Kids are really funny. Other people's that is.

I overheard part of a conversation while I was at Target today in the next aisle over.  This is how it went:

Daughter: I'll stop whining when you buy it for me.

Mom: You have it backwards.  You stop whining or I don't buy it for you.

(silence)

Daughter: But I reeeaalllllly waaaant it, Moooooooommmm.

Mom: See, you're whining again. (starts to walk away)

Daughter: Okaaaay, Okaaay, I'll stop whiiiiiniiing!

I didn't hear what happened after that because I was laughing to myself as I walked away. Parenting is such a trip.

BYOB (&P)

Sam just checked in for a red-eye flight to New York for a meeting he has tomorrow morning. Because of other commitments he had this week, he had to do the red-eye and only spend the day in New York (otherwise you can be SURE I would have been going with him!!!).  He's already tired from a full day and he gets on the plane and finds out that they CHARGE $10 for pillows and blankets.  What?  A paper thin blanket and miniscule pillow and he's got to hand over money for it?  Wow.  That's some serious racketeering on a red-eye flight with people desperate to sleep. Apparently it's BYOB (&P) on this airline.  Do you have to bring your own jet fuel too?

Book lists. A quick and easy way to torment your kids.

I am trying to come up with book lists for the summer for each of the kids.  They are so very excited about this.  I just want to make sure that they are not only reading brain candy and that some good solid literature goes into their heads so that come Fall they aren't the equivalent of the Scarecrow in Wizard of Oz.  Some kids, who shall remain nameless, are more resistant than others.  One wants to know if I can include only ghost stories on their particular list.  I think someone is missing the point.  Oh, you only want ghost stories?  Well, in that case how about  I only require you to read comic books?  Or just the picture captions in magazines?  Or we could just turn the subtitles on when you watch a movie and you can read those? I clearly have my work cut out for me.  A mother's torture work is never done.  

(Feel free to let me know what your favorite book (that is not a comic) was and maybe it will make it onto the list.)

Ok, fine. I guess.

Because Andrea asked so nicely, I'll try to keep blogging.  Key word: TRY.  

Maybe someday I'll come back to this...

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that I just don't really come around here much.  I've found a new love...facebook...and so this blog seems to have gone the way of cassette tapes and quill pens.  But, maybe, every once in a while, I'll get the urge to write something here again.  Who knows.  It could happen.  At least I changed the background to give you something fun to look at!

Notice anything about this?

No, you're not missing anything.  There is NOTHING on it.  Weird.  I'm not really sure what to do with myself.  I did some laundry and am sort of puttering around.  That's right--PUTTERING!  This is sad, people. I am lacking direction!  I need appointments, places to drive the kids to.  Something.  Anything!  Clearly I am desperate because I am blogging!!  Someone get me an appointment!  STAT!

A mom's got to do what a mom's got to do

I remind and remind and remind.  And when that doesn't work, this usually does.

Miraculously there wasn't a single dish left out this morning when the kids left.  AND they wiped the counters after they made a mess.  I guess I don't need to order that Taser.

Flag Football anyone?

This is what happens when you play flag football at school and don't tuck your shirt in.  Oh, wait, not your shirt, your sister's because you wore it on accident.  And let's remember that this is a uniform shirt from Land's End that costs just a wee bit more than a t-shirt off the rack at Wal-mart.  Yay.  

Rachel's dance

Last night was the Father/Daughter dance at Rachel's school.  Last year she and Sam went and had a wonderful time.  They got all dressed up and danced the night away.  Sadly, this year Sam is off gallivanting in Dubai and was unable to take her.  She and her friend Aubrey decided that non-attendance was just not acceptable and that Rachel must go.  So Aubrey asked her parents if it was ok if Rachel came along with her and her dad and sister.  Mike very kindly agreed to take Rachel with them.  She spends a lot of time at Aubrey's house so she's like a 3rd daughter some days anyway! So, Emily helped Rachel get her outfit together and did her hair and off Rachel went to Aubrey's.  Mike was so sweet.  He went out their garage and came up to their front door to pick up his dates.  He brought each of them a wrist corsage of red roses--that he made himself!--and Kristin grilled him on the time he would have the girls back home.  Rachel loved it.  She loved getting to be with her best friend Aubrey and not having to miss the dance.  And she especially loved her wrist corsage.  Thanks Mike!  You rock!!

