Nothing quite like cleaning your kids room to make you realize

Makes you realize just how much JUNK you have in your house and when you house is only 1200 sq feet, there is not much room to begin with. I have spent 5 hours..yes, I did say 5 hours, now cleaining the boys room. MB shares a room with his bigger brother (1/2 brother) and they have WAY too much stuff in that tiny room. Actually, they have the big bedroom since they have to share it, but there is sooooo little storage room and Sooooo many toys it's disgusting.

I have had to lay down the law since I go through this every couple of months...the new rule...if you dump it you clean it. If you don't clean it and I have to do it again, I'm giving it away.
In fact, I'm trying to give some of it away today. I have a Big Big loader up for grabs as well as a couple of puzzles and an alphabet apple (cute game really, if you don't know your letters, which MB does).

So I'm cleaning and organizing again thinking...nay, knowing full well that I will have to do this again in a few months. Am I strong enough to get rid of toys.

I think I need the Supernanny to come kick my butt on this. He really does not have that many toys, the toys he does have have a lot of little parts. The scary thing, the parts only get smaller as they get older as evidenced by the bigger brothers' toys in the room.

did I mention how much I HATE leggos?

I guess I tackle my room and my Discovery Toys next. May have a sale on those soon to get them out of here. I think I may stop selling them....but I'm not sure yet.

Recent discussion at our house

Me: Hey baby, you gotta get dressed or we are going to be late for work.
MB: Moooooommmmmmmmeeeeeeeee.....you gotta stop calling me baby. I'm almost 5!
Me: Well, what do you want me to call you then?
MB: You can call me Sam or you can call me boy, but you can not call me baby anymore. I am not a baby...I'm a big boy...so you call me by my name or you call me boy. Okay?
Me: Well, give momma some time to adjust and correct me if I call you baby, but okay. I will call you Sam or I will call you boy. How about little man?
MB: Mmmmm. I'm not sure yet. I will tell you later (with a click click of the toungue and a wink and thumbs up thrown in here...I swear he does that all the time).
Me: Okay boy. I love you.
MB: I love you too mommy.

**Sigh**. Growing up too fast.

He talks about playing games with N, N's mom babysits MB....he told me the other day he and N were playing house....yeah house...."and our 'girls' are out shopping and we are cooking dinner so when they and the babies come back they can eat".

Still taking applications for his future wife. I need references including a pastor. *wink*

There are storms and then there are STORMS in life...

Yesterday was a scary day to live and work near/in Nashville, Tennessee. Morning started out with a warning from our friendly local weather man saying there was a possibility of some strong storms as a cold front and warm front were expected to meet around mid-day here in Middle Tennessee. They met, with catastrophic results. 11 people lost their lives and many many more lost their homes and businesses as a series of tornados ripped through an area well known to your gentle blogger friend. My step-sons old church was destroyed. Thank goodness nobody there was hurt. My step-sons were at school when the tornado hit Hendersonville. They were out in the hall at school in duck and cover mode. My husband's work had them huddled in the halls...my job had us answering calls as hail pounded the roof and windows. Nice huh. My sister who recently moved here decided it would be "fun" to chase this tornado. She's fine and she didn't even get to see it. The ex-wife saw the funnel across the lake from her house. Thankfully it was headed in the opposite direction. The sad thing about storms like this is that though we KNEW it was coming, there was little we could do to prevent the damage or loss of life because a tornado hits hard and fast and is non-discerning who it hurts. My prayers go out to the familes of the lost loved-ones and the newly homeless. The gas station where we usually exchange the kids is wiped clean off the map....gone...nuttin' but rubble left.

Then there are storms in life that you can see the signs of but again your attempts to thwart them are fruitless.

My mom was admitted to the hospital recently because her lung collapsed. This is a problem that has been going on since December (aided and abetted by an idiot doctor who told her she only had a bad cold). She has had to have her lung tapped ( they got 2 liters of fluid from it) and then had to have a drain tube put in because it would not stop developing fluid. So she is in the hospital and they test the fluid. My mom is an amazing fighter and has been free of breast cancer for almost 10 years....it would have been 10 years in September... and they say if you go 10 years w/o recurrance you are considered cancer free. You can read the signs now too can't you. The cytogenetics came back and they are positive for recurrent breast cancer, but this time in her bones and lungs. Since I don't think my mom has access to this blog (to my knowledge that is) I will tell you, gentle reader, that this is a POOR prognosis. Recurrent breast cancer is rarely if ever curable and if it's in the lungs and bones (metastisized) it's incurable and it is just a matter of time. I will NEVER tell this to my mother, but I live in a storm of reality that my mom is dying. I don't know when, but I do know how. It's a bitter pill. She will tell you that everybody has to die. She is right. We start dying the moment we are born. I wanted longer. I wanted my mom to see my son graduate high school and get married and start a family for himself. This is something we pray for MB every day. We know his days are numbered too. We don't know the number. You don't know the number. Only our Creator, as gracious and wonderful as He is knows our numbers...and when they are up, they are up. Nothing we can do will lengthen them. Bibically there was only 1 who had is number of days extended and they were not lived happily ever after.

The winds are blowing, the signs are there, the storm is coming. There is no amount of preparation a woman can do to prepare for the loss of her mother. I love my mom and believe I will see her again once she goes to heaven and my Heavenly Father takes me home too when my number is up, but really....I want my mom here. I can sit in the hall and duck and cover or I can continue to take calls. Either way the storm comes. I hope after the inevitable touch down that I can pick up my pieces and continue on though there will be a huge void in my small universe, while the rest of the world barely notices it lost a good woman.