Housework and Homeschooling

Because last week was sleepover week, I have designated this week as cleaning week. My sons make no secret about their dislike of assigned jobs that start with "Clean up the. . ." and end with ". . . kitchen."  or ". . . living room." or ". . . guinea pig cage."  But today I discovered something truly wonderful.  My boys can organize stuff.  I'm pretty sure they didn't learn it from me. This morning RO organized the spices, kitchen utensils, and cake decorating items that were living temporarily on the window sill while JO organized ALL the board games downstairs.  And they enjoyed themselves immensely.  I have so many nooks and crannies that need the attention of a happy organizer or two.  I am writing a very different job list for the rest of the week. The closets, the books, the office supplies, the garage toys. . . this is going to be such fun! 

In other news, I applied for a full-time teaching position as a homeschooling teacher for our school district.  I will be monitoring homeschoolers from my home computer. The job would start in September and the posting closes tomorrow.  I am hoping for an interview and keeping my fingers crossed!

Not Another Downtown Freeway Fix

During the summer months, my husband hangs out on freeways, off-ramps, and busy city streets. He oversees construction and repairs of state roads. It's gritty and ugly work sometimes. His jobsites are often filled with smells of exhaust and hot asphalt. That's all about to change. He still has the same job for now, but he will be in quite a different environment. Some engineers have all the luck! Ben went north an hour and a half today to see his late August/early September jobsite. Aside from the fact that he'll be on a bridge and way too far removed from solid ground for my liking, I'm a little envious!

The kids and I will be visiting Daddy and his breathtaking jobsite OFTEN during this bridge repair! Can you blame us?

Summer 2011 Yellowstone Family Reunion

YELLOWSTONE SMITH FAMILY REUNION 2011
(RO took this picture, nice rainbow!)

The kids didn't mind the long drive. It might have had something to do with the new portable DVD player.  They are SO accomodating.

We had family photos, this is SO with my mom! 
Aren't they cute?

 

When three of the cousins are toddlers/babies, the "How about a quick shot of Grandma and Papa with the grandkids" idea ends up looking something like this:

 
(my four are on the left, Mom is holding Dave's, Dad's got Jamie's and Steve's, and Andrew's four are behind and on the right of Mom and Dad)


 

What JO was thinking about during family pictures
(He paid $75 for it at a yard sale):

Jamie's cute little man!

 

You'll have to tilt your head to the left for this
picture of Dave's baby, but it's worth it!

 

Silliness with cousins. 
Andrew's son is on the left, and my RO is on the right.

Tilt it again, sam! CO sporting her new glasses, swinging and smiling on this hose-swing:

Uncle Andrew wondered why SO was planking. Luckily, she's not "cool enough" to know what planking is. I think she was just tired of taking family pictures!

Wearing a green t-shirt under your nice shirt makes for a hot photo shoot, but it's worth it to JO, who was wearing "comfortable clothes" within seconds of the last picture.

Dang it, tilt one more time, okay?

Auntie Kiki was in her community's musical: "Cinderella" and the girls loved it.

 

CO even got to dance with Prince Charming after the show. After the final scene, CO whispered to me; "I'm nervous to dance with the prince, I only know how to pirouette." (if you read the last sentence and replace all the "r" sounds with "ow" sounds, that's how she said it.  And when a four year-old says a big word like "piwowowette" it is exactly as cute as you think it is.)
She's lucky to be alive, I want to just eat her up she's so delicious!

This is what Steve, Jamie, and I (and Dave for 45 minutes) spent our days doing at my parents' new home:

 

Uncle Buckethead strikes a pose.  Steve is quite an amazing guy.  He has worked so hard on my parents' house this summer.  And I love to hang out with him (I also love the wood detail over the entrance, don't you?):

 

Leftover wood flooring makes for some great puzzle pieces!

Bumper boat "after" picture. Because all flooring and no play, makes the kids wonder why it's called a "vacation."  Actually I didn't make them hang out at the construction site, my mom did a wonderful job entertaining my kids and feeding them ice cream and/or Shave Ice daily.  They went to the museum, the movie "Rio," and played and played and played!

RO takes after his uncle and namesake. He rocked the rock wall!

I hope your summer vacation is going well. Excuse me while I dream about going on a vacation to recover from my vacation.  As I type, my kids are entertaining the neighbors in the back yard.  JO is playing "Pink Panther" outside on the keyboard, CO is squealing, and I'm almost afraid to account for the rest of them, but I know digging for treasure is involved. 

It's good to be home.

Guest Post from the Birthday Boy

RO brought home his 5th grade journal at the end of the school year.  His teacher gave the students writing prompts every day and they wrote at least 13 lines a day.  Some of the prompts were "I wish I had a million dollars. . ." and "I get nervous at school when. . . "

I had to smile when I read what he wrote for the prompt: "If children were in charge of the world. . ." because I would have written something entirely different.

"If children were in charge of the world I would help in the kids' army.  I would help do world domination and I would fight to be president and I would fight to be in charge of my own continent and I would buy all the stuff I wanted and I would have my own farm and I would help anybody that needs help and I would have a big ranch so that I can have a lot of animals and stuff."

What I would have written is something like the need for 3 square candy meals a day, rollercoasters in every back yard, recess all day, and parents who do all the work.  Never though of the need to lead a kids' army intent on world domination.  Should I be worried about RO?  Happy 11th, my sweet, ambitious, army man. Perhaps you'll be riding a moose at your ranch?

Want to see a picture of the school-aged kids from May on "Crazy Hair Day?"  I thought so.

(Yes, that's sliver goo on her eyebrows.  And do you like the color of our new cabinetry in the kitchen?  It's Natural Hickory.)

