Love endures sleepless nights

I had a long post about PB's sleep problems, but Blogger ate it.  And I told it all in anothe post.  Just know, that love endures those nights, even when your child is well past the age of being awake all night. 

Some of my Favorite Things

I have a couple of posts that I typed a long time ago and never finished/posted.  I'm revisiting those to see if I want to add to or delete them.  This is one that I needed to read tonight.

These are a few of my simple pleasures in life

• My husband...I love that he feels as if he is the half that makes me whole.
• My kids...I love their laughter and silliness.
• My home
• Flowers
• Sewing
• Crafting
• Reading blogs
• Brain Age on my DS
• Good music

These are not simple pleasures, but I'm trying to learn to enjoy them anyway...

• Exercise
• Healthy diet
• Going to bed at a decent time (fail tonight)

And we spend money on toys why?

My son is obsessed with rocks right now.  He carries them everywhere he goes.  Tonight he spent 25 minutes laying (lying?) on the floor playing with these rocks and some rubber bands. But these are not just ordinary rocks.  Oh no.  These are Bakugan rocks.  What is Bakugan?  You must not have a young boy living in your house.  Think the new Pokemon.  I try to limit these shows, but somehow, he still knows all about it, and is obsessed with them righ now. And this part of it, it doesn't bother me at all.  Because he picks up these little rocks, and builds great stories with them. He nurtures and cares for them as if they were real beings.  And I figure those are bad games to play.

A Piece of Suessless Information for this Fun Monday

The ladies at Mama Drama have stepped up and offered to hostess this weeks Fun Monday. This is BIG! And I love the topic this week as well.

Remember way back in elementary school when you had to do a report on James Garfield, the 20th President of the United States and you told the class all about how he was shot after only four months in office? You also remember that he recovered after a week, but doctor's continued to probe at the healed wound causing complications and resulting in his death almost three months later? Okay, we all knew that about Garfield, but you also remember that James Garfield could write with both hands at one time and in different languages.!!! Why do you remember that? Maybe for you it wasn't James Garfield, but somewhere in your past education, you picked-up some little bit of useless information that you've never forgotten.
What funny trivial fact do you remember that you probably should have forgotten a long time ago?

In our family, we call this Suessless information, and my fact for you today is...the colors red and yellow increase your appetite, which is why the majority of fast food restaurant signs are those colors.

Be sure to visit all the Fun Monday participants!

I can't believe it.

I'm not ready for Sunday. We've got so much to get done, and no time to do it in. I don't feel well, and now my baby isn't feeling well either. Tomorrow is going to be a doctor's fest, I can see it now.

We raised the funds for Bug's laptop, and then we got a slamming deal because someone misposted the price at Best Buy...Yay.

Raking in the Dough

We're holding a yard sale today. My hubby is working it out there. We promised Bug that if she managed to score straight A's all last year, we'd buy her a laptop. Darned if the child didn't manage to pull it off for the first time ever. So we're holding a yard sale to help purchase said laptop. If your in the vicinity, stop on by!

Loving the fruits of my labor (or showing love through manual labor)

As I think I mentioned, I painted the kids bathroom last week while they were gone. I LOOOOOVVVVVEEEE the results.  I actually don't mind using it now.   

This is when I was painting the bottom of the shelf my hubby built.  I put this up so you can see a better representation of the colors.

Here you can see the whole shelving unit.  It's a sailboat.  Isn't it cute?

And this, this is one of my favorite parts. 

I'm very happy with the color selection.  I went to the store on a whim and picked a yellow.  Thank goodness it turned out.  The blue we had from Bug's room.  It all came together so nicely, and all the kidlins love it. 

Happy Love Thursday. (on Friday)

Love Thursday...postponed until Friday

It'as late, I had 10 other women in my house until an hour ago, and my hubby just put our bed back together. I'm going to crash into, and I have a great love thursday post. It will just be posted on Friday. Night

First day of school...ever

Today was the first day of school for The Monster and Princess Bear. PB is in fifth grade...the seniors of the school. So far, she likes her teacher...she's somewhere between the one she didn't really like at all and her all time favorite. She had homework tonight, the usual tell me about yourself questionnaire. She wasn't pleased, but she sat and did it as I filled out the pages of information sheets for her and her brother.

