Friday, August 29, 2008

The Indiana State Fair


Do not adjust your computer screen. This is what happens when you take your 4 children to the fair. Your head is not screwed on tight. This is your brain. This is your brain when you decide to go to crowded public places with all 4 kids. Just kidding. This is actually my try at copying an idea from a photo blog that I read. She took the same type of picture, but hers was better. Much better. Mine looks like I was about to drop my camera just as I clicked the button. Maybe next year.

We had an awesome time. We went on the perfect day. It was only 80degrees. 80 degrees and August don't go together in Indy. It is more like 90 or 95 degrees, hence the reason we didn't go last year. The crowds were actually not bad. We went the day after all the public schools started so no one was there. It's another good reason to home school. We got to pet all sorts of farm animals. We fed them too. Princess is now determined to convince her daddy that we need a farm. I am convinced too, but she is better at getting her way with him. (Don't tell him I said that!)


Food was extremely expensive there. We made sure that everyone only ate absolute necessities. This of course included the must have of cotton candy. When else does mom OK eating pure sugar that is a cool color too.


Oh! I love this one. It is the proof that I do exist and that I do go on the family outings with them. I am never, and I mean never, in the pictures. I am the one that takes all the pictures.



Here they are! The other half. We only rode on one ride. Would you believe that one Ferris wheel ride costs $22 for a family of six to ride. They were troopers though. The animals and tractors were enough to keep their minds busy! The biggest attraction was the horse manure in the middle of a walking path. Poor suburban kids. What's as normal as a house fly for ranchers is a shock of excitement for suburban kids. And, no I didn't take a picture of the manure!

It's been a while!

I have been really busy. I know I constantly say that, but I have been feeling it more this past month than ever. I have been meeting my goals and checking off my to-do list that needs to happen before we venture into our next school year. I have 2 days left and I think I finally have a handle of the fact that we are going to loose 6 hours a day of our weekdays. It actually doesn't take 6 hours to do school. It is about 2 hours per schooled child. Some have more, some have less depending on their grade level and, let's just say this bluntly, their mood that particular day.

Yes, yes it is a lot of work, but it is one of those kinds of jobs that is totally worth it when you look back at it. I know they are getting the best. I know how to push them and when to back off. We work as a team and get it done. Sorry, I didn't mean for this to be an advertisement for home schooling.

I just wanted to say that I started my new schedule today. I now get up at the butt crack of dawn. Actually no, I get up before dawn. The birds aren't even conscious yet. With this new phenomenon of me getting up early, I may have a moment to post the intricacies of my life and family and my random thoughts. I know you miss them. I miss them too. Talk to you soon.

Monday, August 18, 2008

2 Weeks and counting!

2 weeks from today, my children's lives are going to change. Oh, they are used to change since they have the most random mother in the world. But we have had the most lazy summer that I can remember, and now school is starting in 2 weeks. We have watched way too much TV this summer. I say "we" because I have been lumped into this as of this week. I have been completely obsessed with the Olympics.

I like to be in bed at 10:30. For over a week now, I don't think that I have gone to bed until 12:30am maybe 1am. I am obsessed with watching Michael Phelps and the rest of the swim team cream their competition. My heart starts fluttering the last few seconds before they crash into the wall with all their might. If you've seen it, you know what I mean. I would stop what I was doing throughout the day, anytime of day, to watch swimming on TV. I am so glad it is over. Maybe life can begin again.

Then the gymnastics. Oh, don't get me started. Those little, under aged Chinese girls are adorable, but that's just it. They are adorable, as babies or little girls, not the young women that are suppose to be out there. Go Nastia and Shawn! You girls rock!

See? This wasn't suppose to be about the Olympics. Anytime my mind wanders into Olympic territory, I am a goner. I was writing about school. We are starting. I am going to bed on time from now on. NO MORE Olympics for me! Because, we are starting school! I am terrified. Yet, I am excited. I get to teach long division this year. I get to teach proper and common nouns. I get to teach a 4 year old how to read. Oh wait. He can already do that! (Just a little mom brag!) He is starting kindergarten this year, because there simply isn't any preschool left to teach him. Oh and I will not have any kids in diapers during the day. There will no longer be the unexpected breaks of me going off and chasing down a toddler, to change the never ending stink coming from them, per the request of their older sibling who can't stand the smell of their room. This brings me utter happiness! Even more than watching Michael Phelps woosh by, by 1/100th's of a second to win yet another gold. Football just doesn't do that to me.

