Somehow we have to channel this

My 5 1/2 year-old son is, well, a nag. There is simply no other way to put it. This child doesn't let go of an idea, question, comment, complaint, etc - ever. Distraction doesn't work, at least not permanently. He'll go along with the diversion for a while, but then immediately u-turns back to his topic du jour. The other night, he wanted us to do something for him on the computer involving giving him a password. We're having pop-up problems due to the downloads and such being done by the kids, so we told him no. Even as we patiently responded to the "why can't I have a password" pleas, he continued on with it. For, like, an hour. Never gave up, nor even diminished the amplitude of the whines and pleas. I think it finally took bedtime to get it out of his head. Truthfully, I was surprised when he didn't wake up asking the same thing.

This is just one example of the DAILY nags he performs. Somehow, somewhere, there is a good side to this; some sort of positive quality that, if "channeled" properly, will serve him well as an adult. But for the love of you-know-who, I don't know how to do that. For now, he just drives us crazy. I love him like the dickens, but sheesh, learn to take "no" for an answer. How do you teach a kid that?

On another front, I was helping out in M's classroom yesterday when one of the kids had to be removed for a behavior issue. He normally is the sweetest little guy, but he has some kind of issue, that, frankly, I don't know about and it's none of my business. But he's usually off in his own world, and doesn't like to do his work and, in particular, write (we encourage him by us writing a word, then he writes a word). Apparently, his behavior is deteriorating. Yesterday, the teacher simply told him that if he was stuck, he needed to ask for help, rather than just sitting there doing nothing. He wouldn't do it, and he became pretty unpleasant, even calling the teacher some names (nothing horrible, but things like 'meanie'). Since the rest of the class couldn't focus, someone was called from the office to remove him. That's when it really got bad; he had a pretty bad outburst. And the teacher told me that last week he had an even worse episode that really frightened the class, especially M. She hid under a table. So I had a talk with her about it after school, and reassured her that nothing bad was happening to anyone, that they just took the child somewhere where he could calm down. I think she thought that he was being taken to a torture chamber or something. I was surprised she never told me about it last week, but when I brought it up to her last night, she really had a lot to say about it. So I'm glad I was able to talk to her about it. I don't want her to think that going to the "office" is always a terrible thing.

When I was a kid, in about 1st grade (M's age), I was summoned to the principal's office. OMG, what have I done? I was absolutely terrified. I thought for sure that I would be given some sort of beating or something. Turns out they just had a question for me, but by then I was so worked up about it that I dissolved into tears while I was there. Obviously, it traumatized me, since I still remember it so clearly.

Isn't it funny the things we remember from childhood? Lots of stuff our parents forget about almost as soon as it happens, but our little minds retained it forever. As a mom, it really makes me think about what I do; I never know what seemingly insignificant event, statement, or detail will become a lifelong memory for my kids. Even now, they'll surprise me with "mom, do you remember when you/we.....?" Uh, no. They do, and they've been thinking about it, whatever it was, for quite a while.

She Stayed

The Divine Miss M decided that she was just too busy this weekend to run away. "Maybe another time", she said.

On another note, both M & L have discovered this website www.creationsbyyou.com.
This is a site where the kids can author and illustrate their own book, and then get it "published" (actually bound and printed). A friend of mine's daughter has one of these books, and they turned out really neat. This is so up M's alley; she has done nothing else since Saturday when she first found out about it. She loves to write and draw. L is giving it a go, too, and I'm actually rather impressed with what he's coming up with. His first title is "Max and the Magic Car". I don't know what the inspiration for this is, and I hope it's not already taken, but I think it's kind of neat.

Some of you may remember M's Spongebob drawing - a while back she did this totally from memory and it just blew us away:



So I think we have an artist in the family! Well, at least until she runs away......

Cookies, cookies, everywhere

M is a first-year Brownie Girl Scout this year. She was a Daisy last year, but ----

Daisies DON"T sell cookies.

