So... I'm selfish

I will admit it.

I'm selfish.

See, I admitted it.

Last night someone gave me the rest of a bag of M&M's. I don't buy stuff like this and I thought it would be a great treat. So after the kids went to bed I pulled out the bag, ate a couple, put the twisty tie back on it and threw it in the highest food cupboard, way in the back. I couldn't even see it. I figured it would be out of sight, out of mind, and safe from little raiding vikings I have living in this house. Who would look there anyway? It's not like we make sweet bread very often, and that's what is stored up there.

Yeah, that was the plan.

Today, of all days, Rara decides to dig in the cupboards looking for things to make. Like jello, pudding, and...

"hey mom! Look what I found!"

Awww! Didn't even last 24 hours before they found them.

So much for a selfish heart. I should have known better.

How times have changed...

I felt it important to have the kids watch the inauguration today. It shows a new president taking office, and one that made history in their lifetime. And it is educational. Cross off government studies on our to do list!

Anyway... if you were watching you saw Aretha Franklin sing My Country Tis of Thee. Being kids, they didn't know who she was. So Rara, J-Bird, and I have this conversation...

J-Bird- Who's she?
Me- Aretha Franklin. A famous singer.
J-Bird- How'd she get famous?
Me- She's a singer.
Rara- She got famous because she sings.
J-Bird- Oh, I get it! I think she made it big on American Idol!
Rara- No! I think she was on America's Got Talent.

Imagine a time when people got famous without having to worry about getting voted off the show!

Jelly Telly!

Anyone who has seen more than 5 kids shows in the last 10 years has watched and probably enjoyed the work of Phil Visher. You know... the guy who came up with those wonderful guys Bob and Larry. If you are like me, you were not really aware of all the turmoil that Big Idea has been through in the last 5 years (they just laid off 2/3 of the staff last week so be in prayer for those families), but if you are also like me, you became very aware of the softening of God in VeggieTales. The last movie that was in the theater didn't even mention God at all, just sort of hinted around.

What I hadn't realized is the Mr. Visher has moved on from Big Idea and has been working on a new format for Christian entertainment for kids. It comes in the form of Jelly Telly. Jelly Telly has a show everyday with a feature film on Sundays. They have games to play as well as the daily video. Jelly Telly has been out for about a month now and we have been really enjoying it. I signed up for a free months trial membership to see how the kids would like it. It is puppets, not animation, and I didn't know if the kids were getting too old for this kind of show. After all, I see them wanting to watch Disney online pretty often.

They LOVE it! It has the same quirky humor you saw in VeggieTales, great focus on God, and they have educational parts like Dr Sniffenhousen's Wonderful World of Science, Drive through History, along with my favorite Michael's Movie Reviews. One of the best things about this is that we can watch it when we have time. As long as there is Internet, we can watch it.

If you are interested head off to Jelly Telly, check out the grown ups page. Sign up for the free trial month if you are interested. Or if you really like it and want to help out a great ministry pay the $3 a month for a subscription.

And by the way... my kids watch less Disney. They love it. Even J-Bell who gets mad if they start the show without her.

This has been De's website reviews! Jelly Telly has no knowledge of this endorsement and I'm not getting paid for it (Although I wouldn't object to payment, Mr. Visher!)

The newest sports fan

Just hours after blogging about nothing the kids let me know that we have a new Packer fan/golfer in our family. They were having a great time, and believe it or not, so was Allie.

Strange kids... even stranger dog. With that said, we learned that Allie loves to go fishing, almost as much as my mom's dog. She liked being on the dock watching them cast and loved it when they caught a fish!

Is it getting warm in here?

For the first time since we have moved into our house I sit surrounded by insulation. The insulators came today and filled our walls with expanding foam insulation.

They got the WHOLE house done in 6 hours.

When they were about halfway through the kids and I stopped home to grab a couple things, check on the progress, and grab some lunch. We came home to the door wide open (that is how they got the hose inside), windows still open, with the men working hard.