Pray for me friends. I am going to a very full plate this year. 3 out of 4 kids are going to be schooled this year. Yikes! I have a lot of kids.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

My Love/Hate relationship

This is my Love/Hate relationship. I love this machine, yet I hate it. I can't decide. It makes me groan and moan with despair when I think about getting on it for 30 minutes a day. It also makes me jump towards heaven when I loose 3lbs because of it.

I haven't been on it for a few weeks. I was doing it everyday without fail last month. I would listen to my MP3 player and glide to a loss of 300 calories a day. I loved that part. I have left overs that need to be tossed out. My "left overs" are the 2.5 lbs per child that seemed to never go away. No amount of breast feeding seemed to melt these last few away. You might be laughing at me that I am so upset over 10 lbs. Well they seem to have all gathered into one spot on my body. They didn't disperse and spread out throughout the 5ft 11in of my entire body. Nope! They all congregated at my midsection and are still having a party.

I hate my elliptical too. It seems to have a light shining on it. You know the "glow" or the "glimmer" from above. It is saying that it could be my salvation. I could have that supermodel body that I expected to have as soon as my balloon inflated stomach popped from labor. Every woman knows what I am talking about here. Right after you have the baby, you look into a mirror with shock. It seems that it isn't like taking the pillow out from under your shirt. You have war wounds. You have had WWIII and maybe IV, V, and VI with your body. Thus the reason we start dropping doe on some type of exercising equipment, or a big fancy stroller that can go as fast an Olympic sprinter. You know, because we would all run like that if we had a stroller that could keep up.

This week I am learning to embrace my love/hate relationship. I am going to learn to get my behind out of bed on time. I have given my husband permission to do whatever he deems necessary to get me out of bed at 6am. This is a scary time for me. I hate mornings. I hate getting up early. I have never been a morning person. I am going to get up and exercise before my kids wake up. (Yuk! I am scared!)

This is part of my new schedule that I am making for our family and myself. I will post more on it later since I am still writing the rest of it. Stay tuned! I also have some great pics of the state fair. Want to see how a family of 4 does at a very crowded fair? It is interesting!

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Her Lovey!

This is Care Bear A. It was a gift for my baby princess on her second Christmas. We had requested it after she went nuts while holding it in a store one day. I had no idea what we were about to embark on.
This is Care Bear B. It is different. I promise. This was bought as her birthday present. We decided that we needed a back up. Every mother has dreams of having a back up blankey or lovey when their child falls in love with it. You can switch them out while washing it, or if one gets lost, you have a back up.
Care Bear A's back side. It's bottom is so perky for a cuddly bear.


Care Bear B. Notice the tail here. Little Princess twiddles it in between here fingers. When she needs extra comfort she takes it's ultra soft tail and rubs her nose to it.

I would like to say that there is a major difference in bears. I think they are the same, but she knows the difference. If I try to hand her the wrong bear, she throws it at me and says, "It's da wong one! Moooooommmmm!" Translation: "What is your IQ woman? Just because I am 2 doesn't make me ignorant!" I still try to give her the wrong one. Sometimes the "right one" is not in a convenient spot. I always try to grab the closest one.

The other night I did get away with giving her the "wrong one". However, she woke up and came to my door at 6:30am the next morning and said, "Mooommmmm! This is NOT da wite one!" And then threw the bear to the floor, and left to find the "right one". Mothers! What do we know!

Friday, August 8, 2008

Unsolved Mysteries


We have lots of unsolved mysteries in our house. We receive them daily. We don't need ghosts or horror stories from the past to acheive them. We have 4 kids. We have 4 kids that are getting smarter by the day, and they are exploring our world through their eyes. This leads to some discoveries of our own. What for instance would you call this picture? How was I ever entertained before having children? Oprah never did this for me.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Only a few weeks left......

