Wednesday Fun on Wednesday

Here are more funny things the kids have said this week, and I included an old funny thing…

BOYS…
“Mom I accidentally licked the bubbles off the bathroom cleaner.  Yuck! do you think I’m going to be okay?”  thankfully I use “natural cleaner” so he is fine…  But hopefully he won’t lick the cleaner any more, I will say it is Method Clementine so it smells really good.

Walking through the grocery store tonight C sang songs from the musical he is trying out for, and although his sister was embarrassed I really did not care, his voice is nice, and I know if I act embarrassed he’ll sing louder.  And that is something I would have done to my sister in hopes of embarrassing her.

“Mom I just found a name for the game in invented “up ball” he has a little basketball that he throws and chases and runs around the house with it trying not to let it touch the floor…

“Mom there is this guy whose on an airplane, and the pilot says it is clear to move about the cabin, he goes to the bathroom, there is a little X on it… what does he say?”
“I don’t know R…”
“hypotenuse”
“what does that even mean?”
“hi pot in use, hypotenuse”
“what are you talking about”
“mom it is the long side of a right triangle”
“honey I’m not smart enough for your math jokes”
“oh”
Today as I was walking through JCPENNEY with baby A {right after her picture in a big BIG white bow and super cute outfit} a little boy saw her walking towards him he stood still in awe and whispered “a princess.”  When we walked past him he ran to his mom “Mommy look a real princess.”  Later. we saw them again he said “See, Mommy the princess” to which I replied “She sure is a princess.”  He looked up at his mom and said “see I told you she WAS a princess.”

Doing a “family life skit”, J is daddy, “where is my dinner, I just got home from work, usually my food is ready by now…”
of course the skit is taking place in my bathroom
E being mom, “I just got out of the shower what do you need?” wrapped in a mat
  J”oh look at this on pinterest”
 {In our defense I don’t spend time on pinterest while the kids are up, unless I am making a new recipe and Keith has never come home from work demanding dinner, he has come home complaining how hungry he is but not expecting dinner on the table.  I however often stand wrapped in a towel solving some childs problem}

J and E in the shower together “mom, can we do gymnastics while we shower?”

And an oldie, but goodie…
  While pregnant with number 4, R who was almost 4 at the time, was riding in the shopping cart while I was buying diapers and night pull-up.  He asked me to open my mouth, “open it really wide mom.”  So I stretched my mouth as big as I could, and he said “mom I Just don’t know how that baby is going to come out your mouth.”  I laughed at him and said “honey that is not where babies come out.” {Shoot here comes the question…}  ” Mom where do babies come out?”  {quick thinking here…}  “Honey GOD gives mom’s a special hole for babies to come out.”  {whew dodged that bullet, I thought}  “mom does O have that special hole?”  {shoot think, think, think} “ummm.”   To which he replied “she must not she’s not a mom yet.”  WHEW!  “Sure enough” I said, then I said “here do you want this very distracting toy?”

Keith finished the last cookie in the cookie jar today and A wanted one, after he tried to convince her that it was the last one I picked her up to let her look inside.  She looked back at me with a sad face and said “all don tootie” and waved at the jar, as I was setting her down she noticed the jar of chocolates and asked “totolate peese” signing please.  She looked adorable asking for chocolate.  She’s her mother’s child of course I gave her a chocolate or two…

Yesterday my sister was leaving my house and she asked for her iPod back,  A told her no then she “hid” so she did not have to give it back, as you can see she was unsuccessful in hiding and eventually obeyed giving the iPod back.

What funny things did your kids say this week?
jen

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plan of attack

Summer is coming

Yesterday was a warning or reminder that I need to have a plan for the dog days of summer.
With out a plan of attack we attack each other, we got crabby and we need guidance.

We will have a library day once a week {we love books and love the library books}

I’ve looked into the cobb theater in town to see what free movies they are offering, and unfortunately most of them my kids already declared they do not want to see  so there will be no movie day.

The big one has a job at Chick~fil~a
“my pleasure”

We have a pool but you can only swim for so long each day before you wrinkle up and smell like chlorine and have green hair.

Last summer we had a schedule to follow
M~clean the house
T~grandma’s house
W~movie day
TH~library day
F~laundry and clean again
S~
S~church

Yesterday was my warning to get a plan for our days. If we don’t have a plan my kids might climb the walls

I’m thinking this year I need to add a craft day and a trip day.  There are lots of things to do in our area for little to no money I just need to spend some time finding them.  The beach will be included in those day trips. 

