Wishy washy. That would be me.
In January we applied for the kids to go to a charter school. I half expected/hoped they wouldn't get accepted, but then they did. Every possible emotion trailed through me. Did I do enough for them? Is this the right thing? Are they ready? What am I going to do with just one kid at home all day? How long will they stay in charter school? Will I homeschool again? Can I let them go?
Over and over and over these thoughts go through my head. Poor Shiloah has been forced to ride this roller coaster with me as I call her every week and go around in circles with her as to what I should do. We all grow, and we all mature. Shiloah, who once validated me at every turn (good friends are so good at that!), has now with grace and patience calmed me and told me that either choice is good, and I just need to do what I feel is right for our family.
Homeschooling isn't something a lot of us just wake up to decide one day. I didn't even know that homeschooling existed until 7 years ago when I had it mentioned to me as Isaac graduated from Kindergarten. Homeschooling for us actually relieved a lot of stress, but also came with it's own set of stressors too. I traded meltdowns, teacher conferences, calls from the principal, special education appointments, meeting the bus, scrambling for lunches, matching clothes, homework, shoes and backpacks for loud days, lazy days, hectic days, shopping with six kids, a messier house, and searching out multiple curriculums for the one that worked, (one that kept my interest as much as it did the kids), many more demands of my time, and watching my kids develop their personalities. Jesse has become quick and witty. Isaac is more loving over time, and independent. Hannah...um....we're still working on her (some days are wonderful, most days are met with a fight to get her to do any kind of school work, much less sit properly in a chair and not stab her brother with a pencil). Simeon now sneaks into the school room and I thought it was to play Nanosaur 2 on the old school computers we got, but its so he can draw in peace and quiet and pour all of his mind's images onto paper. The little stinker knows 80% of his sight words without me ever having gone over them with him, but refused to read a book with me.
One night I listened to Joshua and Simeon having a conversation at the table. Simeon, age 6.11, and Joshua, just barely five, were discussing a game. Joshua has an eye for the pretty things in life, often telling me that I need to wear princess dresses, or he loves my hair, or how he needs to decorate his bedroom. When no tape is to be found, he's found that glue works just as well to beautify his room with his multiple drawings of lions. Complete with spirit fingers, he told Simeon how much he liked sparkly stuff. Simeon has clear definitions of what is boy and what is girl stuff. After seeing the "sparkly fingers", he gathered up his stuff and moved away from Joshua. Here Hannah swooped in, taking up the conversation where Simeon left off, in some hopes that Joshua might be able to fill the position of little sister. Yesterday, she dressed Joshua up in her princess dresses. How I love the sweetness of five year olds. I haven't forced gender roles on them; eventually they come into their own, but for the moment, it is pure sweetness to watch Joshua fill in the gaps left by the older four kids.
Curtis hasn't been pushing his opinions on me either. "I'll support you whatever your decision about homeschooling or public school". Friday he asked me if I had made a decision. "I think I really want to continue homeschooling". Monday he asked me if I was sure about that decision. "Nope. I dropped all their immunizations records off at the school. I have had it!" I replied. There's no telling on a day to day basis. Who would have ever thought my greatest temptation in my grown life was to put my kids in public/charter school?
A Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer (a classical education for homeschooling curriculum) fell into my hands about 3 years ago. I read bits and pieces out of it at the time, tried to implement some of them, and then lost my way. About a year ago, I borrowed it again from a friend. It was making more sense, but again, I chose to go about homeschooling my own way. Last month, again, I was reminded of the book. I finally ordered my own copy. Before it got to me, I checked it out from the library, borrowed the same copy from the same friend, and then something fell into place for me.
