Wacky Wednesday . . . Having lots of children

This topic keeps coming up at me lately. I will probably only have three children, but my co-blogger will probably have many, many more. I have said before that I am fascinated by families who have lots and lots of children and take good care of them. You may have heard of the Duggars who have a show on TLC. They have 18 children (and counting). They have a very good book that it a very interesting read. You may have heard of Jon and Kate plus 8 also on TLC - they have 8 children under the age of 8 I believe. You may have heard of a woman in California today that just birthed a set of octuplets - that is right people 8 children at once.



Large families keep coming up in the news. Like I said I feel we can all learn a lot from large families whether or not we have 2 children or 12 children. I just wanted to make a list of things they have in common that we could try to do.

1. Be organized. I know that Michelle Duggar has admitted that she was not always organized but had to get organized by necessity. If you have watched Kate at all she may be a little too organized. The key is if you have a plan whether or not you always follow it, your day will go much smoother. Have a menu plan, have a daily schedule, make a cleaning schedule - these things will help your household run more smoothing and might just help you keep your sanity.

2. Prioritize. Keep your priorities in line - God (for Christians), Husband, children, house and the rest of the things you must do aren't really MUST DO, they are optional.

3. Study and Research. You need to read and study ideas about discipline and parenting. It kills me how people just have children and then come home and expect everything to fall into place. Take advice from people who are older than you and who have been successful at raising their own children. Read the Bible. Read some non-fiction books by authors you trust on parenting.

4. Lowering your debt. Having children is stressful enough so do your best to lower your debt. The Duggars have been debt free for many years and they save up to pay cash for things. You may have seen their really nice 7,000 square foot house. Well, they lived in that house a whole year without air conditioning even through a hot Arkansas summer until they saved up enough money to pay cash to buy an air conditioner that would cool that huge house. Sometimes we can do without for a little longer to have that freedom and peace of mind.

5. Staying at home. Sometimes staying at home and investing time with your children is the best thing you can do for them. When you are less stressed you can give more of yourself to your children. You are more creative and you spend less money!

I know there are so many more things we can learn from large families. Just remember on the days that you are about to tear your hair out, if Michelle Duggar can do it with 18, I can surely make it with 3 (or 4 or 5). How many of you have a large family? Do you have any tips to share?

-Gretchen

Wacky Wednesday - Madlibbin' It!

Last week while my husband was off work, I took a few hours with each of my kids separately to just hang out with mom. We went shopping (post-Christmas deals, of course!) and out to lunch (because I love to eat). When my son and I went out last Friday, we went to Steak N Shake, his choice after he found out the McDonald's didn't have a playplace. On his little menu was a Madlib.

Now, let me just tell you. Trying to explain to an almost-four-year-old who has had no experience in formal language whatsoever what nouns, adjectives, and verbs are is quite a task! Nevertheless I took it upon myself to let him do the entire thing all by himself.

So here it is, in all its glory! My almost-four-year-old's madlib from Steak N Shake:

(Since for some reason, there is no underlining option in Blogger, his fill-in-the-blank words appear in BOLD.)

A YUMMY well-dressed lady with a giant PICKLE on her head came GO-ing into Steak n Shake. "Hello, all you wonderful CRAYONs, I'm here to present the Award for the City's Best BOY." She opened a SPATULA, took out a DOT, and handed it to a CIRCULAR server. "Here's your trophy. Congratulations," she said, applauding and excitedly COUNT-ing. Then she went back outside, got in her FOOD and left.

There you have it, ladies and gentlemen! A madlib by a toddler!

Oh, and one more thing. I'd just like to point about that apparently whoever WROTE this madlib has also had no formal language training. Did you see it too? The comma where there should have been a period. Seriously. What has the world come to?

Wacky Wednesday - It's a Party!

If you live in Indy and you want to go to a supah fun, alcohol-free, video game, pajama New Years Party, email me (or leave a comment) and I'll get you the hookup! :)

Wacky Wednesday

So this post is really wacky because no one really cares about it, but I just have to say that I am a closet fan of the show Biggest Loser. Yes, I am admitting for the public. I wouldn't say that I am obsessed, but I do like it a lot for some unknown reason.