It is a little difficult because the baby still needs to nap every day, but every day after lunch is book in bed time for 30 minutes to an hour it is wonderful to have a quiet house, where some will nap and some will just read.  I am so very thankful that I have readers!

So I’m ready to plan our days so we have a schedule to follow, we can break from it, but having it gives the kids something to look forward to while we enjoy our long hot summer
M~clean the house
T~day trip?
W~craft ~activity day?
TH~library
F~clean the house~laundry
S~
S~church
With no plan my kids might end up like thisOr like this

I am looking forward to no alarm clock!
{at least no electrical alarm clock since as you know I have some early risers and morning people…}

So take your warning from yesterday and get your plans together so you can enjoy the long hot days of summer
go hug your kids and ask their expectations for summer, it might surprise you what they really want to do
jen

P.S. no kids were harmed during these photos, they actually chose to climb in the cage all on their own.

Memorial Day

Thank You
To all the families who sent a loved one to fight for our freedom
Thank youhttp://militaryfactory.com/american_war_deaths.asp
Please check that link to see the number of families who lost a son or daughter, a brother or sister, a husband or a friend.
It is amazing how many people gave their life for our freedom and for our country.
Thank you
jen

How Do you… Dinner

Dinner’s Ready
I know we are a large family who is busy but we eat together at the diningroom table about 5 nights a week.  Every Wednesday dinner C is gone because he is the tech person for youth group and has to be there for the praise team and the band for sound checks and mic checks.  About once a week Keith is at a school function so he misses dinner with the family, but for having a few athletes a drama kid and a school administrator, we do our best to eat together sitting down as a family every night.  It helps that early on {as in the beginning of their lives} we decided that our children would be involved in only 1 activity per season, so there would not be practice for 2 or 3 different sports or activities running at the same time, running our lives.  We have had a week or so of overlaps but by in large we have stuck to that policy and we seem to be functioning happily in that routine.  This is not to say having your child in multiple activities is wrong for YOUR family, it is just not right for OUR family.  And our fence is in our yard, not in your yard…

Every day after school I am asked at least 4 times {By guess who? the boys…} “what’s for dinner” and if I don’t have a clue I get frustrated with the question.  I find for me and the boys having a menu posted helps us all.  It reminds me of what I need to pull from the freezer in the morning and it lets the boys know who will be happy for dinner and who will be disappointed by the meal choice.

My menu is pretty easy to follow I use a sheet of lined school paper and make a column of the dates and then on each line put out our meal I am sure my tech or computer awarded kids could make me a fancy menu and print it out, but our printer is out of ink and I guess I’m kind of old school…  It reminds me of  homework papers from “the olden days”.  And I tape the menu to the freezer or pantry door.

Some things are consistent on that menu, EVERY Sunday night we have pancakes, it is easy and everyone likes them.  If I don’t make them the traditionalist drives me crazy all week “I wish we’d have had pancakes on Sunday” or “this would be a good week IF we’d have had pancakes on Sunday night” or “hey mom know what would be good? pancakes on Sunday night”  you get the idea…  The only time we break from that tradition is if there is NO SCHOOL MONDAY then we have wing night.  This tradition originated years ago, and since most of our friends are teachers who enjoy the NO SCHOOL MONDAY this night worked best for everyone, and the child who has to have pancakes loves this change and will not make pancake comments all week-long.  Guess what Sunday Night is??? Wing night!  Before Sunday Night Wing Night, we had Wednesday Night Wing Night when we were up at a college in PA  Keith was taking masters classes and friends of ours were in the suite across the hall also taking classes, when we’d get the kids {at the time it was our 3 and their 2 sweet girls!} to bed on Wednesday night we’d order wings, sit in the hall and laugh more than normal stay up late and have a fun time.  Ahhh those were the summers!

Sunday afternoons is our other constant meal.  We don’t have many leftovers, I save what we do have for our Sunday afternoon meal, before kids I’d make a big meal because that is what we both grew up on but after children we realized that for a smooth afternoon it was better to have leftovers and lunch stuffs so they could nap.  So what little leftovers we have we either eat Sunday afternoon or I throw out.  I do save the potatoes into a big freezer bag where I combine all leftover potatoes to make potato soup, we love it that way there is a variety of flavors in the soup, and since they are all precooked it is a faster soup than normal.  If we have grilled chicken I also freeze those leftovers for chicken soup.

Each week we usually have at least one meal that is meat free.  I am not a big fan of meat and some of the kids could care less, it is usually a pasta dish and a salad but it is meat free and thus less expensive.  I don’t put meat in my spaghetti sauce, we both grew up that way and I never liked it, since I do the cooking Keith grew accustomed to it and we can feed our family a huge pot of spaghetti for a few dollars, since I always buy my pasta as a bo/go and the sauce at Sam’s Club…  We varies between spaghetti or baked ziti or a big pot of potato soup.

