested because his grades are perfect, I LOATH to put my 5 year on meds, and getting him diagnosed with something like this... just really bothers me.  I don't want a label like this on him.  So I decided after a lot of thought, prayer, research, and advice from my Facebook friends (we always have to ask the cyber gang right?), that I would wait and see what happened.  Meanwhile, I have changed his diet, cut out the artificial dyes (Red 40, etc) to see if it would help.  It has.  His citizenship grades have gone up!  I make sure he takes his multivitamin, eats a healthy breakfast, drinks lots of water, and gets enough sleep.

2.  Homework time with Nephi.  This goes with #1 stress out.  Nephi just can't sit down and do his homework -- he just sits there and stares at it all night.  Oh, he knows how to do it... if I dangle a treat or another motivation in front of his face he does his homework lickity-split!  But I shouldn't have to bribe him EVERY single day!  And I shouldn't have to sit there and hold his hand... which I end up doing most days.  I hate homework time.  I lose hair over homework time.  It sucks.

3.  I can't finish of my Nephi-issues without mentioning the poop.  He gets so distracted, that he poops his pants.  Then he panics and hides the offending underwear in hiddy-holes around the house.  After I chewed him out about it a million times -- I mean HELLO!  Who wants to find little poopy presents around their house?  Not to mention that it smells like poop ALL the time!  -- he started to hide them in the hamper instead.  I just figured this out yesterday when I pulled out a load of "clean" laundry out of the dryer and spotted something suspicious on the bottom of the dryer.  I thought they were little rocks.  But when I gathered them up, I realized they were "petrified raisins"!  At first I thought one of the boys put raisins in their pocket and it went through the wash... then I realized that the only way Nephi gets raisins is in his morning cereal.  Oh. My. Nastiness!  I had to do the sniff test just to confirm my worst fears.  Yep.  They smelled like poop.  All those clean clothes did a quick return to washer.

Boys playing in the snow

4.  Gloomy weather.  I really do like the snow.  But I have this stupid vitamin D deficiency that creeps up on me in the winter.  I am all happy in the sunshine... then BAM cloudy days and depression!  I try to cheer up... I bake bread, I stew up stew... I sit around and have some hot chocolate on my big mug of marshmallows...  Soak in hot baths... Winter is fun.  Right?  Then why do I want to cry?  Stupid cloudy days.

5.  Irritating people all around. Normally, I don't let people get to me.  And when I am feeling "sensitive" I purposely stay away from places I know they lurk.  For example:  I hate going to the school to pick up Sam in the afternoon.  The other parents get pushy and rude and I try to be all considerate and thoughtful and let people in when I can... but when it comes to picking up the kiddo's it is every parent for themselves and Karma is ALWAYS bad.  When we get home, I am fuming.  Like every day!  And the icy roads make the jerks even worse!  Then there are always those 1 or 2 or 100 Facebook friends that really know how to rub you the wrong way.  I hate to unfriend them... because in person, they are really great!  But something evil comes out of them when they get online... what's up with that?  I try to stay away from Facebook on my bad days, I never know what I might say that will cause issues... and I don't like causing issues.  But more than once I REALLY want to comment, "Can you get any stupider!? Seriously?" or "What were you thinking when you posted that!?"  But I am just too nice... even on my peevish days.  (Note: if you are reading this, you most likely aren't one of those friends of mine... so don't worry, I honestly don't think they read this blog)

Ben looking studly in the beard I made.

6.  Housing inspections this week.  Need I say more?

7.  My stupid asthma + below zero weather = a really unhappy mommy who hasn't gotten very much sleep these last few weeks.

8.  And I have to say that my biggest stress has been money.  It's been really tough to finance Ben's LAST semester of school.  It's like everything is stacked against us!  But it will work out, I know it... just a few more months to go!  We have stuck it out for 8 years, we can do it for a little bit longer!

So, if you were at all wondering where I have been the last few weeks, I have been around... stewing mostly.  BUT I have pulled myself out of the slump (mostly) and I know that things are going to be all right.  I have made some great goals for this year and I know I can do it!

I will not be grumpy anymore... unless Nephi poops his pants again... For some reason, I just can't see the silver lining to that one...

Well, here's to a better, and much happier week!

-Cat

PS the winner of the Origami Owl hasn't contacted me yet!  Or if you have, it may have gone to spam, so please try again!  Thanks!!