Many times I have lamented about moving to Utah at the time we did, and in one short year, many, many good things have happened (although, many would wonder how unemployment and disease are good things). Curtis had a job as soon as we got here, so what started out as a faith move really ended well. Only, six months later he was unemployed overnight. 3 months later he had another job, but now, within the month, he will loose that job. I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease, which was awful while undiagnosed, but doctors that knew right away what to test for with my symptoms. Being where we are, at the time we moved, a store opened up that had the flours/foods I needed to make the diet changes. The kids (3 on the autism spectrum) got into therapy, Isaac's medications were balanced out, everyone was making progress. There were homeschool groups, museums, zoos, parks and mountain trails to help supplement our homeschool projects. What didn't go unnoticed to us as well, was our neighborhood. Living in Utah as an LDS church member is really unlike anywhere else I have ever lived. Neighbors know each other, help each other, and we all see each other every Sunday, and sometimes Wednesdays. Our Ward boundaries extend over just 6 blocks. We can walk to church. We can walk to do our visiting teaching. In my ward, there are about 6 homeschooling families, and three families with Celiac Disease, and about four families with autistic kids. My visiting teaching partner and one visiting teaching family both homeschooled as well. How is that for luck?! Two weeks ago I asked my visiting teaching family what curriculum she used. "A Well Trained Mind is what we follow". Does anyone recognize when by the fourth time it's mentioned to you, maybe you should look into it? I never doubt we are in the perfect place at the perfect time by God's will for us. But when something like this happens, I am overwhelmed with gratitude and love. I am noticed. I am known. I am provided for, all by a loving Heavenly Father.
I stayed up until 2 a.m. reading A Well Trained Mind two nights ago. I realized how I am a product of a public school education. I am not saying this to be uppity or be degrading to other parents who public school their children. I wanted to be a teacher! I was a teacher! I loved the smell of school, the crayons, the classrooms. I loved the structure of it. I loved the kids! I thought school was the only place for your children to go to at the age of 4/5 years old. This is how life is! I will admit the day I brought my kids home to homeschool, I was nervous. I was intimidated by a 6 and 4 year old. How well would I really be as a homeschooling parent? How do you go all radical and take this lifestyle on?
I don't know calculus. I don't know physics. I did not have a classical education (but I did learn phonics) and so I have not read (or do not remember reading) Dickens, or Wordsworth, and forget about Homer...that was just boring. I can't make an argument between two poems. I do not know logic (maybe common sense though?). I have probably made half a dozen grammatical errors in this blog post alone. I learned German because it was interesting. I read all I could about pregnancy, birth and children and by the age of 13 I had witnessed a live birth, but had no idea what all that really meant until I had my first baby. I wrote a novel by the age of 14. I took a calligraphy class in high school because it was interesting. I don't know what my SAT scores were and I don't remember learning anything about Lewis and Clark. I spent my weekends on a wildlife refuge with my boyfriend, hiking and watching the stars and catching lightening bugs, and very little making out. I don't feel I'm particularly smart, but I don't feel like I'm a failure. I can't look at others and compare myself because "the measurement will always be wrong." The one thing I do know is that if there is anything we take from this life, it is the things we learn. This doesn't mean I can't learn calculus, physics, Latin, or poetry at 37 years old, or 50, or 88.
I've doubted myself far to many times and not given myself enough credit. I love my kids. Do I love them too much? Am I being selfish in wanting to keep them home to homeschool? Is it bad to be excited about learning about Ancient Egypt and Latin myself and then teaching it to my kids?
These are the best pieces of advice I've ever received about the decision to homeschool:
1. Until the Lord tells me otherwise, I will continue to homeschool my kids.
2. Every kid is different. Some need public school because it is easier for them to answer to another authority and deadline.
3. Only you know your family as well as you do, and what is best for your family.
4. It is ok to eat chocolate pudding on the couch and watch movies all day sometimes. Take a week if you need to.
5. Kids continue to learn whether you teach them or not. Most will pick it up on their own in due time.
6. Your kid won't go to college wearing diapers even if they are not potty trained by age 4, they will learn to match their clothes eventually, and you will have to reteach them several things by the time they leave home (like laundry, dishes, and cleaning a toilet).
7. It is ok if you insist they read before going to Kindergarten or let them roll around to it at age 8. They won't be social misfits.
8. It is possible to homeschool special needs kids (I'm working with four now).
9. Let the "disbelivers" go. You don't have to be rude about it, but you don't have to be a doormat either. Negative comments about homeschooled kids are hurtful, but I find it is usually because some people don't understand it, how it is done, or just can't believe you would want to spend that much time with your own kids.
10. You will get patience!
11. Your house will always have some mess, somewhere, made by some kid. Let it go!
12. The day your kids repeat/teach something you have taught them to someone else will be as exciting as the day they were born.
