Rocks In My Dryer

For Real?

In the OHMYGOSH category, there's this article.  Weird.

Help Solve a Mystery, Please?

This morning, while I ate my breakfast, the younger boys went outside to warm up for the first day of soccer camp.  After a few minutes, they came inside, and Stephen waltzed through the kitchen and mentioned non-chalantly over his shoulder, "There's a rat in the trash can outside."

Insert screeching sound here.

"WHAT?  A...wha...a RAT?"  I gingerly opened the back door (the trash can was just outside it) and saw that yes, indeed there was a rodent in my otherwise empty trashcan, trying desperately and unsuccessfully to climb its way out.  Though, to Stephen's disappointment, it was a mouse, not a rat.  (Not as good a story to brag about at soccer camp, poor kid.)  Within seconds, my dog Ginger was out the door, cleverly knocking over the trash can and chasing that mouse right out of our yard.  Good dog. 

The whole thing happened so fast that it didn't register with me, until after the fact, what a mystery it is as to HOW this mouse got in the trashcan to begin with.  I realize there is war in Lebanon and soaring gas prices and all sorts of important issues in the world at this moment, but folks, I really MUST know how this mouse got in the trashcan.  Look at this picture, and you'll understand my head-scratching (a bad choice of words, perhaps, when discussing rodents):

Did the mouse somehow get up on the chair and leap into the trash can?  How would it even get on the chair in the first place?  Certainly it didn't scale the side of the trashcan, did it?  Because if mice are now scaling vertical surfaces, then my world is officially rocked.  But no, this can't be the case, because the mouse was unable to get OUT of the trash can, so clearly scaling vertical surfaces is not option.  There is nothing on the other side of the trash can. 

How, I ask you, HOW?  I need to know this.  I have never seen a mouse in our zip code, much less our yard--if this is going to become a regular occurence, I must begin to understand their behavior, especially if the mice in question are, as it appears, bionic.

WFMW Lore

I have lost so many brain cells from wallpaper glue that I'm scraping the bottom of the blogging barrel.  Not a creative thought in my head.  So, I'll answer a question posted by Jennifer at Snapshot recently.  She asked me if I would post the story behind Works-For-Me Wednesday.  She said,

You should post the history of WFMW. I've only been around a few months, but it would be interesting to know the "lore." Now that you have 100 + posters, you might as well have an official legend.

Alrighty...lore.  Must come up with lore.  Something brilliant, creative, profound.  Something about my deep love for seeing mothers share information and joining hearts and minds across the blogosphere, yadda yadda yadda.

OR, I could tell you the real story.

When I was packing for our Disney trip in March, I had a brainstorm on a clever way to pack the kids' clothes.  Hmmmm, I thought, I should blog about this.  Because I was in a bit of a blogging dry spell, I thought I'd turn it into a weekly "column", in which I shared a shortcut each week.  Friends, I am ALL about the shortcuts.  I have tons of them.  And yes, I realize this doesn't speak volumes about my character.

So, I wrote my little blurb about the packing tip, explained I'd be sharing a tip like that weekly, and even named the feature Works-For-Me Wednesday.  In the instant before I hit the "publish" button I had a brainstorm:  I wonder if anyone else would be interested in sharing tips like this?  Hmmm...maybe I could offer to link to them.  So as a complete afterthought, I included this paragraph:

Now, here's where I hope you'll consider playing along.  I would LOVE to see some of my fellow Moms Of The Blog World join in and do your own "Works-For-Me Wednesday".  If you let me know you're participating, I'll link to you.  Think how much we could all learn from each other if we share our own little ideas!.  IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE EARTH-SHATTERING.  Just simple, affordable and designed to make the tiniest difference in your day.

For the first several weeks I went in and cut and paste each link by hand.  My Wednesdays quickly became the Day of Being Stuck At the Computer, until Carol at She Lives e-mailed me to insist I try Mr. Linky.  She even walked me through it via phone.  Twice.  That was a real turning point.

And thus Works-For-Me Wednesday was born.  Told you it wasn't all that exciting.

Other bloggers frequently ask me whether I'd recommend starting their own weekly column.  I always tell them to go for it, with the warning that as many seem to "flop" as succeed.  I have no idea what makes one fly.  Some other good ones are GiBee's Tuesday Toss-Up, Jules' Everyday Things (Friday),  Faith's Treasure Tuesday, and the ever-present Thursday Thirteen.  And honestly?  I would discourage any blogger from basing her content entirely on those weekly memes.  Branch out!  Pick one or two each week and then do different ones the next week. 

That's my lore and I'm stickin' to it.

Carnival of Kid Comedy...

...is up over at Life In a Shoe.  My Joseph has made yet another appearance in it!

Truth In Advertising

BooMama's Tour of Homes yesterday was a ball, wasn't it?  If you haven't yet, go to her site and look through all the participants' sites.  I've visited all of them, though for-the-love-of-HGTV I didn't leave a comment at all of them...not enough time in the day!

But something has been bugging me.  The picture I posted of my clean kitchen, while nice and neat, is SO terribly inaccurate.  People who manage always to have clean kitchens sort of...well...annoy me, and I'm feeling a need to show you how we really live.  So, welcome to my kitchen on a normal Friday afternoon:

Notice the baseball bat on the kitchen counter because, well, where else would one keep a baseball bat?  Certainly not in the storage shed where it belongs. 

