Mommy of Many®

~Sigh~

One of my kiddos truly hates school. Every Sunday they look at me and say,”I know what tomorrow is…the worst day of the week.” The work curriculum isn’t a problem. Friends aren’t a challenge. They just, truly hate having to go and sit in a structured environment and complete work in a given time-frame. This particular child is a big thinker and is always thinking of a better way to do things or a better way to build things and can get lost in thoughts of planning and inventing and building for a long time.

The teacher and I have had several meetings and have come up with all sorts of ideas to help this child look at the whole thing differently. But each plan has failed. I’ve got someone working with them to see if we can find better tools for them to succeed inside the perimeters of the school day and the classroom structure. But that takes time and the school year is speeding toward it’s finishing point.

I’ve had another child who felt this same way and was just as lost in thought and they are now a successful High School Senior who is headed off to college in the Fall. I’m hoping they will have something to offer their younger sibling to help change all these feelings.

Anyone been here? What did you do?

Have a great day~

There are several topics I want to write on but I will be sitting with my first grader, overseeing the many, many, many pages of work that were hidden from not only me (under the bed), but from the teacher (crumpled in the desk) over the last few weeks. So…off to the dining table I go with an arm load of paper work for me and several sharpened pencils for him.

Doing the Dance…

I don’t often blog about work, but this week we came up with a craft that was fun, educational and can easily be done at home.

We have been talking about farms and ranches, the different animals on each and the duties of the people who live and work there. We came up with the idea to have the kids learn about sheep and wool. So we made each child their own wooly sheep to shear.

Then we explained about the process and that they would be shearing their sheep with their hands.

Then we had them collect their “wool” and explained that it gets sent to factories and is made into different things that we use at home. We gave them the choice of making a sweater or a blanket.

It was a fun and easy project that taught them about sheep, wool and some of our household items.

Have a great day~

School, work, lunches, homework, cub scouts, laundry, broken items in the bathroom, Christmas cards, school pictures to send out, Kateri coming home, JJ coming home, Clay coming home, Christmas dinner, Christmas shopping, Christmas wrapping, phone calls, bills, folding socks, looking for the missing box of Christmas decorations, clean the yard, clean the garage, make sure the vehicles don’t run out of gas, Science Fair projects…STOP!

The Science Fair threw me over! I’ve been juggling the list above and was holding it together pretty well, until last night and the Science Fair. Weeks ago one of my kids gave me their list of needed items for their project. I took the list, placed it on my desk with the million other papers and moved along with daily life. Yesterday it was ABSOLUTELY the last day to get the stuff for her and have her do her experiment. I told her that I couldn’t find the list, but that I was headed to the store and she could just text the list to me. This is the text I received;

Blender
3 disposable pipettes
1- 10 ml graduated cylinder
3- 50 ml flasks
1 stirring rod
Graph paper
Distilled water
Cheese cloth
Corn or potato starch
Glass beaker
Tincture iodine
Frozen OJ
Bottled OJ
Canned OJ
Oranges
Juicer

Uh…I was at Vons, not a medical lab! You can only imagine the conversation that occurred after that text. After acknowledging that she was not at fault and had done everything correctly, in giving me her list weeks ago, and that I had dropped the ball by not looking at it and trying to figure out where to get these things, I started to cry. Yep, crying seemed like the best way to go at that point. I mean, what kind of mother am I? I had the list and I left it till the last minute. I promised I’d call her teacher and explain. First I had to stop crying. Poor teacher! I got her on the phone and only got through, “hi, it’s Jen Lang” before the flood gates opened again.

Yikes!

Long story short, she told me that I did not need to cry over the science fair and that my daughter would, indeed, have the time she needed to get things done.

Whew! Sometimes there’s just a straw to break the camel’s back and yesterday it was the science fair. Thank goodness for kind and understanding people!

Have a great day~

Yesterday was the Christmas program for the 1st-4th graders at my children’s school. I’ve sat through the same program through 4 of my children. But no matter how many times I see it, I get teary-eyed. It’s a little snippet of time that marks where my children are in their lives. All too soon they move onto other things and are no longer shaking maracas with a joyful smile and a festive sweater. This time of year is, indeed, joyful, but it’s also a reminder for me of how quickly time is moving. I am grateful that I can plan to sit through this program for years to come, until Max, Gabi and Lex are all past the 4th grade.

Somehow I know it’s going to be in the blink of an eye!

So let’s all be joyful for what’s here and now and try to stop time for just a moment so that we can revel in it before it’s gone.

