Just a quick funny!

My Darling Daughter Audrey has been having issues dressing recently. It LOOKS pretty outside when you look out the window, but there is still quiet a CHILL in the air here. So Audrey dresses for the pretty, then gets cold. This was Sunday's solution to the fact that she was dresses for the wrong weather....

Notice the WINTER hat, gloves and scarf?
With the SUMMER dress and tights?? And no socks??
This child....
I must have told her at least 100 times to put a JACKET and BOOTS on....
but no...

some days!

Wow! It's been a while since I posted.... sorry about that! Life has been crazy and there have been bumps in the road that I am still praying about before I post anything.

BUT... I just had this mind boggling experience that I felt inclined to share.

It's Sunday morning which means that the kids and I head to the market to get groceries for the week's meals. Groceries is an area where I know I can save BIG bucks by shopping creatively. We get Harvest Bag each week, which puts lots of veggies and bread in our home for free. We also get surplus milk from another supplier regularly so I seldom have to purchase milk. One of my other tricks is Sunday shopping at the local market. Now I really don't like this market's community and global policies so I seldom purchase things there regularly, but I do shop their final markdowns almost every week. They have a policy of going through and putting a red sticker on things that are nearing their shelf life and marking them down to cost. I find that I can get things that are usually outside of my budget but that we as a family enjoy and stay in our budget by shopping the red tags. I make it a game that Audrey and I play.... find the red tag, see if it's something we like or love, and then see if we can incorporate it into our weeks menu. We take a note pad and make the weeks menu as we shop. Then on Monday when I head into town I pick up the remaining filler things that we need at a market that I like their community contributions :) This way I support the stores that I like with the things that make them money, and I get other things that are heading for the dumpster at little to no cost to our family.

So.... we were at the local store today shopping red tags. We made our selections, had paid and were on our way out the door when my daughter (who is only 6 if you remember) spots the floral section. She asks me if we can buy flowers for her sister's grave, something that Audrey really likes doing. I barely had any money left for the rest of the groceries that I need to pick up tomorrow, so I told her "not today". The she spots the store employee in the floral section with a HUGE trash can of flowers next to her. The woman is standing there pulling flowers off of the shelf and throwing them in the trash can. Audrey asks, "Can we have some of the flowers that you are throwing away? I would like to take them to my sister at the cometary." Audrey was so polite and even explained what she wanted them for! Such a big girl. The store employee takes a bundle of the flowers out of the trash and hands them to Audrey and tells her "Sure, take these right over to the checker and tell her they are $5.00" Audrey was so confused! She says "but they are trash, you just took them out of the trash can. Why can't I have them?"

Ok, I gently removed Audrey from the situation and left the store... BUT I am still FUMING MAD! Are you freaking kidding me? She thought it was ok to hand my daughter something out of the trash can and then tell her to go pay for it? My 6 year old daughter? And EXCUSE me, but do the trash people PAY you to take your trash away? NO! You pay them to remove it..... what would it have hurt to hand a few sad flowers from the trash can to a sweet little girl and bless her day? I mean come on!

So what do you think? Am I out of line for not wanting to pay for what they were placing in the trash can? And is it ok for big companies like this to just throw everything away? Companies like this that throw EVERYTHING in the trash are one of the main reasons that there is so much waste in our society and that grocery prices are so high. It is unbelievable the sheer volume of food that is thrown away everyday in this county...

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!!

It's a special day around our house and we do it all up! So I thought I would share some quick photos with you for you enjoyment :)

This Leprechaun Audrey... the mischievous one...

These are the Butterfly Family.. minus me of course! Done up Leprechauns style...

Faline, Brianna, Nathaniel, Josie & Audrey

And these were the jewels that we made for Saint Patrick's day!

I am a home body. On my one day off per week I would rather stay home curled up snuggling with a good book. But I have been trying really hard lately to get out and DO something with the kids on my day off. A few weeks ago we did the beach, if you remember this post. Today we headed to Laguna Lake Park where we could have a picnic, play on the swings and even feed the ducks!

The kids got to play on the play structures, and I think I am beginning to relax a little, even though it is so hard after Bryce's death...

The kids even invited their Gramie Betsy to join us for the afternoon.

