Pep Talk

Today is the First Day of the rest of my life!

I am having a conquer the world kind of moment. I awoke with my husband's alarm clock at 5:45, so I have a bit of free time this a.m. The kids don't have school today or we would be already in the middle of the morning rush.

I have come up with strategies to balance the things that I am "struggling" with today and so Here I Go! (struggles = budgeting...food, time, money)

If you haven't figured out...this is a pep-talk blog with a couple pictures thrown in for good measure.


Here are 3 of the kiddos playing in the snow. It is a few weeks out of date and I am happy to report we are snow free. Our temps got to 68 degrees last week, but have returned to the 30s today. The week before last we had some negative digits - it's hard to figure out!

Anna loves to be outside. She doesn't care if it is raining and -4 degrees, she still asks if she can play outside. There can be ice covering every surface and she will ask, "Can I ride my bike?". I do remember all my other kids with similar attitudes at her age. Joel actually is outside the most of any of my kids, because he can be outside alone and he loves to shoot hoops and ride his bike and play in the snow. I might have mentioned this before...but it was Joel (w/ a bit of assistance from Ken) who helped Anna build the snowmen in the last post. When he isn't fighting with Anna, he is very sweet with her.

Carolyn likes to be outside and has done her share of sledding this winter. That said, she also loves to curl up with a good book. (I should get a picture of THAT if I want to remember her childhood.) My mom said I read all the time, but I think she reads more than I did...but maybe it is just a change in perception. Now that I am the person who is always saying, "stop reading and get your jobs done", maybe it just feels like she is reading more. A sweet Carolyn note - early January she and I were at the Dollar Tree and she was already thinking about what she was going to buy everyone for Valentine's Day. She used her own money and bought everyone a treat. She isn't the best at keeping a secret :) but I love her generous spirit. It is rubbing off, as Joel just bought Carolyn a birthday present at the book fair. (Her birthday is about a 1/2 a year away.)


If you haven't noticed, Matthew is NOT in the snowy picture at the start of this post. He did go sledding once when Ken took the kids to their favorite hill. Other than that he hasn't really joined in. He has been a help shoveling, but doesn't seem to crave the white stuff anymore. When he was little he wanted to be outside 24/7! Now, not so much. Last year, he was out less than the other kids, but this year he has had almost no interest in the frigid temps. Another change in Matthew is that he has become a wonderful baby-sitter. He actually PLAYS with Anna. The other day, Ken had to leave with Joel and Carolyn about 5 minutes before I got home. I arrived to find Matthew playing Sweet-Streets (small doll-houses) with Anna. Later that day, even though he wasn't officially baby-sitting, he was playing hide and seek with her. I love to see that tender, care giving, side in him.

Ok - it is hours after I started this post and now our house is in full swing. Wish me luck as I go try to balance the day!

Sister Finds a New Home

This doll was my mother's as a child. It has been in her hope chest for years and now it has a new home. Sister is very pleased.

Sending Valentine's Day Love

We made some new friends last week, but they just aren't as warm and loving as you, Valentine.

My latest!

Well, Ken has been gone a bunch on business this month, so I had to make some other friends!

After that bit of levity, I will tell you that I have actually made a decision in the direction of sanity rather than financial responsibility. I have decided to NOT start working on my AuD in the late spring. (AuD = Audiology Doctorate, which is now the entry level degree in my field.) I have determined that I probably will have to get this degree eventually, but if I start this spring, I would have 2 summers with school. I will get the degree through a distance learning program with the University of Florida. It takes 18 months and for a few days I thought it would be great to have it finished right after Anna went to kindergarten. Then I got STRESSED OUT. I wasn't sleeping, having nightmares, etc. I decided that I haven't done enough work looking for more research jobs, nor have I gone to Boys Town to do my summer internship, so that I might feel clinically competent without returning to school right away. Nor have I tested the market to see if I can get PRN work with just my masters degree. No reason to get stressed out yet! I decided that if I have some time where I am making no money and instead spending money on school - THAT's OK. Better than being so busy for 10 months that I can't keep my head above water.

Please say a prayer that I can do the right things, and learn the right things to keep myself at least minimally employed in 2012 (when my current grant ends). Also that I make the right decisions regarding school and my career.

It is especially stressful, because I had just come up with a great budget last month and was working hard at paying off our mortgage before our kids start college and now - WHAMMO! The concept of a steady stream of work that I have had since 1993 is fading! I guess that is why budgets must sometimes be reworked.

Winter Specials

There was a moment this week when I thought I had lost some pictures that I had not yet printed. My digital card was full, so I had dumped pictures onto my computer and burned a disk. I checked the disk and deleted the pictures. WEEELLLL...I went to get a picture off the disk and it acted goofy. I was able to copy many of the pictures back to my computer from the disk, but then the disk froze. I brought the disk to my wonderful husband, whose computer was able to retrieve the remaining pictures without freezing. Yeah Ken! It did give me a "get these pictures printed" kind of feeling. I also thought I would share a few special moments from this month.
Here is Anna displaying the lovely Valentines that she made for Pre-school. She cut out the sayings "You really fly, Valentine" and then signed her name. On most of them you would have guessed correctly who the Valentine was from if you were in her class and knew every one's name :)

Joel's Cub Scout Pack had their annual Pinewood Derby. Joel worked very hard on his car, designing it on paper, sanding the car, taping for the paint job and gluing on the stars. In the end, his car won for the Most Patriotic and Ken said Joel was a fantastic sport! (I think that translates to...never won a race, but was enjoyed every minute.)

