Something Seems A Little Odd...

.....about the tent being set up when there is still snow on the ground.

 

 I know, I know, there's not much snow.  But do you see it?  That white stuff between the trees?  That is snow.

There should be some law against setting up tents in these kinds of weather conditions.

I really have no idea why I am complaining -- it's not like I was the one setting up the tent.  

This camp out thing is become some sort of tradition.  As soon as the weather hits about 60 degrees, the boys are begging to sleep outside.  We say things like...

It might feel nice outside now, but the low tonight is 40.

Are you sure you want to go to all of that work?

Weather.com says there is a 30% of rain from 11-12 tonight.

They quickly inform us that the tags on their sleeping bags say they are made for 20 below zero, the tent is waterproof, and they will do all the setting up and taking down.  Besides, if they get too cold, they can always just come in the house.  

True.  The tent is about three steps from the back door.  Literally.

And, really, it's fine.  They set up the tent.  They are excited. The neighbor boys haul over their sleeping bags and get settled in.  The parade of stuff goes out the back door.

12 blankets

2 pillows

MP3 player

iHome

Monopoly

Uno

Life

Battleship

Sequence

Books

Flashlights

Clock

Legos

Little side note about the neighbors.  We hit the jackpot when this Holdeman Mennonite family moved in.  My kids play with their boys nonstop.  But here's the thing...nobody goes into anyone's house.  I don't know if they are not allowed in our house because we are not Holdeman Mennonite, or if it is just because they don't want their boys to be intrusive.  I really wouldn't mind them being in the house, but I have to admit, the current set-up is pretty nice.  No one rings the doorbells, no one is in and out.  If one sees the other outside, they go out.  If not, they don't. It's a sweet deal.

So the kids do all the work.  I sit on the couch and watch. We get a quiet night inside the house.  They have fun with friends outside.   It's a beautiful thing.  I'm thinking the tent should stay up year round.

Until mid-morning.

The friends have to go home, and the clean-up begins.  And, trust me, there is not near as much excitement about putting it all away as there was setting up.  

I get tired boys fighting about the other one not helping enough, broken game boxes, lost pieces, and 12 dirty, grassy blankets that smell like boys who have been outside.  Then I start sounding like the disgruntled parent.

You will not leave that stack of games by the door.

I know you are tired, but you still have to do the work.

No, you may not play in the iPad, you still have a mess to clean up.

This is the price you have to pay for doing fun things like this.

Quit whining and get busy.

 I'm all for my kids having fun (especially when it involves a relatively quiet night for me).  

However, next time I am making laundry a part of the deal before I say yes to the whole tent gig.

And possibly they should wait for a low temp warmer than 40 degrees.

Although in boy terms, they "were fine."  I think their words were something like, "It wasn't any colder than last time we slept in the tent when it was cold."

Spoken like a true 10 year old.

What I've Gained

As I am wrapping up my journey of going back to school (I am attempting to finish my last two reflection papers in the next couple of days), I have spent a little time this week reflecting on the process and all that I have gained.

I was astonished at the list.

I have gained...a new appreciation for full-time working moms.  Also for working moms who are going to school.  Not to say that all other types of "mom-work" are not difficult.  I have done about every combination, and the truth is, they all present their own challenges.

Staying at home full-time = stinkin' hard.  It's a different kind of energy drain.

Working part-time, staying home part-time = stinkin' hard.  Possibly because there is no such thing as "part-time" in the field of education.

Working full-time = stinkin' hard.  A new kind of exhausting.

Remember me?  I was always the perpetual "grass is always greener on the other side" person when it came to working vs. staying home.  Just read my 'About Me'.

I have also gained...an even greater appreciation for my husband.  He is more than ready for me to be done with school, but he has been amazing along the way.

I have gained...a new respect for school administrators across the country.  Public school or private school, big city or small town, it is just not an easy job.  There are some incredible people out there changing lives in what is typically a thankless job.  I completely get that there are also some not-so-great admins out there as well, but I will say that my program has given me a new understanding of what it takes and what administrators go through.

I have gained...a renewed desire to be an even better mother to my children.  Unfortunately, they have had to put up with a tired mom who has had less patience than normal.  Many people have asked me what I am going to do "now that I will have my degree" - as in, will I be changing titles, changing jobs, or moving on to something different?  At this very moment, however, I would really like to just be able to spend more time with my family.

