For the past couple of weeks, Pumpkin has been coming home talking about her watermelon plant. They planted fruits and vegetables at school, and being the watermelon lover that she is, she chose to plant watermelons.

I went out on the porch to meet her as she got off of the bus today, and she looked jubilant. She was grinning ear to ear, and practically bounced up to the house. I saw a small brown object in her hand, and I knew what it must be.

Her watermelon plant is just barely poking up out of the soil. But to her, it is as big as Texas. I’m trying to figure out where will be the best place to plant it (after it gets done frosting, of course). We have plenty of options, but I would like to find out where it would have the best chance of doing well. If anyone has any suggestions, I’m all ears. I’m not very good at the whole planting thing, but I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure we get some watermelons from the little bugger. I’m not a huge watermelon fan myself, but as much as it means to her, I hope it sprouts a bunch of them.

I swear I think they could see our house from outer space. It’s the one that’s the hideous mustard yellow color.

On the occasions that I’ve had to give directions to our house, I’ve been telling people that it’s the bright yellow house in the curve. As long as they get on the right road, they don’t drive past it. There aren’t many houses around here (or, I hope, anywhere) that are the same color as ours.

As soon as we get everything else squared away, the yellow has got to go. I don’t mind a light, sunny yellow, but this color is just horrible. I think we’re going to go with nice, sensible white. Normally I’m not that conventional, but I want to leave the exterior shutters and porch railings the shade of green that they are. I love that color, and I can’t think of any other color that I would like better with it than white.

Pumpkin brought home her report card the other day, and I was blown away! At the beginning of the year, she wasn’t doing very well. She was having to bring her classwork home because she wasn’t even trying to do it in class, and she was behind on her reading. For a long time things remained the same, and I was becoming pretty discouraged.

I did my best to help her, but you know how that goes sometimes. It was like she just wasn’t interested. But eventually things started to improve. She quit bringing as much work home, and her reading got better. Last time report cards went out, her grades had improved quite a bit. She even got an award for it.

This report card was awesome. She got all O’s (outstanding) on her behavior and work habits. She also was up to par or above in every single subject. And her reading? She’s on a level that is not expected of them until mid-second grade!

Her teacher this year has made a big difference. Everyone says she’s tough, and I won’t disagree with them. But I think that’s just what Pumpkin needed- someone who wouldn’t just let her slide by.

I am very thankful that my daughter was born healthy. I was overcome with joy when she came into this world, but I was also checking carefully for any abnormalities, cerebral palsy symptoms, and to make sure she had all of her fingers and toes.

Some people are not so fortunate. My youngest niece, for instance, was born with some birth defects. I don’t know all of the details, but she was in the hospital for the first three months of her life. She just recently got to come home, and she still has to eat through a feeding tube.

I can’t stand to see a child go through things like that. One day when I have plenty of money, I’m going to give some to the March of Dimes and other charities for babies and children. Maybe it will help in some small way.

I was in my office working earlier tonight (technically last night seeing how it’s after midnight now), and I heard Hubby tell Pumpkin to go brush her teeth. She went down the hall, but I didn’t hear any water running or anything. A minute or so later, I heard her growling and saying, “Boogie boogie boogie.”

Perplexed, I asked her what she was doing. Her response? “I’m trying to scare my hiccups away.”:lol:

I laughed until I nearly cried. She and Hubby both thought I had flipped out and gone crazy. I explained to her that when I try to scare her hiccups away, I’m really just trying to scare her so she’ll gasp and that will cause them to stop. I think that further convinced her that I had flipped my lid.

I have been so scatterbrained lately. Well, for the past few months lately. I’ve just had so much on my mind that I can’t keep it all organized, between trying to work 24/7 to keep us up and keeping up with the day-to-day stuff.

Case in point: I took Pumpkin to Girl Scouts last week (which I had completely forgotten about the previous two times) and paid for her to go to a dinner with Santa. I signed up to bring a dessert. I had previously talked to the troop leader about it, and had written down when and where it was.

I was positive that it was tomorrow night, and I was planning on going to the store and getting the stuff to make a pie tomorrow morning. I mentioned it to Hubby, and he said he might be able to go too. I was trying to figure out where the place was that they were having it, and I looked through my notebook to see. I found where I had written down the information, and it said clearly that the dinner was to have been this past Saturday.

No wonder Pumpkin’s troop leader looked at me kind of funny when I saw her on Sunday. Now I’ll have to explain to Pumpkin that she didn’t get to go because Mommy can’t remember anything.

I also forgot about the Christmas parade she was supposed to be in a few weeks ago. She couldn’t have done that either because she was sick at the time, but it’s still terrible that I forgot something like that. I’ve got to do something special for that girl to make up for all of this.

I have tons of laundry to do, a mountain of dishes to wash, and plenty of writing work to keep me busy today. So it looks like I will be doing some extreme multitasking. That should be an Olympic sport.

If extreme multitasking were an Olympic sport, I guarantee that the gold medal would go to a mom. Maybe not me, because I only have one kid who is not in a ton of extracurricular activities yet. But there are plenty of moms out there who work at or outside the home and have several very active children. I get overwhelmed, but my multitasking is small potatoes compared to what they do. If any of you are reading this, hats off to you!

Anyway, I’ve got my work cut out for me today. I suppose I should quit rambling and get to it.

When you have kids, you know how important it is to know basic first aid. You hope you’ll never need it, but in the event that you do, it’s important to be able to keep your composure and deal with the situation quickly and effectively.

First aid books are great, but if something happens you’re not going to have time to go hunting for one. That’s why Safety Magnets are such a great idea. They are magnets with step-by-step instructions about what to do if a child chokes, is poisoned, or needs CPR. You can put them on your refrigerator for easy reference. And you can give them to Grandma or the babysitter so they’ll know what to do if the need arises.

Safety Magnets are a great way to keep important safety information where you can find it. And they’re available with quantity pricing, so they’re good for fundraisers.

I have a total of 30 articles to turn in by Tuesday. Actually half of them need to be done before then, but I’ve also managed to get a few of them done. Wow.

I like staying busy, but this time of year comes with way too many distractions. Hubby hasn’t been extremely supportive lately, either. He doesn’t like it when I have to stay up late to work. But anything that requires a large amount of research or even concentration is much harder to do during the day while tending to Pumpkin. And in the evenings when Hubby is home, it’s not much better- sometimes he’s like another kid who is starved for attention.

I can’t count on my in-laws to help, either. One day I got off of work at my day job early, and I told Hubby to take Pumpkin over there and tell them that he would pick her up when he got off work. After leaving work, I got home and worked for about an hour before my mother-in-law started calling every 15 minutes, hinting around that I should come get her. I finally gave in. Obviously they’re less understanding than Hubby.

I just don’t get people. They think that just because you work at home, you can sit there and rake in the dough without having to do anything for it. If that was the case, I would be vacationing in the Caribbean instead of sitting here. I mean, if you don’t have to do anything for it, why should it matter where you are?

In that respect, I’ll be glad when school starts up again. Then I’ll have some uninterrupted time during the day to get things done.

Today I had to take Pumpkin back to the doctor for the same old thing. I have been pretty stressed anyway, and her being sick again was putting me over the top. I was prepared to give the doctor a piece of my mind. Luckily for her, the one she’s been seeing wasn’t in today. So I took her to a different one.

I toned it down a bit, but explained in no uncertain terms that I was tired of having to bring her to the doctor twice a month or more. We can’t afford it, and she deserves to get better and not have to see the doctor all the time. He put her on a month’s worth of antibiotics. I’m not crazy about giving them to her that long, but I’m going to give it a go and hope for the best. That’s all I can do.