Get Over It Check Up - Where am I?

   So, it's been more than 2 weeks since the start of the new year and my blog about wanting to get my life in order. How am I doing? Well, I had some pretty tall orders to fill, and contrary to what you might imagine, my silence (lack of blogging) is not an indication that I haven't accomplished anything. No, I'm not 100% on top of all of my semi-resolutions. But, I have made some huge strides that I'm really proud of. I wanted to write more, and although they haven't made it to the publishing point, I have been writing more. I just haven't had time to get the posts up. I'll be working on that in the coming weeks, and I hope to be posting something for you to read at least twice a week. I know that's a lot less than my previous high output blogging, but I'm not getting paid right now, and I've barely got time for this, so you get what you get.

So, exactly what kinds of strides have I made? I'm so glad you asked! I wanted to improve the way we do school around here. One of the reasons I love homeschooling so much is because I get to make learning fun for my kids. I get to challenge them at a pace that suits their abilities and in a style which suits their natural learning tendencies. But, sometimes, when everything is a crazy mess, it's hard to find the energy to do a full day of school. As I explained in my previous post, it isn't that the kids were doing nothing at all, but more that we weren't doing the things that I really wanted to do. They were doing more online lessons, and book work, less hands on fun stuff. I don't really want to do school at home. If that were my goal, then I might as well sign them up for an education at the nearest public school. It isn't about that for me. I want to engage their brains and develop a love of learning and a desire for discovery. That's what has been lacking. Of course it's important that they learn the fundamentals. It's important that they be able to read and write and communicate intelligently. But, it's more critical for me, that they want to know how things work and why things happen and that they learn to seek that knowledge for themselves. One of the things that has been so hard for me lately is doing science experiments and history projects with them. These are things that I want them to be excited about. Yet, I've not been in my groove and able to take an active role in that part of their education. Well, 2012 is the year of the get over it, remember? So, I sat down and I wrote out 6 weeks of lesson plans, and I included science experiments almost every day and little fun additions to our history curriculum. It's just the push I need. I needed that extra impetus of, “It's on the calendar. Let's get this done.” Now, school is happening every day. Not just the fundamentals, but the FUN stuff, too. Just like the kids enjoy. They love it, and I do, too. The other day, we made supersaturated solutions out of both borax and epsom salts, then made crystal shapes on pipe cleaners to compare the different crystalline shapes. The same day, we built a Lego volcano and then erupted it with baking soda and vinegar to simulate the volcanic eruption on the island of Thera, near Crete, which is speculated might have caused the decline of the Minoan civilization. I think it's safe to say that, we're back on track with our school plans.

Along with a better organized school day, we've brought back my favorite discipline system, ever. It's a gentle discipline system, which I call the behavior ladder. We have a printed copy of the house rules posted. Each child has a chart with 6 levels, and a picture of themselves with a magnet that moves up and down the ladder based on behavior. Breaking a house rule moves the child one rung down the ladder, completing a chore moves the child one rung up the ladder. Each rung of the ladder has a different set of privileges, with thinking time and chores only on level 1, and full privileges on level 6. If the child completes 5 days out of the 7 day week on the top 3 rungs of the behavior ladder, s/he earns a weekend reward. If the child completes all of his/her chores for at least 5 days out of the week, s/he earns a commission at the end of the week. (In our house that's $1 for each year of age. My 3 yo earns $3, the 6yo earns $6, etc...) It sounds complicated, but it really isn't the hardest part of the whole system is deciding what the privileges, rewards, and chores were for each kid. They love this system, and I love it, too. There is no complaining about completing chores, no one wonders where they are behavior-wise, and the whole house just runs a lot more smoothly. If you are struggling with discipline and tired of it, I cannot recommend enough that you check out the behavior ladder to see if it is a fit for your family. So, I'm totally on track with that goal for the year of the get over it. Go me.

