Today

Well I woke up ready for my dear husband to be home but alas it wasn't to be. He was stuck in Hawaii and I was stuck with a pile of strange looking parts that was supposed to make a rocket. Oh Rocket Derby days and the cub scout patch that goes with it. I really like earning the patches, I mean I really like seeing Mason earn the patches. It really has become somewhat of a challenge. Anyway, with Gary not being home I was in a bit of panic so I called my neighbor asking to speak with the man of the house, he is very smart person and I was sure he was capable of building Mason a rocket. Well much to my surprise it was his wife and my good friend who loves to bake cakes and knit that was apparently the rocket expert! Who would have known? This post is to thank her for saving my bacon and getting a pretty cool rocket into the air. It was fun, I think we will invest in a rocket kit to get started. It broke my heart that daddy wasn't there for Mason. We called him and I heard Mason tell him that he overheard another boys dad telling him what great job he was doing and he wished that his dad was there to encourage him. HHHHHH knife in the heart. It is our life and I should be used to it by now.

Rocket Derby days and other funness

These pictures are backwards, this was the last picture, after the second launch it kinda fizzled

Mason chasing his rocket

This is her, we named this rocket Aubrey in honor of the dear friend that rescued me from hours of reading instructions and most likely messing it up!

Mason getting ready to launch

It was very fun!

Pack 360 Rocket Derby days

Abby fell asleep with all her friends surrounding her, I found her like this.

in the same room I found nettie had taken her pillow case off and was sleeping in it.

The boy cry of the wild

boys will be boys, the random tribal scream we all love

belly bonking, so fun

Just thinking

First westside Ethio group play date, Mason and a new friend Wendanoggin (not the correct pronuciation of his name.)

netties severe dissapointment that I won't let her wear snow boots and carry a gold purse to go hiking.

Crispy Rice and Noodles

Well as some of you have heard my day I will officially record it anyway so that my children know why mom went mad at a young age.

It started off with me taking Judah out of school and preparing for a dermatology appointment that I was apparently one week early for, but that is great because I have been late to just about everything else, if not I have all togethe forgotten it. Look when I say prepared I mean it, like down to my underwear. You know you don't want to get caught off guard like the last time I had to take all my kids to the dermatologist and they had me get undressed then dawn a paper robe which the kids lovingly called "the paper towel that mom had to wear" I heard about that for weeks following the full body exam. Ya. So this time I was prepared, I wore exercise shorts that I could easily hike up if I needed. No need to expose myself this time, Hu, ha!! Well in the end it didn't matter as the appointment isn't until next week.

Highlights of my day were

Mason and Abby going out to our back yard and wetting each other with the hose then proceeding to throw "Crispy Rice" cereal to their wet little bodies topping off the do with wet noodles<> Abby came in looking like a rice crispy treat. Or should I say a "Crispy Rice Treat", (yes we buy generic, less sugar)

Then I ended up punishing Abby for something she didn't do. I felt like a jerk. I caught the three younger ones running around the house in their undies and Judah just going all out flashing Mason in the front room. I figured Abby was the ring leader of this so...

In the end Abby was playing a game called "spy girls" and she figured since our walls were off white and she was off white she could remove her clothes and camouflage into the walls where she would then be in stealth mode. She later told me she definately thought she should leave her undies on. Nettie obviously being brown didn't follow Abby's brilliant logic of stripping down and sliding back against the walls hidden, to spy on the rest of the family she just thought they were dancing. Judah, well who knows what he got out of the whole thing, oh ya, big trouble for taking all of that non sense to the next level and running thought the house streaking and screaming "Shake my bootie!" he must have had a huge misunderstanding on the recon.

Abbyism

Well today my mom watched the kids while G and I met with our Pastor. When we picked them up they were hopped up on animal crackers and Sprite, ( Apparently the water wasn't fit for Ya Ya's babies so she hydrated them with the good stuff, soda) As we headed home I was kinda getting on to Gary about how he should not have eaten three cookies in front of me seeing as how I have to be on a diabetic diet, I guess I was a bit naggy telling him it wasn't easy and he just didn't understand what I was going through, I am sure all he heard was "Wha Wha Wha Wha Wha" When in the middle of my of my much needed spousal disertation, darling Abby pipes up "Oh mom build a bridge and get over it." Gary almost ran the car off the freeway laughing, and all I could do was look back at the very child I birthed, I mean at home, no pills, no nothing, 9 1/2 pounds! and think this same little girl just told me to get over it! When I gathered myself enough compose a sentence I asked her where on earth did she learn that? "Oh ya ya told it to me"

Thanks mom.

