Jump On It

I am not as young as I used to be. Obviously. No one is. But you get to a point where you feel it more and more. Not that I am old, I'm not, at least not as old as I plan to be. Anyway last night we took the kids to Jump on it. They had earned a little family fun night for earning enough points. As previously mentioned bribes are the main force behind motivation at our house. Each Monday in family home evening points are awarded for such things as reading scriptures everyday, going to bed on time, doing homework and piano and getting to church on time. We also have a sacrament mtg quiz and a random nail check. Well about once a month or so depending on how well we are doing we earn a family fun night. We vote on where we want to go and this time Jump on it was the winner. Last time we went to the pool.

Jump on it is a giant building like a warehouse that they have turned into a child's dream center. At least my kids love it. I like it too. So there are a few blow up slides and toys and stuff to play on, video games and hockey tables and stuff like that and the trampolines. There are 52 trampolines (I counted) all connected together. There are some tramps up on the wall to jump off of and also platforms to jump off of, or onto if you are that skilled. It is really a bit crazy with people jumping all over the place.

We have a trampoline in the backyard and I like to jump on it. I think I am pretty good too. I can jump for like a half hour or more without falling or stopping. I often challenge my kids to seat wars or knee wars and almost always win. I didn't really realize jumping up and down in one place is a lot different than jumping on 52 trampolines. With multiple trampolines you have to go from one tramp to the next, you have to gauge how hard to jump so you don't land on the springs in between the two tramps you have to dodge other jumpers. This is a little trickier than I figured. But it is also a lot more fun than just one trampoline. I guess bigger is usually better except when it comes to clothes sizes.

When we got there I hopped right on, took a practice jump or two and then tried to jump to the next tramp. Wham I fell right on the bars between the tramps. They are covered with padding, but it still hurt a lot. My boys were laughing at me, so I put on my brave face and hopped up without crying. They tried to get to me play tag with them or do flips or jump off the side tramps. I told them I would love to but I had to watch the baby. Truthfully I was chicken, but I couldn't let them know that. Maybe they guessed cause they offered to go easy on me. Anyway I choose my favorite tramp and staked it out as my own and jumped up and down with my baby while the rest of the family were jumping all over the other 51 trampolines.

Like all fun things there is a bit of danger involved. My other daughter got double bounced and went flying, she landed on her back on the bars and hurt her knee. She wouldn't walk on it the rest of the night. In fact she wouldn't put much weight on it the next morning either. Which was a problem since she really needed to go to school. I banned missing school for the rest of the year except for the week we go to Disneyland. The school doesn't treat you like a responsible parent if your kids miss to many days. And I really want to pull them out to go to Disneyland. So no more missing school. I warned them they better not get sick or at least the kind that shows too much because they would be going no matter what. Although I should have maybe not told my first grader this, at least the janitor who had to clean up her throw up would probably have appreciated a little more leniency for sick kids on my part. Anyway so this morning I had to figure out how to get my daughter who couldn't walk to school. Even though we live close enough to walk it is still pretty far to hop on one foot. Usually I would just drive her, but the car is in the shop so I couldn't do that. So I bundled everyone up and got ready to walk her over in the stroller. Luckily my neighbor offered to drive her, so she got to school. She came home perfectly fine so I guess she is healed.

Anyway back to Jump on it. As I was standing in one place jumping up and down I was thinking that a few years ago I would have been out there playing tag, hopping from one to another without a second thought. I suddenly felt old and very not fun. I decided to be brave and try the wall jumping thing. So I ventured out of the toddler section I had occupied thus far. I was terrified, it took my a while and lots of false starts but I did it, once. Well I kind of did it anyway. I jumped up on it and then fell flat on my face. My kids wanted me to try again and land on my feet this time. But I said once is enough. I felt old again. I suddenly remembered the phrase "growing old gracefully" and I thought maybe that means to stop trying to act like you are younger than you are because doing so only makes you look like a fool. Like when old grandmas wear trendy clothes, or old women keep their hair long even when it is grey. My husband doesn't agree with this old woman and long hair thing. But old women should not have long hair, it is just not done, at least not gracefully. In fact it is almost time for me to cut my hair off but that is a whole other topic.

