I was making dinner yesterday when I looked over and both little boys had climbed up on the dryer. The dryer door was open and the boys were opening the washer. After much grunting and leaning, David climbed in and started fishing out clothes and handing them to Greg. Greg cheerfully leaned WAY over the edge and chucked the clothes in the dryer.
It was both hysterically funny and extremely helpful as well. Would that I could get all my children to go to that much effort on chores not even assigned to them!!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
No no, it WAS the Leprechaun...
Today is St. Patricks day. Well at least, what's left of today. We made sure the kids had green to wear to school. And for most of the kids, it was a normal day but David's head start teacher had big plans.
BIG PLANS.
I went to volunteer and spent the day with Dave. After Breakfast and the usual routine of shapes, colors, dates and weather, Miss Dawn talked about Leprechauns. She told the children that another teacher had mentioned seeing a Leprechaun in the cafeteria.
Now before you roll your eyes to much, let me assure you Miss Dawn is VERY convincing. *laugh*
She had the children use their special leprechaun lens, which oddly resembled decorated tp rolls, to help follow the leprechauns path.
Earlier while the children were on the carpet for circle time, Miss JoAnn, the teaching assistant had gone outside and sprinkled a path of gold sparkles for the children to follow. It was a beautiful day and Miss Dawn had all 15 of her lemmings at her heals excitedly following the gold path.
Well, Tiffany and I went to work. We tipped chairs, dumped some toys, made little green footprints on the table, dumped some green dye in the toilet and hid the gold. We barely got done when the children came back. I was laying on the floor and told them I "almost" got the leprechaun but he was to fast!! Off the children went to survey the mess and the green toilet was a hit. *chuckle*
The gold was found and I believe the children were completely snookered. Everyone except my child that is.
As the children played at Stations, David sat next to me and he said very serious "Mom, You made a B I G M E S S in my room. " *blink* He repeated himself three more times, just in case I was under any mistaken belief that he had fallen for game.
He then told Miss Dawn "My mom, she made a BIG BIG BIG MESS in my CassROOM." That's classroom if you don't follow Dave speak. :) Miss Dawn assured him it was the Leprechaun and David promptly corrected her, "No, dat was my mom!"
The funniest was when it was time to go home and I heard David telling Greg how naughty mommy was making a mess in his cassroom. He told Greg about the green "pee" in the toilet, how he fixed (he had flushed the dye out) the toilet, about the books and chairs all over the floor and how some toys were dumped.
My mom suggested that maybe David's surety was because of the emphasis of not making a mess in our home. I personally believe it has more to do with out attitudes about the make believe. We "play" make believe, play Santa, play the tooth fairy but we openly talk about how it's fun to pretend.
Whatever the reason, Dave is no fool.
BIG PLANS.
I went to volunteer and spent the day with Dave. After Breakfast and the usual routine of shapes, colors, dates and weather, Miss Dawn talked about Leprechauns. She told the children that another teacher had mentioned seeing a Leprechaun in the cafeteria.
Now before you roll your eyes to much, let me assure you Miss Dawn is VERY convincing. *laugh*
She had the children use their special leprechaun lens, which oddly resembled decorated tp rolls, to help follow the leprechauns path.
Earlier while the children were on the carpet for circle time, Miss JoAnn, the teaching assistant had gone outside and sprinkled a path of gold sparkles for the children to follow. It was a beautiful day and Miss Dawn had all 15 of her lemmings at her heals excitedly following the gold path.
Well, Tiffany and I went to work. We tipped chairs, dumped some toys, made little green footprints on the table, dumped some green dye in the toilet and hid the gold. We barely got done when the children came back. I was laying on the floor and told them I "almost" got the leprechaun but he was to fast!! Off the children went to survey the mess and the green toilet was a hit. *chuckle*
The gold was found and I believe the children were completely snookered. Everyone except my child that is.
As the children played at Stations, David sat next to me and he said very serious "Mom, You made a B I G M E S S in my room. " *blink* He repeated himself three more times, just in case I was under any mistaken belief that he had fallen for game.
He then told Miss Dawn "My mom, she made a BIG BIG BIG MESS in my CassROOM." That's classroom if you don't follow Dave speak. :) Miss Dawn assured him it was the Leprechaun and David promptly corrected her, "No, dat was my mom!"
The funniest was when it was time to go home and I heard David telling Greg how naughty mommy was making a mess in his cassroom. He told Greg about the green "pee" in the toilet, how he fixed (he had flushed the dye out) the toilet, about the books and chairs all over the floor and how some toys were dumped.
My mom suggested that maybe David's surety was because of the emphasis of not making a mess in our home. I personally believe it has more to do with out attitudes about the make believe. We "play" make believe, play Santa, play the tooth fairy but we openly talk about how it's fun to pretend.
Whatever the reason, Dave is no fool.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
For my children
I'm not sure why exactly I'm writing this down, but today I had an overwhelming feeling that I needed to write about my children and the inspiration and spiritual guidance we've had in getting them here.
I realize that I may repeat information that I've already shared but for some reason, I need to put it all in one place. And who am I to ignore inspiration?
To start off, when Kent and I first dated and the question of family size came up, we were both on the same page agreeing that expressing a number didn't feel quite right. Especially when we don't know what God has in store for us, individually and as a couple. Of course some would argue (my dad comes to mind) that having children is everything biological and has nothing to do with God.
