3rd grader quote of the day:

Stop correcting me! I know everything!

Update on nothing

My days have been pretty much the same. Drop kids off, volunteer at the school some. . .pick kids up. . .lunch, homework, dinner. . . pack backpacks/snacks and/or lunches, lay out clothes. If I'm in bed by midnight it's a miracle.

I've been using the weekends to work on decorating Ashley's room in a back yard theme. It's turning out really nice, but I don't want to spoil the effect with pictures before it's complete. There's a lighthouse cove, picket fences, trees, a rose garden and a sky complete with fluffy clouds. I'll need construction help with Phase III, so I won't be able to call it complete until a little after Thanksgiving.

In true Sherilyn fashion, I have been focusing every available scrap of time and attention on her room. . . and the beautiful house I worked so hard to clean this summer is falling down around my ears again.

A quote from last night: "And now I have the unfortunate task of laying out clothes for children who have no clean laundry."

It's not too far gone, though. This weekend will be a cleaning weekend. . . (no matter how compelled I feel to finish the arbor over Ashely's window).

More description and pictures to come. . .

But now it's time for me to go hurry up and wait in line for the first

pick-up of the day :)

More about Kindergarten. . . and an introduction to 3rd grade

I mentioned before how much I like Jon's teacher. She taught first grade for seven years before "discovering the wonderful world of Kindergarten" and I'm so glad she did. . . because it's right where she belongs.

Jon is a pretty strong willed little guy. For example: It's not that he disenjoy's circle time. . . it's just that it's not his favorite activity and he'd prefer to be doing centers. After whining a little bit about it, he's traditionally been given a choice of whether he wants to sit by himself and do nothing, or come participate in circle time with everybody else. It takes between 30 seconds and a minute, but letting him choose this for himself is the key. This is how some percentage of the first day went, but sometime before pickup time at 1pm, Ms. Julie figured out something no teacher has ever figured out before. She said, "I think I found Jonathan's niche. He likes to help." So. . . she made him a helper badge and let him write his name as Mr. Jon all day long on Wednesday. He had a phenomenal day.

Of course, it wouldn't be fair for him to be the helper every day, but being the first to wear the helper badge was enough. He had another great day on Thursday.

Today he had a great day until they went out to the playground after lunch. Right as they were starting to play, it began to rain and they had to go in. He cried big, sad tears. Ms. Julie took a few minutes to talk one-on-one with him and explained that the feeling he was having was called "disappointment" and that it's okay to feel that way. She showed him that the rest of the class was feeling disappointed too and when he realized it was everybody and not just him, he stopped crying (but still had a rocky rest of the afternoon).

I don't believe Mr. Rogers himself could have handled the situation any better.

Here's the retake of Ms. Julie and Jon on Tuesday:

And here's one of Brandon and Ashley checking out Jon's classroom Tuesday afternoon:

Brandon took one look at all the colored pencils and crayons and said, "This is *fabulous!*"

Now. . . on to third grade news. Brandon has the best teacher this year. She was the first grade writing and spelling teacher for Brandon's class two years ago and then he and Ashley had a 40-minute literacy period with her last year. She's absolutely dynamic. One of the major reasons I decided not to homeschool this year is because I realized Brandon would be getting the best 3rd grade Language Arts education in the entire state right where he is. And I mean that literally -- out of the very fullness of my heart. Mrs. Barnes is just one of those gifted, gifted one-in-a-million teachers. I could type for days and never run out of wonderful things to say about her. Did I mention that she never puts X's or frowny faces on anything? She just writes "rethink" on the paper and has the kids try again.

Brandon has beautiful cursive handwriting:


ANYWAY. . .

3rd grade is a *lot* of work, though. We're still trying to figure out how to juggle the homework rotation. (And Jonathan will start having homework in 2 more weeks) The kids haven't been to bed on time once since school started and although they get a break after studying every homework subject, I teach nonstop from about 2pm until we're finished between 8pm and 9:30. . . .Whew! ~ TGIF !!!

And last, but certainly not least --

. . .A shout-out to my Dad, who spent *countless* hours in front of the whiteboard teaching me Algebra. It gave me the strong foundation I needed to be successful at all kinds of other math. . .but more importantly, it equipped me with everything I needed to know about how to teach my own children.

Thanks for planting those seeds, Dad. They grew.

. . . And now it's sowing time again.

