The Clean up Shuffle

Today, on a Sunday, I had the honor of a phone call before a caseworker "just wanted to stop by on her way through town to save her a trip later". I hated to say no but should have for sure. When getting 8 very young children ready to go anywhere---especially church there is a great deal of hairbrushes, wet floors covered with towels, dirty breakfast dishes, various discarded outfits, etc. in all areas of the home. This does not mention that all these children were at home on Saturday living their lives with toys, books, coloring book with 1000 crayons, and other endeavors. We don't really do a clean up until late Sunday evening as I am a believer in letting kids be kids. So------the clean up shuffle is much like a race trying to stuff as many things into closets, under beds, into dishwashers and any other hiding place in under 15 minutes while screaming at the top of the your lungs "to hurry up the caseworker will be here any minute." I sure hope the caseworker was fooled. The sweat running down our faces may have been a give away though.

Pancakes anyone?

What can happen with pancake mix---two 2 year olds and 2 minutes!

Laughter

Did I mention that we have a lot of fun.

The blessing of friendship

I have been so blessed to have a wonderful group of friends. Nuf said!

The eyes of innocence

As a mother of many teen girls I keep thinking that I will finally get a feel for the teenage psyche. The problem is that the rules keep changing and no one is giving me the rule book. Where in the heck can you buy one of those? Barnes and Noble does not carry one. I was complaining about the worries of the world's influence on my girls and a very dear old friend (and college roommate) the kind of friend that can put you in your place and you don't even get mad, said "you are just looking in the wrong books, think you will find what you need in a book they call the BIBLE. " Thanks Tanya---

Phrases that stick with you

Over the years I have had the pleasure of spending time with some real characters. Probably the most influential of all was my father. He was a true---horse riding---truck driving----cussing every breath----cowboy. He had a range of "sayings" he used to describe different aspects of life. I will list some at the end of this post. I have had other opportunities to gain some very descriptive phrases from others. I have spent most of today feeling pretty crummy with a stomach virus. I can birth babies, suffer through serious sore throats, go through numerous operations but throwing up and "peeing poo" (hence the phrase that stuck with me) *thanks Debbie* just about puts me down.

Additional phrases in my repertoire:

Disclaimer---non of these are meant to offend---remember the part about my daddy being a cussing every breath cowboy?

When describing very cold weather-----Colder that a witches tit in a brass bra.

When describing a person that tend to talk excessively----Liver lipped

When describing a bossy person----specifically my mother----The bull of the woods

When describing a person with a little mean or mischievous streak---A skunk---just so happens to be my childhood nickname from my daddy

Any male person of little gumption---A long hair----No matter the length of his hair----"hippies" were not a favorite of my dad. He did love my husband though----even though he was a long hair.

Just goes to show you can teach an old dog new tricks or an old cowboy a different way to put on his boots.

Miss you everyday daddy!

Sometimes answered prayers don't feel like they were answered

I know how important it is to pray with faith. I know how important it is to pray with child like faith. I sometimes pray with much less than either. I said a prayer with anger and a demanding spirit and I will be danged if my prayer was not answered. I have/had a cousin that has had multiple medical issues over the last few years. She is/was in her 50's. She was a brittle diabetic and bipolar. She had many serious issues with her illnesses over the last few year. She used a really appropriate analogy when she found out that she had the most horrible (in my opinion) disease called ALS or Lou Gehrig disease. She said that she felt like she was standing on the side of street and she got splashed by another really big truck. Yesterday she had a stroke. I went to see her at the hospital and she looked like someone I did not know. I left the hospital---cussing fate of maybe God I am not sure. I questioned how one person could be having to suffer and said a prayer to ask God to please let her not suffer any more. A little after 6:00 my precious Aunt Faye called and said that Carol had died. I did not say goodbye or get time to prepare. But---what a blessing for her---no horrible suffering. We will miss you. Please tell Mom and Granny tha I said hi and eat all the chocolate you can hold. Love ya Carol.

I guess I am a girly girl

The prospect of going to a football game in the pouring rain to watch other young men attempt to inflict serious bodily harm on my sweet 16 year old son does not seem to me a way to spend a Friday evening. The rain is beckoning me to chocolate chip cookie baking, reading a good book and a short nap. I am not excited about the wet icky possible trip to the emergency room with a bloody or broken or unconscious boy that my kisses used to repair. Of course if he gets an interception or a really good tackle I will be the one with the bull horn yelling "that's the way to knock the fire our of him."

The football prayer

Football season is here. Time for cold nights, marching bands, cheerleaders in way to short skirts and injuries to young men everywhere. Hope no one's boy gets hurt---not mine please!

Twins?

These are my two college freshman and no they are not twins.

I look like my sister to be!

This is one of the home grown littles. Also not afraid of the camera. Don't they look alike!

Is this a face!

I got the most exciting news yesterday. We are put on the list for an adoption for November 14th. NATIONAL ADOPTION DAY. There will be balloons, fun and the media. I figure you will see this face on tv as she is not shy about being the center of attention.

The other big girl

This is the oldest big girl

One of the big girl

This is one of my big girls.

The bigs plus one and a half

When you have as many kids as I do you have to have nicknames for groups to make your life easier to manage.

Examples are:

The big kids

The big girls

The little kids

The bitties

This group is the big kids plus my daughter-in-law plus my soon to be born grandson.

Disclaimer

I need to let any readers know that I have a belief system in certain areas that I can not be influenced to change. One of my most deep felt beliefs is that spelling ability is genetic. I have 5 biological children none of which can spell. I have 5 adopted children, two of which are extremely good spellers. They were adopted before they could read so raised in the same family---good spellers. Which leads me to say since none of my home grown kids can spell common cents (hee hee) would mean that I am a lousy speller---so forgiveness is expected as I am genetically predisposed to poor spelling ability. Let me know if you hold the same belief.

A neophite blogger begins the journey to blogdom

I am a brand new blogger. I have so enjoyed reading others' blogs that I thought maybe I would enjoy doing it myself. I truly look forward to the Clements Happenings. I was hoping this would keep me from having to call and write my forever growing family. So the journey begins.