Perhaps he should be my editor.

My husband was catching up on my blog this afternoon when he said, "Oh! I found another mistake! It says, 'So we got out the paint and I told him to pick and easy one.' That should be an not and."

"Honey, I really hat you sometimes."

Hanimals*

Every Monday Peter comes home with five books in his backpack. They are called Baggy Books. They get their catchy little name from the fact that all five books are in a Ziploc bag.

Two of the books are at his reading level and I have to listen to him read them.

The other three books are more advanced and he is supposed to listen to me read them. This is part of his kindergarten homework.

Yesterday we pulled out the final book for the week.

I was a little perplexed when I looked at it.

It was a PICTURE book. Good, I thought. We will be done with this in no time.

But as we flipped through the pages I knew I was in for an art project.

The title of the book was Hanimals. And the pictures inside were of hands that had been painted to look like animals.

Hands painted to look like animals – Hanimals. Get it?

Of course Peter wanted to paint his hand to look like one of the Hanimals.

So we got out the paint and I told him to pick an easy one.

He picked the squid. Easy enough even for a non-painter like me!

I mixed black, white, blue and green and I think I got pretty close to the color in the picture.

Then I painted his hand. We had to get out the hair dryer to speed things up a little because we were due at a play date in 30 minutes.

Then I painted white dots and black dots to look like the suction cups.

(Look how happy he is! Sometimes a little unplanned activity and a lot of mess can go a long way to brighten a kid’s day. I’ve got to remember this.)

Then we used a little Elmer’s glue to glue a googly eye on his hand.

Pretty cool, huh? I used regular washable paint so it came right off THREE HOURS later. He wouldn’t wash it off until we showed Daddy.

Here are a few other sample pictures from the book. In case you are inspired to paint your kid’s hands.

View Full Album

A whole gallery of Hanimals can be found here.

*Unfortunately this book is out of print but I did find a few used copies for sale on Amazon.com.

The creator of the book and all of the Hanimals is Mario Mariotti and the photographer is Roberto Marchiori. The book we were looking at was printed by Green Tiger Press and the copy write date was 1980.

The Best She's Ever Had

Sarah hates having her hair dried after her bath ever night.

And I don't blame her because I hate drying it.

Her hair is long and tangles easily. It's hard to brush even with our trusty friend Johnson and Johnson's No More Tears.

But we have to do it. Her hair is thin so if she goes to bed with it damp she wakes up with these bizarre waves all over her heard.

So her hair must be washed and dried.

Last night, Sarah was extra tired so she whined and cried the whole time I was drying her hair. I sang "You Are My Sunshine" the whole time the hair dryer was on.

My singing served two purposes. It was an attempt to both calm her down and perhaps drown out the whining and crying a little.

At the end of it, I helped her put on her Hannah Montana pj's and I carried her to her room.

And then she laid her head on my shoulder she said, "You're the best momma I've ever had."

And I said the only thing a momma can say after that. "Sarah, you're the best baby girl I've ever had."

They need your help.

Last week, Barrack Obama quietly reversed George Bush's ban on giving federal money to international groups that perform abortions. Now taxpayers, whether we like it or not, will be funding abortions internationally.

Does this also mean that he is one step closer to passing the Freedom of Choice Act? The Act that if passed will mean the following:

Partial Birth Abortions would be legal. (And if you don’t know what a partial birth abortion is, please see this diagram - www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/diagram.Html. Go ahead and look. Because if you are like I was a few months ago, you probably don't even know what partial birth abortion means.)

Taxpayers would have to fund abortions.

Religious based hospitals would have to provide abortions. If they did not provide this service, they will be forced to close.

There would be no more waiting periods for abortions.

There would be no more parental consent for young girls. Your underage daughter could get an abortion and you would never even have to know.

Doctors that don’t provide abortions could be sued.

Please help me fight the Freedom of Choice Act.

It's easy. Please go here.

In the upper right hand corner there is a button that says “Email Congress”. Simply click that button and an email come up. You can leave the text the same as it is or you can change it if you would like to make the note more personal.

Then fill in your name and address and this program will AUTOMATICALLY send it to your Senate and House members. You don’t have to do anything else.