This year, her troop of 11 1st graders sold more cookies than any other Girl Scout troop, of any level, in our local service unit of about 12 troops. Since I'm the troop's cookie mom, I had to organize all the orders and pick up the cookies yesterday. Well, actually Rich and I had to pick them up, and we needed a big truck (including a lift-gate) to do it. Our little girls sold 166 cases (or 1992 boxes) of cookies! That's a LOT of thin mints, samoas, do-si-dos, tagalongs, etc. And they're all in my front yard, in the truck, right now. (I take that back - 4 thin mints, 2 tagalongs, and 1 do-si-do are in my tummy by now ;)

If my neighbors only knew of the prized stash sitting in my yard......

Today I've got to sort all those boxes to give to the girls. That should help work off the ones I ate yesterday. My diet doesn't work real well if I'm pushing cookies into my face..... surprise, surprise.

Oh, and I'll post an update on our runaway as soon as I know what she's doing. She still says she's running away to the back yard, but L is so upset about that that she might reconsider. Or at least take him with her.

She's leaving us

Yesterday evening, M decided to be in her bitchy-princess mood, and decided she was NOT going to do her homework. Uh-uh, no way. Well, since I'm bigger than her, and can talk circles around any kind of kid-logic she throws at me, I eventually got her to sit down and do it. BUT, she announced that she was going to run away. I did my normal, "I'm sorry to hear that", and "we'll miss you", etc, but she stuck to her plan. Even after we kissed and made up, so to speak, she told Daddy at bedtime:

"Uh, Dad, I love you, but I'm still running away Saturday".
"Where are you going, M?"
"Outside"

(we have 10 acres, so "outside" can be quite a ways away)

"Where outside"?
"Out to those trees out there" (about 100 yds out behind the house)
"Well, be careful".
"I will, Dad".

When she got off the school bus today, she again pronounced her intent to run away tomorrow. Something tells me, though, that it will slip her mind. She has cheerleading in the morning, then straight to a friend's house to play, then home in the evening. It will be dark by then, we now have GIRL SCOUT COOKIES, and she'll see how good she's got it. I guarantee it.

But then again, she's a pretty darn stubborn little thing......

Woohoo!

I just got word that my flute choir, "Flutes on the Brink" has been invited to perform at the National Flute Association Convention this summer in Pittsburgh. As geeky as that sounds, trust me, it's a big deal. Over 3000 flutists attend this convention. Not that all of them will hear us, because we are a very small item in a very full convention agenda. But since the choir is only 4 years old and has never done anything of this magnitude, we're very thrilled. We'll be playing a lunchtime concert on Sunday, August 13. Now we have to decide what we're playing, etc; we have to turn in our program by the end of March.

This is really cool!

After the 'big" snow

The view from our front porch this morning.

Saturday was the first big snowstorm for us, after a VERY mild winter so far. The sun was shining all yesterday afternoon, which helped melt a lot of it. This morning, the kids are out of school (why, I don't know), so E went out to explore the icicles that formed overnight. He went to pull one off, and got this big chunk instead.

Remember the Scene from "Marathon Man"...

..... where the dentist is "working" on Dustin Hoffman? Well, that's what I felt like this morning.

Not Dustin, either.
The wacko dentist.

L woke up this morning with a bottom tooth dangling from his mouth by the tiniest little strip of flesh. It was really bothering him; he wouldn't eat, and didn't want to go to school. So dh convinced him that we needed to pull it out, because it would hurt more if we didn't, and what if it came out at school and was lost?! Anyway, at the last minute, L changed his mind and wouldn't let daddy near his mouth. So, we basically had to tag team him, with me holding his arms, dh holding his head, M screaming "don't hurt my brother!", and L screaming bloody murder. It was.....HORRIBLE. If L isn't in therapy later in life over this, I will be. The tooth, however, came out very neatly, and quickly. After about 2 minutes of screaming (and hugs), L got over it and ate his breakfast and was showing off the tooth.

