tifi

I will have left Texas to go back to the East Coast for good! It’s been hard not blogging about preparing to move, especially with so many other people I know moving and going through the same things. But I felt it best to talk about it after it was already done, which is the way I do most things. Right now I’m  scared, anxious, and excited. I’m hopeful, I’m curious, I’m feeling so many different things that I want to laugh, cry, and scream all at the same time.

I hope that our life in our new city will be more filled with joy, peace,and family than when we were in Texas. People have asked if I will miss Texas. No, I doubt it. But I will miss the few great friends I made there, they know who they are. I will miss my neighbors who genuinely loved my kids. And I will miss the wildflowers in the springtime. But I will not miss the heat. I will not miss the crazy allergies I had there. I will not miss not having many cultural activities or arts programs. And not having museums, I won’t miss that. The thing I definitely will not miss is the stress we had, especially in the past three years. Boy, the things that don’t get blogged could fill a book, no?

Anyway, I am taking a little blogging break now to learn my new place and hopefully to enjoy my summer out of doors for the first time in 10 years!

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This is an auto-post and the last few have been too. So if they seem disconnected, now you know why.

I have been trying to remember and teach Girlie some playground games. Specifically clapping games and ring games. If you have any, I’d love to see them in the comments. Oh, and I want this book. So far, I remember:

eeny-meeny siscileeney
ooh-bop-tumbleeny
achy-kachy liberace i love you
(I remember complicated hand movements)

take a peach, take a plum
take a stick of bubblegum
no peach, no plum
no stick of bubblegum

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down down baby
down by the rollercoaster
sweet sweet baby
I’ll never let you go

shimmy shimmy coco pop
shimmy shimmy pow
shimmy shimmy coco pop
shimmy shimmy pow

Uno, dos, y tres-a
I said an east, a west
i met my boyfriend at the candy store
he bought me ice cream
he bought me cake
he brought me home with
a belly ache

mama, mama
I feel sick
call the doctor
quick, quick, quick

doctor, doctor
while I die
count to five and I’ll be alive
1,2,3,4,5
I’m alive!
6,7,8,9,10
I’m dead again

or

Grandma, grandma sick in bed-
Mama called the doctor and the doctor said
Let’s get the rhythm of the head- ding dong! (shake head side to side)
Let’s get the rhythm of the hands- clap clap! (clap hands)
Let’s get the rhythm of the feet- stomp stomp! (stomp feet)
Let’s get the rhythm of the hot dog! (swivel hips)
Let’s get the rhythm of the hot dog!

Put ‘em all together and what do you get?
Ding dong, clap clap, stomp stomp, hot dog!

Put ‘em all backwards and what do you get?
Hot dog, stomp stomp, clap clap, ding dong.

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Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack

All dressed in black, black, black

With silver buttons, buttons, buttons

All down her back, back, back

She asked her mother, mother, mother

For 50 cents, cents, cents

To watch the elephants, elephants, elephants

Jump over the fence, fence, fence

They jumped so high, high, high

They touched the sky, sky, sky

They never came down, down, down

Until the fourth of July, ly, ly, ly, ly, ly

Also remember “We’re going to Kentucky”, “Brown girl in the ring”, “Bluebird, Bluebird through my window”, “Oranges and Lemons”, “Concentration”. There are also some nameless word games I remember a bit. The more I find online, the more I remember!

Links:

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/archive/index.php/t-83013.html

http://www.beachnet.com/~jeanettem/chants.html

http://hubpages.com/hub/Recess-is-BACK-Hand-Clapping-Games

http://www.gokidprod.com/cti.htm

So I came upon this recipe at one of the blogs I mentioned last week and knew I had to try it right away. I had all the ingredients, and that is mostly how I cook, I rarely go out of my way to buy specific things a recipe calls for. I’m a winger. When I bake, with the exception of a few items, I am not quite sure what I am doing. But I made these pretzels…and they came out perfectly! Everyone liked and ate them…not just to appease me either. Wow! We did some with brown sugar, some with garlic, some with sea salt. All fabulous. With lemonade to drink. The kids had a blast deciding what shapes to make the pretzels in, and we talked about why dough rises, so we had a little science thrown in there too. Best of all, it was super simple, my favorite kind of project.

Next stop: First Grade!

So I thought I’d share a few sites with great ideas for fun things to do with the kids:

The Crafty Crow - If you don’t click through to any other sites, go to this one. Gobs of ideas here.

Big and Little Art - Great prompts which I am finding that ZB needs a little as he gets older.

Kids Craft Weekly - I think lots of folks know about this one already, but for those who don’t, you can get updates with a new craft theme every week.

 Rainforest Maths - cute online math program.

Unplug Your Kids - TV free ideas for families.

The Artful Parent -  Beautiful and inspirational.

me & my girl - Geared towards mothers and daughters, I think, but these mostly simple crafts could work for boys or girls.

Camp Creek Press - One of my favorites, about art and nature.

Art Projects for kids - just like the name says!

Kiddley is no longer being updated, but still has great stuff.

Most of the sites I’ve listed have links to tons more, so enjoy! Try not to go nuts working with scissors, paper, glue and kids, hehe.

• The bump on ZB’s head turned out to be ringworm.
• I got the blue screen (hopefully not of death) on my computer.
• The kids’ doctor’s office informed me that I have a balance, and it turns out they submitted claims to my insurance company late. I’m not paying a thing!
• ZB had his honor roll ceremony.
• I started jumping through hoops trying to get a proctor and set up my exam for my first class.
• I realized the bug bite on my neck is ringworm too.

I’ve been wanting to try wearing a face full of makeup for a while, and finally got up the courage to do so. In this photo, I am wearing concealer, foundation (more like a tinted moisturizer), eye shadow, eye liner, mascara, blush and lip gloss. Phew. I learned a few things, like my eyes are probably too small for me to wear black eyeliner. My eyes all but disappear. Also, I’m gonna need to practice blending around the forehead.

Yesterday was field day which is always a blast.

School mom: “Your daughter is so cute, she looks like a dollbaby!”

Appropriate response: “Aw, thanks!” :-D

My response: *chuckle chuckle* “Yea, well, you know, it’s funny you should say that, b/c there is actually a doll with a name similar to hers, and so I bought her that doll b/c of the name similarity, and everything, and now she plays with it in the tub, and the others, she named after her friends, and, and, and…”

School mom: “….huh, interesting!” *runs away*

So this school thing is actually work! Imagine that! After being thrown off almost a week due to an error made by the school, I am now playing catch up trying to get two weeks worth of work done before next Tuesday. I will probably be up till O Dark 30 Monday night getting it done, but s’ok. I work best under pressure. Some people pace themselves and do a bit at a time but why would I want to do that? That would make sense!

The kids’ school year is winding down and seems to be drama free, so I’m happy about that. It has gotten stupid Texas hot the past few days and so I spend my time indoors between sun-up and well, bedtime. If I must go out, I scurry from air conditioned car to air conditioned building and back. Like I’ve said before, I am a delicate flower, not made for heat. I had heat stroke last year, and even fainted from the heat as a child.

My kids are currently banned from taking out library books due to the whopping fine I recently had to pay for a lost book. It was either that or go to court as not paying fines is considered a misdemeanor here. I’m not kidding. I bet the library ban goes out the window once school lets out…or maybe remembering those fines will keep the ban in check.
Anyway, I have reading to do, so I better get to it!