It will take you less than two minutes to do this. Let’s let our elected officials know what we think of the Freedom of Choice Act.

Friday night can't get here soon enough!

Sarah: "Mommy do you want to know why I've been so whiny lately?"

Me: "Please tell me why you have been so whiny lately."

Sarah: "Because I miss Aunt Cathy and my little white and purple puppy dog that's missing."

Thank goodness for me Aunt Cathy is making a surprise visit on Friday night AND she's bringing a replacement little white and purple puppy dog.

Now if only I can stand another 3 and a half days of whining. Lord give me strength!

A chance to solve our problems with Joe.

My husband and I agree on most things. But lately we have run into a bit of a problem.

I think my husband likes his coffee too strong.

He thinks I like my coffee too weak.

So either I have to make two pots of coffee each morning or I have to compromise and make a pot that neither one of us likes. I usually choose the compromise pot leaving both of us a little unhappy with our morning Joe.

But I may have found the solution to our problem.

Gayle over at The Grocery Cart Challenge is giving away a Keurig coffee pot and coffee worth $250. The beauty of this coffee pot is that it brews one cup at a time.

Imagine that! My husband and I could both be happy with our coffee in the morning if we had this thing.

So head on over to Gayle's and enter for your chance to win.

Or don't - because if you don't enter that means my chances are better.

And while you are there check out Gayles great blog. She is feeding a family of 6 on $60 a week.

I just got back from Wal-Mart and Aldi's and I was nowhere near $60 and I only have 4 mouths to feed! I have already subscribed to Gayle's blog so even if I don't with the coffee pot, maybe I can at least learn a few things from her.

Miracle Monday - Keep Believing

It's Miracle Monday so let's get right down to it.

Many of you have been following Brian's story at Angie's blog Keep Believing.

And I've asked you to pray for them several times before on Miracle Monday.

Today I am asking for more prayers.

Angie wrote on Friday that they received the worst MRI results ever. Because of this, they have decided to discontinue all treatments for Brian's brain tumor and they are basically preparing for his death.

Angie has handed over cleaning, cooking and all other household responsibilities to friends and relatives so that she can spend all of her time with her husband and her boys.

She asked for prayers for peace and acceptance and provision.

Please pray for Angie and Brian and Gavin and Grant.

They are such a sweet family. My heart just aches for them. They have handled all of this with such poise and grace.

Even as Angie is watching her husband die, thanks to the prayers of the faithful she is finding peace.

Reading her latest post, I am reminded of my favorite bible verse...

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7

I pray for the O'Neills multiple times a day. And I continue to pray for healing for Brian if it is God's will (because I still believe in miracles!) but I am also praying for peace and acceptance.

Please join me.

Do you have a miracle or an answered prayer you want to share?

It's easy to participate in Miracle Monday. Just post a miracle or an answered prayer on your blog and link it back here using Mr. Linky below.

Please mention "A Mom's Life" and my URL in your post. And if you want, you can use the Miracle Monday graphic in your post as well.

This edition of Miracle Monday is now closed. Please come back next Monday if you would like to link to a miracle on your blog. If you are looking for other miracles, please check our Miracle Monday archives located on the right sidebar.

It's green and it's a meme.

I have a love hate relationship with handbags.

I can never seem to find one big enough to hold all my stuff. And if I can find on that is big enough to hold all my stuff then it’s usually not very cute.

Or if I can find one that’s really cute, it’s usually very expensive.

Or if I can find one that’s not very expensive, then it’s not big enough to hold all my stuff.

So I usually buy a black purse that’s fairly cheap and sort of cute and I use it for a couple of weeks and then I hate it. But I end up carrying it for about 6 months and then I buy another black bag that’s fairly cheap and sort of cute and I use it for a couple of weeks and I hate it.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

I wish that you could carry a bag for a few days and then return it to the store. Because you will never know if a bag is going to work until you’ve carried it for a few days.

And I think you all know what I mean by “work”. Is the cell phone holder in the right spot? Is there enough room in the bag for your wallet and can you get said wallet out of your bag without tampons, keys and Kleenex falling out of the bag.