Meanwhile, all the construction guys working on our house probably called social services on us. It really sounded like we were torturing the child.

Super Bowl 2006

The big party was yesterday. (Oh yeah, and there was a football game, too). Since the Redskins weren't playing, I really didn't care who won, but I suppose I had a small preference for the underdog Seahawks to win. But since I think I watched about 5 minutes total of the game, I couldn't tell you anything other than the final score.

We had close to 15o people at the party this year; a good-size turnout. Waay too much food, as usual, and this year marked the return of an overload of tortilla chips. For some reason, we didn't have ANY tortilla chips, this year, just about every other dish brought to the party involved them in some way. Now, I love Tostitos as much as anyone, but, sheesh, a little variety would have been nice. Okay, 'nuff about the stupid chips. I think everyone had a good time; we had about 20,000 (or so it seemed) children running through the house (because they could care less about the game going on in the tent outside - Xbox was what they were after). But for the most part, all of them were well behaved, nothing seems to have been broken or stolen, and they made sure that there we no leftover cookies. Late last night and this morning, hubby and I were picking up, cleaning up, that sort of thing. The tent comes down tomorrow, the floor hopefully a few days after that.

And next year, we'll do it all again. But next year, GO SKINS!!!!!!!

Hi, Remember Me?

It's only been, what, THREE months? Again, I fell prey to the "why would anyone want to hear about my pitiful life?" syndrome. Well, after thinking about it for a while, I decided that this is mostly for me, anyway, and anyone who feels inclined to take a peek once in a while. So, HI MOM & DAD!

On the kid front, everyone is doing great. L got his first-ever report card yesterday and was just beside himself. He gets that way about many things, but this was his very own REPORT CARD! I wasn't surprised. They don't get grades in Kindergarten, but his "marks" were very good. He's very advanced in math and reading. He needs to work on his comprehension a bit, but overall, he's doing great. M had a similarly impressive report card. Both of their teachers had very nice things to say about them. E, my struggling high-schooler, didn't fare so well, but there were definite signs of improvement. I'm afraid Harvard will not be in his future (oh, DARN!, say I in my most lock-jawed, Thurston Howell voice).

Our home is now in shambles as the renovation got going about 3 weeks ago. So far, so good, but of course it's not happening fast enough. I want it NOW! (my alias is Veruca Salt).

King and Princess

We are now home from saving the kingdom from total ruin....and scoring a whole bunch of candy along the way.

Candy has been sorted and tallied (by M, my mathmatician), and King and Princess are now resting peacefully, after the royal tooth scrubbing.

Good times were had by all.....

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Everywhere

Last night was our annual pumpkin carving with Grandmom and Granddad. M & L look forward to this every year, and this year picked out especially nice pumpkins. Due to the lack of rain around here during growing season, the pumpkins are especially dense. They weigh a ton! But thanks to our handy carving kit, and a good bit of perserverance, the results were great.

L especially surprised me. For a 5 yr old, he has a tremendous amount of tenacity. HE wanted to carve that pumpkin all by himself and, doggone it, he did. It took, well, forever, but he got it done. M was happy to let me assist.

As an added bonus this year, the seeds were very big and plump, so I decided to give toasting them a try. We cleaned the pulp off of them, rinsed them, then let them dry on cookie sheets overnight. This morning, I tossed them with some olive oil and sprinkled some salt on, then toasted them in the oven for about 25 minutes. Boy, are they yummy! I've never had them before, and I am very pleasantly surprised at the results. They sort of taste like popcorn. Of course, I have more than we could ever eat, so I think I take some to the office to share.

Long time, no see

Sorry, I've gotten so wrapped up in stuff, I've totally dissed my blog! Anyway, lots of goings-on in the past couple of weeks. My wonderful kitty, Mozart, had to be declawed. He is absolutely destroying our furniture, and hubby pretty much gave me an ultimatum: either get him declawed or get rid of him. When I asked our vet about it, she said "my three cats are all declawed". Plus, the procedure is now done with laser, so it's much less traumatic for the kitty. Mozart came home without any bandages on his feet. Since he's a bit older, it's taken him longer to get back to normal, but he's fine now; eating normally and back to his lovable self.