One of my wonderful, home schooled children looked at me and said, "It's starting to work already mom. It's already warmer in the house!"

I personally think the heat had something to do with the fact that it was hot and muggy today.

At least they are looking for positive signs!

Dinner, homeschool style

I have heard it said that you should turn the tv off during dinner. That way a family can share what went on during the day. Our little home school family knows what went on that day. We were together. But we don't have a TV in the dining room, and we no longer have our dish hooked up, we don't have cable, and we have not hooked up an antenna to the main tv. So our kids improvise.

Adventures in Vacuuming

I have the perfect children.



What? I haven't mentioned that before?!?!?



Well, I do.



Last night I headed out to have dinner with my sister. I drove down, and before we could leave we had to wait for our dad to fix her computer. Then we were all sitting around visiting when my phone rings.



That ring. That means the kids are calling.



And then I am greeted by this story:



The pellet stove went out. It is fine as it needs to be cleaned out anyway but I had figured the kids would just fill it again while I was gone.



Nope. My perfect, wonderful, sweet, helpful children decided that it does need to be cleaned out and they would take care of that for us.



Awww! How sweet!



They waited for the fan to quit blowing, signaling that it is ok to clean the stove out. That is what we've done. The only step they have apparently missed by watching us is when we check and make sure there are no hot coals.



Yeah, you see where this is going don't you?



So they start vacuuming the ash...and start to notice that the vacuum is starting to shoot sparks. They don't want to reach their hand near the area of the sparks so they unplug it. (Thankfully)



They take off the cover and notice that the filter bag is on fire. A couple of glasses of water poured on the vacuum and it is no longer burning. (See why I'm thankful they unplugged it?)



Then I get the phone call.



J-Bell is crying. Scared. Freaked out.



She says she is so sorry but she thinks she's ruined the vacuum and tells me the story.



At this time I knew no one was hurt and the house is not on fire.



I calmly tell them to put the vacuum on the front porch and that their dad will be home soon. (He had actually gotten home and was finishing his work in his truck). I can't quit laughing, but I'm trying my best not to let her know it.



To top it all off, I made the comment to those sitting in the living room at my sisters that it looks that I'm going to need to go buy a vacuum. My dad starts telling me what consumer reports just said about vacuums and recommended a high rated vacuum (Kenmore) that is the best value for it's money. It's about $300.



No offense Kenmore, but no thanks. I'm not about to spend $300 on something that my kids set fire to the last one. I paid $15 for this one at a garage sale. It lasted a year and a half and went out in style.



Lesson learned with no one getting hurt. It's paradise!

Halloween

Ok, bad blogger that I have been, there has been reason. And I will tell you since I need every excuse for why I haven't dragged my fingers to the keyboard and got to posting. First, since the kids are technically public school students via virtual school we are subject to the state standardized testing. Four days of testing, a couple hours each day, and limited time to get it done has taken some of the days. Being a moron who decides to sew costumes a week before Halloween means being busier than normal at home. Add to that our normal schedule of AWANA, church, band, having company over, and school it makes for busy weeks.

Halloween was fun. We had some other kids over to help hand out treats and for Korean food. The kids were SO excited. I can't tell you how many times we heard "trick or treaters coming!" screamed in excited kid voices. It was so fun to try to guess what all the costumes were. It's funny, so many people act like they think we are so mean for not letting our kids trick or treat, but they don't see how much fun our kids still have without it. I made all the kids Indian costumes since they can wear them on Halloween, Thanksgiving, and "Pilgrim and Indian night" at church. (yes, I make my kids wear the same ones more than once!) Rara was given a feather boa by Knight so she can be a high society Indian. As the quiet one in our family he felt that she is sometimes not given as much attention as due her, so he thought he'd treat her by making her costume different. Such a sweet thought!

Off to get some stuff done. It is office day, school, and a class on watercolor painting.

No rest for the weary!!!

Ever wonder what us homeschoolers do for entertainment?

Lately we have been getting to know a new family. We have been asking the Lord for some new friends for our kids, ones that home school and that are good kids. We also kind of wanted them to be outside of our church.