13. Anything can be made into a homeschool lesson. Dead flies in the window? Science! Making cookies? Math and Home Ec! Cleaning the bathroom? Health and Science! Have a chicken carcass and no dog? Archeology and Science!
14. The day the baby won't be put down, the toddler throws himself across your table every time you try to sit down to do a lesson, the house is in shambles and your school age kids seem out of control from all the chaos...leave the younger kids with your husband and do night school with the kids until they start to fall asleep.
15. Let the guilt go!
No, my decision is still not made, but I set a time line for myself. We will work on A Well Trained Mind methods until August. If by then the kids are doing well and I'm still sane, I will keep going with homeschool. If not, it will be hard for me, but we will try charter school. I'm sure the kids will turn out just fine either way.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Saturday, April 16, 2011
I Brake for Garage Sales
My new motto when garage saling is that "you never know what you are going to find". It is worth it to look around at all of them. For instance, today my sister and I went to a few off-beaten paths to garage sales that seemed very meager but we decided that you just never know what you'll find.
We love looking at the local Military post garage sales so at ours they would be found at Carson Yard Sales. Today, though we just perused the Craiglist-ings.
So, at the first garage sale I found a totally cute dress for my Bella {age 4} but most exciting was the Lava mortar and pestle. $43 new at the Chef Kitchen store and I found mine at a garage sale off the beaten path for $5. :) WOOT!
So, the next one I was excited to find a bunch of baby toys and clothes for little Bubby man. They were in like-new shape and the clothes were 6 for a $1! Score! I'm always scouting out for toys, especially VTECH or toys that make noise. I also like to find new rattles. We have three main levels to our house and I'm filling up the baskets of toys for the bubby: one for each level.
I also got a totally cute diaper bag/purse, 2 new shirts for Cailynn, a like-new hardbound copy of James Allen "As a Man Thinketh", a throw rug, and a totally cute coat for Bella.
We love looking at the local Military post garage sales so at ours they would be found at Carson Yard Sales. Today, though we just perused the Craiglist-ings.
So, at the first garage sale I found a totally cute dress for my Bella {age 4} but most exciting was the Lava mortar and pestle. $43 new at the Chef Kitchen store and I found mine at a garage sale off the beaten path for $5. :) WOOT!
So, the next one I was excited to find a bunch of baby toys and clothes for little Bubby man. They were in like-new shape and the clothes were 6 for a $1! Score! I'm always scouting out for toys, especially VTECH or toys that make noise. I also like to find new rattles. We have three main levels to our house and I'm filling up the baskets of toys for the bubby: one for each level.
I also got a totally cute diaper bag/purse, 2 new shirts for Cailynn, a like-new hardbound copy of James Allen "As a Man Thinketh", a throw rug, and a totally cute coat for Bella.
I need a sign on my truck that says, "Warning: I brake for garage sales!"
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
The Musical Chair Marriage
Since when did marriage become a game of musical chairs? This morning I read an article that was posted in a section of National News, except it was an article posted by an anonymous blogger about his two families he kept at the same time. The first family was his wife of 20 years and three children. While they had mutual interests in skiing and music, and she was a gracious hostess, he described her as the person that was standing next to him when he felt it was time to get married. Wow. Lucky her. I don't know if he was trying to gain sympathy in this plight, or make this some kind of confessional that somehow makes infidelity ok, but my sympathy landed with the wife. He went on to describe that there wasn't passion, or love, or "light" in the marriage anymore and so while on a business trip he met another woman, "unlike all the other women he'd met" (also, he lumped in American with this, as in, all American women are shallow, materialistic and selfish). They had a two year, blissful, happy and romantic relationship which eventually landed them a son. His one and only rule he had in all this was he never wanted to hurt his children.
Maybe this is the way the world is going now. The marriages of 40, 50, 60 years of wedded bliss are slowly declining. A marriage of 20 years is somehow miraculous. I think somewhere along the lines, this guy missed the key word for a successful marriage: WORK.
In the body of the article, he describes his perfect life: successful career, a balance of time at home and time to travel which allowed for hm to see his mistress and son. He was happier in both lives. He and his wife kept separate bank accounts and took separate vacations, so she had no idea about the mistress. After the mistress had the baby, he didn't have to be there for the whole recovery, "I'm too tired to do anything" part, the mundane tasks of life raising a baby and two older kids from her previous marriage.