Is there enough room for a make-up bag? Is there a little hook for your keys. Is this hook in a practical spot?

Is it big enough to hold everything I need as well as crackers, crayons and wipes for the kids?

I saw a cute meme over at Total Mom Haircut and thought I would play along. I wasn’t tagged mind you, I just thought I would play along.

And since her name is Beth and my name is Beth, I figured she wouldn’t mind.

Here are the rules to the meme as posted by the other Beth:

1) Post a picture of whatever bag you are carrying as of late. No, you cannot go up to your closet and pull out that cute little purse you used back before you had kids. I want to know what you carried today.

2) I want to know how much it cost:) And this is not to judge, because I’m honestly telling you I was ready to put down some cash; I just got lucky. This is for entertainment purposes only. So spill it. And if there is a story to go along with how you obtained it, I’d love to hear it.

3) Tag some chicks. And link back to this post so people know why the heck you’re showing everyone your diaper bag/non-diaper bag.

So here is my latest handbag.

It’s pretty cute but mainly I got it because I love the green color. It’s my favorite color of all time. (Well, now anyway. I choose to forget the time in the late 80’s when I went through a very long love affair with the color peach.)

I got this bag at Target for $26. That’s a pretty good price if I use it for 6 months a more. My only problem is that after using it for a couple of weeks, I don’t think I love it.

Which, if you ask my husband, means the kiss of death for this handbag.

He knows me better than I know myself.

Since I wasn’t officially tagged, I’m going to ignore #3 and I’m not going to tag anyone. However, I would love to see and hear all about your handbag. So leave me a comment if you are going to play along. I don’t want to miss any handbags. Who knows…I might find one I like!

I'm sorry to have to do this but...

I do not like word verification on blog posts.

It slows me down when I'm leaving a comment. Half the time I don't type in the correct set of letters. And the other half of the time I can't even figure out what the letters are supposed to be because they are so distorted.

But today I'm going to have to turn it on because in the span of 6 minutes I got 15 spam comments on old posts.

Imagine my excitement when I opened my email and realized I had 15 comments on my posts.

Imagine my disappointment when I realized they were spam.

So word verification will be turned on for now. I'll turn it off as soon as I can.

In the meantime, I'm off to dream of the day when I will get 15 real comments in 6 minutes.

What she said.

I love what she said and how she said it.

Please read this post by Missy at It's Almost Naptime.

Out with the old and all that jazz…

We make our kids clean up the playroom every evening before bedtime. And they usually do a pretty good job with it.

But in November and December when things were pretty hectic, the nightly cleaning ritual got pushed to the side in favor of let's just get them to bed and the sooner the better.

And occasionally I would go into the playroom and quickly throw toys in toy boxes so they kids would at least have a way in and a way out. And I would have trouble breathing because the mere sight of the mess made my chest feel tight.

And as Christmas approached and our trip to Massachusetts got nearer and nearer, I went into the playroom less and less.

I knew that it needed to be cleaned out. I knew that we needed to get all the old and broken toys out so that all the news toys could come in.

And in the back of my head, I kept hearing the words, "Whenever a new toy comes in, I make sure an old toy goes out."

Why oh why do I read organizing blogs? And seriously, do people really do that?

But as Christmas approached I kept hearing these words like a nagging voice in the back of my head and they haunted me because I had no time to clean out the playroom. It was all I can do to purchase presents, pack, volunteer at school and plan Christmas parties. I had no time to be sorting, rearranging, tossing, and organizing.

I had no time for removing old toys so that new toys could be brought in.

So Christmas came and went. And as expected, the state of the toy room got worse.

And even though, there is joy in the mess, my breathing grew more and more labored every time I approached the playroom. This mess was out of control.

I knew what needed to be done.

My husband knew what needed to be done.

Even the kids knew what needed to be done.

So we spent all day yesterday doing what needed to be done.

We sorted plastic food, baby dolls, dress up clothes, Lego bricks and swords. We tossed broken toys. We removed unused toys. We rearranged.

And we whined a lot. We even stopped in the middle of our work to go to Dairy Queen.

Because a Chocolate Xtreme Blizzard is a great motivator.

