Black Sheep Mom: 2013

Friday, December 13, 2013

Secret Subject Swap - Dec. Take Two! Friday the 13th edition

Welcome to another Secret Subject Swap! 12 fantastic bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts!

My topic is: "Today’s Friday the 13th. What does that mean to you? Anything? Do you feel any different about it or is it just the same as any other day?"
It was submitted by Karen of Baking In A Tornado, the fabulous blogger who created and puts together the Secret Subject Swaps, and someone I am honored to call a friend.

Friday the 13th

7:00 am: This is the time my alarm goes off so I can get the teens off to school. Make sure everybody is up, wearing clothes that don't smell like hot dragon breath, and give medicine to the kiddos that take it. Today my alarm does not go off. I sleep right through the noise of morning rush hour.

8:00am: I wake with a jolt, sit straight up and look at the clock. I missed them. They're all already at school now. Hopefully smelling acceptable, yet unmedicated. Should be getting a phone call or two from the school later on about questionable behavior. Awesome. And I didn't say goodbye and wish them a good day. ~sigh.

8:05am: I go downstairs to start coffee. I step into the kitchen and right into a puddle of dog pee. Terrific. I guess I didn't see it there because I was too distracted by the trash strewn all over the floor from the afore-mentioned pee-er.

8:30am: Floor is cleaned up. Time for coffee! I just love my Keurig! The one that is making questionable noises at the moment..... and leaking out the side..... and not putting caffeinated deliciousness into my cup..... AHHH! Seriously? Do not mess with a woman's coffee!

12:00pm: I grouchily make my way through the morning chores. I break the mop, load the dishwasher then realize we are out of detergent, and knock over the same trash I spent 20 minutes cleaning earlier. Fabulous.
It's time for lunch, so I begin the daily battle of trying to find a lunch acceptable to the 2 year old. The kid doesn't eat anything but Goldfish and mini muffins.
"Macaroni and cheese?" "NO!" "Peanut butter and jelly?" "NO!" "~~A pop upside your~~ How about Goldfish??"

2:00pm: Phone rings. It's the school. Crap. But it's not actually about behavior. It's about my parent teacher conference. That started 20 minutes ago. Where are you? They ask me. Oh I'm on my way to crazy town, lady. And I don't think I'm coming back.

2:45pm: Kids get home from school. "Mom don't forget I have to be at the school for 3:30 for practice." "Well why didn't you just stay after?" "Cuz I was hungry! What do we have to eat? Nothing? Ugh! We never have anything to eat around here! It's so dumb. Can I have Goldfish?" Super.

3:40pm: I drop a kid off at practice, hopefully the right one, and head to the store. I defrosted chicken and need to figure out something to do with it. I decide on Honey Bunches Chicken and grab the ingredients. I get to the check-out counter, and realize I left my wallet in the car. UGH.

6:00pm: I've done 3 drop offs and pick ups and have one more to go, but I've got to squeeze in making dinner. I'm glad I took that chicken out of the freezer ------- Dammit!! Grilled cheese it is.

7:00pm: Time to struggle through both the 6th grader's and the 8th grader's math homework. I hate math. Why does that have to be the subject they need help in? Oh good, the 8th grader only has 4 problems to do. Oh wait, each one has a part A, B, C, D, and E. Fan-freaking-tastic.

8:00pm: "Mom, my cell phone bill was due today, they just shut it off, can you pay it?" "Mom, I need $10 for my field trip tomorrow." "Mom, do you have any money so I can go to the movies?" Teeeerrific.

8:30pm: This day is dumb. I decide to pour a glass of wine and surrender. The glass is half way to my lips when Mr. 11 says "Mom, don't you have to pick up Mr. 15 from practice? Like now?" Grrrrrrrr.

9:30pm: That's it. I'm done. I'm not doing anything else today but killing this glass of wine and maybe a little reading. But first, I decide to get the biggest, darkest sharpie I have so I can cross off today, Friday the 13th, on my calendar. Cuz this day was a train wreck, but I survived and now I can cross it off!!
I march determinedly to the calendar, pull the cap off the Sharpie, and go to cross off today.

