New snack

I have a new snack I love: green olives stuffed with feta.

YUM!

Sleep walking??

I think Princess sleep walks. I remember in CA she came out of her room at night a couple of times, wouldn't respond to questions, and talked nonsense.

She just came out of her room, came and sat in the seat next to be at the computer, and gibbered about getting a picture. Then she got a drink of water and headed to bed. I said "goodnight" at her, and she didn't even flinch in response. She never remembers these things the next day.

Is that sleep walking??

How are things going?

Today was the first day of school!! A bullet list is all I'm about to manage here, friends.

- Wake up early, rouse the younglings. Had to steal Tag's blanket to get him up.

- They managed to do all of their morning chores with almost an hour to spare! I told them that as long as they had at least a little time left over after dressing, putting dishes away, and eating breakfast, they could sleep in later than this morning.

-Walk them to school. Tons of parents waited with their kids. I waited until they were both safely engaged in conversation with friends and then...

- Had a chat with the nurse. Yep, gotta keep track of the meds.

- Went home to print out a map of the mall. I went on Sat and bought some clothes at Lane Bryant (shirts!! I have shirts!!) but they neglected to take the ink bomb off of my new pants. So, back we went to remove said ink bomb.

- Then we watched a friend's child until we had to go drop off Tag's meds and med permissions, and get him out of school to go to an ophthalmology appt. (yes, I spelled ophthalmology from memory, I'm sooo proud of myself) It took an hour to drive there and I was having mild panic attacks by the time we found a parking space on level P4.

- Thank goodness we got there in time to wait an hour for his appt.

- Then the sewer backed up in that building, so we got to enjoy that for a while as well.

-Nice dr though, even if he forgot to put Tag's PD on the rx (not the first time I've had to measure at home).

-Dr dangled the words "eye surgery" but didn't discuss too much, since it's a "we'll have to see" thing. I told him about my dear friend who found out about her child's brain tumor following an eye's nose-ward meander. He assured me that Tag had no sign of that whatsoever.

- We take off to the parking garage and I simultaneously return a call to the school nurse, and then we headed home.

- After beginning to drive, I notice that I'm not going to get home in time to let Princess in the house, or even tell her to walk home without Tag. ooooooo, bad feeling.

- We got on the beltway (which happens almost immediately after leaving the hospital) so I handed the phone to Tag.

M: When you hear someone say hello, ask for Sgt S.

T: Oh, ok. Can I talk to Brother S? Hi, this is Tag. Mom, whaddaya want?

M: Tell him to call Sister J and ask if she can see if Princess is at our house, because we won't be there when she gets home.

T: can you call Sister J and get Princess because we won't be back before school's over. [pause] He says ok.

M: Sweet! Don't have to worry about that anymore.

- We get home and drive straight to Sister J's house. But the little boy who answered the door says that Princess never showed up.

-Speed drive the van the halfablock home, burst inside with heart pounding to find Princess reading a book in a recliner. Man got home early and let her in.

-Man said that Sgt S called him up and said:

SS: Your son called me at work and asked me to call Sis J, but I can't tell what for. Do you have any idea what's going on?

Man: [with his incredible powers of deduction] I think I need to go home early, because my wife won't be home in time to let my daughter in the house. [well, it's either deduction, or he wanted to go home early]

-I'm so grateful for slow cookers. I have stroganoff scenting the house, just waiting for a pot of noodles to snuggle up to.


Oh, and I applied for college. I don't think I did it in time to get in thise semester, but things are at least set in motion for Spring.

ACK!!!

I've felt a little nauseous all day long from all of this but HEY! It didn't kill me and I'm still smiling. And I love stroganoff.

Overheard

Tag loves being a brother. Pebbles was in the bath and Princess was playing with/supervising her. The door was locked so Tag decided to torment them.

