Supplies Tape, Crayons, Scissors, Paper, String and a odd leftover pool part
Add in one four year old
What you get is a floor covered with paper bits and a happily creating boy who is busy long enough for you the mom to get something done and snap some quick photos of your busy little bee.
It is almost that time to officially fill out paperwork and to begin our new school year. I am busily putting some polishing touches on our upcoming year at the same time I completely rearrange the science units to accommodate the things we can do right now.
I’ve got most of Jr.’s things mapped out and ready to play that wonderful fun game of “school chess” where the pieces get moved around to hopefully end up in a decent completed order by the end of the year! And I’ve mapped out some things to keep darling Lil’B busy. He’s very cute when he grabs “his school” out of his basket. I never know exactly what he’ll come back with - lately it has just been paper and crayons. He’s my budding little artist. And it never fails to amaze me how well he can already create things. I’m not the artsy type though I do sometimes try. But let’s face it my main and best “art” are stick people! I draw a damn fine stick person!
In other news in partial preparation for this year but mostly in a bid to get my sanity back I’ve set up my email accounts differently. Don’t worry if you are reading this it probably doesn’t actually affect you. Mostly it affects me. I love the groups that I belong to but I can’t get through all the email they send. It is daunting and I’m actually only really paying attention to three yahoogroups/elists. They are just prolific!
So I set them up with a separate address. That worked a bit but I was still getting tons of mail to my email client which would snag me when I checked my regular email. So I went a step further and set that email address in a different email client! Yep to get the messages I have to actually open a second program. It is fabulous!
It has also made me aware of how much superfluous email I get and how much of a time sucker my loops are to my day. My regular inbox is quiet and gets a handful of emails a day. Occasionally I get a couple dozen but its not hundreds. And I’m even whittling those down. My big loops are still available but I’m checking them every couple of days instead of lots of times each day. Do I miss out on threads - sort of but better late to the conversation than to feel muddled by all that clutter in my day.
I’m back to my quick loop around the internet which is very necessary if I’m going to keep the boys focused in directions I prefer like those that don’t get them into trouble. For instance I was “busy” and missed them dumping three bottles of paint into the sandbox. What exactly I was “busy” with I’m not sure and I do remember them asking something about paint. My only hope is that I was “busy” cooking or something more acceptable than tinkering on my computer LOL
Boba Fett
by Lil’B
age 4
Each birthday I try to get one good photo of the birthday boy for our albums and such. Occasionally this is a very fun endeavor. Here’s a sampling of what I got yesterday:
All in taken in pursuit of this one:
That’s my baby. A beautiful four. And I’m so happy to be here with him in these moments.
Day three we thrifted. The end.
We had a nice gentle day of going and going and going. We hit our (the boys and I) usual haunts and a few extras. In search of jeans and a desk.
We even managed a quick trip to the Historical Museum though we didn’t end up ever finding our friends. Bumped into someone else we knew who was there with her child’s school group. The museum was a nice break from searching through the stacks of jeans at the local thrifts. And I finally found some Iowa postcards to send out.
We never did find a desk that we liked but we did come home with a few jeans and a couple of books.
Day 4 we rested.
Today we spent hanging out at home. We moved somethings around in our office area - which according to my dear hubby is my favorite past time. The boys played Star Wars while I hung out clothes. Mr. Numbers wandered around and did odd jobs that are always waiting to be done. We were inside and outside and inside and outside. I spent the evening watching a movie with my boys while Mr. Numbers mowed. Pretty boring stuff huh?
Well on the parenting front we’re running into an interesting phase. Lil’B wants to play with the “big boys” but gets distraught when he’s hurt doing so. And he gets quite mad at his brother when it happens to - saying that it (the fall, the hit, the bump, bonk etc) are his brother’s fault. It is driving me nuts. I’ve tried (and will continue) explaining to Lil’B that if he’s going to play foam sword fight, star wars, pirate….whatever that he has to deal with the somewhat inevitable swats that don’t land right. But still he ends up screaming and tears running with the blame game coming on. Jr. is getting particularly frustrated because not only is Lil’B trying outdoors - he’s trying indoors with a lot….A LOT of that’s mine! It has to be THIS WAY not THAT WAY. I need ALL the toys for this thing and I can’t share!
And I know a lot of this is age related. But knowing that isn’t making my ears feel any better. I am so tired of them yelling at each other. I am tired of finding myself yelling. I abhor that in myself and I am constantly trying to turn away from yelling.
Of course this week is doubly worse because we have Daddy home which always seems to make things better and worse at the same time. Tonight Jr. even pulled out the big “I hate you” to his brother. I was glad to hear him say after a bit that it wasn’t that he hates his brother he just doesn’t like the way he is reacting. Hate is a powerful word and not one that I want my children to use lightly. So the silver lining is that I in a rare moment had the luck of walking in quietly at just that right moment. And take that opportunity to talk to Jr. about my feelings about saying we “hate” people and things.
Funny faces pictures taken while waiting for Jr’s recital to begin.
Once again we were in the garden. In fact I expect that we will be in the garden most chances that we get for the next few months. We have much to plant and cultivate. Dratted rain hasn’t been cooperating much either. Today we hammered together some raised beds to house our lettuces (a bunny favorite) and my pet project of carrots. I’ve never gotten carrots to work but I’m not giving up yet!
The boys helped me plant another row of strawberries and I think we’ll call our new patch done. So long as the old patch isn’t tilled under we’ll keep moving plants to fill in for those that don’t make the transplant. And then the helped mulch around each plant and water the newest arrivals. Which of course translates to I gave my kids water, dirt and dried grass. Muddy little messes they were by the time they were done. In fact it was practically a whole day outside and we were once again sun-kissed on our cheeks by the time we headed inside. And it was a very dirty end to our week which made it all the better from the boys’ perspective!
All in all I’m pretty pleased with our earthy week. We didn’t really have a chance to talk about Earth Day itself but I plan to do that a bit more when we transplant our oak trees. But I’m certain that they were connected to the earth this week and that’s what was important to me.
