Good day

Girlfriends


I had lunch with my best girlfriends today (insert big smiles here). It was wonderful to see them and laugh with them and just be together. We don't get together nearly enough. They are real and honest and so much fun and I love them. The end.

Firstborn

The firstborn. The pride and joy. The heartthrob and heartache. The most spoiled. The most anticipated. The biggest brother. The first son. The first teenager.

Oh, this boy, this headstrong teenager who is determined to prove his decisions are right, who wants to be a grown up but is still a boy, he is testing me in ways I cannot explain.

This whole parenting a teenager thing is a whole new world to me and I have to say, it's not my favorite phase BY FAR!

I mean, where is the manual? How do I do this?

I'm sure it is different for every parent, but please tell me that it is a struggle to some extent for everyone and that it doesn't last long and that I will survive?! So many people sugarcoat things and honestly who does that help? I need people to be real, to share struggles. Not that I don't want to hear and share in joys and accomplishments, I do, but I also want to know that your teenage boys mouth off and don't turn in homework and don't wear winter coats. You know what I mean.

When my now 13 year old was a baby, I stayed home with him and every little struggle that we encountered seemed like a monumental catastrophe; potty training, tantrums, hitting...until I joined a mom's group and found out that other little boys were doing the same things and, wait for it, doing things that were way worse than mine. Ah, he's normal and I'm not the only one who's struggling.

Fast forward 13 years. People don't share. Maybe because 13 year olds don't like play groups anymore and mom's don't get together much because we are so busy running our children to practices and school events. I don't know, but it just feels kind of lonely.

Some experienced moms and teachers do offer up some advice, but most of it goes like this, 'Oh, teen years are terrible. It can last for 1 year or 5 years or they eventually move out'! Ahhh! Some of it though is good and real and I just soak that up.

So, I read books about boys and teens and parenting and listen to anyone willing to share, email teachers and coaches, arrange conferences, check homework, check texts, check bookbags, worry, and pray a lot.

I love the picture I posted. I love that smile. I love that boy.

Happy Fox in Sox Day

Grant's class is celebrating Dr. Suess's birthday all week and today is Fox in Sox day. The kids had to wear crazy socks. He picked a Christmas sock and an Ohio state sock (which I had to mend before school). He loves festive socks ;-) so this is perfect for him.

Another one bites the dust

Matt's got 'the fever' now. The boys are feeling better except for their stuffy noses and, so far, I'm ok...I can't get sick, I've got laundry to do and things to disinfect.

On a totally unrelated topic, does anyone else have stink bugs invading their homes? I've just flicked the third one of the day out the door. Gross! I'm afraid to kill them because that's when they stink, so I flick them outside. We laugh at the thought of those flicked bugs just turning right around and coming back on inside.

Doesn't my home sound like a lovely place to visit? Germs and stink bugs...ahh paradise ;-)

Three down

Jack woke up Sunday morning with a high fever so he and I headed into children's hospital because of his neutropenia (low white blood counts). He had tests run which were negative and his blood counts came back above average so he was discharged and we came back home for r and r. He was fever free today, sore throat and headache, but feeling much better.

Monday, today, Jack and I hung out at home. Matt had the other boys out to Mt. Gilead and then the farm and texted me around 1:00 that Dylan wasn't feeling well and was asleep at the farm- headache. I'm thinking maybe a sinus infection...

Fast forward to this evening. We got the kids to bed and medicated and everyone was comfortable...or so we thought. 9:30 Grant came downstairs crying about a stomachache and proceeded to throw up.

Ahhhh!

They don't have school tomorrow so hopefully everyone will rest and recover and, please Lord, not spread around the stomach flu.

Socks

This is what we wake up to every morning.


Lily with someone's random sock in her mouth waiting to go outside. Look at that tail waggin'!


I'm not sure why she tries to take a sock out with her, but she is persistent. We tell her to drop and she bows her head and drops the sock by the door in defeat :-(


Now she's in and Grant is trying to entertain her with some furry friends.


She is not amused, she just wants her sock back.

Shhh, don't tell

Night before valentines day prep-








Matt thinks I'm totally ridiculous, he's just jealous that I didn't make a mailbox for him ;-)
Happy valentines day eve!