Love you.

Kindergarten!

Well, Kindergarten has arrived! Jonathan didn't need me at all. . . ran right in, found his backpack hook and put his lunch away in his "tubbie" (plastic tubs under the hooks used as a cubbie). Does he look like Kenneth or what?

It really is a beautiful school. Sort of enchanting -- like you expect Barney the Dinosaur to jump out and greet you. Here's Jon chatting it up with one of the mom's. One thing he sure isn't is shy:

On the table for the morning activity were "connecting cubes," and some laminated cards with examples of patterns to practice. Connecting cubes and patterns are two of Jon's favorite things. In fact, that's what he was telling the mom in the picture above -- "I have connecting cubes at home!"



The morning message for today:



The other half of the classroom where they'll do circle time and centers:



One of the dad's and I were both trying to get one shot of each wall and almot took a picture of each other taking a picture in the process.

There are ten children in Jon's class -- 5 boys and 5 girls.

The lady in the red shirt below is Jon's teacher, Ms. Julie. . . I liked her right off the bat. I took a picture of she and Jon together, but it didn't turn out. Will try again this afternoon. The below picture was taken as I was standing in the hallway just before I left the building. He looks like he's made himself right at home!

This is going to be a great year!

Back on the radar

Whew! I've had a busy month. Unfortunately our camera is broken and we're waiting on the replacement, so there aren't any visuals to go along with descriptions.

Last month I went to a training in Houston for a wonderful writing and spelling curriculum called, Johnny Can Spell , by Alice Nine, and I wouldn't be a good friend if I didn't recommend it to everybody I know. I got my introduction to this curriculum from Brandon's first grade Language Arts teacher who is every bit as dynamic as Alice Nine herself. Brandon left first grade diagramming sentences and loving it, and he is able to answer every single language arts question correctly on "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?" Anyway, "Johnny Can Spell" is a multi-sensory program based on teaching the 70 phonograms as the building blocks for words, which can be strung together to make phrases and sentences. It's just English in its truest form with no fluff. It's not "cute," but there's *zero* wasted effort. Every stroke of the pencil counts toward learning something meaningful. And it's something the kids are proud of knowing/learning too, which is highly motivational.
*end infomercial*

While I was there, I stayed at the Element Houston hotel by Westin. It's a "green" hotel and I had to do some serious soul searching to decide if I wanted to stay there or not as I'm not into the whole "green thing" (aside from recycling strictly for recreational purposes). But I am into free enterprise -- and Element Houston had the coolest product for the best price, so as a matter of higher principle, that's where I spent my money. (The only thing I found slightly annoying was that the two best parking spaces closest to the side entry were reserved for hybrids. But other than that it was a very neat experience.) The studio suite was in the shape of a square with the bed/nightstands and the kitchen each taking up a wall. The third wall was half living area and half office. A large flat-screen TV sat on a peninsula between them and could turn 360° to be viewed from any direction. It could also be hooked up to a laptop and used as a *HUGE* monitor at the desk area. The bathroom had a waterfall shower as well as a handheld sprayer and also had soap/shampoo despensers on the wall instead of tiny individual bottles. Breakfast was pretty good in the morning too, with breakfast burritos, muffins, cereal, yogurt, etc. Would highly recommend this place, even to a super-conservative Republican.

I got home on Friday night, completely exhausted. My grandma was in town visiting her sister and we went to dinner at their house Monday . . .and then had them over to our house on Wednesday. Karlon made fried chicken (he makes the best fried chicken ever) and we all had great fun visiting together.

Ashley and the boys were invited to attend VBS on Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday night and Sunday morning at Ashley's best friend's church. They did a really neat "overcomer" theme that was sort of like "survivor," and the kids had tons of fun.

The following Monday through Thursday the kids went to VBS at Calvary Austin. It was $30/kid, but it ran from 9am - 3pm. I've never had a day that long to myself since before Brandon's birth. They had so much fun and Brandon won the Hero of the Day Award on Wednesday for taking time out from his own race to help two preschool children that were lost from their teacher. I was so proud! I wish I had been there to see him receive the award. They said he was so tickled over it that he ran all the way up to the platform and gave a happy hop when they presented it to them.