I have gained...a new appreciation for friendships.  Mostly because this is the area of my life that has taken a huge hit.  I have not been a good friend during this process.   I'm not sure I realized it at first, but unfortunately, somewhere along the way my world started revolving around me.  I'm not proud of it, and hope to turn that around soon.

Unfortunately, I have also gained....too many pounds.  Call it stress.  Call it a lack of focus.  Call it what you want, it makes me mad.

As a result, I have gained...a renewed appreciation for being healthy.  Six years ago I dropped about 50 pounds. When I was eating right and exercising, I felt the best I have ever felt.  My current lifestyle is almost the complete opposite, and I can tell.  I'm tired. Worn out. Not sleeping as well.  It really does make a difference.

Finally, I have gained...a deeper desire to find God's will for my life.  I'll admit, life has been so busy that I spend many of my days running around focusing on self, trying to fix things myself, making decisions by myself, basically wearing myself out.  I am continually forgetting Whose I am, Who makes the plan, and Who I serve.  In all of these things -- family, friendships, job, and health -- I really only want what He wants.  It's high time I spend more time with Him to fully understand what that plan is.

I am thankful.

I have gained much.

Too much in some circumstances.

But it was still worth it.

Happy Adoption Day!

Seven years ago to the minute, the gavel hit and and the judge made it official.

Okay, I don't really remember if he actually used the gavel.  I was so thankful that the moment had finally arrived that everything else was pretty much a blur. 

It was a wild ride from the beginning and we have been hanging on ever since!

So thankful for this little bundle of energy who keeps us laughing, keeps us guessing, and keeps us ever thankful for the miracle of adoption.

If Pictures Are Worth A Thousand Words...Part 2

At the risk of my last post making my kids look like a bunch of killjoys, I figured I better post a few pictures that actually show that they had some fun.

Chuck E. Cheese...because we don't get enough video game time at home?

 

 

At least this game didn't involve screen time. 

Speaking of screen time, is it odd that I have never stayed in a hotel room with two TV's?  At first I thought this was crazy. 
 

However, when your family consists of 3 basketball fans and 1 cartoon fan, two TV's become very handy during a KU/K-State game.

Hey, this child does actually smile!  We swam three separate times in the 20 hours we were at the hotel. That makes him happy.
 

It made him happy as well.  He is not really getting smacked in the face with the ball.  This is just a result of my stellar camera skills.

We went to Fritz's for lunch.  It took my 7 year old awhile to realize that people's food was being delivered by train.

As soon as he saw food dropped off at a nearby table, he loudly proclaimed, "Now THAT is what you call risky transportation!"

And finally, Legoland.  

Where I expected to see more...well....Legos. 

I also expected my little Lego addict to go berserk about visiting this place.  

Turns out he spent the entire first hour-and-a-half asking begging whining to go to the gift shop.

He has a bit of a hyper-focus issue. 

We eventually caved and took him there.  Once he spent his birthday money, he was a happy camper and ready to enjoy the rest of Legoland.

Here are my engineers at work.  I'm a little surprised one of them didn't whip blueprints out of their pocket.

All in all, it was a great trip, and a fun way to start spring break.

In the kids' words...."Best Brother's Day ever!"

If Pictures Are Worth A Thousand Words...

...Then these pictures scream, "Wow, mom and dad, we are so happy you went to so much work to plan an amazing weekend for us in Kansas City.  We are having the time of our lives."

 

 

If those aren't the faces of fun, I don't know what is.

 

In other news...

I hate, hate, hate my camera.  However, it did reveal one important detail.

My kids are GHOSTS.

Totally see-through, non-human people things.

 

That must be some serious chlorine in the hotel pool.

 

Brother's Day

I've been a little giddy lately planning a surprise for the boys. 

Every year in March we celebrate Brother's Day. 

It sounds a little odd, but in our family we celebrate Mother's Day, Father's Day....and Brother's Day. 

It's actually the little guy's adoption day, but when you have one biological child and one adopted child, it just isn't cool to celebrate for one child only.  Thankfully, my friend Jamie came up with the great idea of Brother's Day - the day they both officially got a brother. 

Typically we head to the big city (big for where we live) and do something super exciting that the kids have been recently begging to do, like Chuck E. Cheese.  That place is every parent's dream.