While I agree with biology, you have sex, there's a chance of babies, I will not deny the divinity of procreation and God's role in creating families.
While I had the desire to be a mother, even more prevalent at the beginning of my marriage was an underlying fear of having children. You have to understand the incredible genetic link to autism and birth defects affecting two of my brothers, uncles, cousins and my nephew. There's always a risk of something going wrong, it's just in my family, it's a little more obvious to the untrained eye.
I really didn't talk about fears but God knew and about a year before Jane was conceived I was blessed with a special experience.
I was laying in bed, Kent was asleep. It was dark, our bedroom window was open and there was light shining into our room from a streetlight. It wasn't directly in front of the window, so it was dim. It provided lots of shadows in our room.
I looked around our room and realized there was a figure standing at the foot of our bed. I couldn't see details, it was more like looking at someone's shadow but I could tell it was a young woman with long hair. Before I could really think, thoughts filled my head and my chest felt on fire with what I recognize as the Holy Ghost witnessing to me that my thoughts came from God and that they were true.
I knew this was our child. I knew her name was Jane. It was not made clear to me when she was to be born but we needed to prepare for her arrival. This time of our life and marriage we were rather selfish with our personal time and didn't devote what we should to God, including regular church meetings. I had a very strong impression that we needed, I needed to get our act together spiritually so this child could receive the blessings that God wanted her to receive.
I had the impression that she would have challenges in this life, and God in his infinite love and wisdom comforted me with the knowledge that we would be able to handle whatever her challenges would be. I had tears in my eyes as my doubts vanished. I knew we'd be alright. I knew we could raise and teach that beautiful child as the Lord wanted us too.
Then she was gone but the love and comfort I felt in her presence stayed with me for a very long time.
We were blessed in knowing it was her that first to term pregnancy. We've been guided to help her with her challenges and I hope as she grows she realizes the divine help she receives because it's there, daily.
After her birth, almost immediately after I felt a child, another baby that was meant to be in our family. It was within hours of my birth and the knowledge that we were going to have another had already been impressed upon me. I sorta freaked out Kent when I told him, and Pat as well. lol. I reassured them that I had no desire to have babies 10 months apart but I wasn't going to deny that we were going to have at least one one.
Kate was so different then Jane. Jane I knew her name, her gender, I felt her personality, I had been given a forewarning of some of her trials. Kate was like flying blind. I knew only that were meant to have another, I didn't even know that she was a girl. But knowing that at some time we'd be blessed again was enough.
When I was pregnant and found out she was a girl, I felt this peace in that it was all as the Lord intended. It was a sweet feeling.
As with Jane's birth, within a few hours after Kate was born I felt another child that was meant to be born into our family. As it was previously, I had no idea when we were to have that child but I tried to trust in the Lords timing. I really struggled waiting for Ean to come. A miscarriage, my dad's death, a depression I had to fight my way through made trusting in the Lord extremely difficult. I knew there was another baby for us and yet it took so long to get him here. At least it seemed long.
He finally came, all in the Lords time May of 2004. A strange thing happened at his birth, I didn't feel anyone else. I felt, nothing. I had known our family wasn't complete within hours of my first two births, I entertained the possibility that we could be done having babies. This lasted for months, this odd ambiguous stage of not feeling done, not feeling like we were meant to have another either.
In the car that changed. I was driving through town and this thought and feeling slammed into me that I was to get pregnant again. I realized today that my feeling that day was specifically about getting pregnant where I'd always felt before that we were having another baby.
The twins were meant to be. Their gestation and birth provided a chance to lean on the Lord in a manner that I had never done before. After the shock of learning that either baby only had a 50% chance of making it after a high risk procedure that would have to be repeated who knows how many times during my pregnancy, I felt the Lords comfort. I don't know if I can describe my experience but slowly I realized that even if we lost one or both babies, we would not be alone and that the Lord would help us through our trials.
Slowly I felt more and more sure that we were meant to raise our boys. Don't get me wrong, I had plenty and I mean PLENTY of break downs, it was such a stressful time but the Lord never left me and when I was ready for his comfort he was always there. Kent gave me lots of blessings at through my pregnancy and I was told repeatedly that I was not alone. Finally about two days before their birth we were told in a blessing that they would make it and we would raise them. We were told that they would be healed from whatever problems their in utero afflictions would cause, and I had an impression that their healing would take time after their birth, it would not be instantaneous.
The night of the twentieth, Kent said prayer pleading with the Lord to let him know if the twins were in trouble and if we needed to go to the hospital. I woke up that night with a HUGE contraction, I watched the clock and counted and had four contraction in less then an hour. That meant we should go to the hospital. I woke up Kent, he confessed later that he almost suggested to me that I should lay back down and we see what happens when he had a thought "You asked to know when to go."
He didn't waste anytime getting me there and the boys were in grave danger showing no movement and with static heart rates. They were delivered via emergency c-section.
We knew the twins completed our family.
Looking back it amazes me how the Lord was there for every step, every child to help prepare us for their arrival, to comfort us as needed, to inspire us to make medical decisions that could have been fatal otherwise. I am so grateful for my relationship with God, I feel his love often and without his guidance I would have been lost at the very least. At the very most, my life would be incomplete without the children that bless me daily with the most amazing unconditional love.
