Snot what you think it is

LOL!  I crack myself up!
Today is a rainy, cold, Northern Virginia morning.  Oops. . .I mean, afternoon.  Is it almost 1 PM, already?  My kids and I are still in our pajamas 'cause they both woke up coughing and with runny noses.  Proverbial picture of motherhood, I think.
 Brennan coughs every time anything is in his throat, which means every 3 seconds he hacks up a lung, or half his breakfast as he did the other night (Chips and Dip).  Sorry for the graphic nature of this post, but life as I know it is what I write about.  Aha, I have had 5 minutes sans hacking.  They are either watching Sponge Bob in my bedroom or he's sleeping. . .? Nope, it's baa-ack.

But about the Sponge Bob thing: in an effort to curb the amount of junk that my kids watch on TV, I made up this rule that they can only watch Sponge Bob Squarepants if they are sick and lying in bed.  So, to them, it is a special thing, and for me, I feel like I am limiting their exposure to both blatant capitalism (the commercials are never-ending!) as well as a program that is just plain, how should I say, worthless.  I think, as a generation of cable viewers (I remember the advent of cable boxes with the round dials and MTV's first video--I loved that song Video Killed the Radio Star!) we are lucky that our kids can watch things like Playhouse Disney and PBS Kids, as well as Noggin and Sprout, without the commercials that can empty our bank accounts if we are lax.  (Aside: YouTube is so cool--I am listening to that song and lovin' it while I write--can't you just sing the tune??)  My point about the commercials (Aside: Many of you are thinking, "Well, isn't the Disney Channel just one giant commercial?"--to you I say, "Yes, but at least they teach something to my kid while trying to sell me tickets to Disney World!") is that, as  a kid growing up in the 1970s and 80s, that's all we saw.  Saturday morning cartoons were the whole reason we got up at 5 am (Aside: Anyone remember The Littles?  I used to make houses that they could live in just in case there really were people who lived in my walls!).  Our poor parents ended up giving us allowance just so we would stop saying, "Mommy, I want to get that!" while watching some cartoon or kids' program.  When Sponge Bob is on, I channel Marilyn (my mom) because I hear those exact same words coming out of my own children's mouths.

Believe me, at some moments such as these filled with snot and phlegm, I would like to be able to say, "You can have it all."  But in all seriousness, I am thankful that the only ailments my children are dealing with at this moment are colds.  I thank God for my blessings and Ella and Brennan are 2 of them.  So it "snot" what you thought it was!  I still think that is funny!
Thanks for reading!
Anne ;)

Please note: If you read this entire blog, you will notice the insertion of various "Asides".  I put these in to mimic my reality.  I have this ADHD problem of tangential talking.  If you know me well, then you are familiar with having to deal with this when I am around.  I can't apologize for this awful quirk, but at least I am aware of this unique character flaw.  Since I have a tendency to write the way I speak, then I figured you'd appreciate the Asides.  So, for those of you who get annoyed by my converstional forks, I am giving you a head's up--if the parenthetical additions to the text are relevant to the topic at hand, I will just write 'em in.  But if they are off topic, I will start them with "Aside:" and you can skip them at will.  Fair?