To Say Nothing of the Blog

I gots you in my smelz.
When we travel, we usually take the dog, especially if we are going to my mother's house in the "country." She has a gorgeous large wooded lot, directly across from the lake. The dog gets multiple hikes every day, with loads to sniff, see and do, plenty of woodland creatures to skulk after. Pure canine joy.

Also her house is smaller and one story, which means he can keep a nose on his entire family without having to schlep up and down stairs. I'm a fan of single story, to say nothing of the dog.

I think the dog and I are in agreement on this measure: one story rocks.

I wish I had a ranch-style house. I think they are so much easier. Easier to clean, maintain, work in, and keep an eye on errant children.

Growing up I always wanted a two-story. The last house we lived in before I went off to college was two-story. Dreamy. So when it came time to buy my own, naturally I wanted a two-story, and the houses we've owned have been two-story. I regret it, now, with small kids.

For example:

At my mother's house, it's easy to grab the strewn clothes and toss them in the wash...which I run every day so laundry is never a big chore.

At my house, clothes are strewn downstairs and upstairs, in multiple locations, despite the open and easy to use baskets I have strategically placed.

Also, while traveling and visiting my mother, I focused a few places besides the Internet. Lo! Behold! A brave and beautiful world exists off the Internet!

Anyway, I fell a little behind on my bloggy business. I didn't do my usual rounds. I tried to keep up, but knew at best it was about 75%.

I know that if I don't do my rounds---maintain my blog with frequent and new content---my visitors will drop off. (I'm not including you guys in that stat, you know, you, my loyal readers, commenters and bloggy friends, the ones for whom I get up in the morning and do this bloggy thing---well, one of the reasons; the rest are selfish.)

Also, once I log in, I start seeing all the Great! Posts! that I just have to take a minute (by which I mean an Internet Minute, just slightly longer than a Baseball Minute) to read. I'm sure also you feel the pressure when you get pinged about new content.

I do not have a self-sustaining blog; it requires tremendous effort on my part. (I haven't actually seen the mythical self-sustaining blog, but I have seen some sustainable blogs, which make it all look effortless. Perhaps that is the origin of the myth? Or maybe it's because I'm not a virg*n, or pure, or some combination therein. You know how in fairy tales only the Pure can see unicorns? Maybe it's like that.)

But I realize, "Eh, it's summer."

So that's why I think you guys will excuse me, yes?

If I drop back a little?

Trust me, it's necessary. If you knew my kids, you'd know why.

This morning I was trying to add in a new link to my link list and throw out a few comments. I thought I had the children happily occupied in the adjacent room watching Little Bear. I was mistaken.

Persistence and Patience---independent and independently-minded to an unquantifiable degree---require helicopter parenting. Their behavior this summer has deteriorated into Bratty and Mean, said very trepidatiously (call Webster's) by their loving and devoted Nana, who had been the soul of patience with incredibly trying children during our stay. It all ended when Patience---who had been escalating from Naughty to Dreadful over the course of the morning---chewed up a snack of crackers and deliberately spewed them from her mouth like a small explosion all over my mother's dining room.

This morning, it was Persistence. While I was Otherwise Occupied, she took the bowl of leftover milk and cheerios I had on the counter, waiting for me to wash it, and walked into the living room, where she stood in the center, on top of my coffee table, and tossed the bowl into the air. It slammed onto her head and milk and cheerios coated the room, including furniture, floor, rug, and toys. To say nothing of the children, who I have decided will simply marinate in milk. It's good for the skin, yes?

Those of you who have read me lo these many years I've been blogging will recall this behavior is par for the course for my kids in the summer. Despite what I feel like is ample and reasonable amounts of activity, they are still too often in the house, where they feel compelled to be clever and engage in things such as

Jokes

Science experiments

Potty quality control tests (The updated story is last week when Persistence, going potty, which requires privacy and mom outside the door, tested the flushing capacity of the toilet by using an entire roll of toilet paper.)

Great scott, it appears I left out the Great Recurring Powder Debacle

These are but a handful, but if you happen to go over, you'll note the dates of occurrence: summer time.

My children need the consistent routine and stimulation of school. They do. I realized that I was not able to provide the degree of New Experience Patience required by the time she was two.

Sadly, Persistence needs it most just now and is too young to qualify for any fun summer camps and activities.

Thus, I must resume my helicopter parenting.

To say nothing of the blog.

Which means, the blog will suffer a bit. I'll get to it, and your blog too, when I can. Here are some promises (or threats, depending upon how you take it)

* Hump Day Hmm will be a priority.
* I might get meme-y or quippy at times. You can surf my archives; there's a lot.
* If you haven't yet, read the Hump Day Hmm host post and links from this week.
* As soon as I shuffle the kids off to school in a month and a half I'll be back full force, tour de force, some sort of force.

So this blog might be going to the dogs (using the dog thing here for consistency and also, I'm not sure really what jumping a shark means) but it's just temporary. Maybe I'll stun you visually.

And I thank you for your patience and persistence.

Pun intended.

P.S. Bonus points and bragging rights to any who get the double literary reference in the title and post.

copyright 2007 Julie Pippert