Mom’s Musings

What type of Mother Hen Are You?
by Montessorimom.com: Educational Resource

I found this quiz on my friend Marmee’s blog. Marmee came up artistic, which is no surprise, since she is a crafty kind of mom.

I would like to wish those of you who fit into this category a very happy Mother’s Day!

Today I have been the recipient of much pre-Mother’s Day activity.

Right after his morning coffee, my husband vacuumed the main floor of the house and then proceeded to clean the tile and the laminate with the Swiffer Wet Jet. Woohoo! The way to my heart is through my floor, evidently.

Further flooring activity followed as Rick finished installing the glueless laminate in the upstairs hall, and got the laundry chute in working order again. My, we have missed that chute. Guess we’re just spoiled.

After that, Rick’s attention turned to my oven. My oven door broke last week. The springs that allow the heavy door to open gently gave out with a horrible, exploding sound. After purchasing some springs at the hardware store, Rick repaired my oven door today. We were all excited about that, until we realized that the oven will not heat up. Guess I’ll have to call the repairman in after all to have a look at my faithful old oven (18 year old Dacor convection oven). I sure hope we don’t need to purchase another oven; too expensive, and I like this one.

Here you see a picture of Rick and me. I’m holding my Mother’s Day gift from Debra, the lovely bouquet she assembled in Floral Design class, and Rick is holding his gift to me. How do you like it?

Here is the lovely ceramic rose candle holder that Lydia made for me:

And here is Laura’s card. I especially enjoyed the sentiment, “Thanks for being the kind of mom who likes to chat . . .” because Laura and I chat online just about every day:

Just in today (5/11/2008): a lovely little azalea plant from daughter Sarah, plus a funny paper bookcover from Daiso Japan, our Japanese dollar store. Sometimes the sentiments written in English don’t make any sense, but these are pretty good: “HEY!”, “just for you”, “you’re special”, “hello”, “I appreciate you”, and “thanks so much” all on one little bookcover. Pretty cute.

My brother sent me a link to this fun site. Take the test and find out whether your speech is Yankee or Dixie. My test results show that I am barely into the Yankee category, with a score of 46%. My brother was barely into the Dixie category, with a score of 52%. Perhaps this is explained by the fact that our maternal grandfather was born and raised in Mississippi, and we spent a lot of time with him in our youth (in Arizona, though, not in Mississippi).

I’m waiting with bated breath for my husband’s score, since we have an ongoing friendly rivalry about how certain words should be pronounced. And . . . (drumroll) . . . Rick’s score is: AMAZING! We got exactly the same score!

I have a couple good posts in mind.

For dinner last night I prepared one of the children’s favorite “comfort” meals, a homemade salmon chowder, MINUS the salmon. Once I’m home from work I’ll post that recipe with some pictures. The recipe will include the salmon, for those of you who prefer the “whole” recipe.

I had hoped yesterday to do a Give Me Five Monday post, but the hostess of that meme is extra busy these days and didn’t send out a prompt.

As usual, I also have been staying up too late, and that caught up with me yesterday. Rather than stay up just a little longer to put up a little post, I curled up in bed with a good book (A book review will make a good post in due time.) and went to bed on time for once.

Usually I would do a Ten on Tuesday post, but I’ll be skipping that this week as well, because the prompt is Ten Places I haven’t been yet that I would like to travel. I don’t travel well, so any traveling on my part will be mainly vicarious.

Well, break is about over. I’ll catch ya later.

P.S. - I also took a fun quiz for which I will post the link in another post. This quiz asks you how you pronounce certain words, which is an ongoing source of amusement for some of us.

ALMOST

My husband snapped some quick pics while we were on a little walk tonight.

Isn’t it wonderful? We have a self-walking doggie. She’s quite conscientious about holding the leash until you take it from her.

Enjoy visiting some more Wordless Wednesday participants!

