The Modern Mama

2012 Goals...Not too late, is it?

2012-02-09T12:15:00.000-05:00

I am so tired of hearing the word "Mom!" or rather "Moooommmmmm!" that I am considering training the kids to call me Petunia. Maybe Daisy Mae. Anyway.

With 6 weeks just about down for 2012, I've decided to put my ideas for this year down in writing. IN PUBLIC. On the internet = accountability.

1. Accept the extra 4 pounds that I've been carrying since 2008. They want to stay, and life will be easier if I just let them. You probably didn't notice them anyway.

2. Run a 5K with my husband.

3. Write a book.

4. Take at least one artsy class by myself.

5. Get crafty again and reopen or reinvent my pendant making business.

6. Begin working in a volunteer capacity as a virtual assistant for a new business that just opened. Yes, it's my sister's business, and yes, you do get what you pay for. Who knows though? It will be a plug in on the dusty old resume, will hopefully help her, and when she's got a booming dance studio going, perhaps she'll salary me. Or perhaps I'll gain enough experience to do this for someone else.

7. Blog at least three times a week. And use more pictures.

Goals 1-7 are strictly for "Mom". Then come the goals that I have which happen to include my children, but are still achievements that count for myself.

8. Complete first grade homeschool for Olivia. Allow my son to live long enough to make it to kindergarten. (insert weak laughter)

9. Hire more babysitting time and "date" my husband more often.

10. Never let a day go by when I don't pause to appreciate the roof over my head, the health of my children, the food on my table, and the fact that I can go to sleep unafraid at night.

Do you see what all those goals have in common? They are pretty much what I like to call healthy worries. I want to run a 5K, but not to lose weight (see goal 1). It's just something I've always wanted to do. And writing a book is something I've always wanted to do but could never quite find my niche. I'm aware that there are only 24 hours in a day, and yes, I do spend a large amount of that time focused on my homemaking/childrearing duties---I'm just going to make sure I fit in my own goals this year. It's about time.

Time to Rock

2012-02-06T14:09:00.001-05:00

First, hop over to the husband's blog to see his description of the Hawaii 4-0 weekend. A few more pictures have been released.

Now that I've shared what we're doing in "homeschool", I also thought it was important to talk about ME.

Seriously, I think my readers knowing what they know about me also need to know just how I'm coping with being with my children 24/7. Because you just can't imagine this happening. I can hardly believe it myself.

I've found that there was one huge thing that I do for myself. Exercise. Not only does it make me healthier physically, it is also a major component of my emotional well being. And before I couldn't successfully fit it in. And when I couldn't get to it, I felt like a failure. I just can't do lunges while explaining to a child that "I'll be right there". I lack the coordination skills. So I get up at 5 a.m. I do a workout video Monday through Friday. When I'm done, I get myself dressed. And then--my reward. I get to lay back down with a fuzzy blanket and wait for the kids to wake up. Sometimes I doze, sometimes I meditate (what I choose to call the inability to fall back asleep). But when I finally get up, which is usually about 6:45, I have the biggest sense of accomplishment. If nothing else goes right that day, I did my thing.

I can't believe how it sets the tone for everything. As for all my other household chores, I do find that I can fit them in pretty seamlessly with the kids around. On Saturday mornings, Kris gets them out of the house for a few hours so I can clean thoroughly, run an errand or two, and chillax. I would love to have a regular sitter for a few hours one morning a week, but it hasn't worked out yet. And honestly, I'm doing well with what we're doing.

I do not underestimate the situation though---a very big part of the success of this plan is that we have pretty much always lovely weather, and the kids get to play outside in a large grassy area that I can see while I drink cook from the kitchen. We would definitely not be doing so well if they didn't get to play so much.

Also, Olivia has made leaps and bounds in her reading lately. She is actually wanting to read, so much so that last week I found her huddled under her comforter after lights out. She begged me to keep reading. And I let her. A little later, I found she had turned out the light and had the book laying beside her. Sweet.

And she's also discovered how to pull up www.pbskids.org and play games. This is entering a scary new world for us--we haven't had to worry about the internet yet. That day has ARRIVED. And this morning I found that she had put this little gem in my iPhone calendar. Imagine my surprise when an appointment reminder dinged and I saw this--

"We. Wil. Rock. You. Wil. Love. It."

Apparently, 9 a.m. is time to rock, and I will love it.

Hawaii 4-0

2012-02-05T14:08:00.000-05:00

So we have had guests this week, and we are having a time. This is the husband's buddy from high school and his lovely lady friend. You may remember him from here. He also visited Labor Day of 2010, but when I look back on the old blog, it is noticeably absent. Probably because he mixed my drink so strong that I blacked out for a week. It's become almost an annual thing for him to visit us, and this month happens to be a big month for both him and the husband--it's the Hawaii 4-0 celebration. As in 40th birthdays for them both. We've been talking about it for months. One of the things we had mentioned was renting a Ferrari for the guys (you know, like Magnum P.I.).

Would you believe that our friend managed to get the official Magnum shirt, the hat, the sunglasses, and real hair mustaches? This was our Friday night.

This is the one of the few pictures that shall be made public.

It was awesome. No, not awesome. EPIC. This was the conversation after the guys had donned their outfits and had one beer.
Me: "You know, I'm going to check with Jane to see if she could come sit with the kids tomorrow night. I know it's last minute, but we could have dinner out in Waikiki."
Kris: "Who's Jane? Does she like to party?"
Me: "She's the 12 year old babysitter."
And you can imagine how it went from there. Shall we say that the ladies were fine the next morning, but our gentlemen were a bit under the weather. All have recovered. The men are off to a great 40th year, and we are all having so much fun. As my husband began looking up 1977 red Ferraris and discovering that hey, you can get one for $20,000 (motor optional--details, details), I pointed out that 40 was way better than 16.

I mean, now he could buy that Ferrari if he wanted to rather than just thinking that his first job at 22 with an annual salary of $26,000 could pay for a sweet condo, a Ferrari, and a hot girlfriend. Now he has base housing, a Honda Pilot, and a hot wife. But he could buy that Ferrari if he really wanted to. And if I let him.

2012 First Grade

2012-02-01T22:01:00.000-05:00

I've realized that all our home curriculum has one thing in common--all workbooks. What I've found to be wonderful about this is that if we are having a good day, we do the front and back page of the lesson. If we're not, we might skip the back. If it's math, we might skip a section and then let her try again with Daddy that night. We can do a page more, we can do a page less. It's flexible. I also think the visual layout helps her. She sees what we have to do, she gets to choose the order, and then as we complete it, that book disappears so we can see the progress.

