I am back! It has taken us a long krazy time to finally get internet in this new home! No more tiny internet screens on my phone! Its so exciting! At least I think so! but I am sometimes a little nerdy like that, like last night my excitement to hurry and write in my journal because we bought new pens!!! It was fantastic!
I know I have written about it some on my facebook but a day like Monday needs to be intensely documented somewhere if for no other reason than to remind myself of them on very hard days.
I went to bed sunday night with no real concrete plan for mondays holiday other than maybe try and get the house clean. the kids let us sleep in until 7:57! Even with all that sleep though I dont really remember much about breakfast time other than we had it. while in the peaceful confines of my bathroom I from my phone wrote the FB post " I have a dream that someday my house will be clean! I hope today is that day!" Some cleaning began but I dreaded asking the kids to help or picking the tasks. So I procrastinated that part and cleaned here a little there a little.
I was later taking a break on the couch with my facebook when I saw someone comment that even though it made them chuckle it might have made light of the famous speech. Since that was far from what I meant to do I decided to change it. I searched all Martin Luther King jr. speeches watched some youtubes of them and put up a quote I liked to hopefully redeem myself. And then I gathered the kids around me to watch some of the videos of his speech. Yes I cried a little! I dont know how people couldnt! the way He spoke is so powerful and moving! his emphasis on certain words would give me chills! We had several breaks to explain what he was talking about. Eva would give her input of the things she learned in her class at school. "like if our water fountin wasnt broken, back then if jaron and I wanted to drink water there would have been one for him and one for me not the same one!" All questions were answered everyone seemed to understand the purpose of the day. So they all went outside to play.
Now lately I have had several different discussions on mothers versus dads in the home. One friend and I chuckled that yes if you just wanted your kids to stay alive (for the most part) dads could stay at home (totally joking we know there are some amazing stay at home dads). But its experiences like this one here that make me wonder how my kids would be if our parenting responsibilities were reversed. My husband is outside with the kids for a long time. I look out the window and notice my son has no shoes on. My husband has a winter coat on. When I go outside I say to him "honey its cold out here!" his reply is "its freezing!". I point out the problem and fix them myself after he continues to rake up the leaves. Any who the kids play outside for a while and thats when it hits me. My inspiration! I got out some paper and markers and wrote a chore list for each child. complete with pictures and arrows indicating where the pictures of toys should go etc. I made a list without pictures for my 6 year old and for my husband and myself. I called them in with their red frozen hands and explained what I had done. My 2 year old boy with shining eyes and tongue hanging over the edge of a forming grin looked over my list I had made for him and then said with a shout "yeah!!!"
As the cleaning got under way It was one of those moments when you think "I can do this! I can be a good mother! look at my family! oh wow! this is great We are al working together! And not hurting each other!" but at the same time you are thinking it all very cautiosly because at any moment it could all crash and be over. at any moment I just knew my 4 year old girl was going to fall into her normal, when asked to clean, routine wich starts with lots of " I am tired! my arms hurt! I cant do this!" and ends with a lot of threatening and frustration from me. But it never happened! Everyone loved being able to clean! Instead the four year old was very excited to spray the windex and wash the windows! the 2 year old loved scrubbing the toilet- with permission (and supervision) this time! And the 6 year old (who loved being able to read her own list by the way) had fun pretending she was cinderella while washing the kitchen floor.
We all had fun and were so HAPPY! And what I have always noticed began to happen again. the fruit of something good is always more good! 4 year old knocked over 6 year olds pile of laundry she was folding and I took a deep breath ready for the yells that I would have to silence but instead I heard an "oh! sorry! It was an accident!" and then an "Its ok! I can fix it!" My ready for combat came out in a big whoosh and that whoosh gave way to a "warm fuzzy" inside and that warm fuzzy gave way to a tear of joy! there wasnt a single argument all day!I surprised them with a peice of candy we all enjoyed after reviewing our checked and x'd or crossed off lists. the kids picked out and all agreed on a national geographic documentary about dogs and watched it while josh and I finished up the cleaning. dinner went uneventfully great! There was a wonderful Family home evening lesson on "thou shall not steal" (since the 6 year old is having a hard time learning you cant take things from grammy's house) the four year old chose pancakes for treat. bath and bedtime went smoothly and beautifully!