The Monster started Kindergarten. My baby has grown up. He's not a baby anymore.

Yesterday, we went to school to "meet the teachers" before starting today. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that the Monster was going to have the same teacher that PB had. This teacher had moved up to a higher grade after PB went through Kindergarten, and just moved back this year. We really liked this teacher, so I'm happy to have her for the Monster. However, we realized the depth of his fear of starting school as we began getting out of the car. He wouldn't undo his seat belt, and I had to pick him up and carry him out of the car and into the school (yes, I know he's 5 1/2 and I still carry him every once in a while. He's my babbbeee. I can't help it.) Once he explored with daddy and got a little comfortable, he didn't want to leave. We finally convinced him to move along to PB's class. Several times throughout the rest of the day, we discussed the fear, and that it was fine to be afraid.

Daddy took him to the Youth Center this morning, where he enjoyed playing with his friends and getting to use a big boy cup and a knife for lunch (not sharp, perfectly safe, I swear.) Daddy and I went and picked him up and took him to school (he's in afteroon K). We arrived a bit early, so we stood outside with the other kids outside the breezeway into the school. The door to the other side was opened to allow the beautiful breeze to enter, and a dragonfly had made it's way into the breezeway. The kids would all stand and look at it, daring each other to touch "it." Since it was on the other side of the glass, they weren't really touching it, just the glass near it, but it would move a bit, and they would all jump and shriek. All the parents watching started out chuckling, and before you know it we were laughing along with them. They were taking such delight in scaring themselves. One of the janitors finally came by and rescued it, setting it free out the open door on the other side. Then they all were looking for it to come flying over the building.

The door was finally opened and we were allowed to walk him into his room. He sat down, took off his backpack, and commenced to drawing. Another little boy had noticed that they had the same backpack, which was really funny, as the Monster has had that one for years now. We tried to find him a new backpack, but couldn't find any that we liked.

While DDS took some pictures, I looked around at the other kids in the classroom. There were the ones that were sobbing, clutching their parents. There were the kids sitting there, looking bewildered and confused. But the majority of the kids sat there and colored, chatted, looked curious about this new experience. We left them to begin, and I saw several tears on some mommies cheeks. There were none for me though. I'm very excited and happy that he has finally started school. Maybe because he's been in daycare since he was an infant, maybe it's just because I really enjoy him at this age. I don't want him to rush to grow up, but I also don't really need him to be a baby all his life (although he'll always be "the Baby"...lol)

After school, his sister and him travelled to the Youth Center and enjoyed their afternoon snack and activities. When I came to pick them up, he was hanging out on the playground, but he came running when he saw me. PB was hanging out with all her friends in the "big kids" room. Both were pleased with their days, and are looking forward to going again tomorrow. The Monster passed out as soon as we put him to bed, 30 minutes earlier than we usually require. I'm thinking the newness wore him out. And I'm okay with that.

I hope this is a good year for the kids. It's a big year for both of them, and they will weather their father leaving and being gone for the majority of it. But this school is equipped to handle the issues that may arise, and they are surrounded by other kids dealing with the same situation. I know they will be fine, but there will be some struggles.

Tomorrow, Bug begins her sophomore year at the High School. Although there are parts of the teenage years I could do without, I'm really looking forward to seeing what this year brings her as well. She's joined the marching band, thespians and choir. More opportunites will come her way this year, and I hope that she is able to embrace them. I'm sure I'll be blogging about her day tomorrow.

Overdue

I need a new look for my blog, but am struggling to figure it out. Posting may be light, as I'm spending my blog time playing.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

Lisa's Chaos is our hostess for Fun Monday this week, and she's told us to ask you a question.  Specifically:

What is one thing you would like to ask your readers? Come up with a question to pose to your visitors and throw it out there on Monday. As we’re all visiting each other’s Fun Monday posts we should answer the various questions we come across.
OR
Show&Tell me about a bird, I’m easily made happy.