On one of those days, my dad was in a thrift store somewhere in California and found Disney VHS tapes for 50¢ each and Little Golden Books for 10¢ each . . .and cleaned them out of titles I didn't already have. . . enough to begin a collection of live-action Disney movies. Sixteen videos and twelve books for under $8 with his handy-dandy senior citizen's discount.

So that brings us to this most recent weekend, where I had the idea that I wanted to paint the french doors that lead to the back yard red. It only took five trips to Lowe's, four paint colors and about seventeen coats of paint to get it the way I wanted it. . . And I'm still not sure it's exactly what I had envisioned. I couldn't figure out what I didn't like about it for a long time and then decided that I needed to paint a white stripe down the middle to define where one door ends and the other begins - and it made a world of difference. I used "Frog Tape" and *highly* recommend.

Sometime in the middle of all this, I got a response from a local guy about an artificial turf remnant for Ashley's outdoor-themed bedroom. He actually brought it over and sold it to me that very afternoon. Super-nice guy.

Today I *had* to go get my nails filled as it had been three weeks. Tomorrow I'm getting up early to buy school supplies before the rush. Plan to go to lunch with my cousin sometime this week. Other than that, it's back to business in the area of deep-cleaning. I've made it all the way into the formal living room!

Will post pictures of Brandon and his award and the painted back doors as soon as we get a new camera.

A funny kid quote (from Jonathan)

Actually, I guess it's a truism.

"Hey mom, look.

Now look for real."

Kitchen before and after's, etc.

Well, it only took three weeks, but I've finally cleaned the whole kitchen from top to bottom. *Everything* needed a good scrub-down and I cleaned out every crack and cranny. I washed cabinets inside and out, re-organized drawers, scrubbed baseboards with a toothbrush, walls with a Magic Eraser and the floors with a scrub brush, Pine-sol and good old fashioned elbow grease. I washed the refrigerator down inside and out. . . scrubbed down every square inch of the kitchen table and chairs (the ship for simple spot-cleaning had sailed months ago). . . washed windows inside and out, scrubbed down doors. . . Scrubbed the oven inside and out. . .

And although I try to curb negativity in my writing, I absolutely cannot go without mentioning how I *LOATHE* cleaning our gas cooktop. Too much surface area and too many cracks and crevices. . . . It always takes at least fifteen minutes, and that's if it's fairly clean. When it's super-greasy it can take more than an hour. It forces me to choose between thoroughness and efficiency. . . .And when those two go head-to-head, efficiency doesn't stand a chance.

Anyway, here are some before and after pictures:

Actually, this set is "after" (↑) and "before" (↓) . . . just to stamp out any confusion.

~ - ~

This is my "gardenscape" I set back up a few years ago. I had it set up really pretty in the apartment we lived in, but the crown molding topper for these cabinets threw me for a loop and they sat sort of randomly tossed up there for a few years. But when I found a bunch of Easter-basket "grass" on super-cheap 90% off clearance at Garden Ridge, I knew just what to do with it. . . and it worked out great! I think it looks even better than the original.

This one started out as an empty baker's rack from walmart seven years ago when we moved in and it has eventually evolved into this:

I replaced the similarly-shaped finials with artichokes. . . And sometime maybe four or five years ago I found the tomato knobs and switched out the originals. The vegetables on the top shelf started out as a wreath, but I "squished" it flat and it fits perfectly. The second shelf holds a collection of vegetable-shaped cast iron pots, along with a wooden pumpkin my mom brought me that was just the perfect size and color. The platter was an ebay purchase and arrived with the hanger already glued to the back and I don't think I could have found one myself that hooked onto the baskets below it more perfectly. . . .And the baskets were a solution to the question of what we should do with the pantry items when we converted the actual pantry into an office a few years ago. Surprisingly, we can store significantly more in these baskets than we could in the pantry because they don't have to be lined up or stacked. . . And as it turns out, I prefer having the pantry items on-hand in the kitchen anyway.

I've been tagged!

I've been tagged by my good friend MamaSue. Coming up with ten things took a while because I'm pretty boring. . . But here goes!

1) I have worshiped the ground MamaSue walks on since I was 7 years old. I am always amazed by her wisdom, insight and general brilliance. I always think I'm going to get used to it because I *know* how smart she is. . . but we go years and years between face-to-face visits and talking to her in person is always amazing.

2) I always thought the show, "Happy Days" was actually made in the '50's. . . until one day - I was well into adulthood - I saw an episode where Robin Williams made a guest appearance as "Mork" and finally connected the dots that the two shows were from the same era. . . .and of course the tip-off always should have been that the show was in color.

