Ooops, I blinked

I took one of the kids with me to work last night while giving Knight the evening off. We always pay the kids with either dinner out before we start the work or 1/2 price appetizers at Applebees when we are done. They are constantly begging us to go work with them.

As we are done and on our way home, I hear, "Mom, don't you hate it when boys look at you and talk?"

"What?" I am completely not understanding the question let alone where it came from. I'm thinking...no, I don't. I kinda prefer my husband to look at me while he talks to me.

She repeats it word for word, so I repeat my question. Then she hits me with...

"Well, my friend hates it when boys are looking at her and talking to each other."

Ahhh, now I get it. I also get that her friend really doesn't hate it. This particular friend is at that age where she is trying to get the attention. This particular child of mine is not at that age, or stage of development, and yet I am faced with dealing with the issue of boys with this child also. I already have one to deal with. I don't need two.

"Well, you need to expect that. Your kids are getting to that age, dear" you are all thinking.

I think I blinked somewhere. No way am I old enough to have had kids. Wait...I guess having 4 isn't so bad, I can handle that. But I'm already dealing with puberty, boys looking at my precious little baby girls. Pretty soon, they are going to want to start driving, dating, and then they will have the guts to move out of my house and leave me!

Didn't I chose to home school so they would never grow up, never have boy issues, we wouldn't have to deal with them having friends that teach them things we don't want them to learn. These evil friends are putting it into their minds that it is ok to grow up and become independent from me.

Remind me not to blink again. I wouldn't want to miss anything else.

Wrapped Emotions 1

This week's assignment for WE was to eat our favorite candy from our early childhood. Since this is the first week, I will put the instructions up, so you can see how this works if your interested in playing.

We are going back to our childhood years. For the sake of those of you
(and me) who are trying to relocate our creative spirit, our first project is a
very simple one. Think kindergarten art. Think like a kid. Think messy. Don't
worry about the finished product. Play and have fun.

As a young child what was your favorite-absolutely-loved-to-get candy
treat? Now go buy it and eat candy. Save the wrapper or box. Sit back, savor
your treat, close your eyes and remember enjoying the candy as a child. What
were you doing? Who was there with you? How did you feel?Now create a collage
expressing that childhood emotion. Include the candy wrapper in your collage.

What did you discover? Was it the thought or act of eating the candy as
a child which invoked your emotion? Or was it the people or event? Or was it
aspects of both?

So as I used all my brain power and I honestly have no memory of "candy" from early childhood. You see, my mom was June Cleaver. We had home made dessert, every night. I still don't know when the frozen pizza actually was invented because I think I was 14 before I tasted my first one. So I thought about my favorite treat as a kid.





Rice Crispy bars. Again, I could have gone and bought one for the collage, but that would not have been right. These were home made. So here is my picture...

Can you feel the perfection of my early childhood? The family is all accounted for, the sky is blue, the grass is green, not a cloud in the sky. If you look carefully you see 4 red dots around the picture with some writing on them. Those are easy buttons. The easy buttons were in abundance in my childhood.






For some reason, rice crispy bars take me back to Crete, Greece. I was around 5. We had just moved to Crete, and we were still living off base in an upstairs apartment (I think). There was a large dumpster that had chickens around it. My parents would ask me to take the garbage out, and I was so afraid of the chickens!







There was a field on the other side of this small dirt road or alley. There were trees close to the edge of the road. One day the greek man that owned the property strung a goat up between two of the trees and slaughtered the poor thing. After lunch we went out to watch and he used the opportunity to teach us. He showed us the liver, the heart, etc. He gave us a great biology lesson. As we were watching this, my younger sister, Becca, came out and handed the rest of us a rice crispy bar for desert.







It must have not been a normal thing, if I am to remember it so clearly. But it didn't feel wierd either. I know that this was shortly after we had moved to Crete, as we were not in that apartment long. But it is such a vivid memory. There were lots of kids around watching, not just me and my older sisters. I have often wondered if the man was speaking Greek or English. That may be a strange question, but I also remember talking to a waiter in a restaurant over in Crete, and mom has mentioned that he only spoke Greek. I just remember talking to him. Not that it was in Greek.






I was so blessed to be able to have the experiences I have had growing up. My mom and dad were absolutely great parents, and with 4 sisters there was always something fun to do. We moved around and were able to experience new places, new cultures, new things. My mom didn't just sit around the house. We went. We did. We explored. I could not have asked for a better childhood. I hope that showed in my simple, clean picture I created.




If you want to play with us, just click 0n the WE button at the top and log in each monday to find out the theme for this week!

When I was a kid I always looked at growing up in terms of numbers. When I turn 16 I can drive. When I turn 18 I can move out. When I turn ?? I will finally feel like a grown up. I am now a mother of 4, married for 12 years, and I am still waiting to feel like a grown up. Although certain things show me I am growing up.

Today we purchased a new couch. It wasn't the purchase that made me feel grown up but how we went about it. We actually thought about this purchase. A lot. We shopped around. We looked at different styles. We talked about how we would use the couch. We considered how long we would like this couch to be in our house. We went through the whole covering issue (leather, microfiber, upholstery, what is washable, durable, comfortable). Do we want a sectional, hide-a-bed, recliners)? Who would we like to purchase this item from? This took weeks.

Rewind to our first year of marriage when we bought a brand new car. We went out for a gallon of milk and came home with a pretty new thing that only had 2 miles on it but a hefty price tag. We put the amount of thought into that as we would have a new pair of jeans. We were young.

Fast forward to the present: We looked again on Saturday at the store we were hoping to buy from. The owners are our next door neighbors. Great people. Love the Lord. Honest. We wanted to buy from them and they carry quality stuff that should last for years.

So we went today and actually brought the kids. We wanted them to see some of the process and thought it takes. We wanted them to see the bill. Maybe, just maybe they will appreciate the sacrifice it takes to make this kind of purchase. We spent double on this set than we did on our last vehicle purchased. (ok, so we got our van for $700) We also got a pretty decent deal on this couch because it was a cash sale.

Then comes the other lesson, the fabric Knight decided on was not in stock in the couch we decided on. So we ordered it and the couch should be here in about a month. We would have never waited a month for much of anything when we were first married but now we are willing to wait a month for a couch. I truly hope this sets an example to our children that it is good to wait for things you want, and that it IS possible to pay cash for something like this. Maybe I am turning into a grownup.