Shoes should be a simple item, a daily part of your wardrobe, functional to protect feet from things on the ground and also keep them warm… right? Well, this is what I thought along with the fact that it’s a simple matter when you take them off somewhere they stay there or if you put them away, they don’t magically wander. Apparently I was wrong.

This shoe mystery has me beyond perplexed.. and annoyed!  It seems that despite our efforts, shoes magically move and wander away all by themselves (feel free to gasp).

This has been a dilemma for awhile, and yes, occasionally the little ones decide it’s fun to trudge around the house in Daddy or Big Brother’s shoes. But yesterday the Tweebs decided to have a “shoe fight” which I immediately attempted to put a stop to and made them go put all the shoes away.

This morning, I overheard Bugs explaining the shoe fight to his father, and when he was told that it’s not acceptable to have a “shoe fight” he simply asked, “but why not dad?” SIGH! Where did I go wrong?

A wandering shoe here or there would be ok, but the constant dilemma of no one being able to find their shoes (because yes, they have even tromped into my room and grabbed my shoes out of my rack several times for whatever reason) is enough to make this mom want to pull out her hair. In our tiny house there’s just not many places for shoes to simply vanish (though the mountain of laundry does look extra guilty this morning).

We have given the kids a few different places to store their shoes and as you can imagine, it can be challenging to keep just one or two pairs for each of our 6 sons in their current size.  Mornings in our active household can be absolute chaos and one missing shoe can actually make an entire day go south really fast.

I often wonder if I’m alone in this dilemma.

Thankfully, despite yesterday’s “shoe fight”, all the kids were able to easily find shoes this morning and happily frolicked in the icy outdoor weather for a bit before the bus arrived.  But the question remains, is there a solution for the Great Shoe Dilemma? If you know it please feel free to share it. If I discover it, I will definitely pass it on to all of you!!!

Photo © Joanna Zielinska – Fotolia.com

With my children going back to school this year I was surprised by the random memories of days that seem to have happened lifetimes ago… when I, too was going back to school.  The sights, sounds, smells, everything about this part of fall just screams back-to-school.

The scent of rain on warm pavement, is the epitome of fall. Seeing a bus drive by filled with children, often I can even hear them chattering on the bus, a dull roar that can only be little conversations.

The school supply lists that never seem to change and can almost be quoted without even needing to look at them.  It’s amazing how scents can take you back in time like nothing else…pencils, erasers, binders, paper, backpacks, the list goes on and on, but the scent is like a trip to another world that somehow doesn’t seem so very long ago for that one little moment.

Quite possibly, because Salesman started Jr. High this year, the beginning of that season in my school career vividly came back to me. I was quiet, shy, a loner. I had few friends, and was a true friend to those who were.

Junior high was, for me, the beginning of many life lessons that would take many many years for me to really learn and understand. I had no idea then who I was becoming or what I would learn from the difficult years that Jr. High encompassed for me.

Although the best friends I would ever have wouldn’t be realized or enter my life at all for several years, it was, in a sense, the beginning of my journey to understand true friendship. Those people that come into your life and just fit, the ones that stick with you through thick and thin, good and bad, rough and smooth.

Those are the most amazing people who can absolutely change your life for the better every single day. They don’t care if you have a day where you throw your hair up in a ponytail and don’t put on makeup. The ones that are simply there when you’re having a rough day and just need someone to talk to or hang out with.

Now, looking back, I can see lots of little moments that created the woman that I am today. The one that realizes that relationships are priceless, enduring, forgiving, kind and honest. The little moments that I looked around and saw the unhealthiness around me even as a young teen.

But, the hardest part of all is realizing that there are so many adults that honestly do not believe that true friendships with no strings exists. They have been burned too many times.

Yes, today was random ramblings from me…not something I do often, but it’s fun to share them occasionally. The idea though, is to challenge anyone who keeps everyone at an arms length. It’s easy to do, it’s the safe way to be..right?

Putting yourself out there can be scary. Letting someone in, even scarier. But the rewards of true friendship are amazing my friends!

In true Pacific Northwest fashion, the weather has decided that it’s not ready to give way to summer and spring is holding on with passion. This has meant lots of rain for us this week.

Rainy summer days can get old… fast. Lots of energetic boys in one tiny confined area often equals chaos and confusion, as the days drag on they also tend to start getting on each other’s nerves a lot.

Wanting to limit television and video gaming just a little bit, I have been trying to put together fun activities that as many of them as possible can participate in to help alleviate some of the doldrums.

So today I have brought out things they rarely do. A game they haven’t played before, a couple puzzles and some construction paper and colored pencils. This way they can have several things to choose from as they keep busy through the day. So much less fighting, and wrestling and chaos.

Yes, this is a random post, but hey sometimes a girl just needs a little chocolate…. this has been one of those days. And I have to wonder if I’m alone.

The end of the school year is extra hectic this year and … well… as unhealthy as it may seem, a little chocolate sometimes is just what the “doctor” ordered.

Are there ever times you just feel like you need a little chocolate? Is there something else that you run to if you just want a quick pick-me-up moment?

I have written a ton of posts over the last 5 or so years. Lately, I agree they have been a little sparse, but life happens and, well, I have to deal with it right now.

I stumbled upon a fun old post today and thought I’d love to re-share so many of the great posts of old, so I’m going to! Search engines be darned, it’s my blog and I’ll do what I wanna (LOL).