Our big news is that we're finally going to do the big kitchen renovation we've been wanting to do for a while now. We're going to move our kitchen; it's now in the center of the house (a rancher) and we're moving it to the side of the house, next to the entrance from the garage. We found a kitchen planner we like, who also is a design/build guy, and he drew up some plans that we really liked. I'm going to have one big, honkin' kitchen! We heard from the bank that we're being approved for the financing, so it looks like we're really going to do it. Exciting, but kind of scary at the same time. This is NOT going to be cheap. Along with moving the kitchen comes changing the dining room, and converting part of the existing kitchen to a bigger laundry room and adding a shower to the half bath. My current laundry room is more appropriately called a "laundry hallway". I can't do any sorting or folding there now since there's just no room. So a bigger one has always been a wish of mine.

Hopefully, in about 3 months, we'll have a new kitchen! Just in time for our big Super Bowl party!

Phew

Why does time fly by so fast?! I swear, it doesn't seem like it was a week ago that I last posted. I had a good week, but I was so busy, it just went screaming past me. I woke up this morning, and the first thought I had was "I don't have anything scheduled today!" (at least nothing that I would consider "work").

Here's what my week looked like:
Monday - practiced 9-10:30, volunteered at school 11-12, went to work 12:30 to 3:30, drive E to tutoring at 6, went back to pick him up at 7, dropped him at home and went to a flute choir rehearsal 7:30-9.
Tuesday - practiced in the morning, went to work after lunch, dentist w/ L at 5 (one tiny cavity to be filled next week - bummer), then rehearsal for the student flute choir I conduct from 7 -8.
Wednesday - flute quartet rehearsal 10-12, work from 12:30 to 2:15, to a student's house to give a lesson 2:30-3:15, thankfully M's soccer practice was cancelled so 5-6 became suddenly free, so I actually cooked dinner, then church choir practice 7:30 to 9.
Thursday - kids didn't have school; rehearsal from 10-12, then back home to be with the kids (fit in some practicing). Gave flute lessons from 5:30 to 7:45.
Friday - Practiced in the am, volunteered at school 1:30 -3:30, to work for about an hour, then home to cook dinner. Hosted a small get together in the evening.
Today - soccer at 10:30-11:30, more soccer from 12:30-2, church hayride at 5.

Am I just being a big baby, or is that a lot of stuff to be doing? Seriously, I really wonder if everyone's life is that hectic. I suppose most people don't have so many evening activities, but being a musician, the nature of the beast is that we rehearse in the evenings. Thank goodness for my unbelievably supportive and understanding (non-musician) husband. I think if the tables were turned and HE was the one going out every night for rehearsals, I wouldn't have nearly the patience he does.

Truly, the only reason I've been able to make this music thing work at all is because of him. So on the rare occasion that he says "honey, maybe you're trying to do too much", I pay attention. I sure don't want to lose his support.

A Laugh Like No Other

Today, while hubby and I were having a conversation, L (our 5 yr old) came in the room, still in his jammies and sort of dramatically threw himself on the floor. Not in a tantrum, or even an unhappy way. He was just being a clown. We started giggling at him, and he let loose with one of his belly-laughs that would charm even the grumpiest of trolls.

I just marvel sometimes at the ability of kids, and L in particular, to laugh the way they do. It's a full body experience that just carries along everyone in the room. You're simply helpless against it; you WILL laugh along with him whether you want to or not. His whole face lights up, and his crooked little smile, with accompanying dimples, sucks you in. You're a goner......

Hubby commented after all this that he wonders if L will remember times like that when he grows up. I sure hope so. More importantly, I hope he NEVER loses that laugh.