My favorite thing to do is to make and freeze meals, so if I am cooking almost any dish that is combined I will double it and make 2 full meals and freeze one in the throw away pans.  These are favorites of the kids, usually some sort of pasta dish, baked pizza, alfredo mushroom chicken pasta, or baked tacos, meatballs for meatball subs, the list is quite large.  I know there are books out there that have huge lists but I have found these are go to meals and they work.  I never label the frozen meals I just pull them out to thaw and then heat and serve and for some reason the boys all get excited when I tell them “I don’t know what’s for dinner, what ever that pan is, is what we are eating…” I guess because all our freezer meals are favorites?

I scratch cook almost all our meals I just grew concerned with the ingredient list of premade meals, first the amount of sodium and then the words I could not pronounce on foods that I should be easily able to say.  Who knew that they all contained weird chemicals?  I have not purchased any boxed meals in years {except plain whole wheat pasta because I have no idea how to make pasta.}

So How do we do Dinner???
we do dinner at the table
 we do home~made dinner
we laugh
we spill
we tell stories
and sometimes tears
Our diningroom was once our living room but at Thanksgiving I hosted and we needed more space so we moved things around I love it, there is more space for our large table and there is no clock so we sit longer and talk longer, I also am not staring at a messy kitchen thinking about getting up to tidy it up.

My only complaint about family dinner at the diningroom table is that I have to stop what ever project is strewn all over the surface and put things away or on a counter some place, so some child can set the table for dinner.

How do you do dinner?
go hug your kids they need your love and enjoy the next family meal with out looking at a clock or thinking about all the things you could be doing instead of sitting still and relaxing for a while.

jen

Honor Roll Time

Honor Roll and Highest Honors awards 
The school year is winding to an end, which means final concerts, programs, and final awards. Tuesday night was upper elementary and middle school honor roll award night.  I am proud of my 2 middle schoolers who earned highest honors meaning that they both carried a 4.0 {or higher} for the entire school year.  Both O and R are taking honors classes, which require more work than the large amount of work they already do for class, for R that meant he had to do the science fair and for O she had to enter essay contests put out be different organizations, she was recognised at the Daughters Of The American Revolution Tea for one of her essays. She received the award for advanced English and the President’s Education Award   She also took a high school math class.  The school also awarded highest grade in each class and funny enough both R and O earned that award for computers.  R also earned highest grade for History. 

The funniest part of the night was listening to the highschool principal praise the perfect attendance kids, saying how he appreciated that these students were always at school, always diligent in coming even the days they didn’t feel their best or the days when they probably should have stayed home… He begins announcing the names telling us there are 8 students who have earned this recognition, as he read through the names, the first 5 students were NOT THERE!!!  Oh it was funny, he had some great comments about how they were probably studying or resting up for school tomorrow.  And all of us in attendance had a good laugh about it.

Thursday chapel was award chapel and C received honor roll for achieving a 3.5 or higher on all his classes.  He had some great classes and some that stretched him.  He took almost all honors classes and excelled in the ones that interested him.  He is relieved to be done with P.E. forever!!!
We were also proud that he received the highschool choir award for Outstanding Leadership.So proud of my kids and the work they have put in for their education this year.  They have taken ownership of their education and already see value in hard work.
Go hug your kids they need your love
jen

Thursday Fun… I know it is only Wednesday…

My kids crack me up with some of the funny things they say and do… 
I decided to write down a few so you can laugh too…

A few nights ago A was in panties and wanted to go up stairs to the girls room I said “you can’t go up stairs in panties”  she stood and looked at me for a long hard second wrinkled her brow, then pulled her panties off and ran to the stairs. {now I know she did not actually say anything, but I am pretty sure she was thinking mom fell off her rocker…}  Girlfriend has problem solving skills already!

J climbed in our bed early one school morning…”Dad, if you don’t get up when the alarm goes off why do you set it for that time?”  Obviously the snooze button wasn’t invented by an 8-year-old.

After an unassisted bath E came to me bundled in a towel and said “smell my towel, now smell my hair”  “do  I smell like the beach? I used the coconut “shampoo” on my hair”  Yeah it was conditioner and I am not proud to say I let her go to bed with conditioned but not shampoo hair and school the next day with over conditioned greasy looking hair.

“Mom today Mr N was my church teacher, he is HIL~A~I~RUS he is so funny, he is funny from my back to my head to my toes, he had everyone laughing.  Last year when I was in pre~K he was our teacher he was only funny from my back to my head…”   Wow I guess he is a funny teacher.