Sadly, his perfect life started to crack. His career started going downhill. He couldn't afford to pay for everything in both lives or his child support to the baby. To make up for it, his mistress wanted more of his time. Oh no! He didn't think of that! Now he was breaking the number 1 rule he had: Don't hurt the kids.
His priest he confessed all this to gave him this advice: don't tell your wife, wait until your children are older and let them know about the other baby. They'll be upset, but they will be able to handle it.
"O' what tangled webs we weave....."
My overt sense of loyalty is going through the roof right now. Again, maybe I'm being naive here, but I can't wrap my head around HOW to have an affair. I realize it happens. I realize people do it and sometimes have no idea how they got to that point. I realize that drugs or alcohol can have a major part in helping you to make some very regretful choices. I think what disturbs me most is that this man made conscious choices to do these things, and seemed to do so with very little regard for the adult women in the picture.
Eventually his kids did find out about the other woman. His oldest son met the baby. His mistress moved on after falling prey to the friends and family that criticized him and told her she was better, deserved better and needed more support. He mused about how he liked it when they made up their own rules and played by them, the world having no intervention in all of this.
Personally, I have never been cheated on by my husband or boyfriends, and I hope its something I never have to endure. I have read the romance novels and yeah, its easy to get sucked into an ideal life of love and passion, but what are those novels for? An escape. Pretty soon you are back into reality. Now, maybe you can use some of those ideas to better your life (who doesn't want to have a successful business renovating old houses and finding a box of antique crystal doorknobs, or renting a beach house and having all summer to write the perfect novel, or serving your gorgeous husband a candlelight dinner on the beach/garden/mansion floor?), but our whole lives are not to be floated through on summer breezes and all we worry about is a wilted rose in the garden. We have to have trials. Marriage won't be successful without work. Parenthood won't be without work. The bottom point is if you are feeling like marriage isn't perfect, isn't ideal, isn't what you signed up for, then you need to take some time and look at yourself. Where can you improve? Remember the Golden Rule? "Do unto others and you would have done unto you", this applies to your marriage and your kids. When you change yourself, others can and will change too. Take inventory and lower your pride.
When Curtis and I got married, I wanted to be able to say I found my best friend. I wanted to be able to still laugh with him even when the times were tough, when things were sad, when we discovered our kids weren't perfect, when we didn't have anything to do but laugh. I certainly didn't want to say, "Well, when the timer stopped, I grabbed the guy standing next to me." Never did I want to make up excuses for why we were divorcing, separating, having an affair, or avoiding each other for the sake of our children. I don't want to wake up one morning to Curtis confessing he has this whole other family either (of course, I don't know what person wakes up wanting that to happen). Neither do I want to sit down for breakfast in 20 years when all the kids are gone and look at Curtis, wondering who the heck he is.
President Spencer W. Kimball said, "Every divorce is the result of selfishness on the part of one or both parties to a marriage contract. Someone is thinking of self-comforts, conveniences, freedoms, luxuries or ease."
The last line of the article is, "Reality kills love". Well, yeah, it could. If you aren't supporting your spouse, bitterness seeps in. If you are being selfish in your affections, wants, and needs, people get hurt. When you justify your sins, it's not going to feel good and eventually your consciousness catches up.
This was the original article here.
As Curtis and I discussed the article today, his advice was to read these two books about marriage, one for guys and one for women:
Letters to Philip
Letters to Karen
No matter what age/stage you are in your marriage, it doesn't hurt to get some advice. I wouldn't wish this on anyone, the world had enough problems, but then to read something like this...makes me want to give my wonderful husband a big hug and kiss. I'm glad to know I wasn't a "musical chair".
Maybe this is the way the world is going now. The marriages of 40, 50, 60 years of wedded bliss are slowly declining. A marriage of 20 years is somehow miraculous. I think somewhere along the lines, this guy missed the key word for a successful marriage: WORK.
In the body of the article, he describes his perfect life: successful career, a balance of time at home and time to travel which allowed for hm to see his mistress and son. He was happier in both lives. He and his wife kept separate bank accounts and took separate vacations, so she had no idea about the mistress. After the mistress had the baby, he didn't have to be there for the whole recovery, "I'm too tired to do anything" part, the mundane tasks of life raising a baby and two older kids from her previous marriage.
