My Teachable Moment

Over the weekend we decided to sit the kids down and increase chore duties around the house. We heard a complaint or two about how LONG everything takes to do. So I decided to share a story about how I used to absolutely dread unloading the dishwasher because I thought it took too long. One morning I put a cup of water in the microwave to heat up and set the timer for 2 minutes. I started unloading the dishwasher, thinking to myself that I could at least start unloading the dishwasher until my water was heated. Well, turns out I unloaded the entire dishwasher before the timer on the microwave went off. So, I say to the kids, "my point is that sometimes we dread something but really it doesn't take long at all."

My sweet little Lady Bug looks me straight in the eye and says "Wow! That had to be embarrassing for you!"

Journaling

The other night we caught Lady Bug awake at 11:00 PM! She was just sitting on her bed writing in her journal (how sweet is that at 7 years old??!!) We asked her to put it away and go to sleep. Never thinking much of it because she loves to write and is always looking for opportunities to write a story or journal something!

Last night we had parent teacher conferences and the teachers were talking about her awesome writing skills and I told them that story of her staying up late. When we got home from the conference she brought me her journal and said "read this mom, this is what I wrote that night I stayed up late."

The image won't attach correctly so I will just write in here what she wrote (her typos included just as she jotted them in her journal):

I am the one who will praise God every day! I am the one that will do 

what my teachers and parents say the first time! I am the one who will read the Bible 

everi day. I am the one who will not spell and say bad words! 

I am the one who will preech about God! I will be 

like Martin Luther King when I grow up!

I was so touched and moved by this! I brought her journal with me so that I could copy that page and save it in her "box" (you know the BOX of cute stuff to save for the kiddos!) and I am so moved every time I read this!

Happy Valentine's Day

Since Mr. Man and I have our wedding anniversary 2 weeks before Valentine's Day we generally don't do any gifts for each other - BUT this year he surprised me. I woke up this morning and stumbled to the kitchen and saw 2 red glittery bags with pink tissue paper coming out the top. My watery eyes dried up and I rushed to the bags and one had my name and the other had Lady Bug's! When she got up we each opened our gifts. He gave me a book and a movie and the sweetest card ever! He made my day.

He didn't "make my day" because of the gift per say, but more because I have had a stressful last 5 days and have been fighting this bronchitis for over a month and am STILL not better. The gift will help but the fact that he showed how much he cares for me by taking time out of his hectic schedule to get something for me and write me a special card meant a lot to me! It meant he realizes how stressed I have been and how he cares about how that is affecting me.

I got each of the kids a small box of candy and a card. I also made heart-shaped cinnamon rolls for breakfast (which only looked like hearts until I smothered them in frosting, then they just looked like any other cinnamon roll.

On a side note, I did return to the doctor today only to be told I Still have bronchitis and that it may take more time. They gave me another antibiotic to fight off anything that may still be living in there, gave me a Lung Function Test and asked me to come back in 2 more weeks for a follow up. Yippee for me. I just want to stop coughing and stop having my head hurt. grrr.

A room fit for a princess

Lady Bug's room had wallpaper on one wall when we moved into this house 4 years ago. A very dated wallpaper too. She recently started asking her dad if he could take it down and paint her room. SO for her birthday we decided to do a very "on-a-tight-budget" room remodel. The wallpaper was on so well that we decided to just paint over it. We did three large stripes on the wall, two outer ones in a darker purpler and then center one a lighter shade. Then we did three large diamond shapes in the center in coordinating purples.

Then we bought a beaded chandelier at Ikea and a bed net at Ikea for a total of $40. We also bought 2 wall flower lights and a wall bug light. Although the bug light didn't necessarily go with the rest of the room Lady Bug was insisting we put it up.

For about $140 we remodeled  slightly and she is so excited. We can't even get her out of there now!

Here is the room BEFORE:

Here is the AFTER pictures:

Happy Birthday to a sweet girl!

My darling little Lady Bug turns 7 today! She is growing up so fast. She is the sparkle of my eye and brings me so much joy and happiness!

