Strange days...

Today I tore the arms off of a barbie doll (art supplies!), stuffed them in the pocket of my apron, and then threw the rest of "her" in the trash.  These are strange days, indeed.

Earlier Miso pushed Bashi into my kitchen in her baby doll's stroller and she said, "He's 14...and his name is Anselunta".  Where does this all come from?  This lackluster, yet cold, winter has brought some cabin fever.  If I was a diligent person, I would write down every strange/funny/crazy thing my kids have said or done in the past month, and I could publish a book and sell it in the humor section of Half Price Books!

Christmas rolled by like a dream this year.  And I do believe my children have been "over gifted".  I watched them throw brand new markers about like they were sticks from the yard...then they picked one up and started coloring ON the new book they had just received.  They've lost all respect for the gift and have entered, "What's NEXT?!" mode.  Just looking for some paper to tear.  So I'm not only stashing piles of old toys in the back closet (for later rediscovery and reuniting) but I'm also subversively layering long-since played with toys in between my own discards bound for the thrift store.  They'll never know...unless you tell them!  :)

Last week, we had one of our priests over for Epiphany dinner...I served Vietnamese "pho" (fuh), you know, Epi(PHO)ny?!  Anyway...he'd never been to our house and wanted to see the second floor.  Yikes.  What a laundry explosion there was up there!  Not only had I recently enjoyed a 50% off thrift store shopping extravaganza and had adopted every medium-sized grey or black cotton sweater I could find (and hence was systematically washing them multiple times to get the thrift store aroma out) but I also had all the new Christmas clothes washing, towels from here to there, and a swelling pile of soiled infant clothes courtesy of the failure of the "green" disposable diapers I started using while we were all sick last month. There were piles lined up along the wall of clothes to give away, clothes I'm saving for this person or that person...clothes, clothes, CLOTHES!! By the way, Father DID go up there, saw my sins and only said, "You sure like to decorate!"  Was it the 4 boxes of Christmas decorations sitting on the landing?  Or did he mean I decorate my house with CLOTHES?!  I'm not quite sure...

Just today, I went through my closet and downsized by 50%.  Not only am I trying on a new hat...the "If I haven't worn it yet, I WON'T EVER WEAR IT!" hat...but I'm also working on Miso's sense of generosity.  What's hers is hers...and what's HIS is hers...and I'd like her to not care so much about material things and be willing to give things to people who have nothing.  Also, I'd like her to stop screaming like she's being knifed in the back when her brother takes a toy from her!  Just small wishes...you know...

Hmmmm...Is there anything quite like the sound of 400 pistachio shells hitting the kitchen floor?  Gotta go!