Ever had one of those days?

Woke up late...
Children screaming with joy and excitement (playing cuz mom wasn't up making them do school)...
Forgot to buy milk...
Oldest MIA cuz she is getting ready for a sleepover...
Can't find said childs asthma meds to go to sleepover...
Call the doctors office and talk to a machine....
Waiting for call back from said doctors office...
House upside down....
Much yelling (by me)...
Feral cat still in the garage...
Toilet, full icky toilet, overflows...
Poo water under bathroom vanity...
Inch and half of water barricaded with some towels around toilet...
Children playing and not bringing more towels like I asked...
More yelling (by me)...
Cat puke found in the garage...
Finally find the number for the home repair policy and spend 10 min talking to a machine...
Sweet heart calls and someone is coming to visit at 7:30 pm
In less than 10 min. rescue rooter calls and will be here in 2 hrs!!!
Much yelling and screaming getting the house picked up...
Oldest pressing her hair and house smells of burnt hair...
Put Cinnamon water on to help with all the yucky smells....
Cleaning poo water and washing the floor with bleach...
Lunch...
Peace, house clean, children fed...
Really nice repair guy comes and fixes all bathroom issues...
Poo water still under vanity though...
Go to humane society for cat trap....
Grumpy lady at humane society says they don't have cat traps and sends me to the animal control...
Park at wrong entrance and go adventuring through building...
Took a number....
Get trap...
Go shopping and get cat food and dinner fixings...
Oh dear God, I left the water on the stove on!!!
Hit every red light, don't see smoke in our neighborhood...
Water all gone, pot all burnt, no fire...
Relief...
Visit passive aggressive lady to help with her garbage can...
Fix dinner...
Do umteenth load of laundry...
Visit with company...
Don't drink so look for chocolate....
No chocolate in the house....
Go to bed early...
Thank you God for this day, and although I am exhausted, I am not overwhelmed, and although I did yell at my kidos, it wasn't bad. My house no longer smells of poo and burnt hair, I didn't burn it down, the cat is in the trap awaiting a trip to the humane society (hope it finds a home), and my children all gave me big hugs and kisses and sweet I love you's before bed. My sweetheart sung my praises and gave snuggles and all is well.
What a way to end the year!

Julie and Julia

I find it sort of ironic that the week I start blogging is the week that I watch this movie. I watched by myself while the rest of the team was at Hebrew Class since is was definitely a chick flick.. Interesting study of people. That seems to be my "thing" lately. People and relationships and how they perceive themselves intrigues me. I am pretty easy to understand, mainly because I think I'm missing that filter on my mind that says you really don't need to share that with people. Also because it is way to much work to be complicated and my squirrelly brain just can't do that.

So here is this lady who is in search of "herself" and discovers "herself" while cooking. I find it odd that never once is God mentioned. He is the only one who can reveal who you are to yourself. The character in the movie seemed pretty shallow. I did like that the men in this story were strong and smart while being supportive of the women they loved. Hate it when movies make strong men stupid or smart men androgynous, but that is a whole other blog. The acting was superb, the story was just so so for me. Meryl Streep did an awesome job on Julia!

There is also the whole idea of blogging communities that makes me think too. Even though there are more people than ever on this earth and studies show we spend less time at home, we don't seem to be connecting with each other. We don't get to know our neighbors and we live away from family members. We are no longer loyal to the same stores every week, always looking for the bargain that will help save a few more cents. For most, church (for those who even bother to go) is an hour once a week. When do we get to know people? Blogging lets me feel like I am meeting new people and getting to know them a little better. Facebook is the same for me, letting me keep up and feel connected to people that I may never talk to or only see occasionally. I need to remember to not obsess though and keep those that are really near most important. Lucky for me I do have a lot of those kind of people.

Blog Hopping

Okay, so I've been blog-hopping this morning, just hitting next blog on the top of the page. How does this work? This is fascinating to me. Today's trip was into the Rap world. I don't like rap in general, so why rap? I have to say it was kinda funny to see all these people who are going to be great rap stars. Does this happen in all music genres? Interesting. The funniest was from a 22 yr old kid who was still unemployed, trying to get some gigs and using a few words we used to get our mouths washed out for and then blessing God at the end. Seems to be some disconnect there.
I have been through a few blog hops in the last couple of weeks. Seen a lot of peoples kids, a few peoples crafting and apparently lots of bloggers really, really like to take pictures of the food they eat. One time I ended up on underwear sites. That was funny and often creepy, didn't hit the next button too many times on that one. I've been on hops that were all one religion based, the Hindus, Mormons and Muslims were interesting. One time I ended up in India on a bunch of sites belonging to engineers, way to deep for this shallow mind!
Now I have to look at why I am doing this. When it started it was mainly because I was bored. I was waiting for the kids to finish school and was reading a friends blog and saw the next blog button. Was it blogs she liked? Was it in the order of who signed up next? The squirrel in me had to investigate. Fascinating study in human beingness. Now I hit it and wonder "what will I get today?" and start pushing. Is this vouyerism? Is it a kind of gossiping? Would I want my children to do this? Must do some deep internal pondering I think.

