I bought the most fun thing EVER this week: Window Crayons. (I also bought Window Markers but THEY SUCK.) The Window Crayons are so much fun! They are a bit too easy to wipe off, however, as you can see Wes’s belly covered in his own art from when he would lean over on the table. Nikki did fine with them though. And when I went to get E’s headphones yesterday out of his room? I saw his mirror in his bathroom was covered in funny messages and reminders. My point? THEY ARE FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY.

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We went outside to watch a storm roll into our neighborhood last night. We sat on the stairs and watched the giant storm cloud go from a visible change in the horizon to all encompassing gray sky above us. We felt the first few random sprinkles and waited for the deluge. I don’t think the kids believed me it would happen like that. That we’d go from watching the distinguishable cloud in the sky to being rained on in just a few moments. When it actually happened that way – like I said it would – they both kinda looked at me like I was a god. Like somehow I made that happen. I kept saying, “Here it comes! Here it comes!” Until the sprinkles went to curtains of rain and we ran under the awning. They will never look at me the same again. I am now Mom: Commander Of The Storms.

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I went to my first official board meeting this week for the Theatre Board at E’s school. I’m a publicity chairperson and I was moronically nervous. I spent the entire 15 minutes before the meeting sitting in the parking lot just trying to decide which door to go in. Once everyone started getting there I calmed a bit because – after the Spring Musical Baptism By Fire last year – a lot of these people I now consider friends. But I spent the hour or so after the meeting reanalyzing everything I said and did and trying to decide if I confirmed in other parent’s minds that I am entirely NOT cut out for this job. Like – I wrote my email for a parent on her notes from the meeting. OH MY GOD…was that totally rude? Should I have written in on a separate piece of paper?

(Do you see how ridiculous my social anxiety is? Would I have cared if anyone wrote on MY notes? No. WHY AM I FREAKING OUT?)

Anyway…I did leave with this giant stack of full-size envelopes to deliver to various schools/offices around town. This giant stack of IMPORTANT BUSINESS made me feel SUPER COOL. I walked into my house with my arms full and expect my family to be all, “Look! It’s our super-important mother with her giant stack of super-important envelopes! We are so lucky she has time for us with all of her super-important business she must attend to!”

They were all upstairs watching TV. *sigh* They just had to trust me: I’m Totally Super-Important Now.

This is a republish with a different video of an entry I put up earlier this morning. The old entry/video kept stalling out so I edited a new one hoping, since it was a better format, it would work better. Heaven forbid you all not be able to see the slide IN ACTION.

I wore a skirt for family dinner last night. Just like I said I would. It wasn’t anything too frilly. I’ve had it for awhile: A brown cotton skirt from Northface. A type of Skirt For the Outdoorsy Girl kinda thing. NikkiZ was thrilled and kept saying, “I wish I had a brown skirt I could wear.” Seeing me in a skirt was like a dream come true for her. I imagine it’s like when parents see their children reflect their own ideals as an adult. That wonderful feeling of being able to share a common passion with someone you unconditionally love. I mean – she loves me even in my nasty clothes – but in a skirt? It’s so much easier.

The only problem is, after dinner LilZ worked his magic on one of the staircases in the house. He had done this before and I had gotten one chance to enjoy it, but last night? I was determined to do it as much as my old and feeble body would let me.

This is the best shot we have of me doing it, but you get the point. Not a skirt-friendly activity. I had to grab some pajama pants out of my room to protect any innocent eyes from any unintentional flashing. Everyone in the family, including MrZ’s parents and his brother, took part in the slide. It was SO MUCH FUN. It wouldn’t have been possible if AndyZ’s bed and trundle didn’t have two of the oldest, most beat-up mattresses on the planet. They were hand-me-downs that came with the bed and we’ve been meaning to get him at least one good mattress for whatever part he sleeps on because you can feel the springs through those things.

But if we do get that mattress? We’ll be keeping these in a closet somewhere, solely for this purpose.

Here’s a clip of LilZ trying to take all three kids down at once. NikkiZ is of the opinion that maybe three at a time? Is pushing it.

It was gobs of fun. Seeing the kids (and the adults) run through the house to be the next one down the stairs was exactly what I feel like is the purpose of my life: Spreading Joy. In those moments, where I know I’m happy and the people I love are happy? I feel most at peace. Most fulfilled. Most joyful.

Even if I’m wearing pajamas under my skirt.

Thanks Elsie, for the Beautiful Banner!

A Beautiful Mess has a challenge/idea on her blog to just set yourself Four Simple Goals to achieve before the end of the year.

