First Contest Ever! Win Jen Merrill’s Awesome “If This is a Gift, Can I Send it Back?” (“ITiaG,CISiB?:SitLotGaTE”)


Welcome to Delicious Minutiae’s first ever contest!  I’m giving away copies of Jen Merrill’s book, “If This is a Gift, Can I Send it Back?: Surviving in the Land of the Gifted and Twice-Exceptional”, but I’m torn.  I want this to be about supporting her…but I’m also feeling a little selfish and want it to be about me too.  Hopefully this will be a mix of both…  My review of the book, which I loved to itty-bitty pieces, will come in a couple of days.

So, here’s how to win your own copy (comments can also be about other people’s kids, btw):

 

1.  Like my blog on Facebook = 2 entries (everyone who already likes my blog is already in!)

 

2. Share my blog from the Delicious Minutiae Facebook page = 5 entries (selfish, selfish)

3. Leave a comment on my blog (doesn’t matter which post) = 1 entry per comment (new posts only)

4. Leave a comment (on this post) inspired by one of the chapters in Jen’s book: = 1 entry per comment

Chapter 1: Connecting the Dots (how and when did you know your kid was gifted?)

Chapter 2:  One Heck of a Ride (suggestions for how to relax and pamper yourself when the kids are making you crazy)

Chapter 3:  Taking the Leap (if you homeschool, how did you make the choice?)

Chapter 4:  Our Grand Homeschooling Adventure (so, how’s that working out for you?)

Chapter 5:  Living My Walter Mitty Fantasy (go with it…make something up…use your wildest, most fantastical skills…or whatever!)

5.  Post a picture of the loads of books you buy and don’t read, or your TBR pile, or overflowing nightstand…or your piles of papers and clutter.  Show me you’re my people! = 2 entries (bonus for bravery)

6.  Make something up.  Make it obvious it’s a contest entry; I’m kinda slow. = 1 entry

7.  Send me $6 and you are an instant winner of a signed copy of Jen’s book! = instant winner!

8.  Leave a comment on my blog that you want to enter this here contest, but don’t like leaving comments and are too lazy to post personal pics in public. = 1 entry

I will randomly pull 15 names out of a hat on August 23.  If you are one of the lucky winners, I will send you a signed copy of Jen’s “ITiaG,CISiB?:SitLotGaTE”…unless you’re local, in which case I’ll drive slowly by your house and fling it at your front door.  I might also deliver to Ohio residents, if they are really nice to me.

If you win and are no longer in the US, like, say, you just moved to JORDAN (wah!), I will send you a Kindle or Nook copy via the interwebs.

Okay, this was more about me than Jen, so: 9. post a comment about how awesome you think Jen Merrill is and get another shot at winning a signed copy of her book.  🙂

10.  Stay tuned for the Chicago Gifted Community Center’s 15 book giveaway.  Jen’s on the board.  So am I.

Get over yourself. Everyone gets a rash some time… Enter this contest and be a WINNER!

Disclaimer: 1 winning entry per person, void where prohibited by law, etc.  Participating in this contest, Delicious Minutiae’s First Ever!, may cause some or all of the following side effects:  migraines, explosive diarrhea, vomiting, blurred vision, rashes in private places, loss of your eyebrows and eyelashes, and maybe even sudden death.  Delicious Minutiae cannot be held responsible for your explosive diarrhea, or any other side effects from participating in Jen Merril’s “ITiaG,CISiB?:SitLotGaTE” book giveaway.

Peace out, bitches.

 

Squeezing the Charmin, Making the Donuts, Insulting your Mother


We’ve been running ragged for as long as I can remember.  My kids and I are tired of our schedule, but not willing to give anything up, so we keep going until one of us drops.

Someone in this picture is winning, but I really don’t know who.

It’s like a game.

I think I can win this game.  I have more weapons in my arsenal (money, car keys, smartphone, calendar, lock on the outside of the basement door, etc), while their strongest ammunition is youthful verve and willingness to band together with their profound precocity. To conspire. Against me.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner! I’ve got this one in the bag.

Sometimes when we come home from being away all day, we just veg in front of the television for awhile and wait for our vestibular systems to calm their business down.  This is also when we decide if we have good attitudes or if we’re going to descend into chaos.  As they get older, we all choose chaos less, but it’s always creeping around our perimeters.

“It’s not magic! It’s physics. The speed of the turn is what keeps you upright. It’s like a spinning top.” Says Deborah Bull. Well, F-U Deborah Bull. It *is so* magic! And maybe overscheduling. But mostly magic.

