{SQT} Six Molasses Takes

Today’s blogging goal?  I’m not going to be whiny, long-winded, negative or come across as “mentally unstable.” You can give me a grade in the comboxes.

1. I’m so organized, this week I put my kid’s toys on a weekly schedule. The low down: condense 95 percent of the toys on the first floor into four 20 gallon tubs, with only one tub of toys making an appearance in my living room each week.  Even though I regularly weed out toys for donation, we still had a lot of really nice toys I didn’t want to part with. As the younger boys can’t play upstairs or in their room, and we don’t have a separate playroom or den, our living room had become overrun.  However, after the great toy divide of 2013, I walked through the living room repeatedly without injury or expletive. Organization high!

2. Awhile back, I was convinced we’d need to do a fundraiser to buy a new handicap vehicle for our family. Then, somehow, my husband and I convinced ourselves that we didn’t need no stinkin’ fundraiser, we could handle it with our own bootstraps or something. Then, after looking at vehicles and running some numbers I was like, holy crap, we can’t afford anything even with a ton of fundraising! Then after some prayers we looked some more and I think we’ve found something perfect…which horrifies me. I can think of a ton of instances where Tony and I were convinced that we’d found “the one” whatever, only to have something fall through at the very last second shattering our dreams. And if we do acquire said dream item, it turns out to ultimately suck and ruin our lives by becoming an endless money pit (our current house, our former B&B our Ebayed camper, etc). We keep trying to make these very wise decisions, shaped by past choices but somehow, without an angel in a dream giving us the answer, we screw up.

3. Which brings me to my next take/point. Our previous experiences have given me a real “monkey’s paw” attitude towards prayer. Like God’s sitting there thinking “Oh, you want a nice handicap vehicle huh? Okay, here’s one for a great price…but the lift will stop working in six months and you’ll be stranded at home for weeks while the garage orders in special parts which are made for this model only in the mountains of Peru.”  Or if I start to think, I just want things to be a little easier around her, I’m instantly afraid someone will die thus “lessening” my workload. Is this just me? Am I completely nuts? I don’t know why it’s so hard for me to just ask God for what I want or need and be at peace with it. It’s also why I’m always asking saints to intercede for me. “Yeah St. Joseph, it’s me again. Look, this house…I know I said I wanted it, but could you ask God to make it stop falling apart. I’m afraid if I ask, it’ll catch fire instead or something. Thanks.”

So, in a round about way. If you wouldn’t mind saying a prayer for us and our vehicle situation, I’d appreciate it. It’s more a matter of discerning what we can really afford given our current financial situation, whether or not we need to fund-raise and what role government programs (which take forever to reimburse) should play in our purchase.

4. This week I started using a “gold star” incentive chart with Fulton to motivate him to complete a bit of school work. External incentives make me want to puke; they should just love to learn damnit! But here I am, justifying my means. For the first month or so after Fulton’s nurse left, he acted out towards me and refused to do any educational games he’d once loved to play with his nurse. Frankly, it was preschool, I wasn’t going to spaz about it. But of course, since family knew I had “started school” with Fulton they kept asking me, and him, how it was going. Fulton is also bright and I thought he might enjoy learning to read so several times I tried reintroducing some games with no success. So although I don’t think kids should be rewarded endlessly for completing assignments, I’m giving Fulton stickers on a chart to motivate him and it’s working. Once he fills the chart, he get’s a new Lego minifigure. I’m hoping I only have to buy him one or two before the habit has sunk in. (For the record, all I’m asking him to do is 10 minutes of a letter game on his iPad, 10 minutes of a numbers game, [both are simple Montessori inspired games so no flashing lights, loud songs or craziness] 10 minutes with a fine motor activity and for him to listen quietly to a story a sibling reads to him.) The most surprising part is the older three want their own charts to fill out to earn minifigures. I’m starting to become concerned about how much all these incentives will wind up costing me.

5. I’m considering adding sponsors to my sidebar. I currently have some Google Ads and Amazon links that generate little to no money and typically  suggest my readers buy sexy leggings or do a background search on someone. Honestly, I’d prefer to make little to no money promoting Catholic businesses, Etsy shops, blogs and the like rather than ‘The Language Method Language Professors Don’t Want You To Learn About!” But is there interest? If you’re not afraid of my reputation, send me an email. I’m thinking dirt cheap, between $2-4 a month for a button roughly the size of that Sheenazing award. At this point, I’m opting out of sponsored posts or reviews. Really, I don’t think you want to go down that road with me anyway. And if I broke some unspoken blog etiquette rule by writing about sponsorship I’m sorry.

6. That was a lot of long deluded takes wasn’t it? I’m going to stop before I lose you. Oh wait….I guess you clicked back to Jen and the rest of the Ticky Quakers awhile ago. Well, thanks anyway for making a pit stop at my roadside stand on the information superhighway.

PS I’m giving myself a C+, half a gold star and a “Nice Try!” on today’s effort.