So we all had a good time, a good work out, and no one got lost, wet their pants, or taken to the ER. So in my book that constitutes a successful evening.

The third grade Bully

There is a bully in the 3rd grade, and he has a special interest in my son. For several months now he has teased and harassed my son. This of course brings out the mother bear in me and I have had many not so kind thoughts about this little ruffian. His teacher and I have had several chats, all the boys involved have had several chats and things got better for a few weeks then bam the bullying was back worse than before.

Well from the very beginning my wonderful husband and I have agreed that something must be done, we don't like to see our little guy abused, but we disagree on the way this situation should be handled. While I thought a little ignoring, avoiding, kindness and cheek turning might just do the trick, my very manly husband thought a quick upper cut to his nose might just shut him up. My very intuitive husband was smart enough to know I wouldn't agree with him, so he held his boxing sessions in secret and made the boys promise not to tell me. Luckily my sons told me anyway. I guess they were listening all those times I preached about never trying to hide things from your mother. You know for a long time they actually believed I had eyes in the back of my head, they still may for all I know. Anyway I shut down the boxing ring and begged my sons not to fight, or at least not to throw the first punch. To be honest this was not only due to the pacifist in me but also the size of the bully.

Well things got especially bad this week - lots and lots of teasing and pushing and then a punch in the face on the way home from school. So the next morning before school I called his teacher to discuss it again. His teacher promised they would talk - and talk they did. It was an insightful talk. His teacher learned some new information that he passed on to me, he told me that my son has promised to come home and enlighten me. So I patiently waited to hear from my son. Well he came home just like always and said his day was fine. He wasn't to forthcoming but with a little prompting from me he confessed that he had also been part of the problem and had teased back. His teacher had told me that he had used the "B" word, so I was waiting for him to confess to this. He rattled off a bunch of silly names he had called the boy but none started with B. So when he was done I asked, "anything else, did you call him any other names, maybe one that started with a B"
"Oh, Oh, you mean that one, I forgot I called him the "B" word", He stammered.
"And just what is the B word", I said.
"Well you know, the B word, I don't think I should say it." was his reply.
I assured him I had heard it before and could handle it.
So he finally gave in and blurted out, I called him a Bum" Well my immediate thought was amusement, the "B" word was Bum. Then I was relieved- whew, he is still my innocent little boy I thought. But then I thought some more, I don't know that if his teacher would really consider bum the "B" word. So I pressed, "does you teacher think bum is the B word. After much hesitation and embarrassment he finally admitted that he had also called him a bitch. (sorry to you with innocent burning ears for using such language-I just didn't want any confusion over what the "B" word was) Well now that put things in a different light. My innocent little picked on, perfect son was a foul mouthed, deceitful bully too. It was quite a let down. I probably no longer qualify for mother of the year.

So now what to do about it. My son immediately started begging me not to tell Dad, he just knew if Dad found out he would be grounded for a long time, like maybe a week. He did think that 1 or two days would be ok, he could handle that but not a week. Well I was a bit miffed that he thought Dad was so much stricter than Mom. I can be pretty strict and to be honest I thought in this situation I would win the bad guy contest. I am not known as the meanest mom on the block (at least by my children) for nothing. So I waited for my hardworking husband to get home, I waited and waited and waited. It was bedtime and still no Dad so I called him and we discussed the situation and punishment. While we both definitely don't like our son going around with a mouth like a sailor, the bad language wasn't the most alarming part to us. So we decided to ground him for what bothered us the most which was his lying and deceitfulness. He had told us for months that he never did anything back and he was getting bullied for absolutely no reason. When finally confronted he tried to avoid telling me what had been going on. It wasn't until I told him I had talked to his teacher that he finally fessed up. And then he tried to sneak a "bum" in there. Like I don't know the difference between bum and bitch. I have been around a bit after all. My son was right, my "meanie" husband thought a couple days to a week of being grounded sounded like a fair punishment. I on the other hand thought this was a serious infraction that needed serious grounding. So I voted for 2 days of grounding for using bad language and 2 weeks of grounding for lying and being deceitful. It was agreed upon and I handed out the punishment. Boy you would have thought his appendix had just burst or something. He let out the most awful scream and started sobbing, the shoulder shaking, crocodile tears sobbing that breaks your heart. But I was strong, and just told him I loved him and that he better get a book he enjoyed at the library because he would have plenty of time for reading. Then I went in my bedroom and cried.