Sadly, his perfect life started to crack. His career started going downhill. He couldn't afford to pay for everything in both lives or his child support to the baby. To make up for it, his mistress wanted more of his time. Oh no! He didn't think of that! Now he was breaking the number 1 rule he had: Don't hurt the kids.
His priest he confessed all this to gave him this advice: don't tell your wife, wait until your children are older and let them know about the other baby. They'll be upset, but they will be able to handle it.
"O' what tangled webs we weave....."
My overt sense of loyalty is going through the roof right now. Again, maybe I'm being naive here, but I can't wrap my head around HOW to have an affair. I realize it happens. I realize people do it and sometimes have no idea how they got to that point. I realize that drugs or alcohol can have a major part in helping you to make some very regretful choices. I think what disturbs me most is that this man made conscious choices to do these things, and seemed to do so with very little regard for the adult women in the picture.
Eventually his kids did find out about the other woman. His oldest son met the baby. His mistress moved on after falling prey to the friends and family that criticized him and told her she was better, deserved better and needed more support. He mused about how he liked it when they made up their own rules and played by them, the world having no intervention in all of this.
Personally, I have never been cheated on by my husband or boyfriends, and I hope its something I never have to endure. I have read the romance novels and yeah, its easy to get sucked into an ideal life of love and passion, but what are those novels for? An escape. Pretty soon you are back into reality. Now, maybe you can use some of those ideas to better your life (who doesn't want to have a successful business renovating old houses and finding a box of antique crystal doorknobs, or renting a beach house and having all summer to write the perfect novel, or serving your gorgeous husband a candlelight dinner on the beach/garden/mansion floor?), but our whole lives are not to be floated through on summer breezes and all we worry about is a wilted rose in the garden. We have to have trials. Marriage won't be successful without work. Parenthood won't be without work. The bottom point is if you are feeling like marriage isn't perfect, isn't ideal, isn't what you signed up for, then you need to take some time and look at yourself. Where can you improve? Remember the Golden Rule? "Do unto others and you would have done unto you", this applies to your marriage and your kids. When you change yourself, others can and will change too. Take inventory and lower your pride.
When Curtis and I got married, I wanted to be able to say I found my best friend. I wanted to be able to still laugh with him even when the times were tough, when things were sad, when we discovered our kids weren't perfect, when we didn't have anything to do but laugh. I certainly didn't want to say, "Well, when the timer stopped, I grabbed the guy standing next to me." Never did I want to make up excuses for why we were divorcing, separating, having an affair, or avoiding each other for the sake of our children. I don't want to wake up one morning to Curtis confessing he has this whole other family either (of course, I don't know what person wakes up wanting that to happen). Neither do I want to sit down for breakfast in 20 years when all the kids are gone and look at Curtis, wondering who the heck he is.
President Spencer W. Kimball said, "Every divorce is the result of selfishness on the part of one or both parties to a marriage contract. Someone is thinking of self-comforts, conveniences, freedoms, luxuries or ease."
The last line of the article is, "Reality kills love". Well, yeah, it could. If you aren't supporting your spouse, bitterness seeps in. If you are being selfish in your affections, wants, and needs, people get hurt. When you justify your sins, it's not going to feel good and eventually your consciousness catches up.
This was the original article here.
As Curtis and I discussed the article today, his advice was to read these two books about marriage, one for guys and one for women:
Letters to Philip
Letters to Karen
No matter what age/stage you are in your marriage, it doesn't hurt to get some advice. I wouldn't wish this on anyone, the world had enough problems, but then to read something like this...makes me want to give my wonderful husband a big hug and kiss. I'm glad to know I wasn't a "musical chair".
Monday, April 11, 2011
Grocery Shopping in the Twilight Zone
I know in the past I have written about grocery shopping with all six kids and what quirky things happen while we are out. Today's trip was odd. I didn't have kids running up and down the aisles, or snacking on bulk foods, or hiding in the shelves or under the cart. It was oddly easy and not even stressful. Maybe I should feed them chocolate cake for breakfast more often.
As soon as we walked in the store I had to fight with Ammon, but after a few slaps to my chest and arms, he settled down, resigned to being the baby in the cart with a seatbelt. A few screeches in the produce section, but nothing after that. Weird.