3) I played flute seriously for about 9 years and considered going professional. I played Vivaldi's "The Goldfinch" at the Texas Flute Festival (American Idol for flutists) in '95 or '96 and the judge said I played the best "birdcall" she'd ever heard. Here's a link to somebody else playing a near-identical "interperetation" (keeping in mind that I only had piano accompaniment). The part close to the beginning where the orchestra stops and the flutist plays all by herself is the "birdcall" and it's open to almost infinate artistic interperetation. . . so it's the only part that's significantly different (mine slowed up considerably in some places and teetered fairly randomly ~ like a bird call).

4) I'm a huge Star Trek fan. . . .Rather, I guess I should say I'm a huge fan of TNG, Voyager and all the movies. The original series is okay. . . I couldn't get into DS9 no matter how hard I tried, and couldn't even make it through the first episode of Enterprise. We moved to Austin halfway through the Voyager series and since Time Warner didn't carry UPN at that time, we had to wait for the last two seasons to come out on DVD to see the end. Watching on DVD is quite a different experience than watching week-to-week because on some subconscious level, you figure they're traveling at warp speed in the direction of Earth until the next episode. . . But watching a block of three or four episodes at a time has a flavor of monotony to it - like, "Man, they're never gonna make it home like this -- stopping *every hour* to offer humanitarian aid and exploring every single anomalous reading within sensor range? Sheesh."

5) My motto: "Anything worth doing is worth doing well. (. . .unless, of course there isn't enough time to do it well - in which case don't bother)."
This perfectly explains the usual state of my house.

6) My favorite artist is Dona Gelsinger, who expertly captures the spirit of Heaven in a rectangle:

7) I *LOVE* all kinds of mexican food, but my current favorite is Pappasito's. Mexico City Style Chicken and Rice Soup. . . with lots and lots of salsa. YUM!

8) I LOVE anything pertaining to Disney animated classics. I've recently picked up collecting again as a hobby since I decided I might as well use all of my old stuff to decorate the gameroom. There's a board game from practically every Disney classic, and I'm trying to collect my favorites. . . .My dad shops around at thrift stores all across the country and has brought me back tons of treasures. The best finds so far are an extremely rare VHS copy of "Make Mine Music" which I keep under lock and key and a large original (Disney) Pooh Bear from the '70's.

9) Even though my kids aren't in preschool any more, I still love Blue's Clue's. I could sit and watch that show by the hour. Joe is okay, but I prefer Steve. If the TV is tuned to Noggin and a good episode comes on, I've been known to stop what I'm doing and watch. My favorite episodes are "What Story Does Blue Want to Play?" which features a skit with a "king" that happens to look and sound like Elvis. . . and "What's so Funny?" which features Sock Puppet and a funny, dry, almost candid comment from Steve: "this is absurd." that absolutely *nails* for a brief moment the reality/absurdity of a grown man pretending to be "Steve," crouched behind the thinking chair pretending to be Blue, talking to himself in what probably resembles a large, empty swimming pool (green screen). Maybe you'd have to see it to appreciate it. . . .Or maybe you'd just have to be me :)

10) I love thinking "out of the box." If it's common or has been done before, I'll find another way. Sometimes I will take somebody else's idea and put my own spin on it, which is similarly satisfying. . . .but my favorite ideas are always original and usually involve using one or more completely non-associated items put together to make what I need. ( i.e. using beef stroganoff TV dinners as a base for wedding soup.)

Bonus: I don't give a hoot about the environment, but I love to recycle for sheer joy of sorting. I also find it hard to part with stuff and see future uses for all kinds of old things that are otherwise useless . . .and pack tons of stuff away for use with future projects.

Oh yeah~I'm unique.

I'm new to blogging and am something of a leaf node, without anyone to tag yet. . . .Will pass along first chance I get :)

Life's little adventures. . .

Our A/C went out just after fireworks on the 4th of July and we had to check into a hotel around 11:30pm. Our local Residence Inn had 2 nights available, but were scheduled to have no vacancies for Monday night, so we had to pack our bags and move to another hotel for night #3 of our adventure. Stetson spent most of his time at the PetsMart PetsHotel. (Karlon says blogging should be more interactive, so you can watch their video tour here)
. . .And I have to say that the staff really does treat the dogs with genuine kindness and I always feel at ease knowing that Stetson is happy and well cared-for.