The Ups and Downs

There have been some definite ups and downs this week. I have felt like I was on a roller coaster ride. Happy one minute and in grouch land the next. Maybe it is just pms or maybe it is just life. Who knows, who cares.

My hard working husband has been hard at work. A LOT. Midnight has come and gone several times this week while he has been plugging away doing whatever it is he does. It has been really really tough on him, which is really tough on me. I have a hard time seeing him so stressed. He is always so strong and on top of things it is kind of scary to see him so down. All this work also necessitates long hours at home for me. As much as I love my kids, too much of a good thing can be not such a good thing.

On Monday we took our car to the shop, it wasn't going into fourth gear. We have owned the car for about 18months and this is the 3rd time it has had transmission troubles. The nice mechanic told us it would need a new transmission and since they didn't do that we should see the dealer. The dealer is who "fixed" it the first two times. We were told they could fix it and it would be covered under the power train warranty with just 100 dollar deductible. I personally would rather it be fixed under the "we did a crappy job, and didn't fix it right the first time" warranty for free. But the dealer didn't agree. Well $100 is one thing but I was beginning to have some anger issues when they mentioned they would have to order the part and it would be ready for us Friday. All week with one car, I am not good at sharing. But share we have, Friday came and went with no car. Apparently the part they need is in Denver and the freeway out of Denver is closed so they can't get the part till at least next Tuesday so it will be ready Thursday or Friday. We have had a bit of snow this week, maybe Denver has too but enough to close the freeway for a week. I don't think so. Of course the closure may not have been weather related. It could have been a huge accident or a nuclear blast or something but then we probably would have seen that on the news. Anyway, whatever I keep reminding myself a week or two without a car never killed anyone.

Last weekend my baby said her ear hurt. She said it once and had a hard time sleeping that night. The next morning she was happy as a clam and said her ear was all better. All week she has had periods where she just sits on my lap and cries and acts sick. She has run a fever on and off. I didn't have a thermometer so I was just using the hand method of temperature taking and I would have called it a low grade fever. Well she got much worse on Friday so I searched our 72 hour kits for a 1st aid kit and found a thermometer. I took her temp under her arm with her fighting and it was still 103, so much for my low grade diagnosis. It has been in the 102-104 range ever since. But she promised her ear or throat didn't hurt. So I took her to the Dr. Friday evening. He said her ears were clear, throat was fine, breathing good she looked excellent except she had a temp of 102.7 on the Tylenol. We were puzzled.

When we were getting ready to go the Dr. I took her to the bathroom and noticed the skin around her vagina looked very red and puffy (just on one side) It looked really weird to be honest. I thought she was probably laying funny or something. I mentioned this to the Dr, he took a look and said, "Well we found the problem", she has an infection. I am not sure what kind, it is not a uti and I don't think it is a yeast infection, I am just not sure what it is. The infection is spreading up into her abdomen. 1/2 of her pelvic region is very red and swollen. It looks like someone drew a line right down her body and colored on one side, the other side looks perfectly normal. Weird huh. Anyway the Dr put her on amoxacillion and finally today it looks improved. She really had no symptoms besides a fever.

Last week the weather was beautiful, the sun was shinning the tulips were breaking through, the daffodils were opening and I was feeling happy to be alive. This week it was cold, and rainy or snowy all week. Saturday it got niceish again just to turn into a blizzard today. I am way sick of winter.

