Why, yes. Yes it is.

I was riding home with my sister, and set my water in the cup holder. "Is... Is that a rubber toilet?" I asked. 

"Yeah," she said, "I gave the boy $3 to buy something at the book fair and he got that eraser and an itty bitty plunger." 

And he came home with $2. 

the real work world

On the way to school my youngest was complaining about a teacher who said they were too old and too busy for holiday parties. I said, "That's not true - we take time to celebrate in the work world."

"I know," she said, "I watch The Office."

Second time around

When the kids were little they made string bracelets, and sometimes I felt like I was living in a bracelet factory. Then it went away and I was sad. Guess what? It's back.... with bigger string and the awesome addition of needles and pegs to step on - hooray!

Sleep tight

Last night I went to say good night to the youngest and this is what I found...

They're perfect!

The youngest made me these awesome mini leg warmers to go with my new boots and skinny jeans. They are so warm and snuggly! And it's way better to have knitting everywhere than a bracelet factory.

Plus also...

This week the author of the Junie B. Jones series, Barbara Park, passed away. I am thankful for authors like Barbara who bought reading and imagination to my kids throughout their childhoods.

She will be especially missed by my middle daughter... cuz that girl readed every book that Ms Park wrote, and not just once or twice but a million bazillion times. And wait 'til you hear this, she didn't hardly even like to read. Plus also, her mom and sisters heared her reading them too. And I think they sneaked into her room and readed them all. I bet they all loved that girl for bringing those books home. It was funner than doing stupid school work, that's for sure.

Thanks, Barbara.

Childhood friends

The youngest was reminiscing about her childhood toys, and brought out her bucket of Barbies-for-tomboys...

We were laughing about how all three kids really played with all their toys.The Littlest Petshop pets lived in block and lego houses with railroad track roads, and traveled in the playskool camper to visit Fashion Polly. Good times, good times. 

We'll just be in here

Just when I am missing my kids, they come home for the weekend and take over the family room with forts, movies, and junk food. Ahhh.

Anti-theft system

I stopped to drop some things off by the oldest who is living in an apartment near campus. I guess she hasn't needed to go many places during the summer....

Last details

I can't believe it has been two years since our oldest packed the car and headed for college, and another is already leaving. 

Easter bucket

For Easter I mailed our college daughter a bucket of peeps. No box, just the address on the lid and the postage on the side. It made it. 

A quick break from the break

Rant zone... Enter with caution.

Some of the schools in our area are just finishing spring break, and some are just starting. I cannot count how many parents I have heard make comments about their kids going back to school. Today, I overheard one parent tell their child, "It's only the first day of break and I'm already ready for you to go back."

I have never understood that. I love having my kids home... for the summer, for break, for the weekend. Don't misunderstand. Kids are a lot of work. Parenting is hard. But if even YOU don't want to spend time with your kids, it might be time for some changes.

Maybe it's because of the work I do, that I realize how lucky I am to have time with my kids. Some families wish for one day and I have a whole week. And I don't care if it's spent making breakfast, playing HORSE, or hanging out watching tv... as long as its with them.

Ok. Back to spring break!

Another season done.

Well, basketball season is wrapped up - all that's left is the banquet. I am so proud of my middle daughter. Before tryouts she talked to the coach about what the season might look like for her, since she didn't play last year. He was honest about play time and expectations. She decided to try out anyway and made the team.

The first couple games were so hard for her dad and me. We know how much she loves the game and it broke our hearts to watch her never leave the bench. One night she quickly put it in perspective for us; she knew coming in that she would not play, but she wanted to be with the friends she had become so close to over the years of basketball together. "Please don't ruin this season by being grouchy every game," she said.

And so I embraced her positive attitude. I dropped my expectations and just focused on enjoying MY friends that I have spent so many years with in the bleachers. I have made some great friends through her years of basketball. This has been one of the best seasons, ever. I am so grateful for the memories, and a daughter who helped me appreciate them.