I can't stress enough that it took trial and error to find our own system. I mean, our first attempt last summer was an absolute fail. We made a lot of adjustments, and now it's great.

We use Handwriting Without Tears on days she doesn't have tutoring because on tutor days, they often do a lot of handwriting (not Liv's favorite activity). So she often gets to use a glitter pen to do the writing. Who cares?
We do Explode the Code every day. I like this because it has spelling, a bit of writing, reasoning, and phonics. If it's a tough day, I feel like two pages of this book covers a little of everything. She can often complete this alone or with just a little prompt.
We are using Horizons math daily, and although I initially thought it would include too much religion, it doesn't. Please note--we're a Christian family, but for us we keep church and school separate. Also, I don't like ketchup on my hamburgers or use salad dressing on my salads. We're all different.
We generally do some sort of language arts worksheet every day too, mostly that I've pulled from online.
We also do a page or two from Hooked on Phonics 1st grade. (I think we are using a slightly different older version as ours was a steal on clearance, but it must be similar!) Again, love it because we can do 1 page or 3 pages. It also has supplemental books.
One of the items I kept from Sonlight was the I Can Read set. We do at least one story a day, and if she has an audience, she might just keep rolling along. (And obviously, we have story time at night when we read aloud, but lately she's been reading to Colin or to us. Last night, she actually read him three stories---it was amazing, and I got to fold laundry!)
As for history, this year we are just checking out books from the library about stuff she has an interest or we pick a few pages from The Time Traveler. Next year, it will be a more formal program.
For geography, I bought a world and U.S. placemats that we pull out, as well as an inflatable globe--the idea was if they didn't use it for geography then I could get my $5 out of it as a ball.
For science, we have an experiment kit that we do with Colin about once a week. We also get the Weekly Reader science supplement, and we have a whole slew of fun science books. I often pull one out, and we read it aloud--if it's a long one, she'll just pick a few pages she's interested in.
For art, we're doing a pottery class. We also have the Come Look With Me series--again I just toss the book in the pile and we go over a few pages. We will probably do some other painting lessons too.
For music, we try to hit one composer a week. I found a really great website with a one page biography on composers. We've done Beethoven, Mozart, and even have a page for John Williams. After we read it, we listen to a few songs on you tube. Also, we are currently studying the 80s---this is essential musical knowledge to me, and I just love catching Olivia up in her room bouncing on her bed, holding my iPhone in her hand, and singing the Go Gos. Today Colin learned White Lion's "Little Fighter". So choice.
We're holding off on spelling right now, although her Explode the Code does cover spelling, and part of her reading program with her teacher includes basic phonics rules. Rules I didn't even know. She frequently tells me all the sounds like "a" makes, etc, and I'm always amazed that she can put that into words. Yeah, I hear them, but if you had asked me to tell you, I couldn't off the top of my head. Spelling was such a bad experience earlier this year that I don't want to return to it until she's really getting into the swing of things.

As I mentioned in the last post, we also use National Geographic and Weekly Readers. And we use a Bible DVD series from the makers of Veggie Tales, as well as Veggie Tales and Adventures in Virtues (many of which are on Netflex to watch instantly!).

Super simple. I should point out that it has occurred to me that part of our success is our climate--I mean, if we were in Michigan right now, I couldn't let her go do schoolwork on the back porch where it's 78 degrees with a balmy breeze. Nor could I ~~lock her brother out~~ nudge her brother out in the backyard to play when he's distracting her. And she's motivated and medicated. Things are good.

What do we do all day?

2012-01-31T01:21:00.000-05:00

I just have to share the love note I got this weekend.

Can you believe that just two months ago I got hate notes all day long? I got abusive, hateful, mean feedback all day.

It's all changed, and I never want to go back!

I really wanted to talk about the homeschool curriculum we're using for first grade. I started with Sonlight. I loved the concept. For me, this would have worked really well. But I'm not the student. DUH. And it didn't work with my child, and I was hopelessly frustrated with the schedule that I so desperately thought I must have.

So, you know the story--put her in public school for 7 weeks, moved again locally, and then decided to attempt homeschool again by outsourcing. I've personally found that workbooks work really well for us. And knowing that Olivia's teacher is covering reading three mornings a week for 90 minutes is such a huge relief for me. I had no idea how much that effort was weighing on me. I mean, seriously, if you don't get reading, you can't progress in any subject. No pressure.

Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays look like this--

Tutoring (mostly reading) with the teacher
Come home or hit a playground, go for a scooter ride, run around a bit, eat a snack, ask one hundred times if neighbor children can come out and play only to hear for the 101th time that they are at school
Spread out workbooks covering more reading, phonics, language arts, math along with some read aloud books for history, art, and/or science and maybe some worksheets
Ask child to pick what she'd like to do first (this is pretty much her only choice in the matter, but it seems to make a difference for her that she has control over what we do when)
Redirect child.
Do school work.
Redirect child.
Eat lunch, do a few chores.
Remind child to complete schoolwork.
Threaten child.
And then...we're usually done!
Mom races around doing a few chores, watches kids play outside, cooks supper, drinks heavily.

Thursdays and Fridays differ only in the tutoring--instead we do a little extra school work, go to the library, or perhaps make another field trip up. We also have occupational therapy, a pottery class, gymnastics for Colin, and a Zumba class for both kids once a week.

Now that we are on base, we generally spend about 3 hours every afternoon playing outside. There are plenty of days we don't have television on during the week, and when we do it's generally PBS or some Netflix shows like Veggie Tales or Adventures in Virtues. Occasionally, I throw Colin a Batman or The Avengers when I'm desperate for him to leave us alone for a few minutes. And if it's been a tough day, I'll "motivate" Olivia with the reward of a Netflix movie or show that generally involves someone like Selena Gomez.

To kill time when necessary we use a few online games, all of which are free--
Starfall
ABC Mouse (both kids love this one--this is the only site I pay for because it is awesome and $8 a month covers both kids)
Abcya.com
PBSKids.org

Other PBS shows that totally count as homeschool include The Electric Company, Martha Speaks, Side the Science Kid, Super Why, and Wordgirl.

We're currently subscribing to Weekly Readers, which I had as a child and loved, loved, loved. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be a genetic predisposition. It was pretty cheap, but I won't be doing it again next year because I'm the only one excited about it. Sigh. And we get the National Geographic Kids magazine, which again was bought on a super great deal, and guess who likes it? Not the students.

Tomorrow I'll finally tell you exactly what books we're using. I want to point out that although it sounds like it's a a challenging day, it's really not. She's happy, and I'm so less stressed that people barely recognize me. I'm confident that we're coming along well, and I know what areas we need to concentrate on--but I'm also feeling positive that if we work all the way through the summer we'll be fine or very close to where I want her to be.

