Keepin Up Tradition..lol

It's Friday folks and you know what that means? Yes, it's the day where I pour my heart out about my inadequacies as a mom. Julie is on a blog-cation right now so I'm going to try to keep her NPSA meeting going a little on my end. Plus, I'm just too down in a rut to come up with anything creative and entertaining. So here goes nothing:

Any of you moms ever actually looked forward to having a camping trip? Well, I do. Doesn't make sense because usually camping might require a lot of work, packing of camping gears, the hike or whatever...but camping here in Hawaii so much different. Camping is like going on a vacation.

Anyways, since we moved to our Ward nine years ago, our family has been going every year since with our Ward for Ward camp. I didn't use to like camping...all those packing, planning menus, hauling things to and from camp and all the camping gears...well, two years after this yearly ritual, I discovered something that actually make me like camping anymore. Seriously.

We usually camp from Friday to Wednesday so that's almost a whole week. You know what my biggest dilemma everyday is? Trying to figure out what to make for dinner...even with a menu schedule or even if I already have an idea of what I want to make, it always ended up a complete shamble. Well, I figured out that at camp, my family is not soooo picky about what they eat. As long as I bring a lot of snacks and drinks, they will eat anything. If I actually decide we'll eat sandwiches that whole duration of camp, that's what we will be eating...no complaints from anyone, not even the hubby who usually makes a big fuss about dinner meal. In fact he insisted that I don't go through any trouble trying to come up with anything elaborate for dinner, he's all content with just having sandwiches as long as he gets to spend his whole camping trip at the beach.

So folks...that is now the reason I look forward with excitement to camping. For five days, I can feed them anything and they will be just fine. And not only that, but since there are other kids and adults around and most of kids are grown, I just let my little kids go off with hang out with their little friends and I get to enjoy myself, doing my own thing. All this time, my kids are actually thinking that I am making a sacrifice for them every year by taking them camping but they don't really know, do they? To them camping is the best time of the year besides Christmas because mom lets them eat all the junk food they desire and she keeps supplying them with that and even dad is loosened up enough to eat hot dogs which he loathe eating by the way..lol. AND.....only at camp that a mom can get away with letting her kids wear the same thing, be it swim shorts or a complete outfit for five days in a row without anyone giving you the eye...seriously.

As you can see, I have a such a great time at camp, exhausting though it may be, I am wishing we are still camping right now because quite frankly, I'm just too lazy to get up and do any mundane things. I think this year's camping week went by really fast, I barely got to bask in the glory of it all when it was time to break camp and come home. So now, I'm already planning on the next Ward camp coming up next year...isn't that crazy? In fact, I think I'm still in the camping mode right now because I keep thinking that the kids should just raid our cabinets and help themselves to any food they find...lol.

Ahem...aight folks, thanks for reading, hope your week is been great so far. Again, if you're in the mood to read some fun post, go here.

God bless!! and happy blogging!

Another NPSA Post

Hello out there!! Is anybody reading me? LOL

Ok folks....I got a major/serious problem. Yes, you heard me, I have a problem. I have this totally awful habit of immersing myself in new obsessions that I tend to neglect everything else..for example my children.

These last couple of weeks, all I did was camp out on my computer. There are so many distractions on the computer that makes me practically spent all day, everyday for the last couple of weeks doing. What are these distractions? Well, for one, blogging. Not that I'm posting everyday or commenting on other bloggers' post but mainly reading. I was reading blog after blog and when I wasn't reading, I was playing games. One game I am totally addicted to right now is "Express"...it's one of those games that doesn't do anything for the mind but it does have speed factor, finishing a task before the time ends so that's what got me occupied most of the time when I wasn't reading blogs. Hubby saw me playing the game all the time and asked me one day if I was getting anything out of playing the same game over and over and I told him "no". He asked why play it then and I told him "just because". So you see, there's absolutely no useful reason for the game yet I can't seem to stay away from it.

So these past weeks, I get up in the morning, get my kids ready for school and sent them off to school with their dad. Fed my two year old, turned on her favorite shows and then planted myself in front of the computer. First I just told myself I will just check my email and respond to whatever needed responding. Then when that's done, I tell myself I will check my blog roll and see what the other bloggers have posted...so of course, since they have new posts, I just had to check them out. And hey, I've made it to their blog, they can clearly see me on their detector, so it would be rude of me not to leave a comment. So then when I am done with that, I'm thinking, hey I'll just play a little game and then get off....and before you know it, the whole morning is gone.

I get off and do a real quick pick-up around the house...not even sufficient to call that house cleaning but to me it would have to do for the time being. After I pick up the kids at school, I give them an hour or so to do their homework and off I go again..back to the computer. Kids are coming in and out of my room asking me what they can snack on. Can they eat so & so in the fridge or the pantry?...I give them a nay or yay answer and go right back to staring at the computer. Seriously, the poor kids are having to fend for themselves everyday because mom is not doing her duty. I am surprise I actually take a little time out to make dinner for them.

