Happy Halloween!

I'll be honest, this is my least favorite holiday of the entire year. I even get more excited about Groundhog Day than this one. Even as a child, I was not thrilled. I remember still being in elementary school and announcing that I was no longer dressing up. My mother explained that I wouldn't get any candy that way and I said that was fine with me. I also refuse to spend oodles and oodles of money on costumes. Every year, with very few exceptions, we have used things that we have around the house to put together costumes. I was really impressed with JR last year. After we informed him that we wouldn't spend $20 on a store costume, he decided to be a school crossing guard and borrowed the outfit from school. This year my little guy wanted to be a John Deere driver. It was a simple outfit to put together, and then I even got a cardboard box and painted it green and decorated it to look like a tractor. I'm biased, but he is the cutest John Deere driver ever! The kids are currently out trick-or-treating, and I'm home manning the candy disbursement. I'm looking forward to hearing their stories when they return!

Asking for prayers

I've received some very sad news this week, and am asking for my friend's family to be lifted up in prayer. I received an email from my college friend yesterday explaining that her ten year old nephew had been diagnosed with cancer. Because this friend and I were inseparable through college, I was close with the entire family and my heart just absolutely breaks for them. Unfortunately, the news was even worse this morning. This young man is completely full of the cancer and it is in stage 4. They are still working on biopsying the many, many tumors and are focusing on keeping him comfortable as they establish the best route for treatment. I can't even imagine the horror his parents are feeling right now...it just makes me sick. Looking forward to giving my healthy kids extra hugs today, and praising God for them in my life. I ask for continued prayers for this family.

37 years ago...

I was born. Yep, today is my birthday. I was feeling a little melancholy about it, because frankly, the last several haven't been so great. Last year on my birthday I was the sickest I've been in years, and the year before that my wonderful husband was sick. There are some other not-so-great recent birthdays, but today has been very nice. My husband surprised me with some gifts and the kids were so excited to share in our little celebrations. I had lunch with a good friend, and dinner was take out...no cooking for me! I keep telling the kids that I hope I'm around at least another 37 years. JC informed me that would be a really big number! For the first time in years, my dad didn't remind me of the night I was born. Things have changed a great deal since then, and at that time fathers weren't permitted in the delivery room. My dad informed me that my mother was in labor for several hours and there wasn't a comfortable chair anywhere at all in the waiting room. I always knew though, that he didn't really mind. I'm feeling very blessed today!

Glad I stayed home

As it turns out, not venturing out was definitely a good idea. First of all, I'm battling what I'm fairly certain is a sinus infection and just haven't felt well for several days. Secondly, the whopper of a storm that was supposed to hit was by no means overestimated. I started noticing shortly after 11:30 that there was a tornado warning for the area where my husband works. I decided to turn on our local "go to" TV station, and sure enough there was continuing weather coverage. As they kept pointing out, the challenge about this weather was that there was not just a single storm cell that was capable of producing tornadoes, but an entire line of storms that spanned over 100 miles in length. My husband texted me at one point to let me know he was okay, but that they had taken cover at the school. I just kept thinking about my kids, and how terrified I was afraid they would be, especially the youngest. It turns out, based on what I'm hearing from parents, because the sirens went off the kids were all taken to the basement of the school. However, because there was no indication that our community was actually in the path of the severest of storms, they were allowed to look at books and apparently they tried to keep it "low key". I'm very grateful to hear that. While I know many people in town who did seek shelter in basements, I stayed tuned into the weather. While what we had was scary, it was by no means major compared to surrounding areas. There is lots of damage throughout many counties, but most importantly, there seem to be no injuries.

Change of Plans

I'm off work today after being in Kindergarten yesterday. Originally, I had planned to visit the outlet mall about 30 minutes from here. There are a couple of things I wanted to pick up, and I had hoped to do it before I have to work in preschool tomorrow. Plans have changed though. There is apparently a heck of a storm headed this way, and it just seems as though the smart thing to do would be to stay home and be on alert. There are already early morning tornado watches to our west, and I think I'd rather be safe and sound at home. I kind of wish the kids didn't have to go to school today, but I trust that they will be safe, and fortunately we live close so it's a short trip back and forth. At the same time, I'll be grateful when the worst of things is over today.

Season over

Soccer season ended this morning. HT had his last game. While I'm happy to know that our Saturday mornings are now unscheduled, I was a little sad in that HT actually had his best game of the year this morning! He's ready to be finished though, and I'm glad that he isn't sad about it. I also attended the game of one of our friends' sons and enjoyed watching him play as well. I don't think anyone is playing basketball in this house, so until baseball season starts in about five months we will have more free time...or as much as you can have with three children!

