The coming week...

I am not looking forward to next week. I have reports due next week, and since I took time off last week during spring break, I feel like I'm behind. Hopefully, I won't run into problems. However, since I'm kind of in a hurry to get stuff done, Murphy's Law will kick in. If it can go wrong, it will.

I shouldn't think that way. Here it is Sunday, and I'm already dreading the coming week.

I have to remember the power of POSITIVE THINKING!

Too much to ask?

Let me start by saying that my husband helps around the house more than some. He does the dishes and he will wash and dry clothes. However, is it too much to ask of my husband and two capable children to go "above and beyond" their normal contribution when I'm sick?

Until today, I had been in bed sick for three days and sick for four. I got up and around this morning, and was irritated with what I saw. I wouldn't say that I was shocked, but I really thought SOMETHING would have been done while I was down and out. There was laundry piled to the top of the recliner. It was so high that it was starting to fall into the floor. The rest of the living room was a mess, and the vacuum really needed to be used. The kitchen...oh my goodness! There was stuff all over the floor. There was something sticky all across the floor, there was what looked like dirty shoe smears across the floor, there was coffee (and I don't drink coffee at home), there were ramen noodles all over the stove, and all the kitchen counters were covered with stuff.

I realize that I do the cleaning and the majority of the housework, but it would have been nice not to have to spend the first day of feeling decent cleaning the house. However, clean is what I did.

I called into work, knowing that it would not be a good day today. When I woke up early this morning, I was still having aches and chills. I don't think I really ever had the flu, but whatever it was it was no fun. Anyway, this afternoon, I started feeling somewhat better. I wouldn't say that I feel fantastic, and I still have some aching, but I felt good enough to get up and about. So, not being able to take it any longer, I cleaned the kitchen and the living room, and put my son to work in his bathroom. I, yes I, hung my husbands clothes and put everything away that was piling up.

I don't expect kudos for all the cleaning...nobody does it like me anyway. It just irriated me that nobody even offered to help.

Obsession

I have become obsessed with cake and cookie decorating! I have created another blog at http://www.momswork2hardcakes.blogspot.com/ to post all my pictures and talk about it. When I started this, I didn't realize how addictive it would be!

Baseball Cookies

With baseball season upon us, I wanted to try my hand at making baseball cookies. A few of them turned out pretty good, but most of them were pretty rough. I was surprised to find that the stitching was not the hard part. The hard part was getting the white icing to stay and look smooth. I tried to get the edges of the icing to look round, and when that didn't work I tried just going over the side of the cookie. That didn't work too well either, so I will have to do some research to see if there is a trick to icing a cookie.

They were fun to make, so I'll have to practice. From my previous post, you know that I am taking a cake decorating classes. Hopefully, that will help and I'll become better at winging it on things like baseball cookies.

War

I don't know about you, but I think about the Iraq war ALL the time. I don't have any friends or family over there, but it just really disturbs me to think of what is happening over there.

My son had a program at school last night, and it was all songs about America. They sang about freedom, war, the military anthems, etc. One of the songs they sang, made me think. They sang the Lee Greenwood song, God Bless the USA. He actually spoke at my high school graduation (a long time ago). He was there getting ready to put on a concert, found out a graduation was taking place, and gave a short little speech and sang part of that song. Anyway, part of the lyrics are "I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free. I won't forget the men who died and gave that right to me". The mere thought of this gives me chills.

I am proud to be an American, and it is hard for me to visualize anything different. I cannot imagine living with the chaos and car bombs that some countries, like Iraq, do. I cannot imagine being afraid to go to the grocery store for fear of being kidnapped or blown up. I cannot imagine what day-to-day life is like for citizens over there. Furthermore, I cannot imagine OUR men and women over there being killed while trying to bring order to THEIR country.

Believe me, I understand that we have to protect our country. I understand that we have to take out the enemy that attacks us. I get that. What I don't really get is that we are trying to help them put together a government, and help train their military to protect their country. That doesn't seem right.

I'm just really not sure about this whole thing, and I'm really not sure where I stand. Yes, if you are a threat to America, we'll take you out. However, should America really be in charge of "training" other countries and help them change the way they've done things forever. Is that really our place? I know we're talking about the governement here, but isn't there a line to be crossed somewhere?

I just wonder...I thought the reason we attacked was to get Saddam. We did that, so why are we still there?

My new hobby...

To spend some girl time together, my daughter and I are taking a cake decorating class at a local craft store. Last night was our first night to actually decorate. Oh my! My cake was so ugly! We did rainbows using a star tip, and the rainbow actually turned out cute. HOWEVER, the actual icing of the cake was just a pitiful mess. There were so many crumbs in the icing when I was done, there was no saving it.

I guess it tasted okay...my family gobbled it up!