So, do you agree that I have a major problem? If there is such a thing as an award for the Worse Mother of the Year, I will be the big time WINNER!! I would probably be wearing that title every year...don't you think?


~~~~~~sighs~~~~~~Yep, this is my NPSA confession for this week. I know most of you are disappointed in me but oh well!!

But I pinkie promise, I will remedy this problem of mine this week. I pinkie swear that I will start making a goal to limit my computer usage time and will only use my computer time wisely and spend it on more important stuff like blogging and that's it. If I promise to do that, will you stop looking at me like that? After all, I did confess my neglectful attitude already. If you give a poor girl a break this time, I will pinkie promise to come back next week and dazzle you with my mommy hood skillz....LOL.

Anyways, thank you for listening or reading, I feel like a whole load is lifted off my shoulder. Have a great Aloha Friday....on me!! LOL

I've fallen(off the mommy bandwagon) and I can't get up!!

Last week my Elementary school kids were going on a field trip..all three of them so instead of my usual stop at the store to get them lunch, I decided to make their lunch for them. They requested musubi (if you wanna know what that is you can check it out on this blog). That was easy, I can do that...so I got up the next morning at six to start the cooking. While I was in there making their lunch, my daughter Steph poked her head in the kitchen and eyes wide opened she said, "you're making breakfast?" She made it sound like that was something unheard of, me making breakfast. In fact she even pointed out that is something I never do so for me to be making breakfast so early in the morning is shocking to her.

That totally stunned me there for a minute. Have I never really made breakfast for the kids that my daughter seeing me in the kitchen cooking so early in the morning is surprising for her? I had to do quick rewind into the last seventeen years and tried to remember when was the last time I stood in my kitchen to make breakfast for them. And you know something, she was absolutely right. I hardly make breakfast.

I am not a morning person, have always been that way so breakfast was never that important to me. I would rather sleep than getting up to eat breakfast. It was so much more important to me to catch the last few minutes of the early morning sleep than to bother with the morning rituals of breakfast. And so I guess I just carried it over onto my marriage and parenthood. Yes! I know!! Breakfast is the most important meal of the day but who cares? I certainly don't or didn't.

Why are you looking at me that way? I do feed my kids breakfast. I made sure we have cereal for them to eat. On the week days, I had them eat at school. Hey the food is a lot more nutritional and way cheaper. On the weekends, I feed them cold cereal...ok so on special occasion I made breakfast but it's more like brunch. And on those days where there are no school, Steph is usually the one who takes over the kitchen, the cooking part at least.

See how far I've fallen off that mommy bandwagon? I have been neglecting my kids. Just last week, my eight grader had a field trip and again, since I usually go to the store to get my kids sack lunch, so I decided I was going to do the same thing, buy his lunch at the store but when we got to the there to get my son his lunch, poke which is raw tuna fish seasoned really good with rice, I came to find out that the place does not take personal checks. And that was all I had with me, a checkbook and a dollar bill so what did I do? I gave my son the dollar bill that probably could only buy candy bar and sent him on his way.

On that same day, the elementary school had a super citizen assembly and my son who is in sixth grade was chosen as super citizen for the month. They were also going on a field trip that day so sixth graders were to be first to get their recognition so they can make it to their field trip. My husband called me to let me know that but I thought I, in my prideful and all knowing attitude thought he was just trying to get me to go early so I just brushed aside what he said as a joke and went about doing some other stuff before I went to the assembly. Well, when I finally showed up at the school, the sixth graders were all lined up to go on their field trip and my son had already gotten his recognition and I missed the whole thing. See, what I mean? And those weren't the only times I've done that, there were countless others but I am too ashamed to name them all....I sincerely hope they don't end up going to therapy for the rest of their lives. So there, my confession for the weeks for my NPSA.



There ya go, my ramblings for the day. Now, if you haven't participated in my Pay it forward, please scroll down and check it out or read the top of this page on how to participate. I still need people to play. Aight, later all and God bless!!

I've Developed NPS through my Obsession

{Julie at Youngbloods4ever is starting a new Friday special or section of her blog. It's called Neglectful Parent Syndrome Anonymous where she confesses about her obsessions that keeps her away from her parental duties. I just love this girl you know, she's got so much things in common with me and after following her blog for a little while, I've concluded that she and I are like two peas in a pod. She has the same weakness or obsessions I have, isn't that cool? So I've decided I'm going to come out of hiding and jump on her bandwagon and confess my NPSA..lol. If you want to join in on her weekly meetings, you can read her first post about this topic, just click {here}, it'll take you right there.}

Ok...hello!! Is this on? Hummmmp, hi...my name is Anjeny and I have NPS (Neglectful Parent Syndrome). I know I'm soooo ashamed of myself...lol.

I have a really bad problem with obsessions or passionate hobbies that I find myself buried so deep in them that I often neglected my children. I have a few of those obsessions but today I'm going to talk about one of them and that is my LOVE for reading. I read all kinds of books but what I love reading most are those fiction entertaining books, romance novels of any kind. The last book series I read is the Twilight series. I found out about the series a lot later than most of the Twilight fan populace but once I started reading the first book, I fell completely hopelessly in obsessed with it. It was so bad that I had to use doing laundry as an excuse to hide away from my family so I can read the books. I read all four books in about a week, maybe a total of probably eight hours of sleep for that week. Now if this is not a problem, I don't know what is.