It was an amazing day! one to remember! Especially since the days following have been difficult and the house is messy again but just like most things if not all things in parenting its not about the house getting clean its about the getting it clean that happened. My favorite young woman leader from my youth gave me a quote "Cleaning the house when the kids are growing is like shovelling snow while it's still snowing." I love it! I know it! but the lessons are not learned in the house being clean the lessons are learned in the getting it there! I know she is right when she said my kids will not remember the mess but they will remember the fun times we had together.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Thursday, September 29, 2011
The Potty
I just realized We are moving and will not have any internet for ..I dont know actually could be a while. Ok I have known for a whole monthe that we would be moving but I forgot about all the change the electricity and gas and water and internet and stuff. Hence another not sunday writing. which by the way our last sunday went surprisingly well!!! pretty terrific to be honest! Josh texted with an I told you so aout 10 mintues after 4, well it technically said he wasnt done yet and didnt think we should go but I knew what he meant. I was about to get a little upset and tell him we have spent the past hour getting a salad together and keeping these kids clean (caleb had changed clothes twice just sinc being home) we are going to go somewhere so my efforts can be appreciated. instead olivia asked to talk to daddy and said "Daddy, I want to meet your teacher." It worked so well I might have to use that one again. We were the only people there with small children and never have my efforts been so noted and appreciated. there is something to be said about taking young children to a dinner party where everyone is drinking- it dosnt matter what your kids do or how they act everyone seems to love it and even circle around the kids like they were the entertainment.
My topic of discussion tonight is one I love to talk about and will probally have several other posts talking about the many other dynamics of The Potty. First of all I will give a note of advice to all those without children: Never in all your criticizing you do and will do (dont worry we all did) of other parents you see ever say the words "well I will never do that" I can guarantee you those are the things that most definately you will do. One of those many promises I made to myself like that was that I would never use the term "potty". ewww! it sounds so gross! But then you start to teach your first child how to use the bathroom and the term is potty training. I still tried to say "do you need to go to the bathroom?" but you dont just ask that several times a day you ask it several repititions in the same minute to make sure they heard you and then again to see if the answer is different well again cause they might change their mind and now that they have been thinking about it they might actually have to go ok now I am going to add the words lets try in the sentence maybe I can convince them to just try and go, I will say it one more time and remind them about the last time and how it felt icky and how they have to change out of their favorite tutu and how upset I was with the wet icky carpet. Ok now that I am convinced they dont need to go I am going to remind them what they should do if they feel the need to go and who they should come get and what they should say...and There!- in one minute you are so dang tired of say "go to the bathroom" that many times! it is possibly the shortest habit breaking event in history after one minute you are now saying the word potty.
So my kids are doing pretty good about the potty use but my question today is when do they learn to flush it? I know it was a part of the ritual when I trained them but I still never know what I am going to find when I walk in. It has had to become a must to check in there whenever a guest asks to use the bathroom. Is this normal? I hope my remember to do it at school! So the two year old little boy who seems to be perfectly content in his method of potty going in his diego pullups which he frequently does while singing the diego theme song. He has now taken it upon himself as the flusher and thinks that this is his only business in the bathroom. I will even see him sometimes using the plunger in there and then when he sees me will say "its stuck" or occassionaly he will be cleaning it out with the scrubber. I just hope and pray I have not missed any of these moments so as to clean up appropriately. And I am glad the bottles of soap say kills 99% of germs even if theyre lying it makes me feel better just to see that and feel a little safer when I feed him a PBandJ after wards. So as long as the bottles keep saying 99% I guess I will continue to let him be plunger boy and flusher kid! and I hope someday he will learn more of what the potty is all about cause this diego business needs to be flushed!