Along with a 6 week supply of lesson plans and the reintroduction of the behavior ladder have come some bits and pieces of organization. I am still struggling with getting back to the gym. I want to do it, but life hasn't cooperated. Instead of simplifying I seem determined to take on new projects. I took a position as an administrator for one of the homeschool co-ops that I'm involved with, in addition to offereing 2 classes there for the spring semester. By far, however, the biggest impediment to further organization has been the addition of our newest family member, Mr. Harrelson. He is only the sweetest, most adorable, smartest dog, ever. Not that I'm biased. Mr. Harrelson is an 8 month old yellow lab/golden retriever mix. We are continually amazed by his intelligence. He's also still a puppy. A puppy that weighs as much as my 6 year old. It makes for some exciting moments. Plus, we're still adjusting to being dog people. We haven't been dog people in a very long time, and never so completely, unabashedly, head-over-heels in love with a mutt that we'd call ourselves that, even if we were. Also, although my genius puppy has made huge strides since he came to live here, he's still learning the ropes, and training a new dog is a project that takes a lot of time and consistency. He's amazing, but it still takes time. It's kind of like adding a toddler to the house. Except he's housebroken.

Anyway, there you have it. That's where I'm at so far. I'm nowhere near where I intend to be, but I'm making strides in the right direction, and I don't think you can ask me for too much more. What about you? Where are you on your journey in the year of the get over it? Are you making strides? We all just have to be where we are, but baby steps are better than no steps. So, how about it?   

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You May Say... He's a Dreamer...

   My middle child, Punkinhead, is 6 years old. I've written many times about the funny things he says that keep us laughing, about the difficulties he has concentrating on things that don't interest him sometimes, and about what a little charmer he can be. I've written so much about him because he's such a joy, and sometimes, such an enigma to me. I love how unbridled his enthusiasm is for anything that he enjoys. I love his single-minded focus on the things that do capture his interest. I love how he looks at something ordinary and sees things in a completely different light than what anyone else sees. Even when he's doing the complete opposite of what I want him to do, it's hard not to love the kid. He's just so full of life that it's hard not to feel bathed in sunshine just from sitting next to him.

Punkinhead is my second born child, and also my second son. It's both funny and amazing to me that I can have 2 male children, composed of the same basic genetic components derived from their father and I, and yet they turn out to be such polar opposites. Eggy, my oldest, is not a dreamer at all. He's a an intellectual, and a hard worker, and has little regard for the more ridiculous things in life. He's a very curious child, and wants to know how everything works, and why everything happens. I picture him as finding his future in something to do with science or engineering. He's just that type of personality that I think would be suited to those fields. With Punkinhead? The world is wide open. I joke that he's going to be a pool boy and international man of mystery. He's so charming and so imaginative that, while I have no doubt he could be a scientist if he so desired, I can't really picture that. I don't know what he'll do with his life, and that's okay. He'll find his way. But, I guess, my main point is, my 2 boys are just so very different; almost like night and day.

Sometimes I see such a clear illustration of this that it amuses me. Today was one of those days. We recently acquired a new dog, Mr. Harrelson, and he had indicated that he needed to go out to relieve himself. Hunny and the boys were already outside. They were supposed to be fixing my porch. One of the supports broke on it awhile back, and it needed replaced. When I went outside with Mr. Harrelson, there was Eggy, steadfastly heling his father repair the damaged porch, but Punkinhead was nowhere in sight. I didn't think much of it, but continued on around back so that the puppy could relieve himself. I still did not see Punkinhead, but there were a few scattered toys in the back yard, including the lid from our turtle sandbox. It wasn't on the sandbox because it's been snowing and the kids like to use it for a sled in the event of enough snowfall to make sliding a possibility. As I stood there, waiting for Mr. Harrelson to do his business, the lid popped up from the ground and there was Punkinhead, beaming at me. “Hi, Mom!” I had to laugh at this entire tableau. While Eggy was diligently helping his father repair the porch, Punkinhead wandered off and secreted himself beneath the lid to the turtle sandbox, and remained there, completely covert, so that it was no longer a sandbox lid, but his secret fortress. And, this is why I cannot help but love this kid. I saw a lid. He saw a fortress, and he couldn't resist it. I hope that he always sees fortresses and that he never sacrifices his imagination for drudgery. Sure, there's a lot to be said for hard work. Absolutely, I think that everyone should do their part, but I'm also so tickled by my dreamer – and be honest with yourself – without the dreamers, where would the rest of us be? They are the ones who give us poetry, art, literature, and innovation. They are the ones who inspire the rest of us. I think sometimes that I have clear moments like this so that I can appreciate my son even more. Sure, sometimes it takes us twice as long to do reading lessons, and he can't focus long enough to clean his room. But, what if that very dreamy quality that gets on my nerves is the thing that allows him to imagine the cure for any of the global crises that threaten our planet, or allows him to design a piece of technology that makes life better for us all? So, here's to the dreamers. They don't always live in our reality, but when we get a glimpse into theirs? Well, that's a true thing of beauty.   

