Well, I might as well get the blog about Christmas out of the way. :-)
This year was a unique year in that for the first time in several years, we've been physically and financially able to deal with Christmas. I know the children won't appreciate everything that goes into Christmas because frankly, I sure as heck didn't know until I had my own family. Our little people don't realize it, but we put a lot of thought into their gifts this year, both of us seemed to be on a mission to really make Christmas special for the kids.
I readily acknowledge that it isn't the presents that make Christmas special, and we talked a lot about the birth of our Savior with the kids, but there a few things I'd like to record concerning the more material aspect of Christmas.
I'd like to get off my chest first, I haven't shared this because it's a little embarrassing, I've never spent so much on a single child but I bought Kate an American girl doll, with all six book (paperback) and the accessories to match. There's an online community that I take part in, and I had asked their advice on dolls readily acknowledging that price is an issue. They gave wonderful options and then I looked at my daughter and had this urge for once to splurge on her.
I can't explain it, Kent I'm sure is rolling his eyes as he reads this. Maybe it's the little girl in me, remembering a few special presents from my grandparents, that I knew my parents couldn't afford but I wanted, really wanted. The memories, especially of a stuffed pony that I drooled over for MONTHS still brings a smile to my face and I wanted to share that experience with Kate. Also, Kate turns nine (oh, in about a half hour, lol) and she won't enjoy such childlike presents for much longer.
I need to mention that Kate opened most of the American girl gifts (the accessories, a doll's hairbrush and Kit's books were all wrapped separately) and still hadn't figured her main present out. It wasn't until she opened my mothers gift of an old fashion style steamer trunk big enough to hold the doll, with some doll furniture and hangers for doll clothes that Kate figured it out. Kate also figured out that she wasn't going to get to open her doll until the rest of the presents under the tree were cleared out.
Kent and I were able to keep order by not allowing the twins to touch what was under the tree. As soon as either one of them got their hands on a present, regardless of who the present actually belongs to, they instantly started to rip the paper off. Then once that was done, and the present opened to play with they'd sit or lay blissfully on the floor playing with their new toys until someone else handed them a new present, and the paper flying would continue again.
Well Kate quickly handed out the last of the presents and before we knew what was happening, paper was flying everywhere for two to three minutes as the boys quickly disposed of the last of their gifts all at once.
It was GREAT, lol.
Kent made Kate sit there for a good ten minutes before letting her open her doll.
If I didn't have my job, I couldn't have done it. I'm not just talking the doll but the other gifts too. But (and this is for Kate) I do have my job and cleaning a whole lot of toilets allowed me to get something special for you. I could have, probably should have gone less expensive but I was feeling seriously like this was my last chance to do something like *waves hands vaguely* this for Kate.
I purchased the historical doll "Kit" whose stories take place in the depression era. The purchase of "Kit" was my mom's idea, in the hopes that Kate would learn a bit more about the value of money, the blessing of employment and food from the pretty historically accurate portrayal of an American girl series. Yeah, yeah, I totally get the irony of paying for this exclusive brand and using it as a stepping stone for some depression era lessons.
Of course I also want her to love, enjoy and play with this, probably her last truly "child" toy. Oh my they grow so big so fast. It's very bittersweet to see the bits of childhood slip away as they grow into young adults.
Buying Kate a doll, an American girl doll has presented a very unique parenting challenge. See Jane has always wanted an American girl doll. At least she thinks she has. *sigh* Jane has never been a doll person. She's loved dolls briefly but she's never had any with staying power. Within a few weeks, the dolls get tossed aside and usually can be found months later under a huge amount of garbage in her room. (We have issues about that room). Actually Jane was given an 18 inch doll from her grandmother a few years back and as predicted, she played a few weeks and quickly lost interest. It was extremely frustrating to find the accessories to this doll scattered every which where, shoes were lost, socks lost, the dolls hair became a mess from neglect. It saddened me to see her given something and not treated correctly. However, as I stated, she's never been a real doll girly. There's not much we can do to change that.
However even if we had the money a few years ago, I wouldn't have bought an American girl doll for Jane because even though it might have lasted longer then other dolls, in the end, she would have lost interest. I think the idea of an American girl doll is what really has entranced Jane much more then the actual ownership would have. So there's been a bit of jealousy.
I do hope Jane realizes that just as much thought and love was put into her Christmas. Oh my goodness, what does Jane love? Why PROJECTS of course! Cutting, gluing, designing, coloring, painting, it's all good in Jane's world! Jane also loves people. Family is super important to her and having pictures is especially meaningful for my girl. Knowing this, Kent last year gave Jane an old camera for Christmas, we've spent a fortune on developing film! The camera was a trial, to see how well she would take care of it.
She did really well and was super responsible, so Kent shopped and shopped and shopped for the past five months to find the best quality camera for under a hundred dollars. He quickly recognized that we weren't interested in any "kid" camera, we wanted more durability and more function for Jane then a kid camera could provide. The same trial holds true for her Christmas camera this year, if she can show us that she's responsible, then we'll get her a better camera in the future.
To go with this camera I found a kids scrapbook kit, tons of stickers and accessories! Once Kate is moved out of that room, we'll set up a desk for Jane to organize her scrapbook stuff. Jane also received another album for scrap booking, some more paper and an art kit with art paper.
In the end, Jane will enjoy her gifts, they're so HER, for a very long time. If we can keep the boys out of her room that is. *eye roll*
The boys, well Kent managed to work a trade, our old dryer for a remote control car! Oh Ean got other things as well, all boy stuff, but this car is by far his most favorite present. The car and the MP3 player that is. Oh my, does the boy love music! It's amazing because he's not nearly as annoying with the wild nonstop noises when he has music to occupy his mind. He also does these moves that he must have learned in gym class. I wish I could afford, both money wise and time wise, to put the child in taekwondo. His moves remind me of the forms Jane had learned for so many years.
The little boys received a lot of cars, a lot of Disney "Cars" cars but it's the Thomas the Train sets that have taken their time and energy the most. On Christmas day, once the gifts were open until a very late bedtime it was pretty much non-stop Thomas. They did stop long enough to eat Christmas dinner. *laugh*
I lucked out with Thomas as I happened to be in Shopko for another sale when I spotted the Thomas sets on sale for 30% off. This was several months ago, so I was able to easily spread out my expenses, what a huge help! I bought two of each, extra tracks, a set with the crane, a set with a station, both sets came with a Thomas (so that's four Thomases in the house!) and extra engines, Henry, James and some other green engine whose name I can't recalled. David and Greg would be horrified that I can't remember his name. *laugh*
It sounds like a lot but the boys each got the extra tracks and the station set for their birthday and the crane set with the extra engines for Christmas. We have a LOT of track. Our biggest problem when we bought the boys wooden trains last year is that once a couple of tracks broke, we were short for a long time, until Marja was able to retire her set of tracks from her youngest and sent them our way. The Thomas tracks aren't compatible with the wooden tracks, so I wanted to make sure we had enough.
I did save myself a lot of headaches, the trains take batteries and move around the tracks but the twins don't know that. They're perfectly happy just running the trains manually along the track, I'm not about to let them know they start and stop. Right now the guys are perfectly happy with a straightish track running back and forth. I don't want to become track designer having to make sure the tracks always connect! Who has time for that?
That's Christmas 2009, probably the least important part but after spending so much time really trying to connect with the children and searching for items that they'd love, I had to write it down.
Dang I love those kids. <3
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
Honesty
I'm not writing this down because I want to toot my own horn but because as a mother I worry about my children. I don't want my children to be honest because it's the easiest choice, or because their mother said so.
I want my children to be honest because I believe and have the experience to back it up, that being honest leads to greater happiness. What mother doesn't want happiness for her children?
We've had an incredible amount of problems with lying around here pretty much from every child except the ones with limited verbiage. Well ok, so they've lied too but they don't understand that it's wrong like the three olders do. The commonality between all the various incidents (and I won't rehash each individuals rap sheets, it won't do any good in the long run) is trying to avoid getting into trouble. There are also variations of gaining or scoring something that isn't rightfully ours and this die hard desire to get another sibling in more hot water then they've ever been in before.
Oh the love in our home.
Ok, I joke but on a serious note, it disturbs me to see how readily the truth is shoved aside in our home. I can witness a misdeed, be in the same room, and they KNOW, they KNOW that I'm in the room and still they'll try to lesson their actions.
We try to emphasize the rewards of telling the truth. We distinguish the greater punishment when needed and point out how the consequences of their actions are lessened when the truth is told (consequence equalling punishment here) yet the message is slow to sink in. It's frustrating because I cant' seem to get them to understand the rewards for honesty are far greater then they realize.
Which leads me to my story.
Two weeks ago my mother did me a favor and took Kate to gymnastics. Payment for the month of December was due the first class of the month and I asked mom to pay it for me, with the plan to pay her back the next time I saw her. Mom took her and called me after dropping her off to let me know that she hadn't paid, she said that she saw the book and Kate was marked as paid.
Weird.
I meant to follow up that week because I hadn't paid and I knew no one else had paid but I got busy with life in general. Good intentions, I'm full of good intentions but my days have a way of slipping through my fingers and tasks often get neglected until the last minute. Well last Thursday I received a call from the gymnastics teacher to ask who was picking up Kate.
Kent was late and by late I mean class ends at 5:00 and it was 5:02.
She mentioned that the recital needed to be paid for. I meant to go in on Friday but unexpected expected guests arrived. Yeah I know, that doesn't' make sense, but when you expect them over a week ago and they finally arrive, they really are unexpected expected guests. Anyway, Friday I didn't make it, but remembered this AM, I needed to go pay.
When I get in, I see the book, the recital, hall fee and December as mom stated were marked as paid.
All the class was marked as paid except for the spots right above Kate. I talked with the receptionist, let her know that no, there's no one that would pay for us and obviously it was mis marked. I then paid the $48 due for everything, recital, December and the hall.
It's the sort of thing that would have been easy to shrug my shoulders and allow and there is always the slight possibility someone else really meant to pay for Kate but I had set aside money for her recital and chances are far greater a human mistake was made. Someone would have had to double pay and that wouldn't have been right.
The rewards, what I want my children to internalize is the care free feeling I have in my soul from doing the right thing. See lying weighs you down. Makes the world heavy and cumbersome. The truth takes that weight away and sometimes it's really hard to tell the truth. There will be times when you feel like you'll die when you find yourself needing to tell the truth but once it's out there, healing takes place.
So for my children. Embrace honesty, let it be a part of your daily lives. You'll be happier, healthier and enjoy life far more then if it's not.
I want my children to be honest because I believe and have the experience to back it up, that being honest leads to greater happiness. What mother doesn't want happiness for her children?
We've had an incredible amount of problems with lying around here pretty much from every child except the ones with limited verbiage. Well ok, so they've lied too but they don't understand that it's wrong like the three olders do. The commonality between all the various incidents (and I won't rehash each individuals rap sheets, it won't do any good in the long run) is trying to avoid getting into trouble. There are also variations of gaining or scoring something that isn't rightfully ours and this die hard desire to get another sibling in more hot water then they've ever been in before.
Oh the love in our home.
Ok, I joke but on a serious note, it disturbs me to see how readily the truth is shoved aside in our home. I can witness a misdeed, be in the same room, and they KNOW, they KNOW that I'm in the room and still they'll try to lesson their actions.
We try to emphasize the rewards of telling the truth. We distinguish the greater punishment when needed and point out how the consequences of their actions are lessened when the truth is told (consequence equalling punishment here) yet the message is slow to sink in. It's frustrating because I cant' seem to get them to understand the rewards for honesty are far greater then they realize.
Which leads me to my story.
Two weeks ago my mother did me a favor and took Kate to gymnastics. Payment for the month of December was due the first class of the month and I asked mom to pay it for me, with the plan to pay her back the next time I saw her. Mom took her and called me after dropping her off to let me know that she hadn't paid, she said that she saw the book and Kate was marked as paid.
Weird.
I meant to follow up that week because I hadn't paid and I knew no one else had paid but I got busy with life in general. Good intentions, I'm full of good intentions but my days have a way of slipping through my fingers and tasks often get neglected until the last minute. Well last Thursday I received a call from the gymnastics teacher to ask who was picking up Kate.
Kent was late and by late I mean class ends at 5:00 and it was 5:02.
She mentioned that the recital needed to be paid for. I meant to go in on Friday but unexpected expected guests arrived. Yeah I know, that doesn't' make sense, but when you expect them over a week ago and they finally arrive, they really are unexpected expected guests. Anyway, Friday I didn't make it, but remembered this AM, I needed to go pay.
When I get in, I see the book, the recital, hall fee and December as mom stated were marked as paid.
All the class was marked as paid except for the spots right above Kate. I talked with the receptionist, let her know that no, there's no one that would pay for us and obviously it was mis marked. I then paid the $48 due for everything, recital, December and the hall.
It's the sort of thing that would have been easy to shrug my shoulders and allow and there is always the slight possibility someone else really meant to pay for Kate but I had set aside money for her recital and chances are far greater a human mistake was made. Someone would have had to double pay and that wouldn't have been right.
The rewards, what I want my children to internalize is the care free feeling I have in my soul from doing the right thing. See lying weighs you down. Makes the world heavy and cumbersome. The truth takes that weight away and sometimes it's really hard to tell the truth. There will be times when you feel like you'll die when you find yourself needing to tell the truth but once it's out there, healing takes place.
So for my children. Embrace honesty, let it be a part of your daily lives. You'll be happier, healthier and enjoy life far more then if it's not.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Boy it's a good thing *I* didn't catch him.
Him, being Ean.
Apparently after watching me panic this morning when I was unable to find Greg's mittens and you have to understand that it would have been the end of the world without them. I make NO exaggeration here! Ean decided it would be funny to hide his brothers hats and mittens in the couch cushions.
Obviously I never would have found them.
The devious little snot picked the night before he had school. So he would be gone and out the door, escaping interrogation as I go into full panic mode during the countdown before the bus arrives. Unfortunately for the five year old, his father caught him in the act.
He had the privilege of cleaning the front room for mommy. Apparently he wasn't to happy about it either.
We're continuing to plow forward with Jane's homeschooling. My mother bought the niftiest child's dictionary for Jane! Today we talked about presidents while leafing through the information pages. Yesterday we had an in depth conversation about the differences between "caution" and "cautious" and how each word is used. That discussion was brought on by some extremely bad roads we'd just been on to get to the library.
Kate's decided studying her spelling isn't so bad when done online at spellingcity.com.
The twins, well. Yeah. They're in preschool, what can I say. Today Greg needed new pants because he didn't get the one's he was wearing down far enough. He was at the toilet though!
Greg's class is convinced there are two Gregs and David's class is convinced there are two Davids. It's pretty funny. :)
So there's a quick update of today. Man, we're just plain BUSY around here!
Apparently after watching me panic this morning when I was unable to find Greg's mittens and you have to understand that it would have been the end of the world without them. I make NO exaggeration here! Ean decided it would be funny to hide his brothers hats and mittens in the couch cushions.
Obviously I never would have found them.
The devious little snot picked the night before he had school. So he would be gone and out the door, escaping interrogation as I go into full panic mode during the countdown before the bus arrives. Unfortunately for the five year old, his father caught him in the act.
He had the privilege of cleaning the front room for mommy. Apparently he wasn't to happy about it either.
We're continuing to plow forward with Jane's homeschooling. My mother bought the niftiest child's dictionary for Jane! Today we talked about presidents while leafing through the information pages. Yesterday we had an in depth conversation about the differences between "caution" and "cautious" and how each word is used. That discussion was brought on by some extremely bad roads we'd just been on to get to the library.
Kate's decided studying her spelling isn't so bad when done online at spellingcity.com.
The twins, well. Yeah. They're in preschool, what can I say. Today Greg needed new pants because he didn't get the one's he was wearing down far enough. He was at the toilet though!
Greg's class is convinced there are two Gregs and David's class is convinced there are two Davids. It's pretty funny. :)
So there's a quick update of today. Man, we're just plain BUSY around here!
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Going private
I've had a few questions from close friends that have followed my blog for a while on why I've changed my setting to private.
Honestly, I'm not sure exactly why but Kent asked me too and I not only respect his feelings but I trust his judgement as well. If I was only expressing opinion, then closing my blog would defeat the whole purpose but I am detailing my children's lives, which is a whole different ballgame, so to speak.