Mason's Artistic mind

We have been studying Art History, and upon reviewing a painting that was both beautiful and scary one question I had to ask Mason was "So what do you know in your life that is both beautiful and scary?" He paused momentarily and said with a coy grin "YOU!"

Nice.

Finally surrendered to the dreaded scheadual

Well last night I finally did it. I made a schedule. Oh gack, the horror. ! This is not my comfort zone at all but more and more I find to homeschool and run this house it is going to have to be tight, no leaks. I am pretty much a single parent half the month and I am finding it to take it's toll. I think if the kids know what to expect then we can better stay on task.

So far I haven't actually done it yet. I would require me to get up at six and wake the kids at seven. I don't ever wake my kids up, I let them sleep. In my defense though I took a night time cold pill because I felt a horrible head infection coming on and I am still groggy. So here it is nine and we haven't really started our day. I do manage to get everything done but I think to be more efficient it will have to be better planned. Life is getting to busy and complicated to just "wing it" anymore. I guess this transition is not so different from when I realized I had to "cook" dinner every night. When the Mason was little and just ate baby food I didn't have worry about that. I guess this is part of life and homeschool.

I am assigning chores, requiring beds to be made, doing an AM clean up and a PM clean up with one "quick clean" during the day. Family time will be added as well as a strict homeschool day. So I will let you know if this hedonist can change.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

update

Well hopefully this post, with much typos I am sure as I am doing this in a hurry.

I have tried to post pictures of Christmas but for some reason this blog is experiencing some
"technical difficulty"

I have to blog these little things or I will forget, this blog is kept for my kids and my husband so that he can keep up with us.

Nettie came to me the other day in her angel dress up clothes, a cute white costume with wings on the back. She asked me to please put batteries in it so that she could fly around the house. I laughed so hard. She was serious as she could be and couldn't understand how batteries wouldn't make her fly.

I like homeschool for many reasons. The biggest is that I can instill values in the children with the time I am blessed to have. I want them to exercise compassion and mercy and to learn that Jesus loves us all from the inside out, not the other way around. So this morning we made caramel apples for breakfast and had a good long talk about life. It was so nice to just sit and talk with them listening. It could have been the caramel that practically glued their mouths shut but hey it worked.

I spoke to them of times I was able to show mercy to people who were "different" and to always stand up for the hurt and the broken and the beat down even if it meant you were going to be teased. My mom taught this to me and I am passing this down to them. I told them the same stories my mom told me as a child when she stuck up for kids who were the "underdog" and I was able to add my own life experience as well. This was all based on the fact that Abby was the target of an insecure child's remarks and I could tell it confused her. She is not used to girls acting that way, most of her friends are boys and she has never been in school. I was able to carve out a good chunk of our morning addressing these issues and before any "mean" kids could steal these lessons away it is my hope that they will be confident before they are "thrown into the lions den" They will go to the lions den and they will be teased but it is my hope that they will be in the world and not part of it. It is my hope that they will have the character from a young age and the protection to grow character so that when the world hurls ugliness at them they can respond with confidence and love.

All of this to be said because I must say that after 6 months Nettie really is understanding our conversations. She told me that with the most serious looks that she remembers when she was blind, and she had no legs or arms and she was cut on her stomach, and that someone kicked her in the (boys private part) which I thought was amazing because she doesn't have one of those! and she couldn't work and had nothing. I held back laughter at her dramatic nature. She proceeded to tell me that kids were laughing at her and that "nini" (her grandmother) came to her and said "Oh Nettie what has happened to this life?" and she imitated how she responded and said in her most feeble voice "Oh who is there?" she proceeded to reach in front of her, feeling the air and said "I cannot see who is there?" I busted up laughing at the sheer drama of the whole thing. This little girl has the potential to be an Oscar winner. Everything she does is dramatic!

So that is what I am dealing with today. Friday. Gary is surfing in Hawaii, going to breakfast after he goes to the gym and then he is having dinner with an old friend of his. I am still in my PJ's, it is noon and the thought of making lunch and dinner is daunting, never mind all the homeschool I have to do today. The house is a mess and there is laundry piled to the ceiling. La vida loca.