Date Night 10/14/2011

Oh date nights. I love date nights with the Hubby! We have family date nights where we go out and do something fun together as a whole family. We also have date nights where Hubby and I join friends and do something with them, and we also have date nights where it is just Hubby and myself.

Friday night was a date night with friends. You see, one of my oldest and dearest friends recently moved an hour or so away from our hometown. She and her hubby still own their house here in our town and they travel back on the weekends that they don't have to work to fix up the house and try to get it readied for selling. Most weekends when they are back, they are so busy working at the house that we don't get a chance to connect and spend time together. That makes me sad. I love this couple and their children like family.

So this past week when my girlfriend told me that they would be in town on Friday night and would be able to get together, I jumped at the chance. Hubby and I arranged for childcare and when I got off of work, I went home and helped get kids settled for the night, got changed and ready to go out, then we went and picked them up from their hotel.

The four of us proceeded to the bar where her uncle's girlfriend was celebrating her birthday. I have met the uncle's girlfriend once or twice before and we have gotten along. And now, that I'm an adult, the uncle and I get along too. He was always a scary presence to me when were kids - but that really went for all of my girlfriend's adult family members. That's another story entirely though.

So we got to the bar and it was actually fairly busy. Girlfriend and her hubby as well as her uncle and his girlfriend appeared to be regulars there because it seemed like they were talking to and knew everyone there. By the time the night was over, I pretty much did too. It's a small bar.


They were having a karaoke night. I haven't sang karaoke in seven years and that wasn't about to change, so we sat around talking and drinking (some had soda, some had mixed drinks, some had beer. I was in the last category myself) and just having a nice time. It was nice.

Girlfriend likes to dance - line dance in particular. I'm not very good at it myself though. We have gone to a lesson together before but then she decided that she didn't want to do that after the first one so we never went back. However, her uncle is a pretty smooth dancer and she learned quite a bit from him when it came to line dancing. She then decided that this was the night for me to learn to do it too.

She dragged me out on the floor for the electric slide, which I tried and I kinda sorta maybe have most of the idea of the steps down, but I would need to do it a few more times before I felt like I really had it. Then later on, she dragged me out on the floor again for a cha cha slide, where the music apparently tells you what you are going to do next, but it still was like a foreign language to me. I will get it eventually though!

Later in the evening, the uncle grabbed me and we two-stepped on the dance floor. At least, I think that's what it was. He is a very smooth and powerful dancer and the fact that I don't know how to dance didn't make a bit of a difference when I was dancing with him because he knew what he was doing and he is a strong lead. He just pushed me into the next step or wherever it was we were supposed to go. It was amazing.

It also sparked a conversation between Hubby and I about the possibility of taking lessons together. There's a place here in our town where they offer free lessons and that is where girlfriend and I went before she decided that she wasn't going to do that afterall. I would love to go there and take lessons with my Hubby and be able to dance smoothly with him. I had such a great time. Hubby had a good time, although he didn't dance at all. We talked about it afterwards and he said that he doesn't enjoy dancing because he doesn't know how to do it. That's how we came to the conclusion to look into the classes.

I cannot wait for when we start the classes! I think it will be an absolute blast! I hope Hubby enjoys it as well. If not, well, we tried. We still have PLENTY of other activities that we enjoy doing together, as well as many that we enjoy doing separately. I find it healthy and beneficial for each of us to have our own interests and friends as well as to have joint ones. So, if the dancing ends up being something that he really does not enjoy, it will work out just fine regardless. I ♥ my Hubby so!

And I loved the fact that we were able to just spend some time sitting around the table, talking with friends and enjoying the music. Good music, good friends, good times.

Columbus Day

Columbus Day was an extremely busy day for me! I got the kids up in the morning and ready for school then proceeded to get myself ready for the day and over to the school half an hour later to volunteer in Oralee's classroom.

I love working in the classroom! I would love to be a teacher but that is one education that takes more time and resources than I have available to give to it unfortunately. So instead, I choose to volunteer. Oralee is a kindergartener. I volunteered in Cephas' class with he was in Kindergarten, as well as in Koren's class at that grade as well.

I was assigned to the Art table. I had two kids at a time come up to the table as assigned and they would work on identifying the pictures, determining which ones started with the same letter sound as their letter of the week ("M") and then they would cut the pictures out as well as arms and legs for a monster book they are working on and then they would glue the pictures inside the monster book. After they had done that, they could color the pictures. They had twenty minutes to do this.

Let me preface this by stating one thing: Kindergarteners are not all equal in their scissor skills. Very few kids got everything cut out that needed to be in order to glue it in their books, fewer yet got all their pictures glued into their book and not one of them had time to color the pictures.

