This morning Max came into the kitchen with a concerned look on his face. This is the conversation that occurred-
Max-”rats and mice are endangered.”
Me-”No. They’re not endangered. There are PLENTY of them!”
Max-”but THOUSANDS of people have set mouse traps!”
Me-”Ah…you mean they’re in danger.”
Max-*tilted-head, eyebrow raised* “that’s what I said”
Doing the Dance of the Children~
Sibling dynamics…
A couple of mornings ago, Tristan came into my room, upset and saying things I didn’t quite understand. I asked him to calm down and explain. This is what I got-
Tristan-”Luke-Xavier got on my game and spent all my coins.”
Me-”I’m sorry. How’d he know what to do?”
Tristan-”I don’t know. He watches us play. I had 146 coins and he spent 123!”
Me-”I’m sorry”
Tristan-”He bought me a wooden llama!”
Me-*giggling*”I’m really sorry that he did that. I’ll tell him he can’t just get on other people’s accounts and do that sort of stuff”
Tristan-”He bought me a WOODEN LLAMA and I only have 23 coins left!”
Me-”I’m really sorry”
Tristan-”But I was saving for a Tropical Squid!”
At this point I couldn’t hold back the laughter. My 4yr old is savvy enough to get on his brother’s account and figure out how to buy “pets” and the thought of a wooden llama vs. the desired, tropical squid sent me into giggles.
I guess I’ll just have to let Tristan play a little extra so he can earn his coins back and finally get his squid.
Just one more dance step in Doing the Dance of the Children
I was very proud of one of my kiddos this evening because I caught them getting ahead of the game, by putting all their clothes together for tomorrow.
Me-”good job!”
Kiddo-”yeah, I’m putting it all together before I even have to.”
Me-”I think it’s great that you’re getting organized.”
Kiddo-”I’m going to wear clean underwear tomorrow.”
Me-”huh?!”
Kiddo-”I don’t change it EVERY day.”
Me-”uh…you HAVE to wear clean underwear EVERY day. EVERY day!”
Kiddo-”Oh. Well sometimes I can’t find a clean pair when I’m putting my stuff together for the next day.”
Me-”Then that’s when you drag your laundry basket to the laundry room and say,’Mom, I need clean underwear for tomorrow.’”
Kiddo-”Oh. Ok. Sorry.”
Just another day of Doing the Dance of the Children~
After work and 2 Dr. appointments, it was time to head for Costco. The cupboards were looking pathetically bare and I wanted to get things stocked up before I had to use up the weekend on grocery shopping. After more than an hour walking the isles of Costco and loading a cart to capacity, I decided I’d make dinner easy and bring home one of their rotisserie chickens and a watermelon. After unloading the car, I got the kids into the kitchen and started making plates. Gabi came in and asked if she could have a leg-
Me-”Sorry Gabs, Max and Lex already asked”
Gabi-”Ok, can I have the head?”
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And with that I say-Good night~
We’ve been getting the kids in the classroom ready to celebrate Earth Day. They’ve been learning about bugs and we have caterpillars in a netted home where the kids can watch them go through all their phases of metamorphosis. I put together a playlist of songs about the earth’s changes from season to season, recycling and gardens (some of my favorite children’s songs are on that playlist!) and the class has been learning about planting and growing. They’ve planted sunflowers and watched as they poked thru dirt to becoming seedlings. A few days ago we had a great visit from one of the children’s fathers, who taught the kids all about growing tomatoes. We decided to have the kids each plant tomato seeds and the seedlings will be placed in hand painted pots for Mother’s Day. I think the kids have had fun learning about recycling, growing and conserving. Today and tomorrow we’ll give them a little treat (the cookies pictured above) and listen to the noisy classroom, since it’s raining and they won’t be able to go outside.
~sigh~
It’s tough to get the kids to be excited for the rain that’s helping the flowers grow, but keeps them inside. But they sure can be funny and creative! Here’s a funny story to share that happened while I was helping one of the little guys plant his tomato seed for his mom-
Me-”See how small this seed is? Isn’t it amazing that a whole plant is going to be able to grow out of that tiny seed and real tomatoes can grow on that plant? And then you and Mommy can go pick them and eat them!”
5yr old boy-”Um, well, Mommy is on the Medifast diet and there are no tomatoes on the Medifast diet.”
Me-*holding back a laugh* “Well, they sure will be pretty to look at”.