Humbled

I talk with my oldest, who is away at school, almost every day, whether its by phone, text, or email. We chatted on facebook a few days ago. She is helping a friend with a really tough situation. I told her that she gave perfect advice and she was a good friend. She messaged back, "Thank you. I try to do what you would do."

Is this the part where I cry?

Punn-y kid

Our youngest is studying Shakespeare in English right now, and part of the unit is puns. She was sharing some of them on the way to school the other day, like "a fish ran into a wall... dam." It took me back to the days of preschool:

Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Orange.
Orange who?
Orange shirt. Hahaha!
Huh?

I didn't realize how much I missed that, and it was nice to get one more little glimpse of it!

Born lucky?

This week this kids and I had some discussions about opportunity, and whether some people are born lucky or if they make their own luck.

Funny that I had this quote and in my art stash waiting for the inspiration to use it. 

Leftovers or white elephant?

The oldest is in the military while she is in college, and sometimes does weekend trainings. We accumulated a little collection of army rations in our pantry. I added a few to our camping kit. The ones that had been opened, I put in a basket thinking if they looked like food maybe people would eat them.

Turns out that the apple cinnamon apples are just like applesauce, the banana nut muffin top wasn't bad, and peanut butter, well, peanut butter is always good.

Maybe some of my deer-hunting, ice fishing Wisconsin friends would want some "wheat bread" to take along in the tree stand or shanty. Or, use as a white elephant gift. But I have dibs on the hazelnut cocoa!

Yum! Yum!

This weekend was cookie weekend. The kids chose all their favorites from our recipe collection. We made a lot of peanut butter dough. We also made several others to use as gifts for friends and coworkers.

These are chocolate cherry nuggets. My BFF makes these for me every year (Janet - these are gifts for other people - if you made me some I will still eat them... all). Now I know why I love them - it's practically a frosting recipe with a little bit of flour.
 

The art of organizing... wait, I meant the organizing of art.

I am a great organizer. When the kids were little we had a three drawer containers in the closet by the door. When the kids emptied the papers out of their backpacks they went into their drawer. When the drawer got full it went upstairs to the closet into a Rubbermaid bin with a lid. At the end of the school year the bin went in the attic to be sorted later. It was a brilliant system!

There was, however, one flaw. Three kids, times 20-30 pieces of homework a week, multiplied by thirteen years (not including preschool), equals roughly 4.5 million pieces of homework.

So over the summer, I decided that this would be the year I would tackle the bins in the attic. I started with the most sentimental - the preschool artwork. This is one of four large boxes and several other smaller bins and boxes before I started.



















And this is now. There are three bins with the work all organized in nice little piles. I am still looking for something more safe from an archival perspective, but this will do for now. I took digital pictures of everything and backed them up on an external hard drive. I threw away the stuff that was mouse eaten, and to prevent any further snacking, I tossed anything else with beans, seeds, or cheerios - I had no idea the kids did so many projects with food.

All the stuff I tossed is sitting in the garage waiting for the perfect winter day for a bonfire. It makes me feel better to ceremoniously burn it than just throwing their childhoods in the trash (and no comments from the peanut gallery about any symbolic meanings of burning it - it's working for me).



















At some point I will go back to do another sort and purge, and keep only the really special pieces. After the holidays I am planning to sort through the pics to find the best of the best digital photos for some beautiful Shutterfly books. Then it's onto the grade school years....

December, Day 10

Our December Daily album is coming along!

















I am a list maker - if I don't write things down I forget for sure. The kids have started mentioning things they want to do: drive around and see the Christmas lights, make potato pancakes, go out to dinner as a family. I started adding  them to our calendar to make sure we plan time to do them.

Makdoodle has cute printable Christmas Bucket List - filled in or just the blank border. I might put our list in a frame and use erasable marker to check them off as we go. What a cute idea to keep our ideas where we wont forget them!