Too Many Thoughts, Not Enough Time

Somehow time has flown away from me once more, and I open my blog up and discover too much time has gone past, and I have not written, and now there are so many items I would like to write and how to choose?????? I suppose it is a common problem among people who constantly have their minds full of words; everything I witness, experience and think of is routinely being turned into a mini story in my head. So, in keeping with the fact that I have a bazillion little anecdotes/ideas/newsie thingies in my noggin (How is that for some good English? My former professors are all cringing and wringing their hands in shame.) I am just going to lay it all out for you guys.

Clay has been away for the last two weeks on a very long trip for work. This has meant that yours truly is at home alone with Miss Isabelle 24/7 who at present has decided to revisit a time of truly evil behavior. I refer to a period of time when she was under six months old and basically screamed all day. Lately she has been throwing tantrums to the same effect except now she is not 3 months she is 3 years old, so you get the idea. UGH! It has been a very large exercise in patience, and one I am sorry to say I do not always excel at. It all boils down to the simple fact that she is a very strong-willed child who is trying very hard to establish her boundaries and feels the need to frequently and repeatedly test said boundaries. Suffice it to say it has made for some very long days compounded by the fact that she truly misses her Daddy. We are OH SO HAPPY he is coming home tonight.

We have managed to have some laughs while Daddy has been away one of which included me mowing the lawn for the first time in my life. Yes, I am thirty-two and had never mowed a lawn before. I know kind of pathetic, but please understand I grew up with a father who felt daughters just did not mow lawns, plus I had an older brother who did. Anyways, Clay gave me a tiny crash course on the finer points of running his self-propelled walk behind mower, and a week after he was gone Isabelle and I broke the bad boy out for my virgin mow. Now Clay and I were both a little concerned on whether or not I would be strong enough to be able to start it as it had a pull start. When I had started it before it was after it had been running a while, but we both figured if I had to I could run next door to the neighbors and have Mike help me start it and then I could be on my way. After reassuring Isabelle repeatedly that yes, Daddy had told me I could use his lawn mower and her reminding me to make sure there was enough gas I tried to start it. Repeatedly. No luck. Despite all best efforts and tugging with all my might, I just could not get it to go. I was just about to call it quits and swallow my pride and go knock on my neighbor's door to prevail upon the "stronger sex" (gag me) when my 3 year old comes up and says "No, Mommy, you have to hold this bar and then pull the cord." DUH! Turns out I was so focused on trying to start it with enough strength that I completely forgot to pull back the bar to the handle and then yank the damn cord! Can you all say dumb blond moment!! So, I kindly thanked my brilliant daughter for reminding me of the obvious, started the mower and off I went. She proceeded to be wonderful that day, telling me how well I was doing, later showing me how to remove the bag for the grass clippings, and informing me that while my cutting job was "not as good as Daddy's" it "looked fine." What an experience.

I am also gearing up to send my daughter off to preschool for the first time in just a couple short weeks. I am excited and nervous and, of course new to this whole scene. I ordered her a back pack of her very own, and I think I might get her some slippers to just keep at preschool, so she can wear her boots there during the bad weather and then have her slippers to run around in there rather then having to mess around with different shoes everyday. I still need to come up with a good way of labeling her things. Dear sister-in-law of mine what do you do with my lovely niece and nephew's things? I have seen one clothes' labeler out there but I read mixed reviews on it and wondered how well it worked. Yes, a new chapter for us, although it is just some baby steps as it is a class that meets two days a week for two hours at a time in the morning. I am planning to do my errands and shopping while she is in school, which will be SO NICE, and I am hoping some new activities and challenges might help improve some of our current behaviour issues as well.

On a personal note the headache monster has largely been slumbering this month, and I feel great. With the exception of one fairly yuck headache at my brother's earlier in the month I have been pain free. Plus, upon examining that headache further I realize I brought that one on myself through my activities and food intake (or lack thereof). There has been a bit of a learning curve with this medication and discovering what my body can and cannot do while I am on it, especially in regards to exercise. In general it just seems to make me weaker and while I am frustrated by that it seems a small price to pay to not be in constant pain.

There are so many other topics I would like to touch on, but I find I need to do a few productive things with my day (while I find this productive for my mind it does not keep my house clean or pay the bills.... oh, I wish!) so, off I go for now as Miss Isabelle will be up from her nap shortly. The other stories floating around my brain matter will have to wait!