Tween scene.

It's an even year for Anna - which means a birthday party with friends!  She opted for a karaoke party - a four hour affair with ten 10-year-old girls plus our four.  It was wild.

The girls made their own pizzas.  They ate them.  We played games.  They sang.  They played outside.  They ate cupcakes shaped like microphones.  Anna opened presents.  They sang some more.  And then 8:00 (the usual bedtime at our house) rolled around and the energy kicked up a notch (or twenty) and the girls partied hard until it was time to go home.  I've got the video footage to prove it (available for a small fee to any who care to blackmail their daughter at just the right time).

Anna loved it.  I have planned parties for her that were greeted with a lackluster reaction(and not because they were any less stellar - she's just so hard to please!).  This redeemed me.  For life, I hope.  It was the perfect party for girls this age, provided you have available at least one CD with recent top 40 hits - they pretty much stuck to the same 10 songs all night (in spite of having over 30 karaoke CD's at the touch of their fingertips).  In fact, if I never hear Call Me Maybe again, I will be one happy gal.

 

And now for !0 things I love about Anna:

1.  She's smart as all get out.
2.  She gets (and laughs) at our jokes ("our" meaning the adults in the house).
3.  She is active and imaginative.
4.  She is a bookworm.  I love when she mispronounces words, indicating that she learned them by reading and not through conversation.
5.  She orchestrates grandiose and fun plans involving her little sisters.  And a big mess, too.
6.  She still likes to hang out with the fam.
7.  She is willing to let her younger sisters hang out with her and her friends.  Makes my heart swell with tenderness.
8.  She tries everything on her plate.  And... she complements me on dinner to boot.
9.  Anna pushes through her nervousness/shyness and does things that are hard for her.
10.  She is a good friend to others.  She avoids catty-ness and exclusivity. 

Happy Birthday my dear Anna!  Thanks for making me a mother!

Green day.

Yeah, not the most original celebration of St. Patty's day, but it was yummy!  And our poop turned green - so all is well in the world.

You know you're busy when...

you haven't blogged in over a month, for starters.  And, when you wash, dry and fold all your laundry on Monday and on Friday, it's still there.   I had several weeks during March that were like this.  Bring on April!  May you be much more relaxing than the last month.  And may the laundry fold and put itself away.

Ownership.

I confiscated 30 of the girls possessions today.  It was perfectly justified.  You see, a few months ago, we had a family home evening lesson on ownership(and stewardship).  Some of the girls were upset by how others were treating their possessions so we set a few ground rules regarding the borrowing of others' possessions.  We decided that we should ask ourselves the following three questions while putting an item to use: 1.  Is it mine?  If not, then 2.  Have I asked permission?  If granted, then 3.  Am I taking good care of it?

 Well if this particular lesson was any indication of my children's listening and comprehension skills, I'd say we're toast.  I can't count the number of times I've had to reiterate those three simple questions to the girls when they have violated one or all of them.  And then I realized it's not that they don't remember the questions, it's that there are no real consequences for not adhering.

Today, as we worked together to clean up the Gryffindor common room, and Potions classroom, and Great Hall my daughters had reconstructed in our playroom, I couldn't help but notice a few borrowed items belonging to me for which permission had never been granted.  No surprises there, but having had it up to "here" with their disregard for ownership, I began counting them and decided that they could give up one of their possessions in exchange for the unlawful use of each of mine.  30 in all.  I think we may have found a cure.

The 18 dollar pregnancy test I once paid for.

Almost two months ago, I experienced my first miscarriage ever.  Kind of a bummer, but that's not really what I want to blog about.  Although, as with anything one experiences in life, there were lessons learned and increased gratitude for the fact that I had not had one up to this point.  I had a follow-up appointment with my OB a week or so after my miscarriage for good measure and just got the bill in the mail today for services rendered.  Anyone care to venture a guess as to how much they charged me for a urine pregnancy test?  18 dollars.  Pretty sure you can't find even the most souped up, registers an accurate result 10 days before an expected period, barely has to make contact with the urine stream, plays music for a positive result home pregnancy test for that price.  I've seen the little sticks they dip in a cup.  I order the exact same things in bulk at 50 cents a pop.  I'm sure my doctor gets them for less than that.

There are plenty of things wrong with our health care system.  It's worthy of an entire blog post(or ten).  Today, though, since the last time I spent any time at an OB's office was exactly four years ago, it's a bit of a clue to me that the dramatic rise in my OB bill(same services rendered last time cost half as much) might have a little something to do with the current administration.  I'm not saying Obama single-handedly upped my health care costs, only that government (and insurance companies, incidentally) subsidizing health care is ineffective and has historically resulted in increased costs to the average person.  Affordable Health Care Act?  For whom?