I briefly thought of writing an opinion blog that's open along with this one but really, I'd only write more about my family and I don't want to detract my attention from this project. Since I'm not keeping a journal, I feel strongly about recording my family *moves arms in vague sweeping motion* somewhere.
Lets face it, when Kate is in her 30's, she needs to know how fun (snicker) she made picture night tonight. Everyone one dressed up, going for the "family portrait and the at*ti*TUDE showed up! Although we do have one picture with a scowl that'd stop a truck, so I don't think it'll be hard to remind her. The twins were even smiling in THAT picture. :-)
David needs to know how much he loved Christmas lights two weeks before his forth birthday and if we didn't acknowledge that HE saw the Christmas lights he yelled at us. Somehow Greg managed to sleep next to his twin.
So this stuff will still be written down and occasionally I *might* channel my dad and show some brilliant writing, but I wouldn't count on it. I do hope to capture some memory treasures so they won't be forgotten so I'll continue that quest.
Also, I'll invite pretty much anyone that asks to read the blog, as long as I know you somehow. I feel compelled to share my children's exploits, somehow it makes it easier to tackle the day to day knowing I've given someone a reason to giggle. Even it it's my expense. :)
Honestly, I'm not sure exactly why but Kent asked me too and I not only respect his feelings but I trust his judgement as well. If I was only expressing opinion, then closing my blog would defeat the whole purpose but I am detailing my children's lives, which is a whole different ballgame, so to speak.
I briefly thought of writing an opinion blog that's open along with this one but really, I'd only write more about my family and I don't want to detract my attention from this project. Since I'm not keeping a journal, I feel strongly about recording my family *moves arms in vague sweeping motion* somewhere.
Lets face it, when Kate is in her 30's, she needs to know how fun (snicker) she made picture night tonight. Everyone one dressed up, going for the "family portrait and the at*ti*TUDE showed up! Although we do have one picture with a scowl that'd stop a truck, so I don't think it'll be hard to remind her. The twins were even smiling in THAT picture. :-)
David needs to know how much he loved Christmas lights two weeks before his forth birthday and if we didn't acknowledge that HE saw the Christmas lights he yelled at us. Somehow Greg managed to sleep next to his twin.
So this stuff will still be written down and occasionally I *might* channel my dad and show some brilliant writing, but I wouldn't count on it. I do hope to capture some memory treasures so they won't be forgotten so I'll continue that quest.
Also, I'll invite pretty much anyone that asks to read the blog, as long as I know you somehow. I feel compelled to share my children's exploits, somehow it makes it easier to tackle the day to day knowing I've given someone a reason to giggle. Even it it's my expense. :)
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Talents Old and New
We had the missionaries over for dinner. With Kent's work schedule, Sunday is really the only day that works. I remember how much I appreciated a hot meal when I was on my mission, it's wonderful to turn it around.
With the missionaries coming over, we had some talk about what a mission is with Ean. He's still not sure of the concept but he knows his daddy was a missionary. When talk turns to teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Ean usually refocuses on more interesting stuff, like pestering a sibling. However at five, I'd call him pretty darn normal and would think he was sick otherwise.
The Elders brought such a nice feeling into our home. There was a peace, even the bickering between Jane and Kate quieted down. One Elder, a young man from South Carolina, shared a spiritual thought from James. I wish I'd written the scripture down. I had such a strong feeling on how I need to live my faith. Actually, this whole Sunday was one giant reminder that that Lord expects not only good things but GREAT THINGS from us. And he's not thrown us out here with expectations alone but has given us tools to strengthen our faith, give us the resolve to keep the commandments of God.
My little brother is most cheerful in flaunting his choices that blatantly go against how he was raised but I find myself questioning his happiness because he seems to be searching hard for something. I know for myself I am happiest when I follow the subtle inspirations from God. They witness truth to my heart, guide me in teaching my children and sometimes, when life is really hard, there's a warmth that wraps around my soul giving me comfort and strength and allowing me to stumble forward.
I've spent a few years feeling spiritually numb. So much of my inner self has been sucked dry raising my children. Words can't describe how empty I felt the first few years of the twins life. I was to tired to feel and there were no breaks.
You know how on a rainy day, the clouds break and there's a glimpse of sun? When heavy and down, that simple crack in the gloom brings dazzling light and shadows across the landscape, showing that the world is really a bright place. The darkness and cold projected by the rain can feel like a lifetime and yet it never is.
I think, just maybe, the sun had broke through the clouds for me. And once the sun breaks through, I remember more vividly experiences from my past that I just haven't had time to think about.
One of the elders complimented me on two watercolor pictures on the wall in my front room.
When I was at BYU, I spent three years trying to get into the design program. I never got into the program but I did take a few watercolor classes along the way. I tend to be heavy handed with watercolor, never quite grasping the whisper touch required to let the paint work for you. Yet a few of my painting are intriguing, I have a good sense of design and color, I think that saved my watercolor grades. :)
I was inspired to paint what's hanging in my front room by an oil painting that hung in the art building. The figures were roughly lined in, the colors stark with a vivid contrast. It depicted the Savior while carrying the cross surrounded by solders. I was intrigued by the raw emotion, wanting desperately to try to capture that kind of imagery on my own. So I painted two pieces back to back of Christ outside the tomb right before revealing himself to Mary Magdalene. In the first piece I have her figure leaning against the tomb, it's a stormy sky and the dark blue grey sky bled into her clothes. Purely unintentional yet somehow it conveys her immense grief, as she doesn't yet see the Lord standing, commanding her attention.
The second one, has a better style I think but misses that emotion, yet you can still tell who the figures are.
It's been a long time since I thought of those paintings but I've been remembering vividly all night the intense desire to portray that image. I love my Lord Jesus Christ and the desire to put the image that's in my head down on paper is so strong, yet I've never quite had the talent to do so.
Very frustrating, which is why I no longer draw or paint. But tonight it occurred to me that I can paint these images down with words.
I feel almost as fulfilled tonight as I did when the paint was still wet on those watercolors.
With the missionaries coming over, we had some talk about what a mission is with Ean. He's still not sure of the concept but he knows his daddy was a missionary. When talk turns to teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Ean usually refocuses on more interesting stuff, like pestering a sibling. However at five, I'd call him pretty darn normal and would think he was sick otherwise.
The Elders brought such a nice feeling into our home. There was a peace, even the bickering between Jane and Kate quieted down. One Elder, a young man from South Carolina, shared a spiritual thought from James. I wish I'd written the scripture down. I had such a strong feeling on how I need to live my faith. Actually, this whole Sunday was one giant reminder that that Lord expects not only good things but GREAT THINGS from us. And he's not thrown us out here with expectations alone but has given us tools to strengthen our faith, give us the resolve to keep the commandments of God.
My little brother is most cheerful in flaunting his choices that blatantly go against how he was raised but I find myself questioning his happiness because he seems to be searching hard for something. I know for myself I am happiest when I follow the subtle inspirations from God. They witness truth to my heart, guide me in teaching my children and sometimes, when life is really hard, there's a warmth that wraps around my soul giving me comfort and strength and allowing me to stumble forward.
I've spent a few years feeling spiritually numb. So much of my inner self has been sucked dry raising my children. Words can't describe how empty I felt the first few years of the twins life. I was to tired to feel and there were no breaks.
You know how on a rainy day, the clouds break and there's a glimpse of sun? When heavy and down, that simple crack in the gloom brings dazzling light and shadows across the landscape, showing that the world is really a bright place. The darkness and cold projected by the rain can feel like a lifetime and yet it never is.
I think, just maybe, the sun had broke through the clouds for me. And once the sun breaks through, I remember more vividly experiences from my past that I just haven't had time to think about.
One of the elders complimented me on two watercolor pictures on the wall in my front room.
When I was at BYU, I spent three years trying to get into the design program. I never got into the program but I did take a few watercolor classes along the way. I tend to be heavy handed with watercolor, never quite grasping the whisper touch required to let the paint work for you. Yet a few of my painting are intriguing, I have a good sense of design and color, I think that saved my watercolor grades. :)
I was inspired to paint what's hanging in my front room by an oil painting that hung in the art building. The figures were roughly lined in, the colors stark with a vivid contrast. It depicted the Savior while carrying the cross surrounded by solders. I was intrigued by the raw emotion, wanting desperately to try to capture that kind of imagery on my own. So I painted two pieces back to back of Christ outside the tomb right before revealing himself to Mary Magdalene. In the first piece I have her figure leaning against the tomb, it's a stormy sky and the dark blue grey sky bled into her clothes. Purely unintentional yet somehow it conveys her immense grief, as she doesn't yet see the Lord standing, commanding her attention.
The second one, has a better style I think but misses that emotion, yet you can still tell who the figures are.
It's been a long time since I thought of those paintings but I've been remembering vividly all night the intense desire to portray that image. I love my Lord Jesus Christ and the desire to put the image that's in my head down on paper is so strong, yet I've never quite had the talent to do so.
Very frustrating, which is why I no longer draw or paint. But tonight it occurred to me that I can paint these images down with words.
I feel almost as fulfilled tonight as I did when the paint was still wet on those watercolors.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
OH THE DRAMA!
Apparently I am confused at what qualifies as a world ending event. Over Thanksgiving weekend, we've apparently had multiple and I've completely missed the serious nature of pretty much every one.
In all fairness, I'm not the only one to under value my children's life altering events, Kent is equally as guilty. Last night at the traditional "Parade of Lights" done after dark on Black Friday, apparently my son had a complete meltdown, multiple times when he wasn't directly handed candy from the parade. Kent said he dozens of pieces at his feet but instead of leaning over and picking. them. up. He chose to throw a fit. I guess because the candy doesn't taste as good if it's not hand delivered.
Kent was very unsympathetic and I suspect Ean might miss the next parade.
Kate told me in tears right before bed how *insert very dramatic voice* "It's so HARD to be eight!!" I do believe this statement came directly from a huge fight she just had with her sister and she got in trouble for throwing some of her sister's things on the floor.
Oh really? You think YOU have a hard life? I told there are children her age that work from dawn to dusk just to eat a handful of rice each day. She was very unimpressed so I suspect I will have to show her pictures and some books, maybe a good "National Geographic" so she can really see what a tough life is.
Then there's Jane.
Jane. Jane. Jane.
Dang, I love that girl. However we have a serious problem getting her to understand that there's a direct correlation between her choices and the ensuing consequences. Day after day we have the same scenario, Jane is given a task. Jane cheerfully ignores what is said and does what she wants. Even when warned of a consequence (such as not getting to go someplace special or missing out on a family movie because she still needs to perform the task) she gets very upset, why didn't we remind her? Why didn't we tell her that her time was running out.
Keep in mind this could be four or five hours after she was assigned a twenty minute task.
What she doesn't understand is that it's just as frustrating, actually more frustrating for us to see her lose out on opportunities because she's made a poor choice and not having her put two and two together, recognizing her role in the sequence of events, extremely frustrating for us! She very much feels the victim and often moans, asking why does she always have such bad luck.
I don't know what else to do other then to keep repeating that their individual choices have consequences and following through with those consequences.
Oh my word, today I was cleaning out the twins dresser. We attacked our Mount St. Laundry last week and have been working hard to keep that particular formation from, well reforming. *laugh*
The girls have been helping put clothes away. While this is suppose to help, I knew the disaster in the twins dresser was growing, so I went snooping today. I found every type of clothing, everywhere, including in the drawers, on the dresser and spilled over onto the floor on both sides.
*sigh*
So I put everything in a heap, cleaned out the drawers and started fresh in organizing that disaster.
It was fascinating, to say the least. I found my underwear in the twins clothes, a ballet skirt that belongs to Kate, TONS of socks that belong to everyone BUT the twins, a mountain of Ean's clothes, a t-shirt that belongs to Kent, and Kate's underwear. Obviously the girls have just been grabbing clothes, not even looking to see if they were even getting just individual pile and without even looking, shoving stuff where ever.
I told Jane.
Immediately Jane started with the excuses, "but it's so h..a..r..d.. to tell Ean's stuff from the twins. I pulled out my underwear without saying a word. "well, someone just put that in the wrong pile of laundry!"
I had to interrupt at that point, letting her know that she's to look when she puts stuff away and I showed her where the individual articles of clothes are to go. Yeah. I know she'll never follow through on that.
Well and I know Kate doesn't give a flying flip about doing it right, she's all about the shortcuts. I guess more checking is called for to make sure the job is done right.
I sure didn't save anytime the two hours it took me to sort through the twins clothes to put stuff away properly!
In all fairness, I'm not the only one to under value my children's life altering events, Kent is equally as guilty. Last night at the traditional "Parade of Lights" done after dark on Black Friday, apparently my son had a complete meltdown, multiple times when he wasn't directly handed candy from the parade. Kent said he dozens of pieces at his feet but instead of leaning over and picking. them. up. He chose to throw a fit. I guess because the candy doesn't taste as good if it's not hand delivered.
Kent was very unsympathetic and I suspect Ean might miss the next parade.
Kate told me in tears right before bed how *insert very dramatic voice* "It's so HARD to be eight!!" I do believe this statement came directly from a huge fight she just had with her sister and she got in trouble for throwing some of her sister's things on the floor.
Oh really? You think YOU have a hard life? I told there are children her age that work from dawn to dusk just to eat a handful of rice each day. She was very unimpressed so I suspect I will have to show her pictures and some books, maybe a good "National Geographic" so she can really see what a tough life is.
Then there's Jane.
Jane. Jane. Jane.
Dang, I love that girl. However we have a serious problem getting her to understand that there's a direct correlation between her choices and the ensuing consequences. Day after day we have the same scenario, Jane is given a task. Jane cheerfully ignores what is said and does what she wants. Even when warned of a consequence (such as not getting to go someplace special or missing out on a family movie because she still needs to perform the task) she gets very upset, why didn't we remind her? Why didn't we tell her that her time was running out.
Keep in mind this could be four or five hours after she was assigned a twenty minute task.
What she doesn't understand is that it's just as frustrating, actually more frustrating for us to see her lose out on opportunities because she's made a poor choice and not having her put two and two together, recognizing her role in the sequence of events, extremely frustrating for us! She very much feels the victim and often moans, asking why does she always have such bad luck.
I don't know what else to do other then to keep repeating that their individual choices have consequences and following through with those consequences.
Oh my word, today I was cleaning out the twins dresser. We attacked our Mount St. Laundry last week and have been working hard to keep that particular formation from, well reforming. *laugh*
The girls have been helping put clothes away. While this is suppose to help, I knew the disaster in the twins dresser was growing, so I went snooping today. I found every type of clothing, everywhere, including in the drawers, on the dresser and spilled over onto the floor on both sides.
*sigh*
So I put everything in a heap, cleaned out the drawers and started fresh in organizing that disaster.
It was fascinating, to say the least. I found my underwear in the twins clothes, a ballet skirt that belongs to Kate, TONS of socks that belong to everyone BUT the twins, a mountain of Ean's clothes, a t-shirt that belongs to Kent, and Kate's underwear. Obviously the girls have just been grabbing clothes, not even looking to see if they were even getting just individual pile and without even looking, shoving stuff where ever.
I told Jane.
Immediately Jane started with the excuses, "but it's so h..a..r..d.. to tell Ean's stuff from the twins. I pulled out my underwear without saying a word. "well, someone just put that in the wrong pile of laundry!"
I had to interrupt at that point, letting her know that she's to look when she puts stuff away and I showed her where the individual articles of clothes are to go. Yeah. I know she'll never follow through on that.
Well and I know Kate doesn't give a flying flip about doing it right, she's all about the shortcuts. I guess more checking is called for to make sure the job is done right.
I sure didn't save anytime the two hours it took me to sort through the twins clothes to put stuff away properly!
Friday, November 20, 2009
Random, all over the map stuff.
The twins school yesterday is in a more relaxed security mode. All persons entering the school must do so through the front door with the approval of a staff member. The doors to enter the building are locked and each mod door outside is locked.
The kids are not allowed outside with the exception of moving children to and from lunch from the mods, making for very long days in school and in the mods of course, almost stifling, since the classrooms door have to be locked. The school plans on keeping these security measures in place until the man that threatened one of the schools preschoolers is caught.
*sigh*
It's a crazy world. Just crazy.
I continue to send the boys to school, I know some parents are opting to keep their children home but honestly I don't feel like my boys are in danger.
The children are very normal in school. The extra security hasn't fazed them at all. Actually I had one little girl at lunch ask me if David and Greg each had their own beds.