Good night~

Yesterday I attended the Junior Unity Liturgy and luncheon with Mariah. I couldn’t help but be brought back to the same day and the same celebration 5 years ago, when I was sitting there with Kateri. FIVE years?! I can hardly believe it! The high school years go so quickly! Kateri is already in her third year of college and JJ is a Senior this year!

It was so nice to be able to take the time to attend this celebration with Mariah. Because I have so many children at the elementary school, it makes sense that most of my time and energy is put there. But I end up feeling disconnected from the high school and all that they have going on. Not only was it great to be there with Mariah, but I was able to say hello to parents who had children go through school with Kateri and now, also have kids who are in Mariah’s class. It’s always nice to hear how everyone is doing.

It seems that when the kids are going through k-8th that high school seems so far off. Then they get there and it’s a whirlwind of time that passes in the blink of an eye! I was so glad to be able to grab a little piece of it, yesterday.

Have a great day~

This day, this day. What a day. Ever had one that is just wrong from the moment you get going until you just, plain call is quits?

We are driving Mariah to her carpool each morning, which means we leave the house at 7 am. This is a huge task! We normally leave at 7:30 and none of us has adjusted well to the loss of 1/2 an hour. Today, there was much dragging of feet, forgetting to brush teeth and losing of shoes. We left 10 minutes late and with no shoes for Tristan. I really didn’t have a plan for how that was all gonna work itself out. We started to drive to meet her carpool and called along the way. Yep, missed them! Through clenched teeth I said that I’d make some phone calls, focus on getting Tristan some shoes and figure it all out. I called work to let them know I would get the majority of the kiddos to the school they go to and that I work at and then would have to drive Mariah up to her school. I then made a call to see if a pair of shoes might be able to meet Tristan at school. No dice! I headed to Target…it was 7:30 am and they don’t open until 8. AHHHHHHH! I made another call in hopes of shoes meeting Tristan at school. BINGO! Ok, off to the school. Mariah was offered a ride, albeit late, to school, from the school we were heading to. Big breath! This just may all work out.

After much discussion, we decided that Mariah would stay with me and help out in the preschool because getting to school late, on a short day of testing, really wouldn’t serve any purpose. So…extra hands at school today. This actually worked out very well. Mariah is truly wonderful with preschoolers. Who knew?!

Oh…the shoes! We were, graciously, met in the school parking lot, with a perfect-fitting pair of shoes for Tristan.

After making it through the preschool day (one potty accident on Lex’s part) I took Mariah to a sushi lunch and then headed to the grocery store. My basket was full when my phone rang…preschool was calling…another potty accident for Lex and even though there were extra clothes available, he had no extra shoes to replace the pee-soaked ones he was now wearing. Off I went to the preschool to pick up Gabi and Lex, bring them home and then head back to get the other kids, after volleyball practice. Weeeeeeee!

On my way, I received another phone call. This time it was a friend letting me know that a dear woman, who I’ve loved and admired for her strength, faith, compassion and love had passed away. Whew….! The story behind this is a blog unto itself and when I find the right words, I will write it. But needless to say, I had an emotional rest of the day.

So, here I am, counting my blessings and reflecting on the people who have touched my life and the precious moments that are within each day…even the challenging ones. I’m taking a big breath, having a glass of wine and being thankful for all that I got to live today.

Live!

Good night~

Fits. I’ve been dealing with them for the better part of 20 years. I’ve seen my share! I can remember being a new mom and trying to give choices to lure the child out of the fit. I can remember being a little more seasoned mom and trying to be stern and give NO choices to lure the child out of the fit. As time and children have gone on, I’ve tried different methods, only to find that what works with one child on one day may very well not work for any other child (not even that one) on any other day.

Now that Gabi and Luke-Xavier have started school, their days are full of routine and they are getting used to authority figures other than me. They don’t like this! They’ve each put in their fair amount of effort to try to be in charge in the their classrooms. I work in the preschool through lunch and when nap time comes, I’m off. So, each day, they line up to be ready to nap and I grab my purse and go. They’ve caught on to the routine and have decided that nap time doesn’t seem so great because Mom won’t be there anymore.