Which

Is

Thursday.

The 12th.

@*#&$^$%%^&$*#(#(@!!!!!!!!!!

Here are links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts. Sit back, grab a cup, and check them all out. See you there:

http://BakingInATornado.com Baking In A Tornado

http://www.homeonderanged.com Home on Deranged

http://www.eviljoyspeaks.wordpress.com Evil Joy Speaks

http://bethteliho.wordpress.com Writer B is Me

http://thisisdiscoveringme.wordpress.com/ Discovering Me

http://thethreegerbers.blogspot.ch/ Confessions of a part-time working mom

http://dinoheromommy.com/ Dinosaur Superhero Mommy

http://momsdontsaythat.com Moms Don’t Say That

http://www.spinstersnacks.com/ Spinster Snacks

http://www.theblacksheepmom.blogspot.com Black Sheep Mom

http://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com Spatulas on Parade

http://www.justalittlenutty.com/ Just A Little Nutty

Friday, November 15, 2013

Nov. SSS #2; Welcome to the Garden of Eden

Today celebrates the 26th Secret Subject Swap! This week 12 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts.

My Secret Subject this week is:

"You can travel back to any point in time and participate in a historical event. Which event do you choose and why?"

It was submitted by The Gamer's Corner. Make sure you check out this great blog as well as the other 10 listed at the end of this post :)

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We've all heard the story of Adam and Eve right? From the Bible? They were the first two people created to inhabit the earth. And at first, wow, did they have it made. They lived in the Garden of Eden, which was a literal Heaven on earth: everything they needed they had; there was no sadness, no struggling, no suffering, NO PAIN.

And then Eve ate that apple. And gave some to the hubby.

They had ONE RULE. ONE. Do not eat those apples, yo. There's 646 trees of fruit you can eat from, but NOT this particular one. But does Eve listen? Heck no. She is tempted by a sneaky serpent and tries the forbidden fruit.

She broke the rule. Adam did too. Consequences must be forthcoming.

Among the many, one that stands out to me is Genesis 3:16 - "To the woman he said, 'I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children..."

So, being the mother of 7 biological children, had I been there to witness this historical event, Eve and I would've had a little conversation:

Me: "Dude, for real, you don't wanna eat that apple."

Eve: "But it looks sooooo good! Better than the others. I think I'll just have a little bite."

Me: "Hey hey, it's not like it's chocolate; you will regret this, I Am Telling You. You're going to have kids, and it's going to HURT! For HOURS. For DAYS. Don't eat the apple, man, don't curse us all! I don't like pain!"

Eve: "It can't be that bad! Just back off woman, and leave me alone! Who are you anyway? Walking around the garden in your jeans and knock off Uggs, Starbucks cup in your hand; just go away!"

Me: "Do you know how many years it will be before the invention of the epidural?! You can't do this to us! Stretch marks, yo. Contractions. Tearing. Stitches and sitz baths and donut pillows! Here, I brought a granola bar, help yourself. No? I've got Nutella.... everything's better with Nutella..."

*sigh* I tried, ladies. I tried.

pic from ubdavid.org

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Check out all of this week's SSS participants:

http://BakingInATornado.com Baking In A Tornado

http://www.theinsomniacsdream.com/ The Insomniac’s Dream

http://TheGamersCorner13.blogspot.com The Gamer’s Corner

http://momsdontsaythat.com Moms Don’t Say That

http://stacysewsandschools.wordpress.com/ Stacy Sews and Schools

http://www.homeonderanged.com Home on Deranged

http://www.juiceboxconfession.com Juicebox Confession

http://thisisdiscoveringme.wordpress.com/ Discovering Me

http://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com Spatulas on Parade

http://thethreegerbers.blogspot.ch/ Confessions of a part-time working mom

http://rantsfrommycrazykitchen.com Rants From My Crazy Kitchen

Friday, November 1, 2013

Where's the Compassion?

There's a situation that happened at my kid's high school yesterday that has me feeling rather ranty. It makes me wonder what happened to compassion and empathy. It makes me pissed, to be quite blunt.

