Category Archives: Fun with the Fam

Update

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So, summer obviously became crazily busy with seven little ones in the house. Now that three are back doing their own thing, it’s calmed down a bit.

Now that I typed it, I don’t really think “calm” is the right word. My children have settled-ish into their new schedule, but there’s still plenty of push-back. I am struggling to find a good balance between their school and my other responsibilities. I try to grade right away, but I tend to wait until the last minute to lesson plan for the following week. I know we’ll get the hang of it though. The kids still seem into this whole homeschool thing. I pray it ends up being as good for them as I hope.

SC, as the only one not of school age, still prefers to hang out with us during school hours. She has her own little desk where she colors or plays with the counting tools while we have lessons. Even just being in the same room as us, I see her making these amazing connections. She has already begun counting. She uses complete sentences and her vocabulary is expanding exponentially. Did I mention she’s not even two yet? Now if I could only get her smart, but very stubborn behind to sit on the potty.

PB, J, and PB&J

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On days like today, I question my own sanity. If the title didn’t alert you to it, I just finished making lunch. For seven children; my own four and my sister’s three. As we stumble through this quarantine, I have started watching my sister’s kids again as both her husband and herself are still working.

The last few days have been oppressively humid and I was loathe to turn the oven on or use the stove. I decided to go with a solid staple and make everyone peanut butter and jelly. It was not as easy as it sounds.

I should have been able to just slap together seven sandwiches, right? Well, I was woefully mistaken. For my own I needed one peanut butter half sandwich, one peanut butter, one jelly, and one peanut butter and jelly. For my sister’s I needed to switch bread, peanut butter, and jelly. Then I had to make one peanut butter, one jelly, and one peanut butter and jelly.

How did making peanut butter and jelly for lunch get so complicated? Oh, well. At least they are all eating happily. And it’s afforded me the first time in a while where I could sit down at my computer and write. Now if only they would eat a little slower.

Accidentally on Purpose

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CJ has these amazing moments of accidental thoughtfulness. Here is the perfect example:

Recently, CJ purchased brand new water bottles for the three older kids. MJ got dinosaurs and Q got unicorns. Absolutely amazing picks for both of them. EM got a cartoon planet Earth with the saying “Earth Day Every Day.” I commended CJ for his choices. He thought I was being sarcastic as far as EM’s went. He said he was running out of options and was just hoping she would find it cute.

He totally burst my bubble. I explained to him the reason I had been so excited is because EM’s birthday is Earth Day. He could not have gotten her a more perfect water bottle. He then said, “Ok, yeah. I did it on purpose.”

I mean, all this information is in there somewhere, so we have to give him partial credit, right?

Heck No, We Won’t Go!

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So, it’s official. There will be no more school this year. Well, in the school building that is. We are still going to have to suffer through remote learning. I had a difficult enough time trying to do remote learning in college and now I have to do it for even longer with my kids.

Q, my kindergartner, spends her whole lessons with her teacher claiming she’s too tired to participate, yet running around the dining room table where I have her set up. You already know the issues I was having with MJ. As much as I want to say, “forget it,” I don’t want anyone to be behind next school year.

Honestly, I’m not too worried about MJ and Q. They both have solid foundations and I think anything we don’t cover while they are learning with me will easily be caught up on once school resumes. I am worried about EM though. She’s supposed to be entering kindergarten come the fall. I feel like maybe she got enough preschool under her belt that she should be okay, but then again, you never really know.

I haven’t been sleeping very well lately as my anxiety and depression seem to be at war with each other over control of me. I have been trying to accomplish little tasks around the house that I have been putting off, but shelter-in-place affords me even less time for myself than the regular school year. However, I did just finish a project for the kids. I re-vamped two old end tables to make an oven and a grocery store counter. I put them in the playroom last night so they would wake up to find them this morning. They were a big hit!

CJ also just finished building a whole new play set in the backyard. He worked on it over one weekend and a few lunch breaks. The kids have been on it almost non-stop whenever we are outside. Even SC, my little 17 month old, is in love with it. It didn’t take long at all until she was brave enough to climb the steps by herself to go down the slide. And who doesn’t love a baby plopping off the slide onto their diapered bottom?

 

 

Too School for Cool?

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Today, we entered the world of homeschooling using materials and resources CJ picked up from school yesterday. This morning, we had a conference call with a teacher and quite a few classmates, we’ve used online learning sites as directed, and did many worksheets. I hate it.

As you’ve seen in my unfinished summer posts, I always make sure we are doing some kid of learning on extended time off. In preparation for the weeks ahead when they closed school, I made up schedules and lesson plans for us, to make sure the kids were still learning something; to keep their brains active.

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I would like to point out, the movie is a Disney movie and was chosen ironically. Also, they love it. And maybe I do too.  🙂

This schedule was super easy to follow and had a format my kids were used to. We were already doing really well with it. Today has been a mess though. Like, seriously.

We did science and math on Monday and Tuesday in the form of a hand washing experiment and spine demonstration (using cut straws and pipe cleaners) and did some baking and measuring.

We didn’t do anything I had planned for today, opting instead to just go all in with what the teachers had provided. This method, unfortunately, leaves the younger two out. I cannot fully devote myself to either faction that has been created. The two younger ones distract the older ones, as they just want to touch the devices that were sent home, and I can’t focus on keeping them otherwise occupied since the older two require instruction to get their work done.

