More School Fun

The day of the "Big Field Trip" was yesterday. I am happy to say, I was on time, had my memory card, and was only interested in spending the day with my Girl instead of trying to impress the teacher. I have to say it was wonderful. The Girl was still unsure of what it would be like to have her Ol' Ma there with her while she was trying to maintain her "Cool" first grade status, but in the end, I think she was happy I was there too.

We went to a local farm where they allowed the kids (and the chaperons) to hop onto a hayride type thing. They then drove us around to a bunch of different fields with different types of veggies, and we were free to fill up huge bags with whatever we could get...and could carry away.

We brought home potatoes, carrots, pumpkins, corn, and my favorite: PEPPERS! When I saw that we were getting dropped off at pepper fields, I thought I was going to heaven. OK, maybe not heaven, but a place where you can get all kinds of spicy, yummy, perfect for stews, chile's and soups, types of peppers for FREE. I made sure The Girl knew we were on a mission.

Last night, I spent hours just cutting, cleaning, bagging, and freezing all those beautiful peppers. I am hoping that those beauties will bring a little heat this winter. I really enjoyed not only the time with The Girl, but also the farm. I can hardly wait to go back again as a family.

Here's The Girl collecting potatoes:


Showing off a monster carrot:


Enjoying a little hayride:


Next up: The Little Man. He had a very special day today as well. Today was "Doughnuts with Dad". This is a special time for kids to bring their daddies to school and show them off.

And enjoy a doughnut.

It is really hard to tell which The Little Man enjoys more: His daddy at school with him or eating a doughnut. Unfortunately for his daddy, the margin is EXTREMELY slim.

And we're not sure who wins.

Here they are in all their doughnut eating glory:


When I picked up The Little Man from school this afternoon, I asked how much he loved having doughnuts with daddy, and if he went hog wild on a doughnut. He said, "I liked having daddy there, but he wouldn't let me eat my whole doughnut."

I suggested that maybe daddy didn't want him to get too hyper from all the sugar, and then be at school with bad behavior. He confidently answered, "I don't go crazy on sugar. I am just normal when I eat a lot of sugar."

Good to know.

Love Letters

Dear Teacher In-service Days,

I love you. I love you because you break up our busy routine. I love you because I am still in my jammies. I love you because my kids are together, relaxing, playing, and getting to be kids.

I know you are supposed to be for the teachers, so they can re-group, train, plan, and probably have a little break as well, but I feel like they benefit me even more. The relief from homework alone was enough for a small celebration in which we stayed up a bit later and laid around the next morning a bit longer.

Today we will honor you with jammies, movies, minimal movement, and no chores. We will play, rest, and enjoy our time away from the carpool lane.

In conclusion, I feel like you serve us way more than you serve the teachers. Thank you for your gift and generosity.

Tenderly Yours,
Mandie

I AM NOT Going to Discuss the Weather

Yesterday, The Girl had her first field trip. Yes, in pre-school they went out of the school to visit the juice store and also hit up a pumpkin patch, but this was going to be her first field trip that involved a bus trip, and more than just an hour. To say she was psyched was an understatement. I was excited for her too. I know how much she has been wanting to go somewhere on a school bus (I don't know where the fascination for the school bus ride came from, just that she REALLY wanted to ride one).

Much to her dismay, I signed up to be a chaperon.

I had no idea that I was that evil.

I guess she thought that if I came with her, she wouldn't get to ride on the bus. After explaining it all to her, she was OK with me joining in on the fun.

Have I mentioned yet, that after only a mere six weeks into the school year, I have completely ruined any chance that The Girl's teacher will ever think that I am a responsible, well put together parent?

Oh ya, I have blown it. She totally thinks I am a space case.

So to say that it was important to me to be on time and ready to go for this field trip, was a huge understatement. I was desperately trying to rebuild any hope of this woman thinking I was born with a brain.

So basically, I was running late.

And I forgot the memory card for my camera.

Oh, and I insisted on being the photographer for the day.

Yup.

As I was driving down a main road in our town, and hitting EVERY SINGLE RED LIGHT on the way, I was acting in a way that was, shall we say, completely out of control? I was (thankfully) given a gentle nudge from the Holy Spirit. The nudge was a conviction about whom I was trying to please. Was I more focused on trying to impress and change the perception of a teacher that I barely knew (completely out of pride, might I add), and in the meantime completely losing my mind, patience, and self-control (couple that with being completely unloving to the other people on the road)?

I absolutely was.

I was caught focusing on trying to please man more than trying to please God. Guess what happens when you get caught up in sin? You get no where.

Fast.

After this quick realization of what was going on, and a chance (at yet another red light) to confess, I safely arrived at The Girl's school.