Well summer is winding down. Heat wise it is a rip roaring inferno outside before 10am. We have to really get our bottoms in gear to get outside before it is too hot to breathe. Here in Indy, the kids start going back to school in early August. They do this, in my opinion, to escape the last of the heat wave. No one goes outside when it is like this. A blizzard is more tempting to handle than going out and having your eye lashes singed. I am taking advantage of this indoor time to get myself completely organized before we start back at school. My kids are laughing at the fact that they don't have to start for a few more weeks, while their neighbors are getting up early and being shipped off starting this week.

As previously noted, I have been organizing a few closets and doing things that my schedule doesn't allow during our full time school year. I, in the last two days, tackled the two closets that caused me the most fear. I organized dear husband's and my closets. They were scary. They had things that should have been pitched at least 5 years ago. I had shirts that my mom bought me in high school. I don't know what would make be think that a) they would ever fit after birthing 4 children in 5 years, and b) they would still be in style. Good news, they are on there way to the Goodwill.

I have a few more things to do before I feel ready for our next 9 month adventure. I know what you are all thinking right now. No, the 9 months isn't a signal of me being pregnant. I told you that I am done and I mean it. I am thinking of having my tubes tied to make sure that we have a back up to our other choice of permanent birth control. The 9 months means the length of our next school year.

One of the reasons that I think we are going to be successful homeschoolers is that I keep our schedule as light as possible. If things are organized before hand, the year goes much smoother. I keep all running around outside of house to a minimal. By running around, I mean errands that aren't really needed and too many extra curricular activities.

When we first thought about home schooling, my husband was unsure because of my lack of organization. I truly wasn't mad at this. He had a very valid point. I am totally unorganized, or at least was. If I wanted to take on more work, I needed to find a way to make it happen. My weakness was not going to make decisions for me. It is easy to do things that you are strong in, but whoa nelly is it painful to make yourself strong where you are weak.

What did I do? A few things were changed. I joined an online group that showed me how to clean my house really well in the least amount of time. For those who want this link it is: www.flylady.net She is amazing.

Next, I studied things on how other home schooling families make it happen. I only have 4 kids. This seems to be double the work in some people's eyes, but a lot of home school families are doing great things and they have more kids than me. One of my life savers is our chore system. We use a book called "Managers of their Chores" by Steve and Terry Maxwell. I quickly realized that I am one person and simply could not keep up with everything by myself. It also wasn't my husbands job to come home after working 12+ hours and help clean my house.

Now, with the help of the chore packs, the kids are doing things by themselves that used to take us double time with me watching over them and making sure that I remembered every step. My kids have a list of things to do to get ready for bed which include: picking up toys, PJ's on, put clothes in the laundry, pick out new clothes for the morning, brush teeth, go potty, wash hands, and get drink of water. In the morning, before breakfast, they make their beds, brush teeth, get dressed, put pj's away, and comb hair. It is important to note that they do these things by themselves. Yes, we have to go remind them that they are suppose to be doing their chore packs. They are kids and get distracted. For the most part, they do their chore packs successfully.

I do have a few more tricks up my sleeves that keep our house under control, and will share with you my secrets and laughable failures in the future.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

A hiking we will go!

It wasn't really hiking, but it did include some adventures. My in-laws live on a couple of wooded acres in NY. It is beautiful up there. The trees are huge and leafy. Around them is thick brush for all sorts of reptiles and small animals to live. Since we currently live in suburbia we aren't accustomed to going out to our yard and finding God's creatures lurking about. Sure we have birds of all kinds and a ton of bugs, including gigantic grasshoppers and dragonflies. For little kids these things are fun to see, but to really get their attention they need to touch and hold the creatures.
Touching was indeed done. My husband went out and caught a snake or two for the kids to see. Since I have a strict "No rodents, reptiles, or cats" rule for our household pets, the kids were intrigued with the snake. I was incredibly happy for the zoom button on my camera. You wouldn't know it from the pictures, but I wouldn't come within 10 feet of the snake.


