Smooth Mowing

As I headed home from my grandmother’s house on Thanksgiving, I noticed I had a rather large stick in my back windshield. So I asked, “Why is there a stick in my back windshield?”  My dear sweet child, Sebastian, said that he liked the stick and he was taking it home.

Yes, my child found a stick that he liked and decided to take it home. 

This short conversation has stayed on my mind ever since.  Why in the world would he need to bring a stick home? He never plays outside. 

Our yard is a barren wasteland of just plain old boring grass.  Perfect for smooth mowing, which is exactly what Josh is trying to accomplish, but it isn’t the best yard for the childhood imagination.

We don’t have rocks in our yard.  Josh gets rid of those.  He doesn’t want to run over it with the lawn mower.

We don’t have sticks in our yard.  Josh gets rid of those, too.  He doesn’t want to run over these with the lawn mower, either.

We don’t have leaves because Josh chops leaves up with the lawnmower.  Not sure why he does this.  Don’t they just disintegrate?

We don’t have old tires, overgrown flowerbeds, swings, picnic tables, overgrown roots, or rusted old stuff left over from 30 years ago.

I told Josh about the conversation with Sebastian and how there aren’t any sticks in the yard.  Of course Josh implied that he did wish the kids would play in the yard more.  Knowing better, I said, “Now just what would you say if you walked outside and seen the kids digging a hole in the yard with a stick?”  He chuckled and said, “I would tell them to stop.”

I am not sure where Sebastian put his stick, but hopefully he hid it well.  There is no rock, stick, or leaf in our yard that is safe from Josh, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

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Birthday Dinners

When we moved into our house almost a year and a half ago, I began having what I call Birthday Dinners. It has worked out very well.

We celebrated Sebastian’s 7th birthday Saturday evening.

We spent most of Saturday morning cleaning. I went to the grocery store when I decided that my house could not be any cleaner. I had asked Sebastian over a week ago what he wanted to have for his Birthday Dinner and he said that he wanted chili and hot dogs. I baked cupcakes, too.

Everyone started arriving around 3:30 pm. We ate, sang Happy Birthday, and then Sebastian opened presents. It really was a great time. I am thankful for everyone coming and sharing the afternoon with Sebastian.

After everyone had left, Sebastian said, “That was the best birthday party ever!”

That was the best “Thank You, Mom” that a mom could ever get.

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Dog days…

I have added another member to our household. Her name is Lucy.

She is some sort of hound mix. I am thinking maybe a black and tan hound with beagle.

Who knows? She might be just a mutt that looks like a hound. Either way, she is really sweet and I believe that she is going to make a really wonderful pet for our family.

She was stray that wandered up to a friends house and my friend unsuccessfully tried to find the puppy a home. After a month, she brought the puppy in to the office with the hopes that someone would take her. Someone else did for two days, but that situation did not work out. So, I brought her home with me.

I haven’t had a dog in years. I have never had a house dog.

She has something in common with everyone in the family, I think.

Lucy is house broken.  Most everyone in our home is, except for Samuel (he is still in diapers).

She is an older puppy. I have two older kids that would probably be the equivalent of older puppies.

She is a she. I have one daughter, so having another female in the house should be fun.

She likes her blanket. Sebastian does, too.

She likes going outside. My husband loves being outside. He claims that it is too hot, but he stays out there all the time so it can’t be too bad.

She sheds. I do, too. I think it is hormones, on my part at least. I seem to remember shedding hair after having each baby. That is not her problem, though.

My mother is staying with the kids and she sent me a text earlier that said “Lucy made a little sound. Sebastian said it was her first word.”

You got to love kids…

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Three kids playing ball at the same time is not that bad…really, it isn’t.

I have seriously neglected my blog for the last few weeks.

I have seriously been really busy.

Seriously.

Jacob, Emily, and Sebastian are all playing ball. They all have two games a week. Times are getting hectic.

Jacob’s first game was last night. He played great. Bless his heart, he was nervous and excited. I know that I may be a little biased, but my son was the best looking ball player out there.

Emily has been playing for a couple of weeks. She is doing good and she seems to be getting better and better. She really enjoys it and I hope that she keeps playing.

