Feeling emotional

For some reason, I'm feeling very emotional today. I'm sure part of it is the fact that my wonderful husband is gone tonight for an educator's conference and won't be back until tomorrow. I also know that tomorrow is the five year mark of the death of the daughter of a high school classmate. The little six year old girl had many, many health problems and the classmate mentioned that five years ago tonight was the last time she ever got to tuck her in. It's affected my whole evening, and I shed some tears when I tucked in my own, absolutely beautiful children. They are growing up so fast, and although I enjoy each new phase and appreciate their independence, I find myself at times grieving the loss of my "babies". JC has had some problems at school the last two weeks, and I'm feeling a little lost about how to help her. There is a HUGE part of me that wants to go to school and pummel some of the little fourth grade brats who are being difficult. But I know that I can't protect her from every hurt in life, and I just pray that I'm making the right decisions, giving her the best guidance, and helping her to cope with life along the way. I'm really looking forward to this weekend. We have a few plans, but for the most part I'm hoping that we can reconnect as a family!

Sunday morning rambling

Our lives seem so unbelievably hectic, and yet I have absolutely no idea what to write about here! Our computer is still wacky, but we are making do with our laptop. I worked 2 1/2 days last week. I'm pretty used to the unpredictability of things, and expect my subbing days to consist of things such as the sweet little three-year-old who vomited during the relay fun and the not-so-sweet six-year-old who informed me, "there is a part of me that just doesn't like you." I did not respond with, "don't worry, the feeling is mutual," although it did take some restraint! I'm happy to report that HT has gotten over his cough & cold significantly quicker than I have. In fact, it's still lingering in me even though it started over two weeks ago. I am glad that I went to the doctor two weeks ago. I have no doubt that the sinus infection would have settled in my chest and I'd have been miserable with an upper respiratory infection. We are fighting some growing pains of having a preteen in the house who doesn't feel that homework is necessarily the best use of his time. Yesterday we had a mishap occur which required a trip to urgent care. JR was outside with his carving tools. He's always been so responsible and I've never questioned allowing him to have them or use them. However, he said he just couldn't take JC's nagging anymore, and allowed her to use one. Sure enough, she sliced into her hand. The doctor said he could do stitches or we could just do the liquid glue/bandaid. My husband opted for that since it wouldn't require an additional trip back to have the stitches removed. We had long conversations with all children about the dangers and responsibilities of things that might be fun but are not "toys". JR had a friend over Friday evening. I wasn't able to be here, but according to my husband they got along well, but didn't really do anything. They watched a movie, then afterward the guest entertained our two younger ones while JR sat and watched the TV. Sounds as though we still need to work on his "hosting a guest" skills! This week we have another crazy week. My husband will spend two days in Columbus for school, I'm scheduled for work two days in preschool, JC has a scout meeting, and next weekend we have the year end party for JR's football. Life is crazy, but I wouldn't want it any other way!

Being thankful

I'm finding myself growing more and more thankful every single day. Certainly, part of it is the month of Thanksgiving...the month where we (hopefully) all remember our many blessings and celebrate them. By the way, have I ever mentioned that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday? It is, without a doubt. However, I digress...

Anyway, with this being only by second year of subbing, I wasn't really sure how November was going to be. Last year, it was one of the busiest months I had all year. This year, I was really, really busy in October, but thought with the school year becoming more routine and meetings becoming less frequent, well, I thought perhaps I'd work a little less. That is turning out not to be the case. I'm feeling a little swamped and overwhelmed. And yet, feeling so very grateful. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to work as a sub at school. It's truly an ideal job. It allows me the opportunity to earn some extra money, but I never have to worry about finding day care for my kids. I love the fact that I sometimes get to see the kids while they are in their school environment, and I love the fact that their teachers know I'm easily accessible. I also love the fact that the job is not full time. I'm grateful that my husband understands that sometimes the dishes remain stacked in the sink overnight because he agrees with me that we'd rather spend a couple of hours during an evening hanging out together than accomplishing various chores. I'm grateful that I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by the holidays because it means that I have many dear friends and family members for whom I want to buy presents, and I'm grateful that the money is in the savings accounts to buy those gifts.

I'm grateful for our family dinners. I love being able to take a little bit of time to connect with the kids. I'm grateful for the fact that we are blessed enough to not have to worry about how we are going to put the food on the table, and I'm grateful that our family takes the time and effort to sit down together as a family, even when dinner is leftovers or a bowl of cereal. And I'm grateful that the rest of the family enjoys that time as much as I do.

I could go on and on and on, but it's getting late, and I don't need to spell it all out for everyone. I do hope everyone finds more reasons to be thankful during the month of November than they can even being to count!

Home with a sick kid

Yesterday morning I could tell that HT was coming down with the same thing I'd had last week. I wanted to keep him home, but since it was Halloween I really wanted him to try to get through the day. I made the mistake of leaving the house about an half hour after the kids on a mission to get a bunch of errands done. I had just walked into the grocery (20 minutes away) when my cell rang. It was the school letting me know that HT was sick and that I needed to come and get him. I hated being that far away when my little guy needed me! He spent the afternoon coughing on the couch and watching a movie. We decided that since he wasn't running a fever he could participate in trick-or-treating, at least just to the neighbors. We also decided that he could sleep downstairs on the couch because that would help him to sleep propped up, and hopefully decrease the coughing. I slept curled up in the recliner just in case he needed something during the night. I decided during the night that with all of his coughing, he was staying home today. I wasn't scheduled to work, and being able to just stay home and rest is one advantage of having a stay-at-home mom! He's been laying down and watching TV or a movie all day. I know that it's going to be a long week for him, but I'm hoping he doesn't feel as miserable as I did last week!

Might be awhile

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are having serious computer issues around here. My husband is going to be taking my desktop (also known as my lifeline!) in to get worked on sometime this week. God love him, he tried to "fix" it himself, and now I can't access my email or use several other features. I put fix in quotes because it wasn't exactly broken before he got his hands on it, it just wasn't doing exactly what it should be doing. Now, it pretty much does nothing at all. We still have our laptop (which is what I'm on now) but it's pretty inconvenient so I don't like to use it much. So please forgive my silence over the next week (hopefully not longer!) both on here and in the email world. In the meantime, maybe I'll actually be productive in real life! Happy Halloween everyone!

Catching up on our week

It was another crazy week around here. I ended up working every day except Monday. While the antibiotics are working, there is still a lot of gunk in my and I've pretty much lost my voice. That makes subbing a little challenging, especially with the sixth grade group who aren't quiet to begin with! While I didn't necessarily get a chance to really celebrate my birthday on Thursday, the kids tried their best to make a big deal out of it, and I tell myself the fact that I haven't cooked all week is my gift to myself (helping to alleviate the mom guilt of having take in!). Overall, nothing terribly dramatic happened in our week, and I'm very grateful for that. I have many, many things I hope to accomplish this week, but a lot depends on my work schedule. Mostly, I'm looking forward to having the entire family at home in the evenings!

Officially over

Football season officially came to an end this afternoon. Our team had to travel over 45 minutes to play our game, and unfortunately it wasn't our best game. In fact, we got crushed. We got down early in the game, and I think the fact that we had dominated most games this season really hurt us. The boys didn't know how to have to "bounce back" and instead they just began to panic. JR is not the least bit heartbroken about this, which leads me to believe that his football days may be over. My wonderful husband though, had a great time coaching and is taking it a little harder. I'm disappointed they won't have an opportunity to play for the championship next weekend, but I'm looking forward to a little more of a relaxed schedule!