Like, No Like, Lah Dat

The kids (and I) have two weeks off from school (and childcare).

I like it because:

1. I can sleep in until 8:00am instead of waking up at 6:15am.
2. No one needs to scurry around gathering their school stuff before heading out the door.
3. RO, JO, and SO generate much less laundry. When they aren't in school I don't follow standard societal protocol which suggests new outfits must be worn daily. (CO generates plenty of laundry on her own though because she is in the midst of potty training. And she strips down every time she needs to tinkle.)
4. The kids have loads of time to learn new responsibilities. I have this program I follow that breaks down into age groups all the practical things a child needs to learn before they hit 18. They have one-on-one training sessions with me before the task lands on their growing arsenal of mastered jobs that I can then make them do whenever the mood strikes.
5. The kids got some new games for Christmas that we've been playing and playing. Perfection and Hungry Hungry Hippos are my favorites, Yahtzee is stressful, and Wheel of Fortune is nifty, but loud. See #3 below.

I don't like it because:

1. CO won't take naps. And she still needs a daily nap. Now instead of noticing that she's "sweepie," sucking her thumb, and falling asleep, she routinely screams and throws a fit at 11:00am.
2. Toys are everywhere. If it wasn't for RO and JO's love for turning on their beloved Roomba (which belongs to the kids, we'reevilgeniuses!) nobody would ever pick anything up.
3. It's loud downstairs. There's a lot of playing and running around. They do go outside to play, but I don't make anyone go outside. It's cold out there.
4. RO is always telling me he's hungry.
5. I'm feeling lots of guilt because my grant deadline is only two weeks away. I'm writing a 35K federal grant for the high school (cuz I'm nice lah dat) which will help fund a farm to school program. It'll be cool because K-12 will learn about agri-science, 9-12 will maintain a garden in the now-empty space between the high school and the middle school, and eventually, hopefully they'll all eat lots of home-grown food in their school lunches. They also have plans to both sell produce to community members (in lieu of door-to-door fundraisers) and donate excess produce to charity. Cool program, long grant-writing process. I keep telling myself it's not nearly as bad as the successful 50K grant that my friend, Eva, and I wrote in '99. Maybe it's not as bad because now I know what I'm doing. . . I hope! ;)

Babies!

I'm blogging less these days because of these guys:

I'm providing childcare for Ben's co-worker's twins. It's a sweet gig. Along with the four month-old twins, I've been enjoying the adorable new babies in our ward. And this morning I got to see a photo shoot slideshow of my brand new niece (Steve's) who is a tiny miracle. I never did a professional photo shoot of my newborns, no, Sears does NOT count ;), but this makes me wish I had: http://amylynnsmith.com/photocart/slide_show.php?viewGallery=1035 (this link also takes you to my sister in-law's cool photography website). Yay for babies!

Talk About It

When I was student teaching sixth graders, my cooperating teacher told me to be very careful not to say negative things about a student during parent-teacher conferences because she had an experience where a child came to school with bruises the day after parent-teacher conferences. She felt sorrowful knowing that her words prompted someone to harm a child.

"But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea" ~St. Matthew 18:6

Growing up, remember listening to my peers talk to each other about getting "lickings" from their parents. I know parenting is hard. I know children can be exasperating. I think we all spent some time being exasperating as a children. Physically and/or verbally harming children is wrong. Have you been witness to child abuse? Have you said something that caused a parent to angrily react toward their child and even hurt him or her? As a mom and as a Christian, I feel like staying silent when I know a child is being hurt is wrong. I do empathize with my cooperating teacher's experience. But what can I do or say that may help someone's child in this situation?

Knapsack on My Back

I am reading a story about a child who ran away from home. She packed her pillowcase full of clothes and food then took off down the street.

Growing up, I never ran away. I never thought about trying to run away. My husband did. I have heard his story and his mother's version as well. (Too cute!) I have never had a child of mine run away or even tell me he/she wanted to run away. What makes a child want to run away? What makes that child turn that inkling into action--make the decision to pack up, then set out to officially run away? What is my role as a mom when my child runs away from home?

Where Have You Been All My Life?

I exchanged babysitting with a friend so we could each grocery shop alone. I dropped off my girls and on my way out the door, she told me about this amazing kitchen gadget she'd seen at her friend's house. She then excitedly described a gadget that cores and cuts apples into slices--in one quick, easy step. When she asked if I'd ever heard of such a thing, I had to laugh because I am indeed familiar with this amazing gadget. I told her I'd used an apple slicer for all the apples I'd sliced growing up and all the apples I slice for my kiddos. I couldn't believe she'd lived without one, and she couldn't believe I had one! What a highbrow life I've lived. It's interesting how you can go without something for so long and not know how desperately you need it. The past few weeks of having four bedrooms and two bathrooms is kind of like that. How did our family live for so long with just two bedrooms and one bathroom? Thank you to many friends and family for bringing us to where we are today--living the good life!

Oh, and at the grocery store, I couldn't help myself--I bought my friend an apple slicer. Did you know it cores and slices in one quick, easy step?!?

Once Upon a Time

Happy Halloween!

Another Home Improvement Post

I haven't taken many picture of the basement yet because the trim work isn't up so it's not 100% "finished" but here's the boys' room. This is the carpet we put in the whole basement. That and paint really make a huge difference.

If you're annoyed by my basement-finishing blog posts, be of good cheer. Today's post isn't just about the basement. It's about the upstairs bedrooms, too! We're switching rooms upstairs and getting new carpet in the upstairs bedrooms so I painted over the wall art in the kids' old room. I was sad to see it go, so I took some pictures. They say a picture is worth 1,000 words. This next one speaks volumes about why projects take so long to to finish around here. Isn't potty training joyful?

(When she's a teenager, won't my baby will be glad I don't have her actual name connected with my blog?)

This isn't the girls' room, just a picture of a bed I love. I found plans for making it online. It's our next project, after the upstairs bedroom painting/carpeting. SO is eager for the real bed and keeps asking if it's "coming soon." She can't wait.

Oh, and Halloween is about to crush us like bugs. Bring it on!