Wow, that sounds so (deceptively) simple. A question for you? What do I want my hundres, tons few readers to tell me?

What is your favorite memory about kindergarten (or your first year of school)? This is in honor of my baby boy, My Monster, starting Kindergarten this week.

I remember two things...my teacher had long red hair, and everyone wanted her as their teacher. And we had these blow up letters to teach us the alphabet, and they were characters. I still remember that B was Mr. Buttons.

Make sure you visit (and answer) all the Fun Monday participants!

Splash

We spent the day at a water park today. Slides, pool, lazy river and tailgating lunch...a day to remember.

Storing up the memories of the five of us while we can.

Now off to paint the shelf for the kids bathroom.

Inspiration

I've been watching the Olympics, and I've found the excitement I was lamenting was missing. Dara Torres is amazing.

I've watched her swim her heart out, true.  But the part that made such an impact on me is her sportsmanship.  She acts like a mentor to the other swimmers.  During one of the heats yesterday, a competitor had an issue with her swimsuit.  Dara asked them to hold the heat for a minute to allow this swimmer to fix/change what need to be done on her suit.  While waiting, she chatted with the other competitor explaining why and trying to keep them calm as well.  As soon as she finishes the race, she's hugging the winners and congratulating them.  On the medal podium, there are tears and smiles.

There are quite a few Olympians this year that are considered "older" than normal for the Olympics.  I think this speaks volumes of our world today.  More and more, we are finding that age really doesn't matter.  We can be whatever we want, whenever we want.  I'm not saying that achieving these goals will be easy, or that we won't want to quit at some point.  But we can achieve it.  Anything. All we have to do is get up and start.

What are you going to achieve?

TGIF

I hate that cliche, but today, it fits.  It has been a long week, and I'm tired. 

Last night I began painting the kids bathroom.  I managed to get everything done except a second coat on the trim.  Tonight I finished that, painted some water for the duckies to float on, and realized I need a new shower curtain and a new cabinet above the toilet.  Sometime tomorrow I'll have to hunt for that.  I'm very happy with the results, but I can't wait until we have it all put together.

Hubby and I went out for a date night tonight.  We went to a little Italian restaurant and we were the only ones there.  I was very surprised, as they are normally busy.  I'm thinking the somewhat late hour (it was almost 9) account for this, and I have to say it was very nice.

Now hubby is sacked out on the couch, and I am about to send us both to bed.  We go get PB tomorrow, and tomorrow night all of our kidlins will be back under our roof.  I've enjoyed the "vacation" from mothering, but I'm ready for them to come home.

I love Kirtsy

A month or so ago, a little site called Kirtsy held a contest.  A contest about video games called kirtsy hearts video games week!  I commented about my favorite video game, and promptly forgot about.  Until a few weeks later, when I happened upon the contest page for their new contest.  And then I remembered to check the winners of the first one.  But they weren't posted yet.

The next day, I opened my email, and to my surprise, I won.  I couldn't believe it.  Both of my girls and my husband have DS's, and I sometimes grab time with them, but now I have my own.  I'm so excited.  And I've been eyeing Brain Age 2 since it came out.  And yesterday I came home to a box on my porch.  I opened it up, put it on to charge, and just before bed I played it for the first time.  I love it.  There's a training mode that is music, and it's so much fun.  Of course, I have a really bad Brain Age, but that's going to change soon.

I love video and computer games.  I have since I was a young child playing Atari.  I can waste hours playing games online.  Now I can waste hours other places, too!

What video games do you like?

Apple?

the Olympics have started?

Maybe it was too much Mario and Sonic at the Olympics on the Wii, or maybe I don't watch enough television. But I really didn't realize it was time for the Olympics until my SIL mentioned the opening ceremonies Friday evening. I saw the US march in. And tonight, I watched the Men's Beach Volleyball and now swimming. I'm excited for Michael Phelps, and I'm patriotic, but I'm just not feeling it this year.