“Mom, today the fire trucks came to school it made my tummy hurt down to my toes.”  The alarms had a short in the system but until the administration was sure it was not a real fire, they evacuated the building before all the alarms were actully going off, fire turcks came and firemen searched the building to be safe,  it was a little scary to my E.

“Mom I can’t stop thinking to go to sleep.”  I’m sorry J think about the beach maybe that will help you go to sleep…”It will just make me want to go back and not go to sleep”  Make a bubble map of the beach in your mind.  “Mom”  {I’m happy to report in the  5 minutes it took me to come check on him he was sleeping}

One afternoon, the boys were sitting on the couch C said something to R who looked at C and asked “did you call me Doris?”

Yesterday I took baby A to our favorite store  Hobby Lobby “I wub bobbybobby”.  We were in the check out line she was being particularly cute even though her hair was a mess of curls and her bow was falling out…  Anyways…  she looked up at the 4th of July display on the wall and pointed to a wooden Uncle Sam and says “yuk mom see Jesus?”  I look up start to laugh and say “no baby that is not Jesus, that is Uncle Sam”  the cashier just burst out laughing.  and all baby A said was “O”
I hope you enjoyed some of the funny things the kids said this week…

go hug your kids they need your love, and listen to them to hear the funny things they have to say to you.
jen

Hey Mom, Watch This

J and the boogie board
Last year at our “beach house” a nice family was checking out the day after we arrived, they had a teenage son and had flown down from Minnesota or some such northern state.  While they were at the beach they purchased a boogie board and skim board for their son to use, they could not take them on the plane home so they gifted them to us.  J was thrilled, as they asked him in particular if he would like to have the skim board, I know they fully intended it to go to all the kids but he took ownership and will “share” it with the others.  He watched YouTube videos on how to throw it, jump on and ride it, he worked very hard and took many spills while learning.  O gave it a shot and had fun trying, she was able to do it after only a few tries, C and R tried a few times but would rather not break a leg or arm trying…

We brought the skim board for the short beach trip.He spent an hour or more running, throwing, jumping, and falling.
He had a blast, and at one point 2 big boys came along with their boards, they’d dig a little sand with their foot and kick sand on the tip and bottom of the board so J began kicking sand on his.  I am not too sure why they did that, they were too far away for me to want to get up out of my beach chair to go and ask them.   He cannot wait for our next trip to the beach so he can practice some more.

I love watching my children work hard at a new thing because they love the feel of accomplishment.
jen 

Beach Day

 Beach Day
They say salt water fixes many things…
tears
sweat
the sea

“They” might be right.
I needed a beach day, I’ve needed one for weeks now
My sister had 1 personal day left
We took our beach day

We have a favorite beach
We have a favorite person to rent from
She was booked…
We found a different place, 4 miles farther south, I don’t like change, but I do like the beach and for 1 night it was going to be okay.
We went out early and Keith brought the 5 school kids with him.

But getting to the beach took a lot of work
We were going to leave bright and early.  Okay, 9am, after I dropped all 5 kids at school, O woke up her mouth was killing her, she needed to stay home. I had all the kids get ready for school then grab their list{I am a list maker and I make them for each child to pack from, I am sure that some could pack with out the list but I know exactly what we need and how much to bring we were only going to be gone for 24 hours…}  Each child was super excited and I feared that the crying would start when they found out I was going early, nope!

O came down from her room to tell me a bracket had popped off her tooth already and I saw that 9am start time fading away…  I took the 4 kids to school, came home and got a few things done while O got ready to go to the ortho to have them fix that bracket.  In the past I have just showed up at my ortho’s office to have them fix a bracket or wire, but in the 2 years we did not go to them, I forgot that they are actually closed on Friday’s.  We drove there right before 9am and the parking lot was empty.  I tried the door, not too sure why I did though, the lights were off and the parking lot was empty.
No luck.
O texted my sister who said no problem the highway we were going to use was closed for an accident she’d rather wait at home than in traffic on the interstate.  We waited over an hour searching different routes before deciding to leave, the more direct route was still closed.  We left almost 2 hours after our planned time.  We went the l o n g way.  We were laughing, talking, eating our lunch and going about on our merry way, we were close, very close when we saw a state trooper on the other side of the road, he made a U-turn in the grassy median and we pulled into the slow lane like everyone else around us.  He pulled in behind us and flashed his bright blue lights and we knew he had turned around for us, actually her, since she was driving.  We sat there and waited for him, he was very nice asking the routine questions and when he asked for her registration I know for sure he realized just how clueless we both are on car issues, I opened her glove box and right away pulled out some “girl things” and then stacks of paper for auto repair places, oil change info and a book from the car itself, I asked him what it would look like, when I finally found one it was last years, he took her stuff and left us to laugh at the difficult time we were having to get to the beach, braces problems, traffic problems and now a police problem.  We were speeding and had no idea, we were with the flow of traffic, I think, but we were just so glad to be going to the beach, the first bridge was almost in sight…  He was a very kind trooper and gave her a ticket for not carrying her registration chatted for a few more minutes then he let us go.  The ticet was a lot less than it could have been, a lot less, but lesson learned after putting the year sticker on your lisence plate you must put that paper in your glove box.  Who knew?  Apparently not us…
Ahhh the beachThe beach at nightdigging holes, building castlesdigging more holesplaying in the waterfree entertainment
we were entertained by this guy who was all alone doing kicks, jumps, karate? dance, cartwheels, and hand stands…
weirdgood~bye beach
can’t wait to see you again
next time I promise we’ll go to our regular place
and I promise we’ll stay a while