(Incidentally, he and we were camped out in the same parking lot for the first two nights as Petsmart and Residence Inn are in the same shopping center).

. . .My mom came through town on her way back from visiting her mom in Brenham and we had lunch at Macaroni Grill and visited for a long time, which was a wonderful diversion. The food took *forever* to get to the table, but we barely noticed since we were having so much fun. They were supposed to comp some of the meal, but forgot, and as I didn't make a point to remind anyone of it, the manager presented us a $15 gift card and gave the kids free ice cream for dessert. Not a bad deal when we were having lots of fun visiting anyway.

Brandon got sick halfway through day 2 and was listless and nauseous. We now think he was just overtired from two very late nights and poor sleeping conditions ~ as he woke up this morning in fine form and ready to partake of his complimentary breakfast downstairs.

Very fortunately, the a/c guy came yesterday afternoon and replaced the broken "starter capacitor" for $189 including service call. My dad happened to roll through town just after the A/C was fixed. . . He and I went to dinner at Red Lobster, our favorite place to go when he comes to town ~ where he took full advantage of his cranky senior-citizenship and told the waitress that he didn't care for the fact that they didn't serve Diet Dr. Pepper. . . and no, he didn't want lemonade when he could make it out of water, lemons and packaged sugar at the table for free. When we got back, all of us put our heads together and decided that the house still wasn't cool enough to sleep in, and we would go back to the hotel and check out in the morning. Dad and Karlon each had a bedroom to themselves. . . Ashley and Jonathan took the fold-out couch in the living room, Brandon slept on the floor using the large uni-cushion from the couch for a bed and I slept on the aerobed we smuggled in from home. It would have been the most comfortable night's sleep of the whole ordeal for me, except. . .
. . .Karlon woke up around 1:30 with what we first thought was a kidney stone, but turned out to be a huge knot of a charley-horse in his back. I massaged the heck out of it for about and hour and we finally went back to bed 2:30 or 3am.

Dad took the kids down for breakfast this morning while Karlon and I slept-in and he said it was an experience to remember. Within 20 seconds of each other, Brandon dropped a heaping plateful of scrambled eggs on the floor and Ashley dropped a waffle and syrup face-down on the carpet. . . and before they left, all three kids figured out how to get the sticky syrup off their hands by using the ice that was being used to chill the boxed beverages. Dad said he had forgotten how much "fun" it was to take the three of them on an outing.

But THANKFULLY, we're back home now and everything is almost back to normal. Stetson's grooming appointment is this afternoon and as soon as he's finished, we'll pick him up and be back once again to status-quo, and the (comparitavely) lazy days of summer.

Stetson and UP

*SPOILER ALERT*

Yesterday I took the kids to see Disney's new movie, UP. It was a tear-jerker pretty much all the way through, which is a first for a Disney animated movie - certainly not the type we'll be enjoying time and again in our family room. . .

But there were some funny parts. . . The dog everyone has probably seen on all the commercials - a Golden Retriever - wore a talking collar which allowed his thoughts to be translated into English words. . . Anyway they really, really pegged *exactly* what a Golden would say if he could talk. The four of us laughed the loudest and longest of everyone in the theatre at the kind of "thoughts" this dog would have. Stuff like (while casually trotting behind his humans, "smiling" with tongue hanging out): "I am your dog. And you are my master. I am so happy you are my master." Or once several hours after he had been cast out forever: "I hid under the house because I love you."

There was a scene where the old man used one of the tennis balls from the bottom of his walker to distract and "lose" the dog which was really classic. The dog was in the middle of rambling on about something and when he saw the tennis ball he stopped mid-sentence and used every ounce of his concentration to watch the ball.

The big brown, caring eyes. . . swishy, constantly wagging tail. . . the upright, proud sitting position that says, "I have completed my task to the best of my ability." . . .topped off by a slobber-drenched tennis ball.

Whoever wrote this dog character either owns several Golden Retrievers or did a lot of research.

Here's a picture of Ashley and Stetson to show how huge he really is:
(she is wearing her new puppy paw-print leotard)


(I wanted all the kids to pose with him, but it took so long the boys lost interest. . .hopefully I'll get some pictures of them up here soon).