While I hate corporate plugs as much as the next person, I had heard about the "Olympic Soundtrack." Tonight, while watching the Olympics on TV, I saw a commercial about it, so I went in search of the site. AT & T has created this soundtrack, and it appears to only be available as download from ITunes or on your AT & T phone. The songs aren't too bad, and it's a nice variety of types of music. The interviews are amusing, and reading/watching the different artists answer what Olympic sport they would excel at made me giggle out loud a few times.

DDS and I attended our first Band parent meeting tonight. I can not believe I'm a band parent. And the scary part is, I could possibly be involved in this organization for the next 13 years. Yes, I'm serious, 13 years. I know. Yep, that's a lot of time. I might get a year off in three years, and then again in 8 years. That's one of the (few) down sides of having your kids so far apart.

Isn't it lovely

The Lurchers is our hostess for this weeks Fun Monday. Her task for us is:

Show me your favourite photograph and tell me why it's your favourite.It can be one you've taken yourself or one someone else has taken, a snapshot or a more professional image. Is there a story behind it? Do you love it for the memories it gives or just because it's pleasing to the eye? Show me and tell me!

This is a difficult task for me, because the majority of my favorite pictures are of my family. And seeing how I have a no faces clause on my blog at this time, it narrows down my possibilities greatly.

This is a picture from vacation this year. It's PB and Monster exploring on the beach. I love the colors, and how small they appear. Mostly, I love how they interact together. This will have to be my favorite for this task.

Be sure to visit all the Fun Monday Participants.

Raindrops falling on our head

Today was the first day of camp for PB. I drove her down this morning, and less than 13 minutes after arriving, I was done with the sign in, and heading off without her. I miss her, but I'm sure she will be having a great time and making new friends this week. And there will be time for her to work with her feelings about her father leaving in less than 2 months.

Since he is leaving in less than 2 months, and Bug just returned home, we're trying to take advantage of the time we have before school starts. So, while I was driving down and delivering PB, DDS loaded up the jeep with all the crap we need to go to the beach. Seriously, small armys don't need this much stuff, but we've try going without some of it, and it just doesn't work. There's the sand toys, the boogie boards, the chairs, the umbrella, the cooler, the tackle box and fishing poles, the Monster's life vest, towels, dry clothes to ride home in, sunscreen...I'm sure I'm forgetting something. Luckily, we have a rack for the back of the jeep. This helps with space.

So, I called when I dropped PB off, and we agreed that we would meet and park the car, load all of us up into the jeep, and head off to the beach. I killed a little time, and we met up. We headed to the closest beach, about 3-4 miles away, and as we were heading along, we noticed the really dark cloud behind us. DDS checked the weather before he left home, and it simply had the 10-20% chance of rain that it always has in the summer. Apparently, today that was actually true. We pulled into the parking lot of the pier, quickly threw on the top just before the rain started. We sat in the jeep eating our lunch, and the heavens dumped. Not just rain and lightening, but hail the size of marbles. At one point it looked like someone had dumped several boxes of mothballs in the parking lot. We sat there for about 30 minutes, just amazed at the strength of this storm. It didn't seem to be slowing down, so we headed back to the car. Once we get the car, the sky clears up and the sun shines down. We take the car to park it closer to the beach, load into the jeep again, and head for the water. We pass a nice little family of deer, and I'm mad that I didn't have my camera close enough. I could almost reach out and touch them. Finally, we drive up on the beach, and it's almost empty. Of course, that might have been because of the weather...the fact that it was only about 75 degrees and a steady wind. Not a breeze, but a wind. We managed to deal with it for a couple of hours. Monster enjoyed the sand and the freedom to just run around whooping and hollering. DDS enjoyed the sun and fishing, and Bug and I got to read our books. It was good.

We headed home, stopping for dinner and managing to avoid the traffic. Now I'm tired and heading off to bed.