My topic of discussion tonight is one I love to talk about and will probally have several other posts talking about the many other dynamics of The Potty. First of all I will give a note of advice to all those without children: Never in all your criticizing you do and will do (dont worry we all did) of other parents you see ever say the words "well I will never do that" I can guarantee you those are the things that most definately you will do. One of those many promises I made to myself like that was that I would never use the term "potty". ewww! it sounds so gross! But then you start to teach your first child how to use the bathroom and the term is potty training. I still tried to say "do you need to go to the bathroom?" but you dont just ask that several times a day you ask it several repititions in the same minute to make sure they heard you and then again to see if the answer is different well again cause they might change their mind and now that they have been thinking about it they might actually have to go ok now I am going to add the words lets try in the sentence maybe I can convince them to just try and go, I will say it one more time and remind them about the last time and how it felt icky and how they have to change out of their favorite tutu and how upset I was with the wet icky carpet. Ok now that I am convinced they dont need to go I am going to remind them what they should do if they feel the need to go and who they should come get and what they should say...and There!- in one minute you are so dang tired of say "go to the bathroom" that many times! it is possibly the shortest habit breaking event in history after one minute you are now saying the word potty.
So my kids are doing pretty good about the potty use but my question today is when do they learn to flush it? I know it was a part of the ritual when I trained them but I still never know what I am going to find when I walk in. It has had to become a must to check in there whenever a guest asks to use the bathroom. Is this normal? I hope my remember to do it at school! So the two year old little boy who seems to be perfectly content in his method of potty going in his diego pullups which he frequently does while singing the diego theme song. He has now taken it upon himself as the flusher and thinks that this is his only business in the bathroom. I will even see him sometimes using the plunger in there and then when he sees me will say "its stuck" or occassionaly he will be cleaning it out with the scrubber. I just hope and pray I have not missed any of these moments so as to clean up appropriately. And I am glad the bottles of soap say kills 99% of germs even if theyre lying it makes me feel better just to see that and feel a little safer when I feed him a PBandJ after wards. So as long as the bottles keep saying 99% I guess I will continue to let him be plunger boy and flusher kid! and I hope someday he will learn more of what the potty is all about cause this diego business needs to be flushed!
Thursday, September 22, 2011
no pictures sorry
By the way I really wish I could get pictures up here for you guys but we bought an external hard drive and put all our pictures on it. Now we cant figure out how to access them.
The Questions
Ok I thought I would post every sunday and that would be fun but let me just give you a run down of the anticipated schedule we have for sunday. And nothing ever goes as anticipated in this house so keep that in mind. Josh has meetings and it is his turn to do tithings this sunday so I literally dont really get to talk to him between 8 and 4. When picking up Josh from school yesterday his professor came over to introduce herself(yes this is the first time I have met his professor even though we have been here over a year- so not BYU) and to ask if we were coming to her dinner this sunday-oh you know the one Josh forgot to mention to me. I kept honestly picturing the dinner from Princess diaries where she set fire to the man next to hers shirt and ate ice cream too fast and dropped stuff under the table- just knew we would be that family that made a scene and received glares. Luckily after asking more questions I found out it is a cook out! Outside! yes! we can do that! Sometimes. So of course the cook-out is at 4. Josh says he should be home in plenty of time. I try to inform him I usually dont get home until 3 or 3:30. his response: "church gets out at 2! what are you doing for an hour and a half?" oh gee let me see: I have to wait for all the moms to pick up their kids from primary class than some how gather all my children, some how get supplies back to the library with 4 kids and then pack up. Argue with the kids why we cant stay and get in line to get candy from the bishop only to lose that argument and stand in line and wait for my kids to ALWAYS pick out the candy they dislike just so they can spit it out in the car to make a sticky mess for me to clean later (thanx kids love ya!) then buckle everyone in see if Josh needs a ride or not and then cry all the way home which makes it hard to see so I have to drive slower! Oh and of course we get home and 70% of the time I have 2 out of 4 kids sleep that I have to take turns carrying in! So yes a dinner at 4 will be pushing it. After the dinner it is our turn to teach the temple prep class to about 12 adults in our home. Did I mention we are in the middle of moving? yeah our house is pretty rough right now. So there is our sunday and a very long explanation why I am not writing on sunday.
