That's a Good Day Thursday

What a perfectly normal, perfectly imperfect, perfectly wonderful day.

I snuck in a quick treadmill run this morning. Second one for the week! And that's saying something since I'm just now easing my way back into running since being a lazy bum since Thanksgiving. (Did I just drop three "sinces" in one sentence? Oh yes I did. Oh the shame! The over abundance of "since" AND the no running.) It's quite a relief to see that although my mileage and athleticism are suffering that the ability to run comfortably is still there. There is much work to be done. Sigh.

Speaking of running, I drove into downtown Salt Lake for a lunch date with some of my favorite people, my running group ladies. I almost didn't go. I'm so glad I did.

One migraine later...one handful of ibuprofen and one coke later...

The new home phone is set up. I'm trying to teach the kids about the sounds on the phone, how to use the phone, and phone etiquette. It all seems funny and backwards and exciting. And now my son has decided calling my cell phone is better than walking across the room to ask a question about homework.

Homework is done.

Second quarter report cards have come home. Everyone is doing pretty awesome in an average sort of way. Even Dee who can't seem to stay on task, stop talking in class, or remember to turn in assignments. (Are all third grade boys like this or just my kid?)

Dee finds out he will be getting his Wolf badge in time! (Note to self: We work on Bear more consistently and earlier.)

And in a last ditch effort to get some help with daily chores I dangle the new Lego movie coming out February 7th as bait.

"Complete your chore charts for two weeks straight and I'll take you to see the Lego movie. Popcorn, pop, the whole nine yards."

I want to see it just as bad as they do, but I want my house clean too. It's just too overwhelming for me to keep up with. And for goodness sake, they are old enough to help! Besides they make the messes! I've been trying to step back and hand over more responsibilities and have more expectations of my children. I know it's overdue. It's just easier said than done.

I remember my mom saying over and over when we were kids and doing chores: "A lazy mother does all the work." It didn't make much sense to me. I just figured she was in her room laughing it up behind our backs, eating chocolates, and congratulating herself for raising herself a bunch of free labor, but I believe "slaves" was my word of choice back then. Now I can appreciate the work she put into teaching us to work. And how she was doing the lion's share beyond my limited vision.

So far I have been a "lazy mother". It's just so much easier to do everything and do it the way I like. I have tried so many different methods to get my children to help clean the house. Most of the "methods" were just half-hearted efforts that fizzled into nothing more than yelling. Yelling seems to be my favorite method. Sigh.

Today I dug deep and found the patience to not yell but to teach and guide. It took everything I had not to grab the rags out of my son's hands and just wash the toilets myself *twitch, twitch* but I stood back and talked him through it. And he actually did an excellent job! And he even said it was--GASP!--"fun"!






Jeigh was in charge of dishes. Not only did she unload the dishwasher and put the dishes away, but she also loaded it without being asked and did so while singing her little heart out.

Elle took some coaxing. Every few feet she needed to be reminded to turn the vacuum back on, but she eventually made her way through it. I've found several missed spots *twitch, twitch* but I'm really trying to spotlight effort and attitude versus perfection.

Oh this is hard.

And Cee...well...

And me! Well!

In an effort to reinforce all the positive warm fuzzy feelings of accomplished chores and stellar report cards I suggested we go out and celebrate! (AKA: Mom didn't want to make dinner.)

The cherry on top: My 7 year old daughter breaking out into The Robot while riding home.

Playing "Justin Bieber" with my son:

And Elle and Cee wanting to say their own personal prayers.










Oh and Cee dubbing her big bear as "Daddy" and asking me to put him in her bed so she can snuggle "Daddy" as she falls asleep. (Joe, you are missed as always.)

Good day. Good life. Good nite.

Great Americans?

For the last couple of months, my second grade son, Dee, has been working on a Great American project. His teacher presented him with a list of Great Americans and he chose Christopher Columbus. While not a true American, Columbus did "discover" the Americas, becoming a key figure in American history. Dee has been reading books, building a time-line, writing a paper, and constructing a visual presentation all about Columbus for his project.

Today we had the chance to go to the school to see all of the second graders present their Great Americans. The mayor was invited along with several present day Great Americans: local firefighters, policemen, and military. The second graders had set up rows of desks in the gym, placing each part of their project on their desk and sitting in a chair next to it, ready to answer questions about their Great American. The program ended with the children singing a couple of patriotic songs. (Servicemen and women in uniform with little voices singing patriotic songs? Of course I cried. Like the red-blooded American mommy I am.)

The children were given the option to dress like their Great American or at least dress nicely. I had no idea how to make a Christopher Columbus costume and I couldn't bear to spend $30 on a costume that would be used once, so Dee dressed in his Sunday suit. He looked handsome and knew his stuff about good ol' Christopher Columbus. (Stuff I've been learning too as I've been helping him with this project. By the way, Columbus was "great" for "discovering" the Americas, but also wasn't so great in that he couldn't admit that he messed up and these new islands were not the Indies. Not to mention, he was rather nasty to his crew and the natives. At one point he was even arrested and brought back to Spain for being such a jerk. Hmm.)

