House of the Rising Madness

Now where did I leave off? It's been so long since I've shared the highlights of my daily grind that I'm not sure where I should begin.

Well, think I'll just start with what my house looks like today.

A pig-pen.

No. No. Not THAT guy.

Something akin to a sty.

Yeah, that's the one.

It's a mess. Organized chaos. But somehow we're making it work...barely...agh!

I'm working. Part-time. It's okay. It's got good points, and not-so-good.
Hubby? He's working, too. Full-time with laid off days here and there. Again, good and bad points.

At this point last year, neither one of us was working so I guess we're making progress, right? Consider ourselves lucky...but are we lucky? The jury's still out.

Ok. Moving on. What to tell you next?

Grandchildren.
↓ not the grandkids ↓
Yup, they're still living with us, and they sure do keep us hopping. From the never-empty laundry basket to the piles of dirty dishes that never seems to go away. Sometimes I feel like I've turned back the clock 25 years to when I was a young mom with 3 youngsters under foot, except I'm now contending with a very old, tired middle-aged body that has seen its better days. I get tired a lot quicker nowadays. And unfortunately, the kids are not seeing grandma at her best. Thankfully, they seem to be pretty resilient and adjusting to life pretty well under the circumstances. 
                                                                 
We try to keep them busy and offer them lots of different experiences. From their first attempt at sledding to their first snow tunnel in the backyard. School fills their days. The boys go to a local school and the girl goes to daycare (what she calls "school"). One boy is taking hockey lessons, the other is signed up for baseball (hurry up, Spring!) and the girl is in gymnastics.

Last but not least, rounding out the house of madness, is an update on our animal kingdom. Our own petting zoo.

The two felines, Meow and EV, are purr-fectly fine and miraculously getting along.

And speaking of miracles, my dog Sammi has bounced back from her mystery ailment. She still goes for regular checks to make sure all is still ok. So far so good. The other 3 canines are doing well. Notwithstanding the occasional chewed toy or knocked over trash can, they are all cohabitating peacefully. (Just wish they would pitch in and clean up all the pet hair and fur floating around here and earn their keep...geez!)

Yeah, I know this only scratches the surface. There's so much more going on - and not going on. But my addled fried brain just can't handle espousing about it in blog format. And I seriously doubt if there's anyone out there that has hours to devote to reading about my woes...For if there's one thing I've learned in my long time here on this Earth is that no one really cares about anyone else's problems. They're too busy trying to take care of their own issues. Maybe you get a "poor baby" or a "there, there", a pat on the back, a quick cyber hug. But its all just going thru the motions. If they really did care, they'd roll up their sleeves and jump in to help someone who's drowning in stress.

So suffice it to say, I'm going to leave out the sordid details. And spare you the uncomfortable discomfort of trying to figure out how to delicately extricate yourself from listening to me drone on and on about how I can't get rid of the black cloud that hovers over me 24 hours a day.

What a friend, eh? Always thinking of others. That's me.

Aren't you lucky!

So, what's new with you?