Apparently identical twins throws the other children for a loop. David's class has a set of twins but their boy/girl twins so it's easy to identify them as their own persons. My guys are in the different classes, so it's confusing for the kids to see someone that looks an awful like their classmate. I heard a little boy from David's class tell his mom as he was going by me "Look mom, there are TWO Davids!!!!"
Seriously, I could have peed, I laughed so hard.
I let him know (quickly because they were headed out the door) that HE (pointing to Greg) was David's brother and his name is Greg.
I am glad they're in separate classrooms, that alleviates the whole "DavidGreg" thing they would have gone through if they'd been together.
On the home schooling front, I think we're doing alright. It's nice to have the math curriculum. We spent a lot of time yesterday working on reducing fractions.
I hadn't realized that Jane needs to have a system to write and figure everything out. I do so much in my head, I completely missed this aspect of how she learns. Once I showed Jane how to write out multipliers for the numerator and denominator and then find the highest number that goes into both, followed by dividing in, THEN she could reduce the fractions. Even the simplest, you just need to halve, 3/6 eluded her without mapping out each step.
I'm glad I decided to just start at the beginning of the math book. I have a feeling we need all the extra instruction we can get.
It's a bit of a challenge to get Jane to write as well. But we're working on it. And I was all set to have Jane send her letter off to her pen pal and we don't' have envelopes, Kent says don't buy them, he can get free envelopes and I *exasperated sigh* don't have envelopes. It's frustrating, and I know I need to be more proactive (hey honey, don't forget the envelopes!) but but but, it's been a crazy week and I haven't remembered myself.
One thing I have done to actually take care of myself, and get rid of some stress is swimming. Now I'm not a swimmer, actually I have a pretty healthy phobia of deep water and hate getting my face wet. When I was a child, another child, a boy held me underwater as a joke. When I say phobia of deep water, I. am. not. joking. My fear runs pretty deep of drowning.
However the pool at the gym is five feet at it's deepest part, I think I can handle that.
Mom, Jane and I swam laps Tuesday and Thursday. Boy we were baaaaaaad. Well not so much Jane but mom and I just suck at swimming. Our strokes are bad, we huffed and puffed at the end of every pool length, had to take a breather before going again. Pitiful are we. *laugh*
Jane needs a physical education like activity and putting myself out of my comfort zone, acknowledging that my gym membership is paid for, I might as well use it. I think we'll keep swimming twice a week until the membership runs out. I don't know if I can put face in the water. Really, it's harder then I can describe.
We did find out the gym has dropped the price of their swim lessons, so I'm going to sign the boys up for January. I don't want my water phobia to shed onto my children, I want them to have a healthy respectful relationship with the water. And I better get them in while I still have the discount.
So that's my little bit of everything blog for today. I didn't even touch some of my recent work stuff. No time, no time...
The kids are not allowed outside with the exception of moving children to and from lunch from the mods, making for very long days in school and in the mods of course, almost stifling, since the classrooms door have to be locked. The school plans on keeping these security measures in place until the man that threatened one of the schools preschoolers is caught.
*sigh*
It's a crazy world. Just crazy.
I continue to send the boys to school, I know some parents are opting to keep their children home but honestly I don't feel like my boys are in danger.
The children are very normal in school. The extra security hasn't fazed them at all. Actually I had one little girl at lunch ask me if David and Greg each had their own beds.
Apparently identical twins throws the other children for a loop. David's class has a set of twins but their boy/girl twins so it's easy to identify them as their own persons. My guys are in the different classes, so it's confusing for the kids to see someone that looks an awful like their classmate. I heard a little boy from David's class tell his mom as he was going by me "Look mom, there are TWO Davids!!!!"
Seriously, I could have peed, I laughed so hard.
I let him know (quickly because they were headed out the door) that HE (pointing to Greg) was David's brother and his name is Greg.
I am glad they're in separate classrooms, that alleviates the whole "DavidGreg" thing they would have gone through if they'd been together.
On the home schooling front, I think we're doing alright. It's nice to have the math curriculum. We spent a lot of time yesterday working on reducing fractions.
I hadn't realized that Jane needs to have a system to write and figure everything out. I do so much in my head, I completely missed this aspect of how she learns. Once I showed Jane how to write out multipliers for the numerator and denominator and then find the highest number that goes into both, followed by dividing in, THEN she could reduce the fractions. Even the simplest, you just need to halve, 3/6 eluded her without mapping out each step.
I'm glad I decided to just start at the beginning of the math book. I have a feeling we need all the extra instruction we can get.
It's a bit of a challenge to get Jane to write as well. But we're working on it. And I was all set to have Jane send her letter off to her pen pal and we don't' have envelopes, Kent says don't buy them, he can get free envelopes and I *exasperated sigh* don't have envelopes. It's frustrating, and I know I need to be more proactive (hey honey, don't forget the envelopes!) but but but, it's been a crazy week and I haven't remembered myself.
One thing I have done to actually take care of myself, and get rid of some stress is swimming. Now I'm not a swimmer, actually I have a pretty healthy phobia of deep water and hate getting my face wet. When I was a child, another child, a boy held me underwater as a joke. When I say phobia of deep water, I. am. not. joking. My fear runs pretty deep of drowning.
However the pool at the gym is five feet at it's deepest part, I think I can handle that.
Mom, Jane and I swam laps Tuesday and Thursday. Boy we were baaaaaaad. Well not so much Jane but mom and I just suck at swimming. Our strokes are bad, we huffed and puffed at the end of every pool length, had to take a breather before going again. Pitiful are we. *laugh*
Jane needs a physical education like activity and putting myself out of my comfort zone, acknowledging that my gym membership is paid for, I might as well use it. I think we'll keep swimming twice a week until the membership runs out. I don't know if I can put face in the water. Really, it's harder then I can describe.
We did find out the gym has dropped the price of their swim lessons, so I'm going to sign the boys up for January. I don't want my water phobia to shed onto my children, I want them to have a healthy respectful relationship with the water. And I better get them in while I still have the discount.
So that's my little bit of everything blog for today. I didn't even touch some of my recent work stuff. No time, no time...
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
No real answers, and when to close a preschool?
So the boys preschool was under lock down again. If there really was a threat that warranted such action, why wasn't school cancelled? I don't know, I just don't know.
The local paper tied the preschool threat with a bomb scare at one of the high schools on Monday. However, I really have my doubts and the paper is notorious for getting their facts flat out wrong. So I take everything they say locally with a grain of salt.
My moment of nerves coming out. Starting to cry when I realized that Greg's hat and mittens were still in his classroom. I was embarrassed for being so upset but see, I can't reason with Greg. I just can't. He's obviously delayed on his comprehension, but not delayed enough he couldn't understand, BUT he gets so upset, he doesn't HEAR anything you say. And it's so hard to get him ready for school AND to have shoes AND to be waiting for the bus AND not have the world fall apart because *I* missed some kind of detail.
Throw in a twin who had HIS hat and gloves, really that leaves no hope and yes I got upset.
I like to think I can handle what life throws at me but truthfully, I don't. I get upset when things aren't right, when I see an obvious problem or glitch that WILL cause problems later on. I feel overwhelmed at the drop of a hat but what can I do? Seriously, what can I do?
I am mom. And at some point I thought I'd be a great mom. Maturity has lead me to realize that having no trips to the ER makes the day successful. Throw in nobody going hungry then it's a red letter day!
Days like last Wednesday leave me wanting to run screaming from the house. I don't know why my middle son prides himself on being the ultimate pain in the ass, but he does. Yes he's five. I realize he's five. But he also realizes that EVERYONE has buttons and he knows how to set every other person in the house off. Last Wednesday was the worst of the worst. He touched, jumped, pulled, was in every one's face.
I am at a complete loss on what I can do with him when he's like that.
Complete loss.
You know (channeling Ean right there :-) there was a discussion on my mother's board on why someone would delete posts. Truth is, I delete posts because sometimes I hurt so bad, I reach out and the pain of facing no responses is just to great.
Gosh I'm cheerful tonight. Thankfully most days are fine and I believe every mother out there faces the same ups and downs. Mine are just compacted, a whole lot of ups and downs in one day. That's what happens, the more children, the more ups and downs (cause someone is always, ALWAYS down). It wears on ya. It wears on me.
At least, Greg's teacher was able to get back into her classroom to get his hats and gloves. <3
The local paper tied the preschool threat with a bomb scare at one of the high schools on Monday. However, I really have my doubts and the paper is notorious for getting their facts flat out wrong. So I take everything they say locally with a grain of salt.
My moment of nerves coming out. Starting to cry when I realized that Greg's hat and mittens were still in his classroom. I was embarrassed for being so upset but see, I can't reason with Greg. I just can't. He's obviously delayed on his comprehension, but not delayed enough he couldn't understand, BUT he gets so upset, he doesn't HEAR anything you say. And it's so hard to get him ready for school AND to have shoes AND to be waiting for the bus AND not have the world fall apart because *I* missed some kind of detail.
Throw in a twin who had HIS hat and gloves, really that leaves no hope and yes I got upset.
I like to think I can handle what life throws at me but truthfully, I don't. I get upset when things aren't right, when I see an obvious problem or glitch that WILL cause problems later on. I feel overwhelmed at the drop of a hat but what can I do? Seriously, what can I do?
I am mom. And at some point I thought I'd be a great mom. Maturity has lead me to realize that having no trips to the ER makes the day successful. Throw in nobody going hungry then it's a red letter day!
Days like last Wednesday leave me wanting to run screaming from the house. I don't know why my middle son prides himself on being the ultimate pain in the ass, but he does. Yes he's five. I realize he's five. But he also realizes that EVERYONE has buttons and he knows how to set every other person in the house off. Last Wednesday was the worst of the worst. He touched, jumped, pulled, was in every one's face.
I am at a complete loss on what I can do with him when he's like that.
Complete loss.
You know (channeling Ean right there :-) there was a discussion on my mother's board on why someone would delete posts. Truth is, I delete posts because sometimes I hurt so bad, I reach out and the pain of facing no responses is just to great.
Gosh I'm cheerful tonight. Thankfully most days are fine and I believe every mother out there faces the same ups and downs. Mine are just compacted, a whole lot of ups and downs in one day. That's what happens, the more children, the more ups and downs (cause someone is always, ALWAYS down). It wears on ya. It wears on me.
At least, Greg's teacher was able to get back into her classroom to get his hats and gloves. <3
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
*******LOCK DOWN******
Usually when you go to your child's preschool and you see two cop cars in the main parking lot, a whole lot of people out front and officers going to cover the road on both sides of the school, it's not a good thing.
This was the sight that met my eyes about two and a half hours ago when I went to volunteer in David's class. However I was driving up *right* at the beginning of the lock down and simply walked around the building to the boys classrooms in the mods behind the main building where I stood and waited outside their door. The secretary saw me and asked what I was doing, letting me know that I need to be in a classroom, no one is allowed outside.
Okay, now I know.
So she was headed into Greg's room to communicate with the teachers, three of their students (including Greg) were in a lab in the main building. I followed her in, and signed up to volunteer figuring they needed all the help they could get.
Sooooo, the school was under a code blue, a complete lock down, and I waited around the side of the building and followed the secretary in essentially completely disregarding the lock down. I don't know if I should be proud or embarrassed. :-)
The lock down happened at an extremely awkward time, it was time for lunch, past time for lunch actually and the kids knew their schedule was off. Miss Pam and Miss Karen sung some songs, had the children write in their journals and the school officials worked with the police to provide escorts so the youngsters could be fed.
I was there only an hour and a half but it felt like five. Not a move could be made without approval and a large portion of the time, Greg was in lock down somewhere else. It was really nerve wracking. I *knew* he was fine but still, mommy panic sets in, how could it not. You want to see and touch your baby. I kicked myself for leaving my cell in the car, but knew I couldn't leave the building and come back.
So I stayed and eventually Greg was brought back with his class THRILLED to see me. He even had a little time to eat his pizza.
Talk about odd, the classroom was left with puzzles on the floor. The kids were brought back to the classroom after lunch only long enough to get coats and backpacks. Parents were escorted to cars. Parents had to sign a form from the police before entering the building. I missed that part, because, well, I had snuck in, but I heard someone else talking about it.
To the staffs credit, the students were unaware for the most part that something was going on. I call that amazing. I think the teachers call it nerve wracking. :-)
I heard talk that tomorrow the school will be under lock down as well. I wish I knew the full story on what brought this about.
This was the sight that met my eyes about two and a half hours ago when I went to volunteer in David's class. However I was driving up *right* at the beginning of the lock down and simply walked around the building to the boys classrooms in the mods behind the main building where I stood and waited outside their door. The secretary saw me and asked what I was doing, letting me know that I need to be in a classroom, no one is allowed outside.
Okay, now I know.
So she was headed into Greg's room to communicate with the teachers, three of their students (including Greg) were in a lab in the main building. I followed her in, and signed up to volunteer figuring they needed all the help they could get.
Sooooo, the school was under a code blue, a complete lock down, and I waited around the side of the building and followed the secretary in essentially completely disregarding the lock down. I don't know if I should be proud or embarrassed. :-)
The lock down happened at an extremely awkward time, it was time for lunch, past time for lunch actually and the kids knew their schedule was off. Miss Pam and Miss Karen sung some songs, had the children write in their journals and the school officials worked with the police to provide escorts so the youngsters could be fed.
I was there only an hour and a half but it felt like five. Not a move could be made without approval and a large portion of the time, Greg was in lock down somewhere else. It was really nerve wracking. I *knew* he was fine but still, mommy panic sets in, how could it not. You want to see and touch your baby. I kicked myself for leaving my cell in the car, but knew I couldn't leave the building and come back.
So I stayed and eventually Greg was brought back with his class THRILLED to see me. He even had a little time to eat his pizza.
Talk about odd, the classroom was left with puzzles on the floor. The kids were brought back to the classroom after lunch only long enough to get coats and backpacks. Parents were escorted to cars. Parents had to sign a form from the police before entering the building. I missed that part, because, well, I had snuck in, but I heard someone else talking about it.
To the staffs credit, the students were unaware for the most part that something was going on. I call that amazing. I think the teachers call it nerve wracking. :-)
I heard talk that tomorrow the school will be under lock down as well. I wish I knew the full story on what brought this about.
Monday, November 16, 2009
We have a math curriculum!
I bought a sixth grade curriculum, both student books and teacher manual. I figure we'll just start at the beginning and go from there.
Today just the twins were home with us and good golly that girl is easily distracted. I can see why a classroom of thirty students was overwhelming! It was hard for her to focus with her two three year old brothers in the room. I'm thinking Mondays will be a good day to get her set up with assignments and send her to my moms to work.
Having the math will make that sort of thing much easier.
I do need to outline my expectations better. I know that, yet I was still surprised today when I asked her to summerize the two chapters she's read on coyotes, and she showed me two sentences, one for each chapter.
Well we're swimming laps in the am, as soon as the twins are on the bus. Should be fun. :-) Then we sit for serious schooling, including how to outline (I'm thinking she needs a better way to sort through pertinate information in text like the coyote book) and her first math lesson.
Ean was down right pleasent about doing his homework after school and Kate was eager to please on writing her spelling words. I suspect a plot to show me how well they can work in an effort to stay home as well. Maybe not, I don't know but I won't look a gift horse in the mouth!! Those two being pleasent about school work? A very nice change of pace!
I did have a talk with David's teacher about homework. This is a bit embarassing but I told her it stresses me out. Trying to keep track of what I need to do with the three olders is MORE then enough for me. Add assignments for the pre-schoolers and i just can't deal.
I was telling Jane today that I just get so tired and need to rest during the day and she asked me why I don't quit my job so I don't have to work in the evenings.
*sigh*
If only it was that simple.
This month alone I bought myself three well needed pairs of pants, Jane's math curriculum ($86.00!!), Thomas the Train (at 30% off!) for the twins with other crafty presents for the girls and books for everyone for Christmas.
Not to mention the everyday stuff like Kate's gymnastics.
I hate to depend on my stupid little job, but right now we NEED that money. Oh sure, we could go without. We really could but the little bits that I can do for our children provide them with a little something that I think is important. They can have a sense of self and enjoyment while they're young.
Anyway. We couldn't even provide Christmas this year on Kent's paycheck alone, and that just hurts.
Soooo, yes, I'd love to quit but I love them to much to quit. I hope they understand when they're older.
