Extended Family

So, last night's FHE went OK.

It might have started off bumpy. The kids were a bit grumpy and uncooperative going into dinner, so I was considering aborting the whole thing. They really wanted FHE, so they got themselves into a better mood, and I willingly decided to give it a try.

I was looking forward to doing a project together that didn't involve foam cutout monkeys or hot glueing teepees together. I had found a little pack of papers and stickers that all matched at the craft store that were already close to the size I'd need for the photo book, and that got me excited, too. (It's the little things!)

So, don't rush over to my house to see our end result. I made some pictures of it for you:

It's interesting to note that Harlan has a gift for scrapbooking. He did Keni's page, which is the best one (it's hard to tell from this picture), imho.

There were a few disappointing parenting moments when someone randomly stuck stickers on pages that didn't make any sense, and I told them to stop. I'm sure that they felt they couldn't please me and I engrained that into their little psyches forever. And the boys kept pushing the photos into the carpet with their little knees and elbows and got scolded for wrinkling up the photos. So, it was a bit tense going.

But it's done and Joel seemed really proud of it. And I won't have to do another one anytime soon.

I'll be too busy repairing everyone's self-esteem.

My problem with craft stores...

For me, going to the craft store (I won't name names) is a nightmare. I finally realized why tonight. It's all about choices. There are too many. Whenever I think of how great it would be if I would just do scrapbooks and be creative and make memory books of all the great times we're having as a family while the kids are young and would benefit from knowing how special they are and memorable our times together are, I go to the craft store to pick up a few pretty papers to glue all my photos onto. My intentions are right. My desire is genuine. But as soon as I walk in the doors of the store, I'm flooded with anxiety. Why do I have to feel like I'm going to need to buy this:

in order to get a simple little project done? (feel free to buy this off of eBay for $450!)

Have you seen how many aisles are dedicated to scrapbooking supplies? I'm remembering at least 6, not counting the little islands in the middle of the big aisles and the sale aisles at various strategic points throughout the rest of the store with stamps and papers and stickers and machine cutting things....

It's completely overwhelming. I feel like my little project is going to cost too much, make too much of a mess, take too long, and won't look right anyway, because I didn't buy the right colors or the right doo-dahs.

Bah Humbug!

A Year of Family Home Evenings

My friend Shay gave me the idea to follow this blog this year as a resource for our Family Home Evenings. One might be inclined to call this my New Year's resolution to get through it. I've already missed one week because I was too tired from horn playing... go figure. But I'm not ready to give up, yet.

Thus far we've done the first and third weeks (I didn't get all the pictures rounded up in time to do the 2nd week in order), and I'm really looking forward to tonight's activity of making a little family photo book. I love how organized the lessons are. I even got the assignment chart laminated with our photos. It's very pretty.

Her downloads are just crafty enough for me to like but not be too involved for me to handle. I'll post pictures of our photo book, perhaps, if it turns out nicely.

Christmas 2009

Christmas this year was not marred by ungrateful kids or sneaking downstairs in the night to snatch a brother's gifts. It was the year of fear.

As Joel said Christmas eve as he was going to bed, "I'm afraid Santa's going to bring me coal, and I don't really like coal. Because I've been pretty bad this year."

Even Jamie wasn't sure what Joel would be getting for Christmas:

But Santa really loves to give gifts much more than coal. Although he learned last year to make sure they're wrapped!

Even so, before Jamie was awake, Joel announced that one of the gifts in his stocking sounded like coal. He opened it first to find a lego jet. What a relief and joy that good gifts were to come!

Two very different guys. This one likes to unwrap everything as quickly as possible and plays once all his presents are opened.

While the other child opens one gift completely, figures out how to put it together and plays with it before he opens another one. (Note: it is still dark outside.)

And when it's all over (Joel did get around to opening that last gift), and no one's looking, the beagle gets her turn at the candy.

Merry Christmas to all!

To the blonde woman in the parking lot:

You have no idea how timely your comment was today.

For the last several weeks, I've been nearly certain that I'm not cut out for motherhood. Every time my son comes home with a behavior record (we're up to 3 as of today), every time one of them punches somebody, every time I run out of patience for the arguing, every time I have to tell the youngest to wash and then "with soap," every time he whines for a snack, or whenever we're at church. *sigh*

It takes a woman with a much stronger constitution than I have, a woman who is much more fun than I am, a woman who tolerates noise and chaos and messes more than I do, and a woman who is much more energetic and creative than I am.

So, on our way back to the car, in the parking lot of the grocery, when you said, "you're a good mom," you'll have to forgive me for waiting to say "thank you" until you were almost out of earshot. Your comment was too unexpected. I wish I had turned around and run after you to thank you. But since I couldn't help releasing the flood of emotions that I've been carefully protecting lately, it's probably best that I didn't.

Blonde woman on her way to the grocery, for your kind words and generous spirit, "Thank You."

Compliments of the Toof Fairy

Joel saw this at Costco for $14.97 and bought it today. What an excellent choice! He put everything together himself, nearly without directions. It was just the right level of difficulty to stimulate him to try and to see the end results quickly and with great satisfaction.
The Mars Rover model is a little flimsy. Some of the parts needed some reinforcement tape because he was a little aggressive with the pieces initially.
The Glow moon is perfect for his wall right next to his bed.
The cards are instructional and colorful. After reading about the lunar phases, he asked what phase the moon was in right now and when the next new moon would be, which led us on a little hunt for info which was fun.
The solar system model is so cool, but a little small. Probably fine from his perspective. And I would have liked to have an option to mount it to the ceiling, though perhaps we can figure that one out on our own later.
But the creme de la creme was the rocket. He couldn't wait to get it home and ready to launch. It didn't go too high to get stuck in trees, but has a remote launcher that involves him in the excitement just the right amount while the grownup safely sets it up for launch.
I highly recommend this toy. What a great afternoon of fun for us all.

More bad news

Another behavior record last night. (2 days in a row!)

Joel's room no longer has toys in it. Each day, if the teacher reports back to me that he was on good behavior, he may choose a toy to return to his room.

That's my idea. It's not much. It's not even tried and tested. It's me groping for something to help him follow the classroom rules. So if it doesn't work, which the odds are not in my favor, I don't have any ideas of what else to do.

The teacher filled out the forms to get him into a boys social behavior counseling group. I don't know what that is or the drawbacks of it. But I agreed to it. The "Behavior specialist" said he's a classic case of "just trying to get attention." I want to interject, "except for the massive amounts of attention that I feel we are constantly giving him (and, yes, at least half of it is positive)."

I was in his class today and he was fine. Not perfect, but not any less perfect than the other kids in the class. It's all giving me a headache.