She makes me laugh with her silliness. She has such a sweet heart and a kind spirit. For example, just the other day she had some candy in her hand and Mr. Man jokingly went to take it from her saying he was going to eat it all and she calmly replied "Well, ummm, I was going to give it to my brothers." and she looked a little sad. She is constantly thinking of others. Another time, she got a snack from class and asked the teacher if she could get 2 more so she could share with her brothers. How sweet is that?!

I constantly find notes on my bed from her where she is telling me how much she  loves me. I just can't get enough of that sweet little girl.

Don't get me wrong, she has an ugly side too, but thankfully the sweet side is visible more often than not!

We woke her up this morning by singing "Happy Birthday To You!" and then she requested cinnamon rolls for breakfast so all 5 of us sat down together and had cinnamon rolls (which is unusual for all 5 of us to be at the table at the same time on a school/work morning!) Mr. Man has a tradition of "BirthdayNapping" his kids on their birthday and he takes the day off from work and pulls them out of school and spends the whole day just the 2 of them. Each kid really looks forward to these days with their dad. Today Mr. Man and Lady Bug will pick me up from work at noon to have lunch, then Lady Bug will go see her cousin who cuts hair for a hair cut she so desperately needs, then tonight we will be eating her requested dinner which is, of all things, Shepherds Pie.

Has anyone ever heard of a "Golden Birthday"? Lady Bug just informed me that today is her Golden Birthday. I Googled it and the Golden Birthday corresponds with the date and your age. SO for instance, my birthday is on the 17th day of the month so my Golden Birthday was when I turned 17. Today is the 7th and Lady Bug is turning 7 so this is her Golden Birthday! Great, and I didn't plan big enough for this golden one! Maybe we can add some flair to the dinner party?? eekk. The pressure is on!

It's been awhile - let's see if I can figure this out!

I haven't posted here in a LOOOOOOONNNNNGGGGG time. Mostly for lack of anything worth posting about, but I'm here to try it out again! I am being encouraged by several friends and family to start this blog back  up. We'll see how this turns out. If I hear you all snoring I know I am boring and need to stop posting here! ;-)

I won't try to do a "catch-you-up" blog post since it has been 5 months since I posted anything! So let's just start with the here and now!

Spirit will be in the District Spelling Bee in February. Both boys were in the school spelling bee a couple weeks ago. Spirit didn't practice as hard as Lefty because he was convinced he would be eliminated right away anyway. Lefty made it down to the last 6-7 kids and Spirit got 2nd place! (Not bad for a kid who thought he'd be eliminated right away!) So now he is pretty determined to study harder. Apparently for the district spelling bee he will be taking a written test and if he scores high enough (not sure what the "high enough" is) then he will go on to the oral part later in the day. We spell as often as we can: while I am cooking dinner, while he is getting dressed, while I am folding laundry...we are taking every opportunity to practice!

Lefty was in a "Math Challenge" in December which was similar to a spelling bee in that the kids were given oral math problems they had to solve. It was a tough thing for him but he faired pretty well! He says he won't do it again - he was a physical mess before the Math Challenge. He was so stressed he was sick to his stomach for weeks and could hardly sleep!

Lady Bug has joined Girl Scouts - just in time to sell cookies. She is enjoying the "girl" company. Being with brothers all day every day can get old! It has been good for her to hang out with girls and be able to talk about girly things! I have to admit though, I hope she doesn't want to stick this out very long because I do not make a good Girl Scout mom.

That is the quick update for now. More to come!

WOW

I've been gone a long time! Life has been busy, work has been busy and frankly I sit down to write and have nothing to write about!

This time of year seems like something is happening every day - we have graduations, birthdays, end of school year concerts and events. It is just non-stop!

Last weekend (Mother's Day to be exact) the family all did a 5k! The funds raised go to help homeless shelters! The boys ran with Mr. Man and Lady Bug and I walked it. We had so much fun. It is put on by the local baseball team so you start at the stadium and walk through downtown and end up back at the stadium! It is so much fun!