Creatively finding time for Creativity

Blogher is currently hosting a Creativity for Kids Giveaway.  In their words, they want to know:

What are you doing to inspire creativity in your kids? Have you successfully engaged your child in activities that don’t involve a plug, remote, or console? Would you like to?

BlogHer has joined with Creativity for Kids (www.creativityforkids.com) to explore the question and are mining the Parenting Blog community for inspiring ways that you have weaned your kids from TV, the computer, video games, and encouraged them to play—and create—in an unwired, offline world.

Creative time is very important to me.  Creating things provides me with the down time I need in this hectic life.  But with three busy kids, a hubby that is gone a lot, and a full time job, finding the time ad energy for me to be creative is hard.  Finding time, energy and patience to be creative with the kids?  It can be almost impossible. 

When we purchased this house several years ago, a "craft area" was a necessity for me.  All I really needed was the space, and I knew I could transform it into something that would suit us.  Half of our finished basement serves as this area.  There were already cabinets and a countertop installed in one corner, remnants from the previous owners remodel of the kitchen.  These cabinets hold the craft kits that my kids receive for birthdays and holidays.  They are low to the ground, and I try to put things in so they can be found.  Up above is my area, with all my stamping and scrapbooking supplies. In various storage areas nearby, there are drawers with glue, glitter glue, markers, crayons, puff balls, chenille stems, construtction paper, stickers, and other items to encourage creativity.  My sewing area is here as well, and all of my children work on a sewing project with me several times a year.

When the older two have birthday parties to attend, we try to think of fun things we can create for the birthday child.  We've made journals and totes among other things. For Christmas, we choose something and create them for every member of the family.  Last year, Bug and I created snowman earrings, necklaces, and bracelets with a sewn pouch for all the females, and drawstring bags for the males.

The Monster has a wonderful imagination, and when he begins telling me stories, I go along with them.  I ask questions that challenge him to add details.  I only wish that I could remember them to write them all down later.  Usually, these stories take place when I'm driving.
All three know exactly where all the supplies are, and they know they can go and create anytime they feel the need.  When we are home for the day, I limit the screen time, and the rest of the time they are required to go outside, play games, craft, or otherwise entertain themselves. 

Ultimately, I hope that my kids grow up knowing that they can create anything they put their minds to creating, and that they find the joy in that process.

Local Love

Sign ups are going on now for the newest swap in the Color Me Happy Swaparooni over on Flickr. This is a great group of women, and the swaps are always interesting. It's a good way to meet new people in the blogosphere that you might not normally hear about, and to learn more about these people than you might otherwise be able to. And shopping for someone is fun, especially knowing something is going to come your way that is just as cool.

Read all the rules before you sign up. You won't be sorry you joined!

Wordless Wednesday

I'll Trade You

The SmockLady has created a new swap group over at Flickr called I'll Trade You. This is a bit different as it is a swap for our children. Children of any age can swap, and it is a private group. This means you have to request to join and then be accepted. You sign the kids up, Smock Lady

The first swap was for books. I entered only PB and the Monster, since Bug wasn't going to be back in time. I took them shopping and we purchased a book and activity book for each of their partners, and they will be going out in the mail Tomorrow.

PB received her book a week or two ago, but I didn't let her open it until today. She would have been allowed to open it last week, but she didn't do what I asked her to do for her swap buddy, and then she was leaving to go camping and wouldn't appreciate it. So, on the counter it's sat. It was a beautiful little package, covered in stickers.

When she opened it today, wow! What a great pair of books, and a sweet little fairy bookmark to match. PB's little swap partner did a great job. (I don't want to post names here, but I will link to her mama...thanks FrazzledMama!)

I totally missed it

I totally missed signing up for and participating in Fun Monday. It was just that this Monday...it wasn't fun. I was supposed to have the day off, but due to circumstances beyond anyone's control, I had to go in. And it was busy and crazy. But I get to take tomorrow off in it's place. No plans, just vegging with the family and enjoying the day. Tomorrow night the Bug returns and the following day starts Band Camp...yippee! I will now become a band parent. I have mixed emotions on that one.