I got succored into being a soccer coach for my first grade daughters team. I swore this year I wouldn't do it. Ten "we are desperate for coaches" calls from the rec office later and I am the coach. We play 8 man soccer, I got a team with 8 girls, 2 of which have never showed up to practice 2 of the 6 who have come have asthma and can't run more than a couple of minutes without coughing up a lung. This week we practiced for 1/2 hour one day before the girls were shivering so hard they couldn't talk, so I called it a day. I cancelled the next practice since the field was covered in snow. Our games start next week, I feel like we are doomed.

So a week with no husband, no car, and no sun would be a tough pill for me to swallow. But add a mysteriously sick baby, a failing soccer team and a 3rd grader with a dirty mouth and I almost reached the breaking point. But luckily I didn't break. Just like it always does when I feel like I can't do it any longer something happens to lift me out of that hole. A couple things this week.

First of all I got to go out to dinner with my friends. I love to do this. I absolutely love this. It gives me a much needed rest away from the stresses and pressures of my life. There are no children, no husbands, no dirty dishes or stacks of laundry. I get to unwind, eat really good fattening food, and laugh and talk like a silly teenager again. It really is fun and does me a world of good. We go out about once a month usually but we skipped last month so I was really needing it. So that was a lifesaver.

Before going out to dinner we met at one of my friends house, while waiting for everyone to arrive I went inside and spent about 1/2 hour in her house. She is one of my best friends I really like being with her for a lot of reasons. One of which is her life is much harder than mine, while that may be a pretty tacky and callous thing to say, it is true. (That is probably the smallest reason - she really is great). But a half an hour in her house made me count my blessings, and this week I needed a little blessing counting.

On Thursday my husband decided to surprise me and come home early from work. Not just early like 6 or 7 but early like 3. It was amazing, I was shocked when he walked through the door. So we decided to go out. I called my sister in law Tess and asked her if she could spare a couple of hours to come and watch the kids. She readily agreed just like she always does and came and watched them. I was reminded how lucky I am to have the family I do. I have wonderful brothers, and sisters (in laws included) who have never been anything but kind and supportive. Each one of them is the "bend over backwards to help" kind of people, I am very blessed to be part of this family. Tess is my newest sister in law. She fits in so beautifully. My kids, especially my baby, lover her. In fact my baby watches out the window for her all the time even after I tell her, Tess isn't coming today. If ask, my baby will always tell you that Tess is her best friend. We are very blessed to have Tess and Kevin live near us. They are not just family they are friends.

My perfect husband took me to the temple on Thursday. A date to the temple isn't always top on my list. Not because I don't like being there but because we get so little talking time as it is that I usually like to spend every second of our dates talking his ear off and you can't do that in the temple. But I think the stress of the week left me feeling so overwhelmed and inadequate that I needed a little more than a fun evening out with my favorite person. I needed a good reminder of what it was all about. I was reminded.

We did sealings. I thought about my week, then I thought about the women I was representing. They were wives and mothers just like me. But instead of a just a hard week every now and again like I have to endure, they had lived their whole life and then waited for a century or more without the same sealing blessings I have enjoyed my whole life. My little stresses paled in comparison. Being with my family is the greatest gift I can ever hope to have. They are my next breath. Without them there would be no reason to go on. I imagine these women feel the same way about their families, especially one women who stood out to me. The joy and peace she must have felt at finally being sealed to her son must have been overwhelming. It must have been, because I felt it and it was for me. I count it a great privilege to have played a small role in that and to have caught a tiny glimpse of her joy. I came home renewed, refreshed and reminded.

Who is this Murphy fellow?

What is it with Murphy's laws. I am not sure who this Murphy fellow is or why he made such laws but I wish he wouldn't have. They seem to affect me all the time. Like just today I cleaned out my fridge. I hate cleaning my fridge, it is by far my least favorite job. I would rather scrub 1000 toilets then clean my fridge. But I did it today. It sure is empty now, I guess I should go shopping. Anyway cleaning the fridge isn't my point here so I will move on.