Since it was Mother's Day after the 5k we went to see a movie, then home to grill steaks for an early dinner/late lunch. Then I took a short nap and then we went to church. After church we had ice cream at Dairy Queen! Perfect Mother's Day!! I had a such a great day and was showered with cards and a new camera! (Lefty told his dad he wanted to buy me popcorn at the movie because he knows how much I like movie popcorn - isn't that sweet?)

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This coming Saturday the boys are running in a race and on Sunday Mr. Man is running a half marathon! Lady Bug and I will not be participating at all in either of these races but will be on the sidelines of both cheering everyone on!

Cat Pool

So Mr. Man took the kids out of town, just for an overnight trip, over the spring break to visit the town he grew up in. The kids had such a good time!

When they got home each kid was telling me the highlights of their trip and they all really had a great time. One thing I found funny though was Lady Bug telling me how the hotel they stayed in had a pool but she couldn't go in the big pool because it was too deep for her. So she says "I just stayed in the cat pool." I could NOT figure out what she meant by the cat pool.... Mr. Man clarified ... she was in the kiddy pool - which Lady Bug had translated to KITTY pool and then that became the Cat Pool! Too funny!

Why is it so hard?

When you bring home that newborn baby does anyone ever realize how mush harder it will be when they start school? I mean really?

We had parent teacher conferences this week and Lady Bug's was first.... nothing of real concern other than her chatting too much (but even that is improving).

Next we had Lefty's... nothing of real concern here either. He is doing really well and was very serious the first part of the school year but the teacher says she has recently started seeing him "let loose" a little and not be so serious.

Then it was off to Spirit's conference... well, not sure where to start. We have noticed over the last few months that his confidence is going in the toilet which is reflective of his grades now. His grades have taken a serious dip since September and aren't showing any signs of improving at this point. How can a kid who is in the 4th grade but reads at a 9th grade level have self-confidence issues? How can a kid who is in an advanced math class have self confidence issues? Is it because he is too hard on himself? possibly. I just don't know where to go. The teachers tell me that he isn't giving it effort, if he doesn't "get it" immediately then he just shuts down. I complained to the teachers, being careful not to give Spirit any excuses, that he is only in 4th grade and having him leave the classroom throughout the day for different classes doesn't appear to be working. What they do is group each of the 4th graders, regardless of your homeroom class, into a group based on the skill level. So Spirit is in the group of 4th graders that are in advanced math, and also an advanced reading group, then of course he leaves homeroom for science, music, p.e., and art as well. BUT, the catchy thing here is that he will leave homeroom for the advanced math but return to his homeroom for the last 15 minutes and is expected to the homeroom math as well. Same goes for Reading/Literacy. Which means, he gets an assignment from the group AND homeroom. Not so much for literacy assignments, but I notice with the math that he misses the instruction time on it and has to figure it out on his own (which most times he can, others he struggles). The teachers recognize this an issue, not just for Spirit but other kids as well. BUT, is that the reason his self confidence and the lack of motivation in school and the dips in grades? He got a D in science. He loves science! I am at a loss and want to cry for him. On the way out of the school he looked at his dad with tears in his eyes and said "I will do better from now on. I promise."

Parenting is so hard! I wouldn't trade it for the world, but man oh man is it painfully hard at times!

Happy Valentine's Day

I had big plans for the morning - to get up early and make heart shaped pancakes for breakfast. I woke up to a lovely pounding headache! So I laid in bed for a little bit longer than I should have. Finally got up and took some pills. Laid back down for a few minutes in hopes the pills would kick in quickly (sadly it did not!) I got up and got myself ready for work and then headed downstairs to set up the breakfast table.

Each kid got a card from me and Mr. Man. Plus, my mom had sent them each a little activity book and stickers so I had all that on the table waiting for them! They were so cute when they each got up - one by one - going into the kitchen and finding their surprises. No heart-shaped pancakes, but they didn't seem to mind!

I also packed a chocolate covered heart-shaped marshmallow in their lunch as a surprise!

