So very sleepy! I'm debating whether to make a cup of coffee. I usually only have one per day because I get nasty headaches when I tweak my caffeine intake, but I didn't get to finish my cup from this morning, and, as I said already, I'm really tired!
I have spent today going through my closet. My shelf was in complete disarray. Now I have organized my sweaters and sweatshirts and I've removed the collection of bathing suits that had somehow found their way into my closet--not just my bathing suits, but every member of the family had a bathing suit up there. Now I just have to move all of the children's clothing from the guest room so my mom will have a place to sleep when she arrives on Thursday...I know I should be grateful that we get so many hand-me-downs, but it is insane! And changing seasons makes me crazy--it's never a smooth process. I have plastic garbage bags to put all the clothes in--the categories go something like this: clothes to hand down to cousin Casey; clothes to hand down to cousin Sarah; clothes to hold onto for two years for Caitlin; clothes that might fit next summer; clothes that are stained beyond belief; clothes that never got worn.
And as if I'm not having enough fun with clothes, I could probably stand to run a load of laundry while I'm at it! I'm going to make some coffee before we have to get Caroline.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Pumpkin fun
It finally feels like fall, and we went over to New Jersey for our annual pumpkin picking on Saturday. It was a beautiful day--clear and breezy. The kids had fun, and we came home with three pumpkins.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
I'm still here
But we've been having computer problems, so posting hasn't been a priority lately! We're going pumpkin picking this weekend, and the weather is supposed to be beautiful, so I should have some good pictures to put up next week. I've taken a couple great ones of Bobby at the pumpkin patch over the years, as you can see above.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Friday, October 5, 2007
And breathe...
So it's Friday, and Caitlin is home from school. She threw up right as I'm trying to get them dressed and out the door. No school for you! (imagine the Soup Nazi voice here) And no gym for me. Guess I'll get my sweat on another day. Oh, well, I'm sure there's some laundry I could be doing right about now.
I'm still worn out from yesterday--I know it's not a full moon, but everyone was in rare form. I felt like I spent most of the afternoon yelling. And yelling at children only makes them yell at each other (and sometimes back at me). It's a bad cycle to get into, and it's hard as hell to break once I'm into it. I hate days like that--I just need to go cool off in another room, but I know that if I leave the room, I'll just come back to an even bigger mess, or the kids will be jumping off the table or something crazy. I can see now that maybe a divide and conquer strategy would probably be helpful--see how just a night of sleep can help? Just a little bit of distance from the madness is helpful. I really don't want to be a yelling mom. I often wish I could re-wire myself to be more laid back.
So, Caroline's first Brownie troop meeting of the year is tonight. That should be fun for her, I hope. You never can tell--last year she loved taking dance, and this year, she's complained every week. And she's really good at it. That's the thing that kills me. I'm working with the dance teacher to build up her confidence. One of the things Caroline dislikes is that she feels like she's the youngest one in her class, which isn't true. There are a couple of other seven year olds, but there are some ten year olds, too, and they're about a full head taller than her. But the teacher thought she was ready to move up a level, so there you have it.
I'm still worn out from yesterday--I know it's not a full moon, but everyone was in rare form. I felt like I spent most of the afternoon yelling. And yelling at children only makes them yell at each other (and sometimes back at me). It's a bad cycle to get into, and it's hard as hell to break once I'm into it. I hate days like that--I just need to go cool off in another room, but I know that if I leave the room, I'll just come back to an even bigger mess, or the kids will be jumping off the table or something crazy. I can see now that maybe a divide and conquer strategy would probably be helpful--see how just a night of sleep can help? Just a little bit of distance from the madness is helpful. I really don't want to be a yelling mom. I often wish I could re-wire myself to be more laid back.
So, Caroline's first Brownie troop meeting of the year is tonight. That should be fun for her, I hope. You never can tell--last year she loved taking dance, and this year, she's complained every week. And she's really good at it. That's the thing that kills me. I'm working with the dance teacher to build up her confidence. One of the things Caroline dislikes is that she feels like she's the youngest one in her class, which isn't true. There are a couple of other seven year olds, but there are some ten year olds, too, and they're about a full head taller than her. But the teacher thought she was ready to move up a level, so there you have it.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Here's one to think about
Today I skipped yoga because I decided I could better achieve inner peace by attending to some tasks that I've been putting off. One of these tasks was to sew some patches onto Caroline's Brownie vest. The sewing machine lives in the basement, and I have to bring it upstairs to use it, the cord runs across the kitchen floor, you get the picture, right? Not a fun thing to do with three kids around. Anyway, I was sewing (or trying to--my brown thread ran out) and it got me to thinking about the only known picture of me in my Brownie uniform. I remember exactly what it looks like--it was taken the day I officially became a Brownie. I was in second grade, I even had on the lovely beanie. The kitchen wallpaper in the background was an awesome late-seventies orange and yellow pattern. The thing is, I know I have this picture somewhere. I am certain that I took it from my parents at some point.
