A Cup Of Jo

I always start my morning with a cup of Joe. This Wednesday, however, I got to have a cup of Jo, as well! I got a phone call from Jo (aka Supernanny) on Wednesday morning. It was a really nice chat. We talked about the kids, Daniel's new diagnosis, Womb At The Innsane (which she has been known to visit on occasion) and most of all....positivity. She made a very good point about the power of positivity. After mulling it over, I came to a conclusion that I really feel inspired to share with you all.

We are life forms fueled by energy. We absorb energy through our surroundings, the things we consume and each other. We also give off energy. Everyone you come into contact with will be affected by your energy, whether you realize it or not. If you are a negative person, you will give off negative energy. If you are positive, people will be drawn to your positive energy. That is why people like Jo so much. Jo gives off this positivity and it is highly contagious.

Look at your household. Are your children grumpy? Is your spouse constantly nagging, or a sorry sack? You can change it. You have the power to make a change in your family's attitude, just by changing yourself. For example: Jo compared my aura to a dementor in Harry Potter. She said that when she first met me, the energy I gave off was this foreboding negativity. I never realized that I needed to change my own energy in order to change my family. My kids, especially Daniel Jr. who is extremely sensitive to his surroundings and his mama's energy, absorb my energy and it dictates their own moods. When I decide to focus on positivity and give off a cheerful, upbeat vibe, the whole spirit of our home changes. You can easily see my changes in mood through my blogging and my painting.

Now...take a quick look at your life. Are there signs of the kind energy that you are giving off ? Take a moment to reflect on your family members. Are they feeding off of you? Could your home use an energy makeover? Try these simple tactics for making a quick change:

Attempt to leave out all negative words for one whole weekend. Ban words like "No," "Don't" and "Can't." Challenge your family to a weekend of increased positivity. Keep your cool and talk out stressful situations without raising your voice. Make a point to smile more. If you see your kids slipping into a grump slump, divert them with a fun activity, or just put a pair of underwear on your head! Who can resist laughing at a person with an underwear hat? The more positive energy you put out, the more pleasant you will find your weekend to be!

I'd love to hear back from those of you who take this little challenge. I'd also like to thank Jo for bringing this to my attention. I really needed to hear it and shift my focus to the sunny side. Thank you, Jo!! You are more uplifting than even the strongest cup of espresso!

Ladies' Night At Fillipi Winery!

Come one, come all (or at least those of you who like wine, food and shopping) to LADIES' NIGHT, tomorrow (8/27) at Fillipi Winery in Rancho Cucamonga, CA. Cherish and I are very excited to team up with the wonderful ladies at Fillipi in bringing you a fun filled evening of wine tasting, appetizers by Claro's, 12 different vendors and raffle prizes! Some of our featured vendors include:

• BeautiControl (spa products)
• Norvex (eco friendly towels)
• Bitz Of Glitz (fabulous apparel)
• Nu Skin (innovative wrinkle eraser and skin firmer)
• Heritage Makers (digital scrapbooking)
• Kadi's Kreations (custom artwork)
• Strapilicious (blingtastic bra straps)
• The Purse Lady
• Custom Jewelry
• Scentsy (candles and accessories)
• Mom's Chart (organization system for moms)
• Sweet Audry's World (intimate apparel)

Ladies' Night starts at 6 and ends at 9 pm. The cost is $20 per person and raffle tickets are $2 each. Fillipi Winery is located at 12467 Base Line Road, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91739. A map is available here: Fillipi Winery
Any lady who brings a new friend, gets three extra raffle tickets!! I hope to see you all there tomorrow night!

Alternative Radical Therapy

We have been up to a lot lately. School work, doctors appointments, Phillip's surgeries and most of all... family time. But I'll get into all of that later. For now, I just wanted to share some of our family therapy sessions and my own personal form of therapy...A.R.T. (alternative radical therapy.) It tremendously helps bring our family together, create some much needed down time and allows our creative juices to be used on something other than my walls and furniture. I highly recommend trying ART with your own family or just by yourself.

This is one that I did for Cherish:

A little wine therapy!

This took while for the background

but was very calming to paint.

Ella and I painted this. It was inspired

by my friend Christy!

The girls and I were feeling girly and creative so

we added ribbon to the border.

The whole family got involved as we

painted a giant piece of canvas!

Next on the therapy list: Sock puppet workshop!

The kids and I did this angel in felt

and added sparkles for texture!