The kids are, of course, having parties at school today. Spirit's class decided to do a morning party and asked the families to contribute a breakfast item so we sent in bagels. Lefty's class is having a party right before the end of school and the teacher purchased everything and asked each kid to contribute $1. Lady Bug's class is having a party after lunch with the cookies and cupcakes, etc. We sent in cookies for that (you know those really yummy thick sugar cookies with frosting! mmm mmm mmm)

For dinner we are doing all red foods (well not ALL red...) We are having parmesan chicken with a side of pasta and marinara sauce, a salad topped with tomatoes, Cran-Raspberry juice to drink and a pink frosted cookie!

Lost Tooth!

Lady Bug lost her very first tooth last night! It has been wiggly since a week or so before her birthday, yesterday at lunch she told me she bit into an apple and it got more wiggly. As I looked at it I noticed it was barely holding on by a thread and I told her it would probably fall out last night. She went to play with her brothers and pretty soon she came running to me yelling "HEY! MY TOOTH FELL OUT! MY TOOTH FELL OUT!"

{She woke up this morning to some money under her pillow and no tooth. She told her brothers that she didn't used to believe in the Tooth Fairy but now she does since she got money. Of course her brothers set her straight that there is no tooth fairy.... Brothers are good for that sort of thing! :-) }

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LADY BUG

My sweet littlest of littles in my house turns 6 today! She is so excited! When she came down the stairs this morning she said "Good moooooorrrrnnnninngg Momma!" with the biggest grin on her face!

Her brothers were so sweet and immediately wished her a happy birthday (without having to be told to do so!) Mr. Man took the day off from work and pulled her out of school to spend the day with her. They are going to a play at the children's theater and are also gonna come have lunch with me! He usually takes her shopping and lets her pick out a present for herself too!

The boys haven't picked out a gift for her yet, but they have some ideas so I will take them to get something later.

This coming Saturday one of her friends is going to come over and we are going to go ice skating and have a little tea party at our house. This should be fun for her too (she doesn't know about it yet!) I couldn't do it for her this past weekend because Mr. Man was working and I need someone to keep the boys out of our hair so we can have some girly fun without hearing how silly we are!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET GIRL!

Conferences

We had parent teacher conferences for the kids last week.

First we went to Lady Bug's. She is doing well, she is one of two top readers in her class. The teacher tells us she has no problems with her and spends time just trying to keep her challenged.

Then we went to Lefty's. He loves to write and she had him read his "Small Moment in Time" story where they were to write about a small moment that meant a lot to them. Lefty wrote a page and a half about buying our new car. She commented on how he had remembered a lot of details - she joked the only detail he left out was what our interest rate was! Not really a "small moment" but he really did have a lot of details and it was well written. He is excelling in all areas. The school does a thing where they group kids by ability and each teacher takes a group. So Lefty is only in his "homeroom" class for a short bit each day. I think the grouping thing is good because then each kid is able to work at their level, whether that be high, low or average.

Then it was off to Spirit's. Spirit's teacher had him conduct the conference, calling it "Student-Led Conferences". I am not sure the purpose of this, but it seemed to work ok. So Spirit had a file of papers and gave us a report of things he is learning and showed us some of his favorite papers. Then we asked the teacher to join us so we could ask a few things. I have been concerned with Spirit because he is extra hard on himself. If he doesn't get a 100%, but gets a 99% then he gets depressed and down on himself. So the teacher talked with him about that and we are hoping to improve his self confidence somehow.

Fall break recap

Al though the kids and Mr. Man had last week off from work and school, I did not. Every morning while they slowly rolled out of bed and casually ate breakfast, I was busy getting ready for work, eating breakfast and making my lunch.

They had a busy, eventful, but overall wonderful week! Thankfully I was able to take part in some of it too!

Monday - some cousins and grandma & grandpa came over to help make a million more pints of applesauce. We freeze it and so with what we made earlier in the year and this batch we will have enough to last us until next summer! I love homemade applesauce!

Tuesday - we went to the football stadium for some trick or treating. It was FREEZING cold and the kids were less than thrilled to stop and take pictures, but they did their best to smile through the shivers.

