Bob took the kids on a 10 mile round trip hike today. They’re troopers. Most importantly,they had fun and I got a tremendous amount accomplished while they were gone.

Not that it looks like I did but appearances aren’t everything.

I’ve overdone it today,though and my right hip is yelling at me. It’s buckled a few times and I can barely put weight on it now. *sigh*

I can’t say that I have too terribly much to write besides all that and that wasn’t too terribly exciting. Meh.
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Since teenage pregnancy entries seem to be popular lately, my Things About Me theme for today is:

I Was A Teenage Mommy!:5 Things About Me

1. My experience as a teenage mother was probably the most influential in forming my disregard and aversion to stereotypes and discriminatory judgments about age,education and class.There was nothing more enraging than to be treated like I was a stupid,irresponsible,neglectful piece of trash based on the fact alone that I was young and a mother. If people open their eyes and observe the world around them,they’ll see plenty of examples of incompetency in parenting from women who are not under 20.It’s true that not ALL teenage moms are fabulous mothers but neither are ALL of the other category of mothers over the age of 20- married,single,poor,middle-class,wealthy,educated and uneducated.

2. I have been through really hard times financially but it had zero to do with being a teenage mother.

3. I was really into saving the environment and natural living. Therefore,I did what I thought matched my personal values and breastfed and cloth diapered.I also wore my baby,co-slept,yadayada. It doesn’t take a genius to do so. This was before Dr. Sears wrote a book and called it Attachment Parenting and before the internet was so widespread . I’m not sure why I’m adding this to the Teenage Mommy facts . Maybe just because I see people act like they’re smarter or more educated because they use “Attachment Parenting”. I was a Junior in High School and I’m pretty sure ethnopediatrics wasn’t covered in any class I took.

4.I have never felt like I missed out on something or regretted any aspect of having Dylan.Not even a teeny,tiny bit. My life didn’t end or come to ruination like so many warned it would.

5. On my son’s Myspace, his number one “hero” listed is me,so I guess I did something right,at least in his eyes, and to me that’s all that really matters I’ve raised this really amazing young man. He’s made his Mama proud and I can’t wait to see where he goes in life. I think I’ve done a damn good job. I have my moments where I want to call all those people who told me I should have “done the smart thing and given the baby up for adoption” and go “Nya,in your face,sucker!”. Not that it ever mattered what they thought. I never did everything I did to prove a point….I did it because that’s what mothers do.

This endless rain is killing me.

Paper drying outside on a nice sunny day takes a few hours,compared to inside on a rainy day, which can take DAYS.

My kids have cabin fever.It clears up for a bit…and then rains….clears up…rains. And it’s not a nice summer rain that’s a blast to play in…it’s a bit chilly.

Speaking of paper though…did you know you can make houses out of paper? It’s called Papercrete and it’s just like how I make my handmade paper slurry but there’s sand and cement added and it’s poured into molds to make bricks,adobe style. Any kind of waste paper can be used,like magazines,newspapers,etc. How cool is that?
(just one of the little things I learned while researching earth-building)

It is currently not raining and the girls are all outside catching fireflies. Dmitri is watching Return of the King with Bob and going,”Ooh,scary!Kinda scary,daddy!” “Giant spider!” “Ahh,dragon bite me!” .He runs to me periodically and says “Scary ,mommy!” and wants a hug but goes back to watch more.He’s so damn cute.

It is WAYYYY past the kids bedtime but it’s ok…..maybe they’ll sleep in tommorow.That would be super nice.

‘Twas mentioned that I hadn’t done any little semi-daily Random Facts About Me lists. This is true because for one thing,I could never remember what I’d already listed and felt like a was running out of ideas. I think I’ll do this now with a theme in mind and make sure I write them down in mt Real Life On Paper Journal so I don’t keep repeating things

In honor of watching The Number 23 last night, today’s list is about numbers/numerology.
5 Things About Me: Numbers
1. My birthdate is a palindrome(3773)
2. When Bob and I met, the last 4 digits of his phone number were the last 2 numerals in his birthyear and mine combined (6673)
3. I am exactly twice as old as my firstborn child - he’s 17 and I’m 34.Incidentally,His birthdate is on the 8th (1 +7= and mine is the 7th(3 +4-7)
4. My Grandmother and I both had 5 children, including one set of twins. But she had 3 boys and 2 girls and I had the opposite. Funny though,her first born was a girl,followed by 3 boys and then a girl.My firstborn was a boy,followed by 3 girls,then a boy.
5. I have looked and looked and much to my surprise,none of my children have a birthmark resembling the number 666 anywhere on their body.

Today seems to be a good day to throw out totally random blurbs at the world.

• JUST as I was falling asleep last night, some weirdo outside my house woke me up yelling something about living on the 4th planet and new asphalt.
• Kinda not so sad about not going to Grassroots ,now that I see how crappy the weather is supposed to be. It’s always fun at Grassroots when it rains at some point and makes mud pits to dance in but when it rains for the WHOLE festival, it’s just a drag.
• I do not have an aversion to mud and other ookey things,except slugs- which are really gross to step on w/ bare feet.
• Dmitri got all excited this morning listening to the Chemical Brothers because it sounded very mechanical and motorcycle-like.
• Maybe the Chemical Brothers is why I have a headache.
• I’ve been on the waiting list for Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult since it came out,pretty much. It’s finally my turn and on hold at the library. It better be good after the wait.
• I wish people would stop saying to me,”Did you see my bulletin on Myspace??” …because it’s rare that I read bulletins on Myspace and it would just be better to avoid that awkward moment where I have to admit that,”No,I don’t usually read bulletins and essentially suck as a Myspace friend.Sorry”
• *yawn*
• I re-watched Season 3 of Queer as Folk recently.I had forgotten how hot Gale Harold is.
• Chartreuse paper is not an easy thing to make.
• laundry sucks and I have loads and loads of it to do