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Happy 2012 - The Year of the Get Over It...

   We rang in the new year last night. It's 2012, a brand new year with a fresh start for everyone. (Also a gory end sometime in December, if Hollywood and that ancient Mayan calendar deal are to be believed, but ya know, whatever. Let's focus on the positive, here.) Anyway, I never do anything for New Year's Eve. Last night was no exception. We watched a movie with the kids and then, once they were in bed, watched a grown up movie all by ourselves. (I know, party animals, right?) Once the movie was over, we went to bed. It was roughly 11:45pm. We didn't even acknowledge the impending shift in dates on the calendar. In fact, at the exact moment that the calendar flipped, I'm pretty sure I was in the middle of a rant about the obnoxious odors one might experience as a result of one's spouse having consumed Chipotle shrimp tacos at some previous point and gagging and fanning my face theatrically. (You weren't there. Trust me. The face fanning, no matter what Hunny says was not theatrical.) Some moments later, we heard our neighbors setting off fireworks and realized that it was, by all appearances, 2012. At approximately 12:04am, I held my breath, leaned into the noxious cloud of shrimp taco fumes, and risked a belated quick smooch with my husband. I can only pray that my activities at midnight will not actually have any bearing on what the rest of the year will hold.

Anyway, sometime in the wee hours, I woke up and started to contemplate the new year. Certainly 2011 was kind of a stinker. I mean, we had dead relatives, sick relatives, Hunny almost died and we've spent the last 5 months learning to manage his dead pancreas, I lost my freelance writing job... I don't think I'm going to miss 2011 much at all. Frankly, 2011 can be filed away as a rather unpleasant memory, and the sooner the better. Good riddance. But, 2012 is upon us. It's all new and shiny. I never make New Year's resolutions. Mostly because I get all pissy with myself for trying to be all controlling, and like 2 weeks in I’m all “Who does she think she is? She can't tell me what to do!” Which makes no sense, and frankly, confuses even me, but it's the truth. So, generally, I'm anti resolution. But, as I looked around in the wee hours, and took stock at all of the huge changes we've been through this past year, I thought about where I am and where I'd like to be. I thought about how things don't happen unless you make them happen, except life, which continues to happen all around you, whether you want it to or not. So, it seems that the only sensible solution is to make a plan. It's perhaps a bit cliched that all of these decisions occurred on the dawn of the new year, but there it is. One good thing that did happen in 2011 is that I started to get my weight and fitness under control. I ended the year 41 lbs lighter than I started it. I'd like to continue to see those numbers go down and my fitness levels go up, but since Hunny's diagnosis I've only been maintaining because I've very much felt that I couldn't handle one more point of focus without needing the nice doctors in white coats bring me the comfy jacket that lets me hug myself. Sometimes it's necessary to take a break. I'm happy report that I didn't gain during my break, but I haven't really lost any more either. I've been thinking for awhile that I need to get back to the gym, get my butt back in gear, but I haven't done it. Why not start that over with the new year? It's not like a better time is going to present itself. Then there's school. We're a homeschooling family. For the most part, I feel like I do a good job with my children. They are ahead of grade level in pretty much every subject, and I'm very happy with the choices I've made for their curricula. The problem is, for the last few months, I've been so caught up in crisis mode, learning about and coping with Hunny's diagnosis with type 1 diabetes, that while we've done school, and the kids are still okay, I haven't been nearly as organized or as hands on as I'd prefer to be. Back in the first year that I was homeschooling, I listened to a woman talk about her experiences homeschooling. She'd been homeschooling for many years, and had taught all 7 of her children. They had all gone on to successful careers in their chosen professions, and were doing quite well. But, what stuck with me most was when she talked about her husband being disabled, and