Birds and Bees and Groceries

$43,729.80
Now, would you like to know what I've spent that on?  I was in Quicken (the newest version, which I don't like), and I accidentally pulled a report.  I meant to pull one for the current month, but it pulled ALL "Dining" transactions!  This is the amount I've spent on the category "Dining" since I started Quicken in 2000!  I knew we ate out..but that means.. about $349.84 a month?  How is that even possible?  I asked Ches what his estimate was-and he said $50,000!  He is precious-not even surprised.  I expect him to cow out, then promise no more Diet Cokes at the drive-thru!
So, for fun, I pulled our grocery bill since then (since Ches asked about it!), it was $124 thousand and something (stupid Quicken crashed!) (it was surprised too!).
Good golly, back to budgeting...I obviously need to work on it more.

And then we went out (to eat and to the movies!).  I know..more adding to my total.  I totally know it's bad-but we already had a babysitter (and we totally need time together alone-it's worth investing in!).  We finally saw The Social Network.  It's been out so long (since the first of October!), so we are kinda slow.  We haven't had a date since then!  It was really good (not amazing), and so interesting.  I'm wondering how truthful it is.  I didn't know about it for a while-in the movie it was mostly designed for college students, and I was way out of college!  I'll have to read more about it.  I was shocked to see at the end that Mark Zuckerberg gave the Winkle-vi (hahaha-have to see the movie!) 65 million! and gave Eduardo an undisclosed amount of money.  I can't even imagine!   I was so shocked until it said that the site was now worth 25 billion.  Holy Cow.


I have no crafty things for you. : (  I laid around in bed all day-reading and sleeping.  A truly lazy day.  I still haven't finished Bringing Up Girls (it's got some hard stuff in it-I can't believe how the world is pushing sexualization for young girls.  I believe it happens, but Oh My.).  It scares me, and maybe I don't want to deal with it.  Ches and I talked about it some more this evening, and I found out he had The Talk with Clay already-what?  I had told Ches some time ago that Clay would have to know the truth soon, and Ches thought I meant sooner rather than later.  He didn't mention it the day they talked-I wish I'd known!  I would have been so much more sensitive.  (maybe that's why he didn't tell me?)  Now, I'm wondering about Mary Claire.  I don't think Clay has told her anything or she'd have asked me.  She's very open and tells me everything (I think!).  She seems so innocent-maybe another year?  I'll wait unless she asks more questions.  It's a hard thing.  I've told her all about periods (which wasn't that hard), but the birds and the bees?  That's a hard one.  My mom always told me everything, the best I can remember-I don't ever remember not knowing what really happened, but it makes me nervous to tell my kids!  I'll pray about it! : )

Bringing Up Creative Kids!

Hey, ya'll!  I'm laughing so hard, and you have to join me!  hahahaha
Ok, here are my kids' latest art projects (it's the end of the year, you know..so they are all coming home!):

This is Clay's poem.  I'm sure he could've written about anything, but he chose vomit.  Gross.  But if I freak out, he'll get the response he's looking for.

This would be the primary difference between girls and boys.  I'll get to that later.  Isn't it precious?  I think I'm going to mat and frame it.  Pure love-and she's hilarious too!

Here's another of her beautiful works:

 Can't you just feel spring in the air now?


Ok, back to Clay.  Here's his other poem:

They are just different.  Spring:  She sees flowers and thinks of lemonade.  He sees cows and thinks of what they might think!

And here is my baby-busy drawing his hand, his bed, a submarine, and some scribbles.  Will he be more like Clay just because he's a boy?  I pray that he's exactly the boy God wants him to be!


I'm reading this book:

It's the latest.  I read Bringing Up Boys when it came out-maybe 3 or 4 years ago?  This one has proven to be just as good.  It makes me think.  We don't have a great guidebook, but Dr. Dobson has done a great job researching literature to share the best with us, and to give us his perspective, both as a parent and as a doctor (Ph. D. in child development).

I'd been having trouble lately with Mary Claire showing me some attitude/spoiled behavior.  We are out to nip that in the bud.  The book is helping, as is not buying her ANYTHING.  Yesterday, at Clay's game, this little girl gave Mary Claire a quarter (can you even believe you can still buy something for 25 cents?) to buy a ring pop.  I told her no.  It's not about the money, it's about the reality she knows-that she gets whatever she wants, and it has to stop.  (It mostly involves self-control on my part-very hard-it's so fun to buy girly stuff!)


So, I'm learning how very different boys and girls are-even from 8 weeks gestation!  Boys are bathed in testosterone at 8 weeks gestation, and girls have their "juvenile puberty" starting between 3-6 months of age and ends abruptly at 3 years.  They grow differently: girl babies look to faces to judge feelings.  If they look at one face that has too much Botox (yes, it's in research!), she looks to the other faces around her to read their emotions.  They are called..what's the Star Trek term?..an empath?  Boys loose the connections between the left and right hemispheres in their brains, and that's why they don't always think before they act, and why they don't understand why we have trouble making decisions-they're are so many factors!


Anyway, I can see truth in what I've read, and it manifests in my kids..see above!  So if you have small kids-especially girls-I would recommend this book. If not, just look at the art, and laugh! : )