Not impressed

We have signed JR up for a baseball clinic that will run in February and March of 2011. Baseball is a game that he really enjoys, and he loves having his dad coach him, so we thought we'd see what this clinic could help him develop. He will receive an hour of hitting instruction and an hour of catching instruction each week for six weeks. JR was asking at dinner last night if anyone famous was going to be instructing at the clinics. I said that the spring training will already have begun for the big league players so I don't think JR will recognize any names. JC announced that she certainly hoped the Reds players wouldn't be instructing the hitting session because they struck out WAY too much. My husband and I both had to chuckle at our nine-year-old criticizing major league hitters. In her defense, the last game she got to see was where the Phillies pitched a no-hitter against our Reds, and there she definitely saw lots of strike outs!

My Monkey

On Thursday HT had a soccer game. At the end of the game, the kids were playing around with some friends and a soccer ball ended up in a tree. Way up in a tree. As the ball did not belong to us but it was JR who had managed to get it there, I was not at all pleased. JC was on the job though. She was convinced that she could climb that tree and get to the ball. I was a little hesitant to let her, but I quickly realized it was probably our only chance of retrieving the ball. A quick boost and she was on her way. I was amazed! She is so light and flexible that she had almost no problems getting up into that tree. She got a little scared at one point because she couldn't find a foothold, but after that was resolved she was going along just fine! She even managed to get down without any problems. I was so proud of her for being brave, and also amazed at her athleticism.

Of course, our friend Cameron was less pleased by the entire situation. It was his ball, and he couldn't stand the fact that a girl had managed to climb the tree and save the day. Yesterday at another soccer game JC and Cameron were climbing the same tree together, and Cam had to make sure that he was always higher than she was. Well, welcome to life as a female, I suppose. Anyway, I enjoyed seeing JC be my little monkey.

Lunchbox Monster

Obviously, with three children in school, we have three lunchboxes in this house. I really don't enjoy packing lunches. In fact, it's one of my least favorite chores. However, if I allowed each child to buy every day it would cost me over $135 a month in school lunches alone. Needless to say, I can pack them lunches for significantly less than that over the course of a month. Anyway, it seems as though HT forgot to bring his lunchbox home today. He is absolutely insistent that it did come home though. He even showed me where he thinks he put it on the counter and "accused" me of packing it already and forgetting. I explained that I hadn't seen it at all this afternoon and that I really, really think he accidentally left it at school. He was still convinced though, and finally announced that perhaps the lunchbox monster had taken it. Now that made me laugh! If only that darn monster could also pack the lunches, then I'd be all set!

Daily chores

Nothing terribly exciting is going on around here. HT felt well enough on Tuesday to go to school again, although he and I both had an intestinal bug yesterday. Mine lasted all day, his was only in the evening and not enough to miss school again. I had worked Monday and Tuesday, and yesterday I basically just sat on the couch all day. It wasn't really what I had planned, but every time I would get up to try to get something accomplished, things got ugly. Today though, I'm feeling motivated and actually getting things accomplished. I'm also realizing, again, the routine of life. I just ran and emptied the dishwasher yesterday, but it needed it again today. Folded two loads of laundry last night and this morning, but had another load to wash and fold this morning. At times it feels so discouraging that, as a mother, there is always more to do and seemingly never enough time to do it. But I keep remembering the song "You're Gonna Miss This" and I know someday I'll be sad that the only clothes to fold belong to my husband and me, and it will be several days between dishwasher runs because he and I won't use nearly as many dishes by ourselves. I told them all yesterday that my four favorite things (including my wonderful husband) were all sitting at the table with me.

Learning the Lesson

By the time my wonderful husband arrived home Monday evening, I was feeling much calmer about life. As I sat there and ate my dinner of rice with BBQ sauce (yeah, still doesn't compare to that steak dinner!) I gave him a run down of how the evening had gone at home. He was rather sheepish and very apologetic. He said that he realized after hearing about my day from my perspective that there really were some additional things he could have done to help out. I know it's a learning lesson, and we both calmly discussed how things could have gone differently. The thing I love most about my marriage and my husband is how well we communicate, and I'm grateful we have that in common.

Pushed to the brink

I'm going to warn you now...this post is full of whining and complaining. Please feel free to stop reading. I will not be offended, and I might even be relieved!