Anyway, if you don't watch the show there has been a particularly mean spirited group this time that think they have total control. They have been nasty and they have acted like they were in junior high. I was so excited last night when one of the group got kicked off in a surprise twist (oh those surprise twists). If you are really so interested you can see the recap here.

I warned you - this was wacky!

So here is the evil one - Vicki:
See the smirk on her face! And here is her husband that got voted off:

Ah well, good bye Brady!

Wacky Wednesday . . . Obama Won

Need I say more? No really though I think this election was less about an African-American man winning and more about the un-energized Republicans. We didn't have a good candidate that was truly Conservative. We were demoralized and therefore it set up a perfect storm for Obama to come in and sweet talk the country about hope and change. Honestly, while I was hopeful and optimistic, I am shocked McCain scored as many votes as he did. I saw this quote on my friend's Facebook - I am just glad that God is still in control no matter who is in the White House. Lets not forget that!

For more entertainment you can check out my post, "Shining City on a Hill".
-G-money

Wacky Wednesday!

I received this in an email last week and thought I'd share it with all of you. :)

A wife was making a breakfast of fried eggs for her husband. Suddenly, her husband burst into the kitchen.

"Careful," he said, "CAREFUL! Put in some more butter! Oh my gosh! You're cooking too many at once. TOO MANY! Turn them! TURN THEM NOW! We need more butter. Oh my gosh! WHERE are we going to get MORE BUTTER? They're going to STICK! Careful. CAREFUL! I said be CAREFUL! You NEVER listen to me when you're cooking! Never! Turn them! Hurry up! Are you CRAZY? Have you LOST your mind? Don't forget to salt them. You know you always forget to salt them. Use the salt. USE THE SALT! THE SALT!"

The wife stared at him. "What in the world is wrong with you? You think I don't know how to fry a couple of eggs?"

The husband calmly replied, "I just wanted to show you what it feels like when I'm driving."

WaCkY WeDnEsDaY!

Okay, so this topic may be a little wacky, but both Heidi and I have little boys. And at times, when absolutely necessary (and sometimes not necessary on my part) they go potty outside. Did I say that nicely enough? Anyway my parents think that it is HORRIBLE to let my son pee outside. They told me there was some study done that peeing outside is harmful to others who may step on the pee. I laughed (a lot). I mean I don't randomly let my son pee just anywhere but if he has to go, he HAS to go.

Also, I think that is half of the fun of having boys is that they are able to pee outside - I am truly jealous.

That is all - how wacky was that? Heidi may take this down, ha!

- Gretchen

Wacky Wednesday - Does anyone else know this song?!

For some reason, this song popped into my head yesterday on the way home from church and I've been trying to think of all the words. I sang this song....ohhhh....I don't know, way back. Elementary school, probably. Anyway, today I decided to do an online search for it and came across this blog. Thankfully, when I put her bits and pieces together with my bits and pieces, I think I came up with all of them! Does anyone else know this song??

I think this is the whole song, but I have no idea what it's called. Maybe "The Fruits of the Spirit"?
______________________________________________________

Orange you glad you love Jesus?
Orange you glad He loves you?
He's a peach-a-king Savior.
I'll never be blueberry blue.

His power makes me bananas.
He's the apple of my eye.
It's a-pear-antly clear in His Word
He's raisin us when we die.

He saved me out of the pits of hell.
I'm plum happy to be
The child of a grape big God.
I've got His fruits on my tree.

(Spoken) I've got the fruits of the Spirit, c'mon let's hear it!

I've got love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance
Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance
Meekness, and temperance
Meekness, and temperance.
___________________________________________________

Does anyone know where I could find an audio version of this? I'd LOVE to put it up somewhere!

Wacky Wednesday . . . Be Wacky, Be Frugal

One of the definitions of wacky is being crazy or silly. Many people might say that being frugal takes some wacky tendencies. Sometimes being frugal requires that you be wacky or silly. It definitely requires that you be creative. Not being frugal is easy. You don’t watch where your money goes. You don’t look for sales. You just go out and buy what you want with little or no research into the price or product. But, really, what is the thrill in that?

If you have never read The Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn you must check it out at your local library or buy it at Half Price books. Some of the information is outdated but some of it is still applicable to today and it has some seriously wacky, frugal ideas in it. You should also check out Clark Howard - he always has great ideas on how to save money and free downloads of his show as well.