we had a wonderful 2 days at the beach, some difficulty getting there but it was worth the effort
How was your weekend?  Relaxing or busy with house projects?
Go hug your kids, the need your love!
jen

Big Changes for O

Big Changes

For O

3 weeks ago
I took O to her dentist to get her teeth cleaned…A simple cleaning that took 4 and a half hours {torture}
but in that time they found a very large cavity,
which we had filled.
OUCH!!!

2 weeks ago
We met with our orthodontist who formulated a plan.
Which involved 4 teeth being pulled.
We opted for 1 now, the wisdom teeth we will wait until they come in.

1 week ago
We met with our oral surgeon to get that tooth pulled.
OUCH!!!

3 days ago
We had spacers placed between her back teeth
ouch!

Yesterday
We went to the orthodontist for bracesBeforeTaking a  BreakAlmost doneTa Da
We have braces.
We have mouth pain.
OUCH!!!!!!!!!
We are hungry and tired of pudding already.

We will have beautiful teeth in less than 2 years.
Until then, no gum, no popcorn, no corn on the cob, no gummy candy…
No worries she never chews gum or eats candy.

So tonight O will not sleep well, she has been very quiet, it just hurts to talk.
poor baby girl!

We signed our child up for almost 2 years of torture
The price you pay for beauty.
We signed away our $$ for that beauty.
The price you pay for your beautiful child.

Go hug your kids, they need your love
 jen

20 years ago…

Can it really be 20 years?
Late last week Keith told me we were going out on Monday Night, he grinned and was excited with his plans.  He instructed me to be ready after school was over we’d leave as soon as he could get away,  I was ready he could not get away…
When he finally got home he asked  

K~do you know why I’m taking you out tonight?
J~I assume Mother’s Day with out the crowds…
K~nope
K~do you know what today is
J~ May 14th 2012
K~a n d?
J~ May 14th 1991 you asked me if I was interested in you enough that we should date.
{we over~thought and over~talked everything…}
K~oh, what else
J~May 15th is the day you asked me to marry you
K~do you just know that?
J~uh yes
K~ it was 20 years ago on May 15th that I asked you to marry me
so I thought we’d go out to celebrate tonight

So we did!  I was quite surprised that he remembered, he confessed he saw the calendar page from his calendar that I saved of the day and a few other things in our wedding album.

20 years ago we were staying with a friend and her family, we were taking summer classes for college, I was really just there because I wanted to spend time with him, he was trying to get a few classes out-of-the-way.  We’d leave early in the morning to head down to the college {about a 45 minute ride} and be home later that evening,we had a lot of laughs and some great talks those long car rides in her “beast”  It was such a fun time in my life!  The night of May 15th we were alone in the house, L’s dad and brother went to a game, her sister went to the movies and she and her mom went shopping.  They all knew, I however, was clueless…  Keith made popcorn {my all time favorite treat} and we snuggled up to watch Awakenings, as we were eating the popcorn I kept hitting the bottom of the bowl.  He had stopped eating and was watching me, I tried to cover the fact that I wanted to devour the entire bowl, and noticed he’d stopped eating, he pointed to the bottom of the bowl, there was a ring box.  I was ecstatic and shocked all at once, oh I knew we were going to get married I just figured it would be a while before he asked me.  Her family all came back soon after I had the ring they were excited for us! 
20 years is a long time,and while there are things I would change during those 20 years I would never change the one with whom I spent them.Happy Engagement 20 years ago!
go hug your kids, they need your love
jen