Herding Cats

The very first time I heard this I thought to my self, what a cute little catchy phrase. I immediately googled it to make sure that my interpretation of what I had just heard was indeed the correct one.
Herding cats as defined by Wikipedia is -  a saying that refers to a task that is extremely difficult or impossible to do, due to one or more variables being in flux and uncontrollable.

When I heard this saying years ago my kids were little and cute and 2 out of the 3 could barely talk. As time has evolved, my children have slowly started turning into those said cats that were in the saying I heard years before.

No, they don't walk on all 4's or purr and hiss at people.
No, they don't potty in a litter box, then walk in it, then walk all over my counters and furniture.
And no, they don't lie around and paw and lick themselves all day either. With puberty on the horizon though, who knows how long that last one will stay an untrue.

15, 11 and 8 are my offspring's ages as of today. A teen, pre-teen and a wanna be teen are the (task) part of the definition. I also believe that those same three ingredients could stand for the one or more variables being in flux and uncontrollable.

I'm not saying by any means that my kids are unruly and uncontrollable. But I do feel sometimes that the pulse that I thought my finger was just on, jumps around on me when I'm not looking and I need to re-position the fetal monitor to find it again. In plain mans terms, right when something starts to fit really well, the size changes on me. 

In recent days 1 child has acquired a driver's permit and now believes it is his job to take out every single curb in my neighborhood, 1 child that is starting to have girls ask him out and he JUST DOESN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO, and another one that wants me to make her division flash cards and quiz her just for kicks :)

Herding ANY amount of children is a challenge. Trying to keep up with their everyday lives and living to tell about it, is the stuff that legends are made of. In the end if I don't feed them to many trans fats and give them a little less material to tell their psychologist about then my job will have been done, RIGHT?  And after all is done and they still like me after all the herding is finished and Brian and I get invites every week every so often for coffee and Sunday dinner; then that my friends is whats called Lagniappe. And Lagniappe is what any good ole New Orleans girl is all about.

economy pack

Maybe this is why I've had to add Pepcid AC - 100 count box, to my grocery list.

what day is it?

The day after New Years I packed up Christmas tightly and put it away until next year. I proudly set up my Mardi Gras decorations and once again had to remind people what exactly Mardi Gras means.

I always get the typical.....What is boobs and Bourbon Street Alec, for $800?

Sorry stupid, that's not the right answer, try again next year or just google it!

The kids returned to school on a Tuesday and the craziness began to circle all around us again. I fired up the printer downstairs and started to print my syllabus's and schedules for my upcoming semester. Life had returned to normal after a peaceful 2 weeks off for Christmas break.

Sometime on Thursday right when I was embracing the whirlwind that is my life, we heard the first talk about SNOW yet again in Georgia. Yes, after being blessed with a VERY WHITE Christmas, we were apparently going to be blessed yet again. Over the weekend it was a mad dash to the store to stock up on supplies- milk, bread, brownies, cookies, beer,  you know the essentials to make everyday life bearable. I had my menu planned, and we were ready to bring on the snow. Sunday night it came through and wouldn't you know it we had a SNOW DAY on Monday, YIPPEE, for day 1!

Of course the red neck sledding began before the biscuits were even out of the oven, well at least only a little red neck sledding. A friend of ours picked up a toboggan thing for the kids to use. But of course the boogie and skim boards still made an appearance.
I found myself saying OVER AND OVER again, if you crack your head open on the pavement that is under the 6 INCHES of snow, I've got nothing but a band aid, neosporin and a prayer for you, sorry but the roads are CLOSED!
But fun was had by all in spite of my barks :)

 this is AWESOME!

 this is the elementary school by our house, what a FUN DAY!

 yes that's me, in all my gracefulness, I did have my band aid's handy!

 and that would be my child standing up going down a hill on a boogie board. Did I mention I had neosporin?

 my snow babies!

Snow day #2 came and it was very much like the first one. Sledding in unsafe conditions, snow flurries, wind burned cheeks, hot chocolate on tap and lots and lots of food. On the second day I took a ride with one of my neighbors to the store and,all though, the main roads had been plowed and looked like they were in good condition, the secondary roads were a snowy, icy mess. I told my neighbor, these kids are going to be out all week long.

And guess what blogging buddies, Tuesday turned into Wednesday, Wednesday into Thursday and Thursday into WHAT IN THE HELL DAY IS IT and why are all these kids in my house and by lord who left their snow covered boots on my hardwood floors AGAIN?!

The kids are off on Monday for MLK day and then it's back to school on Tuesday! I have thoroughly enjoyed an unexpected week off of the craziness. And I will thoroughly enjoy waving to the big yellow bus as it pulls away on Tuesday. The kids have a superstitious thing they do when hoping for a snow day around here. They wear the pj's backwards and flush an ice cube down the toilet. Well just to make sure Mother Nature or Old Man Winter know that we're done with snow days around here, I'm sleeping naked until summer and I have banned all flushing of toilets in my house before bed. If that doesn't scare the BEJESSUS out of the winter gods I don't know what else will!