The field trip had been canceled due to weather.

Yes, at first I was a little frustrated.

Then, I sat in the car for a second and tried to collect my thoughts and feelings. Here's what God showed to me:

1. I need not try to impress man (or woman/teacher). Fix my gaze on Him, and the rest will fall into place.

2. He is in control. He knows the beginning and the end. There was no need for those lights to be green, or for me to not listen to my son's story (which had added to my tardiness), He knew the trip was going to be canceled anyway. In the meantime, my son felt like he was heard, and my life (as well as someone else, probably) was saved due to the fact that I had to keep slowing down, and paying closer attention to the road because of all the traffic and red lights.

3. Despite my sin, He continued/s to love me and bless me in that:
a. I get another chance to plan my morning out, and hopefully not be so tardy
b. I get another chance to remember my memory card
c. My daughter didn't have to be out on the road, in a bus, with no safety restraints, in questionable weather.
d. I didn't have to pretend like I was having a great time when in fact I would have been on edge (trying to impress the teacher), frustrated/flustered, and cold/wet/freezing to death.
e. I was caught red-handed in my sin, and was given the courage/opportunity to confess it freely, and then given love, grace, and forgiveness.


You'll be happy to know, my day turned around after that.

Now What?

So, construction finally came to a halt on the house yesterday afternoon. We have all three bathrooms back, and we are sleeping comfortably in our home. The quietness today has been wonderful.

And so has the running water.

So, now what? Well, I have a huge mess to clean up. Not having bathrooms and staying in another location for a period of time has our home turned upside down. I have also figured out that once something or some area is kind of messy, we (as a collective whole family) just plain give up on being tidy.

What I am trying to say is: We are living in a pig sty. That's the long and short of it. I thought I would spend the majority of the day cleaning and tidying up a bit, but it was too overwhelming, and I felt like, with all the other things I had to do, there just wasn't enough time to do the whole cleaning thing right. If you can't do something right, don't do it at all. That tends to be my motto.

Unfortunately.

I procrastinated further tonight, by taking pictures of my kids. Here's the deal: I haven't taken pictures of my kids together (professionally) since before Christmas last year. That is simply unacceptable. Knowing that tidbit of information, I just couldn't clean and feel right about it. We were having a photo emergency. Period.

Here is a snip-it of some of the delicious goodness I got tonight:





They have a bit of fall color, but the kids still have a bit of sun kissed skin from this summer.

I think I love them.

Reason For Not Blogging

Once upon a time, there lived a family who lived in a home with three bathrooms. This family actually didn't use all three bathrooms.

That much.

They really didn't feel like they depended on all three bathrooms being usable.

That much.

Then one day, one of the bathrooms got sick and needed to have some work done. The very knowledgeable bathroom guy said that this could be a major illness, and we should be prepared to use the other bathroom for a while. The other bathroom wasn't really up to par for using as a main bathroom. No worries! The very knowledgeable and helpful bathroom guy could help bring that bathroom up to par while we waited for the parts and pieces needed for the very sick bathroom.

Thank goodness that the very knowledgeable and helpful bathroom guy was so knowledgeable and helpful. The first bathroom was, indeed, VERY sick. It needed to have a major operation. It was so major, and the illness was so wide spread that the family who lived in this house, could not stay there until the illness was contained.

No, they needed to stay somewhere else. In the middle of a work/school week. A week that had many, many chores that needed to get done. A week where the work would not stop piling up all around them. It was that week that the family could not stay in their home.

OK, who am I kidding. Obviously, it was us whose bathroom wasn't sick but full of disgusting, nasty, hideous mold.

Yes.

I just said mold.

All over our lovely master bath.

It was probably one of the nastiest things I have ever seen, and it was all over the place I depend on to get clean.

I could gag just remembering it.

Good news, after moving out for a couple of days, we are back home! I am slowly catching up on all the work/chores/never stop moving-ness that I do.

However.

However, the house is still a disaster area as they are now re-finishing the floor of the bathroom as well as the floor of the shower.

We did realize, though, that when these projects are done, our house will have officially had EVERY SINGLE ROOM remodeled since living here.

So, really? We should be done SINGLE-HANDEDLY BOOSTING THE ECONOMY.

Oh, you're welcome.

This year we have/will: replace the roof, re-paint the exterior, replaced a window, and remodeled TWO bathrooms. This is added to last years list of remodeling. Remember the windows, kitchen, and hardwood floors?

Seriously.

I do have some good news though. We got the granite counter top in the kids' bathroom for $22.

Yes, $22.

Thank you, Lord.

There's always a blessing in amongst the mess.