The end of an era

Well, it happened.  I hit the wall.  I ran out of gas.  I finally cried Uncle! Of course, many days it felt like I literally hit a wall, but I meant that figuratively.  So, without further ado....drumroll please.....starting tomorrow my friend Tommy will be rejoining the World of Academia! Everyone out of your seats to do the Goin' to School Dance!!!  (you'll need to provide your own music and/or sound effects) I don't know who is more excited--me or him!

He will be attending Bios Christian Academy (where Katya goes to school).  It is a great school and they are well prepared for him.  The principal and his wife (who teaches there too) adopted an older child a few years back who displayed many of the same characteristics as Tommy does. So, they'll be able to handle him quite well.  I think he will find them, shall we say, less than accommodating for his errant behaviors.  

What will I do with all of my "extra" time??  Maybe I'll take up painting.  Nah.  Actually go to the gym again?  Maybe.  Stay ahead of the laundry?  Not likely.  Enjoy my time with Emily?Absolutely.  Rejoice because I won't have to go 20 rounds with Tommy faking confusion on an assignment?  You can count on it!  He really took his act to the absurd some days.  And my heart and soul were growing more and more weary as a result of the constant battle. Thankfully our friends at Bios are willing to stand with us and help us point Tommy to Christ and give me the respite I need to be stronger to continue his training at 3:30 each day.

Sadly, there will be fewer Tommy stories.  Although they were growing fewer already because they were getting so repetitive!  I am confident that some very interesting stories will be coming home from school though and I will be glad to share those with you and record them for posterity.  And of course, he'll still be here after school and on weekends which is sure to provide hours of entertainment for one and all.  

So, tonight I feel a little like the Israelites getting ready to enter the Promised Land.  There will still be rough patches, but to be able to rest from our wanderings in the Wilderness of Tommy's Rebellion will be a wonderful thing!!  And I want to publicly thank my husband for allowing Tommy to go to school.  He has blessed me by making this choice solely for my benefit and I am very thankful for that lovingkindness!  You, Sam, are an exceptional man! 

The Plus Side

A totally unexpected side benefit of having Tommy home this year has been that his shoes have become like the Energizer Bunny--they keep going and going and going!!  He had been blazing through shoes at school at lightning speed since he is what you would call an "active" boy at recess.  He is not content to sit and play a quiet game of four square.  No, he must be diving and rolling and racing at top speeds.  And his shoes reflected that level of activity.  He usually came bursting out of them after about 6 weeks, much to my chagrin.  And when I say "bursting" I mean that literally.  They looked like they had been to war and back.   And now, at home, with no soccer game to join at lunch in the backyard, he is in the same pair he got in September.  I'm going to actually have to check to see if he is outgrowing them.  Another fun and exciting experience we would never have gotten to experience if he wasn't home with me.  So, I've got that going for me, which is good.

God and Donuts

I got a day off from Tommy today.  That sounds terrible when I read it back, but it's true and even he knows it.  So there it is.  Some friends offered to take him for the day so I could return to some level of sanity after a four day binge of rebelliousness he has been on.  All while Sam is out of town leaving me with no backup.  I'm definitely feeling better.  I got to spend some time at Dunkin Donuts this morning sipping a white hot chocolate and chomping on some yummy donuts!  Chocolate cake and strawberry frosted with sprinkles!  Yum!  DD is hands down my favorite donut place--way better than Krispy Kreme.  Cake donuts rock!  And I don't go there often enough.  Which I suppose is what made it such a nice treat this morning.  Too many donuts make the senses dull and the backside bigger.  So, I'm thinking it's a good idea to limit my visits. 

I spent some time in Psalms while I munched and sipped.  And God reminded me that He will fill me spiritually just like my yummy, fatty donut did physically--but much longer lasting for sure.  I am so thankful for that.  God has been so gracious to give me the strength and patience to deal with my little Tomster.  And He promises to continue and be the donut of my soul! How cool is that!!  And I don't have to limit my intake of God donuts!  

I'm convinced my house in Heaven is going to have a donut shop--with only CAKE donuts--right next door. That's where Jesus and I will hang out.  

On a percentage basis

I was just discussing lying with Tommy.  I asked him about how much he lies vs. telling the truth. I asked if it was 50/50 or if it was more 75/25 and he replied:

"It's 21% truth.  I lie way more than I tell the truth."