Yesterday I got a call from the preschool director saying that Luke-Xavier had been having a stubborn fit for the better part of an hour and did I have anything that I normally do to help him stop a fit. I snickered a little, because I know how VERY stubborn he is. I know that when he throws a fit, it goes until he’s finally exhausted and falls asleep. We’ve tried many things with him, but I didn’t have any thing I could give her that would make him stop right away. I felt bad because I knew he was disrupting all the kids that were actually trying to sleep. I knew he must be really tired because every other day of school, he’s fallen asleep quickly and slept like a rock. But I also knew that if I went to get him that the fits would go on each day and he’d learn that if he throws a fit for long enough, Mom will come get him. So, we made the decision that he couldn’t win or we’d be done for the year! We decided to just let him finish the fit on his own and that when he was finally tired enough, he’d crash. I gave her permission to just leave him asleep, wherever he may land and to keep up the regular routine with the rest of the class. The last thing I wanted her to think she had to do was wake up a child that had finally fallen asleep 5 minutes earlier and then have to deal with the aftermath of his sleepiness.

He did, in fact, fall asleep on the classroom floor and he woke up feeling much better. Let’s hope that he learned the lesson that throwing a fit doesn’t bring me back to “rescue” him from nap time.

So, I guess this lesson in the Learning Lessons series is actually 2 lessons, one for the parent and one for the child. It’s about sticking to the routine and standing firm so that the child learns that they can’t be in charge of controlling the it. It’s a hard lesson!

Have a great day~

We’ve made it through the first 2 days of going back to school and me working at the school. Several people have asked how it’s going, so here’s the scoop-

Whew! I have not know busy like this ever before! Every minute of the last 2 days, from 4 am until 10:30 pm has been spoken for. I have woken up to a to-do list so that I keep myself on task and don’t forget important items and I go to bed at night adding to the list that I’ll wake to for the next day. Yesterday’s list looked like this-
Send 3 important emails
Get gas
Get $ for kids’ daily planners
Shower
Pack extra clothes for Gabi and Lex
Pack lunches for Gabi and Lex (the other kids weren’t eating b/c it was a 1/2 day)
Fill out and deliver volleyball forms
Get crock pot loaded and going
Switch laundry
Cover books

That was the list of to-do’s that had to happen before I got myself and everyone out the door. They got done and the day was successful. However, if even one item hadn’t gotten done, things would have started to fall apart.

After we actually got to school/work, things went pretty smoothly. The older kids know the school and the teachers and are comfortable there. So there weren’t too many back to school jitters. The 2 little ones were heading to preschool for the first time and they both did great until about 10 am. It was like an internal clock went off for both of them! All of a sudden they both came running from their classrooms to the class I”m working in and clung to me with big, sobbing tears. I know they were both tired from getting up early and that they’re not used to me not being 100% available to them. After some coaxing by each of their teachers they went back to their classes and finished the day without problems. It’s really an adjustment for both of them and for me.

I know we’re going to have a great year and that the schedule will settle out once all of the initial busyness of the first week is done. But for now, I’m tired!

I am, however, looking forward to getting to know all the kids in the classes and to be better at putting names, faces and siblings together. We’ve been a part of this school for 9 years now and I often have trouble making those connections. It’s going to be good to feel better connected to all the kids that my kids are spending each day with.

So, onto this morning’s list-

Blog

Cover 2 books

Sign Tristan’s planner

Finish emergency cards

Pack lunches (8)

Shower

Start Comfort Bags

Gabi’s school supplies packed

Lex’s school supplies packed

Switch laundry

Unload dishwasher

Plan dinner

Gabi’s soccer gear set out

Ok, I think that’s it! Onto day 3!

Have a great day~

Even though I still have 6 kiddos home for another week, summer is truly over for the Lang Clan.

Mariah started her Junior year of high school yesterday. This means my whole schedule is now about school. We spent yesterday getting haircuts and buying all the needed items for the rest of the kids. I’d just like to say that buying school supplies, new shoes, haircuts and missing uniform pieces for 8 kids (yes, we did JJ’s shopping a week ago, but it still counts) is a budget buster! Yikes!

So, today I will spend time writing kiddo’s names on new items and sorting them into bags that will be lugged to school next Tuesday. Sharpie and I are good friends.

Between now and next Tuesday it’s all about loose ends. I’ve got to make sure that the kids remember that we DID have a fun summer even though Mommy’s in work mode now. I need to find missing paperwork, reorganize the house and start to get everyone back into a good bedtime routine.

I can’t believe how fast the summer went. It seems like Kateri and JJ were here for mere moments. In Kateri’s case, that’s almost true. We only had her here for 2 weeks! 2 weeks! JJ did such a great job of spending quality time with his younger brothers and keeping them active. I’m so proud of all my kids, but especially the 2 oldest, who are starting to seek their own paths and grow into amazing adults. It was wonderful to be able to have them here, even for just a little while.

It’s been a great summer! I hope you can each say the same.