Extracurricular

2012-01-26T18:00:00.000-05:00

There's a few things I have learned about this homeschooling thang. There are a variety of homeschool moms out there (and dads!)--the ones who just wing it, the ones who use a hardcore schedule and curriculum, and the ones who sort of piece it together. I've also discovered that most of us have a weird ~~obsession~~ desire to know what everyone else is doing.

Believe it or not, I got burned out on the scheduled curriculum. I know that seems odd for me, but it didn't work for the kids. And this is one case where it's not really about me, now is it?

I've decided to take it easy on my pre-k dude until March. Liv and I really needed to get into a routine, and to be honest, I haven't entirely figured out how to school both my high strung children at the same time. He's very up to speed with letters, numbers, adding, writing his name, etc. I'd like to get him into some phonic work. For now, he tags along with us, and we include him during science experiments or out loud readings. Olivia reads to him a lot. I'm cutting myself some slack right now, and he's still learning stuff.

Once a week, Colin does gymnastics and a Zumba class. This month we've also been doing a two hour pottery class for parent and child--this has been so much fun for all three of us! That's our art for now. In the future, we'll pop in and paint a little piece of pottery, but now that Liv's self esteem is up I think she'll be ready to sign up for a pottery class by herself and then a watercolor class after that one. I also think I may have talked her into Irish Dancing Classes--I would like her to take a physical activity class. She gets occupational therapy weekly (about to step that up to twice a week), and she's outside scootering and running all the time. I still think it would be helpful to do something in a class setting to get her adjusting to being in a room with other kids again.

We're spacing ourselves out here to take advantage of a variety of programs. There are also ice skating lessons, music lessons, kung fu or its many derivatives, gymnastics, and other dancing classes. And there's t-ball, peewee soccer, and peewee flag football--which Colin is begging to go to but I don't think Mama can handle it. (He WILL be the one who never grabs the flag and just tackles the other kid.) I refuse to over schedule, but these are all fun and easy to get to from our new home, and I think we'll get to most of them before our time here is up.

Friday I'll get into the nitty gritty details of what work I force and entice my first grader to use. (Lollipops and gummy bears are perfectly good bribes too.)

Cruddy picture with my finger in the shot. This is a tea set that Liv painted at pottery class during an impromptu tea party yesterday with vanilla wafers and ice water. YUM.

I'm behind already

2012-01-23T20:53:00.000-05:00

I meant to publish a post about our homeschool curriculum a few days ago, but somehow we've been so busy sightseeing with family in town that I've completely gotten off track. I'm frankly too tired to even write about it.

So, short story--here's what we've done--
tour of Hickam (this is me driving them around the base and pretending to know what I'm talking about--"see the bullet holes from December 7th!" when it's probably just bird poop)
tour of Ford's Island (USS Utah and USS Missouri)
Dole Pineapple Plantation
North Shore with sea turtles on the beach as well as coming in from a swim (awesome!!!!)
lunch at North Shore
USS Arizona Memorial
Bellows Air Force Station Beach (one of the best ever)
Diamond Head hike

This is all since Friday. I'd like to post photos, but for now enjoy my husband's blog posts here, here, here, and here.

Homeschool the Olivia Way

2012-01-19T13:30:00.000-05:00

You may recall our failed homeschool experiment when we first arrived in Hawaii. You know, back when I was crazy? And as a typical type A personality, I had created this ridiculous schedule. And I was struggling to make having my kids around all the time fit in with my time. Didn't work.

So, you know the story--we started at the local elementary school, which we did for 7 weeks before they took a month long break (it's called year round school, and while the premise is great, the actual practice stinks). And then we moved. In the middle of this break, we were doing intensive consults with Olivia's psychiatrist. This is also when we found out that her worries about school were not just big, they were monumental.

I timidly asked if homeschool was a good idea. He wholeheartedly agreed, IF I could do it without driving myself crazy again. Through a rash of small coincidences (some might say miracles--I would definitely agree that it all came together with a little Godly intervention), we found way to outsource.

Our plan is to let her medication kick in, continue homeschool for the rest of the school year, and the real key to our success--we work with a teacher. An honest to God teacher whose speciality is reading and who worked at a very expensive private school here on the island that caters to children with dyslexia and other sensory issues. She totally gets Olivia. She understands when she wiggles and can't wear her shoes. She's expensive, but it's cheaper than the private school, and it allows one on one attention.

Our schedule goes like this--three mornings a week, Olivia goes to Mrs. K's to have a 90 minute session where they cover reading, handwriting, and a bit of math. Then we come home or go to the playground and together complete a little more reading, a little more handwriting, math, science, history, and geography. Depends on the day, but these are the things she likes to do most. I can relax because I know that her reading foundation is solid, and I don't get freaked out because I'm afraid I'm letting her fall behind in reading skills, therefore freaking her out and making her tense and frustrated.

I'll discuss our curriculum more tomorrow. And how my own time is fitting in with this system. But for now, I have to tell you that I'm loving our solution. Can you believe I could ever say that? Can you believe my eye doesn't twitch anymore when I've been with just my two children for twelve straight hours? We're doing it. We're killing it. We are rocking it. We've come a long way, baby.

Part 2.1

2012-01-17T20:35:00.000-05:00

To continue from yesterday and catch you up--

Olivia was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder, oppositional defiance disorder (no wonder homeschool sucked!), Tourette's Syndrome, severe anxiety, sensory processing disorder, and perhaps needed Asperger's testing. Her anxiety about school was approaching a phobia level. She was one upset little dudette. There could be more, there could be less--I seriously doubt that this will be her final diagnosis. None of these really upset us--we knew there were some things about her that were quite Aspie-ish. We knew she was defiant (I just didn't think we at a "disorder" level yet).

See why I quit blogging?

Now here's where it gets dicey. I've decided to share our decision to put our daughter on medication for only one reason--to help other people. I get so many hits on my posts about sensory processing disorder, and these other moms are so desperate for information and real world situations. We get a lot of disapproval for choosing the drug, but I'm going to go out and say that if you've tried everything else, if you've researched thoroughly, then medication is worth a try too.

I had done my research. So when the child psych said we needed to treat her as ADHD and give her a stimulant (that is what Ritalin is), I nodded and I said politely disagreed. I can see why people would confuse her fidgeting with an attention problem, I can see that she has trouble being still, and I can see that her attention span is unfocused sometimes. But, to me, those are all traced to a sensory issue (an uncomfortable chair, needed to feel the pressure of the floor under her feet, or having a child sitting too close to her and lightly brushing her arm). Those are all fixable with an accommodating teacher. I said we have to treat the anxiety.