I realize that I may repeat information that I've already shared but for some reason, I need to put it all in one place. And who am I to ignore inspiration?
To start off, when Kent and I first dated and the question of family size came up, we were both on the same page agreeing that expressing a number didn't feel quite right. Especially when we don't know what God has in store for us, individually and as a couple. Of course some would argue (my dad comes to mind) that having children is everything biological and has nothing to do with God.
While I agree with biology, you have sex, there's a chance of babies, I will not deny the divinity of procreation and God's role in creating families.
While I had the desire to be a mother, even more prevalent at the beginning of my marriage was an underlying fear of having children. You have to understand the incredible genetic link to autism and birth defects affecting two of my brothers, uncles, cousins and my nephew. There's always a risk of something going wrong, it's just in my family, it's a little more obvious to the untrained eye.
I really didn't talk about fears but God knew and about a year before Jane was conceived I was blessed with a special experience.
I was laying in bed, Kent was asleep. It was dark, our bedroom window was open and there was light shining into our room from a streetlight. It wasn't directly in front of the window, so it was dim. It provided lots of shadows in our room.
I looked around our room and realized there was a figure standing at the foot of our bed. I couldn't see details, it was more like looking at someone's shadow but I could tell it was a young woman with long hair. Before I could really think, thoughts filled my head and my chest felt on fire with what I recognize as the Holy Ghost witnessing to me that my thoughts came from God and that they were true.
I knew this was our child. I knew her name was Jane. It was not made clear to me when she was to be born but we needed to prepare for her arrival. This time of our life and marriage we were rather selfish with our personal time and didn't devote what we should to God, including regular church meetings. I had a very strong impression that we needed, I needed to get our act together spiritually so this child could receive the blessings that God wanted her to receive.
I had the impression that she would have challenges in this life, and God in his infinite love and wisdom comforted me with the knowledge that we would be able to handle whatever her challenges would be. I had tears in my eyes as my doubts vanished. I knew we'd be alright. I knew we could raise and teach that beautiful child as the Lord wanted us too.
Then she was gone but the love and comfort I felt in her presence stayed with me for a very long time.
We were blessed in knowing it was her that first to term pregnancy. We've been guided to help her with her challenges and I hope as she grows she realizes the divine help she receives because it's there, daily.
After her birth, almost immediately after I felt a child, another baby that was meant to be in our family. It was within hours of my birth and the knowledge that we were going to have another had already been impressed upon me. I sorta freaked out Kent when I told him, and Pat as well. lol. I reassured them that I had no desire to have babies 10 months apart but I wasn't going to deny that we were going to have at least one one.
Kate was so different then Jane. Jane I knew her name, her gender, I felt her personality, I had been given a forewarning of some of her trials. Kate was like flying blind. I knew only that were meant to have another, I didn't even know that she was a girl. But knowing that at some time we'd be blessed again was enough.
When I was pregnant and found out she was a girl, I felt this peace in that it was all as the Lord intended. It was a sweet feeling.
As with Jane's birth, within a few hours after Kate was born I felt another child that was meant to be born into our family. As it was previously, I had no idea when we were to have that child but I tried to trust in the Lords timing. I really struggled waiting for Ean to come. A miscarriage, my dad's death, a depression I had to fight my way through made trusting in the Lord extremely difficult. I knew there was another baby for us and yet it took so long to get him here. At least it seemed long.
He finally came, all in the Lords time May of 2004. A strange thing happened at his birth, I didn't feel anyone else. I felt, nothing. I had known our family wasn't complete within hours of my first two births, I entertained the possibility that we could be done having babies. This lasted for months, this odd ambiguous stage of not feeling done, not feeling like we were meant to have another either.
In the car that changed. I was driving through town and this thought and feeling slammed into me that I was to get pregnant again. I realized today that my feeling that day was specifically about getting pregnant where I'd always felt before that we were having another baby.
The twins were meant to be. Their gestation and birth provided a chance to lean on the Lord in a manner that I had never done before. After the shock of learning that either baby only had a 50% chance of making it after a high risk procedure that would have to be repeated who knows how many times during my pregnancy, I felt the Lords comfort. I don't know if I can describe my experience but slowly I realized that even if we lost one or both babies, we would not be alone and that the Lord would help us through our trials.
Slowly I felt more and more sure that we were meant to raise our boys. Don't get me wrong, I had plenty and I mean PLENTY of break downs, it was such a stressful time but the Lord never left me and when I was ready for his comfort he was always there. Kent gave me lots of blessings at through my pregnancy and I was told repeatedly that I was not alone. Finally about two days before their birth we were told in a blessing that they would make it and we would raise them. We were told that they would be healed from whatever problems their in utero afflictions would cause, and I had an impression that their healing would take time after their birth, it would not be instantaneous.
The night of the twentieth, Kent said prayer pleading with the Lord to let him know if the twins were in trouble and if we needed to go to the hospital. I woke up that night with a HUGE contraction, I watched the clock and counted and had four contraction in less then an hour. That meant we should go to the hospital. I woke up Kent, he confessed later that he almost suggested to me that I should lay back down and we see what happens when he had a thought "You asked to know when to go."
He didn't waste anytime getting me there and the boys were in grave danger showing no movement and with static heart rates. They were delivered via emergency c-section.
We knew the twins completed our family.
