Dream Coach

I've been having the nigglings of guilt for the last week or so at my lame-ness at consistent blogging.  I am just not that great at consistency in ANY area of my life.  It is always a big part of any goal I make for myself to strive for consistency.  Unfortunately my lack of consistency (ironically) has also leaked over into my goal of consistency.

One of my greatest wishes for myself is that of a life coach.  My life coach would be one tough dude.  Man would I hate him- which is why he would need to be a paid employee because that way the choice of following his orders would still be mine.  He would be barking at me from 6:30 in the morning to get UP to write and read and do anything else that requires quiet time.   Then he would run beside me, rain or shine or snow, and he'd be making me run so much harder than I do by myself.  He would keep tighter tabs of my bank account, and really make me sit down and logically figure out where my dollars should be going.  He would sit down with me and make me figure out menus for my family and then find the best ingredients for the best prices.  He would make me work on my assertiveness by making me stand up to HIM, because after standing up to scary HIM everyone else would look like kittens.  He would make me sit down and make a business plan for myself and then make me actually follow through with every intimidating idea.  He would be tapping his toe impatiently, making me hurry up to be on time for any appointments I make and not letting me back out of anything, even if I am feeling wimpy because we are living through the-winter-that-never-ends.  He wouldn't care if I was struggling; he'd be HEARTLESS and just make me do what needs to get done.

Okay, whatever... not gonna be getting a life coach any time soon.  Spring will soon be here, and I will once again just feel like  doing most of the stuff I wish someone would make me do.  I still won't be perfectly consistent, but it'll be enough to keep the momentum needed to make me happy... well in some of the above mentioned areas anyway.  I am thinking I really do need help in some of the areas... maybe a class in self-assertiveness?  *sigh*  Something to think about anyways. 

Of Icy Roads and Dragons

It is cold and icy out there this morning! Cars were sliding off of their driveways, and the rest of us still on the road were scooting along cautiously. I sort of enjoy icy roads- any late arriving on my part can by due to "good winter driving" instead of "no concept of time" (in my own defense, I DID leave in plenty of time this morning- it actually WAS good winter driving! Yay me!!).
It was fun watching the kids teeter out of down our entrance way to the sidewalk on their way to the bus. Kloe had it down pretty good, not too much sliding and big careful steps. Derrin fell on his behind immediately and scooted/rolled 'til he got to the road. Maybe some sand or salt would be a good idea...

I hope the roads are better tomorrow!!! We have some driving to do and places to go!
"Snow accumulations could reach 10 inches by late Friday, with up to 15 inches over the mountain passes and higher terrain.  A winter storm warning means significant amounts of snow, blowing snow or ice accumulations are expected. Strong winds are also possible.  Travel will be hazardous or impossible, the Weather Service says, so prepare accordingly."- So says the Missoulian... but they've been wrong before.


I am tired this morning. Kloe had a long night, and therefore so did I. She came into my room after a bad dream and laid down with me for awhile. I had her go back to her room eventually, but after about ten minutes I heard her crying so I went in there and laid down with her for awhile. She was glassy eyed and sounded stuffed up and her teeth were hurting and she kept talking about a nightmare of a dragon (it's always dragons and dinosaurs in her nightmares). It was literally an hour of this- usually I can talk her through bad dreams; they can't hurt you, have you tried praying... you know, regular nightmare talk therapy. Normally she snuggles up and is fine, but last night she was frozen in some unhappy place. I finally gave her some tylenol to help with her teeth, and then some of the ignatia that I bought for myself the other day.  It was the most awesome thing!  She was asleep within minutes of giving her the ignatia.  I sat there stroking her forehead and could see the tension in her face just go away.  Good stuff!  She woke up in a pretty good mood this morning considering the rough night that she'd had.  I do feel bad about her teeth hurting.  I think she must have a lot of her permanent teeth pushing up.  It hurts to be a growing kid!  I remember my teeth hurting, my legs hurting, and now both of the kids are going through it.  Poor bebes.

SO, back to tomorrow... I get off of work early today, have to go to the bank get a living will notarized.  After all of the craziness this year, it seems like a good time to get things arranged( like real grown ups) i.e. doing wills, getting better health and life insurance...  Boy, will we feel safe to have all of our affairs in order:/

And then back to home to finish Derricks anniversary present (hehe), clean the house and start to pack:)

Summer Vacation has Officially Begun

I am working SO hard to be a punctual person. I don't know WHY being on time has always been an issue for me, but I can go back to childhood and remember being late to everything. I have no concept of time. BUT, just because it has always been a problem, it doesn't mean it will ALWAYS have to be a problem, right? Right.

I left a full half-hour early this morning to get to work on time. I still had to drive the kids to Gramma's first, but I should have had no problem rolling in a couple minutes early. Instead I managed to get there by the skin of my teeth. WHY?

Sometimes it feels like I'm in my own personal Truman Show life. As soon as I dropped off the kids, it felt like the creators of my personal show were trying to keep me in my old role. All of a sudden there was road construction where there had never been road construction before, huge trucks that couldn't go over 15 miles and hour, all red lights, and I kid you not, a TRAFFIC JAM in the middle of a residential area that normally has nothing there but old ladies walking their dogs and people riding their bikes. It was the weirdest thing! And I was in the middle of it, unable to go forward or backward, trying to breath deeply and think calm thoughts. Despite all obstacles, I made it exactly on time:)

Besides my drama of untimeliness, we have been working in the yard a lot lately. We are almost done with all of the projects we deemed necessary to make it pretty again. We stained the fence and the lattice around the back porch, I planted more vines to creep up the lattice, we put in a new flower garden where the hot tub used to be, we planted a crab apple tree, I bought a planter for the pond and a new little fishy spout for it as well, and I bought a giant planter and a pump and some water plants to add a water element to the back porch. My little vege garden is also all planted, although I wouldn't say it is thriving. Both Derrick and Derrin were giving me a hard time about my black thumb yesterday. It doesn't seem like it should be so hard to make things grow, but my plants generally look beragled and suffering, like they wish they could be growing anywhere else but in my yard. My gardening self-esteem is low, but my hopes are still high that this might be the year I figure it out. Perhaps this year my thumb is actually dark green instead of black. Anyways, I have to say that I am finding my yard a very pleasant place to wander about in, postage stamp size though it may be.

Different topic- back to the eternal subject of running. The kids are out of school now, so my long runs down the magic dirt road are probably not going to be as frequent as before. Back to the tread mill for me. I did my first 5 miles of the summer vacation treadmill style this morning. Started watching "Lost" again- hopefully it will get me through at least a month or so of inside running. Since it is my second time though the series, I know which parts to fast forward through (Derrin is freaked out by the show, but somehow can't stop watching it), and what parts to tell him exactly whats going on to take the mystery out of it, and thereby make it unscary. I need a new series REALLY bad- something that would be okay for kids to watch too.

And... well, that's about it for the moment!