Haters gonna' hate....

I've been doing a lot of thinking about this whole blog thing lately.

I know I haven't been writing as much recently, but that's mainly just been because I've been so busy that it's been hard to sit down and take the time to actually write something. It's way faster to just slap something up on facebook instead. But there are times when actually sitting here and writing a blog post helps me to get things off of my mind.

So here I am.

I don't really pay attention to my numbers anymore. There are some bloggers out there who focus on how many followers they have (or lose), how many people view each and every post, and they make it all about the numbers. It's a game. They intentionally post something to stir the pot or to increase their numbers - and that's ok. It really is. More power to them and all that jazz.

I'm not saying that I don't look at my numbers at all, but I don't stress about them. They are what they are - sometimes they go up (and I start to hyperventilate) and sometimes they go down. Sometimes they stay the same for weeks or months at a time. Whatever.

I've had one thing go viral (gee, guess what that was?) and a few things get more hits than others (food stamps, anyone?) and honestly, the chaos surrounding stuff like that is way too much pressure for me. I don't really like it. There are times - more often than not - that I really wish that silly Tooth Fairy letter would just disappear.

Earlier this evening, I posted one of my time-lapse videos of me cleaning my kitchen. And I captioned it "It's been a while since I've done one of these." These videos are fun to do, and they help me to stay focused on whatever it is that I'm doing (usually cleaning). And I post them because they're fun. But I've gotten a couple of comments from a couple of people who have been less than impressed with them. They said things to the effect of "how could you let your house get so dirty?" or "I would never leave that much crap on my counters" or "your kids should be cleaning that mess" or whatever. And for some reason, I allowed those comments to bother me and I quit posting the videos for a bit.

Why do I post videos that show just how trashed my house can actually get? Because it's life. It's my life. My house gets messy. It gets dirty. There are times when it gets downright disgusting and I can't even stand it. But it's real, and it happens, and I deal with it. Sometimes the kids help (if they're home and not busy with something else) and sometimes they don't. Sometimes I enjoy cleaning by myself. Often, they're cleaning their rooms while I'm taking care of the kitchen or living room or whatever. But regardless of the reasons behind the mess and who is cleaning it, it's all a part of life.

People in the past have suggested that I should write a book, but that's really just not my thing. This blog and my facebook page are how I choose to document my life - the good, the bad, and the messy. I continue to share it with all of you because it's created a neat little community and the interaction is (mostly) fun. The criticism makes me look at things differently and decide if I need to change something. But at the end of the day, I'm going to write about and post things that I find interesting, or that I want to remember, or that I think someone else might be interested in seeing. There will always be someone who disagrees, and that's ok. The world would be a very boring place if everyone agreed with everyone all of the time.

The haters can keep on hating. And while they do, I'm going to go clean up my messy bedroom.

Camping videos

Had I thought about it while we were out there, I would have recorded more stuff because there were some truly priceless moments. But, I never think about it at the time.

This first one though..... oh my wow. Let me apologize now for the shakiness but I was laughing so hard that I couldn't hold the camera still. The boys were playing in the sand by the water, and Alex wanted to tell Daniel something. I heard him say "Daniel! Come here!" several times, but Daniel wanted nothing to do with whatever it was that Alex wanted to show him. Finally, Daniel looked at Alex and said "No! I want to do ballet!" and ran off and started dancing up and down the shoreline. I managed to catch part of it on film...



Then this one - this was Sunday afternoon before we left. We ventured to a different part of the lake to try to get out of the wind (and failed) and we really wanted Daniel to catch a fish (Alex had left with his father that morning). So The Dude managed to hook one and then handed the pole to Daniel.

He was quite proud of himself!

Let the (basketball) chaos begin...

Today started out entirely too early.

Sunrise. As beautiful as they are, I'd like to sleep through
one once in a while.

I had to have the herd up and fed and dressed and out the door by 7:30 in order to get Jared to a basketball clinic - which is the official kickoff for the season for him. This is his first year playing, and he's looking forward to it like crazy - but it was so funny watching him out there because he is TINY compared to the rest of the boys. But, he had fun and at this point, that's all that matters.

The ball really is bouncing - just doesn't look like it!

He gets the "Tongue Out Concentration" from me -
I admit it.

We had to leave him at the clinic so that I could take Emily across the parking lot to the other school for a parent meeting for HER basketball stuff. Her practices haven't started yet, but this was just the typical pre-season stuff that we've sat through more than a few times already. It's going to be insane with both of them playing in the rec league and then Sarah on the school team.....but insanity is my life at this point.

Then we went down the street for Emily to run in a 5K. Originally both of the girls had signed up for it, but Sarah decided at the last minute that she didn't want to do it. I wanted to, but I didn't have anyone to watch the boys so I got to just watch for a change. After the runners took off, we walked around for a while and then stopped at the library to kill some time until Emily got done running.

And they're off!

Jared decided to chase them as they came back through town.

And heading for the finish - in midair.

The weather was gorgeous - windy, but gorgeous. And oh-so-warm too. But, that didn't last.

Uh huh. In November.

Shorts. In November.

Need to tweak your archery skills for the
zombie apocalypse? WalHell has your
practice targets!

After she got done with the race we came back home for a quick lunch, then had to take Alex out to meet up with some of the Scouts to sell some more popcorn. While he was there, we did some quick shopping, then came back home thinking that we had a couple of hours until we had to pick him up again. Instead, we got the call to pick him up early because (1) he "lost his attention span" and (2) it was just too windy to be outside much longer. So we went and grabbed him then came home and I got to watch some football before making supper.

Then baths....then cleanup....then bedtime for kids.




And then the fireworks started outside...

Screen grab from some video that I shot.

Can't see a whole lot in this video, but you can hear the wind. Sort of. It was pretty intense for about 30 minutes or so, but kind of disappointing for someone who loves a good thunderstorm as much as I do.

She is going to kill me.....

So my computer has been running really really slow lately. And I finally figured that it probably has something to do with the fact that there is virtually no space left on it.

This was after I started removing stuff - it was so bad that the
status bar was actually red.

Anyway, we all know that I like to take pictures. And I have this really bad habit of just dumping all of the pictures off of the camera and onto the computer and not doing anything with them. I don't delete the blurry ones or anything. I just dump and go.

I started going through the pictures tonight, which started in August 2008. I found so many duplicates - I would dump pictures one day, say 50 of them. Then the next day, when I dumped again, those same 50 would dump, along with another 50 or so. That didn't happen all of the time, but it happened quite often. So I started deleting - which meant going through folder by folder and looking at pictures. It really didn't take as long as I thought that it would to go through the 5 months of 2008 - but I still ended up with just over 4GB of pictures just for those 5 months. I have 4 more YEARS after that.

Anyway, when going through old pictures like that, there are sure to be a lot of uncovered gems.

Exhibit A: (Yes, I know the size is wonky. Blogger hates me tonight.)