Looking back it amazes me how the Lord was there for every step, every child to help prepare us for their arrival, to comfort us as needed, to inspire us to make medical decisions that could have been fatal otherwise. I am so grateful for my relationship with God, I feel his love often and without his guidance I would have been lost at the very least. At the very most, my life would be incomplete without the children that bless me daily with the most amazing unconditional love.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
My First Baby is Twelve
Her grandmother bought her some lovely new clothes and a really cute hair cut and the reality that the child is just one year shy of being a teenager sunk in today.
Really, I never gave her permission to grow up.
She's turning into such a lovely young woman. Whether I want her to or not. I think she's destined to be a rather short woman, poor thing has inherited the dreaded short jeans from the Rush's. I blame my dad. :)
Her lovely thick hair that has a mind of it's own, I'll take credit for that. Well really it comes from my mom. It's so Farrens. Farrens women have hair and Janie has it. It's gorgeous. At least when she brushes it, it's gorgeous.
Jane still struggles with Kate's Christmas gift. She begged me for an American girl doll for her birthday. It's hard because I know she *thinks* she wants it. I know in her mind, it's all she wants but she's never been a doll girl and she's right at the age where she won't be interested very, very shortly. So for her birthday I compromised. I hope she's happy and enjoys her gift. I bought her the Felicity movie (also has the Samantha movie), a Felicity cookbook and a really nice hard cover Felicity book. So no doll, but lots of American girl stuff in forms that she appreciates.
I had picked up the Addy books but I think I'll save those for Christmas for Kate.
I'll have to cut this short, I need sleep desperately but I had to put in a little nod to my Jane. She is a joy to raise and I feel incredibly blessed to be her mother.
Really, I never gave her permission to grow up.
She's turning into such a lovely young woman. Whether I want her to or not. I think she's destined to be a rather short woman, poor thing has inherited the dreaded short jeans from the Rush's. I blame my dad. :)
Her lovely thick hair that has a mind of it's own, I'll take credit for that. Well really it comes from my mom. It's so Farrens. Farrens women have hair and Janie has it. It's gorgeous. At least when she brushes it, it's gorgeous.
Jane still struggles with Kate's Christmas gift. She begged me for an American girl doll for her birthday. It's hard because I know she *thinks* she wants it. I know in her mind, it's all she wants but she's never been a doll girl and she's right at the age where she won't be interested very, very shortly. So for her birthday I compromised. I hope she's happy and enjoys her gift. I bought her the Felicity movie (also has the Samantha movie), a Felicity cookbook and a really nice hard cover Felicity book. So no doll, but lots of American girl stuff in forms that she appreciates.
I had picked up the Addy books but I think I'll save those for Christmas for Kate.
I'll have to cut this short, I need sleep desperately but I had to put in a little nod to my Jane. She is a joy to raise and I feel incredibly blessed to be her mother.
WHOOO HOOOOO, It's finally happened!
What's the big event? What has changed my life FOREVER? Well, folks after 12 years (a week shy of 12 years to be precise) I no longer have any children in diapers, pull-ups or daily accidents in underwear.
I am *so* within my rights to be excited.
The greener side of me just goes ill to think of the nasty disposables my family alone has piled into landfills. The size of our ecological footprint must be huge. In case you didn't know it's "cool" to use terms like "ecological footprint". Take note if you want to impress, or annoy your friends.
I did have a few years of cloth diapers and I loved using them but the nausea of the twins pregnancy made Ean's toddler poop impossible to deal with. I did use cloth on the twins mostly their first year and off and on after that when I had the time and energy but in the end, it was all sposies baby! If the choice is the type of diaper or mom's sanity, well I chose sanity.
Of course the twins are still in pull-ups for night time and Ean wears "GoodNights" so we're not completely done dumping into the landfills.
Now I can share potty stories!
OK, so I was putting on make-up for church. I did not lock the door, girlies were coming in to brush hair, show me THEIR make-up (I have final veto power on whether or not they get out the door) so locking the door is impractical. Although I'll admit, it would be nice to make myself pretty without a river of bodies in and out of the bathroom.
Anyway! David, oh my David, he came rushing announce "I GO POOP MOM!" pushing me out of his way. Well okay son, you go right ahead and do that. He's doing his business while performing some sort of preschooler aerobics by bobbing his nekkid tushie into the loo. I don't believe he made contact with the water, it's an ecological loo that uses very little water. The show was none the less impressive.
Greg without ceremony comes rushing in, "I go mom, I go NOW" and whips his pants down and proceeds to pee BEHIND DAVE'S BEHIND. Oh to have such a little tush to leave a space at the back of the toilet. David was most indignant with Greg's presumption!
Who wouldn't be?
It's also a challenge for anyone else to use the potty. After all, we have the one toilet upstairs and seven people in the house. There's another toilet in the basement, but I don't let the boys use it. It doesn't need anymore help getting destroyed. :)
So with the enthusiasm exhibited by anyone that's learned a new skill, the boys go, often. Usually pushing themselves in front of the line. No matter what time it is in the afternoon, someone is yelling to me "I POOPIN MOMMY"
I appreciate the regular updates.
I joke but this is still a milestone. My babies are growing up. We are done with babies, done with toddlers and by the fall of 2011 the boys will go to kindergarten.
*sniff*
I am *so* within my rights to be excited.