It may just be me and the era I was raised in but it seems to me that the upper grades (3rd-5th) in grade school are not much different in the material taught than it was when I was in those grades. However, the younger (and more specifically, the youngest!) grades seem so focused and driven. I'm not quite sure what to make of it all.

I mean, when I was five, I went to Kindergarten. My teacher's name was Ms. Schnott. (yes, "shhh-not"). I hated her with a passion. Our basic day was to get to the classroom for our half-day of learning. We would sit on the rug, do our calendar time, say the Pledge of Allegiance and have books read to us and we would do little papers and get into the routine of a school day. We had recess and nap time.

Now, Kindergarten is full-day. There is no nap time, however, there are two recess periods I believe. It is very academic. Instead of children learning their letters and numbers and colors and shapes and the things that we were learning at this age, they are doing that as well as learning to read and add and subtract and do many many different activities. It is just so...busy, I suppose.

I don't know, I guess that is actually the kind of environment I was craving when I was five. (I started school reading, writing and doing math on a 1st/2nd grade level) However, with that being said, I really enjoy being a part of the classroom. With the requirements that our state and local governments put on our educational professionals, on top of the ones that our national government puts on them, I am glad to be able to help out and to help assist the teacher and the students both. The teacher needs additional adults to be sure that each child is learning to their full potential and the kids need that guidance time. And for me, it is additional time that I get to see at least one of my kiddos! That is one thing that always warms my heart and I am grateful for that!

Here's to another wonderful, fun, exciting Kindergarten year!

Crafting Update and Other News

Otherwise known as a FAIL. Well, it is not FAIL exactly, as it is just incomplete. I did find the fabric that originally prompted me to buy the hoop, but I haven't gotten it put together and hung up. I did get ONE of the TWELVE panels completely finished and have three more in various states of progress. It's going fairly well. It just was not a priority this week.

This past week I feel like my feet have hardly touched the ground, I've been so busy. Between work and the kids' school and volunteering there and trying to get things done around the house and the music lessons and practices that need to get done, as well as house-sitting for my inlaws and then spending time with a friend who was in town for the weekend with some time to spend on me, well...yeah, crafting took a back seat.

This past Monday (Columbus Day) I volunteered at the kids' school. I was in Oralee's class working at the Art station with groups of children that changed about every 20 minutes. That may seem like a fair amount of time to work on an art project that correlates to their letter of the week (this past week was "M" - Mimi Mouse style) but really, it's a tight squeeze and some kids weren't able to get their projects cut out, glued and colored in the allotted time frame.

Monday night was music lessons. The boys did a fantastic job at their lessons! Cephas has a bow test, which I'm not completely sure that I personally understand, but he did well with it. And Koren's teacher told me that he has a real ear for music and rhythm. I find that to be true with all four of my children. They are all musical by nature. And I love that about them!

Wednesday night, we went to Hubby's work for dinner and enjoyed a nice time there as a family before heading home and getting the kids ready for bed. We so look forward to Wednesday nights! Especially now that I have that night off from work!

On Friday night, Hubby and I went out with a couple that we are friends with. Yes, my Hubby and I have been married for nearly 11 years and we stilll date. It was a great time! I think I had a better time than Hubby did though. I knew the people there better and I really enjoy dancing, although I am not very good at it.

Over this past weekend, we just spent time as a family getting chores and other miscellaneous things done around the house. I love having a clean, organized, clutter-free home. However, it does not often stay that way during the week. At all. Hopefully, by having a random day off in the middle of the week, it will help me to combat that issue.

But that is all for now. I will be working on some more detailed posts about some of the things I have written about and will hyper link them for your viewing convenience!

Crafting and Redecorating

We have recently decided to do our boys' room in an all-out sports theme. They have sports-themed comforters for their beds but I want to do the whole room in a sports theme. At the beginning of October, we had a birthday party for which I made some beanbags for a game that we played. I used sports fabric to make the bean bags and I bought more than I needed for the bean bags so I had some left over.

Today, I decided to go to a craft store to pick up an embroidery hoop to put the extra fabric on and use it as a simple yet cute wall hanging. But then, in the same aisle as the hoops were printed cross stitch patterns. I love those things! I also like counted cross stitch but at this point in my life, the less I have to keep track of, the better. And of course, they had some with a sports theme. There were 12 panels in the package, which you then embroider by hand and then sew together with other fabrics to make a quilt, right? Yeah, I had to get it. I mean, seriously, there are so many options. I can do up all 12 panels and use four apiece for each of the boys and use LOTS of sports theme fabrics. I can buy two more sets of them and make the quilt as directed. I can make throw pillows out of them for the boys' beds, I can create more wall art for them, the possibilities are just astounding to me! I cannot wait to get these twelve panels all finished up so that I can decide what to do with them!!!