Simeon announces after the first aisle he has to go to the bathroom. Jesse has pretty good store radar and since the boys over the age of five refuse to be caught in a GIRL'S bathroom, Jesse's job is bathroom duty for the boys. Two minutes later, they're back.
"Did Simeon even go to the bathroom?!"
"No. "
Simeon shrugs his shoulders at me.
"Why?"
"Because he has to have a toilet with a flush handle on it, otherwise he can't pee."
Simeon didn't utter one word about the toilet or having to go the rest of the time we were in the store. When we got home though, he barged through everyone and made a beeline straight for our normal, flushing toilet.
Joshua was just having a bad day from the minute he woke up to the minute he went to bed tonight. But the one hour of gold I had from him was in the store. Weird. The only thing he did that was mildly distracting was play Captain Plunger in the hardware aisle. Why are those things so interesting to the boys?
More weirdness followed: nobody asked for treats, they didn't play with the honey dispenser in the bulk food aisle (unlike their mother one night that HAD to try it), no sneaking of frosted animal cookies from the bulk bins, or racing/fighting in the aisles. No crying, pooping, drooling, or wandering off. No odd items showed up in the cart. I found all the items I came to. And *gasp* I actually remembered all the things I came for!!!
The bubble popped as soon as we were back in the van. And stayed popped for the rest of the day.
The only thing I have to show for that wonderful, blissful hour in a grocery store with all 6 kids is half a produce bag of lemon pepper. Isaac begged to slide the dispenser back for me as I filled a small bag of bulk lemon pepper (with no MSG!). His reflexes are not the fastest and the bag overfilled. Eh...who says you don't need a year's worth of lemon pepper?
This makes me wonder why my kids freak out in Walmart, Target, Costco, Gas Stations (every time we stop Joshua announces he has to go to the bathroom), the Post Office, or the Library, but not in Winco, which would seem like a much better place to get into trouble with the bulk bins and the longer aisles? I actually came out of there feeling pretty proud of myself..."Hahah!!! I'm not the three ring circus today!!"
It's that one time in 30 that makes you think "I can do this!" and I needed that today. :)
As soon as we walked in the store I had to fight with Ammon, but after a few slaps to my chest and arms, he settled down, resigned to being the baby in the cart with a seatbelt. A few screeches in the produce section, but nothing after that. Weird.
Simeon announces after the first aisle he has to go to the bathroom. Jesse has pretty good store radar and since the boys over the age of five refuse to be caught in a GIRL'S bathroom, Jesse's job is bathroom duty for the boys. Two minutes later, they're back.
"Did Simeon even go to the bathroom?!"
"No. "
Simeon shrugs his shoulders at me.
"Why?"
"Because he has to have a toilet with a flush handle on it, otherwise he can't pee."
Simeon didn't utter one word about the toilet or having to go the rest of the time we were in the store. When we got home though, he barged through everyone and made a beeline straight for our normal, flushing toilet.
Joshua was just having a bad day from the minute he woke up to the minute he went to bed tonight. But the one hour of gold I had from him was in the store. Weird. The only thing he did that was mildly distracting was play Captain Plunger in the hardware aisle. Why are those things so interesting to the boys?
More weirdness followed: nobody asked for treats, they didn't play with the honey dispenser in the bulk food aisle (unlike their mother one night that HAD to try it), no sneaking of frosted animal cookies from the bulk bins, or racing/fighting in the aisles. No crying, pooping, drooling, or wandering off. No odd items showed up in the cart. I found all the items I came to. And *gasp* I actually remembered all the things I came for!!!
The bubble popped as soon as we were back in the van. And stayed popped for the rest of the day.
The only thing I have to show for that wonderful, blissful hour in a grocery store with all 6 kids is half a produce bag of lemon pepper. Isaac begged to slide the dispenser back for me as I filled a small bag of bulk lemon pepper (with no MSG!). His reflexes are not the fastest and the bag overfilled. Eh...who says you don't need a year's worth of lemon pepper?
This makes me wonder why my kids freak out in Walmart, Target, Costco, Gas Stations (every time we stop Joshua announces he has to go to the bathroom), the Post Office, or the Library, but not in Winco, which would seem like a much better place to get into trouble with the bulk bins and the longer aisles? I actually came out of there feeling pretty proud of myself..."Hahah!!! I'm not the three ring circus today!!"
