I’m Having trouble writing just lately, I tend to go in phases & I’m not much for light stuff right now, I was going to write about amusing things my kids have said or done & I swear I had a bunch of them, I remember writing some down in diaries of mine, I used to draw a box around them so I could differentiate them from regular diary entries, I went looking for some to use today & couldn’t find a one, I started reading my old diaries a little bit, mostly from the space of time when I first met Ann, (I noticed I spelled  your name with an ‘e’ at the end Ann, sorry!) I read a lovely interchange between my ex & in which I was upstairs, he was down stairs, he wrote a note saying he was hungry & sent it up to me with miss 17 (back when she was 6) I wrote back & said I was busy & to start dinner himself, he replied that he didn’t know how, I replied with itemized directions to get the lasagne out of the fridge where it was waiting, ready to be baked, take the foil off the top, start the oven & set it to 350 & put the lasagne in the oven for 30 minutes. His reply was to ‘get the @#*&^! down here & make my dinner b#### or I will beat the S*** out of you’ the part which really worried me was that I aparently found this funny & told him to get over himself. I looked back & found I was completely innured to his coarseness, his rudeness & his self centeredness, I admit sometimes I look back & wonder who I was back then, was I the same person or was I trying on a persona, just like he was doing so much of the time. One of the odder things in the diaries are the amount of letters I wrote in which I told him how unhappy I was that he was out drinking, playing in bands etc. & the number of cards he gave me which said he loves me so much, thanks for putting up with his b.s. sorry he quit annother job. (or 8.)  And so on & so on, I have more cards in my diaries than I can count, I was a little surprised myself, I’ve had time in past years, to read my diaries over from before I had kids, when I first came to VA, when 17 was a baby & very young, also I’ve read the spaces of time when my relationship with the ex was new to me & the first couple of years, but since I had miss 10 I haven’t had time or inclination to go back & read anything more. In the last 2 years I’ve barely written in my current  diary. At first it was a too tired, too busy sort of a thing, now it’s a situation where I get a lot more writing out here on my blog, even if I write something & delete it or save it to my notebook it’s a lot quicker going when putting it down with a keyboard (& a lot more legible) than to take a pen in hand & write stuff down.

All in all this day was good, I got some laundry acomplished, 17’s boyfriend was able to get my push mower running & mowed the front yard for us (with 17 running the weed whacker beside him) 10 & 7 & I had exausted ourselves before that picking up sticks & branches from the previous windy weather all over the yard. We also picked big bunches of violets & grape hyacinths because the mower was going to take them all down anyway & I wanted to have some to enjoy. I mailed a book to my mother, a birthday card to my cousin (a week late, but it’s the thought that counts right?) & paid for my P.O. box for annother year.  I tried a diet coke plus & was not particularly impressed. It tasted a little odd & since I’m already taking a multivitamin & drinking a soy protien breakfast drink loaded with vitamins it seems a little like overkill. I fed everyone a good big diner of tacos & salad with croutons, feta cheese & tons of cheese, for once we had enough tomatoes & cucumbers that everyone was happy with the salad. (well, for once, out of season from the garden, I paid for enough tomatoes & cukes, in summer we always have enough of them)

I have declared tommorow annother yard day where we’ll try to get more of the yard mowed & whacked, plant the trees I got from the Arborday foundation. (10 trees for a $10. membership- great deal) I can’t decide where to put them though, I’m making a square of the front yard, between the path down to the front door & the driveway, into a garden, mr 7 put the stepping stones we made last fall into line across the grassy area, I’m still trying to figure out how/if I’m going to dig the whole thing up or just tear it up a little & maybe, for now, sprinkle in one of those bird & butterfly canisters they sell. I bought 18 inch fencing in white to run around the perimiter to try to help keep mr 7 out of it- my tulips & hyacinth on either side of my front path are ragged from his tramping all over them constantly! I get tired of reminding him about not walking on them. Tommorow will be enough to get through without adding more to it. I decided after a few treks around the yard picking up sticks & other debris that I have to build up to a parkway trip, maybe in 2 weeks.

While we were eating our lovely dinner we decided to watch a movie, I was all for the Lord of the Rings, Fellowship. Since 17’s boyfriend is a fan & so am I but 17 was adamant that we weren’t spending all evening watching that so we turned to the dvr where I had a bunch of movies from the most recent free preview of HBO. I wanted to watch The Lakehouse (I think that was what it was called) but 17 had already seen it, also I know 7 would have gotten bored. So we watched Funny Farm, I think it was the first time I’ve ever seen it uncut before, it was as funny as always & the kids all got a kick out of it too, though about 20 minutes into it 17 remembered she’d seen it before. Early night for everyone as it’s Friday, everyone had to get up early for school this morning (except me, I slept in) & so are tired & mopey.

Miss 17 announced with a little over 2 weeks to go that she wants to go to the prom. I was not pleased, especially since the prom is scheduled for a Saturday which they’d just warned us at work we may have to work on even though it’s our day off. (a pay per view fight) I told my boss & explained that since 17 is my babysitter I like to try to keep her happy as much as I can without caving in on every little thing. My boss told me I could always make up the overtime we may be expected to put in later in the week.

The next day they told us what they’re going to do instead of make us work May 5th for this fight, they’re going to have us come in on 4/30 as a normal day but leave half way through it, at 2 pm for the day. then on Friday 5/4 we have to go in & work from 7 pm to midnight. No overtime & a half day that late at night? Yuck! I guess it beats the unemployment office though.

Picture notes, my violets from the yard before mowing. Miss 10 with her new-ish haircut. Mr 7 with baloons stuffed into his shirt. (much better than what miss 10 was doing with them. )