Return Date

Good morning. Just wanted to let you all know that things are going well with our family. Thank you, again, for all of the prayers and well wishes. Daniel is doing exceptionally well. What a difference the right help and diagnosis make and most of all....prayer. If things continue to progress as smoothly as they are now, I should be able to return to my daily postings as soon as September. I have so much to share with you all! Though I must warn you, my writing might be a tad more optimistic now that the Innsane is more manageable!
I look forward to returning and in the meantime, if you can, please join me next week at Ladies' Night. August 27th, from 6-9 pm at Filippi Winery, we will be partying like rock stars (or just drinking like winos.) I would love to see those of you who can get away for a few hours! Our website has more info on the event: www.cherishedeventsllc.com
Have a wonderful week!

Where To Find Me

I forgot to tell you that I am not completely ending my writing career. Although I am taking a hiatus from this blog and quit writing for the other blogs, I have been offered a writing position for Supernanny.com, which I accepted. This will be my only writing venture, for now.
But you can always find me at my email address kadirprescott@hotmail.com.
You can also find me at the Terrill Family Charity Event on Saturday, August 16th, from 10am-2pm. If you would like to join us for a day of wine tasting, appetizers and shopping, please visit www.cherishedeventsllc.com for more info.
For those of you in the So Cal area, Cherish and I are doing Ladies' Night every month at Filippi Winery in Rancho Cucamonga from 6-9pm. You can get more details on these get togethers, at the Cherished Events Website.
Peace be with you all!

A New Season

This blog was started in 2004, as a record of my family's journey. I have poured out my heart, shared the messes and stresses of our lives and tried to provide my family with something to look back on in years to come. It has been a wonderful source of therapy, a means of making new friends and an all around blessing.

There are, however, seasons of our lives that require us to re prioritize and leave some things to the wayside so that we can focus on the things of greater importance. I have learned this lesson over the past few days, the hard way (which is a gross understatement.) As much as I love to write this blog and share our lives with all of you, God has shown that it is time for me to re prioritize and shift focus. I do so without sadness or regret, because the rewards will be so much greater in the end.

I do want to leave you with the knowledge that Daniel is doing much better. We have taken the first step of a long, but healing journey. Even though it has been a hellish week for all of us, I can see God's awesome work in our lives. I feel that the last six days have been instrumental in getting us to the destination that we have struggled to be at for so long. Our fruitless efforts, the searches, the doors that were slammed in our faces, the frustration, the worrying, the many years of trying to get answers for questions that seemed impossible to obtain...it has all led us to this point. It was all for a reason that our human eyes couldn't see and our human minds could not comprehend, yet was present all along.

Please pray for us as we embark on our new journey. It is quite obvious that those of you who have been praying, are powerful prayer warriors, indeed. There is no other way to explain our ability to get through this last week with our sanity in tact and the unbelievable strength that could only have come from God. I thank you from the bottom of my heart! It was uplifting and comforting to know that there were people all over the world offering up prayers and good thoughts for us. Although I can never repay all of you, I encourage you to contact me if you ever are in need of prayer and I will gladly reciprocate your kindness.

I'm signing off now. Much to do and little time to do it in (I know that you all understand!) Hugs to all of you!!

Always Believe

God gives us what we need to get through every trial, just believe.............

Kadi Update

Hi everyone,
The Prescott family is doing much better today!! I talked to Kadi on the phone and she sounded great, stressed but great!
Kadi wants to thank everyone for their prayers. She knows they have been working and things are looking up.
She will be back soon to talk with you all and make you laugh.
Thanks,
Christy

Kadi's Absence

Kadi will be taking care of family business until Monday. She will be back on Monday to give the winners of the caption contest. Please keep this family in your prayers this weekend.

An angel for Daniel Jr, and his family...

Thanks!

Christy Schrage aka Kadi's guest author

A Delay In Plans

I will not be home today, so the caption contest finalists will be announced tomorrow morning. I am taking Daniel Jr. into Loma Linda to have his assessment done. Apparently, the psychiatrist he was supposed to see today, has some urgent family business to tend to and cannot see him until next week. Unfortunately, we cannot wait that long, so this is our only other option. Fortunately, going this route will expedite some answers to what is going on with our son.

Please continue to pray for my wisdom. I am fearful that i will not give them the right information, or forget some information or just completely screw it up. Then, there is the very real possibility of having to leave him there if the doctors feel that he needs to be admitted. Not a pleasant prospect. They may have to sedate me because I am going to go ape shit if I have to leave my son. Please pray for my strength, Daniel's strength and peace.

