Saturday, October 31, 2015

WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH YOUR EXTRA TIME?


Daylight Savings
13 Realistic Ways You Might Spend That Extra Hour
Day 164 ~ Year 3
Team Zybko
October 31, 2015




The other day I read a little snippet about useful ways to spend the extra hour we 'gain' from moving our clocks back tonight for Daylight Savings. 

Very noble, caring, character building ideas in how to better ourselves our family and fellow man. I panicked all the way through the bullet point list from ten all the way down to one. Great ideas but not exactly realistic. 

GREAT ways to spend the extra hour.

*Starting a community group to feed the poor...great.
*Giving your spouse a 60 minute massage...great.
*Cutting, crafting and hot gluing Autumn goody bags for each student in your child's entire Elementary School...great.
*Addressing your Christmas cards early this year...great.


REALISTIC ways you will probably spend the extra hour.

1) Pinning really awesome homemade Christmas recipes that will never come to fruition....realistic.

 2) Mindlessly scrolling through your Face Book news feed....realistic.

3) Searching for that must have, lost uniform jersey for the 9 o'clock Sunday morning game...realistic.

4) Watching your new favorite NetFlix show...realistic.

5) Sleeping...realistic.

6) Hitting the snooze alarm several more times than planned while pretending you had extra time despite the fact you went to bed knowing your smart phone changes the time for you...realistic.

7) Applying a severe mom tax while kids go through their very chocolate heavy Halloween stash...realistic.

8) Sitting in the back of a nice quiet, dark closet eating 10 mini snickers from the tax already mentioned....realistic. 

9) Burning 2 whole batches of pumpkin seeds set on high broil cause you didn't think scarfing 10 mini snickers would actually take that long to unwrap....realistic. 

10) Hinting to your spouse you would really enjoy a 60 minute foot massage but settling for a full 3 minutes and sweet kiss.....realistic. 

11) Sitting on the floor criss sauce playing dolls, cars or reading a few extra books with your little ones...realistic.

12) Catching up on house work, emails and kids forms sitting in that pile on your kitchen counter...realistic. 

13) Having a nice long phone conversation with your best friend, mom or another relative who lives far away...realistic.  

Thursday, October 29, 2015

OH...HECK NO!


Look Away Germs Freaks
Day 163 ~ Year 3
Team Zybko
October 29, 2015


In all honesty I wasn't looking to bust anyone being a little on the nasty side. That's generally not my style. I mean if I had to put a few areas of my life out there, for full public viewing, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't pass the non -gross test. 

Floor board of the van---fail.
Bathroom---fail.
Fridge--- fail. 
Any closet of your choice---fail.

BUT....this, I would NEVER do. 
I can promise you that. 
Never, never, never.

While killing time during a soccer rain delay the kids and I went wandering in search of something to entertain our simple minds. I didn't get very far down the wet sidewalk when the corner of my eye caught a lonely pair of abandoned flip flops. Usually this isn't a note worthy sight in south during the middle of  September, especially around a bunch of athletics ready to suit up into their cleats. But, the fact they were chilling outside a row of very used, smelly ports potties was a bit odd. 

My curiosity got the best of me.

Were they left they by accident?
Was a player in there changing?
Why does it look like they stepped right out of them?

I had a few minutes to kill.

Surely I should have been occupying my brain time on more important pressing topics like world peace, current national race issues and was I going to scrape together enough change in the van for a pumpkin spice latte after the game?






After a few long minutes of eagerly awaiting the person from behind the hard plastic door to make an entrance or exit in this case it happened. 

With my Nikon slyly positioned on my hip and black camera strap secured over my shoulder as not to give away my people watching addiction it was go time.

3, 2, 1....

I grossest thing I have ever seen.....all day, not ever, but that day.

 The man stepped out of the port-a potty BARE FOOTED!!! 

WHY OH WHY WOULD HE DO THAT?
I do not have the answer.
Nor did I ask him. 

Nothing in my tiny little soccer mom world made sense at that moment. 

The good news is, my under cleaned van served me well. 
I found a half eaten granola bar, an extra pair of yoga pants to replace my muddy ones and enough pennies, nickels and quarters for a hot cup of coffee. Now that made sense.  

  




Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Grab a mini date with YOUR Baby Daddy!



Accidental Best Date Ever
Annual Fun Run 
Day 160 ~ Year 3
Team Zybko
October 20, 2015

Baby Daddy had a few open hours in his morning and I switched my day hours with a sweet co-worker to be able to make it. Who knew the Fun Run at the kids school was going to be so much....fun? For us I mean. Oh, it's great and all to be with the kids and their friends in the environment of their day to day learning environment but it turned out to be even better than that. 