And he listened to me. He warned us that anti-anxiety treatment might take a high dosage to get at the tics, and even higher to really get into the obsessions. (She weighs 42 lbs at age 7, and she is the pickiest eater I've ever run across. Her obsessions could easily become anorexia or bulimia related as she gets older--obviously, these are things we want to conquer now.)

We started the medicine. We kept up the weekly occupational therapy. We kept up the diet and vitamin changes. We moved so that she could see her father more and because there was a chance of a different school system. We also have central a/c in this base house, which was probably impacting her sensory issues and making her even more irritable. We see the child psych almost every week. We changed her school situation (yet another post yet to come).

After only 4 weeks, her tics have stopped. After 2 1/2 years of tics. I haven't heard her say she hated me in over 2 weeks, when I used to get that yelled at me multiple times a day. I used to be told how stupid I was, how horrible my cooking was, and what a mean mom I was. Every day, all day long.

Now that it has kicked in, her child psych thinks we don't have to do Asperger's testing. (Her sorting and pattern habit appears to simply be an obsession.) He is surprised at her positive reaction to such a low dose, and he didn't think we would even have any luck with the tics at that low dose. She is a different child. I actually like her now. She is delightful, she is funny, and she is happy. She even said that she was glad to take "her vitamin" because she felt so much better. I didn't ask her that--she volunteered that one night. She is cuddly. Her balance is improving at her OT. She is thriving in her new school situation.

The doctor tells me every time he sees me, "You were right." He didn't think we needed to treat her anxiety, but he listened and he accepted it, and hey, Mom was right!

So, to sum up, things are going well. Things are going super. Things are more right than they have ever been for our whole family. In just 45 days, we went from being horribly unhappy and at our wits' end to feeling much more in control and much more content.

And tomorrow, I'll be telling you about first grade!

Part Two

2012-01-16T16:52:00.002-05:00

So to continue from my last post, the other major problem we were having was our family...specifically, our daughter. Although we are under weekly occupational therapy, there was much more going on with her than just sensory processing disorder. Our entire family was being impacted by her actions and attitude, and I am just going to say it loud...I didn't like her much. She was truly abusive towards me and her brother, and her father too when he was available for punishment. It was uncontrollable. It was unlivable. We knew things had to change when her little brother began copying her negative behavior.

We began trying to get psychological help. We use a special kind of military insurance where we are able to pick our own civilian providers. We've been doing this for 6 years, no problems. It's been wonderful. But here, in Hawaii (written with a growl), the providers do a horrible job of updating the system. So I would call one doctor, get a phone call back 48 hours later that they were no longer taking new patients, or even better, they were no longer practicing. After a few weeks of this, I got a referral to a pediatric neurologist...who gave us an appointment in April 2012. This was in September 2011. We needed much more help, much more quickly.

So, we arranged for us to be seen at the most comprehensive military facility on the island, which just happens to be Tripler Army Medical Center. They have an entire child psychiatric wing. They got us an appointment within one week. And do you know what the doctor said to me during the phone consult? "I can help you."

I don't think anyone has ever said that before. Getting to Tripler isn't so bad. Parking is...well, words just can't describe it. I suppose it's similar to finding a parking spot in New York City, without the cabbies to yell at you. But once you're there, I can only say wonderful things about this department.

During all these months, I had been trying to research my child and determine what we could best do to help her. A year before, the neurologist wanted to put her on medication for severe anxiety. I thought he was wrong. I thought we owed it to her to try other natural means to help, like changing her sleeping arrangements, starting occupational therapy, adjusting her diet. And we did all those things. Some helped. But her tics were increasing until she cried because her head jerking wouldn't let her sleep at night. The other kids teased her. She would beg me to stop the tics. And I couldn't. So I kept reading and googling.

Until I found that for some children the treatment of anxiety can lessen the tics. It all started to make sense to me, and I decided that by NOT trying the medication when we had tried everything else, I might be causing more damage than the drugs might do. There were risks, but I finally decided that if she were diabetic, I wouldn't hesitate to give her the insulin she needed. Why would I deny her what might fix her?

So when I marched into psychiatric that day, I told them I wasn't messing around. We needed this drug for these reasons and this is why--our family is falling apart. It is either me or this kid, but one of us has to leave. I think the sign of a good doctor is that he questioned me on the need for meds. It took three appointments to get the doctor to talk about medication and agree that we were at that point.

To be continued tomorrow....but know that we are all four still living together!

The kids at Bishop Museum yesterday

2012--My return to the blog!

2012-01-13T21:01:00.001-05:00

About 4 months ago, I pretty much disappeared from the blogosphere. I think it would be fair to say that was fairly obvious that I was spiraling downward. I promised to stop saying “I hate Hawaii” (see how I slipped that in there?). And then when things seemed overwhelming, blogging became just one more difficult chore that I couldn’t deal with any longer. Refresh your memory here.

But now, I’m back. Our situation is much better. So there are essentially two big parts to our family’s story from 2011. This is part one.

2011 began with us knowing that we were bound for the Pacific. Cautiously excited. We were still living in our rental home in California, which we had rented for a 2 year lease. This worked out well for us. The house wasn’t exactly perfect, but it was nice and had tons of space. We liked our safe neighborhood, and Olivia’s elementary school was a quiet, country school. We had a great preschool for Colin. It was a 30 minute commute for the husband, but there was no traffic so it was virtually a stress free drive. Except for dodging hippy hitchhikers and deer. I never really settled in, and I can’t say I loved it, but it was not bad.

But we had one real estate hellish event. We had what we liked to call the unrental cabin, that really well thought out “investment property” that never turned a freakin’ dime. In fact, it cost us thousands of dimes. It had been for sale for 2 years. I know, nothing in terms of today’s economy, but it was looming over us for a long time. And then, miraculously, in April we sold it. At a loss. In fact, we pretty much paid people to buy it from us. But it was OVER. We closed on the deal as we were meeting with the medical officers to determine if Olivia could actually move to Hawaii. Then we were in limbo for 2 weeks waiting to see if all our plans were going to fall apart. And then, we got cleared. And then we got orders like 20 days before we were supposed to fly. And then we didn’t get our flights scheduled until 7 days before we flew.

Stress? Nahhhhh. I haven’t had fingernails since May 1st.

From there, you know the story. We moved into a rental home that was beautiful, with a pool and a golf course view. We were going to homeschool, so who cares how crappy the public school down the street is? I mean, I am Superwoman, on my 5th move in 8 years. I am awesome. I can do this. Then the movers misplaced our household goods. On the west coast. While we are in Hawaii.