This year, however, I really wanted to do something bigger.  It is quite possible that I seriously needed a break and scheduled a little get-away under the cover of Brother's Day.  Whatever the reason, we started planning and decided to keep it a surprise. 

This surprise has been driving my 10 year old CRAZY.  This kid is a man who needs a plan.  He likes information.  He likes to be in-the-know.  He has been asking tons of questions.  So, I asked him what he would pick to do for Brother's Day.  His answer: Chuck E. Cheese.

Seriously?

We packed in secret, loaded the car, headed to Kansas City, and drove straight to Chuck E. Cheese.  I thought he might flip out that we drove three entire hours to go to a place that we have 45 minutes from us; however, that child is too practical.  He knew right away that we must be doing more in the day since we came so far. 

Driving into the hotel parking lot was fun.  What started as extreme confusion turned to excitement as they realized we were staying.  Then there was a moment of panic when I asked them where they put their swimsuits that I asked them to bring. They were quickly not impressed with their mother's sense of humor.

So here we are, in Kansas City, celebrating Brother's Day....by watching the KU/K-State game on TV(which, by the way, is being played not too far from us)....which we could have done for free at grandpa's house.

But, after the game, there will be more swimming.

And, tomorrow, LEGOLAND.

And the quality family time -- priceless. 

Especially since our youngest just walked out of the hotel bathroom and asked us why God made us to have to go to the bathroom.

Seven

  

I'm feeling very guilty for skipping right over the little guy's birthday, so I am backtracking a bit.  

This was his first "friend" birthday party at our house. 

Little first grade friends are busy.  

And noisy.

But they had fun, so it's all good.

And everyone made it through injury-free.

That is also good.

There was a little rodeoing.

And some basketball.

A lot of silliness and laughing.

And fun presents.

 

Of course, he chose pizza, because honestly, this is the only food he sees a need for.

And cake.  

Whoever thought of this blowing all over the cake idea, anyway?

Definitely not someone who works with children all day, every day.

In case you are wondering about the way the cake is decorated - those are Legos.

Surprise, surprise.

Four completely random Lego pieces that he thought were perfect for the cake.

I think the Lego chain snake may be pulling the white guy (astronaut?) on snow skiis.  

Either that, or the Lego guy is secretly blowing something up. 

I don't really want to know. 

Happy birthday, little guy!

Lessons Learned

 

There have been a couple of lessons learned this past week due to this little device.

My 10 year old has had an MP3 player for a few years, so of course, his little brother was begging for one for at least a year.  I am not sure he even knew exactly what it was used for, but he was still begging.

When Black Friday rolled around this year, we snatched one up for Christmas.

Oh, the joy expressed by my son.  He jumped and danced around like we had given him 10 sets of Legos.  He was SO excited to be the owner of this fabulous piece of technology.  He told everyone he knew that he got one....and then he promptly forgot about it and didn't mention it for two months.

Two days ago he decided he needed to find it, and someone needed to load music on it NOW.  

It was found (by his brother), and music was loaded on it (by his brother).  

Twenty-four hours later, he went running up to his daddy screaming, "These things are CHEAP! We need to go buy new ones right now!"

He was holding the ear buds up in the air, and sure enough, one was broken into three pieces.  

Right in the middle of saying, "Wow, you are right, those must be cheap....", I caught myself, and asked him if they just fell apart, or if he did something to make them break.  I casually asked, "Did you happen to step on them or throw them down?"

Bless his little puppy dog eyes, I knew immediately that he was guilty.  He started with a "Well....", followed by a long pause.  Followed by a few more stuttered syllables.  And then he blurted out the truth:

"I WAS CONSEQUENCING THEM!"

This is the moment when every good parent  keeps a straight face and sternly talks to their child about their actions.

We were not good parents.  There was just something about his look and the word "consequencing" that did us in.  Apparently they were not staying in his ears, so he took it upon himself to whip those babies into shape.  Or in this case, out of shape.

For a moment he thought he was off the hook.  However, we recovered quickly and shared a few key facts.  1) No, we are not going to Walmart "right now" to get you new ear buds.  2) No, it is not your brothers fault that he cannot find his extra pair for you to use.  3) No, we will not be paying for them.  4) You broke them. You replace them. 