 Wednesday - after I got off work we picked up the new dog.

Thursday - the kids went with Mr. Man car shopping and almost bought me a new car, but there was a slight problem with it so it had to go to the shop!

Friday - got called from the dealer car was done in shop so Mr. Man and kids went back to the dealership and bought a car! We now are selling our van (which hasn't been running well for several months) and I am the proud owner of a new-to-me car!

Saturday - went to an Air Force Academy vs Utah football game!

Sunday - trick or treating. Spirit went as a football player, Lefty was a cop and Lady Bug was a cowgirl. I didn't get a good picture of Spirit alone, but he was the same thing he was when we went to the football stadium.

Lady Bug is hilarious!

As we were getting ready to leave the house this morning Lady Bug said something that she found completely funny to the point she was laying on the floor laughing. Being that she is 5 years old, what she said (which I can't even recall what it was) was really not all that funny so the rest of us didn't laugh. She stops laughing, looks up at me and says with a very serious look "I just LOVE being hilarious!"

I replied with "You do, huh?"

And her response was a classic one:  "welllllllll, I am pretty hilarious you know!"

Crazy Hair Day

The kids had crazy hair day at school. Both the boys have buzz hair cuts so it is hard to do anything crazy with it other than to color it! So that is what we did!

Lady Bug colored hers plus she wore a headband that has some green "hair". Spirit colored his black and then also wore a pom-pom in a hat and Lefty just colored his red.

Sorry the pictures are so small. I took them with a camera phone and if I make them any bigger they get fuzzy.

a few updates

1. I have lost 20 pounds but now seem to have plateaued and can't get the number to go down. I am not giving up yet.When I started this journey my goal was to lose 25 by Thanksgiving. That gave 4 months to do that. Thanksgiving is still a ways off and I only have that 5 pounds left to reach that goal. The 2nd part of the challenge to myself was to start back up in January and try to get to another goal weight by summer.

2. Spirit was tested in school to see his reading level. We already knew he was above the district average in math and reading but they wanted to see exactly where his reading level is - 9th grade reading level! I am so proud of him. Both he and Lefty read books all weekend {it was a dreary, rainy weekend... perfect for snuggling under a blanket and reading}.

3. This Friday, October 15th, is National Pregnancy, Infant Loss Remembrance Day and Mr. Man and I are on a volunteer team to coordinate a candle light service. This is the first one hosted here in our hometown (there are several all over the world) so we aren't sure how it will turn out! If you know some one or have experienced a miscarriage or stillborn or infant loss please light a candle for one hour at 7:00 pm on October 15. They say if everyone does this there will be a constant wave of light around the world in honor of the babies taken from us too soon.

4. Lady Bug and I have battled every day for over a week about her wardrobe. I am ALL ABOUT letting kids pick out the clothes for themselves, whether they match or look good or not. BUT I draw the line when it is 47 degrees outside and she wants to wear shorts, a t-shirt and flip-flops. So she cries, I yell and eventually I win! Today, was a much more peaceful day. We discussed the clothes last night. I told her to lay out her outfit and I would come take a look. She had a pair of shorts laying there but just as I was walking in she told me "I think it will be too cold for shorts so I decided to get some pants." She chose some capris, but that is fine with me. We woke up to wind and rain and extremely chilly. She left wearing the capris, a t-shirt with a sweatshirt over top and socks and tennis shoes. Then she added a coat and gloves before we walked out the door. Phew. No tears from either one of us today! Victory!!

Fall finally arrived!