Oh. Turns out that when I live without my shiz for 9 weeks, I lose my everloving mind. Everything fell apart. The husband was stressed with the job. He was stressed with the commute because he has to go to three different offices around the island (which with Hawaii traffic would just simply cause Jesus to curse). He didn’t like the rental house. And when Olivia began first grade at the local public school, it was bad. Just bad.

So in September, against my wishes, my husband went to the base housing office to say “Hey. We screwed up. Any chance you can give us a house?” Now, we know people wait months and months, living out of their cars and hotel rooms, to get housing.

And guess what? They had a house. A stand alone historic house that was built in the 1930s and just refurbished. Tiny, but it was still our house without anyone attached to us. And historic--how cool is that?

So we summoned up our courage and asked our landlords if we could move out. We told them the school situation was not working out, and the commute was proving to be much harder on the husband than anticipated. We needed to be close to at least one of his offices to get more family time, the chance for a better school, and less work stress.

They said yes. They didn’t have to--but they were gracious. We promised we would take care of showings, and that they wouldn’t lose a dime in the process. We would take care of things until we found a new tenant. And things began really well. In the first weekend, we had two showings, and one application to rent the house. We were thrilled. We signed for the historic home and set up the movers.

And then...the new applicants backed out. I got scared. I quit blogging. I quit everything. It ended up taking 4 months to get a new tenant. We had to pass on the house I wanted.

But things have a way of working out, right? And in 2012, we are beginning the year living in a brand new townhouse on the base. It takes my husband 4 minutes to drive to work.

(I can show you this picture because you can not see the street sign, the house number, or the name on the front. And there are are guards at the gate. Come on! I dare you to try to show up and ask for my autograph!) Right across the street is the house where we ate supper with friends on our second night on the island in June. I had no idea that 7 months later, I would live in that “under construction” area across the street from people that went with my husband to Purdue 16 years ago. We are surrounded by many lovely children around our own children’s age. There are lots of mommies who also enjoy a glass of wine with their supper. Mommies that don’t judge me when this happens--

One our third night in the house, Colin was outside in the back yard as I cut up some chicken for supper. I saw him trying to dig around a newly planted tree. Knife and fork in hand, I went out to the patio to tell him to stop it. And then he ran from me. As the neighbors were looking on, I realized that there I was--chasing my son in the backyard, demanding he come to me, while I held a knife and fork in each hand. Lovely. They still let their kids play with mine.

My children are outside for hours and hours. I miss my privacy a bit--I won’t lie that when I went back to clean the other house, it made me sad to go put my feet in my pool and to know it wasn’t mine anymore. It was beautiful.

Still. Life is better. I have fingernails again--this is a significant sign to me that physically, I'm a bit more right in the head. (Not too much--I mean, what would if I have to write about if I was completely happy and sane?) My children are happier. My husband is happier. And other things have changed too...but that’s part two.

Ringing in 2012 with a Z Pack

2012-01-06T16:12:00.000-05:00

I have had the best of intentions to start blogging again regularly, as I once did. However, bronchitis has sidelined us this week. Olivia came down with it a few days ago, and luckily, I took her in to the doctor yesterday who said we a hair shy of pneumonia. She's on the mend now, but just sick enough to require a steady dose of Netflix movies and to bemoan how mean her brother is to her even when she's sick.

Luckily, we have this--and I love kids getting older because this is 4 days, once a day, and not 10 days twice a day. Yippee!

And this all leaves me with this. Hoping against hope that somehow the rest of us escape illness. So far, so good.

I do have so much to tell you about what's been going on these last few months. Let's just say that in review, 2011 was a tough year, and I'm thrilled to be moving on to a much brighter 2012. But I will share that we have moved onto the base, successfully chucked our rental lease, and are homeschooling again (happily!). And no, I'm on no illegal drugs and my wine usage is still within a normal range. Can you believe it? I barely can, and I'm pretty sure my husband thinks I've been replaced by an alien clone.

For a brief glimpse at the year in review from the husband's point of view, you can visit here.

Next year must be accompanied by an Old Navy gift card

2011-12-28T22:08:00.000-05:00

These cookies are the devil. Seriously. And if our relatives insist on sending them again, they must be accompanied by an Old Navy gift card so I can go buy new pants.

We had an amazing Christmas, maybe the best ever since we were parents. Despite not having family here, we did the military thing and made our own family--we had over two other couples, who also just happened to bring amazing food with them---and we had a wonderful day. I think it also helps that our kids are getting to the age where they fall in love with their gifts and vanish for the rest of the day.

Happy New Year!

The Annual Letter

2011-12-23T01:45:00.001-05:00

I can not truly believe it's almost here...the end of the longest year I can remember, and oddly enough, the year I end up using more exclamation points in our annual letter than ever. Ever! Anyway, what follows is our operationally secure annual letter. If we're friends or family and you didn't get it in the mail, my apologies. We've been juggling a lot lately, and honestly, I wrote this one on a Sunday morning while the children watched Free Willy version 14.1, and when Kris returned from work and asked for a quick edit, I had to say, "Sorry, Dude. Printed, signed, stamped. Done." I hope he liked it. Exclamation point!

Aloha and holiday greetings!

This year we find ourselves in Hawaii, sending out hastily prepared holiday cards and throwing together an annual letter. We’ve just completed a move from our rental home into on base housing at Hickam Air Force Base, so should we forget to mention a child or some important fact, please excuse us!

Kris took command of the **** Intelligence Squadron in June. This job has been challenging and interesting, and he may not admit it, but he loves it. He’s been training for this two year period his entire career, and he’s doing a great job. He doesn’t get much time for his photography hobby, but when he does, Hawaii offers amazing opportunities!

Olivia is in first grade this year, and we just celebrated her 7th birthday. This move and the school challenges have been difficult for her, but she’s loving our new house and getting to play with the neighborhood children...in fact, there is one 8 year old boy who knocks on our door every day asking for her, which causes her father some anxiety!

Colin learned to swim this summer along with his sister, and he’s in full on boy mode! Trucks, wrestling, Star Wars--if it is marketed towards boys, he loves it. He’s having some issues learning how to play with his sister and her girl friends as his method of “playing” involves stomping on the Barbie dolls and laughing hysterically. But we’ll get there!

As for me, I’ve managed to avoid starting a business this year. I’m the chef, babysitter, toy repairer, chauffeur, unpacker, grocery shopper, laundress, appointment setter, teacher, and occasional arm candy when Kris drags me out to work functions. If I can fit in a little exercise and an occasional blog, I’m accomplishing a lot!

We look forward to having lots of friends and family out to visit the Aloha state. As always, we wish you and your families lots of love and peace during the holiday season and a healthy and happy 2012.