And before you think he's just being a cute youngster and has to be overstating his lying out of ignorance, I just want you to know that he has a full working knowledge of percentages and that is probably an accurate statistic.  Sad but true.  Which further explains the twitch in my right eye.

Favorite line

Here is my favorite comment from watching the Inauguration Day proceedings.  After the luncheon at the Capitol when President Obama was getting into the limo to start the parade, Brian Williams from NBC said, "I bet he's jonesing for a piece of Nicorette gum right about now." (And then when they zoomed in on Obama in the car you could see him clearly chewing a piece of gum!) Really, how often do you hear a newscaster talk about the President "jonesing" for something???  Not too often, I'm guessing.

Just Being a Home School Mom

Yesterday I was a total homeschool mom.  We made something that went with the literature curriculum!  Historical cooking!  Extra points for me! A reason to use exclamation points!

Anyway, Tommy read a book called The Sign of the Beaver and one of the activities we could do was make Johnnycakes (cornmeal pancakes).  Usually we don't do the extra activities because either I don't feel like it, Tommy is in "Tommy Jail" because of his behavior, or (if it's a food project) it has flour in it.  But this one, I was in the mood for a fun project (cause it was simple!), Tommy was out on bail, and it was flourless!  This was clearly our project.  So we made Johnnycakes and Tommy and Emily ate them for lunch (I tried them but wasn't thrilled so T got mine).  He was very excited (probably because we don't usually do things like this because of his poor behavior!) and wants to make them for breakfast and lunch and dinner every day.  Not happening.

This one's for Walter

I'm trying to post more because my friend Walter tells me that I don't post things often enough. So, I sat down purposefully to write just for Walter's sake.  That's just me.  Serve, serve, serve.

Let's see, what's going on....OH!  I forgot to tell you that Emily is now at home and doing the online charter school that Tommy does.  Hers is a bit different because it's high school as opposed to elementary.  Elementary is more like traditional home schooling without the prep work (they do it all!) but Em has individual teachers and has to turn in her work to them.  Which is nice for me 'cause I don't have to do anything except log her attendance hours.  So far it is going very well.  Except for a few outbursts against the "stupid computer" every once in a while when it is not working properly.  (Technology-friend and foe all at the same time)  I am really enjoying having her home with me. It balances out the insanity package that Tommy brings with him.

Other than that we are in the midst of basketball season for Katya, soccer for Noah and school musical practice and Girl Scouts for Rachel.  Rachel can't seem to limit herself to just one activity.  She'd have more if we let her.  She says it's in my best interests to have her over-involved because then I don't have to worry about her being bored and nagging me about coming up with something for her to do.  So selfless.

Girl's Best Friend

Last night I was looking for Macy (the Wonder Dog) before I went to bed.  I have accidentally left her outside before and so I now have the habit of checking to see where she is so it doesn't happen again.  I checked the boys' room and Emily's room before peeking in to the girls' room. At first glance I didn't see her but then I realized that there was something next to Rachel instead of curled up at her feet.   When I got closer this is what I found:

A girl and her dog having a sleepover.  Macy was still awake.  She must have been bummed that Rachel fell asleep during their girl talk.

25 vs 1

Today I worked in a 3rd grade class.  Why is it that a class full of 3rd graders is so much easier than my own 3rd grader?  Well, perhaps it is because my precious little Tomster has decided it is his life's mission to frustrate me as much as is humanly possible so that I will put him back in school.  Seriously, that's his plan.  Most kids his age don't have a "Master Plan," but I guess that's what makes him "special."  Thankfully I have the Holy Spirit residing in me and it allows me to exhibit more patience than I know I possess many days.  Like this week when I had Tommy redo a math page and he put the exact same wrong answers down each time--6 times in a row!--for the sole purpose of seeing my eye twitch.  He was willing to spend hours rewriting his wrong answers in order to try to send me over the edge.  But, praise God, I was surprisingly patient each time I had to have him redo it and in the end he decided to confess his foolishness and stop.  There are unfortunately bad days though when he hits his mark and I am ultra frustrated with his antics.  Those are the days when I think, "You know that move that Darth Vader can do where he chokes people without even touching them?  Tommy should be glad I can't do that." 