I plan on finishing out the week, to see if things get any better. If they don’t start to go more smoothly, I may back out from what the teachers are asking (sorry!) and just stick to my own planning. My kids may end up a touch behind in lessons once school resumes, but how much can they really be absorbing with such frequent interruptions? Also, it’s not like they weren’t learning anything. They just didn’t realized they were learning.

This experience has once again made it clear to me that I made the right choice studying adolescent versus elementary education. God bless our teachers!

Halloween

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Some people wanted to judge me harshly for not letting my kids go trick-or-treating this year. I’m sure some of you may want to now as well. But let me explain.

This past Thursday night, there were crazy high wind speeds where I live. Also, there was so much rain, our front sidewalk was flooded. If we had let them go, all of us would have gotten soaked and at least one of us would have gotten sick.

Instead, the kids all got dressed in their costumes and CJ and I set up trick-or-treating stations around the house. At our manned stations, the kids were asked math or reading questions in order to earn a piece of candy. At unmanned stations, they had to preform a physical activity (like jumping jacks) in order to earn candy. As an added bonus, this also helped tucker them out for bed.

Everyone had tons of fun and no one got wet. Win-win as far as I’m concerned. Just because you don’t participate in the “norm,” doesn’t make you a bad parent. As long as your kids are happy, that’s all that matters.

Q-isms

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The past few weeks have been full of the preparing for and then after care of a surgery for Q. Amid all that, we were trying to squeeze in end-of-the-year picnics at school and for Cub Scouts, while also trying to get some planning done for the first full week of summer break. I know it may be a little early for this, but so far, so good. (Hopefully I don’t kick myself for that later.)

Over the past little while, Q seems to have really kicked up her silliness. I mean, she is like the most amazingly weird person I have ever met. I have decided to share a few of her more recent Q-isms so everyone can delight in this crazy little girl.

 

Q: When I grow up, I want to work in a hospital.

Me: Awesome! You want to be a doctor? A nurse?

Q: No. I just want to give kids shots.

Me: …

 

*Upon making Worms in Dirt*

Me: *taking a picture* Alright, babies. Give me your best wormy smile. Q, what’s with that face?

Q: *Dead pan* Worms don’t smile.

Well, she wasn’t wrong.

 

*Singing along to Disney tunes*

Q: Mommy, sing! Why did you stop?

Me: I don’t know the words.

Q: Yes, you do.

Me: Sweetheart, no one really knows the words to Circle of Life.

Q: Can I make up words?

Me: That can be dangerous territory, my love.

Q: Let’s just skip it.

Forever my backseat DJ.

 

*Upon listening to Dolly Parton in the van*

Q: Mom! Turn it off. I hate it.

Me: Seriously? But, but…

Q: I no longer like music.

Such harsh criticism from a five year old.

 

Me: *hiccup*

Q: Mommy, what’s wrong? Why are you sick?

Me: I’m not sick. I just have the hiccups.

Q: Should we talk about rainbows? Will that make them go away?

Me: Absolutely, girlfriend. Let’s talk about rainbows.

Because rainbows always make everything better.

 

For those of you who know her, isn’t this just so totally her? And for those of you who don’t know her, you’re definitely missing out. 🙂

From the Mouths of Babes

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I believe all parents have encountered a moment where the unfiltered mind of their young child has led to a comment that was either embarrassing, unintentionally funny, or maybe a combination of both. My personal favorite to date occurred this weekend.

Q and I were at the grocery store. She was being her usual, friendly self; saying hello to anyone and everyone. While searching the shelf for the item I was after, Q drew my attention with, “Look, Mommy! He’s covered with stamps.” She then proceeded to run toward a gentleman to inform him: “You shouldn’t do that. Stamps only go on paper.”

The poor man was genuinely confused, as he did not realize Q was referring to his tattoos as stamps. I, on the other hand, had a really difficult time containing my laughter.  It was good to know though, she remembered just where stamps belong.  🙂

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In the five years we have owned our house, I have never once parked in the garage. CJ claimed it as his own and made his own little gym out there. Honestly, I’m okay with this because it keeps all that equipment out of my house.

Lately, he has been turning the one corner into a rock climbing wall for the kids, so they can have something to do if they want to go out while a parent is working out. MJ is beyond excited about it and has been helping at any opportunity CJ gives him.

Last weekend, the boys were out working, the girls were napping, so I was enjoying some quiet “Mommy Time.” All the sudden MJ comes flying in the house screaming, “Help! Daddy’s bleeding!” I rush out to the garage expecting the worse, but instead see CJ sitting down looking just fine. He saw me and asked if I grabbed a bandage for him since he didn’t see it in my hands.

Apparently, he had dropped some wood on his foot and upon inspection, realized his little toe was bleeding. He had sent MJ into the house to “ask mommy for a bandage,” but instead, the child had scared me half to death.

I told CJ it had been the worst idea ever to send MJ in like that. I repeated what MJ had said and how I came out expecting an unconscious husband laying on the garage floor. At this point, I had no sympathy for his toe. (I did get him the bandage though.)

In conclusion, never send a five year old on such an errand without explicitly telling him what to say, as to avoid unnecessary panic.