Today just the twins were home with us and good golly that girl is easily distracted. I can see why a classroom of thirty students was overwhelming! It was hard for her to focus with her two three year old brothers in the room. I'm thinking Mondays will be a good day to get her set up with assignments and send her to my moms to work.
Having the math will make that sort of thing much easier.
I do need to outline my expectations better. I know that, yet I was still surprised today when I asked her to summerize the two chapters she's read on coyotes, and she showed me two sentences, one for each chapter.
Well we're swimming laps in the am, as soon as the twins are on the bus. Should be fun. :-) Then we sit for serious schooling, including how to outline (I'm thinking she needs a better way to sort through pertinate information in text like the coyote book) and her first math lesson.
Ean was down right pleasent about doing his homework after school and Kate was eager to please on writing her spelling words. I suspect a plot to show me how well they can work in an effort to stay home as well. Maybe not, I don't know but I won't look a gift horse in the mouth!! Those two being pleasent about school work? A very nice change of pace!
I did have a talk with David's teacher about homework. This is a bit embarassing but I told her it stresses me out. Trying to keep track of what I need to do with the three olders is MORE then enough for me. Add assignments for the pre-schoolers and i just can't deal.
I was telling Jane today that I just get so tired and need to rest during the day and she asked me why I don't quit my job so I don't have to work in the evenings.
*sigh*
If only it was that simple.
This month alone I bought myself three well needed pairs of pants, Jane's math curriculum ($86.00!!), Thomas the Train (at 30% off!) for the twins with other crafty presents for the girls and books for everyone for Christmas.
Not to mention the everyday stuff like Kate's gymnastics.
I hate to depend on my stupid little job, but right now we NEED that money. Oh sure, we could go without. We really could but the little bits that I can do for our children provide them with a little something that I think is important. They can have a sense of self and enjoyment while they're young.
Anyway. We couldn't even provide Christmas this year on Kent's paycheck alone, and that just hurts.
Soooo, yes, I'd love to quit but I love them to much to quit. I hope they understand when they're older.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
WHAT? You want me to WHAT?
My eldest's incredulous look when I suggested we do research at the library truly was priceless. We've been watching a really interesting series on mammals. Except for the "REALLY GROSS" bit on birth (I love preteens!), Jane's absorbed the information like a sponge.
Since it's something that interest her, I suggested we find some books to read and she write a few pages on a mammal. She was dismayed at that idea. :-) I want her to enjoy learning and in turn learn about what interests her, at the same time she needs to read and write, daily. I figured this loosely defined "paper" would give us a chance to explore what our goals are together as we home school.
I say us, because I see our relationship as symbiont, neither one of us succeeding in our goals (Jane's education) without coexisting together.
So my vague ideas and my mother's willingness to take Ean on his "off" day of Kindergarten left us alone to tackle the library where we dutifully typed in mammals. We quickly found over a thousand entries on a good 100 web pages. Words of previous English instructors lecturing on the importance of narrowing a topic echoed briefly in my head while Jane and I scanned the list. Luckily the word "Coyote" jumped out at Jane and we were spared any more "research". We quickly found a few books that were perfect, not to long or scientific, just basic facts in an easy to read "YOUTH" type format.
One book was kind enough to bold important words, which I had Jane write down the meanings when she read the first chapter later that morning. It seemed like an awful school-ish sort of thing to do, but keeping in mind that Jane doesn't always comprehend or retain what she reads, it seemed like a good chance for her to stop and think about the meaning of the words, and text of the book.
We'll talk more about what she read on Monday. I plan on showing her an outline, both in reference to note taking (she could use all the help she can get with organizing her thoughts) and in paper writing.
Hopefully her math curriculum comes soon. We're covering a smattering of topics across the board but I'm not math minded so I don't naturally turn to math examples while teaching her. I'm more of a thought, idea person, so that's how our conversations are geared. It works great for Social studies, English, literature and even science (we had a great conversation on why Pluto is no longer a planet Friday) but eh, not so much for math.
We did stop by a local store with educational resources and picked up some great references to help guide us through some of our topics. It is a bit daunting to see a whole world of opportunity out there to study and knowing we can only brush the surface of a fraction of it. That is why my ulitmate goal is to teach my girl HOW to learn, so she can have the tools to find answers to whatever questions she's searching for.
This will be an interesting journey, of that I have no doubt.
Since it's something that interest her, I suggested we find some books to read and she write a few pages on a mammal. She was dismayed at that idea. :-) I want her to enjoy learning and in turn learn about what interests her, at the same time she needs to read and write, daily. I figured this loosely defined "paper" would give us a chance to explore what our goals are together as we home school.
I say us, because I see our relationship as symbiont, neither one of us succeeding in our goals (Jane's education) without coexisting together.
So my vague ideas and my mother's willingness to take Ean on his "off" day of Kindergarten left us alone to tackle the library where we dutifully typed in mammals. We quickly found over a thousand entries on a good 100 web pages. Words of previous English instructors lecturing on the importance of narrowing a topic echoed briefly in my head while Jane and I scanned the list. Luckily the word "Coyote" jumped out at Jane and we were spared any more "research". We quickly found a few books that were perfect, not to long or scientific, just basic facts in an easy to read "YOUTH" type format.
One book was kind enough to bold important words, which I had Jane write down the meanings when she read the first chapter later that morning. It seemed like an awful school-ish sort of thing to do, but keeping in mind that Jane doesn't always comprehend or retain what she reads, it seemed like a good chance for her to stop and think about the meaning of the words, and text of the book.
We'll talk more about what she read on Monday. I plan on showing her an outline, both in reference to note taking (she could use all the help she can get with organizing her thoughts) and in paper writing.
Hopefully her math curriculum comes soon. We're covering a smattering of topics across the board but I'm not math minded so I don't naturally turn to math examples while teaching her. I'm more of a thought, idea person, so that's how our conversations are geared. It works great for Social studies, English, literature and even science (we had a great conversation on why Pluto is no longer a planet Friday) but eh, not so much for math.
We did stop by a local store with educational resources and picked up some great references to help guide us through some of our topics. It is a bit daunting to see a whole world of opportunity out there to study and knowing we can only brush the surface of a fraction of it. That is why my ulitmate goal is to teach my girl HOW to learn, so she can have the tools to find answers to whatever questions she's searching for.
This will be an interesting journey, of that I have no doubt.
Snow!!! So how's a family to spend a Saturday?
Well we went swimming of course! *laugh*
Since Jane's quit taekwondo (we've let her know that if she chooses to take it up again, we support that decision), my gym membership is ticking away like a time bomb. See I was required to have the gym membership for Jane to go to this particular school. When Jane turned ten, she in turn was required to have membership in connection with my membership. On top of these expenses there's a monthly fee of $25.00.
It sure sounds expensive typed out, but when the monthly cost is figured out, it was still cheaper then most martial art academies in the valley. Throw in the incredible quality of her teachers and it was worth every penny. She gained so much from Taekwondo. Truly it's amazing.
However her instructors are opening a school not associated with the gym, and I frankly am greatly dissatisfied with my membership. I've had a membership for almost eight years, I always pay in advance for a year (early on I did six months at a time), I'm the sort of person they should be catering too.
Uh no.
The owner is abrasive and difficult to talk too. They raised fees when two new gyms opened. They will try to cut deals with new memberships while keeping old members paying excessive fees.
Yeah, I'm done.
But my paid membership is good until May first. Hot dog, we need to use the pool more! Kent was able to get a promotion, a two week membership free, so today and next Saturday, we take advantage of the pool.
It's no easy feat with the twins and Ean, none of which can swim but my mom met us there and we were able to get some good practice in for the boys. I'm not the best instructor, I don't put my face in the water and I'm not an accomplished swimmer, but I can get by. The boys didn't seem to care and the twins can kick with great relish! Ean was more stubborn, just sure I was trying to drown him when I suggested he kick to my mother.
We went at three, came home by 4:30 and (hysterically) Greg was asleep by 5:00. Everyone else quickly crashed after dinner, so it's been a really peaceful evening.
Of course Kent and I are to tired to do anything. :-)
Since Jane's quit taekwondo (we've let her know that if she chooses to take it up again, we support that decision), my gym membership is ticking away like a time bomb. See I was required to have the gym membership for Jane to go to this particular school. When Jane turned ten, she in turn was required to have membership in connection with my membership. On top of these expenses there's a monthly fee of $25.00.
It sure sounds expensive typed out, but when the monthly cost is figured out, it was still cheaper then most martial art academies in the valley. Throw in the incredible quality of her teachers and it was worth every penny. She gained so much from Taekwondo. Truly it's amazing.
However her instructors are opening a school not associated with the gym, and I frankly am greatly dissatisfied with my membership. I've had a membership for almost eight years, I always pay in advance for a year (early on I did six months at a time), I'm the sort of person they should be catering too.
Uh no.
The owner is abrasive and difficult to talk too. They raised fees when two new gyms opened. They will try to cut deals with new memberships while keeping old members paying excessive fees.
Yeah, I'm done.
But my paid membership is good until May first. Hot dog, we need to use the pool more! Kent was able to get a promotion, a two week membership free, so today and next Saturday, we take advantage of the pool.
It's no easy feat with the twins and Ean, none of which can swim but my mom met us there and we were able to get some good practice in for the boys. I'm not the best instructor, I don't put my face in the water and I'm not an accomplished swimmer, but I can get by. The boys didn't seem to care and the twins can kick with great relish! Ean was more stubborn, just sure I was trying to drown him when I suggested he kick to my mother.
We went at three, came home by 4:30 and (hysterically) Greg was asleep by 5:00. Everyone else quickly crashed after dinner, so it's been a really peaceful evening.
Of course Kent and I are to tired to do anything. :-)
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
I felt so good about today!
Jane and I put the twins on the bus. Ean and Kate were at school and it was just the eleven year old and myself. A chance to really talk. What a rarity in our house! Jane's at the age where she doesn't always reveal herself either. We're in the rocky ground of respecting her sense of self and privacy while still wanting to maintain that communication and dialog that is so vital for teens.
I called my mom and invited her on a walk, so Jane and I went over and picked her up. We walked a good forty minutes and while walking discussed what makes a good writer. We talked about shaping your writing (Jane wants to be an author), reworking your words, shaping your ideas.
Jane then told us about a book she read and she mentioned a girl that was a slave because she was poor. This led to a fascinating discussion on how being poor can make someone a slave. We discussed what real poverty is and how cruel slavery is. After our walk Jane and I watched a PBS show on slavery and how slavery started in the U.S. It was very interesting.
I volunteered at head start and Jane worked on a letter for her pen pal followed by some math games on the computer. It was a very fulfilling day.
Jane said she enjoyed discussing things without someone behind her flicking rubber bands on her head. So there you go. Day two.
I called my mom and invited her on a walk, so Jane and I went over and picked her up. We walked a good forty minutes and while walking discussed what makes a good writer. We talked about shaping your writing (Jane wants to be an author), reworking your words, shaping your ideas.
Jane then told us about a book she read and she mentioned a girl that was a slave because she was poor. This led to a fascinating discussion on how being poor can make someone a slave. We discussed what real poverty is and how cruel slavery is. After our walk Jane and I watched a PBS show on slavery and how slavery started in the U.S. It was very interesting.
I volunteered at head start and Jane worked on a letter for her pen pal followed by some math games on the computer. It was a very fulfilling day.
Jane said she enjoyed discussing things without someone behind her flicking rubber bands on her head. So there you go. Day two.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Our first day of school
Really today wasn't the best of days for it to be our "first day." I don't have Jane's math curriculum yet. Ean was home from kindergarten and his special brand of chaos makes any day challenging and I had to leave first thing to go to the twins parent teacher conferences.
However recognizing that we won't be perfect and it will take a few months to "get into the groove" I chose the "no stress" option and just let the day be what it was.
Jane had read a chapter out of a new book yesterday. I had talked to her Sunday night about what a summary is and the differences between a summary and a story of her own creation. She needed to write a paragraph summarizing what she read in that chapter.
See Jane's had comprehension problems, the skill of recalling important information from a text is a struggle for her, so I want to work with her on recalling and summarizing and understanding what she reads. I figure the skills she needs can be developed in whatever context, fiction or non-fiction so we'll just work on summarizing everything. Hopefully it will get easier to recognize information that's important and easier to retain and recall that information. She did really well on that paragraph.
We then proof read her work together. I've introduced her to dictionary.com and have a dictionary here at the house she can use. She misspells very basic words, so that's another skill we'll be working heavily on.
We then went to the Library. Ean was with my mom, so it was the two little boys and Jane. Jane had the hardest time picking out what she wanted to read. I hope to go regularly so hopefully she feels more comfortable just taking a chance recognizing that if she doesn't like it, there's always more books to get. Greg however had no problem picking out books. He came running to me regularly with a handful of more books he wanted to take home.
I do believe he has no clue what the Library actually is and that we will have issues when the time comes to return the books.
Jane picked out a series on mammals that we will watch together and I picked out a series on the history of America that focused on slavery. Jane announced that one didn't look like fun, but it's a very important subject that she needs to know and understand. She can't understand why it was wrong if she doesn't realize that slavery happened.
I think I'll go the thrift store this week and see if I can find some textbooks that fit Jane's age/grade so we can have reading material in the house as well. We can get so much off the Internet but it's just not the same as leafing through a book.
Jane's biggest home school question to date was "Do I have to wear shoes when we have school?" *laugh* Ean's big question was when does HE get to have school at home. I had to break it to him, that the answer is not anytime soon. He's to busy and doesn't listen at home. I can't teach him. Not now anyway. Kate's concern was over Jane getting a school tubby with paper and stuff in it. We let her know that she has all that stuff in her desk.
So everyone will adjust.
I should mention that parent teacher conferences this AM went fine. Surprise surprise my boys are adored by their teachers. But who doesn't adore my children? :)
However recognizing that we won't be perfect and it will take a few months to "get into the groove" I chose the "no stress" option and just let the day be what it was.
Jane had read a chapter out of a new book yesterday. I had talked to her Sunday night about what a summary is and the differences between a summary and a story of her own creation. She needed to write a paragraph summarizing what she read in that chapter.
See Jane's had comprehension problems, the skill of recalling important information from a text is a struggle for her, so I want to work with her on recalling and summarizing and understanding what she reads. I figure the skills she needs can be developed in whatever context, fiction or non-fiction so we'll just work on summarizing everything. Hopefully it will get easier to recognize information that's important and easier to retain and recall that information. She did really well on that paragraph.
We then proof read her work together. I've introduced her to dictionary.com and have a dictionary here at the house she can use. She misspells very basic words, so that's another skill we'll be working heavily on.
We then went to the Library. Ean was with my mom, so it was the two little boys and Jane. Jane had the hardest time picking out what she wanted to read. I hope to go regularly so hopefully she feels more comfortable just taking a chance recognizing that if she doesn't like it, there's always more books to get. Greg however had no problem picking out books. He came running to me regularly with a handful of more books he wanted to take home.
I do believe he has no clue what the Library actually is and that we will have issues when the time comes to return the books.
Jane picked out a series on mammals that we will watch together and I picked out a series on the history of America that focused on slavery. Jane announced that one didn't look like fun, but it's a very important subject that she needs to know and understand. She can't understand why it was wrong if she doesn't realize that slavery happened.
I think I'll go the thrift store this week and see if I can find some textbooks that fit Jane's age/grade so we can have reading material in the house as well. We can get so much off the Internet but it's just not the same as leafing through a book.
Jane's biggest home school question to date was "Do I have to wear shoes when we have school?" *laugh* Ean's big question was when does HE get to have school at home. I had to break it to him, that the answer is not anytime soon. He's to busy and doesn't listen at home. I can't teach him. Not now anyway. Kate's concern was over Jane getting a school tubby with paper and stuff in it. We let her know that she has all that stuff in her desk.
So everyone will adjust.
I should mention that parent teacher conferences this AM went fine. Surprise surprise my boys are adored by their teachers. But who doesn't adore my children? :)
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Some lighthearted updates.
First the big news. At school on Friday, TWICE, yes TWICE my son Greg announced "I gwo potty" and went and did his business. Oh my, how exciting is THAT?! *laugh* Not only that but my silent guy who has spent so much time in his own world announced to his teacher at lunch "I open my chocolate milk miss Pam"
How wonderful those words are!! Simply wonderful!!!
David is also using the potty at school. Neither one is using the potty for bowel movements but they're definitely making progress and I'll take what I can get!!