Sebastian is doing really well, too. He has been playing for a couple of weeks, too. Josh took him to the game last night and was giving Sebastian pointers on batting. Sebastian said that he didn’t want to hit the ball too hard and hurt someone. Josh was a little speechless, I think. He told Sebastian that “That is why they have gloves, son.” Sebastian  hit a ball over the shortstops head and got a double and an RBI.

Last night was really hectic because Emily played at 7pm, Jacob played at 8pm, and Sebastian played at 8:30pm. I watched Emily and Jacob while Josh watched Sebastian’s game.

I know one thing–it was cold last night. It is past the middle of May. Last night had to set record lows. I had mittens on Samuel. He did not like that at all.

Anyway, ball season is in full swing. I am loving it.

I love sitting on the sidelines watching my kids be kids. I love to watch their excitement when they hit a ball and get on base or even make it across home plate. I feel their disappointment when they strike out, miss the ball, or make a bad throw. I love watching them make memories that will last a lifetime. I love knowing that they are learning skills that will benefit them for a lifetime, such as working with others toward a common goal, always doing your best at whatever you do, and realizing that not everyone is an all star pitcher, but that everyone has their place on the team.

Whatever that team may be.

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Recovering Road Rager

I have really conquered my road rage. Really, I have.

Except when someone tries to run me off the road.

Which is what happened last night on my way back home from an evening of watching pee-wee baseball in 40 degree weather. Well, it was more like 60 degrees, but it felt colder than that.

Last night, I was driving along quite happily. There was this car that couldn’t quite decide if it wanted to go fast or my speed. It passed me once, but then it slowed down…in the fast lane.

Usually, when a car can’t make up its mind what speed it wants to maintain it is a good indicator that the driver of the car is somewhat distracted.

Well, I was cruising along in the slow lane and indecisive driver was driving along in the fast lane. I was in the process of passing the indecisive driver when the car begins to come over into my lane. Seriously.

I had to swerve off the road to avoid being hit by the indecisive driver.

I was not happy. Not one bit.

After being hit by a drunk driver less than a year ago, I was fed up and I began my venting tirade. I blew my horn. Called the woman an idiot. She didn’t see or hear any of my tirade because she was in another vehicle and the indecisive car decided to roll along at a slower pace than a snail.

Then came the red light. No other cars around at all. Just my car parked at the red light in the slow lane and her coming up (very slowly) to the red light in the fast lane. She stopped her car way back behind the little stop here now white line that is present at every red light. I could sense it–she was afraid.

And she should be.

Because she had just made a recovering road rager very angry and frightened because of what could have happened since my entire family was present in the vehicle with me. It didn’t occur to me that I might be frightening my children and my husband.

Yes, I yelled out the window at her. She looked like she was trying to text on her phone. I told her that she needed to pay attention to what she was doing. Then the light turned green and she took off like lightening. 

So, what does this recovering road rager do? I blow my horn and get behind her. I wasn’t doing anything wrong. It was the direction that I go home. I can’t help it if she thought that I was following her.

Then I turned and the entire episode was finished. My son told me that the decent thing to have done was not to yell at her. Well, of course the decent thing to have done would have been just that. Unfortunately, when something happens that makes me aware of how something as precious as the lives of my children can be taken away in a second because of the stupidity of someone not paying attention to what they are doing, decency happens to take a back seat and anger rears its ugly head. Along with the feeling of wanting to rip someones head off.

The good thing is that we are all fine and I am thankful for that. Jacob said he was glad no one from church was there to see it. 

Well, just because I am a Christian does not make me perfect. I am just forgiven and I did pray about it later. I feel like it probably scared that woman just as much as it scared me, but I wasn’t able to think that clearly at that moment. If nothing else, she will pay more attention to what she is doing so she doesn’t bring out the recovering road rager in someone else that is struggling with it more than I am.

So, here it is…

Hello, my name is Sonya. I am a recovering road rager. I have been road rage free for less than 24 hours now…however, I believe my anger was warranted last night…

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Time to play catch up…

I have missed blogging. It has been a week or so since I have written anything. Life just gets in the way sometimes.

Jacob is trying to wait patiently for his phone call from his Babe Ruth Coach. Asking every night if I have heard anything is as patient as any 13 year old boy can be, I guess. We have heard that they are drafting the players tonight. This news helped to ease Jacob’s anxiety that he just wasn’t going to be drafted at all and that his paperwork must have gotten lost somewhere. School is going well for him right now and I hope it continues. My sister-in-law helped tremendously in this area and I am very thankful for her.