As we walked around the rows of desks today, we saw lots of cute little Amelia Earharts, Abraham Lincolns, Thomas Edisons, and Eleanor Roosevelts. There was even a darling little Laura Ingalls Wilder (a personal favorite). 

But imagine my surprise when we happened upon not one, but several Katy Perrys.

HUH?!

  

I'm all for making education fun and relevant, but since when is a cupcake-bra wearing chick like Katy Perry categorized with the likes of Sacajawea, Rosa Parks, and George Washington?! What has she contributed to our country? Besides a lot of trashy, provocative music and costumes that is. When did voicing a Smurf cartoon equate to dying as a martyr?

Unfortunately my little girls wouldn't hold still long enough to let me read the Katy Perry presentation or ask the Mini-Katys just what on earth made them "great" Americans. It was probably for the best because I probably couldn't have held back my laughter/disgust and would have tromped on some poor, little misguided second grader's self-esteem. A self-esteem that might be even more fragile since they are looking to the likes of Katy Perry as role models.

Pardon my geriatric rage but....WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO?!?

P.S. At least Lady GaGa wasn't there. *whew*

I Miss School

I've been doing a lot of studying this week which has led me to realize a few things:

#1. I miss school and want to go back someday. (Four plus years of college and all I have to show for it is a lot of student loans.)

#2. I would be a terrible student seeing as how Evelyn + sitting still + reading = ZZZZZZZZ

#3. I've gotten really dumb over the last ten years. (And I used to be kind of smart. Dangit.)

#4.  I really need to do this more often.

I also realize there is a time and season for everything. Right now I am in the season of young(ish) motherhood. I am busy raising these four little ones; changing diapers, helping with homework, supervising  vigilantly, struggling to create control out of chaos, shuffling non-stop around a semi-clean house, bleary-eyed and plastered in mystery stains. But one day...one day I will get my chance to get my homework on again. And then I'll complain about how hard life is then and how I long for these "simpler" days now. Ha!

While my studies have been of a more personal and spiritual nature, I did want to share this one gem that I found while "studying" Facebook.

"Be strong enough to be gentle. Too many parents equate being gentle with being weak or passive when nothing could be further from the truth. Gentleness requires great control, active connection, and intense calm. So, when your child needs discipline, remember that an iron grip isn’t the only way to go. You can accomplish great things by being the calm voice of authority and reason in your home." ~Hal Runkel

Good one, huh?

At this rate, I have a feeling that I'll have motherhood figured out the day Cee walks out the door to go to college.

Hey! Maybe we'll go to college together! That is...if I can stay awake.

Skool iz rill kul

In my quest to express my gratitude this month I choose to pick on our education system. The gratitude will come later. For now I can't help but share this bit of the kettle-calling-the-pot-black...or however that culinary saying goes.

This is a spelling test that my six year old first grader Dee brought home a few weeks ago.

Can anyone tell me why I was almost doubled over laughing with the irony of it?

All joking aside...I really am grateful for the public servants who take on educating our children. Every now and then I go through the inner debate of taking on homeschooling my children and every time I decide it's just not for us.

Thank goodness there are wonderful people out there who have recognized a talent for teaching within themselves, dedicated themselves to learning how to guide children, and then sacrificed all hopes of lavish salaries to work day after day molding the minds of our young ones. Sure, I've questioned if a few people really should be in the education system, but for the most part I appreciate those who help me in creating intelligent, noble, and wonderful little human beings.

thank you teachers!--I mean: Thank you, Teachers! ;)

The Prodigal Blogger Returns...Again

With Cee being 7 months old now and two children starting school this year (Dee's in first grade and Jeigh's in half day kindergarten) I figured my impending return to the blogosphere was in the bag.

And then about three minutes after I dropped them off at the school today, I realized (with no small amount of fear and panic) that I had just left my daily entertainment for my trouble making three year old and newly mobile baby behind.

Dangit.

Oh well. I'm going to give this a shot anyway. My clean house, sanity, and "No more than one two hours of TV" rule may lose in the end, but at least I got my silly little blog up and running again.

Now...Just to figure out something interesting to say...

*Ahem* Funny how one gets a little rusty during a break.

I guess we'll ease into this.

Until then, here's a couple of pictures of my school going kids. Huzzah for a new school year!



My first born begins his first day of first grade.



Kindergarten awaits!



Are they going to school or the prom?



Think they will pose like this when I take their picture on the first day of high school? (I kind of hope they do.)



Ten Things Tuesday

Because a list-making girl like me just couldn't resist.

1. Thank you so much to iamwoman at the Rowdy Stroudy's for the lavender parcel! My car never smelled better!

2. I don't miss Arizona. Not one little bit. I especially didn't miss it as I saw the big fluffy flakes of snow descending yesterday. But I forget Arizona was "home" to my children for two plus years. And when you're only four, that's half your life! They are rather confused about this cold weather business when to me it feels so familiar and soothing to the soul. Dee keeps asking me what the "dust" (frost) on our car is each morning as we go to school. Jeigh dashed out the front door yesterday to catch a snowflake. She made sure to grab her coat, but stopped short when her bare feet made contact with the icy cold. Poor little Arizona-born-and-raised Elle sees this new weather as uninvited and hostile. She shuffles around wrapped up tight in her thick winter coat like a little old lady. Her facial expression is a hilarious mixture of disgust and disbelief. I imagine her blood will thicken up soon enough.