Tag: [knock, knock, knock]

Princess: who is it? [knowing precisely who it is]

Tag: It's Freida... I mean, googoo, gaagaa. [uncontrollable giggling]

Princess: No it isn't!

Tag: Meh, moo mee, mlet mlee mliiiiiiin, googoo. [more giggling]

Anyway, it didn't work. He cackled gleefully as he escaped the playful wrath of his older sister, whose humor is in taking things literally.

Dream list

Next time tax season rolls around, one of these shall be mine:

Most beautiful shelving system for pantries ever.

I could kiss such a shelf.

Hello, I love you! Won't you tell me your name?

Mr. Taggart came home yesterday.

T: Mom! I made a new friend. Want to see him? [spoken as if the new friend were a puppy or toad]

M: Sure, what's your friend's name?

T: Oh, um, lemme ask him. [stage whisper out the slightly open front door] What's your name?

After introductions go all the way 'round, we get to the pertinent point.

J: I wanted to know if I could spend the night here.

T: Yeah, it'd be so fun and we're really good friends now.

I got sort of an icy chill in my stomach. This boy is two years older than Tag and the only reason we knew him from Adam is that Adam likely didn't wear Transformers t-shirts. How do I explain why Tag can't spend the night at a friend's house when it isn't a school night and the kid had miraculously gotten his chores done with a smile that day?

I can only imagine what the teenage years will be like. He's going to be (and already is) one of those kids who has an instant connection with pretty girls. It reminds me of the scene in Amadeus when Wolfy comes home with his party crowd. He introduces a woman to Stanzy.

W: And this is.... a very, nice girl.

However I didn't have any sobering news for Tag to dampen his desire for a sleepover. Before J left he invited Tag to his own home for a sleepover. We all had a serious talk about sleepovers later that evening.

M: We're careful about what movies and music you guys experience at our house. We want you to understand some things about life and people before you're exposed in a way you didn't choose. [keep in mind, this took a while to explain fully to children age 6 and 7] Also, we don't know these people. We don't know if they smoke or have dogs, either of which would give you, Tag, an asthma attack. Do you know if he has a dog?

T: No, I don't, but I bet it's a nice dog.

M: What if you had gone on a sleepover with the boys who beat you up before you knew they could get so angry and then they beat you up in their house? Would that have been a good sleepover?

T: We woulda had fun before the beat up.

M: What if the parents stole you, or hurt you? I don't even know them.

T: Well, just come and meet them right now and then I can sleep over.

M: It's 8:45pm.

T: Well, I think we should drive over a volcano once.

M: If we try to do that, once is all it would take. No sleepover tonight.

Today we were riding to the grocery store when Tag had an announcement.

T: I talked to J, and he says his family doesn't smoke, has no dog, doesn't watch bad movies, and only plays bad music sometimes.

M: [shriveling inside a bit, as I imagine J reporting my inquiries to his parents]

T: Can you go meet them today?

M: I think I'm going to have to.



Every day I learn anew one of most frustrating things about having kids: if it has been heard or seen by a child, it can no longer be a secret. From anyone.

Aldi

I have Aldi! It's a 20 min drive, but their prices are better than the Commissary on canned goods and dry beans. If the spaghetti sauce is less expensive, this'll be a monthly trip. Woot!

bookshelf

It funny how the straight lines of the shelf help me forgive everything on it for not being the same size/shape. Sound OCD? As long as the chaos has an outline I can understand, it is permitted to be.

House pics

I have finally started deep cleaning/deep arranging the house, one room at a time. I started with my bedroom since my closet was driving me nuts.

Master bath: (with mirrors that need to be cleaned)


There are no drawers in there, but there's a tiny medicine cabinet. The blue drawer thing is very handy and doesn't look too nasty. I've thought about putting in under the sinks, but it contains things like bactroban that I just don't want to chance little fingers and mouths finding.



The double shower curtain thing is so fascinating to me, so I thought I'd try it out here.
I love my $3 IKEA rugs.