I hope someone had a Fun Monday somewhere.

I am a mean, mean mommy

Yesterday, I mentioned that I had forced my kidlins to take a nap. Yes, my children are older. But we've learned that if PB doesn't have enough sleep, she will cease talking and will just whine, stomp and stare at you if you say Boo to her. So, when we know she is too tired, we require her to go to bed. And when little Mr. Monster is too tired, he just can't behave. There is no listening wire running from his ear to his brain. After a week of camping with our friend, these kids were exhausted...and they both rose very early yesterday morning. These facts, combined with the heat of the Peach Ice Cream Day, combined to make some very tired kiddies.

Monster put up his token protest, but was passed out cold within 10 minutes. PB, she turned sneaky. I stood in her doorway, wondering what was going on under the covers that were steadily moving around her head. I cleared my throat, and received the big eye, cheese eating smile stare from under the covers. I walked over to see what she was doing...Playing her Nintendo DS under the covers. I take the the game away, and tell her to go to sleep. I go back to check on her 30 minutes later, and she's hurridly throwing paper and markers out of her bed. I point out that she isn't getting out of bed until she sleeps, so if she wants to spend her time doing other things, she'll miss out on the funner stuff later. She was passed out cold 5 minutes later. They both slept until almost 5:00, so I'm thinking that the naps were very needed.

Then I turned even meaner, and we straightened their rooms. I know. Seriously.

Today is PJ day. A little more straightening, and then some sewing. Should be nice.

A peach of a day

Today, PB, Monster and I joined my mom and grandmom at our local Peach Festival. Well, technically we didn't actually go to the festival. The town has the Peach Festival, and it's all stupid booths selling fair food (which we are sick of after the fair two weeks ago) and stupid craft items that people have been selling since I was a kid (soda bottle art anyone). Basically, it's a festival of kids begging for crap that we don't need. But the local Orchard/Farm has it's own little Festival. It's called Peach Ice Cream Day. And they call it that, because you get....free peach ice cream. Seriously. They partner with a dairy farm from the state, which has it's own creamery. The orchard provides the peaches, and the creamery makes the ice cream. They give away thousands of ice cream cones from 9:oo am until 3:00 pm.

In addition to the free ice cream (which is soooo yummy. Did I mention fresh cream and peaches make it? I did? Oh.) they also have a little petting zoo and a DJ. There's a store there as well, and you can buy all sorts of fresh produce, local honey, etc. For a small fee ($1 a person, to a maximum of $5 per family) you can ride on trailer behind a tractor touring the farm/orchard, learning about the crops. We do this every year. Yes, it's pretty much the same speech, and we've had the same "guide" for the last three years. But it's fun to see what changes they've made each year. And during the ride, you get to stop in the orchard and pick your own peach. That alone is worth the price of the ride. Everyone searches the trees for the perfect peach...and they are soooo yummy.

After wandering through the store, we came home with some ice cream for daddy (we had to buy it, but that's okay. Have I mentioned it's really yummy? I have? Sorry.), fresh blueberries, corn on the cob and some Honey.

Did you know that honey purchased from local beekeepers helps allergy sufferers? Since the bees are only exposed to local pollen, eating the honey helos build your tolerance to those pollens. This helps to reduce your reactions to these pollens. It costs a little more, but I look at it as prevention as much as an ingredient. And really, it just tastes better.

We've come home, had a litle lunch, and now I will force my kidlins to nap. I know, I'm mean that way.

Home at last

My babies are home. YAY! They are tired, but they both had a great time. After dinner out with their mama and mammaw, they are showering and heading to bed. And may I add that those two things are being looked at with great glee. Hubby has to work, so they won't see him until either tomorrow or Sunday. That bites, but it is what it is. Tomorrow we are off to the local Peach Festival to enjoy Free Peach Ice Cream. YUM.