You Don't Know Who I Am

I am on twitter, and I tweet a lot. I have over 2000 followers & I'm following almost an equal amount. I try to engage those I see in my timeline, because I know from experience that people want to feel important and like somebody notices them and cares about them. At varying times on twitter I've had people tell me I'm smart, funny, hot, a good mom, sexy, caring.

Today I mentioned I didn't get to call my dr. because I didn't have alone-time, and a new follower but apparent twitter expert said of course that's hard to do if you're tweeting all the time.

Today I spent 5 hrs in the car, taking one in for repairs and doing errands. I had one kid with me, then all 5 still at home with me. When I wasn't in the car, I was at home, with all the kids. I didn't even get my usual walk today, which at least affords me a short motorcycle ride & 40 freeking minutes alone. There are things you don't talk to your woman-doctor about while surrounded by your kids.

The comment struck a sore nerve, because this person doesn't know me at all. He doesn't know that I tweet, then kiss my 3yo's stubbed toe, or wipe her butt, or help her brush her teeth. Or maybe I tweet, and make 5 sandwiches for lunch, put in a load of laundry, sort mail, & tweet.

He doesn't know that I'm smart, yes, I even have a genius IQ, but my husband talks to me like I am so stupid I can't think to look for a kid's shoes until he comes home so I can ask him. Or that he's talked to me like that, with words that cut me to the core, for more than 20 years.

He doesn't know that I'm funny because people appreciate humor and because nobody wants to hear me whining about all the weird crap that happens at my house, or how bad my marriage is, or about trying to keep our heads above water on 30K a year with no aid and 13K in medical bills and about $15 a day grocery budget to feed 7 ppl (12 if all the kids/grands are here).

Maybe he doesn't realize that I'm "hot" literally because we only turn our air on for 4 hours a day in our 90-degree climate so that we can afford the bill. And he doesn't see that in the heat, I'm trying to maintain a clean and organized VERY small home with 7 people's stuff in it but no place to put anything, even bins of stored out-of-season clothing, blankets, etc. because my hoarder husband has every available storage space stuffed to the gills.

He doesn't know that I'm a good mom, homeschooling my kids and teaching the distracted 9yo to read again EVERY DAMN DAY, helping one kid with algebra at the same time as helping one kid with division (in between tweets, of course, since that's really all I do).

One of my kids graduated a year early, with honors... another just swore in with the Marines and the one currently graduating is going to Culinary Institute of America in January in NY, if we can get a Pell grant. I have four more kids yet to go through school. But Mr. Twitter Critic doesn't know that, doesn't see that. He doesn't know how much sacrifice it has been to raise 7 kids on one very small salary so that I could have intelligent, witty, sensible, hard-working kids.

He doesn't know that I'm sexy because I have worked damn hard to keep myself in good shape, to hold myself together physically to as high a standard as I can. And I have done that because the ONLY time in my life that I feel validated, wanted, worthy, sexy or loved is in bed, because that is the ONLY time my husband doesn't talk down to me like a non-person.

He doesn't know that I am a caring person because I crave someone to care about me, for me, and not because I am so-and-so's mom or Richard's wife or the lady who brought them fresh muffins or just the lady with too many kids.

The truth is, so many people like me and don't even know me. If you're on social media, please think twice before you comment something that you think is funny but is actually cutting and unkind. You may not know who that person really is.

Bike Pics & An Unfair Hill

Today I went out and spent a little "Me" time riding into Knoxville to a spa & yarn shop. I took the long way home to avoid a lot of Interstate riding & rush-hour traffic.

Shhh! Don't tell anyone, but also because I LOVE those curvy East-Tennessee back roads.

My first stop was to drop off my son's sneakers at Kroger. I parked in the same place as this bike (it's not mine), which had, of all things, a bag of chicken feed strapped on the back. Funniest thing is, I've hauled home chicken feed on my bike too!

Once a bike is moving and in the gear you need for a while (no approaching stops, etc), you really only need the throttle hand, so I got my phone out of my pocket & snapped some sexy action pics. Yes I really did.

In a couple pics you can see the gear (5th, which is the top gear) and speed (the one pic that shows speed, I was going 40MPH). Enjoy!!








This last one doesn't look that bad maybe, but it's about a 30degree downhill grade involving 3 curves and is less than 2 lanes wide. Very fun & kinda scary to ride!


These next two pics I took on our local greenway. I start at about the 1.6 mile marker and walk the trail down to .3 miles and back. At the 1.4 mile marker there is a hill. From my end approaching it, it's a small rise, about 10degrees and maybe 30 feet. But this is the view from the top...


And what's particularly unfair about this hill, is that on the way BACK, after powerwalking over 2 miles, and *almost* when the end is in sight, you're confronted with the UP side of the hill. It's what keeps me from skating the trail. I could see getting 1/2way up and rolling backward at a high rate of speed, missing the curve at the bottom and ending up in the river 20 feet away. Not a happy thought. LOL


One last pic! The honeysuckle is blooming now! I stuck this sprig of it in my (sloppy from riding) braid & took the pic with my phone!

WAY Far Behind

We've been up to a LOT and I haven't been chronicling it here like I probably should. So today's post is a lot of pics, each with a caption or a little blurb per group. Hopefully if I'm caught up, I won't feel overwhelmed at the thought of writing in my blog. LOL

We'll start with some B's Eye View photography. Betsy LOVES to take pics of our aquarium, for some reason. And even though there are like 15 fish in it, she always snaps a pic of this Kissing Gourami. Also in the mornings when it's asleep down behind something, she worries if it's dead.