Feeding the ducks was a little challenging..... they REALLY did NOT like all those birds coming up to them. But I think that their biggest mistake was to take off running away... still carrying the bags of bread!

It's been a difficult week around here. One of the things that has been bothering me is that my son Nathaniel has taken a lot of low hits about his being different, or his disability. It's always heart breaking to a mommy to hear her little one being slammed. But especially when he is being slammed for something that he battles each and every day, something that he had absolutely no control over being born with. People can just be so thoughtless and hurtful at times. And even people who are supposed to be trained to work with those in the disabled community can say thoughtless and hurtful things.

So I was pretty hesitant when we went to the local park today and Nathaniel wanted to join a group of kids playing a pick up baseball game. Strike one, I knew NONE of the people involved. Strike two, Nathaniel's disability is physical and puts him in danger in these types of physical games. He could be hurt so badly by the slightest bump. Strike three, it had been a really bad week with slams about his disability. But, after a quick little prayer and conversation with the Lord, I said "Go ahead and ask if you can play too."

Gulp, Gulp.... Please Lord don't let them be mean to him. Please Lord, don't let them tease him. Please Lord, let him have fun...

They had a mitt that Nathaniel was able to borrow so he could play.

And he got a turn at EVERYTHING! Not just stuck out in the middle of the field and forgotten about! These were the nicest people! It's so wonderful to see that there are kind people out there willing to let a special little boy join in their fun and games.

And I think that he surprised them with what an AWESOME hitter he is!! This boy has GREAT hand eye coordination and LOVES anything ball :)

And they were SO SWEET to him!! And Nathaniel had a BLAST!! His sister, who isn't very athletic, even joined in the fun. We had so much fun. Thanks special strangers that we played baseball with today!

And this was just a fun picture of Audrey that I got. She fun in these carves out bushes. And did you notice her special fashion sense? I think I am going to have to do a week of Audrey fashions just so you can see her funky ways!

Till next time, Blessings!

The Two Headed Monster!

Many days I could swear that my daughter has split personalities! She is sweet, loving and adorable most of the time. Then there are the times that she is being a two headed monster! Well, guess what? It's not a figment of my imagination... I caught with her defenses down...

I have proof now!

She can be a two headed monster at times....

Just when you think you have seen it all... silly girl :)

There are some nights when having an Oppositional Defiant Child that is Obsessive Compulsive is just NOT what it is cracked up to be. For some reason, who on a normal day exhausts me, is spinning OUT OF CONTROL today!! So I am sitting here doing deep breathing while listening to him go CRAZY in the other room!

School is on minimum days this week due to parent teacher conferences (and why they think that is ok is beyond me!) so his routine is off..... and routine is EVERYTHING in our house. Not that we are militant about it, but if I want Nathaniel functional we have to stick to a pretty standard routine. So minimum days is problem number one.

Also, today at school Nathaniel got to go on a field trip. A really cool field trip, to the local Performing Arts Center to see a production of Junie B Jones. This should have thrilled him, he loves bus rides, loves plays and enjoys hanging with his friends. But it is also a break from the norm, so it throws him for a loop. He did great on the trip according to his teacher, but was spinning when he got home. Poor me!

Now the rest of it, I just don't know what is going on in his little mind. He came home from school and promptly dumped 2 HUGE totes of merchandise out at the store, then emptied the desk that he and the girls share. All three drawers of the desk all over the floor. Then he hid under the table for an hour while we asked him to clean up. He finally overcame that one and started working with his behavior therapist. That went ok for a bit... .until he decided that he was done. I seriously think he had the therapist at the point of tears like 4 or 5 times today! So then we FINALLY got to close the shop and come home. Should be good right? NO WAY! For the last 2 hours he has been obsessed with throwing balls, which is NOT allowed INSIDE our house. It's too dark and cold to send him outside to play, and he's too obsessed to distract. I wonder how many more balls I can stuff under my mattress before they start popping out? For that matter, how many more balls can he possibly come up with?? His younger sister asked a few minutes ago

"Dude, Nathaniel, WHAT is your deal tonight?"
then informed him a few minutes latter
"You are exhausting me, I think I need to go to bed".

Ahhh.. the joys of motherhood. I guess I should go reengage with him..