I will have to share a frugal story for you that was definitely wacky.

When my husband and I were going through Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University (highly recommend by the way), we just moved into a house (pre-Dave of course). Anyway, we needed a refrigerator badly. We could not afford to pay hardly anything so I looked everywhere. Finally, I found a $33.00 refrigerator on eBay. It was listed as “Garage Refrigerator” and it was. Well, could you believe it, we won the auction (I guess no one else needed a garage refrigerator). We went to pick up our appliance, and it did need some cleaning, but we cleaned it and we lived with that refrigerator until my dad gave us his old one – which was MUCH nicer than the one we had.

And our garage refrigerator is now, sitting in our garage.

I told that story to tell you this, sometimes you have to be wacky and creative to reach your goals. You can’t always have the newest, nicest side-by-side refrigerator (I’m still dreaming of that by the way). But you can always find something to fit your need.

So, what wacky things have you done in the name of frugality?

Picture from www.theartoftrent.com

-Gretchen

Wacky Wednesday - Morphine, Sweet Morphine

I've talked about my grandpa quite a bit lately. News update for today: My grandpa moved to a nursing home yesterday with hopes that he will continue to recover and be going home within several weeks. We are all surprised and excited for this news.

Not to make light of the situation or anything, but there have been some awfully funny occurrences since my grandpa has been on morphine. I would not share these stories if it wasn't for my grandpa's excellent sense of humor. When he's back to his old self, I'm sure he will appreciate this:

#1. Oley (pronounced Oh-lee)
Oley is a mouse who lives on the ceiling. Yes, my grandpa actually named him. Oley comes out to play when the morphine kicks in. I think he must taunt my grandpa (perhaps with cheese?) because my grandpa stares at him regularly and talks about him a lot. Oley made his debut in the hospital but we only learned of him recently. Oley must have been in my grandpa's pocket when he was transferred from the hospital because he's at the nursing home now.

#2. The Project
My grandpa has always said that he didn't want to go to a nursing home. Shortly after he arrived, this conversation ensued with my aunt (his daughter):
Grandpa: "So, who's in charge of this project?"
Aunt: "What project?"
Grandpa: "The project where they try to see how much pain a man can take...and then you get to the dot....and then you're gone."

#3. The Spider
The spider lives on television and interrupts the baseball games. I can imagine that he probably does an Irish jig every so often, kicking his eight little legs in all directions. If any of you have seen The Ring, perhaps you can relate.

Wacky Wednesday

The only thing wacky about today is the way my stomach is feeling. :( You'll have to come back and visit tomorrow!

Wacky Wednesday - The Good Wife's Guide

The following article is from Housekeeping Monthly in May of 1955. While I do agree that there are several great ideas within this article, some of them are definitely a far stretch from today’s “wifely roles”. Hope you enjoy! :)

The Good Wife

· Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal ready, on time for his return. This is a way of letting him know that you have been thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they come home and the prospect of a good meal (especially his favorite dish) is part of the warm welcome needed.

· Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so you’ll be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh-looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people.

· Be a little gay and a little more interesting for him. His boring day may need a lift and one of your duties is to provide it.

· Clear away the clutter. Make one last trip through the main part of the house just before your husband arrives.

· Gather up schoolbooks, toys, paper, etc. and then run a dustcloth over the tables.

· Over the cooler months of the year you should prepare and light a fire for him to unwind by. Your husbnd will feel he has reached a haven or rest and order, and it will give you a lift too. After all, catering for his comfort will provide you with immense personal satisfaction.

· Prepare the children. Take a few minutes to wash the children’s hands and faces (if they are small), comb their hair and, if necessary, change their clothes. They are little treasures and he would like to see them playing the part. Minimize all noise. At the time of his arrival, elieminate all noise of the washer, dryer or vacuum. Try to encourage the children to be quiet.

· Be happy to see him.

· Greet him with a warm smile and show sincerity in your desire to please him.

· Listen to him. You may have a dozen important things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first – remember, his topics of conversation are more important than yours.

· Make the evening his. Never complain if he comes home late or goes out to dinner, or other places of entertainment without you. Instead, try to understand his world of strain and pressure and his very real need to be at home and relax.