The greener side of me just goes ill to think of the nasty disposables my family alone has piled into landfills. The size of our ecological footprint must be huge. In case you didn't know it's "cool" to use terms like "ecological footprint". Take note if you want to impress, or annoy your friends.
I did have a few years of cloth diapers and I loved using them but the nausea of the twins pregnancy made Ean's toddler poop impossible to deal with. I did use cloth on the twins mostly their first year and off and on after that when I had the time and energy but in the end, it was all sposies baby! If the choice is the type of diaper or mom's sanity, well I chose sanity.
Of course the twins are still in pull-ups for night time and Ean wears "GoodNights" so we're not completely done dumping into the landfills.
Now I can share potty stories!
OK, so I was putting on make-up for church. I did not lock the door, girlies were coming in to brush hair, show me THEIR make-up (I have final veto power on whether or not they get out the door) so locking the door is impractical. Although I'll admit, it would be nice to make myself pretty without a river of bodies in and out of the bathroom.
Anyway! David, oh my David, he came rushing announce "I GO POOP MOM!" pushing me out of his way. Well okay son, you go right ahead and do that. He's doing his business while performing some sort of preschooler aerobics by bobbing his nekkid tushie into the loo. I don't believe he made contact with the water, it's an ecological loo that uses very little water. The show was none the less impressive.
Greg without ceremony comes rushing in, "I go mom, I go NOW" and whips his pants down and proceeds to pee BEHIND DAVE'S BEHIND. Oh to have such a little tush to leave a space at the back of the toilet. David was most indignant with Greg's presumption!
Who wouldn't be?
It's also a challenge for anyone else to use the potty. After all, we have the one toilet upstairs and seven people in the house. There's another toilet in the basement, but I don't let the boys use it. It doesn't need anymore help getting destroyed. :)
So with the enthusiasm exhibited by anyone that's learned a new skill, the boys go, often. Usually pushing themselves in front of the line. No matter what time it is in the afternoon, someone is yelling to me "I POOPIN MOMMY"
I appreciate the regular updates.
I joke but this is still a milestone. My babies are growing up. We are done with babies, done with toddlers and by the fall of 2011 the boys will go to kindergarten.
*sniff*
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Homeschool Update
I was reading a booklet on teaching creative writing to students and decided to employ some of the techniques given. Heaven knows I'm not making great progress on my own. So I chose to focus on memoirs. First we needed to talk about broader definitions. Jane's fairly familiar with fiction and nonfiction (and in sixth grade, she should be!) but the idea of an autobiography was new to her. Once we established the definition for autobiography, we could talk about memoirs.
The booklet I'm reading helped with providing some very descriptive comparisons for memoirs. I explained to Jane that instead of listing or describing a series of events which is more autobiographical, I needed her to capture one memory, just one and paint a picture of that one memory. I let her know that she needed to provide as many details as she could, using descriptive words called (yes, I quizzed her while we talked and she got "adjectives" correct, lol) so the reader could feel like they were there.
I had a revelation while we were talking. Jane doesn't see details. She misses the finer points of conversations, extra objects in a room, even the nuances of color on an object she might talk about are missed. For instance, she sees an apple on the table. She might even notice if it's green or red but that's it. Shape, bruising, if it was laying on it's side, she'd miss all those points. She wouldn't notice shade, if it was dark or light. If asked she only repeats the most basic facts "red" or "green"
AHa. I feel like a door has been opened. No wonder writing is such a struggle for her. On top of spelling and grammar, which are concrete issues, she doesn't know how to observe so she CAN relate information.
Something to work on. Something concrete to work on.
So we talked about a specific memory and she wrote about it. It was terrible. She didn't proofread it, just printed it on her blog. We're working on rewriting her piece. I have the advantage of having the same memory so we've been able to discuss details and what she can add to her draft to make the picture more complete. We'll probably spend the whole month on this, adding, changing to each draft. I'm not letting her delete previous drafts either. Since this piece is on her blog (which is closed to everyone except Kent and grandparents) I make a point to copy her previous entry and then let her make changes on a new post. This will allow her to see her growth as she works through the multiple rewrites. I want her to be able to compare her first draft to the finished product when we're done.
I can also, in every day life talk to her about little details as we see and experience them.
It won't happen over night but just maybe this is the door I need to expand her expressive abilities. To do so wouldn't just help with writing and schoolwork but it would help her with everyday conversations.
That's another point, she misses the nuances of conversation but we've been working on that as well.
Our biggest change has been finally signing up for an online interactive program called "Time4learning". I've heard very good things from multiple friends and decided it was worth a try. I don't think I've done terrible as Jane's teacher so far but of course, have had this nagging feeling I could do better.
She loves it. She woke up this morning and begged to get on the computer to do some schoolwork. I think in tandem with some important concepts we're already working on, like the memoir piece will provide her with the well rounded education she needs.
My goal has always been to give her a strong base, and I think we're finally on our way.
The booklet I'm reading helped with providing some very descriptive comparisons for memoirs. I explained to Jane that instead of listing or describing a series of events which is more autobiographical, I needed her to capture one memory, just one and paint a picture of that one memory. I let her know that she needed to provide as many details as she could, using descriptive words called (yes, I quizzed her while we talked and she got "adjectives" correct, lol) so the reader could feel like they were there.