Emily has started softball practice. Softball seems to be going well for her. Other than that, Emily is just Emily. She is so bubbly and happy. She occasionally suffers from school-girl drama-queen syndrome, but so far I have been able to reign in the drama and overcome the drama.

Sebastian has started his baseball practice. He is doing really well this year. I really think that he will really grow into the sport this year. He has been playing third base. School is going well for him. He still doesn’t want to read his AR book. He would rather read books that he has at home. I should say that he would rather me read the books to him that we have at home.

Samuel is four months now. He has gotten over the RSV. Thank goodness. He has tried carrots, squash, sweet peas, sweet potatoes, applesauce, and bananas. So far, sweet potatoes is the one thing that he does not like at all. I don’t know why. He really likes the sweet peas. He likes applesauce better than bananas. He has to have cereal in his bottles because he has a major case of acid reflux, but other than this he is doing really well. I will try the sweet potatoes later. He is sleeping through the night. He rolled over in his baby bed the other night. I was so proud that I woke Josh just to tell him that Samuel had rolled over. He is a quiet baby. He does coo some, but not often, and apparently it is really funny getting his diaper changed. Last night, Josh was rocking him so that I could go to bed. Samuel was laughing about something, but I don’t know what. I guess it was just a father and son moment. Whatever it was, it was sweet.

Josh is playing volleyball on Tuesday nights. He is still working the weekend shift, but he is trying to get back to first shift during the week. I will be so happy when he is working Monday through Friday again.

I am still working and still taking my kids everywhere they need to go. I am tired of rain and storms. I can’t wait to watch my kids play ball.

Oh, and the family went bowling last week. It was really fun and I hope that we can all go again soon.

That pretty much sums up the last couple of weeks in my family.

Be Blessed!

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It is time to celebrate!

Many of my friends and family know that I have had a difficult time getting Jacob to bring up his grades at school. This has been a problem during his 7th grade year and it continued on into the 8th grade.

It is not that Jacob can’t do the work. He is very intelligent.

The problem is that he doesn’t do the work.

So, being at the end of my rope and up to my eyeballs with frustration, I created a minor stink at the school around the time that the first progress report of the last nine weeks. It really frustrated me that it was his homework grade that was bringing down his overall grades. The teacher’s have websites that are updated sporadically and I had given every one of his teacher’s (as well as the teacher’s in 7th grade) my contact information if Jacob did not do what he was supposed to do for his classes. You can imagine how I felt when I discovered, through a phone call that I made to the school, that Jacob had 7 zero’s in nearly 3 weeks in one of his classes at school. All of these zero’s were homework grades.

I will spare you the details of how I dealt with the situation, but I did deal with it because I had had enough of this school allowing my child to fail. If my child was going to fail, it was not going to be because I allowed it to happen.

I decided that it was up to me to make sure that my child learned what he was supposed to and if that meant making a few teachers mad, then so be it. Honestly, I felt that if they were allowing my child to fail even though he was an honor roll student before arriving at this school, then they weren’t doing their job. My child’s education is more important to me than any teacher that is passively sitting by allowing him to fail.

My sister-in-law decided to help. She came over and helped him with his homework and study. I emailed teachers. I stayed in constant contact with the teachers. Since he didn’t want me to create any other problems at the school and he figured out that I was serious about getting him to do his work, then he started trying to bring his grades up.

My sister-in-law and Jacob created and agreed upon a contract containing goals. They were reasonable goals and Jacob signed the contract saying that he would do what was required of him to reach those goals.

And he did.

He brought home his report card yesterday. He passed every class. He was extremely proud of himself. I was proud of him. My sister-in-law was proud of him. He worked hard the last few weeks of the nine weeks and he discovered that hard work does pay. Jacob even told his father on the phone last night that for the first time since he started going to that school in the 7th grade, he was not grounded.

I have to make sure that he has enough incentive to keep doing well in school. Our family, along with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, will be going bowling soon. Jacob told my sister-in-law that he wanted go bowling if he reached the goals that they agreed upon.

Also, Josh and I decided to celebrate his success by taking the family out to eat at the restaurant of Jacob’s choosing. I am sure Jacob will choose a really nice steakhouse–and it will be worth every penny. 😉

Have a Blessed Day!

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You might not want to ignore the weird noise under the kitchen sink.

