My First Blog Award!

Thank you so much, Michelle! My fabulous niece blogs at Somerset Cottage, please stop by and say hello.
There are some rules that came along with the award, and here they are:

• Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them on your blog
• Share seven things about yourself
• Pass along the award to up to fifteen bloggers

Sounds like fun! When I read Michelle's list, my first thought was that I wouldn't have to write a list, I could just copy hers. Except for the fact that I am waaay past 40 and I've never been a nanny, it's spot on! My niece and I have so very much in common. However, I guess I'd better come up with my own list, so here you are:

1. I can't swim. I grew up in an area where bodies of water were rare, so I never had an opportunity to learn. I would feel as though I had conquered the world if I could just learn to swim!
2. I love pretty paper. Stationery, notecards, greeting cards, wrapping paper, just about anything! I can close my eyes and visualize my first box of stationery: delicate pink dotted Swiss with a rose on the corner of each sheet. So began a lifelong love affair with all things paper.
3. I'm messy. I am not a naturally organized person and I struggle with this daily.
4. Laundry is my favorite chore. I love the challenge of removing stains and the smell of clean laundry, especially if it has been line dried. I miss my clothesline. A lot.
5. I was an early talker, only a few months old when I said my first sentence. Just ask my family. I haven't stopped since. Just ask my family.
6. I am often lonely. I am not unhappy, but I often feel very alone, especially after Jonathan is in bed for the night.
7. I am an emotional eater. I eat when I'm sad (or lonely, not good) and celebrate with food when I am happy. Another lifelong struggle I haven't conquered.

Now it's time for me to pass the award along and I'm sending it on its way to:
                                Wendi at My Heart Is Always Home
I really enjoy reading her blog and I am sure you will, too! We have children the same age, she gives lots of great tips and good recipes, and she's real!


Thank you again, Michelle, for giving me the award and the chance to share a little more about myself!



                                                        

Filling In the Gaps with "Homeschooling"

Science: Which material is the best conductor of heat?

When I was considering my options for Jonathan's education, I gave lots of thought to homeschooling. For a variety of reasons, I decided that, for now at least, this was not the best option for our situation. However, there is a lot of homeschooling going on around here!
I feel very strongly that a child's education is a partnership between parents and the child's teachers. Making sure Jonathan is well educated is my responsibility, not a teacher's. Certainly teachers and schools are very important, but ultimately it falls on my shoulders to see to his education. I will do everything I can to see to it that any gaps in his "formal" schooling are closed by filling them with what he needs.
I like to think Jonathan has been homeschooled since he was born, starting in infancy. I used to carry him to the front door every morning when he woke up. We would open the door, take a look outside and talk about the day's weather. He has been read to consistently since birth. He knew his colors and shapes well before he was 18 months old, and has always had a supply of toys and books to stimulate his mind.
I can stop now, right? He's in real school. I don't think so! Last year he had science in preschool, which he loved! I don't think he will have very much science in kindergarten, not the hands-on kind he loves. We have decided that Friday mornings before school will be science day, when we can do experiments and demonstrations and learn about a variety of things. We've done this for two weeks now and it is fun!
Homeschooling our children is, or should be, part of every parent's life for many years. We have so many opportunities every day to teach our children. Be it manners or morals, math or science, or a host of other things, we are our child's teacher. As such, we need to be aware of teachable moments. Always remember they will learn far more from us than from any teacher they may have, whether we are homeschooling or not.

A Clean Slate

This is the freezer in my garage. Empty. A clean slate, waiting to be filled with food again. This is what had to be thrown away, because it had thawed too much to be safely used.

Four trash bags full of food, most of which was purchased this month. How sad is that? I spent almost the entire day cleaning my refrigerator/freezer in the kitchen, then emptying the garage freezer and giving it a complete top-to-bottom cleaning (which it really needed!). Do you know what a mess purple, red and blue popsicles can make when they melt and seep through their wrappers?
I have also spent a great deal of time in the kitchen this week salvaging what I could from the freezer fiasco.  I shared some with a friend so it would be used instead of winding up in one of those trash bags.
I am hoping to figure out a system to help me keep track of what's in the freezer and how long it's been there. I'm playing around with an inventory sheet but will have to see one like this will work for me. If it doesn't, I'll keep working with it until I get it right!

At least I now have a clean freezer, ready for more bargains to fill it! But I really hope this doesn't happen again......

It's Been One of Those Days!