An interesting mini date with Baby Daddy.

 Just as the elementary beasts were let loose from the starting line my camera battery died. Well that super sucks my thought bubble read above my head. Turns out it was way better this way. 

Side by side we bullied.....tortured.....teased .....uh uh uh encouraged students to make the most of the special fund raising race day, in the most healthy of ways of course. Dousing every inch of their hair and scalps all the way past the souls of their tennis shoes. We laughed and cut up the entire, working like a well oiled 5th grade attack machine.

Sorry, not sorry to the moms and the laundry loads and extra long showers that followed. 

The usual classroom trouble makers were easy to spot scurrying around on the grassy field and became the target of our filled up rainbow bottles of color! You better calm your jets little kid this ain't your domain no more. Why yes, I am 30 plus years older than you but do not underestimate my greying hair and my strong desire to take you down like one of my own. 

Run Forrest Run

Getting side tracked.
 The point is, a date doesn't have to look like a date.
This one conveniently fell into our laps.
The most fun we have ever had on a football field.
Ditch the traditional movie and dinner idea.
  Being together is a date. 
It doesn't have to cost money or a huge chunk of time. 


Steal some kisses on a bench as the kids play at the park. 

Set you alarm earlier to share a cup of coffee. 

Walk to the port a potties hand in hand at the kids soccer game. 

Volunteer together.

Sit in the same comfy chair at book store or coffee place and read quietly.

Put on a movie for the kids, close the bedroom door and pretend you are in a hotel somewhere sunny, sandy and warm.
Scratch the movie, have the kids bring you ordered room service.

Shut off screens and phones for nightly pray time before you shut your eyes and close the day. 

Go give blood as a couple.
(that one sounded weird but you get my point)

Simply enjoy each other. 
This world is a busy place. 
Time only seems to get faster.
Make a point to grab little bits of togetherness everyday. 





Monday, October 19, 2015



Best Way to Avoid Housework
Get in the Car and GO!
Day 161 ~ Year 3
Team Zybko
October 19, 2015


Pack the cheapie grill
Tie up you sturdy shoes
Grab some snacks
Slather on the SPF
Throw some ice in the cooler
Crank up you favorite hiking playlist
Put your house work worries on the back burner
Be together and explore for a few hours















































Wednesday, October 14, 2015


When Life Gives You Mud
PLAY IN IT!
Day 159 ~ Year 3
Team Zybko
October 14, 2015


We were dressed and ready to go, rain gear and waterproof boots securely fastened to brave the soccer sidelines on yet another soggy Saturday in South Carolina. Yep, ain't nothing gonna stop us, well, except maybe the loud email ding on Baby Daddy's phone as we were literally walking out the door. Can't play, all games cancelled, fields would be destroyed. 

I fight the overwhelming urge to shuffle back into the bedroom, pick up my luke warm shark pajama pants off the floor, fire up Netflix and call the day a wash. I can do this. I battle my inside lethargic voices and gather motivation instead of my fuzzy slippers and ask who wants to go stomp in puddles. 

The comfy teen and her phone look like inseparable best friends and Baby Daddy looks at me with a desperate, please not me, side ways look. So the two littles and me it shall be. Awesome.

It doesn't take us long to find the perfect playground. A huge muddy, empty pit only a few minutes walk door to door.  So cool, it was seemingly dug out just for us, just for this purpose of adventure, just for this very point in time. Just awesome.

I loved......

*how the rain drops danced dramatically on top of the water

*how Drex gave his little sister his shirt to save her white jacket

*how the color of my hot pink Ronald McDonald boots stuck out beautifully against the colors of nature.

*how the leaf droplets hung on for dear life before eventually falling to their next place in life

*how new games were invented on the fly

*how I sat atop our mud mountain, sipping hot tea while pretending I was in a Mt. Everest documentary

*how I looked a hundred years old and afraid of falling and breaking a hip as I delicately and very slowly descended down the ridge

*how the water streams flowed like mini chocolate rivers

*how footwear seemed to disappear in the quick sand type mud 

 *how the murky water poured out of La La's boot reminded me to add a line to my Bucket List; Drink beer from a boot.

*how great the hot chocolate and indoor S'mores tasted after showering, drying off and warming back up those shark pajama pants....anyone seen the remote?