Yesterday was Halloween. The local high school students were allowed to wear costumes to school. One particular kid wore a shirt covered in fake blood and carried a baseball bat with fake blood on it. That was his costume.

Another kid in school had a problem with that costume. I'm going to call him Jay. Jay's older brother is in jail for at least 25 years. When Jay's brother was about 14 and still in middle school, (with my daughter) he got into a fight with another boy. They decided to meet up in the woods later that day. Jay's brother brought a baseball bat. He hit the other boy with the bat. The boy died. Jay's brother is serving time in prison for murder.

When Jay went to school yesterday morning and saw this kid's costume, he immediately thought of his brother. Of course, it made him very emotional; upset, hurt, and angry. What his brother did is not his fault; but he has to live with the aftermath too. In turmoil, he went to his teacher and asked him if he would tell the student that he couldn't wear that costume; Jay just couldn't bear it, it was tearing him apart. The teacher said no, I won't tell him that. Jay broke down and told the teacher the story of his brother, and asked him 'Can you at least tell him to stop carrying the bat around?' 'No' said the teacher.

No. The teacher would not ask the other student to stop carrying around school a baseball bat with fake blood all over it that was emotionally tormenting another student. Apparently the kid's right to dress in whatever Halloween costume he wanted to was more important than Jay's emotional well being, his feeling of safety and comfort at school.

Now, something that you should know about this school: they confiscated a sweatshirt from an 11th grade girl that said 'Twerk Team Captain' because they said it was inappropriate.

Inappropriate. Twerking is inappropriate. Even mentioning it is inappropriate. But wearing a costume of a person covered in blood with a bloody baseball bat is not inappropriate?? For school?! How can that be? Especially when it is DIRECTLY hurting another child!

After class Jay went to the principal. Asked him the same thing, 'Can you make that kid stop wearing that costume?' 'No' said the principal. So again, Jay had to spill his guts, his family secrets, his pain.
'I see', said the principal. And he made the other student TAKE OFF THE COSTUME.

Thank you, Mr. Prinicpal. Thank you for having an ounce of compassion that was not demonstrated by the teacher.

We are a small community here, and we need to take care of each other. And when a kid works up the courage (or is upset enough) to talk to a teacher about a fellow student upsetting him to the point he can't focus in class, we need to act.

Screw the Halloween costume. Seriously, is it more important than another child's mental health?? Really? I don't think so.

I know I deviated from the funny guys, but I couldn't help it. This has been eating at me. Thanks for letting me rant <3 Comments, thoughts and opinions are welcome.

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Swapiversary Blog Hop and Contest!

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Welcome to the Blog Strut

Thank you so much for stopping by this week's Blog Strut #12 - The Special Swapiversary Edition! Our Linky Parties are always rule-free! There are a set of guidelines below but they are just that, guidelines! We want you to post what you want, share what you want, and not have to do anything in return but share the bloggy love!

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Last Week's Featured Post

Every week we pick our favorite posts The top clicked post and a random wildcard choice and Feature them! We'll also send out a social blast to ask everyone to check out your posts! From last week's Strut we have:

Angela's Pick 22 Re-Purposing Ideas by Family Home and Life

Sande's Pick Tasty Breakfast Casserole by In Him We Live and Move and Have our Being

Amber's Pick How to Make a Halloween Witch By Penny's Vintage Home

Top Clicks chosen by you DIY Fall Monogram Door Hanger by This Ole Mom

Wildcard Pick Make a No Sew Apron for Under $5 by Erin's 2 Cents

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Secret Subject Swap - Swapiversary!

We need your vote! Today the Secret Subject Swap is joining the Blog Strut for a very special occasion. It is the one year anniversary of the Swap and we’re celebrating with a Strut!

The Secret Subject Swap is a challenge open to all bloggers. It’s meant as an exercise to push our writing boundaries. Each participant sends in a writing prompt and is secretly assigned someone else’s prompt. Two weeks later, on an assigned day and time, we all divulge the subject we received, who it came from, and publish our posts linking to each other.

And now on the one year Swapiversary we want you to tell us, who is the Queen of the Swap? Read them all and strut back here to cast your vote. Who will win the Award? It’s all in your hands!

Queen of the Swap