I had a revelation while we were talking. Jane doesn't see details. She misses the finer points of conversations, extra objects in a room, even the nuances of color on an object she might talk about are missed. For instance, she sees an apple on the table. She might even notice if it's green or red but that's it. Shape, bruising, if it was laying on it's side, she'd miss all those points. She wouldn't notice shade, if it was dark or light. If asked she only repeats the most basic facts "red" or "green"
AHa. I feel like a door has been opened. No wonder writing is such a struggle for her. On top of spelling and grammar, which are concrete issues, she doesn't know how to observe so she CAN relate information.
Something to work on. Something concrete to work on.
So we talked about a specific memory and she wrote about it. It was terrible. She didn't proofread it, just printed it on her blog. We're working on rewriting her piece. I have the advantage of having the same memory so we've been able to discuss details and what she can add to her draft to make the picture more complete. We'll probably spend the whole month on this, adding, changing to each draft. I'm not letting her delete previous drafts either. Since this piece is on her blog (which is closed to everyone except Kent and grandparents) I make a point to copy her previous entry and then let her make changes on a new post. This will allow her to see her growth as she works through the multiple rewrites. I want her to be able to compare her first draft to the finished product when we're done.
I can also, in every day life talk to her about little details as we see and experience them.
It won't happen over night but just maybe this is the door I need to expand her expressive abilities. To do so wouldn't just help with writing and schoolwork but it would help her with everyday conversations.
That's another point, she misses the nuances of conversation but we've been working on that as well.
Our biggest change has been finally signing up for an online interactive program called "Time4learning". I've heard very good things from multiple friends and decided it was worth a try. I don't think I've done terrible as Jane's teacher so far but of course, have had this nagging feeling I could do better.
She loves it. She woke up this morning and begged to get on the computer to do some schoolwork. I think in tandem with some important concepts we're already working on, like the memoir piece will provide her with the well rounded education she needs.
My goal has always been to give her a strong base, and I think we're finally on our way.
What? One of MY children STUBBORN?
I hear stories about children. How well they listen, and "oh my what a rough day, they didn't make their bed before school". I wonder what it's like to worry about such trivial things. Yes I said trivial. I mean, *I* don't always make my bed. :)
However we do have all other types of rebellion around here. I don't know why the Lord sent such strong personalities to our home, maybe Kent's patience, maybe so I can learn patience, but they're here. The latest string of stubborn is probably my least favorite to deal with as a mother.
Tantrums I can handle.
However refusal to poop in the toilet, drives me insane and we're on kid number four, yes FOUR OUT OF FIVE that have refused to have bowel movements in the toilet. I won't name names. Oh hell, yes I will. Jane, Kate, Ean and now GREG all refused after their third birthday to poop in the toilet. With Greg he's four and still refuses to poop. He knows. He stays dry and clean all day at school and waits until he gets home and THEN he poops.
That leaves me David. The one I worried about because his system has always been wonky is the one that has embraced what the potty is truly about.
That doesn't mean he doesn't have accidents but dang, he's TRYING. Greg is not.
I know, I know, I'm not suppose to compare the boys. Comparing children lessons their ability to believe in themselves. Each child is an individual, etc. But I'm pretty sure that even if Greg was a singleton, I'd still be frustrated to the max with him filling his underwear after staying dry and clean all day at school.
Stubborn is still around with all the other kids too. Kate yells unfair. Ean melts at the mention of chores but dang, that stuff just doesn't make ya want to hurl like the poop does.
*sigh*
We're not going back now. We're using pull-ups for bedtime ONLY. David has embraced the potty and Greg will have to catch up on this one. Hopefully he does before Dave earns all the "I went poop on the potty reward" matchbox cars on top of the medicine cabinet.
However we do have all other types of rebellion around here. I don't know why the Lord sent such strong personalities to our home, maybe Kent's patience, maybe so I can learn patience, but they're here. The latest string of stubborn is probably my least favorite to deal with as a mother.
Tantrums I can handle.
However refusal to poop in the toilet, drives me insane and we're on kid number four, yes FOUR OUT OF FIVE that have refused to have bowel movements in the toilet. I won't name names. Oh hell, yes I will. Jane, Kate, Ean and now GREG all refused after their third birthday to poop in the toilet. With Greg he's four and still refuses to poop. He knows. He stays dry and clean all day at school and waits until he gets home and THEN he poops.
That leaves me David. The one I worried about because his system has always been wonky is the one that has embraced what the potty is truly about.
That doesn't mean he doesn't have accidents but dang, he's TRYING. Greg is not.
I know, I know, I'm not suppose to compare the boys. Comparing children lessons their ability to believe in themselves. Each child is an individual, etc. But I'm pretty sure that even if Greg was a singleton, I'd still be frustrated to the max with him filling his underwear after staying dry and clean all day at school.
Stubborn is still around with all the other kids too. Kate yells unfair. Ean melts at the mention of chores but dang, that stuff just doesn't make ya want to hurl like the poop does.
*sigh*
We're not going back now. We're using pull-ups for bedtime ONLY. David has embraced the potty and Greg will have to catch up on this one. Hopefully he does before Dave earns all the "I went poop on the potty reward" matchbox cars on top of the medicine cabinet.