that she had had to just basically abandon schoolwork with them for a year or more, in favor of caring for him. But, she said, they did just fine. Her point was not to get caught up in worrying over the day to day, it's the big picture that matters, and they will do okay as long as you give them the tools to succeed. I try to hang onto that, because especially over the past couple of months, I haven't always had the energy to be the best teacher every single day. There have been days when I've let them do the bulk of their learning online, and days when we've just read a book here and there. But, even though I know they will be okay, I would like to be the teacher that they deserve. So, why not make a new plan for a new year and commit to doing better in that area, too? Then there's the dreaded housework. Look. I'm not a housekeeper. I don't mind doing housework, but in general, I have better things to do. As a result, things around here are either immaculate, or a pigsty. True story. If I'm on my game, I keep things pretty well cycled through, and I keep things checked off my list. (Of course, those are my things. At any given time the hubs and the kids may or may not be included under the umbrella of order. Turds.) But, especially when I am feeling emotionally drained, housework is either all I focus on, or it gets shoved to the back burner. I used to have a schedule of things. Every day I did a different room and at the end of the week everything was still pretty clean. There were no giant messes in general, because I kept things done up from day to day. Somewhere between one emergency with my mom or another, I let that go, and it has not worked out well for me. I need to bring that back so I'm not killing myself to do everything all at once. I also need to get my kids back on their discipline charts. Those were fantastic tools for eliciting the type of behavior that I wanted to see in my children, and in maintaining order, but again, I let it slide in all the chaos. Then there's this blog. When I was getting paid to write? I wrote all of the time. Now that it's just because? Well, who has the time for that? And yet people keep telling me that they love reading my blog or that they think I should write more because they love to read what I have to say on facebook. It's a bit of guilt since I haven't posted a blog in well over a month. I need to update my blog more frequently. I also need to do a little more writing in general. The thing required of me to get this done, is simply to commit the time and energy. So, essentially, all of this boils down to getting a handle on all of my emotional ups and downs and forcing myself to take a more organized approach to life. I have the tools to do this. Why not do it now? A better time is not going to present itself, and besides, if those Mayans are correct, I only have the next 11 months to do it in anyway. Might as well give it a shot, right? So here's to 2012. May I get a handle on my crazy and succeed in getting some organization back into my life. Bad things happen. I can't let them keep me from functioning. I still have 3 kids to take care of and a life to lead. The world does not stop turning just because I'm too emotionally drained to deal with it. Happy freaking new year, people. Things are about to change around here.  Let's get over it and move forward.  

Laughing in the Face of Diabetes

   Living my life as the wife of a diabetic can be challenging. I don't face same challenges that my husband faces, obviously, but though my own burdens are different, that does not make them less. It's his disease, obviously, and thus he is the one that suffers the physical consequences of his choices and the one who will reap the return on his investment in management of the disease down the road, be it large or small. But since I live with him, I'm often at the mercy of his glucose dependent mood swings, and of course, the diet of our entire family has been impacted by his needs. I worry over what his glucose levels are. I ponder over how to prepare our meals so that they suit his dietary needs. I worry over exposing him to germs, because diabetics can get sick easier, and have a harder time recovering. I even, with my sometimes ridiculous and overactive imagination, spend time worrying about the fact that if the world as we know it comes to an end, he's got an expiration date because insulin has a definite shelf date. Somehow the apocalypse doesn't seem nearly as fun without him in it.