I know that sounds bad, but we wanted them to broaden their circle a little.

Anyway, in a wonderfully weird way, God brought a great family into our lives. The kids all get along very well, and as a bonus, I really like the mom as well. The Lord knew I needed someone like her. She is so fun, outgoing, and comfortable stopping in and seeing the sty we normally live in when we are not expecting company. What a blessing this family is to our family.

So I was dropping off a cd at this families house yesterday and ended up talking. For hours. Not that the kids minded. They have a great time.

As K and I were sitting in her living room talking, the two boys come in looking for her cat. Not a big deal until they tell us that they have caught a mouse under a bucket and want to feed it to her cat. As we look out, we see that this is something most of the kids are part of. They grab the cat, bring her to the bucket, lift the bucket and run.

This poor mouse has his back legs broken. The cat looks at it for a little, and walks away without killing the mouse. So my kids decide they want to keep it. Not going to happen, people. First, Knight HATES mice. Second, I am not going to go buy a cage, food, and all the accessories for a crippled mouse that will end up dying anyway. I probably would have for a healthy mouse, but then again, a healthy mouse would have been eaten by the cat.

So this is what we homeschoolers do for fun during the week.

My little hams

As you will notice, I put a picture header on my blog. I picked up my camera, sat on the floor across from the couch, and called the kids. They figured out that I wanted to take pictures of the four of them.

These kids are such hams! They goofed off until my camera battery died. When Knight came home they were telling him what a great time they had making up poses for the camera.

Who wouldn't love these kids??

*Leeann is right (see comments)--I have changed my look a lot lately. I promise I am done for a while. I have needed to take the time to learn how to put a picture header for some time now, but I just changed templates instead. No more, at least for a while.

Anyone who knows me, knows that when I get an idea that I think is a good idea and I run with it. My family is normally a good sport, probably because they know that it will not involve responsibility, but some way to go and enjoy ourselves.

The other dayweek I was remembering how, when I was a kid, my mom wanted to play tennis so she taught us kids to play so she would have someone to play with. I enjoyed playing but when Knight and I were dating we tried playing and it didn't go so well. You see, my mom taught us that the fun of playing was in the volley. Knight had never been taught tennis, but had watched Wimbledon on TV. He had me running all over the court while I kept hitting it back to him. He didn't see the point in playing just to volley. Neither one of us had played since.

Until today. I had decided that it was time to teach the kids and we pulled out Knights old racket, bought another one today, got us a couple packs of tennis balls, and went off to teach the kids. So we waited for Knight to get done working. While we were waiting we wasted time by doing things like...school, chores, errands. You know, the responsible things.

We get to the court. Knight and I try warming up. We need practice. But it's fun. Especially since the kids are so excited that we don't have to run and get the balls we hit out. We have 4 ball fetchers with us. We play for say 10 min. Then we are made aware that the courts are reserved at 4pm for the tennis team because apparently the school does not have tennis courts. But the good news is that they only have the courts from 4-7 Mon-Fri. It's 4pm so we leave. We end up going to the tennis courts in our own town. They are not as good, but at least we can play on them.

I work with each kid one on one while Knight plays baseball with the other kids. That is until he hits the ball hard enough to split the ball and they can't play anymore. The kids are enjoying learning tennis, and the weather feels great to be out running around in it. There is not too much running yet, as they are still missing the ball more than hitting it. The annual garage sale at church is coming up and I am hoping to be able to get a couple more rackets.

So... tennis anyone???

When I was in my younger teens, my sisters and I would watch movies over and over again until we memorized every single word of the movie. The one I remember the most was The Breakfast Club. Now that makes me proud to admit that. Out of all the movies to watch, that is the one I chose. Along with Howard the Duck, Goonies, and most Molly Ringwald movies. Yeah, I was so cool.

I was hoping that this obsessive watching of shows was not going to be passed on to my children. Hey, I am trying hard to make them a whole lot more normal than I am. They started memorizing movies early. But it was ok. VeggieTales, Barbie, Disney. I can live with that.