Kent's Trailer
Kent finally bought himself a camp trailer. He found two online that fit his basic specifications of being cheap and not being junk. Well having enough room to sleep everyone helps as well. Both trailers were cheap enough Kent thought they'd be sold pretty quick. There was no scary descriptions about "past fires" and both had pictures.
One was a little older but had lots of sleeping space. There's enough bunks to sleep the entire family. The newer one, Kent wondered if he could modify it to sleep more, the description stated that it officially slept six. Anyone familiar with campers knows that the number is misleading, some pretty small places are often designated for multiple bodies. So only close family should ever go camping together in the same trailer. :)
The downside, Both trailers were about ninety minutes away, but in opposite directions. Kent wisely decided he should look at the one that had sleep space for the entire family. He bought it for $1,500 and considering we sold the tent trailer for $1,300 he did really well on price.
I did make the mistake of referring to the camper as "this disaster" when he pulled up, but only because it was super late and I still had to go to work.
So we'll be camping this summer. We'll see how this goes. It's a little hard to coordinate every one's schedule but hopefully my work partner will be willing to do a few long weekends making longer trips possible.
So keeping my lack of enthusiasm to myself, because camping just isn't my thing, I'll work on focusing on cheap family time. And hey, the kids will love it, that is what matters isn't it?
One was a little older but had lots of sleeping space. There's enough bunks to sleep the entire family. The newer one, Kent wondered if he could modify it to sleep more, the description stated that it officially slept six. Anyone familiar with campers knows that the number is misleading, some pretty small places are often designated for multiple bodies. So only close family should ever go camping together in the same trailer. :)
The downside, Both trailers were about ninety minutes away, but in opposite directions. Kent wisely decided he should look at the one that had sleep space for the entire family. He bought it for $1,500 and considering we sold the tent trailer for $1,300 he did really well on price.
I did make the mistake of referring to the camper as "this disaster" when he pulled up, but only because it was super late and I still had to go to work.
So we'll be camping this summer. We'll see how this goes. It's a little hard to coordinate every one's schedule but hopefully my work partner will be willing to do a few long weekends making longer trips possible.
So keeping my lack of enthusiasm to myself, because camping just isn't my thing, I'll work on focusing on cheap family time. And hey, the kids will love it, that is what matters isn't it?
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Kate, the Pod Person
Frankly I don't know what's happened to the real Kate, but I'm liking this new model and am thinking we should keep her instead of finding the original.
The original was far to whiny, and extremely picky on food. Well, the pod person Kate is still pretty whiny but something amazing has happened with food. I noticed a difference Friday as I was whipping dinner together.
I had found a recipe in my new vegetarian cookbook I KNEW would be a hit with Kent. It had all the right ingredients, eggs, salsa, potatoes, really it was a no brainer. It was a frittata, a baked omelet, something I had never made before but tried for the first time when my friend Kim was visiting at the beginning of the month. That week I tried an asparagus, green onion frittata made with smidgens of cream cheese dotted throughout the dish. It was divine, and the children ate it, well they ate the eggs and the left the green veggies. *eye roll*
I was amazed I hadn't found this easy dish before. Sooo easy and very yummy!
After the initial trial, I decided to try another version. The Mexican version started with cubed fried potatoes (red, with skins on) browned in a skillet. Then beatened eggs with salsa and cheese mixed in are poured on top of the eggs. The skillet stays on the burner for about three minutes until edges are set and then the whole mess is put in the oven and baked until the center is set.
The eggs turn out so light and fluffy. Good stuff!! Wait, I was talking about Kate. Anyway, Miss Kate, queen of "YUCKY" and "BLECH" and "I HATE ONIONS, HATE HATE HATE THEM!" walked by as I was stirring the eggs with obvious signs of salsa floating on top remarked how yummy that looked.
Okaaaayyyyy.
I was very suspicious, Kate has declared food to looked yummy before, until the time of consumption where suddenly every food phobia since toddler hood would make dinner unpleasant and loud for the entire family. I wasn't holding my breath for her declaration of "yummyness" to continue once the plate was set before her.
However, beyond "surprised" and even "amazed" comes "shocked" which pretty much summed up my feelings when Kate ate dinner with gusto and not only came back for seconds but thirds as well!
Really, was this my child? Surely it must have been a fluke!
Maybe not. Tonight we had a vegetarian enchilada with black beans doctored with a touch of cumin, fresh cilantro and onions, brown rice and cheese of course which the child ate with little complaint. She didn't wolf it down like the frittata but compared to the meltdowns we've endured for years over food dinner was positively heart warming.
At least it would have been if the twins hadn't staged meltdowns in stereo while we were eating.
Ah well. Maybe the pod people will take the twins too? If they do, the new ones need to have mastered the potty, mommy has done enough laundry the last week. One can only hope.
The original was far to whiny, and extremely picky on food. Well, the pod person Kate is still pretty whiny but something amazing has happened with food. I noticed a difference Friday as I was whipping dinner together.
I had found a recipe in my new vegetarian cookbook I KNEW would be a hit with Kent. It had all the right ingredients, eggs, salsa, potatoes, really it was a no brainer. It was a frittata, a baked omelet, something I had never made before but tried for the first time when my friend Kim was visiting at the beginning of the month. That week I tried an asparagus, green onion frittata made with smidgens of cream cheese dotted throughout the dish. It was divine, and the children ate it, well they ate the eggs and the left the green veggies. *eye roll*
I was amazed I hadn't found this easy dish before. Sooo easy and very yummy!