What I really wanted to talk about was the questions my kids ask me. Ok mostly the 4 and 5 year old the other 2 still arent noticing too much outside their little worlds (unless it involves something with an engine for the 2 year old and any smiling for the 3 month old- she loves to smile ALL DAY LONG!) It impresses me the questions they can come up with. My children thankfully have yet to go through the million never ending "Why" phase. Instead I get questions like "how do fish breath under water?" "how do cars go?" "What do polar bears eat?" and "what makes water". Whats crazy is when we tell them the answer (which most of them I didnt learn until highschool or sometimes even college) they actually seem to get it. Like for instance the last question "what makes water?" was asked by my 5 year old and when I told her hydrogen and oxygen she immediately said "but I thought oxygen was the air!" We then had a discussion about molecules and what happens with boiling water and it eventually turned into discussing the production of oxygen through photosynthesis. She loved it! And of course at this point as a parent you begin to swell with prideful thoughts like "my kid is a genius!". That of course is shattered when you next hear stuff like "look mom I am talking to the trash can 'well how are you today sir'" or they pull their legs back behind their head and use their butt as a drum "haha! look at this!". There are the other questions too like "are wolves real?" "do we eat dirt?" "are we real?" that make me wonder what they are thinking about. I hate it though when I get stumped with questions I cant answer. All I have to say is thank goodness for the internet. Someday maybe I will go back to school so I can learn all the answers to my kids questions! But for now I think I will stick to stay at home motherhood and google!
What I really wanted to talk about was the questions my kids ask me. Ok mostly the 4 and 5 year old the other 2 still arent noticing too much outside their little worlds (unless it involves something with an engine for the 2 year old and any smiling for the 3 month old- she loves to smile ALL DAY LONG!) It impresses me the questions they can come up with. My children thankfully have yet to go through the million never ending "Why" phase. Instead I get questions like "how do fish breath under water?" "how do cars go?" "What do polar bears eat?" and "what makes water". Whats crazy is when we tell them the answer (which most of them I didnt learn until highschool or sometimes even college) they actually seem to get it. Like for instance the last question "what makes water?" was asked by my 5 year old and when I told her hydrogen and oxygen she immediately said "but I thought oxygen was the air!" We then had a discussion about molecules and what happens with boiling water and it eventually turned into discussing the production of oxygen through photosynthesis. She loved it! And of course at this point as a parent you begin to swell with prideful thoughts like "my kid is a genius!". That of course is shattered when you next hear stuff like "look mom I am talking to the trash can 'well how are you today sir'" or they pull their legs back behind their head and use their butt as a drum "haha! look at this!". There are the other questions too like "are wolves real?" "do we eat dirt?" "are we real?" that make me wonder what they are thinking about. I hate it though when I get stumped with questions I cant answer. All I have to say is thank goodness for the internet. Someday maybe I will go back to school so I can learn all the answers to my kids questions! But for now I think I will stick to stay at home motherhood and google!
Sunday, September 18, 2011
The Beginning
Well I have done it, I have started a blog. I feel so much pressure now to spell things write and to (da da da dum) use punctuations!!! Anyone ever read the book So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld? I think there was a girls in there who started a club to try and bring back good grammar- it didn't go over so well. So any way English was never my favorite subject and I seem to be losing brain cells daily since I find myself saying stuff like "she gots to go potty". So if you have come here expecting something enlightening or profound you very well might be disappointed and please dont critique cause I can guarantee there will be loads of mistakes and moments that dont make sense.
So with that out of the way we will start with today. We had a wonderful day attending the Norfolk 2nd ward where my kids successfully made the biggest mess in the chapel. Thank you to the nice family sitting next to me (you know who you are) who cleaned up after my children and kept them from beating up your own kids. Yes I have taken to sitting in the back of the chapel to escape the looks and stares that the two year olds inability to whisper seems to attract. At least this mess was not as bad as a couple of weeks ago. I made the mistake of taking yogurt covered raisons! Note to self and all mothers out there: Yogurt covered raisons are not a tidy treat! especially when they get mashed into the carpet! they then do not come out with the little vacuum they use to clean up after church. And of course the 3 month old had to ralph all over the seat on the way down to scrub up the raisons. I dont know maybe your kids might like yogurst covered raisons my kids thought they were nasty and more fun to throw at each other.