What you cannot see in this picture is the lovely little boy smell that follows my two munchkins around on a hot July day--an aromatic blend of dirt, sweat and dog.  Mmmmm.

So let's enjoy peeking in each others' clean homes but not grow discouraged--life is messy.  Especially when you spend too much time blogging and not enough time, say, cleaning.  *Grin*

Come On In!

Boomama is hosting a house tour today!  To play along, head over to her blog and leave your link.  I'm looking forward to spending the day peeking in your windows.  Okay, that didn't come out quite right--you know what I mean. 

Here are some shots of the Dryer house.  First, our front door...

Just inside the front door, this is our entry way.  We're actually having the walls painted beige and the trim painted white in the next few weeks, so it won't look like this much longer (that's my dog Ginger, at her front-door post, guarding us all from her evil nemesis, the Mail Carrier):

Next, our back patio, looking toward our back door...

This is my computer desk (in my kitchen/dining room) where I do all my bloggin'...

My kitchen/dining room (that's the "Mom-I'm-Bored" list taped to the cabinets...remember that?):

My favorite room in the whole house--my kids' bathroom.  I had to include two shots to get the whole thing in.  Those star-shaped hooks are towel hooks with each child's name painted on it; of course, I blurred out their names:

This whole Bloggy Tour Of Homes business is a bit outside of my private Hubs' comfort zone, so I'm not posting a full picture of my bedroom.  Instead, here's just my little corner of it.  And I realize this picture makes it look like we have a satin comforter, which would be a bit, um, EWW, so let me assure you that it is tasteful and conservative taffeta-ish material.

Our upstairs hallway.  All our bedrooms are off this hallway.  I'm posting a picture of it for posterity's sake, because it is usually littered with soccer balls, Transformers and Legos:

The kitchen table:

My oh-so-neat-and-organized sewing table:

In the interest of full disclosure, and to dispell any remaining myths that I might have my act togetter torgethe together, here is a picture of the floor of my closet in all its organized glory:

I'm not posting a picture of our living area, because it's undergoing a major (well, major for ME) redecorating, and I want to show you before-and-after pictures when it's all done.  I had hoped to have pictures for you of my finished master bathroom, but that would require that it be, um, finished.  It's not.  Soon, very soon...

Head on over to BooMama's and play along!

Heartache

Andrea Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity yesterday.  The blog world and airwaves are abuzz with commentary.  My head is spinning and my heart is aching.  I think of the horror those children endured and my arms, quite literally, hurt.  I think of the dark, dangerous prison that is her mind and I feel anger and disgust for an enemy that injects such evil into the minds of humanity.  I feel sorrow, frustration, rage and compassion.  I don't know what to do with it all.

Yes, I do.  I will tuck in my children tonight.  I will read to them.  I will hold them.  I will kiss their sweaty little heads and laugh at their jokes.  I will put band-aids on their scrapes and I will take their losses seriously .  I will protect them with every fiber of my being. I will tell them they are safe.  I will love them the way every child should be loved.

What else is there to do?

WFMW Update

I just upgraded my Mr. Linky account, so now all the links from previous weeks should be easily accessible.  Let me know if you have any trouble seeing the old links.

*UPDATED* Feeding the Beast Within

I wrote earlier in the week about my fixation on hair bows for my daughter.  I mentioned that my new mirlish friend SuperMom has an equally serious bow obsession.  But (be still my heart) she knows how to make them.  She is seriously talented--her daughters' bow collection had me absolutely drooling.  I'm trying to convince her she should be selling these gorgeous creations at her blog!

Anyway, much to the dismay of my Hubs (who is just thrilled that I'm taking on yet another hobby, I'm sure), I spent this morning at SuperMom's house so she could teach me this sacred skill.  While our children played, swam, and "beat the crud out of" each other (my son's words, I'm so proud) at video games, we turned her kitchen table into something that looked like an explosion at Hancocks:

After fully exploiting her know-how and her ribbon supply, I was able to produce the following things (actually, SuperMom made the first one, but I did the others):

No, I didn't curl all that ribbon; SuperMom already had it done.  But she told me how to do it, and I would tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.

Will I be able to reproduce this skill without my new friend standing over my shoulder, armed with a hot glue gun and an extra set of hands?  We shall see...

*UPDATED TO ADD*  Great big hat tip to Erica at Haphazard Happenstances for sending me this link on how to make an altogether different type of bow--these are so cute.  If anyone else wants to send me any bow/ribbon resources, I'll post them here.  The madness, I cannot stop it...

Big Bow Baby (link courtesy of Christy)

JuJuBean (link courtesy of Michelle)

Sweet Cheeks Bows (link courtesy of Peach)

Best Friend Bows (link courtesy of Wendy)

Good Grief, Girlfriends...

...what time do y'all get up?  I auto-program Typepad to publish my WFMW at 12:01 a.m.  When I checked the computer this morning at 6:15 am (Central Time), there were already over 30 links!  So what gives?  Are you night owls or (*shudder*) early birds?  Because really, WFMW is nice and all, but it's not worth losing any sleep for!