The view from behind:


Here's a "blooper" picture that was almost professional-grade perfection, until:

. . .A a few months ago we had some tennis-ball sized hail - the kind that hits the ground at an angle and bounces a few times before landing. . . When we opened the door to look, Stetson ran out. There was no need for a talking collar to translate what he was thinking: "Tennis balls from Heaven!"

Funny Ashley

It's funny how the three kids have different gifts. Brandon is our scholastic whiz. Jonathan is our Theologian. And Ashley is just the most responsible girly girl, girl I've ever seen. This absolutley *cannot* have been learned behavior. Posted below are before and after pictures of my office and formal dining room. . . Ashley's room is the only one in the house that never needs cleaning. Sometimes, she'll even decide it's not clean *enough* and reorganize her jewelry box, empty the "wastebasket" and arrange the clothes in her armoire by color. She neatly folds or hangs up her school clothes after school and changes into playclothes such that the only thing that's ever in her hamper are socks and underwear with an occasional shirt or pair of jeans she's deemed not clean enough to wear again wihtout washing.

She's also a very good supervisor. She has a great sense of organization and helps the boys clean their room too. She uses a pointer to help them organize things into piles. . . then she helps them sort each pile and put everything in its proper place until its as neat and orderly as her own room.

She also acts as a den-mother to the boys and our dog. Most recently, I've been impressed with her keen "a mom just knows" sense . . .only she's just a kid. A few weeks ago, our dog had a spider bite on his paw and licked all the fur off (and licked and licked some more) until it was swollen (the vet called this a lick granuloma). Ashley is the one who noticed this. "Oh mom, look at Stetson's paw. . . It's much worse. Come here, boy. We need to show mommy. Good dog. Now sit. Shake. Give me your paw. Now mom, look. See his paw is much worse than yesterday." Unfortunately, part of the treatment for this was a stylish lamp-shade collar he had to wear for two weeks - from which he developed an allergy to plastic. . . .And Ashley once again was the first to notice. "Oh mom, look at Stetson's mouth. He looks like he has itchy pink spots on his mouth. I think we need to take him to the vet." . . .Took him to the vet and lo and behold. . .
But last night was the most impressive to-date. She came downstairs before bed and said, "Mom, I think Brandon isn't feeling very well. His head feels warm and he looks tired. Maybe check on him before you go to bed." He did feel sweaty when I checked on him and this morning he woke up sniffly.

Honestly, she inherited some responsibility/presence of mind gene that's way more dominant in her than in any of the rest of us.

And she is sooooooo girly. Being the middle child, sandwiched between two brothers, no less. For our 11th anniversary, Karlon bought me a heart-shaped ruby necklace and presented it to me over a dinner date. I was wearing it when we picked up the kids and Brandon and Jonathan didn't notice at all, but it was the first thing Ashley saw. She ran up to get a closer look: "Oh, mom! It's so beautiful! Where did you get it?"

And she's been needing a new leotard for a while and when I took her to gymnastics, the gift shop happened to be open. I bought her two new leotards and when her class was over she wanted to know what was in the bag. . . she was *totally* delighted. . . you'd think I'd given her a pony. "Oh thank you mommy! I don't know how I can ever thank you for this." Asked which one she liked better, she said: "Oh, I don't know. I just can't decide. I love them both the same. . . .I just couldn't decide."

. . .And while the rest of us ate donuts for breakfast the other day, she said: "No thanks, I think I want something healthy for breakfast. Do we have any cereal?. . .

Where did this kid come from?

I'd think she might have been switched at birth except for having been born by c-section in a surgical suite. . . (and those eyelashes - I could have picked her out of a line-up after seeing her just once). I would have loved to know what God was thinking when He made her so completely unique from the rest of us. Maybe something like "What this family needs is. . .Ashley."

AND the TATTLE AWARD for the day GOES TO. . .

Ashley!

"Mommy! Guess what??!? Brandon kickted me in the lips and now my tooth is really wiggle-eeeeee!
See? It's bleeding! Hooray!"

Later: "And I owe it all to Brandon!"

Now *that's* what I call looking at the glass half-full.

(I should really note for the record that said baby tooth has been on the verge of falling out for several weeks).