And our playroom went from this...

.

To this...

I can breathe again.

Miracle Monday

Happy Miracle Monday!

In November, I posted a prayer request for Maggie. Maggie is a 25 years old with a baby and had just been diagnosed with Lymphoma.

Maggie just sent out an email update. Here it is...

"Hey everybody! So we got the results of my PET scan today and it was good news! When I was checked into the hospital in October, the doc said I had "a couple" nodules in my abdomen and "several" in my chest that were affected. The largest tumor was in my chest, pressing on my windpipe and affecting my breathing.

This scan I just had highlights where there might be cancer and how "active" the cancer is. The ONLY spot showing any activity left was where the largest tumor was, and it has now decreased in size to 1 & 1/2 centimeters. The level of activity has also gone way down. The doc seemed to think that there was a good chance that after the rest of my treatments, that tumor will be beaten into submission too.

He said the bad news was that I would need to have the 8 chemo treatments, when before he had said I would have 6 to 8 depending on how things went. But he said today that from the beginning he hadn't really thought that I would be able to stop at the 6, and I had never been counting on that anyway. I had my 5th chemo today, and I will have another PET scan after my 6th chemo (in a few weeks) to check on my progress.

Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers. Keep them coming -- they're working!!!"

Just wanted to share this miracle of God's healing with you. Please continue to pray for Maggie, her husband and her baby as they continue to fight this cancer and as they struggle to make ends meet.

Do you have a miracle or an answered prayer you want to share?

It's easy to participate in Miracle Monday.Just post a miracle or an answered prayer on your blog and link it back here using Mr. Linky below.Please mention "A Mom's Life" and my URL in your post. And if you want, you can use the Miracle Monday graphic in your post as well.

The joy in the mess.

Hair clips, plastic rings, little ponies, naked baby dolls, tea cups, princess gowns, matching high heels, Fancy Nancy and Pinkalicious, a cash register with play money, miniature plastic food, anything pink.

Lego bricks, swords, pirate ships, plastic spiders,paper airplanes, video games, Lego bricks, dump trucks, rocks, plastic guns, Bionicles, Star Wars figures, Lego bricks, Goosebumps books, Lego bricks, anything camouflage.

Being a mom means learning to be content with a house that is neither clean nor organized.

And being a mom means hoping and praying that all the joy and all the love you find among the tiny plastic pieces, the sticky table tops and the worn furniture will last a lifetime - long after the messes and the mess-makers are gone.

She's baaaack....

...my computer that is!

I picked up my virus-free computer from the geeks at Best Buy today.

I was relieved that their virus removal programs were able to remove the viruses without having to wipe out the hard drive and start from scratch.

Even though I have a back up program that runs every night, I didn't want to have to figure out how to get all the files back on to my computer.

I'm sure it's easy to do, but I'm lazy.

Speaking of lazy, I guess I have to attack my to-do list now that my computer is fixed. It's amazing all of the things I rely on my computer for that I am now way behind on...

Balance check book

Pay bills

Download and save Christmas pictures

Do thank you notes with Christmas pictures

Work on February budget

Work on medical reimbursement forms

Start taxes

Dust and vacuum

What did you just say? I don't need a computer to dust and vacuum? Hmmmm...then why isn't my house spotless?

I told you I was lazy.

Giddy!

Is everyone else as excited as I am?

I'm just gonna be sitting here in front of the TV all day, counting down the hours till showtime!

***squeals with delight***

Miracle Monday

Three days before Christmas, 10 year old Taylor was hit in the eye with a pellet from an Airsoft gun. These guns are toys and are marketed as safe because the pellets are soft.

After a trip to the emergency room and a visit with the opthamologist, the doctors determined that Taylor had severe corneal damage and bleeding behind her eye and could not see out of this eye.

She was put on complete bed rest for 5 days. She had to sit upright in a chair for 5 days and she had to sleep propped up.

After the 5 days were up, it was determined that Taylor had a traumatic cataract and she was still not able to see.

Her mom Michelle asked for prayers for Taylor.

After visiting with a retinal specialist, Michelle heard the news she had been praying for.

Taylor was going to be fine!