This is the prompt provided by Yano for this week’s Ten on Tuesday. I haven’t thought this through, so you will receive these in the order in which they occur to me.

• It takes me a while to feel comfortable with a new machine. This is why I REALLY do not like driving someone else’s car, especially in the dark. When we first moved to our home here many years ago, my husband asked me to drive his big, clunky, manual transmission work truck. The child who rode with me could sense my nervousness and asked me if we were going to be OK.
  
• Dental work makes me so nervous that I either need to clutch a soft pillow to keep my hands still, or better yet, ask the dentist for nitrous oxide in order to relax and be a good patient.
  
• I like things in my home to be clean and orderly, but also to stay in the same place. My husband likes to rearrange things. So, rearranging happens when I am out, and I gradually get used to the new layout.
  
• I would rather stay in our general locale for a special outing than travel far away. Once we are on the road for our annual vacation to see Dad and Mom Taron, I am game for fun, but other than that I am most comfortable at home.
  
• The biggest celebrations for us as a family are birthdays. Often, especially when the children were younger, the birthday would even have a theme, such as Winnie the Pooh, Pirates of the Caribbean, or Pokemon.
  
• I prefer that other family members take the pictures. I have taken some of the pictures for my blog, but not many.
  
• I enjoy skimming through the dictionary to learn new words, and subscribe to My Word a Day online. As a family we will take turns trying to stump one another with new words, or competing to see who knows how to pronounce an unusual word.
  
• If I see half a cookie, I am almost irresistibly drawn to finish it. Please! Eat the whole cookie and leave me in peace!
  
• The best gift my husband can give me is doing work around the house, especially outside. One year I requested (and received) a dump truck load of gravel for the driveway for my birthday present.
  
• It is dangerous to let me begin a sewing project (which is probably why I haven’t done one in a few years) because all else (including eating and doing any other work) must fall by the wayside until it’s done. I enjoy the process, and I like to see the finished product. What can I say? Maybe a little obsessive compulsive?
  

There is a pretty simple way

To tell the story of my day

With eight syllables in each line.

Also, each couplet has to rhyme.

Yesterday I complained to you

Of too much rain. Today was blue

Skies overhead for quite a while.

Just looking around made me smile.

Hyacinths, tulips, daffodils,

Grass growing in good earnest fills

My mind with plans to work outside

But more than weather is my guide.

Suffice it to say, much got done

By all the fam. Now just for fun,

Since weather conditions are right,

The kids will sleep outside tonight.

Oops! It’s tomorrow already;

Time for me to go to beddy. (Anything for a rhyme)

Nothing too complicated about my inspiration for this week’s Haiku Friday:

• The weather
• The season
• Some cute photos of the three youngest children taken five years ago during similar weather

For more Haiku, visit Jennifer over at Playgroups are No Place for Children and Christina at A Mommy Story.

(Thanks to Hootin’ Anni for the Thursday 13 header.)

I found this meme over at my friend Storyteller’s Small Reflections. Thank you, Storyteller, for the fun idea!

Here is how you play:

• Go to http://photobucket.com/
• Type your answer to the question in the SEARCH box.
• Choose a graphic from the first page that comes up.
• Insert the picture into your blog.

1. What is your current relationship status? Married

2. What is your current mood? Tired

3. What is your favorite band/singer? Eva Cassidy

4. What is your favorite movie? Pride and Prejudice

5. Where do you live? Pacific Northwest

6. Where do you work? School

7. What do you look like?

(This is what happens when you search for images of yourself on photobucket that don’t exist. :P)

8. What do you drive?

9. What is your favorite TV show? Don’t watch TV

10. Describe yourself: Loving

11. What are you doing today? Some 6th graders and I played this game. Fun!

12. What did you do last night? Sleep

13. What is your name?

I suppose this is appropriate, since I work at a Middle School. But I do think that I have a good vocabulary. Maybe my writing style is too simple and straightforward to be considered high school level. (sigh)