Have a great day~

After making one, long list, several shopping trips, some phone calls and an early morning trip to the airport, JJ is back at school. He left yesterday morning and will have a week of soccer camp before his classes begin.

What a summer! He got home and charged straight into making sure his brothers were kept active. He really did a great job with them! I don’t know what it’s like to be a boy. I grew up as the oldest of 9 kids, but the 7 directly behind me were girls. By the time my brother came along, I was in 7th grade and completely self-centered. I never really got to know what it meant to have a boy around. When Kateri was born I was so thankful that she was a girl because I really didn’t know anything about boys. With Clay deployed as often as he is, JJ has seen the need in his brothers to have a strong and positive male influence. He did a great job! He kept them active and challenged them to do well in all they took on. Even after he hurt his knee, he found ways to do things with them. He really did a great job!

Poor guy, though, he was in a really good routine of working out and staying active when he hurt his knee. Luckily, he has the go ahead to charge forward into the soccer season at school.

Whew!

Now it’s time for me to focus on all the last minute details of getting the other 7 kiddos ready for school. I have 2 weeks left to get it all done. I’m a little behind in a few things and need to spend today catching up. Now that I have Kateri, safely, in Germany and JJ back to school, I can get into the routine that we’ll have set for the school year.  This will be the very first time that all my kiddos will leave the house each day. I decided it was best for me to also leave each day and took a job as an aid in one of the classrooms.  It’s been 16 years since I’ve worked outside the house on a regular basis.  I’m a little nervous about staying on top of all that needs to happen in the house.

~big breath~ One step at a time!

Have a great day~

The last two weeks have been full and busy! We are trying to grab the last bits of summer before JJ heads back to school and before Kateri leaves for Germany. Because all the kids are home and together, my regular routine has been put on hold and we have been taking time to enjoy the beach and time together.

The kids and friends enjoying “game night”

Today is the last little bit of that. Early tomorrow morning, Kateri boards her plane for Germany. We will not be seeing her again until JJ’s high school graduation, next Spring. And after the graduation, it’ unclear when we will be seeing her again because she will, likely, spend next summer in DC. So, it’s been a flurry of grabbing time together and also trying to get important details pulled together and paperwork done. Today, one of my sisters flies in to spend the day with her and to visit with the rest of us. After tomorrow night, it will be time for me to focus on all that’s needed to get JJ ready to leave for the school year. He’ll be going to school a week early for soccer camp. The Dr. gave him the go-ahead to restart regular activity, but to listen to his body and to watch his knee. I’m also getting the school lists together so that everyone is outfitted and supplied and ready to get back to school in early Sept.

There’s been a lot to think about!

Yesterday we celebrated, albeit long-distance, Clay’s 40th birthday. The girls baked a cake and we were all able to talk to him via Skype, to wish him a happy start to his new decade.

I’m relishing the fact that I get to stay in my 30′s for a couple more years and tease him about being so old!

So, lots going on in this house. Lots of hugs and kisses to pass around and hold onto and many plans for using the computer to keep in touch while we are apart.

Have a great day~

What a great, full and exhausting weekend! It’s taken me this long to be able to get my bearings enough to even write about it.

I got to start my weekend on Thursday night, by flying up to Washington state to meet up with a good friend, spend the night and then the 2 of us would head to the concert.  I had already had a regular M.O.M. day at home…wake-up @ 4:15, morning routine, took kids to the beach, packed, etc. Now, here I am in another state at 9pm and I’m feeling my second wind!  We started talking, drinking wine and laughing our heads off.  Then we decided a movie was in order.  So…2:30 am rolls around and it’s suddenly time for bed. Yikes!  We spent Friday driving…and driving…and driving some more.  We finally got checked into our hotel and headed to the concert.  We were like giggly school girls! I had forgotten to bring my iPod adapter of the car, so we each had an ear bud and laid the iPod between us (shhhhh…I’m not sure this is the BEST way to drive!). By the time we got to the concert, we had visited many songs that we hoped we’d hear and had decided that Maggie May would, most likely be the encore. We found our seats and settled in.  After the first few songs we realized that we had purchased tickets in the “Please Don’t Act Like You Want To Be Here” section.  Seriously! The whole place was having a great time and we were surrounded by serious-faced, arms-crossed, cotton-in-ears, old fogies! It made us giggle which was REALLY not appreciated.  We were even called “Very rude, young ladies”. Yeah, that made us giggle even more!  But, the concert was GREAT!!!!  Pilar had liked Rod’s music before but I do believe that now she is a bona fide FAN. Yes!!! As for me, well, I was caught swooning…just a little. And we called it correctly, Maggie May was, if fact, the encore.  ~sigh~ I can’t wait until I can go again!

