Learning to Leap

I'm finding that being a homeschooling Mom does not lend itself very well to "free" time during the week. I used to have one morning a week where all my babies were at school and I could do WHATEVER I WANTED. I ran errands, met friends occasionally for lunch, exercised, SLEPT...those four hours a week were among the most precious I've ever known. The rules have all changed now that my 2nd grader is homeschooling. I have my youngest in preschool on Tuesday mornings, but now, that time is invaluable to spend at home actually getting schoolwork done without someone wreaking havoc on a.)the house, b.)the dog {which okay, I don't really care about} or c.)our schoolwork. Anyway, running errands during the week with the girls is inescapable these days. Yesterday was one of those times I had to take them to a REALLY tough place...THE MALL. This wouldn't be bad at all with my oldest daughter. She's pretty much learned to control her sudden moments of...

It's been a big couple of weeks at our house. It started with this: I show you this photo as a way to demonstrate my appreciation and trust to my readers. Also, because if I don't show it to you first, my husband (who was supposed to be comforting me at this last moment before cataract surgery instead of taking mean pictures) will show it to you. I told him payback will be sweet. Just waiting for his future colonoscopy. Two eye surgeries. Super fun. I have been blessed with the eyes of an 80-year-old woman and had an amazing doctor who fixed my vision! My husband jokes that he'd better start shaving now that I can actually see him. So that was a fairly big deal in my world. The very next day, we started this: Kindergarten for our middle child. She was so excited it was comparable to Christmas. She put herself to bed on time the night before, got herself up the next morning, made her bed, dressed, brushed her hair and teeth, and smiled brightly during brea...

In my home, we have chosen to protect the kids from the more brutal truths of the world we live in. They know the VERY basics of our great nation's history with racial struggles. They've heard a few things about women not being treated well in other parts of the world. They could tell you a couple facts about oppressed people groups (mostly that some people in the world don't get to choose their own jobs or use facebook). See? Very basic information about the prejudice that has gone on and is still going on in our world. They'll find out the cold, hard truths later in life. I am beginning to think they know much more about prejudice than I once thought, however. There has been a trend in our home for the last eight years. The prejudice that goes on every single day is both shocking and saddening. It is blatant and serious, leaving an innocent victim in its wake. Who is this victim, you might wonder? Yours truly. My children REALLY like me. I mean se...

Jesus said that "greater love hath no man than this: that he lay down his life for his friend." I think I did this in a pretty major way today. (and on a side note, I have a picture exactly like this of Chuck E. and some random kid I've never seen before. She asked me to take her picture and then never even wanted to see it, just walked away. I would rather avoid lawsuits so I will not post it on the web.) I have talked about this establishment before. It is not on my bucket list. It's not even on my dustpan list. My oldest child is on her very first trip without mom and dad this week. She was thrilled and is staying with my sister and her family and my parents for a few days halfway across the country. In the meantime, I have two little girls still at home who are feeling rather miffed at being left out. Big sisters kinda do get to do everything. I should know as a middle child myself. And so, to ease their pain, I indulged them in a very special treat. Aft...

I hate cooking. REALLY hate it. I actually would have really loved the movie, "Julie and Julia" if it weren't for all the darn food talk. If there were one job in my house I could farm out to someone else, hands down it would be the planning of meals and cooking. Give me the toilets, the scrubbing of crown molding and blinds, the laundry, anything...just please, please don't ask me to cook. This is somewhat of a problem since I am, after all, a homemaker. Also kind of problematic is the fact that I have three daughters whom I am supposed to be training in the art of keeping a home. Sadly food is part of that task and food consumption is rather important in the circle of life. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the eating part (except meat...not a big fan and not for 'earthy' kind of reasons, I just don't care for it that much). Oddly enough, somehow my hatred for cooking does not extend into the baking genre. I LOVE to bake. Cookies, bread, cakes, p...

We are almost officially out of the diaper stage. I say 'almost' because we are still in the night time diaper stage. Because I am not a big fan of changing sheets every single day, I force my sweet children to wear 'baby diapers' (which they hate) each night and cut off the beverage supply about two hours before bed. This is no small feat. My girls become dehydrated every evening around 8pm. Tonight the youngest even asked if she could have milk. Milk! I can't get her to drink one measly ounce of milk with breakfast. She begins her gagging and dry heaving routine after even a tiny sip during the day, but once the threat of bedtime looms ever nearer, milk suddenly sounds like the sweet nectar of life to her. She can't get enough, I tell you. Also not a small feat is getting them stuffed into the night time diapers. You need to know that we are rather cheap. When we see less expensive options, we go for it if it will work at all. Who needs name brand ...

Every few weeks, my wonderful husband agrees to take charge and play Mr. Mom so that I can enjoy a night out with friends. A real, grown-up night out where conversations last more than 4.3 seconds and nobody lays on the floor to lick their shoes and the meal does not have to be consumed fast enough to qualify you for the national speed eaters finals. A night like this is kind of rare and really, really precious during our current life stage. At home, our nights together usually go something like this: Or this: The following is a description of events as relayed to me by both my husband and daughters. Names and places have not been changed. My hubby offered to take the girls to see Cars 2, something they’ve been begging to do for weeks now that the film has been out. I frankly didn’t care what they did while I was out as long as it didn’t involve illegal activity, sharp objects, or anything that might leave lasting emotional scars. They drove to the movie...