1. choose simple goals that will make your life richer and happier on a daily basis. choose things you may not otherwise get done, but that are not difficult to accomplish.
2. do not choose result oriented goals, choose activity oriented goals. for example…. instead of “lose 10 pounds”, choose something like “eat fresh fruits and vegetables every day”. get what i’m saying? positive actions instead of just the end result!
3. choose goals that are personal that you believe will truly make your life richer just by doing them! they can be daily, weekly or one time experiences.

COME ON. This is a GREAT idea. I love that she refers to them as “activity oriented goals” – which I think is a key in my life. I feel like I have to achieve a certain result I get overwhelmed. But simple activities that enrich my life? WHO CAN SAY NO TO THAT ONE? I’m so in love with this idea that I’ve spent 24 hours obsessing over what my Four Simple Goals will be.

And I can’t seem to do it.

It’s so hard not to be like, “Finally! Lose that weight I’ve been trying to lose since [insert random catalyst in my past HERE. Suggestions: NikkiZ's birth. Quitting Smoking. Being Laid Off.]” But I’ve been struggling with that since whatever catalyst you chose occurred. So, that seems a bit disingenuous. I want to Be A Better Mom, but that’s not really activity related either. It seems Simple Activity Oriented Goals are a struggle for me.

BUT I DO NOT GIVE UP.

I decided to try NOT to revisit the same challenges I’ve been trying to conquer for years. Let’s do something completely different but that has been lingering in my mind for ages. Little bits of KRAZEE IDEAS that have popped up here and there. Maybe I should nurture those for awhile? Steer away from the standard: Lose Weight. Be A Better Mom. Complain Less. Smile More. These things are permanent fixtures in my mind anyway, things I’m always trying to do. I think this challenge is more about setting goals to do something that will shake things up a bit. Create inspiration in the day-to-day activity. I chose to focus on each goal one day a week so that every week I force myself to at least TRY to achieve these goals. So…WITHOUT FURTHER ADO:

Kim’s (Off-The-Beaten-Path) 4 Simple Goals

1. Wear a dress/skirt once a week. I’ve been thinking about this a lot. I’m not a girly-girl. I don’t wear makeup but a few times a year. I rarely fix my hair and prefer the “scrunchy bun” technique. But sometimes I see these free-spirited Bohemian-styled women in skirts and dresses and think: THAT’S the kind of girly-girl I could be. No need for makeup, still. If I don’t want. Just some sort of flowing skirt and fun jewelery? I have LOADS of fun jewelery I never wear because I’m usually in sweats and a t-shirt. I see these women periodically and wonder what that would be like. I never even wore dresses/skirts much when I was working in a professional office. This? Could totally change my outlook on life. Or it could make me flash the neighborhood 100 times a day. I’m not very ladylike, you know.
2. One Day A Week, Carry The Camera Everywhere. I often see things throughout my day that I’d like to photograph. But – I don’t want to carry my camera everywhere all the time. Maybe if I picked ONE day a week to do it, I’d get used to it and find a system and force myself to take different photographs outside my normal arsenal of NikkiZ In A Cute Outfit.
3. Once a week force myself to eat something different. Maybe try a new recipe, but I’m thinking more about trying new foods in general. Or at least new combinations of foods. I know what I like and even though I’m cooking so much more than 2 years ago, it’s still the same basic menu. I really like Chicken. And Rice. And Pasta. A lot of my meals involve one of those three things. I want to get out of my comfort zone a bit now that I’m more comfortable in the kitchen and try something new. Maybe even something that isn’t A) A Casserole or B) Cooked in the Crockpot. Because at least 95% of my favorite meals come from one of those two places.
4. Visit a new place in town once a week. I love Huntsville, we all know that. But again – I’m in a rut just like in my kitchen. I know the places I like so when we want a park, or to shop, or to eat — I have my arsenal of faithful stops we revisit. I think I need to branch out more. Find some smaller stores to try out. New restaurants. Museums. Galleries. I can think of enough to get me through the end of the year just sitting here, not even Googling. Places I’ve wanted to try but that go out of my comfort zone a bit. I get nervous going somewhere new, but isn’t that the point of this exercise? Find simple ways to enrich our lives. Get OUT of my comfort zone, for a change. For some inspiration.

I’m nervous about all of these. I don’t think I realized how much of a creature of habit I am until I sat down to do this. I don’t branch out much. Partly because of anxiety, partly because I never feel like I’m quite cool enough to do these things. Wear a flowy skirt? Carry my camera everywhere? Eat at interesting places or visit galleries? THAT’S NOT ME. I eat BBQ in my Yoga pants (I don’t even do Yoga!) and take pictures of my kids in cute outfits. But I’ve been trying to get myself out of a rut in general anyway lately – why not try to introduce new things into my life as a way of doing that? Maybe I’ll find out I’m just a Maxi Dress Wearin’, Starfruit Eatin’, Gallery Browsin’ Photographer deep down inside.

