a little bit, and a little bit more

We had the blizzard of 2009 just a few weeks ago, and now we have the blizzard of 2010.

I’m tired of snow. I must say, it is fun to see your kids playing in the snow… and their daddy out there helping them build a fort… but, come on. Snow means shoveling and slushy mess yet to come.

But while I reminisce about my own childhood and watch my kids have fun, it makes me kind of glad that we are snowed in… bunkered down together as a family for the next few days. We have had lots of hot chocolate, movies and board games… and the fun has just begun.

the view out the front door... where's the mailbox?

no, I do not own snow boots. yes, those are target bags around my feet!

Cheers to the snow!

everything… and the kitchen sink

…and the adventures of life continue.

Last weekend the family participated in the Powder Puff Derby. It is a Girl Scouts sister event to the Boy Scouts Pinewood Derby. They are given a block of wood and told to transform it into a car weighing no more than 5 ounces. Yeah, I wanna see a 7 year old girl use a saw to cut the rectangle into a car shape, then sand it and paint it… oh, and don’t forget the weights. My husband carved the car out and let her help sand and paint it. I think that was a smart idea. When they went to register the car it weighed 3.5 ounces… I guess that is what happens when you hold a stick of 4 ounce butter in one hand and a car in the other…

Surprisingly, the car came in last in every race. My sweet little girl was not upset though. She held her head high and was very proud of the car that she made with daddy. I guess it helped that we were rooting her car on and then exclaiming, “woo hoo! dead last!!”, each time.

yes, gray paint was all we had on hand...

A few days later on Wednesday night, the Brownies (younger girl scouts) had their Investiture ceremony where they dedicated themselves to the Girl Scouts and the Girl Scout Law. It was pretty cute.  The following night was the 6 year olds Daisy meeting. (An even younger set of GS).

This weekend my older brother-in-law came to visit with his family. The girls love to hang out with their cousins and everyone had a great time… especially when it started to snow Saturday morning!

yay for snow!!

I have continued to try new recipes and upgrade some of the ones we’ve learned to love. I made a shepherds pie out of ground lamb which was very light and tasty. I posted the recipe HERE. Keeping with the lamb theme, I made my famous procuitto lamb burgers, upgrading them with a bit of fresh parsley worked into the mix. I then tried a very spicy Pork Chops alla Pizzaiola, which was mostly spicy because I went overboard on the crushed red pepper. As usual, Giada did not disappoint with her Italian morsels. The dish is usually made with steak – as a Pizza-man style lunch because the Pizza man usually already had the red sauce for his pizza’s ready.

Torn…

I have been working every day for the last two weeks. While having a routine and constant day is nice, I am also learning a new balancing act. I no longer can do laundry during the mornings, take my dog on a daily walk or run errands while the kids are at school. Those things, if I do them, have to be done after 4 pm and with kids. I know, that is what most working moms do… but I am torn.

This job is only temporary. I am a substitute teacher. The reason I chose this job in the first place was so that I’d have days at work and days at home. A good balance of alone time and housekeeping verses keeping my brain active and working. My favorite part about subbing is the variety, getting to work with different age children and see what they are learning. Every once in awhile a sub job will be for an Aide. While helping individual students is rewarding, it is also very draining.

Two weeks ago I got a call to be an Aide. Aide’s work with individual students and get paid less than Substitute teachers. Now, I don’t take teacher jobs over Aide jobs because they get paid more… I take the Aide jobs because I want to work and maybe even make a difference in some young kids life. (I’m a dreamer, what can I say?) So… the Aide job turned into a temporary job while one of the school employee’s is out.  I wake up every morning ready to go and feeling very blessed for the opportunity to work. However… I can’t help but feel sometimes that I’m missing out on something. I mean, I signed up to be a Substitute teacher because I love kids and mine are at school all day long – so, why shouldn’t I be at school all day long? My kids and I have the same hours, I don’t owe the school any extra time for meetings or planning. It is perfect. I signed up to be a Substitute teacher for the random work schedule. Teach a day, stay home a day.

I am torn. I love what I am doing at school right now and I love the constant… but at the same time, I kind of just want to do what I signed up for… substitute as a teacher, for a class.

I am a mess. My real goals are to eventually get a Masters degree and my own classroom. If only I had picked a real major in college. Don’t get me wrong, lots of people are music performance majors and then go on to BE performers. That was not in my cards…. and I knew it, right after I graduated and met my husband. If I had gotten a Special Education or Early Childhood Education degree… things would be so much different now.

So now, I am stuck in limbo land… and torn.

2010 and counting…

…and so goes 2009, Wow.