· Your goal: Try to make sure your home is a place of peace, order and tranquility where your husband can renew himself in body and spirit.

· Don’t greet him with complaints and problems.

· Don’t complain if he’s late home for dinner or even if he stays our all night. Count this as minor compared to what he might have gone through that day.

· Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or have him lie down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him.

· Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soothing and pleasant voice.

· Don’t ask him questions about his actions or question his judgment or integrity. Remember, he is the master of the house and as such will always exercise his will with fairness and truthfulness. You have no right to question him.

· A good wife always knows her place.

Wacky Wednesday - Or Not So Wacky

I try to keep track of what kinds of posts I get the most comments on. This typically indicates that my readers (that's you) like those posts better than others which get fewer comments.

Lately I've realized that it's pretty rare that anyone ever leaves a comment on Wednesday. Now, this could be due to the fact that, after viewing whatever strange thing I have found for you each week, you just have nothing to say. If that's the case, don't feel alone. I'm sure there is a whole clan of you who are so amazed at my ability to keep you entertained your mouth goes dry and no words can be formed.

My other thought is this: No one cares.

I do know of ONE reader who enjoys Wacky Wednesdays, but aside from that one person...I'm not so sure what the rest of my audience feels.

How do you like Wacky Wednesdays? Is there something else you would prefer? Again, keep in mind the whole first letter deal. I know, I'm weird. But I'm totally open to suggestions. Only good ones though! Don't give me any lame suggestions. Well okay...you can give me something lame to work with, but I'll likely just ignore it and move on to the next suggestion. (This is, of course, assuming anyone actually has suggestions.)

Let's see where this takes us, shall we?

Wacky Wednesday! Errrrr......

Last week, while sitting in the hospital room, I typed my Wacky Wednesday post. The problem came when I didn't save it as a draft in my blog but rather saved it as a document on the laptop. So what's the big deal, you say? Well, the laptop isn't mine. I was borrowing it while we were at the hospital and I don't have it anymore. So therefore I don't have my Wacky Wednesday post either.

Bummer, I know.

All that to say....I don't have a Wacky Wednesday post for today. :(

Has anything wacky happened to you lately??

Wacky Wednesday!

Wacky Wednesday - noun - the funniest day on Today's Daily Dose. See also: My life.

As I stated on Sunday, I have officially declared May 2008 as the busiest month of my life. Nevertheless I am here devoting my life to my blog readers! :)

And while I'm here I would just like to announce that I am a new aunt! (Well, I'm actually the same aunt as I was before, but now I have a new nephew!) Baby Benjamin joined the world yesterday evening! (Congrats, Greg and Katy!)


Okay, but all of that exciting news is not the wackiness for the day. I received the following video yesterday via email and found it pretty hilarious in a...well....kind of creepy sort of way. You'll have to watch it to see what I mean. :)

Wacky Wednesday - Some Mom Fun

In light on this past weekend being Mother's Day, I could not help but ask you to take a look at this video. It's fairly short - just over 3 minutes - but I guarantee it's 3 minutes of laughter!

I don't typically make it a habit of posting videos here, but this one is just too funny. This comedian has taken everything that a mom says in a 24-hour period and condensed it down to 2 minutes and 55 seconds! You may have to watch it multiple times to catch everything!

Hope you enjoy!

Wacky Wednesday - Hair Gone Wild!

I had what you might call a wacky day today. Hence the reason for this blog being posted near midnight. But my crazy day is not what I'm going to post about.

I oftentimes get a kick out of what people decide to do with their hair. So here we have some very wacky hairstyles....

(Oh, and by the way, pay close attention if you're considering changing your hairstyle anytime soon. There are some GREAT ideas here!)

Since this child appears to be under 2 years of age, can we assume that someone intentionally did this to their child?

Same for this guy. Either that, or I'm guessing he's in lots of trouble!

My guess? She fell asleep inside a dryer.

By the looks of this photo, I'm gonna go ahead and say this picture is indeed a fake. However, the point remains - someone actually took the time to design this hairstyle.

This girl looks old enough to do her own hair. But perhaps she should attend beauty school...just in case.

Hey, are those my missing paper towel rolls??