Being a well managed diabetic comes with a lot of responsibility. Every bite of food that you eat needs to be accounted for. Type 1 diabetics, like my husband, need to check their blood glucose levels several times each day. Before he got his continuous monitor, he was testing approximately 6 times each day. Even with the monitor, it's still necessary to test at least 3 times each day, or however many times he eats, because he has to use his test results to gauge his insulin dosage. He takes a minimum of 5 injections of insulin each day; 2 doses of his basal, or long acting insulin, and a dose of bolus, or short acting insulin before each meal. He also has to take into account any physical activity or unusual stress because that can have a big impact on his levels. As you can tell, it is, as I said, a lot. We usually cope with the stress of it all with a lot of humor. In life, with these types of things, it's either laugh or cry, so we choose laugh. Sometimes, though, things really are funny. For example, most recently my kids have been discussing what they would like for Christmas. Eggy, age 8, has quite the impressive list of desires. He wants a netbook, an iPod, a Nook, and several dozen other expensive things. So far, our 6 year old, Punkinhead, however, has announced only one item that he wants on his Christmas list. Two nights ago, he explained to us that he hopes Santa clause brings him his own glucose meter and test strips so that he can test his blood sugar 6 times a day, just like Daddy. We had to laugh over that one. Apparently, to the 6 year old, all that finger poking seems fun! Or else, when you're 6, you want to be just like Daddy, no matter what. Either way, I'll be thankful if my little man never has need to poke his little fingers 6 times a day, regardless.   

Halloween Paper Japanese Lantern Tutorial

   The fact that I'm writing this tutorial kind of cracks me up. My friend G. is slightly... Shall we say... Craft challenged. I recently posted a picture of the Japanese lantern jack o' lantern that my 3 year old daughter made (with my help) on my Facebook.

 My friend asked for a link with instructions. I didn't have one. I tried to explain how simple this project was, because, I mean, surely everyone knows how to make a Japanese lantern, right? But then, I remembered her own description of her ineptitude with crafts and thought that perhaps... Well, anyway. Here I am, with pictures, to demonstrate this simple, fun, preschool (or any age!), Halloween craft!

1. Okay.  So, first, you're going to need some orange paper.  We just used orange construction paper, but if you're terribly artistic, I suppose you could use scrapbook paper with a pretty pattern on it or something a little fancier.  :-)

2.  Our lantern needs a handle, so before we do anything else, we need to fold up a 1" (roughly) piece of the paper to give us a sort of straight mark to cut this off.

3. Trim off the 1" strip along the short edge along the crease that you made.  Reserve this strip for later use as the handle for your lantern.

4. Let your artist draw their jack o' lantern face onto the remaining large piece of paper.  In this instance, I was in a hurry, so I scrawled a quick one myself.  For young children, you might draw the outline, and let them color it in.  I am usually going for process over product, personally, so if I can convince mine to do it, I make them draw their own, even if they complain that it won't be "perfect."  Another option would be to let them paint it, or to have sponges pre-cut into triangles and let them stamp.  Anything goes.

5. okay, once the face is complete, you want to fold your paper in half, the long way.  (Hot dog fold.)

6. Now we're ready to start cutting.  You're going to make parallel cuts along the folded edge about 1" apart all the way across your jack o' lantern.  

 Be sure not to cut all the way through, but to leave about an inch of uncut paper at the top to hold it all together. 

7. Now that you've cut all the way across, unfold your jack o' lantern.  It should look something like this:

8. Now the assembly begins.  Loop your paper around so that the short edges are over lapping, as seen in the picture below.  You'll want enough overlap so that you can staple (Or tape, or glue, but I think stapling is the most expedient) each end.