I also got a set of 12 butterfly panels for Oralee's room. Since she is the only one in her room and her room is on the smaller side (and currently decorated in fairies and princesses) I have time to work on her panels. No big rush on hers. I'd like to get some more wall stickers from the dollar store for her room though. I saw that they have long blades of grass and flowers that I think would be absolutely adorable around the bottom half of her room. We could move the fairies down so that they could hide in the grass too, with the princesses and other stickers above them. I have great visions, I tell ya!

I am so enjoying the hand embroidery though! It is so relaxing! I learned how to do the stamped cross stitch when I was six. My grandmother taught me. I remember spending many nights at her house, working on embroidery squares while watching television with her. A lot of my handiwork, I learned from her actually. She taught me to sew on a machine (I'm still not good at it!), sew by hand (THAT I can handle - pun intended), embroider, crochet...the list goes on. She was talented, no doubt about it.

My goal for this week (in addition to my normal daily stuff that I won't bore you with - at least, not at this point) is to finish the panels for the boys' room. Maybe this time next week, I will have even decided what to do with them and can share some pictures of finished items with you. That would be fun!

I had to share that with you real quick but I'm off to finish up some basketballs on quilt blocks. Talk to you soon!

Cephas' new "job"

The other day while cruising craigslist (remember in my last post about there being time for anything we choose to do?) I came across an ad for a leaf raking job near my work. I mentioned it to Cephas and we discussed it. We went over the details of the job, how to conduct an initial phone conversation, what to say as well as what NOT to say and after rehearsing a few times, Cephas called the phone number listed.

He was sitting on my bed, with my cell on speakerphone between us. He got a voicemail and we VERY quickly went through the details of what to say when leaving a message. Basically the same as the beginning of his conversation that we had already rehearsed with a few extra details thrown in (like our phone number).

Later that evening, the person called us back. I answered the phone and then called to Cephas to come over and talk to the client. I don't know what else to call him so that is what he will be called from this point forward. We had the client on speakerphone again, with the phone between us as they discussed further details about the lawn job and made arrangements for the work to be done. After they were done talking, Cephas and I looked up the house address on Google Maps and the county assessor's website so that we would have an idea of what the house looked like, how big the yard was and to get an idea of what to expect.

This was all done on a Thursday. On the following Saturday, Cephas, siblings and I showed up to meet the client in person and for Cephas to get started. I let Cephas do most of the talking, as he was the worker and I wanted him to learn valuable interpersonal skills by doing so. I was not comfortable just dropping him off and leaving but wanted him to have the freedom and independence to get the job done (and to reduce his distractions with getting the job done by removing his siblings from his work), so the siblings and I "left" but stayed in the same area and let him get to work. We drove back to his location a few times here and there to "check" on him and make sure that everything was going well, which it was. Towards the end, I helped him out (against his wishes) because I could see that he was feeling like he was never going to get it all done. In his defense, it was a windy day, the leaves have just started falling and they were continuing to fall and blow onto the yard, which also had LONG grass that he was working against as well. Even I had trouble getting the yard raked.

Koren and Oralee got involved in the work as well. Koren was a great help at bagging the leaves and Oralee was the perfect size to put into the bag to crush the leaves so that we could get more leaves into the bag. Jeriah slept in his carseat in the van (with an open sliding door and windows on a breezy 75* day) just a few feet from where we were.

By the end of his day, Cephas had earned $20.00, I learned a few things, he learned a few things and developed some great interpersonal skills. He also learned how to create more business for himself. When he was talking to the client at the end, he told the client, "I got the job done but your grass is really long. If you'd like, I can come back tomorrow or Monday and mow it for you." Not bad entreprenuership skills for a ten year old!

And the things that I learned? One was about a product that I had never seen before but which I am now well familiar with. It's basically a cardboard box with no bottom and handles on the top that is the same size and shape of a lawn leaf bag. You put it in the bag and it keeps the bag open and upright and makes it much easier to load leaves into the bag. The second thing was that my children really can pull together and work well together for the benefit of just one of them. They all benefited from Cephas' job being done and being able to leave the area and get along with our plans for the rest of the day, but Cephas also benefited from having help to get the job done, earned money AND valuable experience.

All in all, I'd say it was a pretty good deal! And the client wants Cephas to come back. I figure with some of the skills he learned today, he will be well ready to get the job done next weekend and the weekend after that and the weekend after that...so on and so forth until the leaves stop falling. Based on the number of trees and the different types of trees which drop their leaves at different times that are near the client's home, it could be quite awhile.

Schedules

Right now, schedules around our house are a nightmare. Between Hubby and I, we work every day of the week. The one great thing about this is that we rarely overlap. The problem that we are running into with schedules though, is trying to balance the kids' activities with their responsibilities. It is a hard task. Whoever said parenting was easy obviously was not a parent.

