What did you learn this summer?

BACK UP YOUR DATA!

I know this.  I knew this.  Somehow in the excitement of being finished, or multi-tasking, or feeling invincible, I forgot this.  I wish it was as easy as hitting CTRL+S.

In an instant our virtual server crashed and took no less than 8 websites and hundreds of hours of work with it.

Yup, that was stupid and careless of us.  Yes, we should have known better.

I still love technology. 

I’m super thankful this blog wasn’t on that server. (Although it’s probably the most recoverable of any of them).

Thanks, Murphy.

Off to cry, back up this server, and put away laundry.

By the way,

BACK UP YOUR DATA!

Not-Me-Monday is a blog carnival started by MckMama. Hop over to her blog to see what others have NOT done this week.

Our cars were NOT cleaner than our kids for the majority of the weekend.

I did NOT spend a lot of time this week sitting around watching Jasmine Star shoot a wedding even though I had kids to take care of, chores to do, and a throbbing week-long migraine.

My house is NOT filthy (even by my standards).

We are NOT going to make the absolute most of this week since the rest of the world went back to school today and we have one more week of summer!

…He knows if my water bottle is empty or filled up even if the lid is on.

…He knows what clothes you have even if they are in your drawer (and the hamper).

…He knows if you are wearing earring even if your hair is covering it up.

Go ahead.  I dare you to play along and not laugh in the process.

Friday we picked the corn that was ready before all the worms ate it.

We went crabbing Saturday afternoon.

Our prize crab! This guy was none so happy to be caught. Everytime the kids opened the cooler to look at him, he would jump up and knock his claws together. I’ve never seen a crab jump so high.

Most of what we caught were little guys…too little to keep.

Waiting for the crabs to bite…

Then we went to see a Crystal Palace Baltimore game where we won a signed jersey.  Thanks for the tickets, Uncle!

These guys netted $50 on their lemonade stand in one day!

*If you have no idea who I’m talking about,  click here.

I was reminded again today.  “Murphy was a genius.”

As a general rule, we’re very up front and honest with our kids. 

If I throw away something by accident (or on purpose) and they ask about it, I tell them what happened and apologize if necessary.

If I decide not to do something they want to do just because I don’t want to (or I’m too lazy), I don’t make up some feel good reason.  I have no problem being the bad guy.

If someone dies, we don’t dance around the issue.  Some of our best conversations come out of these situations. 

Oops…I almost got on a soapbox.  Returning to reality (and the point of this post).

If the kids get invited to a birthday party and I have to RSVP in the negative, I tell them anyway (even though they’ll be dissappointed).  I figure it’s better for them to hear it from me than from the grapevine.  (And yes, there is a grapevine in kindergarten.)  But, truth be told, I’ve probably dissappointed them tens of times unecessarily and they probably would’ve been non-the-wiser because the grapevine is pretty spotty at age 5…except today.

Mia got an invite to a party for a classmate for this coming weekend.  It would’ve been birthday party #2 for the weekend.  Patrick doesn’t do birthday parties so it would’ve meant me and the three kids for the second seventh day in a row following a week when we’ve all been under the weather.  I’ll be honest.  I just didn’t feel up to it.  I even looked at the guest list to see how many people I’d know there.  It wasn’t enough.  I RSVP’d “NO” and never mentioned a word to Mia.  I just didn’t have the energy after being sick all week to deal with it.

Fast foward 2 hours to the grocery store.  We run into one of her classmates.  (Just for the record, that never* happens). 

*except today…thanks, Murphy

My friend asks, “Will we see you at the birthday party Sunday?” 

Mia’s ears perk up.  She asks, “What birthday party, Mom?”

She gets her whine on as she hears me say, “Nope, but we’ll see you at the back-to-school picnic next Tuesday.”

I fumble as I try to justify why she’s not going.  I end up pulling the Mean Mommy, “Because Mommy doesn’t want to, that’s why.”

And I’ll say it again, “Murphy was a genius.”

It was like our very own live version of How It’s Made.  Highlights included eating chips fresh out of the fryer and 1/2 price bags from the Oops! Section.