It's been a crazy week but apparently it's my job to provide light hearted laughter for my boys teachers. Karen (teaching assistant in Greg's class) noticed that Greg was walking funny so she went over to him to check and see if his shoes were on the wrong feet. Left foot..... left, right foot uh.... left? Wait the child had two left feet. She had to go check David (in the class next door). Oh yeah baby, David had two right feet.
Everyone had a good chuckle.
Other humorous stories, a friend volunteered in Kate's classroom. This friends daughter is in the same room as Kate and well, she's a sucker. Kate could W O R K her.
Apparently everyone needed to get their paints and Kate went to get an extra one, another child had taken the extra that was in plain sight. Kate turned on the water works and this friend totally called her honey, totally felt horrible Kate was so upset.
I told her she should have told Kate to get a grip.
Kate's teacher knows Kate and in total non-nonsense voice asked Kate the problem and told her where to go get the paints. See, the teacher "gets" Kate.
I let my friend know that she wasn't allowed to have Kate over at her house until she learned a few key phrases with Kate. Telling Kate "you're fine, go play" is perfectly acceptable!
Ahhhh, this week needed a little humor!
How wonderful those words are!! Simply wonderful!!!
David is also using the potty at school. Neither one is using the potty for bowel movements but they're definitely making progress and I'll take what I can get!!
It's been a crazy week but apparently it's my job to provide light hearted laughter for my boys teachers. Karen (teaching assistant in Greg's class) noticed that Greg was walking funny so she went over to him to check and see if his shoes were on the wrong feet. Left foot..... left, right foot uh.... left? Wait the child had two left feet. She had to go check David (in the class next door). Oh yeah baby, David had two right feet.
Everyone had a good chuckle.
Other humorous stories, a friend volunteered in Kate's classroom. This friends daughter is in the same room as Kate and well, she's a sucker. Kate could W O R K her.
Apparently everyone needed to get their paints and Kate went to get an extra one, another child had taken the extra that was in plain sight. Kate turned on the water works and this friend totally called her honey, totally felt horrible Kate was so upset.
I told her she should have told Kate to get a grip.
Kate's teacher knows Kate and in total non-nonsense voice asked Kate the problem and told her where to go get the paints. See, the teacher "gets" Kate.
I let my friend know that she wasn't allowed to have Kate over at her house until she learned a few key phrases with Kate. Telling Kate "you're fine, go play" is perfectly acceptable!
Ahhhh, this week needed a little humor!
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Jane and the decision to homeschool, the good, the bad and the ugly.
Friday was her last day of public school. She's already second guessing her decision but she knows we're doing this for the rest of the school year and if she doesn't like it, she can go back to middle school for seventh grade.
It's really a pity, up until this year public school was a good match for Jane. Actually it's interesting how we were led to public school. Jane struggled so much as a small child, just not comprehending language, vocabulary, grammar, basic sentence structure was completely absent from her speech. It was frustrating for both her and us. She obviously needed help but I held off until four determined to do everything I could for her.
It's interesting because I'm no dummy with language and no stranger to speech and language delays but something about Jane's processing made it impossible for me to reach her. I just didn't know how. So feeling like a failure I went to our Local early learning (schooling for special ed between 3 and kindergarten). Actually I tried getting her into head start but our income was way to high, luckily the individuals I talked to recognized that even though I didn't know the system and didn't realize that help was available for Jane, she needed help. So after testing she was admitted to school.
It was a good year for Jane and she learned a lot but was still short of what was needed for Kindergarten. We plowed forward anyway and were lucky enough to meet Susan M. the speech teacher, a woman fiercely devoted to her kids. She latched onto Jane and spoke on her behalf, getting her every ounce of services we could muster from the school district. Susan along with a smattering of teachers did everything they could to reach Jane's needs.
Hindsight is a funny thing. I can see why Jane needed public school, even more I can see why *we* needed Jane in public school. See, when Jane was in the system and getting so much help, I got pregnant. We didn't realize it but that pregnancy would change our lives and I simply would not have been able to home school at that time. Between doctors visits and bed rest topped by a whole lot of worry, yeah, I had no time for schooling kiddos. My children were fed and clothed and everything else was survival mode.
I don't think we attended a single parent teacher conference that year. :)
Jane's support continued even after she tested out of her IEP at the end of forth grade. See the local elementary had no problem setting an iplan into place. In Idaho if child that doesn't qualify for resource room is recognized as needing extra help, an iplan is put into place. It's not legally binding like an IEP but the school sets forth on what they're going to do to help the child, reading like an IEP. Basically it sets kids like Jane up for success. I think it's wonderful to catch those borderline kids and was thrilled that for fifth and sixth Jane's elementary was going to do everything possible to get Jane ready for middle school.
It was a great plan and for fifth grade worked fantastic until the school district got this fantastic idea to move sixth graders to middle school.
We lost sixth grade, half the time we had counted on, I had counted on, to prepare her for middle school. Jane freaked out at moving up and I worked hard to reassure her that we'd make it work.
Fifth grade ended and summer was okay. Jane was nervous, well we all were nervous but Jane had a couple of good friends she could lean on and I knew that would help. I remember how my good friends pulled me through those difficult times making it possible to keep going forward. Finally the first day of school arrived and Jane walked with her two friends. They continued to walk again through most of September.
Things were a bit more frustrating with what was happening inside the school.
The very first frustration was after being reassured that sixth graders would be kept at a sixth grade elementary format, the middle school put them on a rotating schedule going to different classes just like the seventh and eighth graders.
That was the beginning, then there was Jane's iplan. Even though the elementary had sent the iplan to the school and Jane tested extremely low in language comprehension (which HELLO, makes everything harder!), basically for eight weeks, the school said "we don't know what to do to help her." She was frustrated, we were frustrated. Finally I made some important connections getting her some help. To start with I contacted her math teacher, who was completely puzzled that Jane had never been exposed to long division. I explained that Jane was a resource room kid that had not yet reached grade level.
Light bulb moment for her teacher.
I explained that we had counted on the sixth grade to get her to level for seventh grade. *sigh* And we lost that chance when the school district kicked those kids to middle school. This teacher offered to help Jane after school two to three times a week and I encouraged Jane to see her. Within just a few weeks Jane's math improved tremendously.
Here was a child that had math explained in a room with five other students, thrust into a room with 30 students with language comprehension problems being told to perform at a level she hasn't even reached yet! And this was just math.
The school had an after school night the end of September (school had started mid-august) and Kent and I made sure to speak to every one of her teachers and we got some directions to move her forward and get her the help she needed. We felt good, most of her teachers recognized that she was struggling and wanted to help her. Her main teacher also was working to get her back into resource room.
This was a step in the right direction, then a week after this school night where we had talked with all of Jane's teacher we found out the middle school hadn't confirmed the states requirements for sixth graders. The state requires over a hundred minutes a day back to back, without interruption for the language arts. Since the middle school didn't follow through on the elementary school format and had them switching periods, they were not fulfilling the states requirements. So seven weeks into school after we had talked with and worked with Jane's teachers, Jane got a new schedule with all new teachers.
*frustration level rising*
And if this wasn't hard enough for Jane, her two friends, one of which she'd been best friends with since first grade dumped her. Said they didn't want to be friends with her anymore. Started crossing the street while walking home to get away from her. I haven't confirmed but I believe they decided to go with more popular "cool" people and Jane just didn't fit the bill. It was a crappy thing to do to Jane and school turned even more lonely.
Now I don't believe Jane was bullied or picked on more then anyone else, but she's sensitive, she internalizes making any teasing that much more painful.
When school started, I had expressed a desire to home school but acknowledged that with my schedule, it just wouldn't be possible for sixth grade. I have to give volunteer time at head start. The twins are also home on Mondays. Ean has a nightmarish rotating day schedule, going to school Tuesdays and Thursdays and every other Monday. The boys make an environment that is not conducive to serious learning. Trying to help Jane with homework with boys jumping all over us has worn my nerves to a frazzle as is. However I had a brainstorm.
My mom bought a house within walking distance. I talked with mom and she's agreed to help. Of course I would be Jane's primary teacher but my mom's house would be a perfect study hall. A quiet place to do school work without all the distractions our home has. I think Fridays will become Ean's special day with Mormor. That will give us one more day during the week with Ean free time, where we could focus one on one.
I talked with Jane. She completely balked at the idea. It was crazy talk. Not go to school?
We entered a balancing act of me trying to push Jane to understand what home schooling really involved and Kent stressing that it was HER choice and that it wouldn't happen unless Jane said so. I confess that stressing it was Jane's choice worried me because I didn't want her to continue on being miserable until she was beaten down and her esteem was in the toilet. I know it had to be her choice, but I worried that she'd hang in there until she just couldn't stand it anymore.
After talking to her dad about what it's like to be home schooled, she asked me if she could stay home one day and see what it was like. I let her know that one day wouldn't give a fair picture and she needed at least until the end of the year to really decide if she liked it or not. When I let her know that if she didn't like homeschooling, we'd register her for seventh grade at the middle school in the fall, She made her decision on Wednesday before school.
She asked if she could just stay home. :) I told her she needed to finish out the week. Get all the telephone numbers of her friends, people she wanted to stay in contact with and she needed to clean out her locker, return books ect.
Friday morning right after sending her off, I called the school and let them know.
Jane is already second guessing herself. The unfamiliar is always scary. I think she'll settle down quickly as we establish a routine. She was also disappointed when I took her booty from her locker and sorted out "all the good stuff" to put in the newly dubbed "school tubby".
So I am Jane's teacher. For everything. Wish us luck.
It's really a pity, up until this year public school was a good match for Jane. Actually it's interesting how we were led to public school. Jane struggled so much as a small child, just not comprehending language, vocabulary, grammar, basic sentence structure was completely absent from her speech. It was frustrating for both her and us. She obviously needed help but I held off until four determined to do everything I could for her.
It's interesting because I'm no dummy with language and no stranger to speech and language delays but something about Jane's processing made it impossible for me to reach her. I just didn't know how. So feeling like a failure I went to our Local early learning (schooling for special ed between 3 and kindergarten). Actually I tried getting her into head start but our income was way to high, luckily the individuals I talked to recognized that even though I didn't know the system and didn't realize that help was available for Jane, she needed help. So after testing she was admitted to school.
It was a good year for Jane and she learned a lot but was still short of what was needed for Kindergarten. We plowed forward anyway and were lucky enough to meet Susan M. the speech teacher, a woman fiercely devoted to her kids. She latched onto Jane and spoke on her behalf, getting her every ounce of services we could muster from the school district. Susan along with a smattering of teachers did everything they could to reach Jane's needs.
Hindsight is a funny thing. I can see why Jane needed public school, even more I can see why *we* needed Jane in public school. See, when Jane was in the system and getting so much help, I got pregnant. We didn't realize it but that pregnancy would change our lives and I simply would not have been able to home school at that time. Between doctors visits and bed rest topped by a whole lot of worry, yeah, I had no time for schooling kiddos. My children were fed and clothed and everything else was survival mode.
I don't think we attended a single parent teacher conference that year. :)
Jane's support continued even after she tested out of her IEP at the end of forth grade. See the local elementary had no problem setting an iplan into place. In Idaho if child that doesn't qualify for resource room is recognized as needing extra help, an iplan is put into place. It's not legally binding like an IEP but the school sets forth on what they're going to do to help the child, reading like an IEP. Basically it sets kids like Jane up for success. I think it's wonderful to catch those borderline kids and was thrilled that for fifth and sixth Jane's elementary was going to do everything possible to get Jane ready for middle school.
It was a great plan and for fifth grade worked fantastic until the school district got this fantastic idea to move sixth graders to middle school.
We lost sixth grade, half the time we had counted on, I had counted on, to prepare her for middle school. Jane freaked out at moving up and I worked hard to reassure her that we'd make it work.
Fifth grade ended and summer was okay. Jane was nervous, well we all were nervous but Jane had a couple of good friends she could lean on and I knew that would help. I remember how my good friends pulled me through those difficult times making it possible to keep going forward. Finally the first day of school arrived and Jane walked with her two friends. They continued to walk again through most of September.
Things were a bit more frustrating with what was happening inside the school.
The very first frustration was after being reassured that sixth graders would be kept at a sixth grade elementary format, the middle school put them on a rotating schedule going to different classes just like the seventh and eighth graders.
That was the beginning, then there was Jane's iplan. Even though the elementary had sent the iplan to the school and Jane tested extremely low in language comprehension (which HELLO, makes everything harder!), basically for eight weeks, the school said "we don't know what to do to help her." She was frustrated, we were frustrated. Finally I made some important connections getting her some help. To start with I contacted her math teacher, who was completely puzzled that Jane had never been exposed to long division. I explained that Jane was a resource room kid that had not yet reached grade level.
Light bulb moment for her teacher.
I explained that we had counted on the sixth grade to get her to level for seventh grade. *sigh* And we lost that chance when the school district kicked those kids to middle school. This teacher offered to help Jane after school two to three times a week and I encouraged Jane to see her. Within just a few weeks Jane's math improved tremendously.
Here was a child that had math explained in a room with five other students, thrust into a room with 30 students with language comprehension problems being told to perform at a level she hasn't even reached yet! And this was just math.
The school had an after school night the end of September (school had started mid-august) and Kent and I made sure to speak to every one of her teachers and we got some directions to move her forward and get her the help she needed. We felt good, most of her teachers recognized that she was struggling and wanted to help her. Her main teacher also was working to get her back into resource room.
This was a step in the right direction, then a week after this school night where we had talked with all of Jane's teacher we found out the middle school hadn't confirmed the states requirements for sixth graders. The state requires over a hundred minutes a day back to back, without interruption for the language arts. Since the middle school didn't follow through on the elementary school format and had them switching periods, they were not fulfilling the states requirements. So seven weeks into school after we had talked with and worked with Jane's teachers, Jane got a new schedule with all new teachers.
*frustration level rising*
And if this wasn't hard enough for Jane, her two friends, one of which she'd been best friends with since first grade dumped her. Said they didn't want to be friends with her anymore. Started crossing the street while walking home to get away from her. I haven't confirmed but I believe they decided to go with more popular "cool" people and Jane just didn't fit the bill. It was a crappy thing to do to Jane and school turned even more lonely.
Now I don't believe Jane was bullied or picked on more then anyone else, but she's sensitive, she internalizes making any teasing that much more painful.
When school started, I had expressed a desire to home school but acknowledged that with my schedule, it just wouldn't be possible for sixth grade. I have to give volunteer time at head start. The twins are also home on Mondays. Ean has a nightmarish rotating day schedule, going to school Tuesdays and Thursdays and every other Monday. The boys make an environment that is not conducive to serious learning. Trying to help Jane with homework with boys jumping all over us has worn my nerves to a frazzle as is. However I had a brainstorm.
My mom bought a house within walking distance. I talked with mom and she's agreed to help. Of course I would be Jane's primary teacher but my mom's house would be a perfect study hall. A quiet place to do school work without all the distractions our home has. I think Fridays will become Ean's special day with Mormor. That will give us one more day during the week with Ean free time, where we could focus one on one.
I talked with Jane. She completely balked at the idea. It was crazy talk. Not go to school?
We entered a balancing act of me trying to push Jane to understand what home schooling really involved and Kent stressing that it was HER choice and that it wouldn't happen unless Jane said so. I confess that stressing it was Jane's choice worried me because I didn't want her to continue on being miserable until she was beaten down and her esteem was in the toilet. I know it had to be her choice, but I worried that she'd hang in there until she just couldn't stand it anymore.
After talking to her dad about what it's like to be home schooled, she asked me if she could stay home one day and see what it was like. I let her know that one day wouldn't give a fair picture and she needed at least until the end of the year to really decide if she liked it or not. When I let her know that if she didn't like homeschooling, we'd register her for seventh grade at the middle school in the fall, She made her decision on Wednesday before school.
She asked if she could just stay home. :) I told her she needed to finish out the week. Get all the telephone numbers of her friends, people she wanted to stay in contact with and she needed to clean out her locker, return books ect.
Friday morning right after sending her off, I called the school and let them know.
Jane is already second guessing herself. The unfamiliar is always scary. I think she'll settle down quickly as we establish a routine. She was also disappointed when I took her booty from her locker and sorted out "all the good stuff" to put in the newly dubbed "school tubby".
So I am Jane's teacher. For everything. Wish us luck.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Wow language explosion!
Greg came running up to me this AM while stating "MOOOOM Ean he a pus(h)ing me" Well first, why do they always know how to elongate the vowel in "mom" and second, wow, we knew exactly what he was saying. So I told him, Greg tell him not to push you!