I will further preface this post by stating that many things that I'm going to write happen to working moms everyday. However, this is all new to me so please allow me to indulge in a little, well, self-pity.

On Saturday, I noticed that HT was really sniffling. Yesterday, he awoke with a really bad cough. I mean, one of those, coughing-up-a-lung-body-wracking kind of coughs. We pretty much knew by the middle of the afternoon that he wasn't going to be going to school today. I was scheduled to sub, and had been for weeks, so my wonderful husband agreed to stay home with the little guy. He even agreed to take the night shift of sleeping downstairs with him since I was the one going to work today. Don't get me wrong, I am very grateful to my wonderful husband for doing this. This morning he informed me that he didn't sleep much last night. I completely understood (having been the one who handled these situations up to now) and thanked him again for being willing to do this. Before I left, I gave my wonderful husband the phone number of the school so he could report HT's absence, reminded JC to turn out the lights in her bedroom, and handled about a million other little things so no one else had to think about them. Between Kindergarten classes, I called to see how the little guy was feeling. I had awakened my husband. I felt badly, I truly did, but him being annoyed with me didn't really help. When I got to the afternoon class, the school informed me, jokingly, that my husband had forgotten to call about HT and they'd had to call him. I'll be honest, this irked me a little bit, but again, I was so grateful for him being willing to take a sick day, that I promised the office staff that I wouldn't get to sore at him. It was tough to fulfill that promise, however, when he mentioned that he had just been too tired to remember to take care of it. Okay, uhm, sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. Or maybe only if you're mom is that in the job description.

My husband and I both agreed that due to my work schedule the rest of the week, and the fact that we weren't sure if HT was going back to school tomorrow (and the lack of medications in the cabinet) that I would go right after work to do my weekly grocery shopping. Normally I would prefer to go later, but since HT wasn't going to be able to play in his soccer game this evening, my wonderful husband really wanted to attend this meeting that had been scheduled because they were serving steak dinner tonight (I'll try not to sound bitter as I have yet to eat). Both boys were home with my wonderful husband, and I took JC because I had seen a winter coat on sale that I thought she might like and wanted her to try on. I got home about 20 minutes before my husband had to leave. Of course, he needed to change clothes for his meeting, so he wasn't really able to help with the eight bags of groceries I had brought home. And no, it hadn't occurred to him to get something ready for the kids to eat either. JC and JR both decide that they want ravioli. I get that heated in the microwave, and pack their school lunches for tomorrow while they are eating. HT decides that he wants an english muffin with honey. I get him that, and suddenly notice that JC is not at the table and had not been excused. It turns out that she had waited too long to use the restroom, and had peed over everything. Since she is nine years old, I was NOT pleased. I understand that accidents happen, but when you are home, all bathrooms are available, and you are NINE, this particular accident should not have happened. As I'm in her room, I notice that several things I had asked her to put away no fewer than two times already were still not in their place, the lights I had specifically requested she turn off had been left on all day, the bed wasn't made, and I'll be honest, it pretty much unraveled from there. Then I come downstairs and everything I touch in the kitchen, cabinets, handles, EVERYTHING, is sticky. Suddenly, I remembered that HT had asked if he could have something else to eat, and it occurs to me that he'd had honey on his muffin. So, out the come the scrubbing rags. Of course, during all of this JC is upstairs tantruming, and HT is refusing to take the cough medicine that I hope will allow him to sleep through the night.

I decided that the best place for JC, for her own safety, was her bed (as an aside, we allowed her to stay up an extra 1/2 hour to watch the first inning of the Reds game last night, and her teacher hunted me down at school and mentioned that there had been some incidents involving her behavior). When I put HT down (also prior to his normal bedtime) she was sound asleep, which shows me that, yet again, bad things happen when she's overly tired.

If anyone is still reading, please know that I feel totally, totally better after writing all of this down. I feel as though a huge weight has been lifted off my chest, and I will no longer feel the need to explode at my husband when he walks in the door from his steak dinner meeting (hopefully I'll have eaten my bean soup by then). I really am grateful that not only does my husband have a job where it's okay to stay home with the sick kids, but he is willing to take that day as well. I'm grateful that I had the money to purchase the eight bags of groceries that I needed to put away, and more than anything, I'm grateful for my family, even when they push me to the brink of insanity!

Another week gone by

Hard to believe the first week of October is already in the books. Wow! Where is time going? It was another busy week, but this weekend we are headed to the lake. My husband decided to get a sub at Sunday School, and we are actually going to stay over Saturday night. I often find that staying over just one night is a lot of work, but it means I'll get to sleep in on Sunday so I can get excited about that! We have no soccer games this weekend, and the Steelers aren't playing so we can just relax and enjoy the weekend. Dad will be up there tomorrow, and apparently Mom & my sister will be joining us tomorrow afternoon to watch the Notre Dame game.