Our Christmas vacation was a wonderful, relaxing and fun-filled time. Our break started early with the Blizzard of 2009 and the last three days of school being canceled. However, they did it on a day by day basis… so, we couldn’t head out anywhere 3 days early.

kid one

kid two

Rusty says, "Where is daddy?"

"There he is!"

the view up the sidewalk

Our plan was to be at home for Christmas. It is a tradition that we started a few years ago when husband and I decided that we wanted our kids to wake up Christmas morning in their own house. The day before Christmas Eve, we made the decision to move our girls from their own rooms into one shared room. It was the 6 year olds idea because she has decided that she no longer likes to be alone. This worked out great since we have always wanted to have the guest bedroom upstairs. I finally have an office that I can stretch out in! (well… after we clean up the mess!)

Christmas morning was a fun and relaxing time. My parents had spent the night (in the new guest room!) and were ready to celebrate with us. I had made sausage cheese balls and Vienna rolls ahead of time and popped them both in the oven. The kids opened presents and were very excited about their gifts. Later that afternoon we headed over to my parents house to prepare Christmas dinner. We were joined by my sister and her family, her in-laws and another local friend.

Thanks Aunt Erin!!

The rest of the break was spent doing fun things like ice skating, swimming at the indoor pool, playing tons of board games, watching movies and plenty of cuddle time.

look at the kid that wiped out in the background!

New Years Eve was spent with our good friends and some new friends. We cooked up some mean appetizers and played board games and the Wii until it was time to ring in the New Year.

Husband and I "punching" each other on Wii

The iPod

My children do not have their own iPod’s. Since my husband and I both have one, we let them “dock” in the kids rooms. At the beginning of the year, the older child got an iHome clock for her birthday and this year the younger child got an iHome clock for her birthday. This brings me a glimpse into the teenage years…

This morning, both girls were upstairs getting dressed for school. Both girls had iPod’s blasting tunes. Both girls were blasting different songs and singing along. Oh boy…

I think about the teenage years a lot. It really frightens me. I think about the way I acted as a teen… how poorly I treated my parents sometimes. I am not ready. Hopefully these next 6 years will go slow enough that I will be able to prepare myself and help the girls to grow. Yikes… in 5 years and 4 months my oldest will be 13.

In other news, our Elf friend, Mr. Squiggles has made an appearance on our shelf. Every evening he flies to the North Pole to report to Santa and every morning he comes home and sits on another shelf to listen in on the day. If the girls have even so much as started to argue… we gently remind them of the Elf sitting on the shelf… and they are friends again. I wonder how many more years we can have this Elf… and if he can stay year round??

Multi-tasking... (eating chocolate and playing the DS, another favorite of this generation!)

playing Super Mario brothers "wirelessly" vs her sister... (amazing...)

The other side of the story

As you know, my kids have been learning about kindness to others. In some ways it has helped them realize that there are people in the world that aren’t as fortunate as they are. However, it always comes back to the fact that they are kids. After a child turns four or five years old, the realization hits them that they are their own people. All of the sudden, they are more independent and self aware. They see that mommy and daddy are still in charge – but that they can get away with more if they keep disobeying.

I have really sweet kids. Most of the time they are getting along with each other and being nice in general. That doesn’t mean that they don’t have major mean streaks or that they aren’t selfish. Children are selfish by nature. Who am I kidding? All humans are selfish by nature. Which brings me to my point. Christmas.

Christmas is the time of year when most parents hear, “I want, I want, I want…” If I showed you the number of “Dear Santa” letters that I’ve hidden away (because Santa already picked them up!) in the last few weeks, you’d be shocked! It is mostly the six year old. I don’t remember if the 7 year old was this way the last few years? I’m guessing she must have been. She is a bit more tame this year. She wrote one letter and has mostly talked about what she would love to get other members of the family. As I type, the six year old is writting yet another letter. Funny part is, she almost always has asked for the same thing in each letter. The last one contained a price and everything. “Dear Santa, For Christmas I want (fill in) and it costs ($$).” I guess Santa doesn’t make toys anymore…

Every year we go over the true meaning of Christmas with the kids. They learn about the birth of Jesus and why God sent him to the Earth. Throughout the year we discuss stories in the Bible and why Jesus died for our sins. If you ask the kids what Christmas is about. They will reply something like this… “Christmas is about Jesus’ birth and children getting presents to celebrate His birthday.” True… but, it always goes back to the “I want, I want” part. I need some ideas to make them want to give more than receive.

I’m dreaming of a white… birthday?

On Saturday, my youngest daughter celebrated her 6th birthday.

She was so excited to show me how old she was on her hands. “Look mommy, I need BOTH hands now!!!”

no mistaking it... she is 6!