See, I love reading, have always loved reading since I was a little girl. My love for books stemmed from my parents. We were poor so we couldn't afford a TV for entertainment so our family spent our evenings listening to stories my parents would tell us from the books they read. My mom's stories are usually from the Bible, she'd read a story that day and told us that night as a bedtime story. Then my dad would tell us a fairy tale story. They told it soooo well that I just couldn't wait to start reading so I can read those stories for myself. When I was old enough to read, they handed over their books to me to read. Once I've worn those books out from reading it over and over, cover to cover, I would raid my friends' houses to see if they have any other books to read. When I've exhausted their book source, I moved on to the school library. Of course the reading books we were assigned from school were not enough, my teachers sometimes got frustrated with me because I was constantly demanding that we moved on to the next book because I could never stick with their guideline to read a chapter or two in the book...I would just keep going til I read the whole book before everyone else did. Pretty soon my friends had caught on to my obsession so they started checking out books for me too from the library. Since a student is only allowed two books to check out at one time, those were not enough so my friends started helping me out with that. That's how badly I liked reading.

Well, when I became a mom, I wanted more than anything that my kids would develop this love of books like I did. When I got pregnant with my first child, I started reading to her in the womb. I was reading all the time, from romance novels, to magazines, to self-help books to the scriptures. But most of my readings are entertainment books like novels. My sweet mother-in-law and grand mom-in-law found out about this too so they too started supporting me on this hobby and whenever they read a book they like or come across a bookstore, I would be a getting a package in the mail with the books they found for me. So that was good because of course, there is really nothing wrong with reading.

The problem I have with this hobby is that I get so caught up that I ignored everything else in my life. My housework is forgotten, the dishes were filed up in the sink, the laundry file gets higher and higher, the kids are neglected, no food was made and they started fending for themselves. See, once I picked up a book to read and I get into it, I couldn't put it down. A normal person would maybe read a chapter or two, bookmarked their spot in the book and go on and attend to their responsibilities.

Me? I picked up a book and my response to the kids when they said, "mom, I'm hungry", "gimme a few more minutes or go in the fridge dear, see what you can find in there." Hubby comes home from work and asked, "honey? what's for dinner?" Me, nose still in the book, "hmm, oh dinner, sorry haven't thought about that yet, gimme a few minutes will ya?" An hour later, still no dinner. I would literally stay up til morning if I have to to finish the book before I would get up and started taking care of my other responsibilities. Talk about frustrations for my hubby....he would literally threatened to take the book I was reading at the moment to burn it...{Blasphemy!!}.

Remember how I said I want my kids to love reading too? Kids copy everything their parents do so I figured if I read in front of them, they would follow suit and start picking up a book on their own to read. I know they can read because I've read with them and have them read aloud for me. A couple of my kids are fast readers and had started reading really good while they were still in preschool. A couple of the other kids have difficulty reading but are getting better. But the twisted kind of fate for me, my kids couldn't care less about reading. Oh they will read if it pertained to their school or our family daily reading but other than, they would not pick up a book to read for fun unless I bribe them or threaten their lives.

So me being this bad with my obsessions, I was always looking for ways to justify my reading. I figured if my kids are reading and actually love reading, I would be able to read too and I did set aside time just for that. But they were not interested in that whatsoever. I got so desperate that I bribed them....I offered money for every book they pick up to read and even would do their chores for them. You think that work? Noooo, they actually said that they would rather do their chores than read and the money they don't really need....traitors!!

Like I said earlier, the last time I read a book was the Twilight series that was almost six months ago and I think I read Stephanie Meyers last book she wrote, "The Host" and then that was it. I am itching to get my hands on Heidi's book, Miss Delacourt Speaks her Mind. I think right now my hubby is a little contented because my nose hasn't been buried in a book lately but what he doesn't know is that this reading obsession of mine is still strong.

What am I obsessively reading, you are wondering? Well.......I am blogging, aren't I? That would conclude that I am reading blogs now...no? I am reading blogs. No only am I reading posts of bloggers on my blog roll but I am also reading the posts from their blog rolls. Some days, if a post from a blogger that drew my attention that day, I started reading all the other posts on that blog. I get up in the morning, get my kids ready for school, either I drop them off at school or have hubby drop them, feed my two year old, then turn on her favorite show and then I sit my behind down in front my PC and read blogs the whole morning. You see how bad I get with my obsession and that I have a problem?

Ahem....so there you have it folks....thank you for listening, I mean reading.

Have a great Aloha Friday.