Noah extreme sledding

This was a sweet run Noah had down a long, steep sled run.  I was glad I had grabbed my camera since he inadvertently did a bit of trick sledding at the end when he switched to his knees from his stomach midair.  

Skatesnowboarding

Here is Tommy "snowboarding" down the hill.  You have to read my post to hear the "rest of the story."

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

We went up to Flagstaff last weekend to play in the snow.  Well, for the kids and Sam to play in the snow and for me to watch and take pictures.  Somehow I became the mom that sits on the sidelines and watches much of the kids' activities.  I guess that came along as a side effect of having breast cancer, leukemia and just plain ol' getting old.  Thankfully Sam is still game to sled with them 'cause he's just getting old without the exciting diseases and medicine on top of that.  Lucky.  

The kids had a fantastic time and there was a ton of snow.  It was cold too--in the 20's and teens a couple of days/nights!  But when you live in the desert it is way fun to get to play in snow so they spent as much time in it as they could.  Thankfully we had a coffee maker in the room and could heat up water for hot chocolate.  A lot.

Of course no trip would be complete without a few snags.  First off, we arrived and discovered rather quickly that "someone" had forgotten to pack Sam's winter coat.  I was responsible for packing for myself AND the 5 children AND acquiring snow gear for everyone AND packing the food AND making sure the dog was taken care of so I'm quite certain that "someone" wasn't me. Thankfully I had stuck an extra coat in the car for the kids and it mostly fit Sam (except in the sleeves) so he had something he could wear besides a sweatshirt.  

Second snag, the website for the hotel we stayed at said that there was a microwave in the room so I brought some soup and whatnot to feed Tommy "Mr. Gluten Free" when we ordered pizza for dinner.  We discovered that to be incorrect when we arrived.  But I discovered that if you put soup in the coffee pot and leave it there for a long time it eventually gets hot.  You just can't be really, really hungry to use this method of cooking.  I also used the coffee pot/stove/oven to prepare some oatmeal and grits for breakfast.  I had to do the grits (for Mr. GF again) the same way as the soup because they unfortunately weren't "instant" and I couldn't just add hot water like I was thinking.  In the end I spent a good portion of the weekend in my "mini kitchen."  I felt sort of like Bear Grylls on Man v. Wild making soup out of whatever I could find and being ultra resourceful.  Sort of.

The final snag involved Tommy.  He was having a great time sledding on Friday and again on Saturday.  On Saturday he pulled out the wheelless skateboard that our neighbors had used to play in the snow the weekend before and decided to "snowboard."  He actually did quite well on it for about an hour.  And I just have to say that whenever I have actually worried that he would get hurt he never, ever has.  This time I wasn't worried.  That should have been when warning bells went off.  As I said, after about an hour he had one fateful run down the sled hill and as he flew off the board, hit the ground and just laid there.  His brother Noah, ever the sensitive one, checked on him and declared that he had just had the wind knocked out of him.  Noah tried to drag him up off the ground and then Katya went over and held him.  Sam was sliding down the hill toward him at this point to check on him.  When he got there, Emily had him in her lap cuddling him.  We got him over to the side and found out that he had landed on his arm funny and it really hurt.  One thing you need to know about Tommy is that he does not get hurt easily. I took one look at his face and I knew this wasn't just a bruise.  So, we packed everyone up to go back to the hotel to play in the snow (the other kids of course, not me) and Sam went off to the ER with Tommy for a few hours of reading time with the 25 other sledding injuries that day.  In the end he scored his first fracture!   Woo hoo!  It was a minor buckle fracture and they put a fiberglass splint on it.  We have a follow up on Monday with our doctor to see how much longer he needs to wear it.  His first question:  What will we do about school since it's my right hand?  I assured him that we would be able to work around it and still get school done.  He was bummed.

Here's a few pictures from our weekend.  Unfortunately I didn't record the fateful run down the hill or I would absolutely post it for you. I did snap some pictures of the aftermath with his siblings fawning all over him.

.

Sam is lucky our kids are getting big enough that he can wear a jacket that they can wear!  YOu can't even tell that it's too small for him from here!

Playing in the snow at the hotel

Warming up at the hotel!

Tommy with his former friend the skateboard.

Noah, convinced that he just needed to get up and shake it off.

Katya's turn.

Now it's Emily's turn.  I'm sure in the midst of his pain he was quite pleased to have all of that fawning.  Quite pleased.