Birthday for the 12 year-old boy

A couple weekends ago we had a sleep over birthday party for our 12 year-old son.  And by birthday party I really mean is half a dozen 12 year old boys running around my house shooting each other with Nerf guns and being just generally wild.

Rewind to the beginning of the day.  Which I spent as the crazy mom following my boys around getting them to clean up the last bit of toys and stuff so the house would be clean for the party. 

Letter to Santa

Santa does not come to our house.  I decided when I had my first child I didn't want to do Santa, because as a single mom not knowing how much money I would have for gifts.  I didn't want the stress.  My mother was horrified by my decision and decided to do Santa for my daughter and then the rest of my kids after they were born.  Our family does gifts on Yule and the kids get gifts from Santa and Grandma on Christmas.  This has actually worked out really well.  The kids get to have the magic of Santa and I get to be more relaxed.

Yule Advent Calendar

When I was a kid I loved opening the little windows on the advent calendar my mom bought for us.  I loved reading the story in side each little window, and knowing how many days were left until the big day!  This is something I've always wanted to share with my own children, but I can never find Yule themed advent calendar.  I've also thought about making my own.  I wanted it to be something I could reuse every year and fun.  Thank you Pinterest, for helping me find exactly what I was looking for.

New York trip with my girl

Last week on Saturday my daughter and I went to NYC with her Girl Scout troop.  I found out a couple weeks before the trip that we were riding the bus down with the Girl Scouts, but we were on our own once we got to the city.  Which for us was great!  We spent Friday night finishing our plans. 

The trip down was quite interesting.  I brought my mp3 player with me for something to do on the bus.  I was curious about what all the menus on the mp3 did, that I started playing with them.  At one point I ended up formatting my mp3 player.  I had No idea what that meant, so I showed it to Ladybug.  She said "Oh my god mom!  What have you done?!?" 

Thinking about going on Strike

I recently found and read an article about Jessica Stilwell, a mom who went on strike.  While I was reading I began to realize that my own family is suffering from me doing to much for them.
My children have chores that they need to do.  We even rotate the jobs around weekly so they aren't doing the same thing all the time.  They are also supposed to clean up after themselves.  Lately my husband and I have had to nag to get the chores done.  And I'm often cleaning up their messes after them. 
This past week has been incredibly stressful because I've been spending alot of time with my Grandma in the hospital.  I've had very little time to do what I normally do for my family, and NO time to do the extras.  On Friday and Saturday I was sick, so nothing was done.  I spent almost all of Sunday, with my husband, cleaning our house from top to bottom.  This afternoon when I came home from work I could barely see the kitchen table and the dishes were beginning to pile up in the sink.  In fact as I'm sitting here writing this, my oldest is cooking herself something to eat before her field hockey game.  I can almost assure you that when I head out into the kitchen there will be more dishes left about.
I'm beginning to think that a strike might be in order.

~Earthy Mom

How do you say goodbye?




My Grandmother had her 96th birthday last month.  She is an amazing woman.  She has survived cancer, a heart attack, and losing the love of her life to cancer.  She has eight grandchildren, 10 great grandchildren, one soon to be two great, great grandchildren, and a great granddog.  My Grandma helped raise me so my parents could work. She took me to school, and sat outside my classroom because I cried and wanted to go home.  She drove me to my after school activities.  She is like my second mom.
My Grandma is a woman I aspire to be.  She's strong, speaks her mind, courageous, stubborn, and not afraid of doing anything. 

I've got the Blues

I've been struggling with some serious negativity over the last couple weeks and it's got me really down.  It's also affecting my family.  There is much grumpiness going around.

I've almost always embraced being a mom and everything that goes with it.  Sure there are times when the kids are driving me crazy or I'm feeling stressed from all I need to do for/with them.  But generally I Love being a mom and caring for and doing for my family.

So what's changed?  I just don't know. 

I could say it's our crazy schedule:

First Day of School

Last week the kids had their first day back to school.  Two days before were spent prepping for the first day.  I made Rice crispie treats and chocolate chip granola bites.  The chocolate chip granola bites have been a big hit. I'll have have to make some more.  I also think I may have bought out the grocery store of fruits, bread, and other lunch making items.  Three of the four kids regularly bring lunch to school.  My older son seems to like school lunches better than homemade ones, so we don't fight him. 

I started a first day of school breakfast/snack tradition back when the Ladybug started kindergarten.  I make them cinnamon rolls.  I buy the Pillsbury kind and just cook them up in the morning.  I've thought about making my own, but I'm not sure if I would be able to find the time.  Either way the kids love the treat and look forward to it every year.  One year I forgot and they let me know.  I had to buy two rolls this year.  Otherwise my husband and I wouldn't have gotten one, let alone the two we let everyone have.  The extras we heated up a couple days later so the kids could all have one more.
My husband made lunches for all the kids.  A treat for the older kids.  We usually only make Potato's lunch for two reasons.  One he moves in super slow motion and two he's still young.  We hope as he gets older he'll be making his own lunch too.  Sometimes I try and slip a little note in their lunches when they're not looking, for a little surprise.

Lunches were made, bags packed, breakfast was had, everyone was dressed, and made it out the door in time to catch the bus.  I'd say we had a very smooth first morning.  My fears were definitely less.  My husband and I even left the house on time to get to our jobs.  I am fortunate to be home when the kids come home from school.  The girls get home first and both of them had a good day.  Duckling was please to tell me that she knew at least one person in all of her classes.  Ladybug was happy to share that she saw lots of her friends.  Monkey came home as I was leaving to pick up Potato.  We stopped in the driveway and chatted a bit.  He had a good day and was happy to see his friends at school.  He likes his teachers, especially his scout leader who teaches science.  Potato and I talked in the car about his day.  He sits with one of his best friends in class, and his teacher is super nice.

The first day turned out great!  Now I hope the next 179 days of school are just as good.

 

~Earthy Mom