I was reminded of Murphy's laws while I was scrapping out the remains (which was a large percentage) of a chicken pot pie I had made for dinner a while ago. It was my very first chicken pot pie. I love pie but I prefer sweet fruit or pudding over chicken stew to be inside the crust. Anyway a while back my kids had watched the movie chicken run and learned about chicken pot pies. They have been asking me to make it ever since. So this week when asked what they wanted for dinner someone said chicken pot pie and the rest of my kids agreed I decided to go for it. I don't usually like to make things for dinner that I don't personally like so I had held off thus far on the pot pie. But I decided to sacrifice my own desires for theirs and make the pie, it also helped that I was going out for dinner with my friends that night. Anyway I googled it and found a recipe I though looked reasonable and made it. The crust turned out perfect. The last hundred pies or so I have made haven't been this successful. I love pie, it is my favorite dessert. I like the crust I make but for some reason I can never roll it out and get it on the pie plate in a perfect circle without having to patch little pieces here and there. Well this time I rolled out a absolute perfect circle, just the right size with no broken parts. I didn't even try hard or be extra careful or anything. It looked beautiful. It also baked to a perfect golden brown, flaky crust without burnt edges. Honestly I was pretty impressed with myself.

Well I was also pretty annoyed that this crust had to house chicken stew instead of apples and cinnamon, and also that no one but my kids (and maybe my husband) would see it. Most pies I make are for a holiday or when we have guests or to take to a church function or party. Anyway my children who were super excited to have chicken pot pie, tried it only to find they don't like chicken pot pie. My kind husband ate some and said he liked it, but today I threw most of that perfect crust away.

Anyway things like that seem to always happen to me. It doesn't matter how hard I try to make something turn out perfect, it only happens when it doesn't really matter how it looks. The same could be said about all kinds of things. My most successful ventures are always the most unimportant one while the important ones always flop.

I have to wonder why my kids only get sick after office hours, or they miraculously get better the moment we enter the Dr's office. Or the only days it rains is during vacations. Or why traffic is always at its worst when I am in a hurry. Or my favorite song comes on just after we pull in the driveway, but the traffic report is the only thing I hear while driving around. Or I am at my skinniest when I have the most zits and if my zits clear up I suddenly have no where to go. Or why my kids won't ever go to the bathroom in a toilet that hasn't been flushed but if there is a clogged toilet then they sit right down and go all over the mound of clogged toilet paper (and it is always the most disgusting smelliest kind). Or how the only time I lose my cool and scream at my kids is when someone is standing at my door knocking but I can't hear them over all the screaming and yelling. It is uncanny how these things always happen.

Even little things like trips to the grocery store. If I just spur of the moment decide to go everything always turns out ok. If I take the time to plan ahead, make a list, and read the ads, I can never find what I need, if I do it's not on sale and I forget half the most important things I came for.

If I take the time to bathe and dress the kids, and do their hair and put some make up on myself we never end up seeing anyone we know. But it's those times that I am in a hurry and just put a jacket on over my pajamas, and carry the kids out to the car without cleaning their faces, or putting their on shoes that we run into 1/2 our ward plus a least a couple of old friends I haven't seen for years.

If I take my baby to the bathroom right before we leave she will wet her pants when we get there. If I don't remember to make her go she is fine for hours. That is one thing I have never understood. How can the same child who can play all day long and only pee once a day when we are at home, have to go several times an hour when we are out. Honestly I think when they see a restroom sign at the store they start thinking about going to the bathroom, meanwhile I move on with my shopping until we reach the other end of the store then then kid realizes its more than a thought and he is dancing around holding himself. So I race back to the bathroom hoping to make it in time, sometimes I do sometimes I don't. Well then I of course ask, "anyone else need to go..., are you sure... even a little bit" the answer is always no. So we head back out to shop and when we have reached the furthest possible place from the bathroom the next kid has to go, so we start the race over again. With only 2 preschoolers you would think that would be the end of it and we could finally finish our shopping, but no I can always count on someone who needs to go back so they can poop. And they always seem to tell me this in their loudest possible voice in the most crowded area of the store. I am not kidding - this scenario is a common occurrence in my life and has been since my oldest was potty trained. Anyway although I am not a fan of this Murphy fellow I think he has got it spot on, anything that can possibly go wrong, does. You know I bet this Murphy isn't a fellow at all I bet he is Mom.