But then it was onto the Dance of the Weekend! We drove back to the hotel, listened to a man across the hall yelling and yelling and yelling and finally fell asleep with the music of the night playing through our heads. A few hours later it was up and out to the airport so I could head to Sacramento and revisit my high school days.  My 20 year reunion had arrived. 20 years!

I gave that reunion a lot of thought. I wasn’t sure how I felt about the whole thing.  Yes, there were people I wanted to catch up with, but so much time had passed and my life had been so full over those years.  I got married, had 8 more kiddos (I delivered Kateri in April of my graduating year, so everyone knew I had at least one kiddo), lived in 3 states, started Mommy of Many, etc. etc. Who were these people and were we going to have anything to talk about?  When I think back to high school, I really don’t get the warm, fuzzy feelings that I hear a lot of people talk about.  I always felt like I was struggling through each day.  The school work seemed to overwhelm me and the social aspect was a game I didn’t always understand the rules to.  But, something inside me still wanted to go and give it a try.

I must say, I’m glad I did! Yes, a lot of time has passed and a lot of life has been lived, but we were a room full of people who had shared (however loosely) a few years of our lives in the same place. There were many faces that instantly brought back memories. There were people whom I had forgotten had touched my life.  I enjoyed conversation with a couple of people who I am sure I had never had a conversation with before.  All-in-all, it was a really nice night and I’m glad that I carved out the time to go.  I look forward to keeping in touch with some of the people that I was able to reconnect with. Unfortunately it didn’t work out for me to have my kids with me for the family picnic that was the next day.  I needed to get to the airport and head home!

My kiddos had been home and under the guidance and competent supervision of Kateri.  But I think everyone’s patience and tolerance was wearing thin.  It was time for Mom to get home and get things back in order.  I got in, had a cup of coffee with Kateri and braced myself for all the happy bombardment of being home.  Whew!

What a great, whirlwind of a weekend! I now feel a little more connected with my past and the people who were a part of it and am ready for the VERY NEXT Rod Stewart concert that I can manage to get to. Good Stuff!

Have a great day~

Yesterday was the very last day of school for this 08-09 school year.  

What a year!  

Seriously, it’s been a year of schooling unlike any other for our family. Last summer I made the decision to pull my 4 kids from the private school that we had been in for 8 years.  The decision was HARD but had many reasons behind it.  One of the kids wasn’t going to be able to go back because of some math challenges, so I pulled everyone.  What a whirlwind path that set us on!  I started the year by enrolling the two 7th grade girls in a homeschool program that had them on campus a couple of days a week for spanish, computers and science.  I enrolled the 2 boys in the local public school.  By November we had one of the 7th graders back at the Catholic school and the other enrolled in the local middle school.  After Christmas break both boys went back to the Catholic school.  And finally, after Easter break, the other 7th grader went back to the Catholic school.  The child with math challenges worked REALLY hard and ended the year with a C. With all the changes and challenges, I’m so proud of how well all of the kids did this year.  It was all crazy, but it was a “live and learn” situation.  I learned that you get what you pay for and that we can not match the level of education that the kids were used to at the Catholic school.  I also saw, very quickly, that there was so much more that they were getting from that environment.  There’s a sense of self-respect and accountability that is maintained by learning in a faith-based school.  

Lesson learned! ( I supposed I should add this to the Learning Lessons Series) Next year I will have 6 kiddos at the school, 2 8th graders, a 4th grader, a 1st grader and 2 preschoolers.  I will also be there everyday as an aide in the 4 yr. old preschool class that Gabi is not in.  Wow!  7 of us in one place everyday!  

Well, here’s to the end of a crazy, but successful school year and to the beginning of summer! 

Have a great day~

I felt like this was a good example of how we make things work around here-

The other morning, Clay was making the lunches and let me know that we were out of bread (of course it was the morning of the day that I was going grocery shopping, so there wasn’t a lot to work with).  I told him to grab the tortillas and cheese and make quesadillas.  There weren’t any flour tortillas.  Hmmmm…….what to do?  I looked in the fridge, saw that we had the small, corn tortillas, grabbed them and the cheese and headed to the stove-top.  I lightly toasted the tortillas over the flame of the gas burner and then added some thinly, sliced cheese, folded each one over and VOILA!  Lunch was ready to be packed.  

Of course, as soon as the kids were delivered to the school, I headed to the grocery store.  We are now fully stocked, once again.

Have a great day~