Happy Earth Day! I hope it’s a good one~
We’ll start with the birth certificate-
8 months ago, Mariah completed all the parts of the online testing to be able to get her permit. Then it came time to get out her birth cert and send everything in. I couldn’t find it. Looked and looked and came to the conclusion that I had to order a replacement. I got online, filled everything out, paid the fee, printed out the paper that needed to be notarized and faxed it all in. Whew! Now to wait for the magic document to arrive in the mail. About a week later we received an official looking envelope and she was excitedly planning our trip to the DMV. When we opened it, there was a paper stating that there was no record of her birth in the county I’d sent the request to. Huh? Then where the heck was she born? Instead of making me move quickly to figure it out, the whole thing made me drag my feet and wonder what county she could’ve been born in.
Fast forward 7 months-I finally had the county correct and sat back down at the computer to do the whole thing again. I repeated all the steps, paid the fee and printed the paper that needed to be notarized. When I got to the postal annex that has a notary, there was a hand-written sign on the door declaring that they were closed for the day. GREAT! I put the paper back into my planner and drove away.
NOW HIRING
About 2 weeks ago I had Gabi and Luke-Xavier with me on a trip to the bank. After our transactions, we left and I decided to treat them to Cold Stone since it was practically staring me in the face. We got our ice cream and I noticed that they were hiring. I asked for an application for Mariah. She’s been wanting to start applying places for after-school and summertime jobs. They gave me the application and I texted Mariah that I was on my way home with a job prospect for her. She wasted NO time and filled out an application online. She then filled out the one I brought her, turned it in and scheduled an interview. She was hired and would begin her training in 3 days.
“Mom, I start work on Thursday and I need either my birth certificate (after saying this, she snickered) or my SS card.” I replied that I would start looking in the files for her SS card. After all, the whole birth certificate thing had become such an elephant in our house, that I knew I better just go for the card.
Thursday morning rolled around and I realized (with some horror) that my inability to find her SS card could keep my daughter from starting the job she was quickly and somewhat proudly hired for. PRESSURE! I left for work knowing that I had a small window of time after work, to get home, find the card and then move on with the regular busyness of the afternoon. YIKES! I spent my time at work uttering small prayers to St. Anthony and brainstorming on where those important documents have ended up being kept.
I got home and went straight to the filing cabinet. “Taxes”-nope, wouldn’t be in there. “Schooling”-no, keep looking. “Important”-Maybe!…nope. Who labeled THAT one?! I went to another drawer, only to find that it was all military stuff-nope! Finally, the bottom drawer. This one had files laying on their sides and none were really labeled. I started digging through each one to see if I could find the magic envelope that held 11 SS cards. “Mariah”-well, it couldn’t hurt to look in that one! I opened it up and the very first thing inside was an envelope with my handwriting on it, saying, “Mariah’s Birth Certificate”. Well wonder of wonders! What the heck! All along, lying in the filing cabinet! Forget the SS card! I’d just struck gold!
So, Mariah was able to make it to work with the proper documentation and now we will make an appointment at the DMV…finally!
The best part was that when I picked her up from that first day of work, she got in the car smelling like warm waffle cones. I wanted to keep her in the car all night! Yum!
Hmmmm…now to find those SS cards.
Have a great day~
Wow, I sure didn’t mean to let so many days go by without blogging. But it seems that I don’t mean all sorts of things in the last few days…
The other night we were having a family dinner with my dad, brother and my kiddos. There was much chit chat and sharing of school stories, etc. At one point Lex held up all his fingers, just like in the above picture, and he said, “Mom, when am I going to be this many?”.
Well, let’s see…Lex is 3, so with simple math…
I answered right away, “in 11 years”
And I wonder why some of my kids struggle with math.
Have a great day~
A couple of days ago I asked my boys what they were thinking about giving up or doing for Lent.
Tristan told me he was going to “try” to spend less time on the computer (I asked him what that meant, but his answer leads me to believe we have some talking to do).
Max, on the other hand, knew EXACTLY what he planned on doing…
Me-”Max, what are you giving up or doing for Lent?”
Max-”I’m going to practice almsgiving”
Me-*trying not to laugh too hard* “almsgiving? But you don’t make any money”.
Max-”I find a quarter…sometimes a dime…”
I had to walk away so that he didn’t see me laughing. This kid! Priceless!
Have a good night~
Oh this kid! He is such a sweet lil charmer! We all adore him and his magnetic smile. But as the end of the line in a large family, this lil kiddo can surely pack a punch.