-Kris, Becky, Olivia, and Colin

Extinction

2011-12-21T01:16:00.000-05:00

I didn't expect my return to the blogosphere to be on this subject, but here it is.

Yesterday, as I shuttled the children between three different engagements, Olivia finally dropped the bomb..."Santa, huh. You know Santa doesn't exist. I don't believe in him. N (8 year old across the street) told me so."

Now, for the last year, Olivia has been on this subject, occasionally even throwing out "Mom (roll the eyes), come on, you can tell me, Santa's not real, right?" And her brother chimes in "You can tell us, Mom!"

I hate lying to my children. I hate it. It feels so horribly wrong. So I usually reply with a chirpy "I believe in the spirit of Santa!" At which they shake their 7 and 4 year old heads and feel so very sorry for me.

So, I inform her that no matter what she thinks, she can not spoil what younger children believe, including her brother. And then tonight, her father and I have a quick parenting conference over the dirty dishes, and eventually she and I steal off upstairs.

I hope this is a memory I can actually cherish. We cuddled up in our bedroom in a chair, and I told her that she was big enough to be let into the grown up club. Could I trust her with a few of the secrets of the grown up club? Oh, yes, she whispered, the knowledge already making her 7 year old self giddy.

And so, yes, I proceeded to tell her than Santa wasn't real, it was Mommy and Daddy. She wasn't surprised, and she took it really well. We discussed how important it was to not tell younger children. We discussed that a lot. And then she asked if there were other secrets...so I spilled the beans about the tooth fairy and the Easter bunny too. Oh, yes, I did. She thought the tooth fairy one was pretty funny, and now she understood why that silly tooth fair was always a night or two behind--silly mommy. And she wanted to know how I got the Easter baskets out before they saw them. Uh, yeah, Mommy runs to the grocery store really early on Easter Sunday, buys them at 75% off, puts them on the front porch, and then walks in through the garage.

I was really proud of us. I thought we had handled this a year or so earlier than I'd expected, but that we had thought of a creative way to tell her while still maintaining a sense of magic in being told the big secret. Now, she may be out telling all the three year olds tomorrow, but I'm doing the best I can here. And since a slightly older child already spilled the beans (as in bound to happen), this is the best solution, right? Right?

And then she whispers to me, "Mommy, I kind of lied. N (child across the street) didn't tell me Santa wasn't real. I made it up."

Oh. Oops.

Dropping In

2011-12-14T14:03:00.000-05:00

So half the month is gone, and I haven't blogged once! Maybe this weekend I will finally sit down and do what the professionals do--write a week's worth of posts and trigger them to post daily. But that would be easy! And why on earth would I do that?

We survived our local move on the base. More on that later. We're surviving another round of homeschool. Much more on that later. I'm simply up to my neck in daily living right now. Some of my friends were astounded by how quickly we got our house set up, but really, I'm so desperately seeking "normal" that I will do anything to get it--including unpacking all night long!

My kitchen only looked like this for the first night. I can't wait to show you pictures, and maybe if you've been really good, a video!

Rainbow in our new backyard.

I shall return.

After Thanksgiving

2011-11-29T19:49:00.000-05:00

Oh, there is just so much going on that I can't even begin. I'm just dropping in to refer you to the husband's blog because we actually took some sweet Thanksgiving pictures last week. And he does a nice little write up of the big birthday party last Saturday. I'm just worn out. I anticipate little blogging over the next week because we're moving. YES, you read that right--moving. However, before you get all excited for me, please know that I'm not getting out of Hawaii...we're just moving onto the base. Hopefully, I'll have something to write about between now and then, but otherwise, you'll know what I'm doing!

Thoughts on Thanksgiving

2011-11-23T22:41:00.000-05:00

So, as any of my more faithful readers know (that means people related to me with "mother" somewhere in the title), I had taken a little break for a while. And those same people will know that Hawaii has not agreed with me. I think about people who deal with seasonal depression and have those special lights to sit under...and I think I need darkening shades to keep the sunlight out to be happy. Really.

I guess that phrase is overused by me because today a delivery truck stopped right in front of us and I eventually had to pull around him, and Colin's comment was "Really, FedEx guy?"

Things around here are still pretty crappy. I could be all positive and sunshine, but really--it's still quite stressful and I'm not ready to talk about it yet. And luckily, I know if you're reading this, you probably love me anyway. I've decided that this is my theme song. I recited these words in a monotone voice to my husband a few weeks ago, and he not only thought it was the funniest thing he'd heard all week but that yes, it was totally accurate. Really.

Today due to their fighting, I alternated between giving one of my children away (which one is up for debate, but Colin costs the most right now with preschool, and Liv's first grade is free) and then realizing that should I beat them with pool noodles, it wouldn't leave a mark or hurt very much and it would probably make me feel better.

At the end of the day, I still have two children, unbeaten, and lulled into submission by watching an hour of Rugrats reruns on Netflix.

But what I will leave you with is Happy Thanksgiving. Because despite it all, I really do (we all do) have much to be thankful for. I've been seeing a therapist for the past few months here (aren't you happy to know that?), and she has actually read my blog. Wow, was that scary to give out that web address. And she said that my blog was actually helping people. Helping other parents who are dealing with an issue or issues that feel out of control to them, that feel overwhelming, that make them feel like they are the worst parents in the world. I thought that was overstating a bit. I mean, really.

But over the last week alone, with barely a remotely cohesive thought posted here, I've had two comments from moms who are in a similar position...not sure what to do with their kids, not sure that they are doing a good job, not sure that they are helping their kids and desperately wanting support. And looking to me to give it. I'm a bit floored. A bit flattered. And a bit not an expert.

If nothing else, I can pull it together for them (and all the people who visit without commenting) and continue writing about all the good and bad here, especially as we narrow in on my daughter's diagnosis and therapies a year after starting our Sensory Processing Disorder journey.

I am grateful for each person who visits my blog. Thank you. Really. Now off to buy pool noodles.

Bombs, Baptism, and Beaches

2011-11-17T19:41:00.000-05:00

I'm revving up. I actually feel like writing again. It is still a super stressful time around here with lots of transitions and items on our agendas that I won't get into right now. But we took a vacation to Maui, and well, I just had to tell you about it.

Isn't this a great picture? I mean, two beautiful children playing tag on the beaches of Maui. How awesome is that!

We planned this trip back in August. First, we booked it through hotels.com. But then I lost the confirmation email, and after checking with them online using the credit card information, email, phone numbers, menstrual cycle, and tattoo locations from my body, they said we had NOT made a reservation. So I did it again. Got the exact same flights and everything. And then two days later, I got our credit card bill. Which showed I had indeed made the first reservation, thanks so much.