I try to have the kids' clothes picked out the night before. They are free to choose something different to wear if they want but at least this way, there is a full set of clean clothes ready for them to put on and start their day. I also try to have them put their homework in their backpacks and to have their backpacks hung up and their shoes and jackets near their backpacks as well so that when it is time to go they can just head out the door. Super easy! The problem with this happens on Wednesday and Friday mornings. You see, I work on Tuesdays and Thursdays and don't get home until really late. I'm not around those days after school to make sure they get their homework done and to do all of those things that I normally do with or for them the nights that I am home. On the other hand, I guess, it is only two days a week and maybe I just need to plan better for those things and make sure that the kids get up early enough on Wednesdays and Fridays to allow them time to do the things that they are supposed to do after school. I don't know. It's all a work in progress.

Right now, I am printing off some materials from one of my favorite sites (EVER!) called Donna Young. It is just an invaluable resource if you are a homemaker OR a homeschooler OR a mom just trying to get herself together. I'm a little of all three. I'm definitely the homemaker (even though I work more hours than Hubby does outside of our home), and we tend to be something called "Afterschoolers" (read "The Well-Trained Mind" if you have never heard of an afterschooler) and yup, I'm also a mama, just trying to make sure everything runs smoothly for everybody.

We have so many things going on, I just wish I could cancel some of them out. But in reality, I know that the things that we have going on for the kids are good for them and that they enjoy their activities and they grow from them. Webelos meetings, Wolf meetings, Pack meetings, popcorn sales, Daisy meetings, nut and candy sales, piano lessons, violin lessons, church youth group, Cephas' various jobs...all are worthwhile and enhance our children - and us.

So I try to remember that on the days that I have off from work and am running from school pick up to product sales to music lessons to daisy meeting and feel like I have nothing to show for my day. In reality, I have the entire day that they are at school to get things done that *I* need to get done on my day off. After school time should be about them and family and doing things that enrich us. So if you see me whining about how much I didn't get done, remind me that there is always time for anything that we choose to do. And in the meantime, I'll be working harder and smarter to make sure that I am getting the most use of my time as well! Thanks everyone!

Beginnings

Here we are the start of a new blog. I have decided to start a brand-new, fresh blog for the purpose of keeping my family's information more private than before. Not that there was a huge concern about the amount that I shared on my old blog, but I just want to make sure that this one is totally safe for the kids' well-being.

Let me share a little bit about myself. For starters, I am a wife. My husband and I have been married for nearly eleven years now. We have been blessed with four children. Our oldest, *Cephas, is ten and a fifth grader. He plays the violin and the piano and is a Webelo in Cub Scouts. He loves sports and being active but also loves playing video games and vegging out in front of the television for a cartoon.

Our next oldest, *Koren, is also a boy, is eight and a second grader. He plays the piano and wants to learn to play the violin. He also takes part in Cub Scouts as a Wolf Cub. He actually has just recently earned his Bobcat badge and will be awarded with it in two weeks at the Den meeting. He is so excited! Much like his older brother, he loves sports and being active but is also willing to chill on the sofa and watch television or play a video game.

The third child in our family, *Oralee, is our only girl. She is five years old, in kindergarten and is generally a delight to be around. She loves all things girly, like pink and purple and shopping and fashion. She is into music but does not take any music lessons yet. She loves to dance and play and sing. We plan to enroll her in dance lessons at some point soon but for now, she keeps plenty busy with Girl Scouts as a Daisy.

Our baby boy, *Jeriah, is four. He is on the spectrum for an Autism Disorder. He attends a half day preschool class and has an Individualized Educational Plan to help him overcome or deal with some of the nuances of his disorder. He is an incredible child. Just like his older siblings, he also enjoys music and activity. He can memorize songs and melodies quickly as well as song lyrics. He doesn't have any extra activities like the older children do but that is okay with us. He will have his own activities soon enough.

My husband is a cook for a restaurant. He loves his job as cooking is one of his passions. He is also a fabulous father and husband in general. Oh sure, we have our moments (who doesn't?!) but overall, he is the best!

I am a health care professional. At work, I take care of people and also handle all the day-to-day tasks of organizing and running our workplace. It's a lot of work and there are many times that I end up taking work home with me as well. Lately, it has improved at work and I don't bring home work very often at all anymore.

I am a leader in my daughter's Girl Scout troop which is a perfect fit for me because I love kids and teaching. To be honest, if I didn't have to work outside of the home to make ends meet here, I would stay home and homeschool all four of our children. But that's another story, another situation, another post for another time.

I just wanted to introduce my family to you. We're happy to have you here!

(You may have noticed the * by the childrens' names. I used a random name generator online to find unusual names for my children for the protection of their identity. All the names I chose are of a Hebrew origin and are all rather fun names, in my opinion.)