Except Ean is in the front yard on his way to school. So Greg runs over to the window, opens the window and starts yelling "Ean, you no pus(h)ing me, you no PUS(h)ING me!!" Well Dave has to start yelling at Ean too and Ean is just getting flustered and upset and trying to argue with them! Finally I got Ean to walk with Kate only to have him come back two minutes later crying because Kate kicked him.
Apparently I need to speak with Kate on using HER words. *eye roll*
Also David was just doing a headstand on the recliner, he started lowering and raising his legs while stating "UP.... DOWN... UP.... DOWN.... UP...." stopping every now and then to say "WOOK, I upSIDEdown" It was very cute. I am a tad jealous, I wish I had his abs. :-)
Completely changing the subject, onto me. I was a smidge annoyed when told that going veg is really going "overboard" Thanks honey. I didn't just decide on a whim, I put a lot of thought into my decision. It feels right TO ME, so it's something *I* need to do FOR ME. And don't worry, we can still go out for Mexican.
Speaking of Kent, it is kinda nice to get told that despite feeling like I was mean last year when I policed up the candy and let the kids have a little baggie of candy to work out of and then I gave as I deemed appropriate the rest of the their junk until gone, it was a far better system then the chaos of this year where I didn't police anything and the twins had a gorge fest on every one's loot.
Both boys are sick and I'm pretty sure it was the sugar that made Greg's cough so bad yesterday.
So no more sugar free for alls at our house. BLECH!!!!!!
Except Ean is in the front yard on his way to school. So Greg runs over to the window, opens the window and starts yelling "Ean, you no pus(h)ing me, you no PUS(h)ING me!!" Well Dave has to start yelling at Ean too and Ean is just getting flustered and upset and trying to argue with them! Finally I got Ean to walk with Kate only to have him come back two minutes later crying because Kate kicked him.
Apparently I need to speak with Kate on using HER words. *eye roll*
Also David was just doing a headstand on the recliner, he started lowering and raising his legs while stating "UP.... DOWN... UP.... DOWN.... UP...." stopping every now and then to say "WOOK, I upSIDEdown" It was very cute. I am a tad jealous, I wish I had his abs. :-)
Completely changing the subject, onto me. I was a smidge annoyed when told that going veg is really going "overboard" Thanks honey. I didn't just decide on a whim, I put a lot of thought into my decision. It feels right TO ME, so it's something *I* need to do FOR ME. And don't worry, we can still go out for Mexican.
Speaking of Kent, it is kinda nice to get told that despite feeling like I was mean last year when I policed up the candy and let the kids have a little baggie of candy to work out of and then I gave as I deemed appropriate the rest of the their junk until gone, it was a far better system then the chaos of this year where I didn't police anything and the twins had a gorge fest on every one's loot.
Both boys are sick and I'm pretty sure it was the sugar that made Greg's cough so bad yesterday.
So no more sugar free for alls at our house. BLECH!!!!!!
Friday, October 30, 2009
Why go Vegetarian?
I made a decision last week and I'm going veg. To my best friend Kim who spent a large portion of her adult life allergic to meat protein, yes I'm doing this on purpose.
I could write a long drawn out post on all the health benefits then throw in the cruelty of slaughter but the fact is, I'm not a huge meat fan.
Oh I've enjoyed a good burger, and there are a few things (ham is my fave at Christmas time) that I'll miss but overall meat grosses me out. To prepare it, I can't deal with extra bones and fat. I have to work to not completely lose my stomach while cutting those parts out. *shudder* It's always been that way and I've done it anyway because well, wasn't that what I was suppose to do?
Kent is also a big meat and potatoes person. That's how he was raised. He enjoys meat and really, I don't have a problem with that. I was thinking though, I do need to make my decisions FOR ME not because of other people. Oh I don't mean that I'll do whatever the hell I want without thinking of my family. I mean that when there's something within my control that affects me and me alone, then I need to follow my heart.
Well I guess I can't say it'll only affect me, I will be serving more veggie dishes during meals but I'll try to work in my husbands favorites as well because I love him and he feels that love when I go to the effort of making something I know he'll enjoy.
I won't be eating vegan, it would be to hard to eliminate dairy and eggs from my diet. And I'm not opposed to eating dairy although I will try to cut down.
I feel good about my decision and I feel extremely good about what I've been eating. Really isn't that what counts?
I could write a long drawn out post on all the health benefits then throw in the cruelty of slaughter but the fact is, I'm not a huge meat fan.
Oh I've enjoyed a good burger, and there are a few things (ham is my fave at Christmas time) that I'll miss but overall meat grosses me out. To prepare it, I can't deal with extra bones and fat. I have to work to not completely lose my stomach while cutting those parts out. *shudder* It's always been that way and I've done it anyway because well, wasn't that what I was suppose to do?
Kent is also a big meat and potatoes person. That's how he was raised. He enjoys meat and really, I don't have a problem with that. I was thinking though, I do need to make my decisions FOR ME not because of other people. Oh I don't mean that I'll do whatever the hell I want without thinking of my family. I mean that when there's something within my control that affects me and me alone, then I need to follow my heart.
Well I guess I can't say it'll only affect me, I will be serving more veggie dishes during meals but I'll try to work in my husbands favorites as well because I love him and he feels that love when I go to the effort of making something I know he'll enjoy.
I won't be eating vegan, it would be to hard to eliminate dairy and eggs from my diet. And I'm not opposed to eating dairy although I will try to cut down.
I feel good about my decision and I feel extremely good about what I've been eating. Really isn't that what counts?
Cabbage night
Tonight is cabbage night. The night before Halloween. A night of general mischief over multiple townships. At least it's cabbage night if you live in or around the town of Bennington Vermont. Thankfully cabbage night isn't honored in Pocatello. Really who NEEDS one more night of general mischief to smash pumpkins of porches and throw eggs at your best friends car.
I will freely admit that I enjoyed walking to school on the 31st thoroughly enjoying the carnage of more eggs and pumpkins then I could have imagined. Even in grade school I marveled at the energy spent on the mayhem and as a teen I was highly amused when the local news would report that the Stewart's on Main street had been forbidden to sell eggs to anyone under the age of 25.
I mean really. You were ID'd for E G G S. *laugh*
Ahhhhh, memories.
My mom reminded me just yesterday morning that we always had applesauce with our oatmeal. I am not a huge oatmeal fan but a friend has introduced me to "germade" a cream of wheat type cereal and I really enjoy steel cut oats and I find myself reaching for the applesauce frequently, choosing that over any other additive. I hadn't realized it stemmed from my childhood.
It is funny how things come back to us. I was telling mom yesterday that I found an identical MP3 player with 12 more gigs of memory. I was sorely tempted and freely admitted that I was channeling my dad. Yes I was stupid to wash my MP3 player and it hasn't shown a spark of life, I believe it's DEAD for sure. So why not go bigger and better!!
Mom then pointed out that I was NOT channeling my dad because I was merely lusting after it, dad would have already bought it.
Good point.
As I think of my childhood and my memories, I wonder what kind of impression my children will have of our home when they're adults. I hope out of everything they bring out of their childhood, they remember first and foremost how much we love them. Each and every one of them. I hope they carry good and positive values. I hope they have a sense of humor. That they approach life knowing that nothing is as permanent or important as your family.
And maybe they'll remember their mom likes applesauce on her hot cereal. :-)
I will freely admit that I enjoyed walking to school on the 31st thoroughly enjoying the carnage of more eggs and pumpkins then I could have imagined. Even in grade school I marveled at the energy spent on the mayhem and as a teen I was highly amused when the local news would report that the Stewart's on Main street had been forbidden to sell eggs to anyone under the age of 25.
I mean really. You were ID'd for E G G S. *laugh*
Ahhhhh, memories.
My mom reminded me just yesterday morning that we always had applesauce with our oatmeal. I am not a huge oatmeal fan but a friend has introduced me to "germade" a cream of wheat type cereal and I really enjoy steel cut oats and I find myself reaching for the applesauce frequently, choosing that over any other additive. I hadn't realized it stemmed from my childhood.
It is funny how things come back to us. I was telling mom yesterday that I found an identical MP3 player with 12 more gigs of memory. I was sorely tempted and freely admitted that I was channeling my dad. Yes I was stupid to wash my MP3 player and it hasn't shown a spark of life, I believe it's DEAD for sure. So why not go bigger and better!!
Mom then pointed out that I was NOT channeling my dad because I was merely lusting after it, dad would have already bought it.
Good point.
As I think of my childhood and my memories, I wonder what kind of impression my children will have of our home when they're adults. I hope out of everything they bring out of their childhood, they remember first and foremost how much we love them. Each and every one of them. I hope they carry good and positive values. I hope they have a sense of humor. That they approach life knowing that nothing is as permanent or important as your family.
And maybe they'll remember their mom likes applesauce on her hot cereal. :-)
Thursday, October 29, 2009
So I'm pushing Kate out the door
She's 10 minutes late. I'm telling her to RUN RUN RUN. She shuts the door. I hear the doorknob, turn to see the door open and she looks at me, smiles and says "I'm suppose to bring treats for the Halloween party".
Well sheesh honey, let me go get a bag O whatever I have lying around. Cause bags of junk are my THING and we have cupboards FULL of options.
Do you think cream of wheat would have gone over well?
In other Hill news, for some reason that I cannot fathom, when washing her little brothers off in the tub, Jane does not check the water temperature. Apparently the boys screaming isn't a clue either. She runs it ice cold.
Those poor boys.
I can't seem to get it through her head, to check the damn water and if they're screaming, SOMETHING IS WRONG.
So I washed her hair last night in the sink, in ice cold water. Mean? Probably. She sure shrieked but hopefully she remembers her brothers next time.
Oh the bus. I put the boys on the bus yesterday and within twenty minutes got a call to meet the bus at school because Greg was sick. Oh joy. So I threw on clothes and unshowered (blech) I hauled my ucky self to the school and found out Greg was fine, it was David and he was coughing. So I asked his teacher if he should stay home and she said no. I let her know I'd be home and to call if he needed to be picked up.
He was kinda puny and is still coughing so even though I didn't pick him up early yesterday, he's staying home today.
Hopefully someone can pick Greg up so I'm not having to bring both Ean (home from K) and Dave to school for Greg.
Throw in all the crap from work and the office that left AGAIN over a hundred pounds of pamphlet's to throw out, I'm a bit crabby.
Happy Halloween.
Well sheesh honey, let me go get a bag O whatever I have lying around. Cause bags of junk are my THING and we have cupboards FULL of options.
Do you think cream of wheat would have gone over well?
In other Hill news, for some reason that I cannot fathom, when washing her little brothers off in the tub, Jane does not check the water temperature. Apparently the boys screaming isn't a clue either. She runs it ice cold.
Those poor boys.
I can't seem to get it through her head, to check the damn water and if they're screaming, SOMETHING IS WRONG.
So I washed her hair last night in the sink, in ice cold water. Mean? Probably. She sure shrieked but hopefully she remembers her brothers next time.
Oh the bus. I put the boys on the bus yesterday and within twenty minutes got a call to meet the bus at school because Greg was sick. Oh joy. So I threw on clothes and unshowered (blech) I hauled my ucky self to the school and found out Greg was fine, it was David and he was coughing. So I asked his teacher if he should stay home and she said no. I let her know I'd be home and to call if he needed to be picked up.
He was kinda puny and is still coughing so even though I didn't pick him up early yesterday, he's staying home today.
Hopefully someone can pick Greg up so I'm not having to bring both Ean (home from K) and Dave to school for Greg.
Throw in all the crap from work and the office that left AGAIN over a hundred pounds of pamphlet's to throw out, I'm a bit crabby.
Happy Halloween.
Just a quick post
To remind everyone to check their pockets before doing laundry.
No matter how gross your pants are because you cleaned vomit up off from the underside of the toilet bowl and had no choice but to sit on the nasty bathroom floor.
No matter how tired you are because the idiots in Blue Cross believe custodial services include the expectation of having the janitor dump over a 100 pounds of pamphlets in one night.
No matter how distracted you are because you're trying to get out the door with Ean screaming he can't find his shoes *exasperated wave of the hands* again.
Because if you fail to check your pockets you just might wash your MP3 player in the wash and then when your husband comes home to you in tears, the only good part is that he knows you're beating yourself up enough that he doesn't tease you.
So work without music. HARD! Feeling really dumb? HARDER! Enduring the jokes that are sure to come the next few weeks? IMPOSSIBLE!!!
*sigh*
No matter how gross your pants are because you cleaned vomit up off from the underside of the toilet bowl and had no choice but to sit on the nasty bathroom floor.
No matter how tired you are because the idiots in Blue Cross believe custodial services include the expectation of having the janitor dump over a 100 pounds of pamphlets in one night.
No matter how distracted you are because you're trying to get out the door with Ean screaming he can't find his shoes *exasperated wave of the hands* again.
Because if you fail to check your pockets you just might wash your MP3 player in the wash and then when your husband comes home to you in tears, the only good part is that he knows you're beating yourself up enough that he doesn't tease you.
So work without music. HARD! Feeling really dumb? HARDER! Enduring the jokes that are sure to come the next few weeks? IMPOSSIBLE!!!
*sigh*
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
MOooooooooom, you can't do that?!!
What can't I do? Apparently I am incapable of carving a pumpkin. I am worthy to scrub toilets, do laundry, can jelly and jam for her to consume but according to my eleven year old, I don't know how to carve a pumpkin.
She uh, has trouble looking outside the box. *laugh*
Well in spite of her lack of confidence in my ability, I plowed forward and carved away tonight. I bought three big pumpkins for the kids, actually food stamps bought the pumpkins, apparently because they're edible. Not that I plan on serving them after they've been sitting on front stoop rotting for a week, but commentary on the system will be saved for another time.
Right now, the kids! Kate in her usual fashion to make sure she was the most special, claimed the largest pumpkin. Jane didn't care, she was just excited to do one. The twins both took a turn pulling out pumpkin guts but neither cared for the overall experience and quickly turned the pumpkin they were working on over to Ean.
Jane relished every squishy ounce of gooey guts. I think the gutting is her favorite part. After the insides were outside enough to work on, I brought out a magic marker and we worked on the faces.
I did Ean's first. He was easy. I've noticed he shuns away from art, feeling far more capable of the concrete world of letters and numbers then the abstract "draw a face". So when he proclaimed (loudly because Ean doesn't do anything softly) he wanted his pumpkin to say BOO and BOO is spelled B O O, I wasn't surprised at his choice. I was surprised that he knew how to spell BOO. *laugh* So I managed a B carved with a straight stick line and two crescents and did just ovals for the Os. It looked very nice, even if I was proclaimed inept with large orange gourds.
Kate was a bit more of a challenge. She had a tall pumpkin and drew two tiny eyes and a tiny nose up top. The face just screamed for a large smiling mouth. Kate was determined the mouth needed lots of teeth. Lots of teeny tiny pointed teeth both at the top and the bottom. She got as far as the top when I told her she was done. There was no way I was cutting through two inches of pale pumpkin flesh to make a dozen teeth in a row.
So I quickly cut two big teeth and a big mouth.
Kate took my change in plans surprisingly well. That was a shock. However she was pleased with the results and chose to enjoy the existence of her pumpkin rather then dwell on her mother not following her directions. It was a good choice and showed a streak of maturity that I seldom see in her.
Jane had an elaborate mouth with simple eyes and nose. It turned out very cute. Er, I mean SCARY. :-)
The twins were properly impressed with all three of them and hopefully don't freak out when they realize they're not on the table. I put them on the front steps after work.
YaY for Pumpkins!
She uh, has trouble looking outside the box. *laugh*
Well in spite of her lack of confidence in my ability, I plowed forward and carved away tonight. I bought three big pumpkins for the kids, actually food stamps bought the pumpkins, apparently because they're edible. Not that I plan on serving them after they've been sitting on front stoop rotting for a week, but commentary on the system will be saved for another time.
Right now, the kids! Kate in her usual fashion to make sure she was the most special, claimed the largest pumpkin. Jane didn't care, she was just excited to do one. The twins both took a turn pulling out pumpkin guts but neither cared for the overall experience and quickly turned the pumpkin they were working on over to Ean.
Jane relished every squishy ounce of gooey guts. I think the gutting is her favorite part. After the insides were outside enough to work on, I brought out a magic marker and we worked on the faces.