Now I had two identical trips to Maui. Uh oh. Ultimate mommy blooper in the thousands of dollar range. So, two things I know--
1. Hotels.com took care of this, and they didn't have to. In the end, we only had to pay $80 to cancel 4 seats from one flight. I thought this was a pretty cheap way out of my situation.
2. Hotels.com was using people who speak pretty good English, which was a relief because I just knew I was going to get "John" from India and I would wind up with a third trip.

Sooo. Fast forward to last weekend when my husband says "Why are we getting there Monday and leaving Wednesday?" And I'm like "Have you met your children?"

By Wednesday morning, he was having me call the airline to see if we could get on an earlier flight. And he also high fived me for getting the number of days to "vacation" right. If you could call it that--because ultimately it wasn't a vacation and even 48 hours proved to be too long.

My husband did a great job running down our activities while on the island of Maui. Here are my impressions of Maui--
1. It's still Hawaii. The area we were visiting felt just like the resort area near our house, except I had to go through airport security to get to this one.
2. Flying to another island doesn't do squat for island fever.
3. When we arrived in Maui, there was a man greeting his love. Nothing unusual about this white collar fellow hugging his gal. Except that dude had no shoes on. He just strolled along, planning their time together, with his lady friend gazing up at him as if he hung the moon. With no shoes on.
4. As we drove to the hotel, we saw a local in a white Dodge minivan playing a ukulele. Which isn't odd in itself, except that he was driving.
5. What did strike me while in Maui was the number of couples, families laughing together, and people just generally happy to be together. It warmed my hard, cold heart just a bit. I particularly liked the older couples there together, most of whom were actually holding hands.

And last, let me tell you about the return trip home yesterday with my future WWF champions. My children fought most of the trip. And if we weren't breaking up a fight, Olivia was having some sort of disorder meltdown--take your pick, OCD, ODD, SPD--we saw them all.

On Tuesday morning, as my daughter sat on the toilet screaming that she couldn't get off, I turned to the husband and said "Why don't they have an OCD hotline? So I could call them and say, hello, my daughter is obsessed with not having any urine in her bladder. I've tried everything to get her off the toilet. I'm out of ideas. Send backup."

I need that 800 number.

So, to top off our trip, as we get in line at security at the Maui airport--which is horribly inadequate for the amount of travelers--Olivia asks me why I have to take off flip flops since obviously I'm not hiding anything in there except my lovely bunions. I explained quickly that they were worried about the sole and that once someone did manage to get a bomb in there and almost set it off. But that couldn't happen anymore since they x-ray the shoes. We're at the back of the line when we got into this discussion. We're pretty discreet about it.

We eventually moved up, and just as we get to the gray trays to stick our shoes and other personal items in them, my daughter says "Hey, mom, could you make up a story about putting a bomb in your shoe?"

Quickly, I told her not now, please don't say that right now, we're going to get pulled and searched.

"But why can't you tell me that story about the bomb?" And that's when I put my hand over her mouth and shoved her through the x-ray machine while whispering "Do you KNOW what Child Protective Services means?"

An hour later, we're on the plane when Colin (my seat buddy) begins to suddenly spin around in circles like the Tasmanian Devil and begin to talk nonstop. They pushed up back from the jetway, and as we sat there, two much larger planes also pushed back and turned onto the tarmac in our direction. And my son begins hollering "We're gonna crash! We're all gonna die! Death!"

I told the flight attendant as we got off the 22 minute flight that instead of selling beer for $4, she could have charged me $50 for a shot of Children's Benadryl.

We are back to our original plan of not returning to the mainland for another 19 months. And now we've also decided to exclude our children from the trip we wanted to take to the Big Island. When they have money of their own, they can fly back and pay for their own trip.

For now, we've decided that perhaps they need to be rebaptized. Maybe the first ones didn't take?

For more beautiful pics, go see the husband's blog.

Walking the Walk

2011-10-15T00:11:00.002-04:00

This really happened. And it deserved a blog, shut down or not.

A few mornings ago, we were walking to school with Liv. This is a 1 mile round trip. It's no problem in the morning, but in the afternoons when it's 89 degrees and no shade, I like to refer to this as the Bataan Death March. Therefore, I have become a bit of a wimp and drive to pick her up in the afternoon. Let's just say that it makes for a much more bearable mom due to the 2 minutes of air conditioning I gain in the car.

Anyway, yesterday a neighbor child joined us and then a friend of hers from 5th grade ran to catch up. Sweet kid. Oh, my goodness, I would not want to be 10 again. On the cusp of puberty, itchy training bras, gawky arms and legs, and maybe some of us hadn't grown into our exquisite good looks yet...I digress.

This morning the neighbor child didn't meet us, but this acquaintance did and we had an interesting chat on the way to school. Just like the day before, she commented on a red car that drove by with a "there goes my mom." The first day I thought maybe she was confused. But today she mentioned a little brother, and I figured out that the mom was dropping off a 2nd grader. And so I asked why she chose to walk rather than ride, assuming it had something to do with the ultimate coolness of a 5th grader.

Instead she replied that she needed to lose a little weight. That's a quote. Granted, she was a little on the chubby side, but I can't imagine giving my daughter that idea. With proper diet, I think it's entirely possible that she could get rid of the extra weight without ever knowing she needed to. I hesitate to comment on this because you know what, with my 6 year old's extremely picky eating habits, I can't image her ever being overweight. I would like to drop 5 pounds myself. And I hate to criticize another parent because you just don't know.

The thing is, I glimpsed the mom waving from the car to this little girl, on the brink of womanhood, and let me just say, barring some morbid foot injury, Mama could have used the walk too.

Shut Down

2011-10-11T16:46:00.000-04:00

This blog is closed for the next few weeks. I have intense writers' block right now, and I'm under just a bit of stress, and somehow not managing to write adds on even more stress until I wonder why my hair is falling out, and I keep feeling like that dark corner in the closet would be a really awesome place to sit for a while. I can not believe our 50th state could kick my butt, but it has (and unfortunately didn't take away any poundage when it did kick my butt--that would have been nice.)

So no sharing right now, because as I'm constantly telling the children "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." And since this is the blog where I'm not going to complain about living in Hawaii, I guess I've run out of things to say.

I hope I'm back soon in all my satirical, mommy blooper glory. Thanks.

How much does sky writing cost?

2011-10-06T00:01:00.000-04:00

If there was a stamp, I would put it on my forehead. If I could afford a skywriter, I would hire him.

I have been so, so wrong.

There, I've said it. I've been missing over the last week because, quite frankly, things suck so badly that I can't even write. And now, in the interest of clearing the air and moving on, I'm going to be brutally honest and then I promise this won't be the I hate Hawaii blog anymore. At least until I get on that plane headed for the mainland in the summer of 2013. Then I'll tell you how I really feel.