In the meantime, keep leaving your captions for the post below in order to win a Defiant Mom shirt. Then visit Mommy Confessions for their contest #8. Have a blessed weekend, everyone.

It's Elementary, My Dear Doctor!

Sitting in the doctor's office, chatting with our pediatrician about Daniel's condition and where to go from this point on, he confirmed something that I've suspected for a long time. Pediatricians may have a lot of knowledge about children's health but it doesn't mean that they know squat about raising kids. I like our pediatric doctor, but the following really made me wonder...

We were talking about a particular instance that set Daniel off. Daniel relayed the situation to our doctor. I had given the kids juice pops and Daniel wanted a certain flavor. The flavor that he wanted had already been taken by another child. He got angry and completely lost it.

After the doctor listened to the story he asked Daniel why he did not just ask his mom to go buy more so that he could have his favorite flavor. I shot my husband the "Is this guy kidding?" look from where I was seated. He nodded back at me with a , "I hope so." look. I waited for the doctor to add, "But you will not always get your way and it doesn't allow you to freak out about it." I waited and waited and waited. It never came. He just reiterated that if Daniel wants something, he should simply ask for it. "Whoa!" I thought, "Back it up, Doc!"

You see, the "ask and ye shall receive" motto only applies to prayers, in our house. As parents, we do not operate that way and the doctor was practically enabling my child to expect that he will get his way all the time. We are not caterers, nor are we servants...we are parents. You take whatever Popsicle you get and be happy, pretend that you are happy, or get nothing at all.

I finally broke into the conversation between the doctor and Daniel and added my two cents about his ask/receive policy. I think he realized what he had suggested to my son and altered it to include, "But sometimes mommy will say no. I say no to my kids sometimes when they ask for stuff." Daniel replied, "Yeah, if they want stuff, then they can get a job and use their own money." Apparently, my child has better parenting sense than a man who graduated medical school and makes hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.

Medical School: $80,000
Common Sense: PRICELESS

New Address

Hear ye, hear ye...
A Womb At The Innsane shall now be a custom domain. Worry not, gentle patrons of the Inn(sane), ye shall still be allowed access through the blogspot address. The new address is www.wombattheinnsane.com and shall go into full effect over the next few days. Thank ye for thy patience and patronage!

Supernanny Rerun

Okay...for those of you who missed the first airing of our family's dirty laundry on Supernanny and wish to see it so that you can feel much better about your own skeletons, you may do so next Wednesday at 9pm PST.

I'm not going to reiterate how overjoyed I was after the first airing and the public response to our episode (can you sense the sarcasm?)
Here is the link to our clips. I'm not sure if the link still works:
http://abc.go.com/primetime/supernanny/index?pn=index
If you are busy that night, plucking your nose hairs or doing other personally hygienic activities and cannot watch the show, my feelings will not be hurt. Watch it...don't watch it. I don't care. Just don't call my house and stalk me like the crazy lady did after the first time around. Thanks.

Preparing Mommy For The Back To School Blues

I have the sweetest, most considerate kids on the planet. In fact, they are so perceptive and considerate, that they noticed my impending sorrow at the thought of sending them back to school and decided to cure me of it. Those little sweethearts!

So they decided to sacrifice their own peace and well being to fight constantly, play practical jokes on me and concoct messes so vile that I would get over my sorrow and be able to look forward to the start of school on Monday. Have you ever heard of such a selfless act being performed by children? A mother has never been so blessed as I have been today!

I put on my robe this morning, to find that someone had played a practical joke on me. They were not tiny dog turds so I'm assuming (from the diaper laying next to it) that someone thought it would be funny to dump the contents of Reed's diaper into my robe pocket. No lie.

Later, I was in the restroom and went to grab a baby wipe. Another strike by the practical jokester. As I reached behind me to grab a wipe, something poked my hand. The jokester had placed the thumb tack, pointy side up, on the top of the baby wipe pile.

As I exited the bathroom with my newly acquired injury, the sounds of quarreling siblings hit my ears. It was coming from the older boys' room. I rushed in as the fighting words turned to punches. Much to my surprise, the boys had decided to let their pet lizards run around on the bedroom floor. I found this out the hard way. Reptiles are about my least favorite things on the planet. They rank right down there with child molesters and Oprah. Luckily, I stepped on the dragon's head so it couldn't bite me. I did however do the boogie dance for about five minutes as my skin crawled and butt clenched in disgust.