Tonight, he got angry at his 7 yr old brother and took the opportunity to kick him while he was on the floor. When I stood him in time out he started crying and said, “Don’t you know I’m allergic to time-outs?”
I have my work cut out for me!
Have a good night~
Over the last week there’s been an outbreak of lice in my children’s school. Two of my kids have had children in their classrooms with confirmed cases. The thought of lice always makes me crazy because of the magnitude of what it means in my house.
Over my 20 years of motherhood, I’ve had to delouse my children and house on 2 occasions. The many hours of hair treatments, bagging up stuffed animals, washing laundry for days on end (which is ALREADY the norm here, so now imagine the added laundry that comes with lice!) made me HATE lice with a passion and work hard to prevent it by hammering into my kids heads that they absolutely CAN NOT share hair items or scarves etc. It’s been about 6 years since we’ve had to deal with it, so I guess my rules have worked.
However, now that I’m also in the environment with the kids, I’m getting panicky. After much thought and checking the kids’ heads several times, my new advice is this;
Play only with hairless, naked children!
Have a great day~
Two weeks FLEW BY!
Now, it’s back to the 4 am wake-up and Doing the Dance to get everyone, everywhere they need to be. There are still a few remnants of vacation left. Clay, Kateri and JJ are all still home. Clay leaves tomorrow and Kateri and JJ follow this weekend. So, I suppose it’ll be next Monday when the actual routine is back. But, the decorations are packed. The new toys and clothes are put away and the holiday foods are now taboo.
It was a good break, filled with family and friends.
I’ll wrap up the holiday season with this little tidbit from Gabi-
While I was packing up the nativity scene, Gabi pointed to the angel and asked-”What kind of angel is that?”
I said-”I’m not sure. Maybe it’s a guardian angel.”
Gabi looked at me and scrunched up her face like I had just said the most ridiculous thing and said-”Why would that be a guardian angel?! Baby Jesus has the power to guard himself!”.
And there you go!
Have a great day~
Every morning I get up, go to the kitchen and start my coffee maker. I’m in such a routine that I normally don’t even think about it, but some mornings I guess I should. I thought it might be helpful to myself and perhaps others to post the instructions for brewing coffee…just in case.
Take one coffee filter and add coffee grounds
Place the filter (with the grounds in it) into the brewing basket
Fill coffee carafe with water to desired level
Pour the water into the water chamber
Place carafe onto the heating portion of the coffee maker
Push the on/off button
Fool proof instructions!
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2 methods that DON’T work for brewing coffee with a KitchenAid coffee maker;
1.Take a coffee filter and scoop coffee grounds into it.
Place the filled coffee filter into the brewing basket
Press the on/off button
Wait for 1/2 hr, wondering why the heck no coffee is actually being made
2. Take one coffee filter, scoop coffee grounds into it
Place filled coffee filter into brewing basket
Fill carafe with desired amount of water
Pour the water into the proper place on the coffee maker
Forget to press the on/off button
Wait 1/2 hr wondering why the heck no coffee is being brewed.
This morning I chose method #2. From now on, I’m hoping to refer to my own directions on proper brewing and to be able to enjoy my coffee 1/2 hr earlier.
Have a great day~
This conversation took place in the car the other day;
Lex-Mom, I know how to make Jesus better
Me-How to make Jesus better?
Lex-Yes, we can give him medicine and a vitamin and fizzy juice (what my little kiddos call Airborne) and then he’ll be all better.
Me-Those all sound like really good ways to make someone better, but what’s wrong with Jesus that you think we need to make him better?
Lex-He died…remember?!
Have a great day~
This morning I started with a few chores. My plan was to head into the kitchen, start the coffee, pack the lunches, switch the laundry and then wake the kids. I went to the dryer first. I pulled everything out, put it on the counter and started to fold it. Then a lil voice in my head said, “hey Jen, you know, the dryer could be going while you fold the clothes”. I said, “hey lil voice, you’re right!”. So I stopped folding and started to put the wet clothes from the washer into the dryer. Then the lil voice piped up again and said, “hey Jen, you know, the coffee could be brewing while the clothes are drying, while you fold the clean pile”. I stopped putting the wet clothes into the dryer and said to lil voice, “hmmm…you’re right! Why am I so backward today?!” So I left the wet clothes and the clean pile and went to make the coffee. Now the coffee is brewed and in hand, the dryer is going and so is the washer and the clean clothes are folded and stacked.
Thanks lil voice!
Have a great day~
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