Conversations with the Smiths- Part 12

Me: "So, tonight Benjamin has to be at the church at 6:15 to go over the music for the choir on Sunday, then Caleb has scouts there at 7, and the older boys have to go over to Rosie's house for the campfire, also at 7. AND Nathaniel's hippie commie high school parent meeting is also at 7. So, I'll take the kids at 6:15, leave Caleb there at 6:50, take the other boys over to the campfire, then go to the parent meeting. Can you just go and catch the first 10 minutes until I get there, and then you can pick up all the boys and take Benjamin to dance?

Todd: Or.....I could just go to the parent meeting.

Me: WHAT???? After what happened the last time I sent you to a parent meeting at the beginning of the school year??

[It was before preschool for the same child that is now starting high school. But still, he told me nothing and I spent the whole year in utter confusion. The teachers and parents would look at me perplexed and say, "But we covered this at the parent meeting at the beginning of the year. Don't you remember?" Grrrrrr.]

Todd: That was a LONG time ago!!

Me: He skipped two grades in the meantime. It wasn't THAT long ago!

Todd: I promise I'll take notes.

Me: Hm. You promise?

Todd: Yes

Me: Really good notes?

Todd: sigh YES

Me: Fine. I guess you can go instead. But they'd better be excellent notes!

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Epilogue: Not only did he take good notes, he took them in Google Drive, so he could share the file with me. He brought me the dates and agenda AND he even asked a clarifying question or two that he knew I'd want the answer to.  He has redeemed himself nicely. Although, when I asked if he wanted to go to the regular high school parent meeting tonight since I went last year for the other son, he totally balked. Ah, well.

Seven Things Sunday

1. This is what the first week of March seems to look like in central Ohio. *sigh* We are all so ready for spring and no more snow and ice. BUT, at least the sun is beginning to emerge and the cement gray skies will go away until next late fall finally. Oh happy day!

2.  And this is what a math test looks like at our house lately. A few months ago we switched over to an online math curriculum called ALEKS. It has made math time during the day a much happier experience. When I read the reviews about the program and it talked about how motivated kids were by a pie chart, I confess I did not believe it. But it's totally true! Caleb checks his pie chart all the time to see what he needs to work on to make pieces bigger. It's bizarre to me, but I'm really glad it's working for him!

3. I made my last payment at the hippie-commie preschool this week. Sad to be done being there daily, but Lilyanna is so excited to go to Kindergarten in the fall, that it feels right.

4. On Friday, we had the wonderful pleasure of meeting up with some friends that we were young marrieds with back in our pre-kid days in the Perth Amboy Branch. Serving together in that branch forged a friendship probably stronger than it would have been otherwise (seriously, refiner's fire, people!!), but we sure are glad that we get to touch base with them every few years! Our kids are such compatible ages, that it makes visiting with them fun for the whole family! Here are the kids (except Benjabooboo who had a choir competition and couldn't make it, and Warren who has his own life.).

5. Oh, and then there was this:

 My BABY turned 15 years old! I sure do like this kid and I'm glad he's mine.


6. I'm just going to leave this picture here and say that there is more to come regarding it.

7. I can't believe how quickly spring break is coming. We have just a few short weeks before our big hike!! Appalachian Trail, here we come!

A Day "Off"

This is just a post about a day in the life of this mom.

On Friday my boys had off from school, but because my daughter's preschool follows a different calendar, she still had school.

I had 2 goals for the day.
1. Wash the pots and pans that have been waiting for me all week.
2. Sleep in until 8am.

I only accomplished one of those things. And it wasn't the dishes.

Here is what my day looked like. and I am writing it down just because right before I went out with my husband and friends that night I thought to myself, "I was busy all day, why don't I feel like I got anything done?"

8am- was woken up by 5 yr old who bounced all over me until I finally dragged myself out of bed.

8:30- ate distressingly healthy breakfast, read a little, warned kids it was almost time to start cleaning the house.