So I hate living in Hawaii. At this point, I can't even argue that the weather is lovely, because I'm so sick on 85 and humid and sunny that I can barely breathe. I throw my Eddie Bauer and Lands End catalogs straight into the recycle bin because it would make me cry should I actually browse the fall collections. The homework routine, which may I speak frankly as a very educated mom and child of a teacher, stinks, is complete crap---it's busy work, and last weekend both my husband (two master's degrees) and I (one master's degree and distinguished graduate) didn't understand. CRAP homework.

(Last weekend, I was at a party discussing the amount of homework with another mom, and as I was spouting off about auditory and visual learning processes, she asked me if I was a teacher. And I was honored that I knew enough about what I was speaking of that she could mistake me for an ed major. I have done my own homework, and I know that this isn't working for us.)

Here's the gist of the last week. We found out that we could get a historic remodeled home on the Air Force Base. We approached our landlords to break our lease (we've never done that before). Gulp. They actually agreed, provided we can get another tenant in. We showed the house. We went to look at the base house today, and we have a family who saw our pool house this weekend who want it. We bit our fingernails and took the house on base because otherwise, we wouldn't get offered another base house for about 3 months. Now we are in the process of moving again and prayerful that the new family who applied for a lease follows through or we are on the bill for paying the November rent at the house as well.

Sidenote--most people in my husband's job arrive at their assigned base and have a house waiting for them. It's usually a requirement to live on base. But the housing list is so long here that we didn't get that requirement. I wanted that requirement! I wanted to have a base house to roll into! But since we couldn't, and we were homeschooling, I chose the next best thing--the pool, which we have used no less than 112 times since getting here June 1 and both children loved and learned to swim. But I WAS WRONG, and the homeschooling farted right out due to no household goods and eventual mommy burn out.

We are moving again. This new house will allow the husband to see the children more and be home some days to help with the homework rumble. There will be a better elementary school available should our child psych think that's a good move (we meet with her Friday). It's a stand alone home, which is very rare on base. It's also tiny, and the mosquitos almost carried me away today. BUT please send up a positive chant or prayer or whatever you feel moved to do that the family will actually move into our current home and relieve us of that debt because otherwise, I may have to start stripping down in Waikiki. Dancers wanted! They didn't say anything about rhythm!

And for the last time, two things--I hate living here, and yes, husband, I was wrong. Moving on.

Mom Share--"Osum" Educational Links

2011-09-27T02:13:00.001-04:00

In my aborted homeschool quest, and now in my attempt to help Olivia get extra practice with math, I thought I would share some links--whether you are homeschooling or just trying to find some reinforcements, here are some websites that are a bit buried and "osum"...or "awesome" if you aren't a first grader learning how to spell.

www.abcya.com
This is a great site with all the subjects organized by grade level. Olivia's kindergarten class in California used this site. Free!!!

www.mathworksheetwizard.com
Math organized by level and concept that allows you to configure a brand new sheet and print it out. Totally cool. Free!!

www.tlsbooks.com
Another site by grade level with almost every subject. Kind of free, but they do ask for a $1 donation annually if you are able to use anything. A buck!!!

www.enchantedlearning.com
I pay $20 a year for this one---Olivia's kindergarten teacher used it, and I thought some of the printables were so worth just paying the fee to have access for Colin.

www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com
This site is much more well known amongst homeschoolers. I kind of idolize this woman. She is amazing, and after I read her blog, I go have some chocolate and a glass of wine and try to count up my own talents as it seems she does everything while juggling 4 kids and homeschool. (I have to often remind myself that her mama lives nearby, no high needs children, and that she has help and support that I can only dream about.) She offers tons of free printables, but her study units are very affordable and you just print them out. There are also many links from her sidebar to other homeschool sites, but I find myself just coming here all the time.

www.crayola.com
Coloring pages, lesson plans, great site...free!!

www.jellytelly.com
This site recently decided to go freebie....it is a Christian site, but it is also the creators of Veggie Tales, of which we are huge fans.

www.superteacherworksheets.com
Tons of spelling lists, worksheets, etc. Free!

And then of course, we do all the regulars--
www.pbskids.org
www.nickjr.com
www.disneyjunior.com
www.starfall.com
www.sproutonline.com

I hope this helps you fill some time in a very long day!

Pulling Our Hair Out

2011-09-25T17:00:00.000-04:00

Within 24 hours of my very out of character and decisive action to remove Colin from his preschool, I was like this...."what have I done?" Sob.

So I went groveling back in and begged for him to continue. We're going to try a slightly different schedule where I pick him up 4 days of the week after lunch but before nap. I'm still paying almost as much as I would pay for a nanny, but as the husband pointed out--"Does that really matter at this point?"

Also, what happens when my children don't watch any tv all day? This.

Olivia decided to play barber shop. She's gotten the idea that she'd like to be a hair stylist because she won't have to go to college. I've assured her that hair stylists still have to go to school, and that it is a very hard job to have, but I suppose at this point, she's just looking for as little homework as possible, even if it's 12 years down the road.

I wasn't terribly angry, although I warned her that I would be if there was a next time. For now, the scissors are stored waaaaaaaaaay up high. And Colin has actually been begging to go bald, so he's actually quite thrilled---although, he's still asking us every 10 minutes if he's still bald. He's afraid his hair will grow back quite suddenly, like a Chia Pet, and he won't get to show his buddies at school tomorrow.

As a side point to all the men who lament their lack of hair, Colin also announced his theory this morning that his hair was taking up too much room and now he was much smarter because his brain had room to grow.

Life on the Rock

2011-09-20T15:29:00.000-04:00

Just when you thought things had to get better, they get worse.

Colin is dropping preschool. After a month, and only one week where both kids had school, it's over. I've always taken my cue from the children on whether a preschool is good or not. While it's normal for a little one to fuss a bit at drop off, if they are still upset and haven't had a good day at the pick up, then I think something's off.

The teacher was nice, but he wasn't getting any pre-K (no handwriting, etc) which we were already supplementing. And the size of the school was an issue for him--he was used to 8 kids on the playground, and here he had over 30. So after one more day of the same drama and still finding a kid who hadn't a good day at the end of it, I gave them notice. He finishes out the month (with me picking him up early so he doesn't have to stay through nap time which he hates).

My alone time is gone again, and now that I've arranged to start my Master's degree in January, I find myself wondering how I can ever do that. There are only 3 other preschools I know about within reasonable driving distance, and they are either full or cost $13,000. So babysitters, I suppose.

So it's an I hate Hawaii day.