To make matters worse, the boys informed me that the lizards were out because they had to dry off from their bath....in my bathtub. I had given them permission to bathe the lizards in the bathroom sink. In their professional lizard groomer opinions, the sink was not sufficient to hold the lizards and their bath toys. So they moved the pool party to my tub. Lovely. I will never be able to bathe in my beloved spa tub again without wondering if there are still lizard germs in it.

Yep...they sure are considerate in their efforts to ready me for the once dreaded separation anxiety that may have occurred come next Monday. I'm so cured, as a matter of fact, that I will be (once again) the only mom who is peeling out of the parking lot yelling "See ya, suckers!" as my kids are left standing in a cloud of dust, next to their bewildered teachers. Now I need to figure out just how to reward them for performing such extreme acts altruism. Perhaps a trip to the day spa for a relaxing massage, facial and pedicure... for me.

The Art Of Angry Fighting

Driving home from doing some business with my partner (I can never say that word without feeling like I have to follow by saying "Business partner, not lesbian partner." The gay community has really made that word a difficult one to use. Thanks fellas.) Anyway, I was driving home, sipping on some iced tea and listening to some bullshit advice show that comes on at night. They always give some really "no shit" ideas that make me feel angry for having wasted my time listening to them. But I was switching to a new disk and heard the disc jockey say, "Next on the totally useless advice for your life show...How to fight lovingly by Dr. Smartypants."

Ummmm...excuse me? I don't know about you, but when I'm pissed at my spouse, good manners, loving feelings and normal self restraint go straight down the shitter. Usually, I fly way off the handle, get overly emotional and say some things that I later regret. But dammit...it just feels good to get the anger out. Sure, I suppose I could fight nicely, but it just wouldn't give me that satisfaction of getting really angry, blowing off my steam and then being remorseful. It is a cycle that we do not experience too often in our marriage and when it happens, we usually have a pretty ugly discussion and some great making up afterward. What fun would make up sex be if there was no angry blow out before hand? Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

Mr. and Mrs. Lovebird's Fight

Mrs: "Honey, I really feel hurt that you forgot that I need you to watch the kids tonight"
Mr: "Oh, I'm sorry dear. I didn't realize that I had committed to watching the kids tonight.I am working late, so I will not be able to."
Mrs: "I would appreciate it if we could keep each other abreast of plans and devise some sort of joint calendar, in the future. That way, I can feel like my plans are just as important and you will always be in the know."
Mr. "Yes, that seems reasonable."
Mrs: "Okay, I'll find a sitter and see you when you get home."

Mr. and Mrs. Dirtybird's Fight

(My husband would like to emphasize that the following couple

is totally fictional and is not really us. Okay...on with the fight.)

Mrs: "Ummm...hello? What do you mean you are working late tonight? You promised to watch the kids."

Mr: "Yeah, but I forgot and I have a job. That job pays our bills."

Mrs: "Oh...so my appointments aren't as important as your job because you pay the bills?"

Mr: "You are being dramatic."

Mrs: "You are being a butt hole."

Mr: "You need to calm down."

Mrs: "Don't tell me what to do. Maybe you should keep your promises and then I won't have to get so angry!"

Mr: "Maybe you should actually remind me of your 500 appointments so I can keep my promises!"

Mrs: "If it was poker night, you would sure as hell remember!"

Mr: "I'm only human. Why can't we make some kind of joint calendar that keeps track of this stuff so this doesn't happen."

Mrs: "Okay.... that sounds good. I'm sorry I yelled and called you a butt hole."

Mr: "I'm sorry that I forgot about tonight."

Mrs: "Are you too late for work to make up?"

Mr: "Never."

See how that works? You get your cake and are able to eat it too! Dysfunctional...maybe. But it beats the hell out of getting an ulcer caused by holding in your feelings of anger and the bonus of an emotionally charged make up session! Those doctors think they are so smart...

When Behavior Takes A Wrong Turn

"Mooom, he took the Diego cup and I wanted it!" I look over to see two school aged boys fighting over a cup with a picture of a preschool character on it. Seriously? They both despise Diego. So WTFroglegs?

Then I hear a scream from the bedroom, "Mommyyyyyy, he's annoying me!" It's Ella. She is going ape doodoo on Aiden because he refuses to stop looking at her. I was not aware that looking at someone is a crime, unless your doing it while holding a mirror under their skirt in a public place. But that's not the kind of looking we are talking about here. We are talking about across the room glances done just for the purpose of annoying one very irritable little sister. Not a crime, but a disturbance for sure.