It's that one time in 30 that makes you think "I can do this!" and I needed that today. :)
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Our Neighborhood Ice Cream Man
We live in a typical all-American suburban neighborhood. Large houses, stately wooden fences, mostly friendly neighbors and an ice cream man.
Unfortunately, our neighborhood ice cream man’s personality resembles the “Joker” more than “Mr. Rogers”. I keep telling the kids that he’ll get better, but it’s been almost a year and a half that we’ve lived here and he’s still an evil Ice cream man. That’s kind of harsh sounding, you might be thinking right now, but I assure you, I’m being nice. Here are some of our { horror } stories:
One time he drove off with the kid’s money screaming that he didn’t have time to wait for them to get exact change! They didn’t get any ice cream and he got their dollar.
He’s constantly telling them he’s not waiting for them to get more change and then drives off.
One afternoon, my son Benjamin wanted to buy some cotton candy. The sign on his truck said it was a dollar. My son hands him the dollar and he tells him that his company just called and raised the price from $1 to $2 that day. My son pointed out that it didn’t say it on the truck yet and the ice cream man wouldn’t sell it to him even though the truck said $1. This is a common occurrence as my kids have several stories of wanting to buy something and he raises the price.
He’s often told the kids not to come back that they come too much. Keep in mind he doesn’t even come to our neighborhood every week. Sigh.
Some days when the kids are walking up to the truck, he’ll look at the kids and take off. Really, a bunch of homeschool kids are that scary? Just across the street live two kids that look like David Bowie in the 80’s with blue and green hair. Although, my kids tell me they are the only ones who come to his truck---all the other kids are running away. I’m thinking mine should too. Besides, it would burn the calories instead of giving them those unhealthy, ice cream, sugar laden calories. Poor kids.
I really think grouchy pants shouldn’t be working with kids. He’s really making things miserable for everyone involved-including himself. My kids must be serious glutens for ice cream since they keep buying from him, though.
Whatever happened to the nice neighborhood ice cream man that you could sit on the curb and ask neat questions to like, “Why did Suzie chase me on the playground yesterday?” or “What is the milky way really made of?” He must be in your neighborhood. Tell him we’d like him to visit ours!
Now on to a more positive note. What is your favorite thing you got from the ice cream man as a kid? I loved the strawberry or chocolate éclairs. And who can forget the wax teeth or lips? What was that?
Speaking of wax candy, I love this clip by Tim Hawkins:
American Home Shield has your California home warranty needs covered.
Shots.......NOOOOOOOOOO!
I have been homeschooling our kids for the last 6 years. Its been wonderful, stressful, scary, fun, good times and a few bad times. Sometime back in January I found a link to Quail Run Primary school, a charter school. I visited the site a few times, in passing asked Curtis what he thought of the kids going to a charter school, and mauled it over in my head way too much. One afternoon Curtis said "Well, if you want to try it, go for it." And before I lost my nerve, I submitted all five school age kids for registration. It was a lottery type drawing they did to see who gets into the school for the next year, and most of me thought, "Eh. They probably won't get in."
Well, they did. After I got done hyperventilating about it, I came around to the idea. The kids were surprisingly excited about it, especially after we went on a tour of the school. Homeschooling is not far from my mind though, especially in regards to Isaac. If things start to go south, he will come back home. And I don't think this is the end of my homeschooling days. I have a feeling we will go back to it eventually, depending on circumstances.
Part of the registration process (as most parents know) is the physicals and more importantly, shots. I scheduled all 6 kids to go in for their checkups in groups of two. Older boys, middle kids, little boys. Everyone was fine till they whipped out the syringes.
These shots have begun the plea process. You would have thought they were being sentenced to life in prison. "Mom, I don't want to go to school if I have to get shots." "Mom, I didn't do anything wrong to get shots, did I?" "Mom, HOW COULD YOU LET THEM DO THIS TO ME!!!!", followed by blood curdling screams.
The unfortunate things is that in all our moves some of the kids' shot records have been lost or were never received, so they are geting like 2-4 shots at a time. Not the makings for happy campers. Those Varicella shots (chicken pox) shots look and feel nasty. I'd almost rather get the disease than those shots. (I only have three scars on my face from chicken pox, what's the problem?)
