Time alone

The kids are back at school full-time now and I find myself filling nearly 8 hours a day alone. What to do is the question now. All this time also gives me time to think and take action on things I have been putting off like...

1. Mow the lawn. I got harassed a little by my neighbor and his son-in-law last week that "you have a lawn, I have a yard" Huh? Being a farm raised guy, he doesn't really care about his "yard". He just keeps it mowed just enough so the neighbors don't complain. No water, fertilizer, etc. "You're 'lawn' looks great, but you are starting to give my wife ideas, so stop it!" (He was joking around with me of course.)

2. Painting. I spent all day yesterday painting the hallway upstairs. You wouldn't think that would take all day, but geez, going around all those doors takes awhile.

3. Painting Wish list. I so want to paint the north and south walls of our living room, but they are at a 20 plus foot angled vault. Why didn't we think about that when we built this place!?!

4. Watching the dog. I still find myself asking the dog, "Are you OK?", she is starting to look at me with this "Why do you keep asking me that?" look. This morning she was back to her barking when I was putting my shoes on. We went for a walk even before I took the kids to school. She's starting to perk back up.

5. The "mom" roller coaster. She is still in the hospital. One day she is looking pretty good, getting up and walking around, smiling. The next morning I get a call that she is sedated, bleeding from her kidneys into her catheter, demanding pain meds, and on oxygen again. "What the he**?" I was just there, she looked good! I'm pretty sure the Mayo clinic would be scratching their heads at her.

6. Clean it up Criss! Watching this weeks episode of Criss Angel, which we all love, I was noticing that they are having to bleep out profanity from not only the public spectators but also Criss. I decided to e-mail his web-site asking for him to cut back on this. "You have a family show here, why do you feel it necessary to use so much profanity?"

7. A Boy Scout Move? With the move to St. Mary's school for my son, we also have to decide whether to move him into their Boy Scout pack. We initially weren't going to, but we found out that the St. Mary based pack is much more structured and disciplined than the pack he was in last year which seemed to carry over the "organized chaos" from the school he was at. I guess this ones a no brainer!

8. Can we get Grandpa a Wii? My daughter read an article in the newspaper about senior citizens stimulating their bodies and minds with the Nintendo Wii gaming console. She wants to get her Grandpa Jim one for his new apartment. "We don't have to do that, they have one in the activities center at the home." her Dad replied. "Cool, we can show him how it works over Thanksgiving!"

9. A look at our faith. Our daughter had her first "bad" day at school. She just doesn't like the crowded halls and noise in between classes, and getting bumped and shoved into lockers. "All it takes is a phone call and you can be at St. Mary's too!" I replied. "No, Mom I DON"T want to wear a uniform and I don't want to have to pray every day! Ouch! As we get ready to work on the renovation of the education center with a big youth area at our church, I told my husband we have to get involved with this. My church friends were my rocks growing up. We looked after each other and we kept each other out of trouble. I want her to want to go to church, pray, and take her faith seriously. These days, that isn't enough. We need high tech activity centers for the kids to hang out. We, including her, needs to help with this project and stay involved so she isn't tempted to run the streets and find her friends there. "THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!"

10. Communicate Better. Our son brought some unfinished work home. He was to complete it and bring it back to school. I thought it was done, and he just brought it home so in my attempt to rid our house of clutter, I tossed it. "I am so going to be busted!" he said. I walked up to the teacher and explained. She smiled and said she would send another assignment home so he can complete it over the weekend for a grade. I asked her to please mark "finish" or "redo" on his papers he brings home, otherwise I won't know what to do. I also took our son to task, he knew it had to be done, and just didn't tell me. We will need to communicate better.