I did Ean's first. He was easy. I've noticed he shuns away from art, feeling far more capable of the concrete world of letters and numbers then the abstract "draw a face". So when he proclaimed (loudly because Ean doesn't do anything softly) he wanted his pumpkin to say BOO and BOO is spelled B O O, I wasn't surprised at his choice. I was surprised that he knew how to spell BOO. *laugh* So I managed a B carved with a straight stick line and two crescents and did just ovals for the Os. It looked very nice, even if I was proclaimed inept with large orange gourds.
Kate was a bit more of a challenge. She had a tall pumpkin and drew two tiny eyes and a tiny nose up top. The face just screamed for a large smiling mouth. Kate was determined the mouth needed lots of teeth. Lots of teeny tiny pointed teeth both at the top and the bottom. She got as far as the top when I told her she was done. There was no way I was cutting through two inches of pale pumpkin flesh to make a dozen teeth in a row.
So I quickly cut two big teeth and a big mouth.
Kate took my change in plans surprisingly well. That was a shock. However she was pleased with the results and chose to enjoy the existence of her pumpkin rather then dwell on her mother not following her directions. It was a good choice and showed a streak of maturity that I seldom see in her.
Jane had an elaborate mouth with simple eyes and nose. It turned out very cute. Er, I mean SCARY. :-)
The twins were properly impressed with all three of them and hopefully don't freak out when they realize they're not on the table. I put them on the front steps after work.
YaY for Pumpkins!
Monday, October 26, 2009
LALALALALALALALA onion LALALALALALALALA
Last night I tried a new recipe from my all time favorite vegetarian cookbook. It was a yummy corn chowder that I served with sorta homemade bread, you know, the loaves you can buy frozen in the freezer section and then raise, bake and serve as your own. Genius I tell you!
Anyway the chowder started with sauteing a whole diced onion. I had Kate get me the onion. Immediately the questions started because as far as Kate is concerned, anything with onions is borderline evil. She has actually gotten into a good deal of trouble because her little brother whom formerly couldn't give a sour pickle about onions has begun to repeat verbatim his sister's objections to the innocent vegetable.
So the scene plays out as follows.
Kate, please get me an onion.
Mooooom, you're not going to put onions in there???
Uh no honey, not a single onion.
Please note I'm dicing and sauteing the evil onion as this conversation is going on. As the conversation continues, I add other soup ingredients and Kate watched me add everything. Eventually soup is served.
The killer moment, Eans says "Hey, is this an onion???" very suspicious like. Kate immediately responds that NO EAN, There are NO onions in there! Ean doubtfully shows me the offending vegetable and asked what it was, I said "Vegetable" and he said "OK" and that was that.
Oh my, Kent almost spat out his soup trying not to laugh. It was a nice diversion from a dinner deemed only "edible" by my husband who is not a soup fan.
:-)
Anyway the chowder started with sauteing a whole diced onion. I had Kate get me the onion. Immediately the questions started because as far as Kate is concerned, anything with onions is borderline evil. She has actually gotten into a good deal of trouble because her little brother whom formerly couldn't give a sour pickle about onions has begun to repeat verbatim his sister's objections to the innocent vegetable.
So the scene plays out as follows.
Kate, please get me an onion.
Mooooom, you're not going to put onions in there???
Uh no honey, not a single onion.
Please note I'm dicing and sauteing the evil onion as this conversation is going on. As the conversation continues, I add other soup ingredients and Kate watched me add everything. Eventually soup is served.
The killer moment, Eans says "Hey, is this an onion???" very suspicious like. Kate immediately responds that NO EAN, There are NO onions in there! Ean doubtfully shows me the offending vegetable and asked what it was, I said "Vegetable" and he said "OK" and that was that.
Oh my, Kent almost spat out his soup trying not to laugh. It was a nice diversion from a dinner deemed only "edible" by my husband who is not a soup fan.
:-)
Sunday, October 25, 2009
The Primary Program
Once a year the Primary (children's organization at church) puts on a program in the fall. The kids sing lots of songs, there's usually a theme and everyone has a part that they say into the mike.
Really, the parts are the best part if you're going for entertainment, especially if it's one of my kids. When Kate was four, she talked for three solid minutes. Now her actual part was maybe nine words but she took it upon herself to express herself. No one actually understood her, but she made it clear she was going to finish what she was saying.
It was great!
The twins are sunbeams this year, that's the youngest class when children graduate from the nursery. Toddlers move up the first Sunday in January after their third birthday. Since the twins were born December twenty first, boom, they were in primary the next week. Throw in their language delays then you realize what a challenge the primary workers have with the boys.
For reasons completely unclear to me, the primary rehearsed before Sacrament meeting. This means children are in their seats (except for saying parts and standing up to sing) for almost three hours when it's all said and done. That's way to much, especially for the little people. About twenty minutes before sacrament meeting started, the twins decided they were done. They hugged me, we got drinks, they hugged my in laws who came to see their grandchildren in the program.
A few minutes before starting, the Primary president came to round up the twins. Greg was up there only for a minute when an older woman (who can come across as cranky) carried Greg off the stand and delivered him to me while muttering "He can come back when he learns to control himself."
Really, there are only two choices, be upset and offended or recognize the humor at an adult being annoyed with a child for being, well, a child. I chose amusement. However I did want Greg to have the experience of saying his part, so I kept my eye out for a time to take him back up. Turns out my diligence was complete unnecessary. Greg walked up all on his own. Granted it was in the middle of Sacrament but I figured I'd cause my problems trying to catch him as he dodged young men carrying trays full of little cups of water.
Someone captured him up front and he apparently stayed amused long enough to say his part. He did fantastic! Actually all of the kids did. However Greg spent the rest of the meeting going back and forth between the stand and our row. I just let him and my MIL noted that he carefully avoided the cranky lady the rest of the service. *laugh*
The biggest surprise was Ean's absolute enthusiasm for singing! Luckily he really enjoys singing, and hopefully he can be a good influence on the men in the family that only sing "sometimes" *cough* *cough*
Yes Kent will be annoyed I called him on not singing in church but hey, it's my blog. :-)
And in all fairness, it was his mother that called him on it first today.
Really, the parts are the best part if you're going for entertainment, especially if it's one of my kids. When Kate was four, she talked for three solid minutes. Now her actual part was maybe nine words but she took it upon herself to express herself. No one actually understood her, but she made it clear she was going to finish what she was saying.
It was great!
The twins are sunbeams this year, that's the youngest class when children graduate from the nursery. Toddlers move up the first Sunday in January after their third birthday. Since the twins were born December twenty first, boom, they were in primary the next week. Throw in their language delays then you realize what a challenge the primary workers have with the boys.
For reasons completely unclear to me, the primary rehearsed before Sacrament meeting. This means children are in their seats (except for saying parts and standing up to sing) for almost three hours when it's all said and done. That's way to much, especially for the little people. About twenty minutes before sacrament meeting started, the twins decided they were done. They hugged me, we got drinks, they hugged my in laws who came to see their grandchildren in the program.
A few minutes before starting, the Primary president came to round up the twins. Greg was up there only for a minute when an older woman (who can come across as cranky) carried Greg off the stand and delivered him to me while muttering "He can come back when he learns to control himself."
Really, there are only two choices, be upset and offended or recognize the humor at an adult being annoyed with a child for being, well, a child. I chose amusement. However I did want Greg to have the experience of saying his part, so I kept my eye out for a time to take him back up. Turns out my diligence was complete unnecessary. Greg walked up all on his own. Granted it was in the middle of Sacrament but I figured I'd cause my problems trying to catch him as he dodged young men carrying trays full of little cups of water.
Someone captured him up front and he apparently stayed amused long enough to say his part. He did fantastic! Actually all of the kids did. However Greg spent the rest of the meeting going back and forth between the stand and our row. I just let him and my MIL noted that he carefully avoided the cranky lady the rest of the service. *laugh*
The biggest surprise was Ean's absolute enthusiasm for singing! Luckily he really enjoys singing, and hopefully he can be a good influence on the men in the family that only sing "sometimes" *cough* *cough*
Yes Kent will be annoyed I called him on not singing in church but hey, it's my blog. :-)
And in all fairness, it was his mother that called him on it first today.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
The Power of LANGUAGE and the ensuing arguments
As with all of our children, speech has been a struggle. Well more acurately, speech with Jane, Kate and Ean has been a struggle. David and Greg have had language problems which due the abstract nature are much harder to understand and treat. Good clean articulation problems, man, I can do that! The language just not coming, or just not comprehending, I really have been at a loss on how to help them.
Really Jane had a bit of language too and it really impacted her learning. She still struggles with comprehension, especially when reading. She can read the words but not get a drop of meaning from a text. It makes school challenging to say the least.
I hope the twins don't have oncoming issues like Jane has but if they do, we'll do everything we can to help them, just like we do Jane.
My point in all this is to state that even though the twins are almost four language is really just emerging for them. Especially for Greg, projecting his wants and desires is a whole new world for him and it's exciting!!!
Along with the excitment is the confusion that results from two boys that don't have the best comprehesion and a limited ability to understand what's spoken to them. The results, even though it's frustrating for them, it's pretty funny for everyone else observing them. So their first big argument tackled with words and not pushing, shoving, biting or other forms of personal attack was on their names.
See, David knows his name is David and Greg knows his name is Greg. This actually was a concern for more as recent as four months ago. See they used their names interchangably not recognizing themselves as seperate individuals. Yeah, they got over that.
So much so they spent Thursday night declaring their seperate identies and getting mad their brother didn't understand. The dialog went pretty much as follows.
"NO, I DAVID!"
"NOoooo!!! I am Geg!"
"No No NO! I ih (is) David!"
Repeat repeat repeat for 10 minutes with escalating tone and anger and you pretty much get the whole picture.
*laugh*
I think it's pretty funny although I missed the exchange, it happened while I was work. The boys were kind enough to give me a private showing this am while waiting for the bus. This time instead of both stating facts they actually were fighting over seperate opinions! Cool, maybe they're evolving. :-) It was about the mini-van with one twin stating it was "Mommy's car" and the other saying it was "Daddy's car." As if the boys needed help, Ean tried to correct both of them. You know, cause there wasn't enough confusion that AM.
Of course the fun really begins now. As amusing as their exchanges are now, it won't take very long before they become very annoying. Throw in the their sibblings willingness to argue with three year olds, I'm wondering if I should buy more ear plugs.
The girls are both discharged from speech and have been for over a year but Ean is still in speech. So all three boys. Although the twin's language is challenging because language is a more difficult problem to deal with, Ean's speech teacher has a whole different problem even though his actual speech is very fixable.
She can't get him to stop talking long enough to correct what he says.
Life is fun. Kid do make it funner. lol
Really Jane had a bit of language too and it really impacted her learning. She still struggles with comprehension, especially when reading. She can read the words but not get a drop of meaning from a text. It makes school challenging to say the least.
I hope the twins don't have oncoming issues like Jane has but if they do, we'll do everything we can to help them, just like we do Jane.
My point in all this is to state that even though the twins are almost four language is really just emerging for them. Especially for Greg, projecting his wants and desires is a whole new world for him and it's exciting!!!
Along with the excitment is the confusion that results from two boys that don't have the best comprehesion and a limited ability to understand what's spoken to them. The results, even though it's frustrating for them, it's pretty funny for everyone else observing them. So their first big argument tackled with words and not pushing, shoving, biting or other forms of personal attack was on their names.
See, David knows his name is David and Greg knows his name is Greg. This actually was a concern for more as recent as four months ago. See they used their names interchangably not recognizing themselves as seperate individuals. Yeah, they got over that.
So much so they spent Thursday night declaring their seperate identies and getting mad their brother didn't understand. The dialog went pretty much as follows.
"NO, I DAVID!"
"NOoooo!!! I am Geg!"
"No No NO! I ih (is) David!"
Repeat repeat repeat for 10 minutes with escalating tone and anger and you pretty much get the whole picture.
*laugh*
I think it's pretty funny although I missed the exchange, it happened while I was work. The boys were kind enough to give me a private showing this am while waiting for the bus. This time instead of both stating facts they actually were fighting over seperate opinions! Cool, maybe they're evolving. :-) It was about the mini-van with one twin stating it was "Mommy's car" and the other saying it was "Daddy's car." As if the boys needed help, Ean tried to correct both of them. You know, cause there wasn't enough confusion that AM.
Of course the fun really begins now. As amusing as their exchanges are now, it won't take very long before they become very annoying. Throw in the their sibblings willingness to argue with three year olds, I'm wondering if I should buy more ear plugs.
The girls are both discharged from speech and have been for over a year but Ean is still in speech. So all three boys. Although the twin's language is challenging because language is a more difficult problem to deal with, Ean's speech teacher has a whole different problem even though his actual speech is very fixable.
She can't get him to stop talking long enough to correct what he says.
Life is fun. Kid do make it funner. lol
Friday, October 23, 2009
Really, why make vegetable stock in the middle of the night?
It's late, I'd rather be sleeping but I want to have some done. I'm trying a new recipe this weekend, a corn chowder that sounds just yummy but I need to have the stock done and there just won't be time tomorrow.
Oh I *could* have done it earlier, if I hadn't taken the work key to my friend, had to visit as she cleaned out her closet and I tried on clothes. What's a girl to do when a friend is willing and eager to share her wardrobe that longer fits??? And I can't be offended that they're to large for her and they fit me. See we've both been losing but since her trouble spots are different then mine, I get the clothes that no longer fit.
Then there was the trip to the store. I wanted some veggies and had brand new wic checks to use. Now I knew it'd be an experience since I haven't used the new ones yet and finally you can be fruits and veggies!! How awesome is that?! Each child is allotted six dollars per month and it has to be in one shot. No change is given, so choose wisely, any amount over needs to be paid for by the customer. So carefully picked out my veggies, with a huge pack of mixed peppers for $4.99 and a package of carrots for $.99 I figure I couldn't make it any easier. Put that on one check, and I had some grapes and a squash to put towards the other check.
Of course with the twins, I had two produce checks and planned on using them both tonight hence the careful choice of the first two veggies to simplify grocery shopping.
Well I knew checking out would be fun. Fred Meyer was swamped, lines extended well into the grocery aisles, a frantic manager trying to clear up traffic and keep the lines moving. It was really rather funny.
So I get moved into a newly opened line, I carefully put both checks down followed by my peppers and carrots, a W I D E space separating the peppers and carrots from the rest of the produce and then everything else. So the gal starts checking me out, I'm kinda spacing but then I look up and see she's run all my produce together into one order.
Okaaaaaay. I'm thinking, well that'S different but maybe you can deduct the produce from the whole order. I've never used the checks before and I flat out don't know. She then asks the neighboring cashier on what to press for the check, I'm thinking maybe she doesn't know after all? I think, well we will just have to see.
Yeah, she didn't know.
After she questions a smattering of coworkers the frantic manager comes over to help. I start to get annoyed. Not because it's crowded and she hasn't learned the ins and outs of the new check but because the checker kept saying "SHE'D like to know if SHE can run both checks through this order", like *I* was the one asking. I finally said to her "NO, Y O U are the one asking, I'm here shopping for groceries.
It's confirmed that each check needs to be it's own order (DANG, it'd be easier to subtract multiple checks!) and the manager gets a wide eyed, wild look as he tries to figure out how to fix my order. You have to keep in mind the wic check has already been processed so really the order was "set". I figure the rest of my groceries are going on food stamps anyway, so I asked for the unused check back so I can use it next week. The look of gratitude from the manager was downright embarrassing.
I did make a point of saying "Now you know you have to do each check in a separate order" while also pointing out that I had separated the veggies so she could do each check separately. She looked rather odd as she stated "that would have been easier". Really? Ya think? *laugh*
Well then there was the poor woman in the monster pick up that had stalled. She couldn't get the door open, had a child in a car seat in the car. I didn't have my phone, a nice man helped her, as we used the suburban to jump her. It didn't work and she went to find a phone to call her husband. Oh well I tried.
All this to say, yeah, fifteen minutes left to a yummy vegetable broth, that I'll still need to drain before actually getting a little shut eye. Hope this new recipe is worth it!
Oh I *could* have done it earlier, if I hadn't taken the work key to my friend, had to visit as she cleaned out her closet and I tried on clothes. What's a girl to do when a friend is willing and eager to share her wardrobe that longer fits??? And I can't be offended that they're to large for her and they fit me. See we've both been losing but since her trouble spots are different then mine, I get the clothes that no longer fit.
