My Haiku Gift to You.

(Ok. So I'm a little inspired.)

Unpronounceable
Swedish name on flat pack box
Blue and yellow joy.



(P.S. No, I don't own that table. Just love the name.)

Sunday night.

I've been avoiding you, internet. I've been avoiding this blog. At first I was able to blow it off as not wanting to deal with Blogger's Beta template conversions and having to go back in and re-write my header code. But that's been done. And I'm still lacking any motivation to blog. It's not like I'm not thinking about writing. It's always there, in the back of my mind. Because this started out as an outlet for me to work through my salvation (if you dig far enough, back to 2004?)

I'd love to tell you that I've been deep in spiritual thought, wrestling with God over my life and what it means and what I'm feeling. I wish I had a smart ass way to tell you how totally uninspired I feel right now in a lot of ways. I know those of you who know me will read that to mean I haven't worked on anything lately. Which isn't the case - I've been working on all kinds of stuff lately. And some of it has been pretty good (some of it has not, but that is just because I'm working from a pre-existing site that was not my own design and the design snob within is being a mighty beeyotch.)

No, I've been busy work wise. But I just feel kind of "half there" in everything right now. Am I unhappy? No, not overall. Am I depressed? I don't know. Am I uncomfortable? Most definitely. I feel as though my body is betraying me and these birth control pills I'm taking to regulate my hormones for the PCOS nonsense are doing a job on me. Add to that the fact that Liam has decided he "hates" school and spent close to an hour crying at bedtime trying to convince Rusty and I that his principal and teacher told him there was no school tomorrow (ok, that look of total "I'm serious, we really don't have school tomorrow" was funny, I'll admit.) I'm just... I don't know. I was going to type "drained" but that doesn't feel right. I just feel uninspired. Maybe I keep coming back to that word because the artist in me really does find bunches of tiny inspirations every day. I get sidetracked by a glass cup full of sparkly junk in my workroom and it makes me happy. Usually. Now I find myself missing it in the moment and wondering later what happened to that minute of my day today?

I guess the bottom line is that I don't feel like myself. I'm not depressed. I'm not falling apart over Liam now being back in therapy once a week for a while. I'm just tired. And missing my old self. And hoping to God that Heather's right and this will pass once my body starts to regulate itself more efficiently.

A month ago I'd have told you I don't like my body, I am unhappy with myself and my fitness and my attitude. Now I just can't wait to get "myself" back.

Cheese, anyone?

*EDITED: For some reason, when I pasted the link the computer had retained a stamping link I had used earlier (that was posted on the Design Board for Amy at RMH) -- Try the link now. You'll know you're in the right place when you see the kid holding his blocks of Christmas cheese (And I had no clue what Heather's comment meant until I read Jodi's and put the two together...)

You have to read this. Especially if you have kids. Or know any kids. It will make you laugh. A lot.

In Response to Raisins

P.S. Make sure to read that kid's Christmas list. I adore the request for cardboard boxes ("for hiding places.")

P.S.S. I know that you know this is a shameless way of adding a blog entry without really blogging. But let's just ignore that, shall we? It's been a hard week.

Greatest Hits Volume 1.

This cold is kicking my butt. Sean has been up each of the last two nights for random conversation and snuggle time. I'm exhausted. My house looks like Christmas threw a wild party and then split when it heard the cops were on the way. Liam is back at school (he's not very happy about that, I might add) and our master bathroom hasn't been cleaned in at least two weeks. So what can I write that will make it seem like I'm making an effort, yet will require as little effort as possible? I'll do what the great recording legends do... a Greatest Hits collection! Brilliant!

I figure this is probably a decent idea as I've had this blog for over two years now, our family has gone through a lot of changes in that time and what better way to bring any newcomers up to speed than to post links to some of posts that kind of explain who I am and who we are and why we seem to be in a state of semi-chaos a good deal of the time (or I could just give you the short answer to that last one: we have two little boys. Any other questions?)

I wasn't sure how to go about dividing these "Greatest Hits" (oh yes... "dividing"... indicating this will take up more than one post.)

(Again: Brilliant!)

I would say the posts in this blog come under one of a number of headings: Our family in general, the boys specifically, Liam's issues, home renovations, my issues with church and "Christianity" and trying to work through that, and general stupidity. A few of those topics are kind of heavy. So let's start with general stupidity and the boys as they are the most fun, easiest to read, and won't drive you away wondering how you'll ever recover those lost minutes of your life spent reading my stressed out rambling.

So without further ado? The Art Chick Blog Greatest Hits, Vol. I: Nonsense - The Boys' and Just in General

(arranged from oldest to most recent)

Chapter One: Fun with Parenting
Why I Don't Have Dogs

Funny Boy

Because Things Aren't Fun Enough Around Here

Another Day

Mug Shot

Summer

Conversations with Sean - Age 3

Quote of the Week

Twinsies

Chapter Two: Basically Kind of Silly
This House Hates Us

Dictionary Time

My Musical Tastes

Sorry Excuse for a Post

Shame - It Can Be A Good Thing*

*The "Shame" posts needs to be noted that I am not dogging on the 80's. I'm totally dogging on watching Red Dawn (for the first time, as an adult, out of context chronologically and politically.)