Reunions

This evening was my husband's 25th high school reunion. Since the "biggies" are far as reunions go are the 10th and 20th, there weren't a lot of people there. But probably about 60-70 actual graduates, plus their respective families, attended. The reunion was supposed to be held at our house, actually in our yard (we have 10 acres, so plenty of room), but because it decided to rain today for the first time in about 2 months, it had to be moved indoors. Thankfully (!) the local fire department (of which one of the classmates is a captain) allowed the reunion to be held at the station. The fire dept even acted as caterers, and did a great job cooking up chicken, beef, hamburgers, hot dogs and sides. I never knew our fire dept did such a thing, but apparently all those spaghetti dinners and pancake breakfasts aren't for naught.

I had a better time than I expected to; truthfully, it's just plain not much fun to attend a spouse's high school reunion, unless you happened to have also attended that school. I get tired of hearing about all of hubby's escapades when he was 16 years old. But every now and then, I was able to strike up a conversation, usually with another spouse, and discover an interesting person. But I think the biggest pleasure was seeing my husband, who was friends with almost everyone in his class but not "popular" in the high school sense of the word, and was neither the best student academically nor, ahem, clean-living-wise, absolutely in his element. Since he does special events, he had a big part in putting on the reunion. His sound system, our moon bounce for the kids, and so on. He had a really good time. He loves, and I mean loves, showing off his kids (and me, apparently). As I'm typing this, he's over at one of the guy's (the fire dept captain) house for an after-reunion party.

While at the reunion, on the moon bounce, M lost another tooth, her 7th thus far. She came running up to me, with blood coming from her mouth. After picking my heart up off the floor, I was able to understand that an already loose tooth had come out, but she couldn't find it. Very important if you want the tooth fairy to come. Luckily, one of the other kids there found the tooth so it's tucked safely under her pillow right now awaiting exchange by the tooth fairy.

Off to the big sailboat show tomorrow.....assuming it doesn't rain again.

Ho Hum

Nuthin' much to report lately, and that's good. No major excitement on the home front. I tell you, though, the days just whip by.

I often wish I could have a few days by myself, or just me and hubby, in which we don't have to do anything we don' want to. Just sit around, read books, do whatever strikes us. But the truth is, we'd probably be bored out of our minds. We're just too used to a busy life.

One of these days, I'm going to keep a detailed log of everything, and I mean everything I do for a few days. Even though I keep a calendar on my PalmPilot (which I LOVE!), it doesn't show everything I wind up doing, only what I've scheduled. Big difference. I think I'd surprise even myself.

A pain in the neck...

...literally. I'm tired of my head and neck hurting!! I woke up this morning with another one of my lovely headaches - they start in the right side of my neck and work their way up until my whole head hurts. And nothing gets rid of them. I've made myself sick a few times taking too much stuff to try to get rid of the pain. I have a couple of theories about why I get these headaches (keeping in mind that I've always been headache-prone). First, caffeine. I don't drink a ton of caffeinated beverages, but I think I"m becoming more and more sensitive to it over the years. Last week I tried and experiment - I had a cup of tea for breakfast, then limited my caffeine intake to only one soda in the afternoon. Amazingly, I didn't have any headaches. Yesterday, my plan was shot to pieces and I had THREE sodas plus my tea. So, basically double my caffeine intake. And voila, I have a headache today.

Also, my flute playing seems to be the main culprit of the neck thing. I've found that if I stand up when I practice, especially for long periods of time (2 hours or so), my neck is killing me for the rest of the day and usually the next. But if I sit down, for which I use an exercise ball, my neck is fine. A friend of mine told me about using the exercise ball, but she recommended it for breathing. These balls are wonderful for making you sit the "right" way - all aligned properly and such; but in my case, it keeps me from somehow straining my neck. I'm thinking about taking some classes in Alexander Technique, which is a body-awareness method. It teaches you how to align your body properly to avoid or correct injuries. Since the flute isn't exactly the more ergonomically designed of the musical instruments, flutists tend to be frequest students of Alexander Technique. We hurt a lot. And for me, it doesn't help either that I have a slight curvature of my spine, resulting in my left shoulder being a bit higher than my right. So my whole body is really slightly out of alignment from the get-go. I've seen a chiropractor a few times, and am considering going back, but I don't know. Having my back cracked kind of gives me the willies. But massage, now THAT'S a different story. If I could find a good massage therapist, especially one that works on musicians a lot, I'd be there probably weekly.

