Thursday, June 25, 2009
Because of the kids being at four different schools, sometimes it is difficult logistically to get to the awards ceremonies. Luckily my kids don't seem to be traumatized when I can't make it. So we try to make something special of it at home--a mock awards ceremony at dinner. Here are couple of pictures of our grand event, with Dan as the Principal and Jeremy as Vice Principal:
Anna received an award for A/B Honor Roll and a certificate for completing her AR (Accelerated Reading) goals. Great job, Anna!
Amy got Principal's Honor Roll, and a certificate for reading at Level 24. I love the look of mock surprise in the second picture:
We also had party blower/noise maker thingies (I don't know what they're called.)
I'm thinking next year will be better for assemblies because the girls' schools are swapping bell schedules, so as long as they keep their assembly times the same, it will be perfect. But knowing my luck, that will probably change too, and I'll be in the same boat. But if that's the case, we've got it covered!
SATURDAY, JUNE 13, 2009
Believe it or not, my life is filled with things other than books, period dramas (*edit for clarification: I'm talking about movies, not hormones) , and Star Trek. Here are some scenes from May (minus our camping trip, which I'll put in another post).
The school on our street recently put in a digital marquee that lights up the entire street. We feel like we live on the Las Vegas strip. I talked to the principal, and he's at least going to have it turn off at 8 p.m. instead of 9.
This is just a super cute picture of Kaylynn and her cousin Emily:
Amy got to go with Dan and a scout troop that he helped with a Railroad Merit Badge to the Orange Empire Railway Museum:
Amy is quite the creator. Give some paper and boxes and she'll make just about anything. Here she has made a bunny getup. Sometime I'll have to do a post of all her creations:
Anna was in her class play, "It's Electrifying." She was a crazy electron:
I feel like maybe I already put these on here, but just in case I didn't, these are pictures of the kids working on Dan's Chargers blanket that we gave him for his birthday:
Thanks to the convenience of my new laptop along with Netflix instant play, I watched "The Buccaneers", a BBC miniseries based on an Edith Wharton novel. The Netflix instant play is great because you can stop watching the movie, and when you start again, it's in the exact spot that you stopped, unlike our DVD player. This is great, because I fall asleep easily and then, of course, there's life that interrupts. It's four or five hours long, so it took a couple of weeks to watch.
I had never even heard of this one until it presumably popped up on a recommended list, I don't really remember. It's disappointingly lacking in handsome male actors (I'm shallow, I know) and that feel-good romantic aura you get with something like Pride and Prejudice, but it was tragically gripping after about an hour or so. Here's a summary from Amazon:
Deemed nouveau riche and shunned by elitist New York society, sisters Nan and Virginia St. George, along with their friends Lizzy Elmsworth and Conchita Closson (Academy Award winner Mira Sorvino), try their luck in London. The girls' New World spontaneity and impertinence constitute nothing less than a social invasion of Old World society and they soon find themselves courted by a coterie of fascinated admirers. But as the old and new worlds come to clash, something has to give.
There's some ugly stuff in this one--marital abuse, desperate affairs, etc., but I liked it enough to want to read the book. Apparently it was unfinished though.
I definitely feel grateful to live in this time and have more choices and options than these women depicted in the 1870's. So, while there's no Colin Firth in this one, I'll end up giving my own wonderful husband a few more kisses (when he gets home from Oklahoma, that is!)
Here's the one video clip available on YouTube:
Here's the preview:
PART I-GAIN AND PAIN
Things I'm most looking forward to with the laptop:
- Access to recipes. All of my recipes are saved on the computer. When I find a new recipe to try, I scan it in as well. So now I can have to laptop with me in the kitchen instead of going back and forth.
- Not having to wait until the kids are done with something on the computer.
- Doing exercise videos anytime, anywhere without having to kick anyone off the TV.
- Be able to read and take notes on the couch which is more comfortable than the computer chair.
- Maybe taking it to the library and hanging out there with my laptop. Sounds strange, but it's one of those housewife fantasies of mine.
- Maybe watching Netflix instant play movies in bed at night. There's a few Brit Lit Flicks in my instant play queue that have been on there for eons.
- Taking it on trips.
All in all, it was a good day, except for that nagging pain and fatigue I'm always complaining about was really bad that weekend. Sometimes my body just goes kaput. But everyone helped with the cleaning up and stuff. THANK YOU,
PART II-MOTHER'S DAY GUILT
It seems to be pretty common for moms to use Mother's Day to reflect on all of the ways they are NOT living up to their ideals of perfect motherhood. It's in our nature, isn't it? My failure list could go on and on. Even tonight we make tuna sandwiches for dinner because I was feeling like a failure because I have never fed three of my kids tuna sandwiches before, and I was sure this would have some negative repercussions on their future well-being as adults. I mean, are they really going to be okay if the only sandwich they will eat is PB&J?!
So really, things sometimes are much worse than tuna. Just ask Kaylynn about the cheese incident. Hopefully Child Protective Services has some sort of statute of limitations--it's been some time since I've used cheese as a weapon. More recently, Kaylynn can tell you how I asked her if there was something wrong with her brain, or if she was on drugs. There are just times (
Not to single Kaylynn out--I mess up with my other kids all the time too. Hopefully through all of my crankiness something of those cutesy Mother's Day Primary songs shine through.
I started out trying to focus on the positive, but alas, I have strayed. I wanted to write about just one success--we all have at least one, right? Our morning routine charts have been successful for many years now. As an idea person, I come up with all kinds of cool ideas but I lack the self-discipline to follow through with much. But this is something that we have stuck to, probably because it makes my life easier. Here's a picture of Amy's morning chart at the end of a month of filling it in:
These used to be printed out and then laminated and used over and over, but it got to be a pain wiping them off, so now I just print a new paper each month on cardstock with four weekly charts on it. I put every single thing they do on it, and tailor it to each one. For instance, Jeremy cannot for the life of him remember to put his sorely needed deodorant on each morning, so that's on his chart. (I still sometimes wonder if the application process isn't going so well.) When we started this probably seven or eight years ago, the kids would get a reward at the end of the week, but they don't even think about this anymore.
If you look closely, you'll notice my kids aren't required to make their beds. (Gasp!) All I ask is that they put their blankets back on their beds that they carry out in the living room EVERY MORNING. Bed making is low on my priority list. Three out of four kids' beds are up in the air and I can't see them anyways. So another failure on my part that will somehow mess up their adult lives (or make their spouse/roommate go nuts.) I do make my own bed most mornings, but mostly so I can throw junk on top of it throughout the day.
If you've read this far, oh