 When you staple both ends and turn it around, it should look something like this:

 9. Attach the handle at the top with a staple on either side, so that the face is centered.  That's it!  Your Japanese lantern is complete and can be hung anywhere for a very cute holiday decoration!  :-)

I forgot a step!

10. Take a picture of your munchkin with their creation.   They'll love that they made this simple Halloween craft with minimal help from you, and they'll be excited to hang it somewhere to decorate for the holiday!

Happy Crafting!

Cute Halloween Treats... Finally!

   Where to start. I always thought that I'd be one of those moms who is always making the cute stuff for her kids' class parties. I supposed, before I was a mom, that I would always have homemade cookies waiting when they got home from school, and that I'd make amazing cakes and cupcakes for their birthdays... You know... I'd be that mom.

But, then I actually became a mom. I love being a mom so much that most of my focus is actually on my kids rather than on making cutesy snacks and stuff to make myself feel like a good mom. (I'm not calling out people who make cutesy snacks, here. I love you people. I wish that I had enough time and focus to do both. I don't.) Once my kids were born, I realized that babies, when you parent them full time, take up pretty much all of your time. It was shocking how much of your time you could spend simply feeding a baby. How can 20 out of 24 hours be spent caring for the baby, and the other 4 spent “sleeping?” (sleeping is in quotation marks, because I'm pretty convinced that that's a lie.) Anyway, I thought that, as my kids got older, then I would make the cute things. For awhile, I did make a few cute things. But, I seemed to always have babies. Then, instead of enrolling my kids in school, I decided to homeschool them, which means that our class parties are, well... Few and far between. So... That limits my excuses to make cutesy snacks and such.

But recently, a friend suggested that we turn our October homeschool roller skate playdate into an actual Halloween get together. She said she was bringing stuff to turn the usual humdrum snack table into a spooky Halloween scape, and that she wanted the rest of us to join her, if we would. I was stoked. Which brings me to my opportunity to show off my attempts at fun, Halloween themed, cutesy snacks. In a stroke of luck, I had recently seen a blog elsewhere showing off some very cute Halloween snacks. I put my own spin on them, and here's what I came up with:

These are Nutter Butter cookies, dipped in white chocolate, with mini chocolate chips for eyes.  Nutter Butter ghosts.  Tres cute, no?

Ghost Poop mini marshmallows!  Could you die from the cuteness?  

Mummy juice boxes.  Just wrapped them in crepe paper streamers and stuck googly eyes on them.  How stinking cute, am I right?  

My one regret? My friend saw these cupcakes before I did, and got the chance to make them before I could. Darn.  

In Which my Husband Fails at Home Improvement...

   I love my husband. He has many fine qualities, not the least of which are an unwavering devotion to my own awesomeness that I find to be somewhat endearing. Call me crazy, but I enjoy the boost it gives to my ego. I make him read these blog entries, by the way, so he's well aware of the public defamation suit he could win if he ever decides to seek legal recourse against me. That being said, among the list of his finer qualities, you will not find anywhere a check mark or gold star next to an item praising him for his unwavering devotion to honey do jobs and home repair projects. You just... won't.

The funny thing is, most of the projects that he needs to do are very simple and would only take him a few minutes to complete, but he still puts them off as though he were avoiding a kitten execution or something. Case in point, a few years ago, I decided that I wanted a bookcase headboard for our king size bed. Not one of the ones with the huge shelves on both sides that take up a ton of room, just a simple bookcase headboard because we are both avid readers and it seemed like a practical choice. But, when we went looking for what I wanted, it turns out they don't actually make those, or at least they don't sell them anywhere near here. But I have this issue where if I can't have what I want, then I just don't want anything. So, we went without a headboard for awhile until I received an email from a freecycle group one day offering a king size bookcase headboard. It was intended for a waterbed, but I asked Hunny and he agreed that it could be made to work with minimal carpentry skills. So, I responded to the offer and we picked up the headboard and lumber and supplies to make my bookcase headboard dream come true. I was so excited about this project. We came home with all of the supplies, and carried them in, but it was a Sunday afternoon, and Hunny had to work the next day, so he didn't start on the project that day. No problem. We just sat the stuff in the hall and I waited patiently for my bookcase headboard. I waited... for nine months. When I was finally sick of cleaning around the stack of materials and so aggravated that I was ready to tell him just to throw the stuff out if he wasn't going to actually do anything with the headboard, he got mad and started on the project. 15 to 20 minutes later, I had a headboard. I was happy about the headboard, but completely flabbergasted that I had worked around the headboard, reading lights, and lumber for 9 months for this “big project” that he completed in less than a half an hour. Sigh.