Taylor will have to wear glasses for a few years and then will have to have cataract surgery but her vision has shown some improvement over the last two weeks and there is no retinal damage.

Thank God for answered prayers!

Do you have a miracle or an answered prayer you want to share? It's easy to participate in Miracle Monday.


Just post a miracle or an answered prayer on your blog and link it back here using Mr. Linky below.

Please mention "A Mom's Life" and my URL in your post. And if you want, you can use the Miracle Monday button in your post as well.

This edition of Miracle Monday is now closed. Please come back next Monday if you would like to link to a miracle on your blog. If you are looking for other miracles, please check our Miracle Monday archives located on the right sidebar.

If you are going to surf, please make sure to practice safe surfing.

I dropped my computer off at Best Buy yesterday and the Geek Squad confirmed that my computer was hijacked and is riddled with viruses.

So I paid them $199 of Dan's hard earned dollars and in 3-5 days, they will remove all the viruses.

Hopefully.

If after running 15 different virus removal programs, they are unsuccessful at removing the viruses, they will have to wipe the hard drive completely clean and reload Windows.

Ouch.

Luckily after the last appearance of the dreaded blue screen, we bought an external hard drive that backs up all of our files in the wee hours of the morning. So if they do have to wipe her clean and start fresh, at least our files have been backed up.

I hope. I've never trusted that the back up program is actually running and backing things up while I am sleeping.

So the moral of this story ladies and gentlemen (do I even have any male readers?): if you are going to surf, please make sure you use protection...virus protection that is!

Safe surfing to you all!

He's not unusual, he's just strange!

I've written previously about how the clock on the stove and microwave have to have the exact same time or it drives me a little mad. And in that post, I stated that I didn't like to think of myself as strange but rather I preferred the term unusual.

For the record, I would like to say that I still maintain that I am just a little unusual but ya'll, my husband is just flat out strange.

My husband is a voracious reader. He loves mostly nonfiction. He prefers history books and biographies.

(Just typing the words 'history books' and 'biographies' made me nod off and a little bit of drool just dripped onto the keyboard. Just for the record, I enjoy reading too. But my genre of choice is People magazine and mom blogs.)

Because Dan reads a lot and because we aren't made of money and you never know when another round of layoffs is coming to his company, for the last year Dan has been using the library.

But he does the strangest thing when he gets home from the library with a new book.

And please note, I just came right out and said strange. I'm not even going to pretend that his behavior is unusual or exotic...it's just downright odd!

Before he even puts the library book on his nightstand, he gets an antibacterial wipe and scrubs the front and back covers down as if he thought the book might be contaminated with spores containing the bird flu, SARS or whatever the virus du jour might happen to be.

Isn't that the strangest thing you've ever heard of?

I guess Dan is a wee bit germophobic.

He's no Howie Mandel but he gets upset if I drink from his glass and he doesn't like me to eat from his plate. Hmmmm...maybe he's just a wee bit selfish as well. (Only kidding, honey!)

But the worst thing about all of this? I think it's hereditary.

A couple of days ago I drank out of Sarah's cup at McDonald's (just trying to save a little money) and she started crying and yelling, "Did you just drink out of my straw? Now it's got germs on it! Now it's got germs on it!"

Geez! I guess I'm going to have to stock up on antibacterial wipes and just get my own darn drink from now on!

Cream cheese...she comforts me...

My desktop computer is dead. And this time I can't blame Dell. I have no one to blame but myself.

Last spring, when I bought my laptop, the sales associate recommended Norton for virus protection so I dutifully purchased it.

Over the summer when my McAfee subscription expired on my desktop I purchased Norton. After all, it came at the recommendation of the kind sales associate from Circuit City and I didn't have any problems with it on my laptop.

I installed it and began to use it without problem. However I started to notice that my computer seemed to be running slow. And the problem was gradually getting worse day by day.

Finally, around the beginning of December, I could take it no longer and decided to Google "Norton". And then I googled "Norton is making my computer slow". And a couple of days later I Googled "I'm going to shoot my computer if I don't get Norton off of it right away!"