8:45- realized that the packages of gummy hearts we'd bought for Lilyanna had been mysteriously consumed by NOBODY. There had been 28, we were left with 15 and every boy in the house claimed to have only had one until they realized they were Lilyanna's valentines. Math is not my strongest subject, but even I know that doesn't add up.

9am-Lilyanna comes up with a plan B, and remembered that we had been given an unopened package of Winnie the Pooh Valentines by a neighbor.

9:15-Called Dr's office to beg for a new Rx for my son's medicine which is now distributed in a glass bottle and the day before was knocked onto the kitchen floor made of ceramic tile. $50 worth of medicine wasted. I didn't cry, but it was really sad.

9:30- Help middle school son rehearse for his audition for "The Sound of Music". Pulled out the guitar, relearned a few chords, and tried to teach him to play the guitar while singing Edelweiss. After a few minutes he decided that he would just do it without the guitar and I could accompany him. Then showed him the video of Capt. VonTrapp singing Edelweiss from the movie version. Ran through the song and worked on the character several times.

10am- Worked on writing/folding/stuffing envelopes/putting stickers on 30 Valentines.

10:30- folded laundry, reminded kids to stay focused to get their work done.

11:30-Entered into the Nielson Shopping program all the online purchases I'd made and received that week

12- ate lunch, read a chapter in my book

12:30-took Lilyanna to school

12:50- realized we forgot her Valentines at home.

1:15- went grocery shopping

2pm- got home, ran inside and helped high schooler register for classes for next year. Then checked grades and discussed how they're going to improve.

2:50- grabbed the Valentines and ran them down to preschool so my daughter could hand them out to her friends.

3:15-Headed home from preschool

3:35-Was about to hop in the shower, when I remembered that I still had to pick up the new Rx from the doctor. (they can't call in adhd meds).

3:45-Jumped in the car to run down to doctor's office with the 5 year old daughter in tow.

4:10-On the way back from the doctor, we got stuck in traffic due to an accident. 35 minutes to go 1.5 miles. Grrr.

4:45-Ran in the house to pick up high schooler who needed to go to play practice at the high school.

5pm-Ran back in the door after dropping him off and while running up to the shower called for the middle schooler to finally get the groceries out of my car.

5:30-finished getting dressed post-shower

5:35-went to Bellydance practice in the clothes I planned on wearing out to dinner

5:45-applied make-up while someone else was learning their part of the dance

6:20-drove home, finished putting groceries away, gave instructions re:pizza to kids.

6:45- left to go out on date and enjoyed a lovely evening.

My day was fine. I enjoyed having the kids around, and I was busy all day, but I never felt like I was getting anything done. Many of my days are like this where I feel like I'm just spinning my wheels. I'm a big proponent of accepting that this is what this time and season of my life looks like, but sometimes I feel frustrated that it takes me 3 days to get the darn pots and pans washed!

Seven Things Sunday!

1. I had my first actual massage ever this week! One of the local Moms mentioned that we was going to start doing massages again after a few years "off" to take care of her little ones. The kids are all in school now, though, so since she'd kept her license up over the years, all she had to do was get her insurance back up and running. When she asked if anyone would have any interest, I pretty much jumped up and down saying "pick me!! pick me!!!" It was one of the things the doctor had recommended I do for my shoulder (which while not completely better, is much improved) that I hadn't yet done. Anyway, it was fabulous and the morning after was the first morning I've woken up in months without my shoulder aching!

2. After weeks of homeschool sucking for everyone involved, we made two big changes that have made a world of difference. At my son's request, we adjusted his meds, and at my instinct, we switched math curriculum. I sensed he needed less of me and more instruction that was easy to understand. We signed up for ALEKS and the clean pages, and immediate feed back for everything, along with helpful instructions a mere click away are making him super happy to do math. In fact, I set a timer for him to work on math each day, and on Friday when the timer went off he growled at it and begged for 10 more minutes. It's the first time THAT's ever happened with that particular child!