A Good Work

The Hubs is off climbing Longs Peak tonight/tomorrow (They have to start at an obscene hour in order to hike the 14 hour hike). Tonight, completely unsolicited, The Little Man said this prayer:

Dear God and Jesus,

Thank you for the wonderful sunshine today. Please help mommy and sister sleep good. Please be with my daddy while he climbs a big mountain. Keep him safe and let him have fun. Thank you. Amen.

Just when I thought he had reached an all time high of self-absorbtion this weekend (sorry, that ugly story will not make an appearance on this blog), God shows me that He is working on his little heart.

"...He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." --Philippians 1:6

Praise and glory!

Laborless

As I sit here, still sleepy, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for three day weekends. They are some sort of glorious gift. All day yesterday, I kept having these moments where I would remember that it was a three day weekend, and we still had one more day. Oh, the happiness that would wash over me.

We have one more day to lounge around (trust me, there has been no lounging up until today). One more day to catch up on all things lazy. One more day to be together as a family.

As I sit here typing, I have accidentally left the Today show on in front of the kids. That's a no-no in this house. The Girl has just informed me that there are aliens and that they have spotted hundreds of space ships over the last few years. "And, Momma! It's all true! I just saw it on the news!"

So, I guess you could say we have one more day to catch up on current events.

There is nothing better than having a day to take a break from your normal routine. I am especially thankful that I didn't have any bright ideas on filling up this day with all kinds of activities.

Now, it's time to "get my rest on".

Happy Labor Day!

And Then The Doorbell Rang...

I was making dinner when the doorbell rang....



I swear, even though it doesn't look like it, I was gone for maybe a minute.

Thankfully we had more rice in the pantry.

And I have another spoon.

He's Back at It

Today was The Little Man's first day back in school. He has been counting down the days until pre-K, well, since his pre-school class got out in May.

OK, he did stop counting for a little bit over the summer, but once August rolled around, he was back to counting down the days.

The past two weeks have been blissful, yet hard. The Little Man has missed his sister so much since she started school. It's hard to see him so unhappy, yet it was blissful to have him all to myself. I'm selfish like that. Thankfully, we'll still have those days on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I am more convinced now than ever that keeping him at two days a week only was the right choice. I did add-on for him something called "Lunch Bunch". That's a fancy way of saying he gets to eat lunch at school. Instead of his typical three hour day, he's gone from 8:30 until 1pm! That is a long day for such a little dude. He loved it though, and was super excited this morning about packing/bringing his lunch to school today.

When I picked him up today I asked him how he liked eating his lunch at school with all of his friends. He said it was fun, but that he didn't eat lunch. What? He explained that he thought it would be more fun to play with his friends and save his lunch for when he got home when there was no one to play with.

So, he had to learn the hard way that school ended at the same time that nap time begins, therefore leaving no time to eat the lunch he should have eaten an hour and a half ago.

He was a pretty hungry kid come three o'clock.

I'm sure he'll eat the next time.

Also, he let me know that all of his other friends' moms packed cookies for their kids. His lunch was "too boring" to eat without the cookies.

I actually considered packing some cookies for Thursday's lunch. However, something tells me that he would bring home the entire lunch less the cookies.

Maybe, I'll use that as bait to get him to eat his lunch at school. Maybe I'll tell him that I'll pack cookies if he eats his whole lunch two times in a row.

Nah.

That would change my whole "Mean Mommy who doesn't let her kid eat lunch until after nap, and doesn't pack cookies" image I have going for me.

OH! I almost forgot! His first day of school picture!




I took this with my phone today.

Yes.

Sometimes I use the camera in my phone.

I completely forgot to take pictures of The Little Man with all the packing-the-lunch-fuss we had going on this morning. As we walked into the building, I realized this fact.

me: Oh no! I forgot my camera! Now I won't have any pictures of you on your first day.
p: It's OK mom. You can just take pictures of me on the next day. You won't know.
me: (slightly relieved that he doesn't care, but sad that I won't have pictures of THIS day) I know, but I want them to be of the first day. I guess the second day will have to work.
p: Ya, take them on the second day.

How sweet is he? It almost made it worse.

Then. THEN! I saw some other mom using her camera phone, and I realized I had been saved! As I walked The Little Man down the hall to his classroom, there was yet another mom with her "Big Gun" camera out taking pictures of her little girl. I was jealous and mad at myself again.

I guess after my fourth year at that pre-school, the novelty of it all had worn off. I'm still sad that it was at the expense of The Little Man's first day of pre-K.

During my time alone, I soothed myself with a coffee out with a friend, a run, a long shower, and then a yummy lunch.

So, I guess you can say, I am over it.