Now for a picture of a rocky "sandy" world to practice ruling:

The X Factor

Thirteen years ago my husband and I were working and living in Brazil.  We stayed a short 181 days, but I learned a lot.  A blog I read titled Uganda makes me want to leave the United States again.  Every U.S. citizen should live in another country for a while.  Yeah, I said it.  Being an expatriate puts life in perspective.  I am glad I don't know what it's like to live in a country where violence is something "you'll get used to."  I am also glad the Uganda blogger is such a good writer!  I found myself reading and agreeing and loving his insights.  I also found myself wondering if eloquence is something you can learn. 

Well, I don't know if we'd be allowed to take my four children as far as Uganda or Brazil (or the Philippines--RO is half Filipino, after all).  But if it's for a few short months, maybe our parents will forgive us.  Maybe?  It would be quite a shock to my system to have expats for kids.   I would love to see how being expats would change their views of the world, of consumerism, and other ideas.  If the boys' desire to play computer games and be entertained were to vanish, I'd start packing right now.

And if I could avoid all future encounters with the boy scout program?  BONUS. No, it's not about the Pinewood Derby this time.  My oldest child is on his first scout campout tonight.

and

We aren't there. 

and 

It's no fair.

and

I miss him.

A cell phone pic of my boy who better come back alive and intact, ya hear me, scout leaders?

Breaking the Law is Fun to Do

Is it really breaking the law if you are volunteering?  I hope not, because I broke the law like 200 times.

As if renovating the kitchen, loads of job hunting, packing for a vacation, teaching Father's Day songs, juggling a household with opposite schedules (Ben's back to working nights again) and being a mother just isn't enough, Friday mornings I volunteer with the school district.  I teach a 4th grade math group, then a 5th grade writing group.  Then I drive over to the Community Connections Center (CCC) to help there for an hour.  So one day, a CCC teacher hands me the Teacher's Edition of a pre-algebra book and asked me to make a booklet of teachers' answers for the practice pages.  I don't know if you've seen TEs, but they'll often have microscopic answers for the worksheets in the margins.  This was the case with this book. 

I enlarged the margins and xeroxed my way through each section of each chapter of the whole entire book.  The teacher who handed me the book and led me to my xerox machine accomplice did justify the whole thing by saying "A solutions manual is available for purchase, but there's no money in the budget to order it."

Ohhh!

Well! 

In that case. . .

Bring on the criminal activity!

I believe I'm more excited this is the last week of school than my kids are.  Any suggestions for legal summer activities are greatly appreciated.

Staying At Home

I'm typing this in my bedroom while my fourth child, a lovely almost four year-old girl, is marching on the bed making up lyrics to a song she's shouting singing.  "If you wanna have it you want to have it stay. If you lost it you are really sad." Apparently  she lost. . . hold on, I'll ask her. . . she lost her stick.  Okay.  A song-worthy ballad.  And there she goes.  She's heading to the bathroom to show she's mastered the task of potty training.  But she'll be back to ask me about the faces in 100+ photos she distributed in a two foot radius around me. 

This is actually the quiet part of my day because three individuals who love humanity more than money are in the middle of the noisy part of their days.  They are educating my two ten year-olds and my seven year-old at our beloved public elementary school. 

I volunteer at my kids' public school twice a week.  I've taught math and writing to groups of six.  I've helped with after school activities.  I've tutored a fourth grader.  I've created spreadsheets for posters and administered geography quizzes.  It's fun and rewarding to pop in and teach.  But I'm ready to teach again full time.

I used to be a teacher.  I have an elementary education degree.  I worked as an elementary school librarian and reading teacher for two years.  I didn't make the kind of money folks in other professions make.  But I loved my job.  I loved the book fairs, I loved teaching vocabulary in my reading groups, I loved recess duty, I loved May Day, I loved finding books for the kids who thump, thumped up the stairs into my aqua blue library.  And I loved the acronyms, the curriculum realignment committees, and teacher's meetings. Wait.  I need to stop laughing.  I could have existed just fine without acronyms, curriculum rewrites and those ~humid~ Wednesday meetings in Tulani's room! 

In June 2000, a month before my oldest son was born, I "put in my 40 hours" for the last time.  Before the 2000-2001 school year was over, I had two new employers:

How I love them!  And I love the two additional employers who joined our company in 2004 and 2007.  There's no arguing my job description is more stressful than my old full-time career.  I do more cleaning and scolding than I ever did teaching.  Elementary school children also don't require diaper changes, thank goodness.  And I'm not as well-rested, come to think of it.  

I put in more than double my 40 hours a week, but I have loyal employers. This summer marks my 11th year with their company.  The perks are fabulous.  I listen to their jokes, join in their adventures, and end each night with their hugs and kisses.  I was even showered with gifts, jewelry, and hand-written commendations just last week Sunday!

An acquaintance suggested my being home for the past 11 years makes me an undesirable employee and teacher.  And while my most financially rewarding gigs in the last 11 years have been as babysitter and secret shopper (remind me to write a secret shopping post!), I think being a mother has prepared me to be an ideal employee and teacher.  Parenthood stretches the mind and challenges the intellect.  Parenthood changes who you are.  If you're reading this blog post, Dr. Chun, my "Teaching P.E." professor, listen to this:  I took what little athletic prowess you saw in me and voluntarily coached my child's soccer team--and they won two games (a "soccer coach" post is in the works!).  Parenthood exposes us to previously unattainable levels of selflessness.  Who doesn't want an employee like that? 

Now, would you like my employer's letter of recommendation in crayon or playdoh?

A dragon-wearing babysitting charge with my lovely fourth child.