Or train my husband to do it....there's a thought.....

I'm no Galloping Gourmet

Yesterday I finally got around to talking to a friend of mine who is a personal chef. Yep, that's right, someone that will cook food for my family. It just astounds me how many nights I'm not home due to rehearsal that I don't feed my family properly. My friend Lynn is a highly regarded personal chef in the area, and starting next Wednesday, she is going to provide two meals a week for us. I CAN'T WAIT!!!!! For one thing, variety. She has a list of choices a mile long. We'll get to try new things that I would never dream of cooking. Another big reason is that I won't have to feel guilty about giving the kids a bowl of cereal or chicken nuggets for dinner. THAT won't win any good-mommying awards. They'll have a balanced dinner (well, that is IF they eat it). Lynn's going to bring 4 meals on Wednesday, that we'll have for two weeks on Mondays and Wednesdays; nights that I am running around all day and then have rehearsals in the evening.

I like to cook, but don't have a lot of time to do so, and I absolutely despise always having to think about what we're going to eat. Really. I wake up in the morning and think, "hmmm, what will we have for dinner tonight?" - when I haven't even eaten breakfast yet! I just get tired of it, and sometimes just say #(%# it, let's have pizza or chinese. Blech.

So bring on the bourbon brown sugar flank steak with garlic chive mashed potatoes.... I'm so ready for it.

It's the Pits

Last night was another performance of Carousel, the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic musical that is being presented by a local community theater. I'm playing in the pit orchestra (2nd flute/piccolo). It's been since high school that I've played in a pit, well, sort of; I played in the orchestra for a couple of Gilbert & Sullivan operettas in the early 90's. I really enjoy it, but this one is a bit frustrating because all the musicians in the pit are volunteers, and thus are primarily amateurs. Not that amateurs can't play well, they often can, but in general, the orchestra could be better. Especially intonation! Yikes! It's impossible to play in tune because there are so MANY different pitches going on; if you're in tune with one player, you'll be way out of tune with another. But for the most part, it's a lot of fun. Since we don't really have a "pit" in the true sense of the word, we're just off to the side of the stage, I have yet to actually SEE any of the show. I can hear the spoken lines when we're not playing, but I can't hear the singers because we play while they sing. I had to go online to find the storyline of Carousel to figure out what was going on. I'm no theater expert, but I will say that the cast of the show seems to be doing a marvelous job.

And I'm getting a lot of reading done during the down time.......
And they give us candy......
.....which I can't eat until after the show so I don't blow sticky sugar through my flute....

"You are my sunshine....."

A really cool thing happened last night. M again pulled her "I can't go to sleep" routine, but I came in and sat down on her bed and wound up singing her a lullaby. When she was a tiny baby, we had to drive in the car quite a bit to pick up her big brother, E. When she would get fussy, I would sing a song that was really a combination of "I Love You Conrad (insert child's name instead of Conrad): and "You are My Sunshine". She would stay quiet as long as I sang that song...over....and over....and over...and over - sometimes for an hour or so. My voice would HURT. To this day, my kids think Sunshine is their song, that I made up just for them. Whenever they hear it, like on VeggieTales, they say "Mom! They stole your song!".

Last night I literally sang my 6 yr old daughter to sleep. I watched her drift off as I sang it. I got a very precious gift; a glimpse of the baby she used to be.

As much as I marvel at the little people they are turning into, physically, intellectually, and emotionally, it is really neat to be reminded that a simple lullaby can do amazing things. Turn back time, for one.