More before and after

Well, Summer is finally here. I actually needed a few days to decompress and didn't dive right in like I thought I would. . . But the adventure has begun and I just finished the dining room. Here are the before and afters:




Messes of this magnitude actually happen a few times/year at our house and I have developed a great system for cleaning them. Because everything is so chaotic, there's no point in trying to put things away since the container for whatever thing might not be where it's supposed to be, either.

Basically I go around each room with a trash bag and a laundry basket sorting between things I want to keep, things to throw away and [create a pile of] laundry. When the laundry basket is full of things I want to keep, I dump it out in the closet under the stairs and close the door. The laundry in any given room goes to the laundry room to await the next wash day and the trash goes out in the trash bin to await the next trash day. When all the rooms have been sorted through, I use several baskets and sort everything under the stairs based on the room each item goes in. This is probably the easiest and fastest part of the job. . . and when the last thing is put away, everything is tidy again!

So that's two down, 12 more to go! I'm on a roll now!

We made it! Summer is *FINALLY* here!

Beginning at 10AM today, I started counting the hours. The first few seemed to pass quickly as Karlon and I amused ourselves by lunching at County Line. But things slowed up once we got home and at 1pm I began counting minutes. First 59. Then 46. 44. 42. 41. Then I got rather involved in a deadly spider show Karlon was watching on Discovery Channel and whittled it down to 34 before I looked at the clock again. He happened to be poking around on youtube with his laptop and we watched a clip of Susan Boyle's final performance on Britain's Got Talent, which knocked it down to 31, leading into the final half-hour. Calculating in my head, I knew I should show up about ten minutes early to say goodbye to the teachers. . .and figuring it would take about ten minutes to get there, I would need to leave about nine minutes later. What could I do for nine minutes? I decided to brush my teeth. . . it always seems to take longer than I think it should in the mornings, so it would stand to reason that it takes just as long in the afternoons, but no luck. It did knock a few minutes off, however, and brought remaining time down to six minutes and thirty seconds. So for six minutes and thirty seconds, I waited and waited and waited while the seconds ticked until it was finally time to go. I backed out of the driveway with a happy heart, arrived exactly on schedule in the parking lot. . . said goodbye's to the teachers and chatted briefly with some of the other mom's about summertime plans. And it was *finally* over. The three of us walked out to the truck and drove home cheering.

It was such a huge deal to me, Karlon even sent flowers. Gorgeous violets and star-gazers that match my office perfectly and fit the empty space on my office shelf like they were custom-made.


The beginnings of a GREAT summer!!!

Ashley lost her tooth!

. . .with a little help from an experienced big brother who suggested she turn it sideways and pull forward. She was genuinely grateful for his advice (especially since it worked immediately).

Isn't she beautiful?

One more day (and still counting)!

Today was the awards ceremony. It was scheduled from 8-10am, but was over by 9:25. Last year, everyone left when their kids' class presentation was over, so the poor fourth graders only had their parents to watch them. This year they made an announcement requiring everyone to stay to the end. Everyone was really impatient and hopped up the instant the principal thanked us all for coming (she forgot, I guess, that attendance had been mandatory). . . Brandon, Ashley and I were sitting on the very back row and led the escape. We all made a beeline for the parking lot and never looked back.

It's really been a very long year.

But we're done until tomorrow. One last fun field trip from 10-2 and it's officially SUMMER!

Just two more days and counting!

Summer is almost here! TWO more days of activities and we're through for the whole year! Tomorrow is Brandon and Ashley's award ceremony (off campus, of course. . . and at 8AM across town). . . But we only have to stay until 10AM and then we're done for the day. Tuesday is the last day of "school" and both classes have a celebratory end-of-year field trip from 10-2. And that's it!

I love the freedom of summer and I find myself thinking about all the wonderful things that could fill my days.