Carolyn was the Star Student this week. Anna and I went to lunch with her today and attended her presentation of special ideas and treasures. First you need to know that lunches are MUCH healthier than they used to be when I was a kid.....ok - more than even last year. Whole wheat buns, grilled chicken breast....dessert was cherries in jello. I digress...it was great fun to hear Carolyn's "favorite things" and what she aspires to be when she grows up (currently a souvenir shop worker). She then answered 20 questions from her class, which was fun. The most interesting was when she was asked who her friend's were and you could see her eyes scan the room as she listed all the girls in her class. She is very thoughtful and wouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. It also was sweet that she bought her sister a balloon animal from the class "shop" the day we came to visit.

This is a staged shot, because I forgot my camera the day Matthew had his first "Solo festival". (He was all dressed up that day!) This basically meant that Matthew played a piece on his trumpet for a band teacher from a local district who the critiqued his work and gave him a rank. I was so impressed that he maintained his cool because his teacher accidentally played the wrong background music - several times. After the competition we went and shared some one on one time at the local bagel shop!


GOOD TIMES!

Joel is Seven!

Joel and his friends enjoyed his party. It was a nice number of kids and they were wild and crazy - which was just what we expected!!! Carolyn joined the Party Hosting by offering the boys prizes for playing nice and cleaning up the broken pinata. It was very sweet. She also joined the fun as did Anna whenever she could.

There was a pinata:


Pizza and cake:


Treasure hunts and an obstacle course: (Matthew was the "gym leader" (Pokemon term). He created the entire event, wrote the script and led the boys through their challenges.)
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"Welcome to the Pokémon treasure hunt. At this party you will be collecting a lot of treasures and putting them in your treat bag. The Pokémon in your envelope shows what team you are on. In the next event, it will determine what YELLOW card you will be searching for. This card will give you 5 points. Also you can find smaller other cards that are not YOUR Pokémon. They are each worth 1 point, unless you find a pair of two identical cards – which are worth 3 points. The team that gets the most cards will go first in the obstacle course. Good luck."


"Now the winner of the card search will go first in the next event. You will be going around an obstacle course to collect keys to unlock a prize. I will be your gym leader and lead you through these obstacles:
-1st smash the ice boulder and find your keys in the rubble
-you must cut the rope and let your 2nd key drop
-you must spin the whirlpool so that you can collect your 3rd key

-you must surf on your belly across the table, then reach for the 4th key
-you must scale the waterfall to reach your next key 5th key
-you must use your awesome jumping skills and reach for your 6th key

-there is a mountain of snow in your path, dig through it to find your 7th key
-your final challenge is a humongous boulder blocking your path. Use your immense strength to move it away from the treasure door while still collecting your final key, which is underneath

Now that you have found your 8 keys you can go into the locked freezer room (FYI - this is our unfinished little library, that doesn't have good insulation and gets cold in the winter) to find your treasure. It is in a treasure chest."
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We also played "squash the squirtle" by putting a stuffed animal in a balloon and blowing up a bunch of balloons so the boys had to smash the balloons to find Squirtle. We also had a Poke-walker pop-rock walk. (think cake walk).

Whew- and now the fun is done and I have a (mostly) clean house! That is my birthday present!

Party Planners

I love to plan my children's parties. Typically they consist just of our family, but we love the celebration just the same.

Joel is having his first "friend" birthday party tomorrow. He has been asked on other occasions if he would like to have a friend party, but he said no, he wanted to celebrate with his brother and sisters. This year he REALLY wanted a party. I think this has to do with the other parties he has gone to this year and the fun his sister had at her party.

I love the joy my kids have about their birthdays and their special cake. It always looks like it was made by a mom, but the kids love them. I also love this year that my basement is totally cleaned and that Matthew has been so involved in planning the party. (Our snow day came in handy!) This year's party theme is Pokemon and Matthew had a Pokemon party when he was in second grade. I asked if we should do Pokemon Bingo again and Matthew said, "maybe we should do something more active". His answer made me smile. He then proceeded to develop a Pokemon obstacle course and cut out 50 keys that the first graders will earn along the way. He also was a great help with the basement, because he was told that the basement had to be cleaned before the obstacle course could be set up.

I have to go get tomorrow's birthday boy at school, but for the record, Anna isn't as much fun to plan a party with! She stuck the black frosting knife into the yellow frosting, cut out pictures that didn't need to be cut, etc. etc. She is enjoying the anticipation of the whole thing, though. She keeps asking if Joel's birthday is tomorrow. Finally, today I could say yes!