3. Week 2 of healthier eating is going well and continuing to yield results. And I did actually have some Doritos to satisfy that particular craving and all is now right with the world.

4. This past week we began the high school enrollment process for Nathaniel. If you'd asked me a year ago, I would have predicted that he would have dived head first into the STEM program offered at the high school, but he's much more interested in what the alternative program has to offer. We are lucky enough to live in a town that has an alternative middle school and high school. If he's accepted, he would be one of 45 students in the Freshman class which is pulled from both of the high school's in town. The types of classes offered change every semester, the teachers are called by their first names, there are no official study halls or lunch period, and kids are expected to stay on top of everything themselves. Basically, it's the hippie-commie preschool for high school kids. ;) He would still be bused over to the regular high school for language, music, and theater, but he's really looking forward to this opportunity. I hope that if it's the right thing for him, he'll get into the program.

5. There are times when familial drama makes the 1000 plus mile distance between me and our relatives seem just right, but the last couple of weeks as we've all banded together while my grandmother has experienced several hospital stays and all that go with those, that I really wish I could be closer. That being said, most of the siblings and cousins were rocking the staying in touch with one another with any technology available! Our respective parents, not so much, but they were more on the front lines of things, so I suppose that's to be forgiven. Anyway, it just makes me realize how lucky I am to be from a big, zany, loving family.

6. My youngest son wants a dog more than words can possibly express, but Todd is super allergic to dogs, and I'm not willing to take care of one more thing in this house even if he weren't. (although, I confess that if Todd weren't so allergic, I could probably be swayed. That is how much this longing in my youngest son is tugging at my heart!) Instead, we decided that we could take advantage of the fact that he's home during the day and he could advertise his services for dog playing, walking, letting out during the day for those in our neighborhood who work. I offered this via our neighborhood fb page in September and we had no takers, but my parents just got a new puppy and have been sending pictures and it was more than Caleb could take. So, I sent out the proposition again and we had a taker! Caleb and I met the family yesterday, and he is super excited to begin going to take care of them starting this week! It's just a mid-day potty break and possible walk, with some play time thrown in, but it's as if he's been handed the world!

7. I've been listening to French language CDs in the car while I driving to and from preschool each day, and I'm pretty sure that Pimsleur just taught me how to flirt, and basically do the "your place or mine?" thing. I'm sure this would be much more useful if I weren't going to France with my husband and 4 children in tow, but I suppose it might come up. ;)

The Hippie Commie Preschool

Really, I can't say enough about how much I love the Hippie Commie Preschool* that my three youngest kids have been fortunate enough to attend over the years. I was visiting some dear friends in CA while they were going through some serious preschool ideological woes with their son's preschool and it just made me all the more grateful that I happened upon this gem of a school so quickly after moving here to Ohio lo, those many years ago.

Here are just a few pictures I took the other day as I was marveling at how much I love this school for letting our children just be children.

This was after school as a few of us were able to stay to let the kids play on the playground. Lilyanna decided she was still hungry, so invited her friends to join her in a picnic as they finished up their lunches they hadn't completed during lunchtime.

That is my daughter rolling a log across the playground (barefoot and in pink and purple bejeweled dress, thank you very much).  She wanted to climb up a tree, but needed a boost. I won't boost her because my rule is if you can't get up by yourself, then you shouldn't' be up there in the first place. This was her solution. (I did the same thing at her age with an empty rain barrel.)

My kid's school keeps a canoe on hand for climbing and exploring. As per usual, Lilyanna is off to discover the world.


My kids are all very different from one another, but one thing they have in common is how much they love this school and claim it as the best school experience so far. On Friday my older boys had off from school, but came to the hippie commie preschool with me while I was the parent helper, so they could participate, too.  It is a special place and I will be sad to leave it for the last time in a few short months.

*Not the actual name of the school, merely an affectionate name we've given it.