This went over extremely well. 

Ha.

The second lesson learned was for me.  Remember that little fact about big brother loading music for little brother?  

Bad idea.

It's not that he secretly loaded trashy music.  He put some new stuff on there...Toby Mac, Newsboys, random iTunes songs...and he put some old CD's on there...namely DC Talk.

Not a problem.  DC Talk is Christian music.

However, they have this one old song....called "I Don't Want It".  

Maybe you've heard it.  

If not, here are some of they lyrics. I honestly had no idea what to say when my barely 7 year old walked into the room singing:

 I don't want it, I don't want it, want it  

I don't want it, want your sex for now 

I don't want it, I don't want it, want it   

I don't want it, 'til we take the vows 

S-E-X is test when I'm pressed  

So back up off with less of that zest 

Impress this brother with a life of virtue  

The innocence that's spent is gonna hurt you  

Safe is the way they say to play  

Then again safe ain't safe at all today  

So just wait for the mate that's straight from God  

Don't have sex 'til you tie the knot 

I don't want it, I don't want it, want it  

I don't want it, want your sex for now 

I don't want it, I don't want it, want it   

I don't want it, 'til we take the vows 

No, he did not sing this word for word.  Not even close.  And he appeared to have no clue what he was singing. 

But still....

I am just picturing the moment when he walks down the school hallway belting out a line.

Ugh.

I'm Gonna Miss This?

The pictures are a little hard to decipher.

 

 

 

They are tents.

Forts. Hideouts. And whatever else my boys call them.

Right in the middle of my living room.  

One of them has been there since Friday.

The other one arrived yesterday.  

Did I mention they are right in the middle of my living room?

I prefer them to be down in the basement.

Far, far away.

Yes, I realize I am the mom.

I realize I could nix this in about .2 seconds.  

I realize it is my fault that I am complaining about something I could change.

But here's the thing - you should have seen their elation when I told them they could sleep in their tents.  On a school night.  Whoa.

I am a cool mom.

 

(The fact that the wind was howling in their bedrooms and I wasn't interested in kids waking up in the night had absolutely nothing to do with it. Promise.)

This morning they were still elated.

 

Sort of.

I was not.  

Mess.

MESS.

M.E.S.S.

It's times like this I keep reminding myself to be thankful for the messes.  

Trace Adkins says it best...

You're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast
These Are Some Good Times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this...

He's right.  Someday I will miss this.

But stepping on Legos...

I will NEVER miss stepping on Legos.

Back

I am back to blogging.

At least for today.

Last week in my master's class, we covered the "Taking Care of Yourself" chapter in our Operational School Leadership book.  It was all about, well, taking care of yourself.  The basic premise is obvious - if you don't take care of yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally, you will not be a good leader.

There were all kinds of great ideas for ways someone could carve in a little "me time".

And wouldn't you know it, blogging was on the list.

This is great news for me.  You see, now blogging has gone from something that "takes up my time", or "wastes the time I should be cleaning the house", to "a healthy choice which makes me a better professional educator".

Perfect!

So here I am.

And after over two months of non-blogging, I am staring at my screen with nothing to write.

I know that can't truly be possible, because a lot has happened in the past two months.  A LOT.  However, right at this moment, I feel like every last brain cell has been zapped out of my head.

And for those of you who work in schools...or have kids in school....or live near a school...or ever went to school.....you know that is pretty common one week before spring break. 

I have really missed this little corner of my world.  It's a bit like therapy -- for free!  (I'm even laying on my couch at this very moment.)  I miss processing through my days, finding some humor in the crazy moments, and  reading what is happening in my friends' lives as well.  Yes, I had even stopped reading other people's blogs.  Life.was.just.that.busy.

Most of all, I realized that I was losing the documentation of huge pieces of life.  When I look back over five years of blogging, I am continually shocked at the things I DON'T REMEMBER until I read them again:  big things, little things, sad things, funny things.

Okay, now I am starting to sound like a Dr. Seuss book.

My kids are quickly reaching that age where the stuff they say isn't as cute and funny anymore, so I am determined to document it while I can.

Of course, at this moment, I can't think of one single thing they have done that is blog-worthy.

Which means you may be in for some days of seriously boring blog posts.

Regardless, I'm re-staking my claim on this tiny piece of internet.

At least for today.