Then there was the trip to the store. I wanted some veggies and had brand new wic checks to use. Now I knew it'd be an experience since I haven't used the new ones yet and finally you can be fruits and veggies!! How awesome is that?! Each child is allotted six dollars per month and it has to be in one shot. No change is given, so choose wisely, any amount over needs to be paid for by the customer. So carefully picked out my veggies, with a huge pack of mixed peppers for $4.99 and a package of carrots for $.99 I figure I couldn't make it any easier. Put that on one check, and I had some grapes and a squash to put towards the other check.
Of course with the twins, I had two produce checks and planned on using them both tonight hence the careful choice of the first two veggies to simplify grocery shopping.
Well I knew checking out would be fun. Fred Meyer was swamped, lines extended well into the grocery aisles, a frantic manager trying to clear up traffic and keep the lines moving. It was really rather funny.
So I get moved into a newly opened line, I carefully put both checks down followed by my peppers and carrots, a W I D E space separating the peppers and carrots from the rest of the produce and then everything else. So the gal starts checking me out, I'm kinda spacing but then I look up and see she's run all my produce together into one order.
Okaaaaaay. I'm thinking, well that'S different but maybe you can deduct the produce from the whole order. I've never used the checks before and I flat out don't know. She then asks the neighboring cashier on what to press for the check, I'm thinking maybe she doesn't know after all? I think, well we will just have to see.
Yeah, she didn't know.
After she questions a smattering of coworkers the frantic manager comes over to help. I start to get annoyed. Not because it's crowded and she hasn't learned the ins and outs of the new check but because the checker kept saying "SHE'D like to know if SHE can run both checks through this order", like *I* was the one asking. I finally said to her "NO, Y O U are the one asking, I'm here shopping for groceries.
It's confirmed that each check needs to be it's own order (DANG, it'd be easier to subtract multiple checks!) and the manager gets a wide eyed, wild look as he tries to figure out how to fix my order. You have to keep in mind the wic check has already been processed so really the order was "set". I figure the rest of my groceries are going on food stamps anyway, so I asked for the unused check back so I can use it next week. The look of gratitude from the manager was downright embarrassing.
I did make a point of saying "Now you know you have to do each check in a separate order" while also pointing out that I had separated the veggies so she could do each check separately. She looked rather odd as she stated "that would have been easier". Really? Ya think? *laugh*
Well then there was the poor woman in the monster pick up that had stalled. She couldn't get the door open, had a child in a car seat in the car. I didn't have my phone, a nice man helped her, as we used the suburban to jump her. It didn't work and she went to find a phone to call her husband. Oh well I tried.
All this to say, yeah, fifteen minutes left to a yummy vegetable broth, that I'll still need to drain before actually getting a little shut eye. Hope this new recipe is worth it!
Saturday, October 17, 2009
One Saturday, down the tubes!
The day started out fine, we went to the model train display this am. Once a month the model train club lets the public in to see the trains and well, we have boys that adore trains! With Greg on my shoulders, occasionally grabbing my face to turn my head *was not appreciated, Greg!* if I was going the wrong direction we wandered for about forty minutes.
The kids loved it.
Then my big plans included cleaning the kitchen and some canning. I have grape jelly to do along with applesauce. I wouldn't have finished the applesauce today but I could have put a big dent in my apples. Kent planned on some smallish chores and some good TV watching, since he's still feeling puny from his cold.
I made myself lunch after the trains. A nice salad with mushrooms, garden tomato and some shredded cheese. The salad just screamed for a little extra something, I decided beans. A little healthy protein would be great so I went to the storage room, stared at the shelves debating whether I was in the mood for Garbanzo or for black beans.
Garbanzos stood out and I reached to get the can off the shelf. My ever alert self finally realized there was water dripping from somewhere close by. I looked closely, saw one of the cardboard boxes on the shelf was wet. Started moving stuff around and realized a whole lot of the shelf was wet. Finally I reached the back of the shelf and couldn't see what was leaking but it was in the back behind two huge shelves full of food storage.
Great.
I called Kent to break the news that his plans for the day had changed. He was thrilled of course!
After Kent came home the chore of emptying the storage shelves began. This already large task was make even more cumbersome with the dodging and footwork required to step over and around five children and one dog determined to see what all the action was about. Thankfully the dog was put out and the children put to work, it only took twenty minutes or so to empty the shelves. They'll be super fun to reorganize too! Please note the sarcasm there.
The pipe that was leaking was soldered on one end, meaning some serious work and Kent doesn't own anything to solder with. He called his dad who was coming back into town after a morning at the temple. He would have to change clothes before coming down. Kent turned off the water and all the kids suddenly realized they were dying of thirst. Really, any moment they were going to keel over. Ean and Kate were the most dramatic, what a shocker!
Kent and I talked and decided that since we were going to have to take that pipe apart anyway, we might as well buy a water softener to go there. The area was already set up, there had been a softener there previously when we purchased the house, however it was a rental unit and just don't believe in renting and couldn't afford our own softener, so we've dealt with seriously hard water pretty much the whole decade we've been in the house.
I'm so tired of crappy glasses, the hard water just coats our dishes. A chance to get away from that! WOOT!
So after a very long afternoon and evening with several trips for parts, really loud children fighting over a big box and pizza from Costco (cause we had not water to cook with!) it finally got installed. YAY!!!
The day wasn't a complete loss. I did pick a whole lot of apples, and had kids pick apples at Marja's old house. Not that I know when I'll get to make applesauce!!
Completely off topic, I'll throw in that you should always check your pre-schoolers hand before letting them get on the bus, especially if you shared mini Altoids earlier in the morning during a rough spot. Do this every single time, because the one time you don't your three year old will take the Altoids to school, clutched in his fist and when his teacher sees it, she just might have a mini heart attack thinking it's a pill, cause it does look like a pill.
Don't ask me how I know this.
The kids loved it.
Then my big plans included cleaning the kitchen and some canning. I have grape jelly to do along with applesauce. I wouldn't have finished the applesauce today but I could have put a big dent in my apples. Kent planned on some smallish chores and some good TV watching, since he's still feeling puny from his cold.
I made myself lunch after the trains. A nice salad with mushrooms, garden tomato and some shredded cheese. The salad just screamed for a little extra something, I decided beans. A little healthy protein would be great so I went to the storage room, stared at the shelves debating whether I was in the mood for Garbanzo or for black beans.
Garbanzos stood out and I reached to get the can off the shelf. My ever alert self finally realized there was water dripping from somewhere close by. I looked closely, saw one of the cardboard boxes on the shelf was wet. Started moving stuff around and realized a whole lot of the shelf was wet. Finally I reached the back of the shelf and couldn't see what was leaking but it was in the back behind two huge shelves full of food storage.
Great.
I called Kent to break the news that his plans for the day had changed. He was thrilled of course!
After Kent came home the chore of emptying the storage shelves began. This already large task was make even more cumbersome with the dodging and footwork required to step over and around five children and one dog determined to see what all the action was about. Thankfully the dog was put out and the children put to work, it only took twenty minutes or so to empty the shelves. They'll be super fun to reorganize too! Please note the sarcasm there.
The pipe that was leaking was soldered on one end, meaning some serious work and Kent doesn't own anything to solder with. He called his dad who was coming back into town after a morning at the temple. He would have to change clothes before coming down. Kent turned off the water and all the kids suddenly realized they were dying of thirst. Really, any moment they were going to keel over. Ean and Kate were the most dramatic, what a shocker!
Kent and I talked and decided that since we were going to have to take that pipe apart anyway, we might as well buy a water softener to go there. The area was already set up, there had been a softener there previously when we purchased the house, however it was a rental unit and just don't believe in renting and couldn't afford our own softener, so we've dealt with seriously hard water pretty much the whole decade we've been in the house.
I'm so tired of crappy glasses, the hard water just coats our dishes. A chance to get away from that! WOOT!
So after a very long afternoon and evening with several trips for parts, really loud children fighting over a big box and pizza from Costco (cause we had not water to cook with!) it finally got installed. YAY!!!
The day wasn't a complete loss. I did pick a whole lot of apples, and had kids pick apples at Marja's old house. Not that I know when I'll get to make applesauce!!
Completely off topic, I'll throw in that you should always check your pre-schoolers hand before letting them get on the bus, especially if you shared mini Altoids earlier in the morning during a rough spot. Do this every single time, because the one time you don't your three year old will take the Altoids to school, clutched in his fist and when his teacher sees it, she just might have a mini heart attack thinking it's a pill, cause it does look like a pill.
Don't ask me how I know this.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Yeah I know
I keep switching stuff around on the page. Notice I made nice easy to read fonts, this change was made assuming everyone reads blogs when I do, in the middle of night. This was also done assuming everyone else also has hideously poor eye sight.
But when I feel like I have no control over my life, I have to have control over *exaggerated motion with my hands* something. Changing the font and the background is also fun.
Since Kent is sick and has gone to bed, leaving me to entertain myself, I think I'll share a post I wrote on my diaper board (cloth dipes, more natural living, lovely group of individuals).
Prayer is always included in major decisions. At the same time I believe that God gave us brains to think and expects us to use our heads, so even while praying, options need to be considered, we need to educate ourselves on our choices, we need to know the pros and cons before deciding.
I had some really rough social times as well. Middle school is brutal. Just brutal.
I have a certain amount of resolve that I want to teach my children to handle the bad stuff, because bad stuff happens in real life, cushioning kids, trying to alleviate disappointment, pain, sorrow and such does a great disservice to our children. They need to know how to cope and I hope I'm teaching them those coping skills.
At the same time, there's a point where the negatives just beat a kid down and while I want growing up to be realistic, I want to intervene long before any one of beautiful children loses their sense of self worth.
Jane could easily be beaten down. Easily. I see that clearly. That's why we're doing everything we can for her (and have for a number of years, like the six years of taekwondo) to help her grow into her potential. I see that potential and it's beautiful. She's immensely kind. She's fiercely loyal. She loves people. She shows concern for others even those she barely knows. She has an interest in art, a love for music, enjoys creating, enjoys making others smile.
In that awful age of "tween", her peers don't see these wonderful qualities. They only see the awkward girl that doesn't fit in. That laughs a little to loud, finds odd things funny, doesn't always follow the conversation.
*sigh*
I had a very strong impression when pregnant that this child would have challenges and honestly I wouldn't have ever put my finger that they'd be this non-descript and yet so painfully real.
Please note it starts off in the middle of a sentence, out of context because I've only included the information pertinent to my family. It was a discussion on switching schools for Jane, a suggestion given to us by her grandmother. It's not something I believe would be in Jane's best interest but the suggestion did evoke a lot of thought on my part on how to continue to help her.
Jane is currently reconnecting with a friend she's having over in the form of a sleepover. A sweet and gentle girl being raised in awful circumstances. We would never allow Jane to spend the night over there, so I was thrilled that she called to ask if she could come here.
In other Hill news, Ean spent the morning with my mother. Apparently he now knows the contents of her every closet. I cannot seem to get it drilled into his head that's it's not appropriate to snoop!! At least it was my mom, who has a sense of humor about his curious nature. Ean has also discovered the amazing technology known as a GPS. He drove around town with my mom using it, had to go to Kent's store to show his daddy. Pretty funny!
Ean's IEP had him getting special services into Kindergarten. They've realized really quickly that he is not resource room material. After a terrible morning yesterday of never finding his shoes (I'm almost prophetic in Wednesday night's posting) I went to his school with a new pair of shoes after a quick run to Walmart. He was being tested and the teacher said to me "He's really smart." Why yes, yes he is.
She looks at me "No REALLY, he's VERY smart." Apparently Ean was telling her that N O spells NO while O N spells ON. Keep in mind the child is only into his second month of Kindergarten. Oh my, the challenges with this one are so very different then the challenges I had with his sisters!
I don't know what the twins will do, it's to early to tell, we still have to many struggles with language. David I suspect will be more like Ean, just taking off in school. Greg has some more struggles. His comprehension is very poor right now and he still gets so frustrated when he thinks you don't understand him because you're telling him no on something. It's still very early in the year for Greg, there's plenty of time for him to do amazing things!
Kate, what can I say on Kate. Really who wants to know the world almost ended because she didn't get to play with a friend today? Seriously, I have got to figure out how to get the girl to talk in a regular voice without. the. whine. She's terrible about whining!!!! I've never allowed it, we've always stopped her and made her talk normal but she still does it! FRUSTRATING!!!
She's matured in so many other ways. However, this one issue, we're really going to have to ride her about it. I may go crazy otherwise!
So that's us, new format, new background, new font a little updating as well.
But when I feel like I have no control over my life, I have to have control over *exaggerated motion with my hands* something. Changing the font and the background is also fun.
Since Kent is sick and has gone to bed, leaving me to entertain myself, I think I'll share a post I wrote on my diaper board (cloth dipes, more natural living, lovely group of individuals).
Prayer is always included in major decisions. At the same time I believe that God gave us brains to think and expects us to use our heads, so even while praying, options need to be considered, we need to educate ourselves on our choices, we need to know the pros and cons before deciding.
I had some really rough social times as well. Middle school is brutal. Just brutal.
I have a certain amount of resolve that I want to teach my children to handle the bad stuff, because bad stuff happens in real life, cushioning kids, trying to alleviate disappointment, pain, sorrow and such does a great disservice to our children. They need to know how to cope and I hope I'm teaching them those coping skills.
At the same time, there's a point where the negatives just beat a kid down and while I want growing up to be realistic, I want to intervene long before any one of beautiful children loses their sense of self worth.
Jane could easily be beaten down. Easily. I see that clearly. That's why we're doing everything we can for her (and have for a number of years, like the six years of taekwondo) to help her grow into her potential. I see that potential and it's beautiful. She's immensely kind. She's fiercely loyal. She loves people. She shows concern for others even those she barely knows. She has an interest in art, a love for music, enjoys creating, enjoys making others smile.
In that awful age of "tween", her peers don't see these wonderful qualities. They only see the awkward girl that doesn't fit in. That laughs a little to loud, finds odd things funny, doesn't always follow the conversation.
*sigh*
I had a very strong impression when pregnant that this child would have challenges and honestly I wouldn't have ever put my finger that they'd be this non-descript and yet so painfully real.
Please note it starts off in the middle of a sentence, out of context because I've only included the information pertinent to my family. It was a discussion on switching schools for Jane, a suggestion given to us by her grandmother. It's not something I believe would be in Jane's best interest but the suggestion did evoke a lot of thought on my part on how to continue to help her.
Jane is currently reconnecting with a friend she's having over in the form of a sleepover. A sweet and gentle girl being raised in awful circumstances. We would never allow Jane to spend the night over there, so I was thrilled that she called to ask if she could come here.
In other Hill news, Ean spent the morning with my mother. Apparently he now knows the contents of her every closet. I cannot seem to get it drilled into his head that's it's not appropriate to snoop!! At least it was my mom, who has a sense of humor about his curious nature. Ean has also discovered the amazing technology known as a GPS. He drove around town with my mom using it, had to go to Kent's store to show his daddy. Pretty funny!
Ean's IEP had him getting special services into Kindergarten. They've realized really quickly that he is not resource room material. After a terrible morning yesterday of never finding his shoes (I'm almost prophetic in Wednesday night's posting) I went to his school with a new pair of shoes after a quick run to Walmart. He was being tested and the teacher said to me "He's really smart." Why yes, yes he is.
She looks at me "No REALLY, he's VERY smart." Apparently Ean was telling her that N O spells NO while O N spells ON. Keep in mind the child is only into his second month of Kindergarten. Oh my, the challenges with this one are so very different then the challenges I had with his sisters!
I don't know what the twins will do, it's to early to tell, we still have to many struggles with language. David I suspect will be more like Ean, just taking off in school. Greg has some more struggles. His comprehension is very poor right now and he still gets so frustrated when he thinks you don't understand him because you're telling him no on something. It's still very early in the year for Greg, there's plenty of time for him to do amazing things!
Kate, what can I say on Kate. Really who wants to know the world almost ended because she didn't get to play with a friend today? Seriously, I have got to figure out how to get the girl to talk in a regular voice without. the. whine. She's terrible about whining!!!! I've never allowed it, we've always stopped her and made her talk normal but she still does it! FRUSTRATING!!!
She's matured in so many other ways. However, this one issue, we're really going to have to ride her about it. I may go crazy otherwise!
So that's us, new format, new background, new font a little updating as well.
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