Our weekend weather was finally fall-like. We have been running in the 90's through last Friday! Insane I tell you, insane! But this weekend was sunny and warm, not hot though! It was perfect!
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The kids raked some leaves this weekend - they were hoping to get enough to jump in, but that didn't happen!
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I made vegetable soup and served it with crusty bread. YUM!
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I decided to take a month-long challenge to make my home a haven. I know I need to work on ME and I am hoping this challenge will help bring peace to our home. There are a lot of things that brought me to this decision. The issues with Spirit lately got me thinking. I also got to thinking about a friend of mine who is having some issues with her two boys, and I wondered if it is the parenting or is it the child? I then read on my sister's blog about a boy who who pulled the fire alarm and felt so terrible after ward that he writes letters to the fire department apologizing. It got me thinking - did his parents do something differently in raising him? Maybe, maybe not. But either way, I know I need to work on who I am and how I react and think in order to be a better example for my kids. {note: I also am premenstrual this week which doesn't help a thing!}
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I was speaking with a friend of mine last night about some family relationships that are sour right now. She told me to just keep trying to reconcile and if it doesn't work out then I know I did all I could to make it right and then I let it go. Sometimes I feel like I try and try and this person just doesn't want to reconcile and continues to find things to be upset with me about. When do I say enough is enough? Maybe right now. Enough!
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Lady Bug and I cleaned her closet and dresser to get rid of summer and bring in the fall stuff! she was so thrilled! I had been given some clothes from a friend and there are some super cute things in there! Lady Bug tried everything on and couldn't wait to wear a "new" outfit today to school!
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I was asked by Lady Bug's teacher today how she is doing with her reading. After we talked a bit, she said that Lady Bug failed an assessment test - she said she is surprised because she knows Lady Bug is reading quite well. There are only 2 kids reading at a high level in the class and one is Lady Bug. So the teacher wanted to know how I feel she is doing. I told her she is reading cereal boxes and other books (besides the ones she brings home from school) so I know she can do it. She said she will talk with her today and maybe Lady Bug just wasn't focusing during the assessment and they will re-assess her.
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I was also asked by Lady Bug's teacher today if I would be willing to make calls to parents to encourage volunteering in the classroom. She said she has asked but hasn't gotten any responses so she thinks maybe if I call and tell parents how fun it is to be in the classroom they might agree to it! We'll see. Hee!
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One more thing about Fall - as I walked the kids to school, it was chilly! YAY! AND we had to turn our heater on for the first time this morning! I am loving it!

Odds - n - ends

I have mentioned before that I am trying to lose weight - I am happy to announce I am 9 pounds away from my original goal which means I have lost 15 pounds so far! I am SO excited!

I say "original goal" because I really thought this goal would take me a lot longer to reach and so after I hit my original goal I plan to evaluate how I am feeling and see if I want to lose more. Based on the Body Mass Index for me I could "technically" lose another 10-15 pounds beyond my "original goal weight". So we'll see how far I take this. I can't wait to get to my original goal first though! That will be a glorious day!

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Last night as I was making dinner the kids were all outside playing. Lady Bug came running in crying. I asked what had happened and she said that the boys were teaching her bad things. "Like what?" I asked and her response . . . . . . . . .

"They want me to say please!"

{Shutter at the horror of it all!}

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Spirit is having a little bit of a struggle in school this year. The work is harder, the expectations are more intense and he has greater responsibilities in class and keeping track of assignments (I am told this is to prep for middle school in 2 years). He will make it ok, but it is a bigger adjustment than we expected.

3 days in

Lady Bug has been in kindergarten since Wednesday. The first day she was a little nervous, but no tears. She came home super excited to go back the next day and carried on about how much she loves her teacher!

Thursday morning after breakfast I sent her up to get dressed. I could hear her sobbing in her room so I went in to check on her. She said she didn't want to go to school. When I probed her some more she said she just wants to be with the boys. I said that I knew the boys were able to see her throughout the day and then she said "well, I just want to be WITH you guys." I explained I would be going to work and the boys would be at the school with her. Nope, that didn't fix it.

Then we walked over to the school and she cried the whole way, with each step she cried a little harder and clung harder to my leg. By the time we got to the place her class lines up, she was in full blown hyperventilation and crying! The teacher literally had to pull her off my leg! I felt horrible. The teacher called me at home last night and told me that Lady Bug had a great day and had stopped crying by the time they got into the classroom. When we picked her up she told me what a great day she had and told me everything they did {of course recess is a huge hit!}

This morning there wasn't one tear and she marched right up the line and waved goodbye!

Now with the weekend in the way I am hoping Monday goes smoothly!