Mostly-Mommy

I have a huge blogcrush on Joy the Baker.

I found a link to her Double Chocolate Peanut Butter ice cream (which I have shared with you before) and have been hooked ever since. Almost every recipe she posts makes me want to run into the kitchen, strap on my apron and get baking.

I’m discovering that I actually really enjoy baking even though I am terribly uneducated about how to do things properly. If I wasn’t so busy wrangling my kids every day I might just want to get some lessons in baking and do it professionally. I think it would be awesome to have an afternoon/after-dinner shop that served desserts and drinks only. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? A comfy place to chill out for a bit when you’re done with dinner but trying to kill some time before you have to get home and free the babysitter. I could do the baking and ice cream making and my lovely husband could fulfill his dreams of being a barista. Well, he doesn’t actually want to be a barista he just wants to have an excuse to get a giant, professional espresso machine. Perfect.

Any generous billionaires out there who are looking to finance the dreams of a very nice family?

First let me tell you about my day today:

* While I was getting breakfast made Nick left his door open so Zoey went in and dumped pee from his potty everywhere and got all wet.
* I took Nick to school with his runny nose and his teacher thought it was ok for him to stay.
* Zo and I made a quick trip to Wal-Mart for lots of junk food for the guys coming to visit this weekend (hi guys!).
* Good thing it was a quick trip because the school had me come back to pick Nick up.
* Karsen (my little bro) is back from school so he came over for a while.
* Roscoe stole Nick’s lunch and ate it. Jerk dog.
* I don’t feel too spiffy. I’m tired, I have a headache and I feel things that I shouldn’t like my eyeballs, eardrums, sinuses, and lungs. I think our whole family has this now. Meh.

Okay, now that I’m done whining about TODAY let me tell you about Tuesday, which was Nick’s first day of preschool. There will be a lot less whining I promise. From ME, anyway.

Isn’t he cute? Always with that face.

I think his favorite thing was getting to use his backpack for something other than just an overnight bag. And he enjoyed the school quite a bit. It is always interesting to try and get factual information out of a toddler (is he still a toddler?!?) but he says they played outside, read a story, ate pineapple, and that his teacher painted his feet. Hmph.

We had a celebratory post-Preschool dinner at Chick-Fil-A. Nick was pretty happy about that too. Especially the ice cream.

Tomorrow is the big day, the day Nick starts PRESCHOOL. We’re pretty excited. More on that later.

Today I’ve felt so scatterbrained and tired, totally zapped of energy. I think it is because we were deluged with rain this past week and now it has been really cool outside — my body thinks it is fall now I guess. The changing of seasons is always weird for me.

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So there has been something on my mind that I need to share and any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. This preschool I found is very close to our house (easily within walking distance) and is substantially cheaper than ANYTHING else I could find, like a quarter as much. I visited it and thought it seemed safe, fun, and like the teacher will be good with him. I have to bring a snack for the class once a month and participate in a calling tree for things like snow days but that is the only parental participation required. I’m okay with the philosophy which is theme-based learning through play, meaning that they aren’t heavy on academics but I’m cool with that because he is THREE. He doesn’t need to be sitting there working on worksheets, he needs to be having fun learning social skills and how to not be the lunatic that he is here at home (oy what a day we had today).

All sounds pretty good right? Here’s the thing. It’s a Lutheran school. A large part of their schooling revolves around Jesus and his teachings and what not. There are bible stories every day, there is the “worship corner,” and they go up to the temple (?) once a week to pray or something and donate money to the projects the church has going (feeding the homeless, etc).

I have absolutely no problems with religious schools or going to church or anything like that and I do not judge anyone for their religious beliefs. The question I am facing is that as a non-religious, not even particularly spiritual family, what kind of issues is this schooling going to raise for us? Do we just go along with everything his teacher and peers are telling him? Do we tell him these are all just “stories” some people believe are true? If he decides to become religious (ANY religion) later on we will fully support him in that but at the tender age of 3 1/2 I just don’t know how best to handle all this. Obviously if I thought it was a serious problem I would’ve sucked it up and shelled out the extra $100-200 a month to put him somewhere not bible-based. It isn’t a deal breaker but it leaves me at a bit of a loss as to what to say about it. Anyone else ever face this kind of situation?

I’ll leave you with a couple of pictures. These show how I see “god” in the world around me.

SOMEONE is looking out for Nick seeing as how he made it through today alive with what a little shit he was being. This picture helped.

As you may have noticed some things are looking a little different around here. I’d like to hope for the better! New theme (yes, I know it doesn’t have the best code but I like the design), a bit of reorganization, and what’s that over there? And down there? Wha… ADS? I thought I would give it a try and see if I can make enough to afford a lottery ticket habit because I’m sure that’s about the best I can ask for. But we’ll see, maybe I’ll become fabulously popular — spread the word! Tell your friends! And I know at least one of you has been (I’m looking at you mom) because I was nominated for “Hottest Mommyblogger” in the Blogger’s Choice Awards. Sweet! Now is that “hot” like hip or “hot” like smokin’ hot? I choose to believe it is both. Either way you should go vote for me because apparently I am HOT!

And while we’re on the topic of the new design, how to you like it? Do you hate the ads? Are you impressed by the wonderful work my wonderful husband did to make all these wonderful changes to my wonderful blog? (Thanks, honey!)

In other news, my children are cute. You can see this for youself over at Karrmedia where the new pictures are up for the month. I was actually only a week late getting them up this time but then I forgot to post about it here… c’est la vie I guess.

Put her to work, Lowe’s!

He thinks this face is charming. Or something. I don’t get three-year-olds.

I swear, kids grow up so fast these days.

See? Cute. I would never lie to you.

Wheel of Fortune came on TV and Nick said, “This is my show!”

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Me: “What do you want for dinner?”

Nick: “Taco Bells!”

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Nick drug Zoey out of his room and slammed the door, shouting, “No! She’s BANNED!”

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“Bye-bye Mommy! I’m going to the toy store!”

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“I like Griffin. I OWN him.” (ed: Griffin is one of our cats)

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“My magnetic letters! They’re what I’ve always wanted!”