When we got home, I put Lavender essential oil on the shot sites and they healed up, no fevers, and just a little bit of redness! Yay, essential oils to the rescue! So far, we have four kids down and two to go, but I have a feeling they won't be getting as many shots as the older kids since they are all caught up and I have their records. Luckies!!
Aside from the joking though, I do get a little wigged out when my kids go in for shots. Isaac and Simeon who both have autism, had really bad reactions when they were babies. I didn't know you could delay shots, or not get them all together, when Isaac was born, so on the 2, 4, 6, 9, and 12 month marks we were in the doctors office. At the 2 month shot session, Isaac screamed for 45 minutes. I was crying right along with him. Way to make a new mom feel confident! When Simeon got his shots, more specifically the 9 month MMR shot, that was bad. A week later he started running a fever of 105.8 for a week straight, and when he came out of it, he couldn't sit up, crawl, nurse, talk, or do much of any of the things he used to be able to do at that point. I didn't know about the arguments surrounding the MMR shots and the link to autism. There still is no way to know if there was a connection, but it was enough to see that sometimes SOMETHING can happen. Later there was mention that he had viral meningitis that caused the high fever; no relation to the vaccinations. In the next two kids, I delayed them, to where it took till age three to get all their shots, and no adverse reactions so far. I know there is all kinds of media surrounding vaccines and autism. My only plea is that if it is necessary, they make them as safe as they can for the kids that have to have them.
Back to the lighter side of things. The dog and cats had to go in for their shots this week two. Everyone came home sore and grouchy but at least they had miserable companions to share it with. Poor dears!
Well, they did. After I got done hyperventilating about it, I came around to the idea. The kids were surprisingly excited about it, especially after we went on a tour of the school. Homeschooling is not far from my mind though, especially in regards to Isaac. If things start to go south, he will come back home. And I don't think this is the end of my homeschooling days. I have a feeling we will go back to it eventually, depending on circumstances.
Part of the registration process (as most parents know) is the physicals and more importantly, shots. I scheduled all 6 kids to go in for their checkups in groups of two. Older boys, middle kids, little boys. Everyone was fine till they whipped out the syringes.
These shots have begun the plea process. You would have thought they were being sentenced to life in prison. "Mom, I don't want to go to school if I have to get shots." "Mom, I didn't do anything wrong to get shots, did I?" "Mom, HOW COULD YOU LET THEM DO THIS TO ME!!!!", followed by blood curdling screams.
The unfortunate things is that in all our moves some of the kids' shot records have been lost or were never received, so they are geting like 2-4 shots at a time. Not the makings for happy campers. Those Varicella shots (chicken pox) shots look and feel nasty. I'd almost rather get the disease than those shots. (I only have three scars on my face from chicken pox, what's the problem?)
When we got home, I put Lavender essential oil on the shot sites and they healed up, no fevers, and just a little bit of redness! Yay, essential oils to the rescue! So far, we have four kids down and two to go, but I have a feeling they won't be getting as many shots as the older kids since they are all caught up and I have their records. Luckies!!
Aside from the joking though, I do get a little wigged out when my kids go in for shots. Isaac and Simeon who both have autism, had really bad reactions when they were babies. I didn't know you could delay shots, or not get them all together, when Isaac was born, so on the 2, 4, 6, 9, and 12 month marks we were in the doctors office. At the 2 month shot session, Isaac screamed for 45 minutes. I was crying right along with him. Way to make a new mom feel confident! When Simeon got his shots, more specifically the 9 month MMR shot, that was bad. A week later he started running a fever of 105.8 for a week straight, and when he came out of it, he couldn't sit up, crawl, nurse, talk, or do much of any of the things he used to be able to do at that point. I didn't know about the arguments surrounding the MMR shots and the link to autism. There still is no way to know if there was a connection, but it was enough to see that sometimes SOMETHING can happen. Later there was mention that he had viral meningitis that caused the high fever; no relation to the vaccinations. In the next two kids, I delayed them, to where it took till age three to get all their shots, and no adverse reactions so far. I know there is all kinds of media surrounding vaccines and autism. My only plea is that if it is necessary, they make them as safe as they can for the kids that have to have them.
Back to the lighter side of things. The dog and cats had to go in for their shots this week two. Everyone came home sore and grouchy but at least they had miserable companions to share it with. Poor dears!
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