But they have started a new obsession.

And it's getting worse.

They love to watch and memorize Billy Mays. You know they commercials. Kaboom, Samurai Shark knife sharpener, AwesomeAuger. He sells it all.

Now all the kids have paid attention to commercials. But when driving around you hear "Look, there's Ace...the helpful hardware place" coming from a little voice in the backseat you know that advertisers really know what they are doing.

And tonight Rara and J-Bird were going to watch Flushed Away. We were going to start it when Billy Mays came on. Then I hear, "Wait. I love this one!" along with murmering as they are saying the commercial with Billy.

Does anyone have any kids they want to send over so we can share this wonderful trait with?

Last night during family devotions I had to laugh when it came time for the kids to pray

J-Bell--"Lord, thank you for the nice weather, even though it was a little too hot... And please help me to stop complaining..." (she was not even noticing she was complaining in her prayer)

J-Bird--"Lord, thanks for the day. And help J-Bell stop being so bossy when she's babysitting..."

Rara found a shortcut so she doesn't have to think about prayer requests..."Lord, help everyone who needs help..."

Desti has now started using this tactic too.

Who couldn't enjoy kids like these?

Thursday Thirteen...

Here are thirteen things I never, in my wildest dreams ever thought would come out of my mouth, but I have kids.

1. Stop! You may not take that stick of butter up to your room.

2. No, the point of baseball is NOT hitting someone in the head with one.

3. When is the last time you showered....You thought too long, time to go take one.

4. Seriously people, try to act like humans when we meet these people. I don't want them to see our true selves just yet.

5. I'm sorry, but you are going to have to wait to go back to the dentist. Your next appointment is still a month away.

6. Stop jumping on the couch...Ok, no hopping either.

7. No, you cannot have just Reddi Whip for breakfast.

8. How do you loose one shoe? (we were not at home)

9. Who cut your hair? Yes, someone cut your hair. Go look in the mirror if you don't believe me... I can tell because your bangs are totally gone.

10. I know that Dakota did not pee on the floor because that is your Aunts' dog and they were not over lately. (my sister had to say this one)

11. I don't care if he did ask you to kick him, we don't hurt one another.

12. Why did you tape bugs all over your walls? (if she saw a bug crawling on her wall, she would tape it to it)

13. When I asked you to go outside for a while, I didn't mean go sit on a swing and read.

With our friend up and leaving us for "missionary school" in Texas, apparently it has been affecting our entire families brain. This week I have heard a lot about what kind of house every one wants to live in or where they want to live. It is interesting to me to hear all the differing opinions about how we should live, and we are not even talking about moving. So hear they are...

J-Bell loves our little one horse "village" and would like to stay. Then when she grows up and gets married, she would like to buy a house in town, maybe even next door, and have babies. She likes the library, the tiny little grocery store, and the parks. In her words "this is a great town to raise children in."

Desti would like to build a house that has no electricity ("that is expensive"). You can have an old fashion stove or just cook over the fire that you use to heat the place. You get to use candles for light. She also wants a well (the wishing variety). I think she is thinking Little House on the Prairie. She makes herself clear that she doesn't want a teepee. When I chimed in and said that sounds just great as long as it's a tiki hut in Fiji she thought I was crazy.

Rara would like a blue house with a slide to get down the stairs. She also wants a big garden with a wishing well in the middle of it. She also knows she wants kids.

J-Bird would like for us to sell our house, live in a camper, and be missionaries (starting in Texas) so he can still see Twiggy. He thinks it would be great to live in a RV. I think it had something to do with the show on the Duggar family we were watching. They went on vacation (I think) and they were traveling by RV with all 16 kids, singing and playing games while traveling. I will be honest, it did look fun.

Knight would like to retire in a small cabin. He is leaving the decision on if it is located on a lake or river up to me. He thought we could spend around $20,000 on a "nice one". Yeah, ok. Whatever.