Probably not. But, you know. We’ll see.

I took NikkiZ and Wes on a camel ride at the Zoo Saturday. I was more excited than they were but once we got there, NikkiZ wanted to ride alone. I made her ride with me first, and then we used the Solo opportunity as an incentive to stop whining about the heat already. When she finally got on it she didn’t even flinch. No fear. No hesitation. Just her on a camel, like there would be no reason for her to do anything but ride alone and riding with her Mom was simply an effort in tolerating parental authority.

The rest of the Zoo trip went great. The only animals we wanted to see but didn’t (They were inside, maybe? Avoiding the heat? Shopping some back to school sales? Getting a manicure? I don’t know.) were the Gorillas. Everyone else was out even in the heat and the kids had a ball. We fed flamingos, (OMG…tickled the CRAP out of my hands!) we rode camels, we hung out inside the fence with the Kangaroos while they ate and we watched the Sea Lions do their training sessions. All in all a superb trip. It wasn’t even crowded because the rest of the potential customer base was obviously smart and knew how freakin’ hot it was going to be.

On the way home, all three kids fell asleep. It’s a nice moment, a car ride back from a busy family outing out of town when everyone passes out from exhaustion. I just kept looking in the back of the van at them all. NikkiZ and AndyZ both passed out in horrible uncomfortable positions in their car seats. LilZ spread out across the back bench seat. Everyone snoring and sweaty and quiet. I wish we had the time and money to make trips like that a lot, but between those factors and just the simple fact that someone is always busy – we rarely make it out on big trips as a family. MrZ and LilZ often have their own schedules dragging them away so having the five of us in the van after a successful family outing? Felt very nice. Me and the little ones? We do stuff together all the time. They get bored with me. All five of us? We probably could have spent the day at Wal-Mart and it would have been just as exciting.

Although…Wal-Mart doesn’t have camels.

Do you see this weather forecast I grabbed from a local Birmingham, AL affiliate? Do you SEE that the thermometer is going to read 100° but the head index is going to be OVER 105°? DO YOU SEE THIS? Guess what I planned for us earlier in the week? A trip to the Birmingham Zoo today! The perfect outdoor activity for such a weather forecast, don’t you agree? (Sidenote: Everytime I try to type in the URL for the Birmingham Zoo, I catch myself typing Birmingham Zoot. Hee.) I just couldn’t take being in this town and working at one of my two houses for another weekend. I had to plan something small to give me/us one small break from the non-stop weekends of labor. So…the Zoo during a Deadly Heat Wave seemed like a good idea.

*Sigh*

The last time we went to a zoo was when we took a trip to the Knoxville Zoo with my Dad and brother right before Wes was born. I looked like this:

That picture was taken at the Knoxville Zoo. I used to go there every few trips home but I haven’t been back since that picture was taken. Today we’re going to the Birmingham Zoo which I’ve only been to once and it was when LilZ was around 3 or 4 and he and I made a day trip there by ourselves. I’m sure it’s changed a bit since then and if we can suffer through the elements I’m sure we’ll have fun. This is the kind of hot that people like to discuss which is worse: Dry Heat or Humid Heat. My brother lives in Tucson where he has the dry desert heat reaching the same temps as we do and he and I always agree on one thing: Once you get past 95°? It doesn’t really matter if it’s humid or dry. Anything above 95° sucks giant donkey balls and you don’t want to be outside in it. I mean, yeah, the humid head is oppressive and makes you feel like the air weighs 40lbs on top of the heat. But the dry heat? Tears up your skin and the linings of your nose, throat, and sinuses – especially if you’re not used to it. So, maybe there’s a relative “better” and “worse” to some people – but let’s face it. No one is saying, “Well, it’s 100° but it’s a dry heat so I think I’ll spend the day at the park!” or “Well, it’s 100° but at least it’s humid and I won’t get nosebleeds…maybe I’ll work in the yard all day!” Nope. We’re all saying, “Holy Effin’ Hell — Did I just move to the surface of the sun and not realize it? GIVE ME MY AIR-CONDITIONING.”

And this is when I point out to my kids that A) Mommy grew up in a house without air-conditioning. IN THE SOUTH. and B) Mommy lived several summers without air-conditioning in her car. And some of those summers? SHE WAS PREGNANT.

In other words? No one gets heat-sympathy in my house. My stories of not even bothering to shower in the summers growing up because we’d never actually dry off, the water just was replaced with sweat – or my stories about pregnant commutes in the middle of July? My stories always win out and stop the complaining RIGHT THERE.

Yes, I’m that Mom.

So…we’re off to the Zoo today. Hopefully we’ll make it out alive.