There was more stuff in here earlier, but I farmed it out to where it belongs and finally organized it (skirts together, suits together, etc)
The red tub is the bath I use for Vadermaker. It has to have dedicated cleaning equipment. (yes, I really only have about 5 shirts. it's a work in progress)



Man's stuff is so funny. When we moved in, his stuff found homes and that's where the things live. Forever. All of the stuff on top of his drawers has been there since the week we moved in, along with that tub, and his boots. The only change was the basket there which I used to keep things from spilling off of other things. At least he can usually find what he's looking for.


My drawers and the bookshelves. We used this bookcase from IKEA and turned it sideways because we didn't want to deal with securing it to a wall. I like all the odd-sized spaces in it. So many different things look like they're right at home.


I wanted to keep the bed very simple since we both don't care for making it. It's queen sized but we have king sized blankets and flat sheet since we're both blanket hogs. I limited myself to two pillows, one to cover our sleeping pillows and the other to break up the monotony of the plain quilt. I like the brown, since I can change the pillows on a whim and it'll still work with the color. I'm inching toward red right now.
My night stand has Vadermaker, scriptures, and a couple of cookbooks I'm working through.

Simple is where it's at, in the bedroom. I like it to be low-key and visually plain.

The slippery slope

We bought school supplies yesterday. And that begins the slippery slope of events that lead to the kids going back to school!

I've struggled with that a bit as I have great joy in my children and great joy in peaceful solitude, and never the twain shall cohabitate. Homeschoolers often talk about how they love the time with their kids and that they can't imagine someone else having such an enormous role in educating so many facets of their little ones' minds and personalities.

But I think about having to take all four of them to the grocery store every trip, or finding child care for them each time anyone has a professional health appointment.

I know that every time you have a child your life has to readjust pretty extensively. You learn that going to the store with an extra kid is just a way of life. Since it's a fact, you adapt, find ways to make it work physically and in the minds of your children. When you home school young children, the same sort of mental adaptation takes place. You either take them to the grocery store every time or arrange your schedule to go without them. You deal with it.

Summer is a hard time for many stay at home parents since the schedule that seemed to be working so well is suddenly pulled out from under you and a new schedule that involves fewer hobbies, less personal time, and more time answering all of the needs of curious, eternally hungry, active children who each have a wide variety of interests that only casually overlaps the interests of the next child takes over and CONSUMES YOUR LIFE until they go back to school. (run on sentence? yes, thank you.)

School is the norm. It's the comfortable rut we lean back toward once the novelty of summer wears thin and we begin to itch to for the company of new friends and time spent on other interests. Homeschoolers have the option of schooling when they want as long as they do enough hours and subjects in a given time frame. While we do a happy dance as the cashier scans a dozen glue sticks, homeschoolers are also stocking up on sale-priced school supplies and smiling benignly at the poor ladies who must part with their children ere long.

Oh, I've enjoyed our lazy time. I've enjoyed waking up only when the baby needs a "boppy" change and then casually throwing together whatever brunch we feel like having. The books and the games and the movies and the pool have all been a blast.

But I've long been a proponent of the principle of absence making the heart grow fonder. We lay foundations, we build bridges, and then away the littles go into the wide world. Family dinners are just that much more important. Daddy/kid dates are made with greater frequency. Family home evening is eagerly anticipated. It's easier to forgive your sister when she pops your balloon because she is more dear than aggravating.

Doesn't it all sound like such golden sunshine? Of course it isn't. I'll still have to figure out how to get them to do their chores and homework with enough time to spare in the day for kid-type romps. Laundry will still breed like tribbles and errands will still revolve around the imperative toddler nap.

But I'll have some quiet time each day.

Quiet time, that thing I stay up way too late to have, even after Man is asleep and the laundry is put away. The dishes are clean and I have no emails to write. And yet, here I am, soaking it in.