Jello

I love Jello, very much! I know that sounds strange from a woman of many years, but I really do. Maybe because I never was forced to eat it when I was sick. Maybe because for a long time I couldn't eat it. It's not kosher, the brand that is. It is made from pork gelatin, not horses hooves, but either way, not kosher. It was a sad, sad, sad day when my family discovered that most gelatin is made from pig. No marshmallows, no frosted mini wheats, no poptarts, and gasp, no gummy worms. Yes a sad day indeed. It was the same day we learned about kosher seals on products and that a plain K doesn't mean much.

Then we discovered beef gelatin. We were given a small amount by a dear friend and we made marshmallows. We tried a few different recipes, mostly from Martha, and killed one mixer, but we had yummy gooey marshmallows. But alas not enough gelatin to try homemade jello. Then the quest to find more began. It is not as easy as it would seem to find it in small affordable quantities. But we did and ordered it from a friend who was ordering from a site that had it. Then disaster struck! That friend's family got sick....for a month! Now I feel really bad that this dear woman who has small children and is super expecting had to go through the agony of sick kids. Being a mom of many too, I totally feel for her, but man, no jello.

Then a miracle happened! We were helping another dear friend pack and move and she had a large container of ...beef gelatin....!!!!! that she was just going to throw away! We rescued it and commenced doing the happy dance right there! I know she thinks we are nuts, but sometimes, it is the small things in life. It was a week or so before Thanksgiving and I was so excited. I searched the internet again and found a recipe for homemade jello and then started making all my favorite holiday jello salads. My kids were excited too. Some had never had jello before having only been in a kosher home. They eyed the jiggly mass of yummy goodness with joyful expectation. It is was a blessing to see their eyes go wide with happiness after that first mouthful of smooth sweetness. I was happy to see that now I could pass on the family traditional jello salads at Thanksgiving.

So why do I like jello so much? It tastes good. It is sweet and cool and fruity. I like that you chew it but all you really do is make it smaller jello. My favorite memory of jello is from being a child with a missing tooth and swooshing the jello in and out of that empty place. I remember jello jigglers that my own mother would never make but the neighbor did and always shared. I remember making those tilty jello layered cups with cool whip. I still think it is fun to watch the canned fruit suspended in jello like an astronaut floating in space. Jello makes me happy when I eat it, that is why I love jello.

What are you doing for Christmas

Well... I'm gonna pay some bills, put away the decorations, vacuum.

I don't mind when people who don't know me ask, I just tell them we celebrate Hanukkah and the conversation usually just stops there. I don't mind when people wish me a Merry Christmas, I know that what they are wishing is for an extra special joyous time, not an attack on my religious beliefs. I don't judge others for celebrating Christmas.

It's the people who know and still ask. Do you think we have a non-Christmas tradition? Wouldn't any tradition on Christmas then be a celebration of Christmas? For us, it is just another day. We get up, do our chores, this year with it being on a Friday, we are getting ready for the Sabbath.

You don't need to give me any of those sad "poor you" looks. My kids don't miss out on anything, we already had 8 nights of celebration. We are just coming down from our holiday excitement. The first couple of years we chose not to do the whole Christmas thing was a little weird, but now that our new traditions are pretty set, I don't even get a little tingle of "I miss Christmas". In fact, looking from the outside in, I don't miss the madness and guilt of doing Christmas. As a kid it was fun, but as an adult and parent, the time and expense and were pretty stressful. Don't miss that at all.

So we made all the obligatory phone calls, will go to the inlaws later and then start our Erev Shabbot celebrations that we do each week. That is what we are doing.

Always a little behind

I've never been a trend setter. I don't jump in with two feet or sit in the front of the room. I don't enthusiastically join when everyone else does. Instead, I watch. I check things out and make sure they don't hurt me or the ones I love. I make sure I can do it safely and without looking like a fool. I sometimes even practice when no one is looking to make sure I can do it.

So blogging....I watched and cruised and watched and cruised. I know a few bloggers with deep and ponderous thoughts. I know some bloggers who are witty and wordsmiths. I even know some blogger who actually have something worth reading. Do I? Not sure yet, but as the mother of many who is a homeschooler, entrepreneur and "messianic believer" who goes to the chiropractor before the doctor, and believes that less government is better than more, I think I come at some ideas from a different angle.

So blogging....Do I really want to put myself out there like that? Well there is spell check, and I am pretty anonymous out here in the blog-o-sphere, so maybe.