3. Joe has four whole days in a row off this week! I can't wait to have a husband again! This one day off here, one day off there business is for the birds. And what perfect timing for a four day off stretch: Halloween! Now to wrangle him into helping me organize our storage unit...

4. Parent Teacher Conferences are this week. Jeigh's was on Monday and Dee's was today. I wonder...Do the teachers just tell all the parents the same thing?

5. Potty training is going great. If by "great" you mean Elle won't ever tell you when she has to go potty and still has a daily number two accident in her underwear and had one serious number two accident in the middle of Walmart yesterday resulting in her underwear, pants, and socks all being discarded in the public restroom followed by a hasty and red-faced bare-bottom-wrapped-in-sister's-jacket exit out of the store....then yep, it's going great.

6. I have wracked my brain all month trying to figure out what the heck I can do to blow the competition out of the apple-bobbin'-filled water for Sami's Symfully Sweet Saturday candy corn competition. The best I have done is kept my candy jar consistently stocked with a never ending supply of candy corn. I had my gestational diabetes blood test yesterday. Think I'll pass? I have my doubts. But, you should head over to Sami's blog and enter your coolest candy corn creations in her contest! Tell her Evelyn the Candy Corn Comatose Victim sent you.

7. We discovered this last week that Jeigh is terrified of vomit. Dee had a nasty allergy and asthma cough that caused him to almost throw up several times. Anytime he coughed she would absolutely fall apart with hysteria, shaking and crying.

8. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is only about 200 pages, but it is taking me FOR-EV-ER to get through it. I have already re-checked it out from the library once and it is currently late, but I WILL FINISH IT!

So far my favorite line is: (in regards to the death of a close loved one) "These are the reflections of the first days; but when the lapse of time prove the reality of the evil, then the actual bitterness of grief commences. Yet from whom has not that rude hand rent away some dear connection? And why should I describe a sorrow which all have felt, and must feel? The time at length arrives when grief is rather an indulgence than a necessity and the smile that plays upon the lips, although it may be deemed a sacrilege, is not banished."

And: (speaking of becoming obsessed with a pursuit or activity) "A human being in perfection ought always to preserve a calm and peaceful mind and never to allow passion or a transitory desire to disturb his tranquility. I do not think that the pursuit of knowledge is an exception to this rule. If the study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken you affections and to destroy your taste for those simple pleasures in which no alloy can possibly mix, then that study is certainly unlawful, that is to say, not befitting the human mind."

9. I am craving caramel apples, but am too lazy to make a big mess of my kitchen to make one or two...dozen.

10. Is it too early to listen to Christmas music? What am I saying?! It's never too early for Christmas music!

And so it begins...

Uh-oh.

Look what Dee brought home from school...


What's a self-respecting mom to do?

Bullying Begins?

This morning I overheard my five-year old son, Dee, asking Jeigh (four) if he could come to her class from now on. I was confused. I was under the impression he loved school. Then I heard him tell her he needed new friends because "the boys in red shirts" were being mean to him.

What?!

I had to find out what was going on. When I tried to investigate without being accusational (innocent until proven guilty, right?), I was further frustrated. Getting details from a five-year old can be less than satisfying.

As far as I could gather from what Dee was saying was that there was a group of boys in red shirts at school that were pushing and pulling on him. Sometimes they'd even hit him. Mr. Cook (the principal) would get mad at them, but then they would hide from the principal and keep doing it. It was distressing enough for Dee that he wanted to go to preschool with Jeigh in search of new friends. When I asked if I should talk to his teacher about it, he said no.

I am confused. This is a first for me as a mom. Do I believe my son, who just may have been watching a little too much Karate Kid with his dad and mixing reality with fiction? or do I just let it go and wait to hear if it happens again, then take care of it? I don't dare ask his dad because I know what his response would be; the man has watched the Karate Kid series multiple times since we have been married. There's a reason.

It makes me so sad that this is happening already. The boy has been in Kindergarten for barely three weeks. Kids aren't mean at this stage are they? Or is this just the beginning of many years of bullying to come? (By the way, I am not naive enough to think it won't happen someday, but this young?)

The best I could do this morning was tell him that no one should be mean to anyone and if it happened again he needed to immediately find his teacher or the principal and tell them. AND to not be mean back. Daniel-san and Mr. Miyagi might think it's okay to fight back, but the Savior would not.

Tell me, oh wise mothers, what would you do in this situation???

Post-Post: I forgot to add the morning family prayer Dee gave this morning:

"Dear Heavenly Father,

Please bless me to be safe at school. Please help me to be able to come home today. Please bless I can eat dinner again tonight.

Name of Jesus Christ, Amen."