Centerpieces

Last night, myself and about nine other ladies put together the centerpieces for the Candyland Ball.


We put dum dum suckers into styrofoam balls and set them on vases. Each ball took 200-300 suckers and we made 28 bouquets! Aren't they cute?! Now we just have to weigh down the vases because those 'suckers' are heavy.

Valentine's day prep

We've been baking some Valentine cookies but I don't think they'll last until Thursday.


The younger boys have been making their Valentines for school. Grant decided to make hedgehog Valentines since his class just finished The Mitten by Jan Brett. We found a picture on pinterest by coolmompicks.com and cut out our own.





We worked a little bit every night, he loves to craft :-)

And Jack wanted to use some of the erasers that everyone is collecting these days so I found some erasers at target and he came up with the saying 'Have a treat on me for Valentine's Day'.





I was busy making a few little valentines of my own. I read a blog post on Beneath My Heart about 'sock cupcakes' and made my own version for the boy's teachers.


I bought some fuzzy slipper socks at target, rolled them up, wrapped paper around them with a ribbon and a tag that reads 'a sweet treat for your feet, happy valentines day.' Oh, and I stitched a little pompom on the top like a cherry ;-)

I'm also prepping for Jack's classroom party.

I'm just hoping my littlest valentine feels better. He's been on the couch all day with a fever and sore throat :-(


Daddy's taking him in tomorrow for another strep test. Poor baby.

Preschool comment

Yesterday at preschool when we turned on the 'clean up' music, a little 3 year old boy yelled, "Well God almighty, I can't believe it's time to clean up already!"

Happy Friday!

Zumbathon

I danced my you-know-what off at a Zumbathon last Saturday. It was a fundraiser or ALS. A past instructor had a brother in law suffering with this debilitating disease and he passed away two days before the event. It is a devastating disease and took his life only 6 weeks after he was finally diagnosed. He loved to dance, so we danced and danced and danced. It was a sad cause but we had a lot of fun. There was a lot of tushy shaking, ab crunching, and even the tango! There's just something special about a group of women coming together to dance, sweat, and laugh (at ourselves mostly), and if it's for a friend, then it's all the more perfect.


On a side note, one of the guest instructors scared the heck out of me. I never saw anyone shake their butt so hard or so fierce before all the while wearing combat boots and a leather studded belt with her very small leather shorts. And the look on her face...well I tried my hardest to keep up because I was a little afraid.
Spandex, workout gear and tennis shoes - good.
Leather shorts, combat boots, and studded belts-bad.

Sledding

The little boys have been begging me to take them sledding after school and I always have an excuse because, frankly, I'm tired and I don't like to be cold. But today, I decided to go ahead and take them sledding at the golf course. They had the whole hill to themselves and had a blast.


















It was fun, I kept myself warm by climbing the hill and racing them down. Grant was singing 'this was the best day ever' on the way to the car. I'm glad I braved the cold and exhaustion, it was well worth it :-)

Superbowl

The Ravens weren't the only ones to be nearly upset during the Superbowl.
First off, the children's choir from Sandy Hook had me in tears before they even opened their darling mouths to sing.
Then, when Alicia Keyes was singing the national anthem, I looked over and Grant had his hand on his heart (tissue please).
Oh, then the big ol' football players with the tears running down their faces after the anthem, that kept my tears right on coming.
I mumbled something inaudible to Jack and Grant about America and hard work and football and they looked a little worried about my mental state.
Wait, there's more.
The commercials were brutal.
I liked the Jeep commercial narrated by Oprah about our soldiers AND my favorite was the Ram truck commercial about farmers, oh, I loved that one. My judgement, by the way, was based solely on the amount of water coming out of my eyes.
I was spent by the time the fourth quarter was over, then they showed that poor 49er sitting on his bench after the loss with the confetti streaming down-waaaa.
At that point, I couldn't take anymore, I collected my tissues and went to bed.

Afternoon project

I tackled my sewing/craft/wrapping/ironing/project area this afternoon. It was a mess. Since this space is in the basement, it ends up being a catch-all for everything :-(


It's not perfect, but I like it.





My favorite part...a framed baby picture I found of Dylan.


I have a few little projects that I'm now ready to work on ( I just need to find the time).