I was helping a friend go through her garage because she is moving :-( we stumbled across a box with her high school mementos in it. There were medals, ribbons, and a big "C" for a letter jacket for the name of her high school. Because her name is Keri, J-Bell asked if the letter was to put her initials on the jacket (home schooled kids are so blissfully unaware of how schools work). J-bird, overhearing the question, rolled his eyes and dramatically proved that it couldn't possibly be for her initials.
"Nooo. Her name is MMMMMrs PPP___!"
Should I look at this as a positive that he knows is letter sounds?

This article is my submission to the blog challenge sponsored by Darlene Schacht, author of The Mom Complex

Like every mother I have certain things that I feel the need to instill in my kids. Compassion, understanding, love for others. As I try to lead by example I will pray that my efforts are not in vain. After all, we are in a small town in Wisconsin. That doesn't naturally lend itself to diversity.

I did not grow up in a small town, but I did grow up with diversity. In fact, my parents tried to explain prejudicism to me, but I honestly thought that in today's world it didn't exist anymore. I was not aware of any honest prejudicism until I was 15 and moved to Wisconsin. Then someone said something around me about "those people" and used a term. I was SHOCKED! Not only was this person serious, but I was also related to them. A true wake up call.

When new people would come into their lives they would accept them, no matter what they looked like. The interaction has been limited but I have not seen fear, judgement, or shyness. Just an attitude of there is someone new.

Until Micah.

Micah was three or four when he first came to the church and into our lives. Micah is a sweet boy that has cerebral palsy. Here was this kid in a wheelchair that didn't talk. His parents accompanied him to every class. And he cried, a lot. To be honest, my kids were nervous. This was new.

We did our best to explain that even though Micah may not be able to run, play, and talk like everyone else, we know that Jesus loves him and we know that we need to show the love of Jesus to him. I noticed for the most part the kids, all the kids at church, just ignored him. They didn't know how to include him, but they really didn't want to leave him out so they silently accepted him into the group but rarely actively made him a part.

There is a group of us mom's who now help Micah during children's church so that his parents can be in the adult worship. When I first started helping I couldn't help but to hold his hand, rub his arm, and even take him out and sit him on my lap during class. This made my son curious and sat there holding his hand. My heart swelled. He knew then that Micah was just another kid.

Soon, J-Birds Sunday school teacher, Micah's mom told me how cute J-Bird was in class. He would purposefully sit by Micah, trying to hold his hand. To be his friend. A lesson I am glad my son was able to pick up on early in life.

I worked with Knight today, didn't sleep well last night, and I have to get ready for the ladies retreat. So here is just a quick peek into a conversation overheard between J-Bird and me.

J-I know that Grampa was in a war.

Me-Yes, he was.

J-Do you know what side he was on?

Me-He was in the Army

J-No. I mean what side was he on?

Me-The war was in Viet Nam. Is that what you mean?

J-No. I mean do you know if he was a red coat or a blue coat.

At least he remembers something about wars. Makes a mother proud and want to just call Grampa so he can ask for himself.

Illness...It has been 4 days (and counting) it has gone through 3 kids, both parents don't feel 100% and the kids are still praying to be able to go on the field trip tomorrow. We have decided to just stay at home and do nothing and hopefully heal up. On a lighter note we now know exactly what is on tv at all hours.

The kids have witnessed sleepwalking today. Rara has been pretty sick. High fever, sore throat. Not strep (at least that is what the rapid test said). J-Bell rented Spy Kids 3-D which takes place inside a video game. The kids have watched it a couple times and then Rara took a nap today. As I'm in the basement doing laundry I hear her start to cry. By the time I get up stairs the rest of the kids have a freaked out look on their face and Rara's just standing there. I ask Rara what she wants and she lets me know she wants everyone to come in the video game with her. It will be more fun! As this is not my first go round with this type of thing I lay her back down and ask if she wants to pray. That takes care of it. For some reason that always seems to snap them awake (?) so then I have to explain to the rest of the group. AHHHH! Paradise!