The morning started with some homemade pancakes. Let’s just say I will not be posting the recipe that I used. Blech. The birthday girl took a few bites and then politely asked for some frozen Aunt Jemima pancakes. Smart girl. The 7 year old ate them all. When I asked her if she liked them… she replied with, “no, I was just being nice.” Hm… maybe this kindness thing IS wearing off?

By 9 am, the snow started. What are the chances… snow, on the 5th of Dec – the ONLY day that I have a party planned. Thankfully the roads stayed clear and all of her girlfriends from Kindergarten were able to make the party. We went to a kids haircutting place that throws parties. They did hair, makeup and nails. Ten little girls in girly girl heaven.

freeze dance

limbo time

tea and manners...

When we got home, it was time for party number two. My parents and sisters family braved the weather to help celebrate some more. This time cousins ran around punching ballons, eating pizza and cake and finally the birthday girl opened her presents. She told me later that night, “Mom, I had the best day ever. Thank you for today.” (pause) Exclaiming: “I had FOUR parties. First during Thanksgiving at Mimi’s house, then on Friday we celebrated at school and my class sang happy birthday to me, and now today two parties.”

You deserve it! I am so blessed to have you in my life. Happy Birthday sweet little one.

Happy new born! Dec 5, 2003

  

Happy Birthday! Dec 5th, 2009

Little Hearts

It is a really neat and humbling experience to see my children grow. Over the past few years I’ve been talking to my children about helping others and showing kindness to people we don’t know. Every year I’ve made the kids pick out a few toys to give away to the less fortunate, sending them along to Good Will and never seeing the end result. (That being it actually helping someone in need.)

This year I am changing the game and challenging the kids to really think about how to help others. For the past two months I’ve been researching different local non-profit organizations that help people in need. The problem is that most of them don’t let kids under 12 help with volunteering. A few places that offered ideas have spots available during school hours.

Then a project came home from second grade. They are doing the kindness unit in school and were challenged to perform a random act of kindness for someone not in their family. As I talked to her about what she could do, I gave her a piece of paper to write down some ideas. Immediately she wanted to help sick people in the hospital. Seeing that the hospital won’t let in children under 12 right now, I asked her to keep brainstorming. Then I remembered the Angel Tree for the Salvation Army. I had done this in the past before having my own kids. My daughter can go up to the tree, read about a kids wants and needs and pick which one to help! She still won’t get to see the end result… but it is a bit more real since we will have an actual kid.

This morning I could hear the kids talking it over about what they were going to buy the children. They were making some things in the basement and I was told that I was not allowed to enter. When they came upstairs to get dressed for school, they gently laid a few cards under the Christmas tree. They are addressed to me, my husband and some to each other. They were excited to get home today because they mentioned they have a lot more to make. I thought it was really cute how their little hearts are at work, trying to do nice things for other people. They have never asked to buy gifts for my husband and I… but they did this year. Thank goodness for the PTO Holiday Shoppe!

cuteness and kindness...

Thanks Give… or Give Thanks

My kids made several Thanksgiving cards for relatives… although they forgot to hand most of them out. My 5 year old can write in phonics now and her cards were very cute to read. “Happy Thanks Give” (not sure where the “ing” went… unless she was trying to say Give Thanks. Always a fine line on whether to ask what it says or not…)

This weekend we traveled to my in-laws house. My husbands two brothers and families, along with his sister and parents were all there. Since both of his brothers are doctors, of course one of them was likely to be on call.  On Friday at 2:30 am the older brother and his wife left to travel the 4 hours home (leaving their 3 children with us!) for a 24 hour duty and returned on Saturday afternoon. The rest of the weekend was pretty calm and very relaxing. The kids and their cousins had a fun time, making messes wherever they turned.

movie time

playdough time

Santa time

Fall leaves

No need to wonder why they call Autumn “fall”. If you look in my back yard each fall, it looks like the trees threw up. My yard is covered in every inch with leaves. This year we put off the task of weekly de-leafing, only raking once before the big fall. Big mistake! Layer after layer were rained on, causing the leaves to mush into the ground.

This weekend was spent as a family raking day. Everyone was helping out…

The girls wanted to rake leaves...

I managed to fill a whoping 8 bags of leaves from the front yard… then I discovered that hubs had already bagged 30… but he had help…

The leaf machine... (what ARE those called?)

and although it did help… he still had to go over each area with the rake to get all of the mushed up leaves and acorns that were trying hard to become trees.

Well... not EVERYONE helped... (Rusty enjoying the clean grass)

In other news… we ended our tailgating season with a birthday bash. Husband celebrated his 32nd birthday under a tent with hay, blankets and lots of food and people. Too bad he wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t eat his cake.

the kids took care of the cake...

or even open his own gifts…

we will handle this too, dad!