You don’t know how much you take your kitchen sink for granted until you can’t use it.

The other day I received a phone call from my husband. I didn’t get to the call in time so I had to call him right back.

The first thing he said when he answered the phone was that he couldn’t win from losing. This was not a good sign. I braced myself and asked “What’s wrong, now?” (Notice the ‘now’…there is always something wrong with the house.)

Jacob was washing dishes and noticed this strange sound every time he would turn on the water, but he didn’t try to figure out what the noise was because he just wanted to get the dishes done so he could go back and play his PlayStation 2. Josh walked through the kitchen and noticed the sound. My husband wasn’t as quick to dismiss the sound like Jacob, so he investigated to see where the noise was coming from. He opened the cabinet and the pipes under the sink was leaking.

It was about 4:15pm and the hardware store closes at 5pm so he had to go get the supplies to fix the sink. He gets back and fixes the sink.

Of course, it isn’t that simple.

There is another leak, but now it is after 5pm. So, he had to wait until the store opened up again.

Yesterday afternoon, he was able to fix the sink and now we are able to use the sink.

By the way, Jacob has been told that if he is doing anything and he hears a noise that is weird, not to ignore the noise.

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A few thoughts from my daughter…

The kids are on Spring Break. There is a lot of nothing going on in the house, except for some PlayStation playing, Internet surfing, and TV watching. For some reason, they believe that they are on vacation from chores when they are on Spring Break. They do what they are supposed to with a little bit lot of reminding from me, but I don’t complain too much. After all, they are kids and you are only a kid for a short while. Except for those people with brains that never catch up with their body.

Anyway…

Emily is really getting into the show, Jon and Kate Plus Eight. She tries to tell me about the show when I get home in the afternoon.

So far, I have gathered this from the show–from Emily’s opinions.

Jon is really easy going and does whatever Kate wants.

Kate yells a lot and has to have a lot of help because she has a hard time controlling all those kids.

There is always someone crying.

Kate is always tired.

Evidently, we could have our own show because it is just as chaotic in our house as it is in theirs even though we have only four kids and not eight.

I handle things better than Kate. (No offense Kate.)

Jon is calm and has Daddy and kid time while on some trip somewhere.

Evidently, Kate and a friend took the kids to some “chocolate place” and she is crazy, because Emily said that I would never dare take them anywhere like that. Apparently, I know better. (Again, no offense Kate.)

Kate would never make it working in a day care, because Emily said I watched more than eight kids with no problem.

Since, I have only heard bits and pieces of the show, I can’t really comment from experience but only on Emily’s perception of the show.

First of all, I think that if Kate is able to handle all eight children all day, every day, without going insane, then I think that she is doing great. Especially, since they are so young. My children are spread out and not even close to the same age, so I have to deal with 4 children that are all in different stages in their lives.

Second, I suspect that it is just easier for Jon to go with the flow than to argue. From what I gather though, he works hard and does all he can to support his family. Also, I think it is great that he tries to make time for every child. That doesn’t always happen even when a family only has a couple of children.

Third, I am glad that they decided to put their story on TV. It is great entertainment and I think that it helps Emily because she relates to the show–even though we only have four children. Being the only girl, Emily often feels like she is misunderstood and out of the loop. I do what I can to help her not feel that way and let her know that she is an important part of our family.

Finally, Emily said that she is glad that I am her mom. If watching the show allows her to appreciate the family she has, then I will gladly let her watch the show.  Besides, I like hearing Emily’s observations about their family.

Maybe one day I will get around to actually watching a full episode.

Have a Blessed Day!

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I must be doing something right.

I use charts, lists, and a huge calendar to keep my family organized–or at least try to, anyway. I felt like it was a losing battle. I have to constantly remind my kids to check their lists. I have to remind them to actually do the stuff on their list. I don’t always get to everything on my list because life gets in the way. Life has a funny way of doing that sometimes. 

My mother (who is my biggest critic) came over Friday morning. She commented on how clean my house was and asked if I had spent the night before cleaning. I told her that I had not and I looked around my kitchen. I realized that my house was clean. It was clean without me having to spend hours cleaning.

All this time that I thought I was fighting a losing battle, I had actually won it.

Sometimes, it just takes stepping back and seeing your situation through the eyes of others to see the real picture. I am sure this applies to more than just my clean house. Thanks Mom!

Have a Blessed Day!

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