Cut to me in the basement going through a rubbermaid box of almost every picture, card and letter I ever received in my life. And no, I didn't find the picture. Damn, I keep a lot of stuff! I mean, there were some treasures in there--ribbons from my swim team days and the first letter my brother ever wrote me while I was at Girl Scout camp in 1979. That letter is so old I'm afraid it will fall apart if I try to open it, but I remember thinking even back then that it was so sweet. But about 80% of the box was cards and letters. And here is where my sentimental, scrapbooking side does battle with my pragmatic, recycle-or-die side. Do I really need to keep every high school graduation card I ever received? Do I need to keep any of them? If I keep them (and every Christmas card, every birthday card, every "Congrats on yet another baby" card), won't they eventually get tossed when I'm old and gray? Or dead, for that matter? (hopefully I'll have reached old and gray by then)
When my grandfather passed away, we spent what seemed like hours going through memorabilia of his (granted, he was a college basketball coach, so his stuff was cooler and of slight historical value). And then I think we tossed a great deal of it. Do I want to burden my children and grandchildren with having to go through all this stuff? Maybe they'll just take one look and dump it all.
I'm leaning toward tossing out much of it and maybe scrapbooking a few items. That way, I can indulge my need to organize and still recycle! It's win-win (-win, for you Office fans out there).
Cut to me in the basement going through a rubbermaid box of almost every picture, card and letter I ever received in my life. And no, I didn't find the picture. Damn, I keep a lot of stuff! I mean, there were some treasures in there--ribbons from my swim team days and the first letter my brother ever wrote me while I was at Girl Scout camp in 1979. That letter is so old I'm afraid it will fall apart if I try to open it, but I remember thinking even back then that it was so sweet. But about 80% of the box was cards and letters. And here is where my sentimental, scrapbooking side does battle with my pragmatic, recycle-or-die side. Do I really need to keep every high school graduation card I ever received? Do I need to keep any of them? If I keep them (and every Christmas card, every birthday card, every "Congrats on yet another baby" card), won't they eventually get tossed when I'm old and gray? Or dead, for that matter? (hopefully I'll have reached old and gray by then)
When my grandfather passed away, we spent what seemed like hours going through memorabilia of his (granted, he was a college basketball coach, so his stuff was cooler and of slight historical value). And then I think we tossed a great deal of it. Do I want to burden my children and grandchildren with having to go through all this stuff? Maybe they'll just take one look and dump it all.
I'm leaning toward tossing out much of it and maybe scrapbooking a few items. That way, I can indulge my need to organize and still recycle! It's win-win (-win, for you Office fans out there).
Monday, October 1, 2007
Trying to get into a groove
Sometimes it just sucks to be the first-born. I mean, for a little while (21 months in Caroline's case), Caroline was our only baby, and we hovered over and photographed and scrapbooked every second of it. Temperature at 98.8? Call the doctor! No bowel movement in 24 hours? Call the doctor! First time smiling, sitting up, crawling, standing up in her crib? Alert the media!
But once the siblings arrived, get in line. Granted, Caroline still gets to hit the milestones first--first day of preschool, first ride on the schoolbus, first lost tooth, etc. But now she's in second grade, and that's great, but it's not really newsworthy. It's more of the same. And then there's Caitlin, who has just started kindergarten--that's a big deal. It's different and exciting for her. And Caitlin has started reading all by herself--another very big deal. Of course, being the only boy is a big attention-getter for Bobby. I feel like Caroline is getting lost in the shuffle a little bit. And as all kids know, if you want attention, act really bad! It's a surefire way to get Mommy's attention!
I guess I need to carve out more time just for her--not easy to do, because there's never a time when it's just the two of us. We always have siblings in tow. Also I need to use more positive reinforcement. She's doing well and has been doing well for a while, so it's easy to forget that praise and encouragement are welcome and useful.
Since Caroline missed two days of school last week, she is behind in her school work. The teacher sent most of it home over the weekend, but we didn't get it finished. And then today, she came home with three more pages to make up! This is ridiculous! I'm not going to chain her to the table and force her to complete it all in one day. She did a couple of make-up assignments in addition to her new homework today. Maybe by Thursday she'll be all caught up. It's tough at homework time--the little ones always decide they need me just when I'm trying to work with her. It's frustrating. Deep breaths!
But once the siblings arrived, get in line. Granted, Caroline still gets to hit the milestones first--first day of preschool, first ride on the schoolbus, first lost tooth, etc. But now she's in second grade, and that's great, but it's not really newsworthy. It's more of the same. And then there's Caitlin, who has just started kindergarten--that's a big deal. It's different and exciting for her. And Caitlin has started reading all by herself--another very big deal. Of course, being the only boy is a big attention-getter for Bobby. I feel like Caroline is getting lost in the shuffle a little bit. And as all kids know, if you want attention, act really bad! It's a surefire way to get Mommy's attention!
I guess I need to carve out more time just for her--not easy to do, because there's never a time when it's just the two of us. We always have siblings in tow. Also I need to use more positive reinforcement. She's doing well and has been doing well for a while, so it's easy to forget that praise and encouragement are welcome and useful.
Since Caroline missed two days of school last week, she is behind in her school work. The teacher sent most of it home over the weekend, but we didn't get it finished. And then today, she came home with three more pages to make up! This is ridiculous! I'm not going to chain her to the table and force her to complete it all in one day. She did a couple of make-up assignments in addition to her new homework today. Maybe by Thursday she'll be all caught up. It's tough at homework time--the little ones always decide they need me just when I'm trying to work with her. It's frustrating. Deep breaths!
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