I love my girls. Don't you just love her little finger in a totally girly position. She had fun looking at the snake, but she needed some coercing to actually touch it. I would like to point out that one of my boys took a full grasp of the snake. Batman just grabbed it with his whole hand as if it were just a stick. There was no dainty finger petting coming from him. I don't have the picture yet, but will find it soon.


Why would anyone love these things? I am honestly going to have a pow wow with God about the creation of snakes when I get to heaven. I don't think that God ever makes mistakes, but I don't see why snakes really needed to be made. Just look at that tongue! It is saying, "I know I look like a harmless gardener snake, but I would love to taste you!" I am getting the chills just looking at this picture. I need to go to my laundry room and find some peace now! Ta Ta!

Monday, August 4, 2008

Home Sweet Home!

This is my humble abode! I love my house. We have been blessed to have 4 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. I think that these are prerequisites to having 4 children invade your homestead. I don't know how people survive without these things that I consider necessities!

We just returned from our summer vacation, to our old stomping grounds of Western New York. Man alive, it is beautiful up there. I love the old maple trees with the lay of the land up there. I love the swamps and forests and rolling hills that they all rest on. Some places are simply serene.

One of my favorite places, if I am not being invaded by mosquitoes, is my in-laws back yard. They have a couple acres of heaven in their backyard. They work really hard to maintain it, but to me it is worth every minute. I will post more on our adventures there later.

When we go up there it is our full intention to take a vacation and relax. We never do any real site seeing or visit big exciting places. We just go to relax, eat 2 to 3 times more calories than we do on any other given day, visit with family (this is a good thing since we like them!), and just get away from life. The cell phones were not being carried around, and most of the time they were turned off. We only responded to emails if we felt like it. If we didn't feel like it, we just used the excuse "Hey, I'm on vacation!". It's a beautiful thing to have such a valid excuse to ignore life.

After 2 weeks quickly zoomed by, we were on our way home. The drive back is a lengthy 8 and a half hours. I know you all envy me. You would just love to pack 4 children with you into a car and drive endlessly home. I do have to say that I have been blessed with the 4 best kids in the world. They are awesome in the car, mostly! We had a very uneventful ride until we came upon an accident that shut down the entire interstate. Of course this happens right after you tell everyone that we should be home in 45 minutes. By the end of the trip, my husband was chucking the fresh baked chocolate chip cookies that grandma sent home with us to the kids. This was an act of desperation after sitting in traffic that ended up adding an extra hour on to our trip. We had previously told them that they could have some when we got home. We didn't feel like cleaning up the crumbs and melted chocolate that would probably be smeared all over.

When we got home, I felt that a burden had been lifted. I soon began to realize something. Before we left, our main goal was to go on vacation to be able to relax. We did and it felt great, but I realized that I was starting to relax more the second I arrived home. I felt my body melt when I smelled my house. It still has that new house smell to it. I melted into my over stuffed couch and then my bed that I purposely had put clean sheets on before we left for vacation.



When I awoke on the my first morning home, I found this cup waiting for me. It is my favorite cup. I use it almost every morning. It holds the perfect amount of my legal addictive beverage. I grasp the handle with one hand and mold my other hand around its perfectly shaped side. Even though my blessed mother-in-law bought the exact brand of tea that I do, it just didn't taste the same as home. It might also have to do with the fact that I was using a cup with a Minnesota Vikings emblem on it. They are the rival team to my Chicago Bears. I felt a sense of betrayal as I sipped from that cup. It just wasn't the same as my happy-go-lucky snowman that smiles at me while I am still in my I-am-not-a-morning-person grumble.

With all that said, I am glad to be where I belong. My house is here to welcome me. My washing machine and I are going to have some one-on-one time today. My bathrooms will once again receive some much needed attention as well as the rest of the house. I feel a sense of pride as I walk back into my position of honor. I love my home. I love being the VP of the house. I love making sure that everything is ran the way I like it, and in the order in which I like. It is home and it was missed.

PS: To all you Hoosiers who are feeling like I didn't miss you: I really missed you. I really really missed you. I can't wait to call you all and hang out with you again. See you soon!