Thank you.

I just wanted to again thank all of you who have helped make dinners a little less stressful for me.  I am "choosing" all of the dinner suggestions that were left in response to my last post--they all sound wonderful!-- so those people will get double entries.  I will draw a winner (see last post for details) on December 7th.  I welcome any additional dinner suggestions before then.  (And after then, for that matter :) )

The Birds and the Bees (and I'm giving away my favorite shelf)

Oh boy.  This is seriously so stressful.  I hate getting behind like this.  I could just bag the whole blog thing all together, but I love it too much--despite not ever having time for it.  And how would it be for Skip to have so little of his life chronicled?  Not good.

So what did I last tell you?  Oh, yeah.  My bad breath,  a briefing on my summer (in pictures) and my girls' bedroom reveal.   And that was what?  Like two months ago?  Yeah well, so here's where we're at now:  I think I'm OK with the bad breath thing--but who knows, right?  I know Brian gets sick of me asking him about it.  The kids started school and things seem to be going just fine.  Jane is reading like crazy and while Camp may have had a bit of a slower start than she, he is the one responsible for her having learned to read so well so quickly.  Camp loves to read and I love that he loves it.    So we're cool there.  My sugar just started preschool last Friday.  My sugar plum!  Man, that girl.  She's a kick. I'm going to miss having as much time with her.   She was so dang excited, though.  And Jane was equally excited for her.  I was glad to see it because Jane and Dan haven't gotten along as well as they used to.  There seems to have been this shift where suddenly Jane and Camp have started becoming allies and Dan has gotten left in the proverbial dust.  Bummer.  I've lectured Jane especially a few times about how she could possibly exclude Danin who has been her loyal friend all these years, but I suppose this is just the natural course of things.  It's still a bit sad anyway, though.  But it could be worse.  They still love each other and get along most of the time.

I bear a striking resemblance to Jay Leno in this picture.  Yikes!

Of all my kids, I still struggle with  and worry about Camp the most.  He is a very cool kid and a good boy, but I still really struggle sometimes to understand him and have him understand me.  At times when he is being punished or scolded,  it is not uncommon for him to call himself names and say how he hates himself.  Those words scare me so badly.  And no, I truly don't think he is saying those things for the reaction.  I have talked to him about it many times when there is nothing going on and he confesses to really feeling that way sometimes.  I was just telling Erin the other day about how I worry ten times more about my kids' spiritual and emotional well-being than I do about their physical safety.  I fear Camp's occasional low opinion of himself is in large part my fault--a result of all the hurtful things I have screamed at him in my countless moments of exhaustion and desperation.  I continue to ask him for his forgiveness, though, and I am just hoping that will count for something to him.  I do my best to tell him often what a good kid he is, too.  He really is a good kid.  It's not easy being the oldest of four kids and having parents who yell and act crazy sometimes.  And it's hard not having a brother closer to his age to tackle and wrestle and interact with in the way boys do.  Sisters are cool but they are not the same.  Thank goodness for Skip.  He may be a bit young, still, but Camp is the best big brother to him that I could ever ask for.   Skip calls him "Bo" for brother.

Skip.  He's absolutely darling.  I mean, have you really ever seen a cuter little boy?  Whatever.  You have not.  :)  He loves trucks and candy (Halloween was a serious hit, of course) and being chased and tickled.  He loves books and helping me turn on the dishwasher and washer and dryer.  He's really a joy to us all.

Oh, and it's birthday season around here again.  Danin and Camp and Brian have all worn out another year and Jane is counting the days until Black Friday, on which she will turn 7.  (No day-after-Thanksgiving shopping for me this year.   Maybe two days after, though.  We'll see.  :)  The crowds and craziness are finally starting to get to me.)

And me?  You know--I'm doing great.  I've been decorating my little heart out between spills and fights and diapers and that really helps keep me sane.    I have so many little decorating things I would love to show you, but I just get so discouraged when the pictures I take don't look good.  It might be my simple  camera, it might be me, and it might be my lousy decorating, but it discourages me the same, regardless.

I do have to tell you, though, that I have officially transformed my front room into a legitimate office.    Brian built me a wall unit which includes a desk, drawers, cabinets and bookshelves,  and I LOVE it.  I call it the Vice President's office (because I am the vice-president of Brian Lacouture Building, LLC :) )  I'm not even going to attempt to take pictures specifically of it yet, because the wall unit has not been painted; but when it is, I will show you.  I haven't even shown you my recovered chairs yet....and that was big!  All I know is that when I look at pictures of how this front room looked until recently, I want to barf.  Thank goodness for the change.

Oh, yeah.  I just remembered why I had no choice but to finally write this post in the first place.  Do you remember earlier this year when I was doing that "What's For Dinner" thing?  Well, then you may remember I promised to have one final drawing at my Favorite Things Party for a give-away--the winner of which would win this shelf.    And my birthday--and hence, my party-- is only a couple weeks away.  So I am officially asking one last time What's For Dinner? and anyone who leaves a comment with a dinner suggestion and recipe will be added to the drawing.  Don't forget, too, that if I choose your dinner suggestion(s) you will have that many additional drawing entries.   (If you have already been entered, you may still earn additional entries, but let's cap the entries at five per person.  I know, what are the chances?  But just in case :)    Oh, and by the way--Brian and I have made a joint goal to eat healthier, so if your dinner suggestions are nutritious and look good, you'll have better chances of having me pick them.

So anyway....is anyone even still reading?..

P.S.  Oh, and I forgot to say that Brian and I had a special date with Camp, during which we revealed to him all the big secrets of life--ahem.  (Cue the title to this post.)  He did not tell us we were worse than the devil, so I think it went rather well.  :)