Last week (haven’t posted in a few days on account of the game), we settled in for our electronic meditation time.  We were in good, yet tired, spirits.  Companionable even.  I don’t like the kids watching tons of commercials, so we usually opt for DVRd stuff, or pre-recorded programs.

Not this day!  We were letting it all hang out

We were planning to squeeze the Charmin,

Even Bob Dylan can’t help himself.

make the donuts,

This is an actual book cover. It exists. Fresh Hot Glazed Make those donuts! Make them good!

and ponder the burning sensations in our nethers and taints.

I vote “entertainment”. I mean, no one is going to get out of this alive. Death, with or without explosive medical diarrhea, is a certainty.

Drug commercials are some of the most entertaining.

We didn’t wait long before the first meat hook claimed a Beeler victim.  Of course it was E, my 6 year old.

“We need one of those Roomba machines!”

I know the kids have been wanting one since they saw it on America’s Funniest Home Videos, or AFV for true fans of the show.

We have cats, the boys have ideas.

It’s a versatile vacuuming robot machine. Also takes on the fight between good and evil.

“What are you talking about? I asked him.  “You don’t even vacuum!”

Crickets. Sometimes they punctuate silence.

I continued to fling feces all over his great idea.  “I think the person who vacuums should decide if we actually need a robot to help us vacuum.”

“So,” no beats missed, “dad needs to decide if we get a Roomba?”

Ouch.  His aim is true, the black-hearted brigand.

N snorted.  I don’t know how I should have interpreted that.

Schrute knows. N doesn’t. N needs to stop laughing at his mom’s expense.

 

I do vacuum.  They just don’t realize that I do it after they go to bed.  Punks.

They thoroughly appreciate Jeff, so maybe it’s a chromosomal magnetism thing.  Perhaps they are repelled by girl cooties?  I’ll have to think on this some more.

________

Feel free to Like Delicious Minutiae on Facebook or leave comments on my blog.  My family doesn’t appreciate me, so I will seek my approval over here.

I’m Crazy and Unphotogenic


So lately I’ve been in a weird place.  I’m volunteering my time in excess of what some people give to their full time job.  I gave up a leadership role for another of my kids’ activities because I was going crazy with all the demands.  No one is happy once mom rounds the bend into insanity!

The descent is particularly dramatic around here, as we all feed off of each other’s energy.  So, crazy mom means the kids are regularly hysterical, the cats get needy, Jeff ends up carrying the whole household… Oh, right.  He already does carry the whole fricking household.  Dishes, laundry, cat vomit.  He does it all.

Just like that.

More time for the rest of us to be batshitcrazy.  By “us”, I mean “Kim”.  It is what it is.

I kind of enjoy that Sarah Palin was the first several hits for “batshitcrazy” on google images.

Enough about him and that, let’s talk about me some more.  I’ve been hyper-focused on helping my homeschool co-op find a new space for the fall.  It has taken over my home life, though some of that is due to my complete lack of organizational skills.  Some of it is due to a perfectionism streak I try to tell myself I don’t have.  Some of the occupation is because I am wildly in love with this group and my children both say they can’t live without it.

I’ll do whatever it takes to help make this happen and insure it’s there for my kids.  Well, other people’s kids too.  Co-op is no fun without friends.  I should amend that to read, “I will stop short at prostituting myself on Craigslist.”  Everything else is probably okay, or mostly okay.

Nah. Just kidding. Sounds like way too much work.

Now that co-op is straightening itself out though, another group I’m in LURVE with, Chicago Gifted Community Center, is picking up speed again for me. We’re a new non-profit just about to open the doors for membership.  I’m on the board.  I needed to submit a Bio for the website.  I suck and am a big loser.  Well, not really, but this is my blog post and I can say whatever I want.

Seriously though, I feel a little intimidated by the women I’m working with.  They are all amazing, accomplished, passionate women.  They’ve done incredible things with their lives, while also raising their high needs, fabulous kids.

Then there’s me.  I skipped a shower this morning, Jeff brought home take-out for dinner, my butt made a permanent crater on the couch today, and I didn’t graduate from college.

I was close, but I got married and moved to California instead.  I went back to school for photography a few years ago (OMG, 10), but then I dropped out again and had a baby.  I’m a cliche!

A cliche that also cannot multitask.  Lots of people finish their degrees while raising families, yo.  Some people drop out of school and launch billion dollar corporations from  cheap rental apartments.

ZUCKERBERG!!!!!

I mostly got over myself earlier tonight, sent my bio, and found a Photobooth pic that E and I took several months ago.  I cropped E out and realized I look possessed in my remaining half of the picture.

The pic is small, so you can’t see my RED GLOWING EYES!!!