Reed is tugging at my leg and whining for his twentieth glass of orange juice. When I refuse his request and offer water, he has a full blown meltdown. Kicking, screaming, hurling insults in my general direction. Two year old children are surprisingly capable of enunciating naughty words, in case you were unaware.

"That's it! I've had it." I yell at the top of my lungs as if anyone cares. I grab the Diego cup and tell the boys that if they love Diego so much ,we will just have to do some redecorating in their room and return their cool skull backpacks for some Diego ones. They quickly retracted their desire for the Diego cup and got a water bottle.

I went into Ella's room and forced her and Aiden to have a staring contest. Nobody was allowed to smile or talk or look away. They had to stare into each other's eyes. After a minute, they could not help but bursting into laughter. I informed them that if they continued to argue that we would be forced to hold a stare-a-thon. Then I gave them permission to take out the Play Doh. Crisis averted.

And what about Reed? He got a sippy cup of water, a rousing rendition of Baa Baa Black Sheep and a kiss goodnight. Tantrums are a sure sign of overstimulation and the need for a nap. Now I can get the dishes done before peace is once again destroyed by the ongoing bouts of sibling rivalry that this house is (literally) famous for. Redirection...it is one of the most useful parenting tools I've ever come upon!

Into The Inn(sane) Blue Yonder

I am working on some cool new possibilities for taking the Inn(sane) to whole new levels. There is so much I've yet to learn about the wide world of Internet marketing, advertising, monetizing and all that jazz. Over the next few weeks, I am going to be working with someone who (in my humble O) is a genius at this kind of stuff. Building successful websites is like eating and breathing to him. It just comes naturally, unlike myself. I have the content and the dream to make The Womb at The Inn(sane) an interactive, all inclusive resource for parents and lovers of parenting humor. I lack the know how to take it to Dooce status, however. That's where Greg comes in.

He has the know how. Together, we plan to make the Inn(sane) a place where moms, dads and lovers of mayhem come together, seek out support, share stories, listen to my stories (that's right...I said listen) and find that little missing link in the other parenting blogs that they never knew they couldn't live without! We are gonna rock the bloggosphere by adding new features (ie...podcasts, polls, more contests & new specialized articles) expanding the Womb (sounds painful, huh?) and broadening our horizons! I'm suggesting that you all strap yourselves in and hold on tight. We are about to embark on a wild ride and make the Womb At the Inn(sane) even more insane than you ever imagined!

To get us started, I need your input. Please leave your suggestions for making the Womb a more exciting place, along with your email address, in the comments section. To make the deal a little sweeter, I am offering a Defiant Mom t-shirt to one lucky commenter. But that's not all! If you refer a friend to the Womb At The Innsane and get them to leave a suggestion and they win... you also win! That's right, both of you will win a t-shirt of your choice from Defiant Mom. The more people you refer, the better your chances of winning are. You can even create a link on your blog, directing your readers over here. The more input we have, the better the Inn(sane) will become!
*Referrals must site which friend or blog referred them, in order to win.

Be Careful What You Wish For

Why is it that when we are childless, all we want are children to share our lives with, our love with, snuggle on the couch with; and when we do finally become parents, suddenly all we want is to be able to take a snooze without little body parts pummeling us?

Uh...do I really sleep with my mouth agape? That's attractive!

Heading Down A New Path

Just a quick update. We took Daniel Jr. into see the doctor. We got a referral to a psychiatrist and will be taking him in on Thursday. We will still continue on with the ADHD diet, still take to him the Chirosport doctor and still try to be more patient in our parenting. However, we may need to try some other approaches to handling whatever plagues him. It may include medication. We have yet to get a complete diagnosis, so I hate to jump to conclusions.

We do know that it is not as basic (for lack of a better word) as ADHD, as we initially thought. It is our job to find out what is going on and doing whatever necessary to make it all better. In the meantime, please pray that we continue to stay strong, give our other children the love and attention that they need and keep a strong marriage. This season of our lives is definitely a stressful one, but we are leaning on God and I have no doubt that he will carry us through.

An Unexpected Puzzle Piece

Life is a journey full of uncertainty, to put it simply. You can plan, prepare and try to steer it in a desirable direction, but in the end, there will always be that x factor. That unfores