Homeschoolers, when on earth do you have quiet time? When do you get your shopping done? When do you wind down so you can once again fervently enjoy a daily grind wherein you are the primary source of all that is entertaining and edible?

When the first day of school rolls around I shall be doing the happy dance and FINALLY putting a dent in my craft room, in which I havn't crafted one single thing since moving here. Alone time, I await thee.

When kids plan the menu

Yesterday, I gave up with menu planning for this week.

This is what the kids came up with:

Spaghetti (garlic bread, corn, salad, nectarines)
Chicken Alfredo (garlic bread, peas, salad, cantaloupe)
Ravioli (butternut squash, grapes, apples)
Pizza (toppings - pineapple, chicken, mushrooms, salad)
Stroganoff (steamed broccoli)
Steak (mashed potatoes, maybe some grilled corn and zucchini, canatoupe)
Hamburgers (pasta salad, fruited jello, baked beans)

How cool is that? We're going to keep taking advantage of the fruit in season as long as it's there, so that's one side dish each night. I'm also back into a salad mode, with plenty of add-in veggies, garbanzo beans, and light on the dressing.

I may just have everyone else plan menus for me for a while. It's nice to get out of a rut, and now they can't complain about the food. Or, shouldn't, but might complain.

That's so Army

Today's Facebook status message --

Coining a new phrase: That's so Army. It describes a situation or action conducted with extreme inefficiency, far too much paperwork, as little use of too much money as possible, and extremely convoluted logic.


Today we were blessed to go visit the USO office (United Service Organizations) where they were giving free backpacks, school supplies, and ice cream to kids going to school this fall. I thought "great! I could use some water colors and crayons, and Princess' backpack barely made it through this last school year before utterly disintegrating. Woot!"

So we all got on our bikes (or in the bike trailer, in the case of Things 3&4) and pedaled on down. Of course the bikes were a great idea, given how enlisted folks descend upon free stuff as locusts. We do the same, but we try to stick with the useful stuff. There are only so many bumper stickers and Oriental Trading Post-type garbage toys we really want around.

Anyway, as expected, the variety of backpacks was precisely nil. Everyone got black, and they all smell vaguely of cigarette smoke. We got our ice cream, ate in the shade, and prepared to head on back before being caught by a friend who was sitting in her vehicle, scoping the proceedings and sending her daughter in for recon. She told me that she heard that the backpacks were just filled with snack food and a book. We pulled one out and, lo and behold, a couple of books, a frisbee (with some company logo) and various snack items poured forth. Nary a water color, pencil, or blunt scissor to be had.

On the up side, I no longer have to spend $20 on a backpack for Princess, but I will be spending $ on fabric markers or key chains so the kids can make their backpacks visually distinct from the many dozens of other black backpacks slung over kid-to-tween shoulders. The snacks also made a nice little picnic on a hot afternoon and we got a pretty decent work out, what with bike trailers filled with little people and snack foods.

Am I ungrateful? Mmmmm, maybe a little. How grateful should I be when school supplies are advertised and we end up getting more advertising thrown at us in the form of free junk? Now I'm off to go gather REAL school supplies for my kids in the form of boxes of Kleenex and one (1) black dry erase marker, etc.

When your son comes home crying

Tag came home a couple of days ago, doubled over and crying. Man and I were chatting in the kitchen.

Me: Tag, what's wrong?

Tag: My friends beat me up.

Me: [feeling a sickening chill] Let me see. [I examined the areas of his body he said he was hit and kicked] Tell me what happened.

He explained that he and two kids in our neighborhood started arguing, then they punched him and knocked him over and kicked him until a guy came and told them to stop. It is suspected that he was a soldier. He took the offending boys home to their grandparents and sent Tag home. Tag didn't have any marks on his body, not even the superficial, fast-fading red marks one can get from altercations. His emotional response was enough to convince me though. I sent him off to the shower to help him calm down and to let his body feel something else for a while. A couple of minutes later three police officers came to my house saying they got an anonymous tip that our son had been assaulted.