I'm pretty sure they edited out the rake behind his hair.

The guy on the left appears to have missed the memo.

Think you have long hair? Think again!

In case you're wondering what you would do with all that hair, here's a pretty sweet idea! And yes, that is all hair. Gross, I know.

Wacky Wednesday - Oh, Just Some Humor!

I ran to Kroger tonight, mainly to get chicken breasts (on sale for $1.67/lb - a VERY good price) and cereal (another FANTASTIC deal, but exceedingly complicated to explain within these parentheses).

I loaded my cart with my 8 boxes of cereal, my chicken, and a few other things I managed to find on manager's special. Then I headed for the U-SCAN.

**Red flag!!!**

Because I could only get my fantastic deal on cereal if I did 4 boxes per transaction, I figured I would start with my bigger transaction, getting everything out of the way for the second one except the remaining 4 boxes of cereal.

So I started pulling loaves bread and English muffins out of my cart (all on manager's special for 1/2 price). I noticed as I scanned the last loaf of bread that none of these items had rung up correctly. Ugh! So I turned around to ask the cashier to fix them. But there wasn't a cashier.

**Second red flag!!! You should have gone through a REGULAR checkout, Heidi!!! Cashiers NEVER go missing in the middle of your transaction at a REGULAR checkout!!!**

I watched and waited and finally the cashier did show up. She fixed them all, but I still had to re-scan them. Okay, not a huge deal. I pressed on and was happy to see that all of my regular (and by regular, I mean on sale, of course) items were scanning correctly. I then stumbled upon yet another manager's special item.

By that time, I thought I had this down and I could do it correctly this time around, but lo and behold, that little can of tomato sauce didn't ring up correctly. To my amazement, I discovered there are actually two separate kinds of manager's special tags. Well, whatever. At this point, I just wanted to get out of the store.

I finally got through my transaction, handed the girl my coupons, and was happy to see that my total was under $20.

I paid, bagged my stuff, and threw it in my cart. "Okay, just the cereal left," I thought to myself. "This should be easy and quick."

**Red flag #3!!! You should never think to yourself that ANYTHING will be either easy OR quick - and certainly not both!!!**

The Cheerios scanned fine. $2.50/box. Then came the Total. $4.47 per box! I think not!

I turned to the cashier to tell her that they were also on sale for $2.50, but - what do ya know? She was missing again! Of course, by this time, she was also needed by the older gentleman behind me in line whose U-SCAN demon kept chanting "Please wait for cashier assistance." He quietly yelled (quietly yelled?) at the machine and we small-talked about how we knew we should not have chosen the U-SCANS tonight and, by the way, where was that cashier?

Alas! There she was! I sprang to her station to inform her of the inadequacy of the U-SCAN machine! Well, okay - no. I really just told her that the cereal had rung up incorrectly. She, of course, had to walk back to the cereal isle to make sure I wasn't trying to cheat the store into selling me the Total Raisen Bran for $2.50/box instead of the ungodly price of $4.47/box.

In the meantime, the gentleman behind me finally kicked his U-SCAN into order and was able to bag his things. He was about to leave his post when the cashier returned. He turned to her, smiling, and said, "I just want you to know that I saved 8 dollars and 30 cents tonight - even with this machine!"

I grinned at his apparent pride in saving so much money on just 3 bags of groceries. I glanced down at my receipt and chuckled quietly.

Total: $19.51
Total Savings Today: $28.99

Well, that's okay. We'll let him think he did a good job. :)

When the cashier finally got everything straightened out and realized that I wasn't lying to her about the price of the cereal, I paid my $3, bagged up my 4 boxes, and was out the door.

When I reached the van, I pulled out that receipt.

Total Savings Today: $8.38

That time I laughed out loud.

Wacky Wednesday - Strange Dwellings

1. Reversible Destiny Lofts

2. House on a Rock


3. Tiny Summer House


4. Houseboat...or Boathouse?


5. Living Sideways

6. Dessert Home

7. Toilet House

8. Glass House

9. Tree House


10. Underwater House

Wacky Wednesday

Highly entertaining videos:



GREAT Shadow Puppetry - The funniest home videos are here


Love 2008- Mesmerizing Sand Art - Watch the top videos of the week here