March 29, 2011

I'm trying to write this a little earlier in the day, so maybe, just maybe, I'm not doing it in the last hour of the day. Jason is in the kitchen making us some quesadillas, so I thought I would sneak away for a minute.

That minute didn't last long. The kids were playing around, so I decided to join them on the floor. They all piled on top of me, and we're laughing and having fun. Then Lilah gets mad at Noah and pushes him off, then Noah returns the favor. I tell everyone to get off of me because they can't play nicely. They continue to play which ends up with two of them crying. I tell them to stop and not touch each other. Landon does the smart aleck act of touching Noah with one finger and saying "touch", and then did the same to Lilah. I explain in a stern voice that I wasn't playing around. Noah touches Landon after I said this, so he gets sent to his room. He's screaming and crying, and all of that equaled about five minutes of my day. So now I'm back.

Today started normally, and we got everyone off to school with no problems. Yea for us!

Okay--left again, and now it's been at least an hour later. I had to eat, do the dishes, and make Noah's lunch. The kids sat and colored together since Landon didn't have homework this week. He is exempt from homework for two weeks because he has read for 2500 minutes. That's as much a reward for me as it is for him. It was nice to see them all at the table with Jason there as well playing around on the computer. Wildness then took over as the four of them took it the living room floor for a crazy wrestling match. We are now slowly getting everyone into bed.

Side note: I just heard Noah tell Landon to be careful and not pee on the thing in the toilet because it will bite your penis. heehee

Left again to finish getting everyone in bed, and now I'm back for good (or at least I hope so). So, back to this morning. I dropped off the kids at school, and when I got back into the car to run errands, I realized that I had just walked passed two moms who were taking down the book fair. I turned around and went back into the school--realizing that I should help them. This year for Lent I did not give anything up. Instead I've tried to add...doing a good deed for others, treating people with kindness even if they didn't treat me that way, and being kinder and more patient with the kids. I have not done the best job on the latter, so I figured I better do a good deed. So, instead of running my errand and getting some cleaning done at home, I helped take down the book fair. By the time we were done, I needed to get to Landon's school to help out with his class.

One of the things I always wanted to do as a stay-at-home mom (who works part-time) is have the freedom to help out at the school when I wanted. I would do it more often if I didn't value my gym time so much, but I still try to get there periodically. Today's activity was a math card game. I took groups of 4 out into the hallway, and we had a great time. I even promised one group that I would get up and dance if they could figure out a math problem with all of their cards. Let's just say I ended up dancing in the middle of the hallway of Cooper Elementary. I was happy to do so because that little boy was creative in getting his answer, and I was impressed (my husband would tell you I dance all of the time anyway so this really wasn't a big deal). I guess I did too much dancing because we didn't have time for the last group. I felt badly, but hopefully they will be my first group next time. I like that Landon's classmates know me. When I walk in, I get hugs and lots of smiling faces. I get promises from the not-so-well-behaved kids that they will not get in trouble for the rest of the week, and I get children who are eager for my help. What I like the best about it all, though, is that Landon likes when I'm there. At least for now...

He begged me to stay for lunch which I did not eat--just watched him (I didn't eat the school lunch when I was in school. Why start now?). I had to leave before his lunch time was up because I still had at least one errand that needed to be done. I got to the store with 15 minutes to get my stuff before I needed to pick up #2 and #3. I finally purchased signs and stickers for the garage sale that we are supposed to have this weekend. I wish we could just get ourselves motivated to do the work of gathering all of the stuff. We only have this weekend and next before our Saturdays are occupied with tball games, camping, and fun runs, so we need to get in gear.

The afternoon was pretty mellow. I did some stuff on the computer and a little Courtroom Connect work while Lilah napped and Noah watched a movie. Before I knew it, Landon was home, snacks were handed out, the boys went outside to play, and I got my Tuesday cleaning done (dust, vacuum, and sweep) while Lilah enjoyed Dora on the TV. Jason got home, and you can go back to the top to see how the rest of the evening went. Overall, a pretty good day. Now I need to get some pajamas on and head downstairs to finish working for the day. First I'll make a smoothie now that the kids are all asleep. I waited so I didn't have to share. Bad mom...

I'm almost done with my week of writing. That means that you will soon be out of your misery as well!