After the initial trial, I decided to try another version. The Mexican version started with cubed fried potatoes (red, with skins on) browned in a skillet. Then beatened eggs with salsa and cheese mixed in are poured on top of the eggs. The skillet stays on the burner for about three minutes until edges are set and then the whole mess is put in the oven and baked until the center is set.
The eggs turn out so light and fluffy. Good stuff!! Wait, I was talking about Kate. Anyway, Miss Kate, queen of "YUCKY" and "BLECH" and "I HATE ONIONS, HATE HATE HATE THEM!" walked by as I was stirring the eggs with obvious signs of salsa floating on top remarked how yummy that looked.
Okaaaayyyyy.
I was very suspicious, Kate has declared food to looked yummy before, until the time of consumption where suddenly every food phobia since toddler hood would make dinner unpleasant and loud for the entire family. I wasn't holding my breath for her declaration of "yummyness" to continue once the plate was set before her.
However, beyond "surprised" and even "amazed" comes "shocked" which pretty much summed up my feelings when Kate ate dinner with gusto and not only came back for seconds but thirds as well!
Really, was this my child? Surely it must have been a fluke!
Maybe not. Tonight we had a vegetarian enchilada with black beans doctored with a touch of cumin, fresh cilantro and onions, brown rice and cheese of course which the child ate with little complaint. She didn't wolf it down like the frittata but compared to the meltdowns we've endured for years over food dinner was positively heart warming.
At least it would have been if the twins hadn't staged meltdowns in stereo while we were eating.
Ah well. Maybe the pod people will take the twins too? If they do, the new ones need to have mastered the potty, mommy has done enough laundry the last week. One can only hope.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
I am dreading next week.
There's nothing really wrong with next week but it will be super busy and I dread busy. I hate running from appointment to appointment. I hate having to work nights. I hate when those nights just drag on and on, leading to me dragging through the days in a sleep deprived haze.
*sigh*
We're back in the saddle with homeschooling Jane, and I had given myself permission to not sweat the small details before Christmas but now I'm feeling like it's time to find our focus and center on schooling. Jane's expressed some frustration, implying that she should have stayed at Hawthorne (our local middle school) suffering completely from "the grass is always greener" complex.
I reminded her of the insane amount of work she was plowing through and how she had no life beyond homework.
She doesn't remember.
I can't stress about Jane's insecurities, that would take far to much of my time. I need to keep focusing on her needs, helping her on those life skills that will focus her and help her function in day to day life.
She said to me today when I had asked her if she'd remembered something "MOM, You know how bad my memory is!" This from my eleven year old! I let her know that her memory isn't the problem, it's her ability to focus, and focusing is a skill that can be LEARNED. Right before Christmas break my mom noted that Jane's focus had improved in everyday life. I think Christmas break set her back a bit, so hopefully we can get back on track.
Jane's picked up some library books, and she's writing in her blog now. I'm excited about her blog, Jane doesn't search for opportunities to write and the entries she's done has really opened some good discussion on editing her work.
So even though Jane doesn't see her progress, I do. I really hope she realizes what we're accomplishing so she agrees to staying home next year too.
Speaking of progress, Kate let me know yesterday that she "Almost got a 100% on her spelling! Only six wrong (out of fourteen) mom!!!" I'm not quite sure what to say but since the child had a test with only three CORRECT right before break, we'll go with it and hopefully keep improving those skills.
Kate has a recital this coming week, so a long night there, Kent has a meeting another night, I don't know just lots of stuff.
I'm thinking details on the twins potty training deserves it's own blog.
*sigh*
We're back in the saddle with homeschooling Jane, and I had given myself permission to not sweat the small details before Christmas but now I'm feeling like it's time to find our focus and center on schooling. Jane's expressed some frustration, implying that she should have stayed at Hawthorne (our local middle school) suffering completely from "the grass is always greener" complex.
I reminded her of the insane amount of work she was plowing through and how she had no life beyond homework.
She doesn't remember.
I can't stress about Jane's insecurities, that would take far to much of my time. I need to keep focusing on her needs, helping her on those life skills that will focus her and help her function in day to day life.
She said to me today when I had asked her if she'd remembered something "MOM, You know how bad my memory is!" This from my eleven year old! I let her know that her memory isn't the problem, it's her ability to focus, and focusing is a skill that can be LEARNED. Right before Christmas break my mom noted that Jane's focus had improved in everyday life. I think Christmas break set her back a bit, so hopefully we can get back on track.
Jane's picked up some library books, and she's writing in her blog now. I'm excited about her blog, Jane doesn't search for opportunities to write and the entries she's done has really opened some good discussion on editing her work.
So even though Jane doesn't see her progress, I do. I really hope she realizes what we're accomplishing so she agrees to staying home next year too.
Speaking of progress, Kate let me know yesterday that she "Almost got a 100% on her spelling! Only six wrong (out of fourteen) mom!!!" I'm not quite sure what to say but since the child had a test with only three CORRECT right before break, we'll go with it and hopefully keep improving those skills.
Kate has a recital this coming week, so a long night there, Kent has a meeting another night, I don't know just lots of stuff.
I'm thinking details on the twins potty training deserves it's own blog.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Christmas 2009
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
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
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.
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