Possessed is as good as it gets, since I look like a moose in all the other pictures.  All four of them.  Apparently I’m in Witness Protection and cannot have people taking my picture.  My friend made a Face-in-Hole of me as the Queen of England, and it’s actually one of the few photos of me in existence!

This is one of the few pictures of me in existence.

So, I’m wallowing in self pity here.  I have B.O., but no degree.  I don’t have a building, bench, or calendar day named after me.  I’m disorganized and overscheduled.  I don’t have any good pictures.  Sigh.  I didn’t launch a billion dollar corporation when I dropped out of school.

Maybe I should cut myself some slack.  These kids I have are a lot of work.  They are always going, going, going…nonstop.  Juggling their extensive, discordant needs is exhausting, and I do a pretty good job.  I’m not saying great, but pretty good is not bad.

My kids are relatively happy.  As long as the older one isn’t in the sun, heat, cold, darkness…and as long as it’s not too noisy or chaotic, either, for him, he’s happy.  Oh, and as long as he has access to electronics, books, magazines and, shit, I don’t know.  It’s a long list.  He’s happy when his needs are met.  He has a lot of needs.

N’s most finely developed / over-worked organs.

The younger is happy when all of the opposite is true.  He likes to be outside, in the noise, creating the chaos, embracing the bedlam.  He does enjoy the electronics, too, but frequently loses his stuff and then pretends he doesn’t care.  I admire that.

The spirit of E. This is what I think he looks like on the inside.

What was the point here?  Did I have a point?  I’m not sure.  Maybe my bio is the point? And my happy go-lucky attitude?  LOL

Here’s my bio:  Kim Beeler has some kids.  She’s crazy, volunteers a lot, has B.O., and no college degree.  She didn’t make a billion dollars when she dropped out of school.

This post is a disaster.  I don’t care.  I’m posting it anyway.

Next time will be brilliant.  🙂

Well, maybe.

The Fort Must Be Defended Against Alien Forces


So I just posted about E’s joy.  Now I’ll post about N to keep balance in the universe.

Different kids find their delight in different places. Read the rest of this entry »

“Simon Says: Pick Your Butt With Your Finger.”


The good news is that N feels better after a weekend bout with either food poisoning or a food allergy.

The bad news is that N feels better after a weekend bout with either food poisoning or a food allergy. Read the rest of this entry »

Chuck Norris IS the Higgs Boson


Here we are, another Friday drive into Evanston.  N and E are big fans of Chuck Norris jokes, so it’s funny to listen to them try to one-up each other in the backseat.

Portrait of Chuck Norris

Read the rest of this entry »

“See You Sunday, Unless We Get Attacked By Bears!!”


Here it is, Friday again…  I can’t decide if I’m giving or accepting apologies today.

I’ll start with giving an apology to my dear children for stealing another slice of their childlike innocence away from them.

It’s their own fault, though, for having questions. Read the rest of this entry »

I Will Never Learn


No joke, I don’t even know what to say about today.

E started in about the Halloween decorations before I was even out of bed.  I told him I needed to wake up first and clear out the cobwebs.  Before I was even to the bottom step downstairs he was already asking “Are you awake yet?”

I had to explain that I wanted to get the house cleaned first, then we could continue decorating.  Then he was all about cleaning.  It was enjoyable to finally be on the same team with this kid.  Too bad it only lasted 8 seconds, kind of like a bull ride. Read the rest of this entry »

We Rocked That Chicken and Made It Cry For Mercy


We ventured into the land of Billy Graham today and kicked off our day with a free symphonic band concert at Wheaton College.  We go to this children’s concert every year and always enjoy it.  We even snuck into the second showing the year they had the planetary theme, though we weren’t exactly going rogue–they just had a lot of no shows and the enthusiastic usher enthusiastically ushered us to some excellent seats.

Anyway, some of this year’s highlights:  swastikas, guns and shooting people, punching, explosions, music and scenes from the video game Halo, pots, pans, kitchen blender, garbage can lids, and also…  The Chicken Dance!

Heck yes, I said Chicken Dance, and it was awesome.  During the audience participation portion N, E and I rocked that chicken and made it cry for mercy.  Scenes from Raiders of the Lost Ark provided some of that other heartwarming visual candy.  Read the rest of this entry »

Stop Busting My Chops, Kid!


E is such a love.  He’s snips and snails and puppy dog tails.  He’s a little boy and that’s what he’s made of.  He’s also opinionated and bossy and full of the saucy.  He gives me a hard time and makes me crazy.

That’s what moms are made of.  Crazy.  I am supermom.

Today he piped up from the backseat, almost an hour into our drive, “You’re ruining some of my favorite songs, mom.  Please stop now.” Read the rest of this entry »

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