This morning I went to the garage to get something out of the freezer for our breakfast, and what do I see? A trickle of water running on the floor coming from the freezer....uh-oh. Yep, the freezer door apparently was not properly closed when a certain young man got a popsicle from there after Sunday's soccer game. After about 14 or 15 hours, everything in the freezer had thawed, and unfortunately it was pretty full from sale shopping I'd done earlier this month. What to do? First, you cry. Then you see what can be salvaged.
The meat was still cold, just thawed, so I know what we will be having for dinner every day this week! I cooked 3 lbs. of chicken breasts which I will use to make chicken salad and cut into cubes for quesadillas, etc. I put boneless ribs in the oven and then made barbecue with them this afternoon for sandwiches. I was in the kitchen a large part of the day and saved quite a bit, but there was a big loss, too. I will wait until after our trash day on Thursday (oh how it hurts to throw away all that food!) and then I will turn off the freezer and give it a good cleaning on Friday before restocking it.
I left the car in the driveway after a trip to the post office so I could have more room in the garage to work in the freezer. When I got in the car at 3:00 to go pick Jonathan up from school, I found two crayons from a restaurant completely melted on the console. Dripping hot crayon wax everywhere, but at least not on the cloth car seat! I ran inside and grabbed the first thing I saw, a box of baby wipes. They actually did a pretty good job getting the wax cleaned up.
It's been quite a frustrating day, but then my boy brought this home in his backpack:

It made me smile and it made me realize that even though it was a difficult (and expensive!) day, we're still doing okay. All is still right in our little corner of the world.

Finding a New Daily Rhythm

Summer is winding down and school has begun, so Jonathan and I are having to adjust to a new daily routine. Long summer days have meant later bedtimes and waking later. Meals have been at various times each day, depending on where we were and what we were doing. We could take off for an adventure on a moment's notice.
Jonathan is attending afternoon kindergarten, but I am setting the alarm clock and getting both of us up early. He gets on the school bus at 11:30, so he has to have breakfast as well as lunch by then. If he doesn't have breakfast early, he won't be hungry for lunch! Last week he had a light breakfast and a more substantial lunch at 11:00 and that seemed to work well. I made dinner earlier last week. He came home hungry and we need to have an earlier bath and bedtime, so dinner needs to be ready by 5:00 or 5:30.
Tomorrow he will begin having homework. He will bring home a packet of papers on Monday which need to be completed and returned to school on Friday. We'll have to make time for that, and I am very glad he had some minimal homework in preschool. He is familiar with homework and knows it must be done!
Soccer season has started and our games are on Sunday afternoons, first one today! Practices are on Wednesday's from 6:00 to 7:00, so that's a busy evening. Dinner must be over by 5:30 and we come directly home to a bath and then bed!
It will take a couple of weeks to get in the groove of a new daily schedule. I will make necessary adjustments until we figure out what works best for our family. What is most important is making sure Jonathan gets what he needs to maximize his potential: healthy food, fresh air & exercise and a good night's sleep.

How To Break A Mother's Heart

Take one innocent little boy......

Watch him get on a great big yellow bus all by himself.....

See him wave goodbye as he heads off to school all alone.....

I didn't cry the first day of school. I never cried at preschool. Today I did.

38 Years Ago Today.....

....I was a brand new, very young, very happy Mommy! My first child was born, in the wee morning hours, following about 36 hours of labor. Tiny (6 pounds) and perfect. I knew, even then, what a blessing he was.
He was such a sweet child, smart and serious, he approached everything with such intensity! He'd look at you with those big dark brown eyes and you were compelled to listen to what he had to say. He was always a friend to the underdog, a natural leader. All of these qualities combine to make him very successful in his adult life.

It was a different world I brought him up in, compared to now. We lived in the country, surrounded by family. There were no computers, no DS's, no bicycle helmets. He rode in the back of his father's pick-up truck. He played freely with his friends and I didn't worry so much about predators, everyone knew everyone else and most were family. I remember when MTV came on the scene, a brand new concept, and trying to decide whether or not it was appropriate viewing for him. Times starting changing about then, the world expanded with lightening speed, requiring this mama to be more in tune to the relationship between outside influences and my son. There were some conflicts, of course, but we made it through the teen years relatively unscathed.

It was amazing to watch him grow, to navigate himself through those early adult years as he struggled to find himself and figure it all out. He matured very quickly and seemed to know what he wanted. At 26, he married the girl that's exactly right for him, they will celebrate 12 years of marriage in Oct. At 29, he became a father, and a more involved dad I've never seen! One of the things I most admire about him is his dedication to the welfare of his family.

Even though I mostly blog about Jonathan, because bringing him up is my day to day life right now, my older son is just as loved and just as special. I protect his privacy a little more, because he wants me to and because I should.

Today I am remembering my firstborn as a little boy, and how thankful I am to be his mother. I'll tell him that when I phone him later today. And I'll tell him how much I love him.