Here is what a day in the life of Sherilyn looks like during the school year:
• Wake up 6:30, get kids ready for school.
(fortunately, Karlon does the first drop-off run at 7:30 for me)
• While he's gone, I focus on getting Jonathan and myself ready for preschool drop-off at 9am.
• Leave home at 8:30-8:45 to arrive in Cedar Park between 9 and 9:15
• Sign Jonathan in, exit the building and either. . .
. . .a) drive directly back home and arrive 9:30-9:45 . . .or
. . .b) run a few errands on my way home and get back between 10 - 10:30
• This gives me enough time at home to read/reply to email or perhaps make a phone call before it's time to leave again at 11:21 to get a good parking place at the circle drive for picking up Brandon and Ashley.
• Wait at the circle drive, bored, until the kids are released from class and mosey themselves to the truck. . .
• Leave said parking lot between 11:45 and 11:50
• Drive back to Cedar park to pick up Jonathan and arrive roughly at 12:20
• Sit in parking lot and work on homework with Brandon and Ashley until 12:58, walk in and sign Jonathan out at 1pm.
• Drive directly back home and arrive between 1:20 and 1:30.
• Prepare lunch for 4 people (Jon ate at school) and eat.
• Begin supplementary homework rotation (more on this at a later date, I'm sure).
Fist Ashley (writing and spelling, math, reading)
. . .then Brandon (math, writing, reading)
• Prepare dinner, eat, send the kids to bed. Then it's all about laying clothes out for the following morning, packing snacks/Jon's lunch, filling out [those infernal] reading journals, making sure all homework is in correct folder, folders are in the correct backpacks and backpacks are ready to go and hanging assigned doorknobs.
Whew! Then it's time to rest.

Anyway, I feel like I'm coming back to life. I LOVE summer! . . .I can hear all those wonderful previously unfinished projects just calling my name.

I was thinking I'd finish repainting Ashley's bedroom furniture first, since that's been in the queue the longest. Repainting the upstairs from all the kid-crayon marks and handprints has been in the queue second-longest. . . I have a junk-closet of stuff that keeps growing and growing all the time that needs to be sorted into things to keep, things to give away and things to sell (then I actually need to follow through with giving away or selling the stuff). . . I have 3 bedrooms and a gameroom to finish decorating. I own most of the supplies for decorating each, but just never get around to installing the stuff.

Jonathan is starting Kindergarten in three months, and I have yet to complete his nursery. He grew out of it about four years ago and moved into Brandon's room. . . and the "nursery" is now more of a storage room. It is half-exquisitely decorated in the theme of Peter Rabbit and I have left it the way it is because I do eventually want to complete it and take pictures before turning it back into a closet/setting area. So this project has actually been in the queue the longest. . . and would probably be the most fun. . . but the other things still take priority because they're more currently useful.

. . .BUT before any of those things, the absolute first on the list will have to be cleaning house. By the end of the school year, everything is so chaotic that I can't keep up and before I know it, the house seriously does look like a tornado hit it. (And unlike some people, I don't overstate the facts.) Here's a picture of my office last weekend:


And here's what it looked like after a day and a half of sorting, organizing and filing:


"Ahhhh." . . .that's one room down and . . .like 13 more to go!

I think I'll chronicle my summertime productivity here. . . .Give it a snazzy title like The Great Transformation. . . .

And the adventure officially begins June 3! . . .in *TWO* days!
Wahoo!!! I just *LOVE* summer!!!

AND the TATTLE AWARD of the day GOES TO. . .

BRANDON! - surprisingly. Usually he minds his own business, but this one I guess he couldn't ignore:
"Mom! Jonathan turned the TV off and spit at my leg!"

Another chapter closed

Today was Jonathan's last day of preschool. It didn't really occur to me because his preschool has a private Kindergarten that he'll attend next year which is comfortably located just across the hall. But something Jonathan said this morning triggered the realization: "This is my very last day of preschool EVER!" Wow. The bitter-sweetness of it all washed over me like a wave. It's a little sad that the kids are all growing up and (as of 1pm today) we have officially closed the book on preschool. . . but at the same time, it's rather satisfying to have attained the freedom that comes with having older kids. . . the freedom of being able to ask a simple question and get an answer rather than having to guess. . . freedom to be able to enjoy a meal together in a restaurant without anyone having a meltdown. . . knowing they can get themselves dressed, pour their own juice, entertain themselves.
. . .Well, I guess I can fudge a little on the setimentality of it all since Kindergarten is one of those years that can really still be considered preschool. After all, it isn't really required by the state of Texas. . . and the NAEYC does accredit Kindergartens.
. . .Okay. We'll call it preschool for just one more year . . .and while we do that, there's no law that says we can't enjoy the benefits of having school-aged kids as well. . . (Where's my blond wig and microphone? . . . ♫♪ the best of both worlds ♫♪. . .)

First, I'd like to say to anyone who is not down with Winnie-the-Pooh, that the word "Thotful" was originally spelled by a bear of very little brain.

(well, I had to write something for a test-entry)