Officer 1: Can you and your husband come out and talk to us?

Me: Sure, that's no problem. It'd actually be more convenient for me if you came in though, since I'm cooking. If you come in, do you have to go through my closets or anything?

Officer 2: Is there a reason we should?

Me: [chuckle] I guess now that I mention it you can if you want to, I have nothing to hide except maybe a jar of pocket change.

We all sat and had a chat, they took a statement, and then went on their way.

A little while later the mother of the main child in question arrived with her son and her bother on our doorstep. She was in obvious distress, and immediately started explaining her side of things. It seems they've had a rough go of it. We invited her in as well, assured her we weren't angry, and offered to let the boys play together under supervision so that they have a chance to develop a positive relationship. We all agreed that all we wanted was peace and a chance for our boys to learn how to get along without coming to blows.

My heart was pierced by this woman. She looked far too young to have a 7 year old boy, wore a Taco Bell uniform, and never mentioned a partner or spouse. They all lived with her parents, getting by as best they could. It hit far too close to home for me and, in my heart for not the first time that week, I whispered "there, but for the grace of God, go I."

Man said he was worried that I'd become hyper-protective of him. After all, I couldn't imagine someone wanting to beat up my sweet boy with the too-loud voice and enormous eyelashes. We counted our blessings that his first brush with being beaten up let him off so light, and we talked about bullies and their comfort zones and why they do what they do.

Other neighbors came to talk with us after the police cars had gone, and the stories began pouring forth of how this bully had threatened people with stabbing them, and attempted stealing.

-sigh- The poor kid already has a poor start here. I just hope that he has the relationships he needs in life to learn about happiness.

Where on earth did July go?

ONCE AGAIN we are resurfacing from illness. My strep was not quite so bad as last time and I made it through without antibiotics. But, since this is the third major case of it I've had since Feb, it's time to seriously examine tonsil removal. Those stupid tonsils occlude my airway and it actually unsettled the Unflappable Man to the point where, several times in the night, he'd have to wake me to move onto my side since I was choking on my own throat.

So I'm shaking my tiny fist at the universe and repeating in my head that I'm still only in my 20's despite having the health problems of a 60 year old fat person. FRUSTRATED.

In good news, weight loss has continued (being sick doesn't hurt that at all). I'm down 30 pounds now. I'm trying not to count how much further I want to go since I don't even know where that is. When I run and am not weary, and sleep without getting brain damage, I guess I'll know I'm there.

July was consumed by dr's appts, illness, attempts at summer fun (our sugar candy never formed due to dissolving the sugar in water that was too hot -- my fault. but we did make it to the new pool that lives one block from here)

Truly, I did not know it was August until yesterday, the 3rd.

August is a mixed bag, here. We need to go through all of the kids' clothes. The older ones need bigger sizes of things, the younger ones need to draw on the clothes we've saved back, and I can finally give away up to size 18m now that Freida is solidly in the 2-3T range. She's only about 4 slim inches shorter than her older sister and she still isn't very happy unless she has some sort of food stuff taking up space in her little maw.

Next order of business is to get school supply lists from the school and get kids registered. I consider this a happy thing. Tag is never so happy as when he gets several hours a day with his friends. Princess is never so happy as when she has mental stimulation which she's getting better at finding on her own (hallelujah. today her thing is leaf rubbings).

Princess has started reading Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys, and a few books I picked up in the $1 section of our local Book-A-Million (black beauty, anne of green gables) She's also asking about hair cuts and ear piercing again. Anyone know of a place that does both ears at the same time? I don't think she'll be up for ear #2 if done consecutively. Then she asked if, after the ear piercing, she could start wearing makeup. Then I realized that she's wanting to do all kinds of grown up things all at once and wondered how many liberties to let her indulge. We'll start with the hair and the ears.