Back to today- I teach the ctr 5 primary class which My 5 yeaar old attends. I fail to understand how my daughter can answer the questions fine in class but then come home and not remember a single thing we talked about. I think all those kids hear are "treat" and "stickers". I would love to put those little collars that the dogs in "UP" wore to be able to hear exactly what is going on in their heads. " quick she wants an answer! and stickers are on the line! gotta get a sticker! oh no the girl next to me raised her hand what can I say? what can I say? Sticker ! must get a sticker!!!" and then they answer with what they thing is the answer for everything " Jesus!" (which I guess in a way it kinda is) but it dosnt always fit.
The girls packed up their bags today and informed us they were going on their mission (young men and women of our church (the church of jesus christ of latter day saints) serve a 2 year mission for the church) Bein a missionary evidently means you pack a back pack and walk around. When asked what missionaries do they said "you know like help people find a house and clean up the table..." hmmm well I never seved a mission so... It somehow turned into playing volcanoe and the upstairs was the volcanoe they had to climb up.My four year old was very animated about the hot lava that was downstairs. Bedtime came around and I tried to use that to my advantage, " no dont go downstairs! theres hot lava down there! your bed is the only safe place to be!" she then added something new to the game. She was evidently Jesus and "only Jesus can walk on hot lava mom so you stay up here"
The 2 year old got his hand shut in the door at nursery and the 3 month old was heard screaming down the hall way while I taught the class (maybe the bishop will hear it and release me-j/k)
Well it is after 10 all 4 Krazies are sleepin and I am krazy to not be doing the same thing! Good Night!
So with that out of the way we will start with today. We had a wonderful day attending the Norfolk 2nd ward where my kids successfully made the biggest mess in the chapel. Thank you to the nice family sitting next to me (you know who you are) who cleaned up after my children and kept them from beating up your own kids. Yes I have taken to sitting in the back of the chapel to escape the looks and stares that the two year olds inability to whisper seems to attract. At least this mess was not as bad as a couple of weeks ago. I made the mistake of taking yogurt covered raisons! Note to self and all mothers out there: Yogurt covered raisons are not a tidy treat! especially when they get mashed into the carpet! they then do not come out with the little vacuum they use to clean up after church. And of course the 3 month old had to ralph all over the seat on the way down to scrub up the raisons. I dont know maybe your kids might like yogurst covered raisons my kids thought they were nasty and more fun to throw at each other.
Back to today- I teach the ctr 5 primary class which My 5 yeaar old attends. I fail to understand how my daughter can answer the questions fine in class but then come home and not remember a single thing we talked about. I think all those kids hear are "treat" and "stickers". I would love to put those little collars that the dogs in "UP" wore to be able to hear exactly what is going on in their heads. " quick she wants an answer! and stickers are on the line! gotta get a sticker! oh no the girl next to me raised her hand what can I say? what can I say? Sticker ! must get a sticker!!!" and then they answer with what they thing is the answer for everything " Jesus!" (which I guess in a way it kinda is) but it dosnt always fit.
The girls packed up their bags today and informed us they were going on their mission (young men and women of our church (the church of jesus christ of latter day saints) serve a 2 year mission for the church) Bein a missionary evidently means you pack a back pack and walk around. When asked what missionaries do they said "you know like help people find a house and clean up the table..." hmmm well I never seved a mission so... It somehow turned into playing volcanoe and the upstairs was the volcanoe they had to climb up.My four year old was very animated about the hot lava that was downstairs. Bedtime came around and I tried to use that to my advantage, " no dont go downstairs! theres hot lava down there! your bed is the only safe place to be!" she then added something new to the game. She was evidently Jesus and "only Jesus can walk on hot lava mom so you stay up here"
The 2 year old got his hand shut in the door at nursery and the 3 month old was heard screaming down the hall way while I taught the class (maybe the bishop will hear it and release me-j/k)
Well it is after 10 all 4 Krazies are sleepin and I am krazy to not be doing the same thing! Good Night!
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