So, be on the lookout for the rebirth of some old faves to be freshly presented to you.

Have a favorite? Feel free to leave a comment or simply send me an email (use my contact form, I promise I won’t bite… no guarantee about the twins though).

Do you ever find that there are times in life where you just have to keep pushing forward and it seems to go on and on?

I love that even though things may seem like an endless river (and often I find myself swimming against the current), eventually there is a destination.

The journey may be quick, it may be rough, it may even take forever, but eventually we will arrive.

And sometimes, we may not really know what the next pit stop in life will hold, but we simply just need to keep swimming!

Right now I’m just very busy swimming and contemplating what the next destination in my life will actually look like.

As the family goes through spring illnesses, I just keep swimming.

As we try to renovate certain aspects of the house that render it barely liveable, I just keep swimming.

As our oldest son goes through driver’s ed, I just keep swimming.

As our second son prepares for the beginning of a new journey into Jr. High, I just keep swimming.

As the twins prepare for Kindergarten, I just keep swimming.

I know, that there will be many destinations in life, right now though, I’m swimming along just trying to keep it all in perspective.

Life is such an interesting complex mix of events isn’t it? We’re still dealing with far too many illnesses and injuries to count, but i’m trying to also find the fun little things mixed in. This has been a huge challenge for me as the natural course of things when you are in the midst of depression is to see the negative and feel overwhelmed.

That said though, I am definitely trying to make a purposeful attempt at finding at least one good or funny thing each day. To move out of a state of negativity for even a little while and remember all of the blessings and happiness we can have in life if we only put our minds to it. Attempting to get myself into a holding pattern of sorts that includes positivity each day.

Seeing these things in the past hasn’t usually been much of an effort, just a natural course of each day in life, but that was before depression overcame me. I still don’t love sharing about it much but it’s a huge part of what i’m dealing with in life right now so although I won’t focus on it, I’m also not going to pretend it doesn’t exist.

I would love to move past this, to suddenly feel normal again and go on with life like depression never entered the picture. But I’m still on this road of overcoming and it’s a process I cannot avoid or dismiss. Finding the little things in each day is a small step for me to see the brightness and beauty of life again.

Again, although that’s something that was everyday 6 months ago, it’s an effort now. Finding humor in the crazy things the kids do and say… yeah, trying to get that back too. If you are dealing with any form of depression or feeling overwhelmed, I’d like to encourage you to consider taking this approach as well.

Throughout the day remind yourself to look around and find something good, allow yourself to be amused by something that happens or spend a moment doing something fun to make a good thing happen in each day.

I hope and pray for continued blessings for all of my readers and would like to thank all of you who have offered me such wonderful support and encouragement as I move forward and leave depression behind.

If you have children, that statement may make you nervous. When they say they have a couple things to say or a couple questions to ask it can turn into about a hundred.

Well, never fear, I actually do only have a couple of quick and fun things to share with you today!

Community: Want to take the discussion further?  Well, I just opened up a Blog Frog community for A Frog In My Soup.  It’s a simple little thing really to just take the discussion further.  I will be starting topics there based on my “life” posts (marriage, parenting, etc).

If you scroll down a little and look in the sidebar under Frog Mom Recommends, you’ll see “My Community” and the Blog Frog logo.  Please feel free to chime in on any of the posts that you want.  I will begin presenting a link to the community in those posts that are taken to discussion.  You are still MORE than welcome to leave a comment and I will still respond to all of them here!!!

Facebook Fan Page: A Frog In My Soup has been a Networked blog for quite some time now and although we have a nice following there, we also now have a Facebook Fan Page just for you!  You can follow us there now too and earn extra entries on all giveaways just for being a fan!

That’s it…yes, really!  Hope you stop by and join in!

I’ve mentioned it before, but the time has truly come.  I need to figure out a camera to purchase.  I need something that will last a while and that will take great (NOT grainy) photos inside and out and allow me to zoom to my little heart’s content.

In the past I have focused on the Canon Rebel xsi since I’ve heard so many moms love this camera very much.  The only problem is that it is truly very expensive and I’ve been saving for it for a year.  Recently I noticed a line of what I call “in between” models of cameras that are intriguing.

These cameras are definitely nicer than the traditional point and shoot, but a step down from digital SLR cameras.   They are also about half the price of a digital SLR.  Getting a true idea of how a camera will work under my everday life conditions (which some may call extreme LOL) is not possible in a store.  I need to hear from real life moms who have used these cameras for themselves and know the pros and cons.

Here’s the most important features I need to know about any camera:

• Does it work inside and out without getting too grainy or blurry?
• When zoomed in, is the photo still clear?  Or does it get grainy/blurry?
• Ease of use?
• Portability?
• Quality of images?
• Amount of zoom?
• Ability to use in almost any situation…sports, indoor/low light and have similar quality results?

With 6 boys I tend to take a lot of action shots outside, but also love to take images inside as the moment strikes and the lighting in our house is terrible, even during the day.  Another thing is that I don’t take our boys in for professional photos.  I have found that taking pictures here once or twice per year is a lot better.  The kids are on their own turf and it costs me a lot less in time and money.  So that is why quality is so important.

So, throw the information at me!  Whether it’s your camera, your sister’s camera or your friends camera, what is the best camera you have had experience with and highly recommend????

THANK YOU!

A couple of our boys are very creative and imaginative which tends to lead them down the path to some incredible dreams.