It seems as if I am not the only person who has experienced problems with Norton. And it seems as if most of the geeks on the computer chat boards recommended removing Norton right away.

So, I took their advice and removed Norton right away. And low and behold, my computer started running like she used to run. I could zip between files, websites and applications without pause.

Cue the Angels singing.

The whole time I was enjoying my new found computer speed, I kept thinking in the back of my head that I really need to get McAfee or another virus protector back on the computer.

But I was busy and never got around to it. It was December after all. Christmas, vacation, travel, gifts, etc. I was busy!

Cut to the audience rolling their eyes, shaking their heads and murmuring, "we can see where this is headed."

Yesterday I pulled up the Internet and a bunch of pop up ads assaulted my screen. And then I tried to type in a web address and even though it was typed in correctly, I was sent to a different website.

And then I got the dreaded blue screen.

I almost started to cry when I saw the blue screen.

I turned off the computer, turned it back on and after many pop up ads and many reboots later, I finally got McAffee installed.

And after many more reboots I started running the virus scan.

I definitely have viruses and I think I removed a few of them from the computer. Unfortunately the dreaded blue screen keeps coming up before I can get the whole virus scan completed.

I made a few more attempts this morning but finally threw up my hands in despair.

I shut her down and will be taking her to my friends at the Geek Squad on Thursday morning.

Thank goodness for my trusty laptop. And thank goodness for cream cheese. I think I'm going to drown my sorrows in some right now.

And no. I will not be adding feta to it. I've learned my lesson.

I have it narrowed down to salsa or Harry and David's Sweet Red and Ancho Pepper Chili Sauce.

Ahhh...cream cheese...she comforts me.

Public Service Announcement

Dan was not home for dinner last night and whenever this happens, I usually fix something for the kids and eat just whatever they leave on their plates.

Healthy, huh?

Last night, I didn't even feel like microwaving anything for them so we went to McDonald's instead.

The kids got burgers and apple dippers and I ordered a Big N' Tasty. Yum! I love the Big N' Tasty.

And even though it is dripping with mayo, I figure it's better for me than Quarter Pounder because at least it has lettuce and tomato on it.

After the kids went to bed, I was still feeling hungry. (And I blame this on the fact that I was trying to be healthy and didn't get any fries to go with my Big N' Tasty.)

So I headed to the fridge for some queso. But alas! The queso was moldy. Ewww...nothing worse than moldy queso - or so I thought.

Since I already had chips and dip on the brain, I decided to see what I could concoct on my own.

Perhaps I could even come up with something even better than queso.

After perusing the contents of the fridge, I combined some sour cream and some salsa with some feta cheese. I mixed it and microwaved it and sat down on the couch with my new snack and grabbed the remote, ready to settle in and snack and surf.

Even though the mixture resembled the remnants of our Christmas stomach virus, I took a big bite anyway.

And let me just say for the record that it was just as you all are probably thinking it would be....

DISGUSTING!

So, consider yourself warned. Do not combine feta, sour cream and salsa.

I should have just gone with the queso. The microwave would have killed the mold, right?

Miracle Monday

Happy Miracle Monday!

I have a great miracle to share today. Some of you may have already seen this video footage.

It was a news story that was reported from Charlotte, NC.

A mother had her dying daughter in the hospital and had just told the doctors to take remove the life support.

A few minutes later an excited nurse got the mother and showed her a video image that was caught on the security camera right outside of the daughter's hospital room.

It looks like an angel!

And wouldn't you know, the girl got better and instead of dying, was able go home from the hospital!

I'm sure there are many naysayers, but I like to think that this bright light was an angel right outside the girl's hospital room.

I know there area angels all around us, and for some reason, this one wanted to be seen!

http://www.wral.com/news/local/video/4187280/

Do you have a miracle you want to share? It's easy to participate in Miracle Monday. Just post a miracle on your blog and link it back here using Mr. Linky below.

Please mention "A Mom's Life" and my URL in your post. And if you want, you can use the Miracle Monday button in your post as well.

This edition of Miracle Monday is now closed. Please come back next Monday if you would like to link to a miracle on your blog. If you are looking for other miracles, please check our Miracle Monday archives located on the right sidebar.