At any rate, these kinds of things have happened here and there throughout our marriage. I don't even get mad about them anymore. It's actually just kind of funny exactly how far he'll go to avoid a project. I've come to determine that, in many cases it's because he's decided that he wants to turn it into this big production, and make it perfect, when I just want it functional. The headboard, for example, he had big plans for that. I just wanted it functional. Regardless, knowing his penchant for avoiding honey do projects like the plague, I've learned to be fairly self sufficient just in self-defense. But, sometimes it will still catch me off guard just how much he hates fixing things.

Which is why, when the flush handle assembly on our toilet broke, I didn't expect to be reaching down into the tank and flushing it by pulling on the chain by hand for a week. But, that's exactly what happened. I even mentioned a couple of times in passing that he should pick up a new handle thingie (technical term, that) on his way home from work. It didn't happen. This is another example of me not really knowing how big of a project we were looking at. I, like I suspect many of you reading this, don't give much thought to the inner workings of the toilet. I do my business, I push the handle, it makes the big whoosh sound, water flows down, and it flushes. Occasionally there's plunging involved, particularly with 3 small children in the house, one of whom has been quoted as saying, “I can clog a toilet with me eyes shut!” (That's actually a factual statement, by the way. No details, but really, it's impressive.) Anyway, finally, last night, we were going out to dinner and then to the store to pick up a few odds and ends, and Hunny demanded that I write a shopping list. So, amongst the other items, I scrawled “toilet handle flusher thingie.” I was hoping against hope that he would get the subtle hint that I was really tired of plunging my hand into the back of the toilet to flush it.

To my surprise, when we traveled to the plumbing aisle of our local Wal-Mart, the flush handles were under $5. In fact, I think we paid a whopping $2.86 for the one Hunny chose to replace the broken one. So much for my theory that he was hesitant to buy an expensive repair part. Well, it must be terribly difficult and or time consuming to put in, was my next theory. When we arrived home after our shopping excursion, I was putting away the few groceries we had picked up, and I sent Eggy to take the flush handle to his daddy so that the toilet repair work could begin. I had an ulterior motive. I had to pee and I did NOT want to put my hand into that tank one more time just to flush the toilet.

10 minutes later, Hunny was lounging on the bed, playing with his smart phone, and the handle assembly was still in it's package, waiting. Sigh. I picked it up and started into the bathroom.

“What are you doing?”

“Seeing how hard it is to fix a toilet since you haven't moved.”

“Calm down. I'll get to it. I just haven't gotten up yet.”

At this point, I have visions of headboards and flat tires in my head. No, thank you, sir. “I have to pee and I don't want to reach into the tank to have to flush it one more time!”

“Then don't.”

I heaved a long suffering sigh. He continued peacefully playing with his phone. My bladder gave a squawk. Really. This toilet stuff couldn't be that hard, right? No, it really couldn't. It consisted of screwing off the old handle and throwing it away, taking the nut off of the new handle, putting it through the hold on the tank, and threading the nut onto it. I did have to reach into the tank to attach the chain, but it was a 2 minute repair. Don't think I didn't question exactly why I'm married if I have to change my own flat tire and fix my own toilet within the space of a matter of days. Then I remembered he can still get things off of high shelves and the paycheck comes in handy. Okay. He can stay. ;-)