We've had some really nice weather, in the 80s during the day and 60s at night. So of course nice weather and Friday night equal "Can we put up a tent & sleep in it?" I told the kids yeah, sure... so Diantha, Veronica, and Amy from next door took like an hour setting this up, played in it about another half an hour, and then the winds kicked up and there were storm warnings issued.

[Here on the Right are Diantha, 3 yo Beverly ("Betsy") and my beautiful and handsome 9yo son, Josiah.] Down came the tent & in came the kids. Who knew?

Below, I also caught a good front & back shot of Princess Beverly (with leaves caught in the back of her skirt, LOL).




We took the tank off the 650 and painted it metallic gunmetal gray. Here is the tank. Also the bike, reassembled.

I am going to paint green-into-silver-into-purple ghost flames on it & clear coat it yet.

We also painted my son's Icon helmet, which we were blessed to find pawned for 1/3 the retail price. It was flat black but now it's AWESOME. It actually took me a minute or two to figure out how he got the helmet to look bigger than a bathtub. See if you get it. LOL

So Diantha, Des and I were in the TwitKAL (Twitter Knit-a-long).

A bunch of Twitter knitters voted on 5 different categories of patterns (shawl, shrug, hat, gloves, sweater) and then voted again on the top winner from each category.

The winner was the Traveling Woman shawl from Ravelry. I blogged my finished shawl already, here.

This is Diantha's, which was knitted in Jojoland Melody superwash merino wool sock yarn on size 7 needles. Beautiful!

My Kids Are Sicker Than Your Kids

Today Des came down to help me clean out/organize our bedroom and put stuff from it into summer storage, etc. Pretty soon we have to take B's crib down so I wanted to get a little more organized.

We came across a box of styrofoam wig heads we used last season for craft shows, to display knitted hats & the like. They looked a little worse for wear, especially since B got to them with a green sharpie. So we were going to throw them out, but the kids decided to have a little "fun" first...

The pics are fairly self-explanatory so they only have a caption/title below...


Des proudly displaying the dug-out styrofoam "eyeball"...


This gives "blank-eyed stare" a whole new meaning...


Diantha said, "We have to color the eye sockets! I have a brown marker!"
Artemas said, "But ocular fluid is BLACK!" LoL, homeschool...


So I guess the next logical step was bloody sockets & the head on a pike...


Drunk driving kills...


Apparently we're growing our own supply of Soylent Green...


Ok, so now you know... my kids are SICK, dude! This should serve as a warning to everybody... except...


the cat, who was totally unconcerned.

The End.

Almost Wordless Wednesday - Faery Hangouts and One Good Reason

I walk our greenway every day now that it's nice. I don't believe in Faeries or fairies but if I did, most of these pics would be a good place for them to hang out.

One plant is a baby Lamb's Ear. I remember as a kid, going around the fields checking on livestock with my grandmother, and if we had to use the bathroom we looked for a mature Lamb's Ear plant to use as emergency toilet paper! LOL!

And I know that nobody who knows me would believe it, but Shy Violets are my favorite flower. Ever.

One last thing, and that is One Good Reason to get out for a walk. It's a little eye candy that happens every afternoon along the trail. Makes the walk worthwhile...

Local Color

Here are pics I've taken while out and about in our little town and parts of Knoxville. Our trees are not leafed-out yet but will be in a couple weeks, and then they will be Audacious Green... you know, the color that only God and little children color trees. LOL.

Each pic has a caption below, telling what it is. Enjoy our beautiful E. Tennessee!


A patch of Wild Chives in my daughter Des' yard. They're delicious in just about any savory dish!




Tiny blue wildflowers in the grass. I don't know what they're called, but they are ubiquitous.





This is looking down a side-street in Knoxville. Our car was on a main artery called Kingston Pike (US route 11).





This is from Kingston Pike, an exit going on to I-140 in Knoxville. When the tree is leafed out, you can imagine how pretty this is!!




This picture and the one below it are of daffodils growing along the major highways. This is the intersection at Clinton Highway, going North out of Knoxville. The picture below is a hillside along Pellissippi Parkway (I-140/TN 162), another major roadway.





This picture was taken at the entrance of our "Greenway" here in Lenoir City. It roughly follows Town Creek, and goes for 1.7 miles (2.735KM) in one direction. Walking it down & back is a 3.4 mile (5.47KM) walk. I usually start at a small park at the 1/2mile point and walk down and back. Because it is up & down hill, it's quite a workout! Several pics below were taken along this Greenway.
















Yes, this really is a car, embedded in the bank of Town Creek on the opposite side from the greenway walk. LOL!




Some moss growing on the North side of the path





These beautiful, blooming bushes are called Forsythia. They are very common here, and will bloom all summer.




This is either a Redbud Tree or a Red Oak. Either way, the leaf buds & new leaves are a deep maroon color. Beautiful!




Our Bradford ornamental pear tree is budding, in a week these clusters will all be little white, highly-fragranced flowers. Gorgeous Sinus Hell. LOL




This planting bed is in the Walmart parking lot. The tall bush is Holly, short one is Firebush, and flowers are Hyacinths.



Last pic... this is a pink Flowering Dogwood in the parking lot of the Loudon County Clerk's office. These grow wild here too, among the mountains!