Our Reds played their first game Wednesday evening. Didn't quite go according to plan, but it was neat to see Roy Halladay pitch a no-hitter. It's only one game, and that's why it's called a series. Unfortunately, none of us will be home this evening to watch the game, but we'll be cheering for our Reds anyway!

I survived art class

I've never enjoyed art class. Not one thing about it. My grandmother is a very talented artist and even my other grandmother is just about the most creative person I've ever met. She'll say that she's not talented, and that may be but she just amazes me with her creativity. Me, yeah, uhm, not so much. I'll be happy to share my penchant for obscure sports facts or my love of identifying cars by their headlights, but nothing in the creativity department. In school, art was always my least favorite subject, and I took only the basic minimum that was required. Today I got a desperate call from one of the schools where I work. School had literally just begun, and a teacher had come to the office requesting a sub so she could go home sick. I was happy to rush in. Oh yeah, and by the way it was art class. Yikes! It was definitely an interesting experience. We accomplished everything the teacher asked for, and the kids all seem to have a good time so I classify the day a success. And I even survived the lunch room duty that was also required of my day. I'm starting to feel like a veteran!

Switching sports

It seems that HT, as with the others, is really not into soccer. This is not terribly surprising to me, although it is somewhat disappointing. We had thought that maybe the lack of enthusiasm was due to the 9AM game times, but even the 10:15 game times aren't exactly bringing out the zest for soccer. I asked HT if he thought he would be playing soccer next year, and he announced that he would prefer to try badminton. I got quite a chuckle out of this...how on earth we'll find a rec badminton league for seven-year-olds is beyond me!

Weekly tidbits

Whew! We survived the week! It was a pretty daunting one, and I apologize for any repetitions in this post from earlier ones. It was just a really long week!

Monday - I worked again. I'm really enjoying subbing and am so grateful for the opportunity to earn some extra money. I'm not working quite as much as I would like, but I'm sure as flu season begins that will change. There was a cub scout pack meeting in the evening, and HT got to attend for the first time as a cub scout. He's officially signed up and very excited!

Tuesday - HT is now cast free! He is required to be in a brace for a week, but the good news is that he's using his thumb frequently. We had some concerns that he would be "lazy" with it, but it all seems to be going well. That evening JC attended her first girl scout meeting. It is a fairly laid back group, and I'm grateful for that. Girl scouts is very different than the cub scouts...some good, some I don't like as much. But I think it will be good for JC and that is the important thing. JR also had his first karate lesson Tuesday evening. I think this is going to be really great for him. He is excited about learning everything there is to learn about karate!

Wednesday - This was supposed to be our "easy" day, but it turned into feeling like total chaos. I was babysitting Sarah, the daughter of some friends. She has started preschool, so I still had the morning to myself, and she took a nap in the afternoon. She was not the part of our day that was chaotic. After school, all four kids (including Sarah) were out playing in our back yard. I was sitting on our front porch, and they came running up to me announcing that there was a dead animal in our back yard. Yuck, yuck, and yuck! Almost right away JR's nose began to bleed and as I was tending to that I hear JC announce that she couldn't take the buzzing anymore and turn around to find her standing there with a dead fly on the bottom of her shoe. While this actually made me happy, her little brother was very squeamish about the whole thing (this is the same little brother who was happy, however, to help dispose of the dead animal later). It was a lot to absorb in a five minute period of time! Fortunately, my husband said the dead animal really only appeared to be a squirrel's tail, or something similar, and he's already scoured the back yard to be certain that there are no additional body parts scattered around!

Thursday - This was a fairly normal day. JR had a meeting after school so that he can be on the safety patrol again this year. He really loves doing it, and I've got to say (again) that he is one of the most responsible 11-year-olds I've ever known. I'm so proud of him! We all got our flu shots yesterday, and I was so proud of HT. He never screamed, cried, or even teared up! This is a first for him and needles! JR and I both agreed this was the worst shot we've ever had. I'm pretty sure it was due to a nurse who wasn't very good at giving shots. JR and I both took some Tylenol yesterday, and we both agreed that it's still a little sore today, although much, much better than yesterday.

And that brings us to today. We have lots of fun plans for the weekend and it sounds as though the weather is going to be beautiful. Hope everyone has a great weekend!