A date to IHOP

Each week my wonderful husband and I trade off taking one of our children out on a date. The kids really like this and so do we. Last week it was my oldest sons turn to go out with Dad. They went to Macey's and got a Kong Cone. That is what we did when it was my turn to take him out too. He just loves those Kong Cones. I am not sure if it is just the sheer challenge of eating so much ice cream in one sitting or the looks and comments he gets while carrying that mountain of ice cream around the store- but whatever it is he loves it. Those things are huge. I am guessing there is at least a quart of ice cream in those 7 swirls atop one giant cone. The drawback to the Kong Cone is that they won't dip them in chocolate. They say the ice cream will just fall off, I guess that may be true I have never tried it - but don't you think they could figure out a way, maybe they could just pour chocolate on the top. Dipped cones are so delicious.

Today was my turn to take our second son out. He choose to go to Ihop for breakfast. I was a bit surprised at his request but also excited. I love breakfast, actually I love every meal. But breakfast is the meal I am least likely to eat out - so going to a restaurant for breakfast is a special treat. The big drawback to "out for breakfast" is you have to get up really early. I set my alarm for 6:45, turns out I didn't really need to set it because I was so excited to go that I kept waking up and checking if it was time to get up yet, so I was wide awake and just laying there in bed waiting for my alarm to ring so I could get up and get ready. I opted for short "getting-ready" routine. I skipped the shower and pulled on the clothes I wore yesterday, went to the bathroom, tried to smear the smudges of yesterdays eye liner all the way across my eyes so it looked freshly applied. (didn't work- I just looked like I had black smudges under my eyes) and ran my fingers through my hair, which didn't help any. I then went to wake up my boy. He too was so excited that he just jumped out of bed - fully dressed, he had gotten dressed the night before so that he didn't have to "waste time" finding his clothes before we left. So all he had to do was slip on his shoes. He didn't even want to take the time to go to the bathroom. When I told him to, he just said "don't they have one there - I can wait"

As we got off on the exit we could see that the parking lot was full, he was a bit worried that they wouldn't have a table left. But as we pulled in we noticed that all the cars were on the other side of the lot, probably a park and ride spot or something. He was very relieved. The restaurant was empty we were the only ones there the whole time. The waitress asked me if I wanted a children's menu or an adults for him. I said one of each. Luckily he choose to order off the children's menu since the prices were about double what I expected. I guess it has been a long time since I have gone out for breakfast. Anyway he ordered french toast and bacon and I got Belgium waffles with strawberries and whipped cream. It was delicious. Very delicious. At home I would have opted for ice cream instead of whipped cream. Actually that is not true - I would have had both.

My son also ordered orange juice, his frugal mom got water. Water for breakfast is just wrong. But orange juice costs $3 a glass, so water it was. When the waitress asked him if he wanted juice I quickly tried to think of a way to get him to say no without it seeming like he wasn't allowed to have it. One rule on our dates is they get to order whatever they want. But $3 for a glass of juice is ridiculous. I could buy 3 cans of frozen Oj for about $3. I figured Ihop orange juice is about 12 times more expensive than grocery store orange juice. It sure didn't taste 12 times as good, in fact it wasn't that good at all. A little on the sour side and not at all cold. I like my juice with little ice crystals it it. This was like room temp with a couple ice cubes floating in it. But oh well, money is money and the privilege of going out with mom and drinking $3 lukewarm, sour orange juice is something that will hopefully make him feel special. And helping him feel special is what it is all about.

Things Not Seen

My oldest son's 4th grade class was assigned to read Things not Seen. He had been reading it for several weeks. We knew about this because part of our weekly family home evening routine includes a book report. We go around the room and each person has 30 seconds to tell the family about what books they are reading. This is supposed to encourage literacy and a love for reading. Well his teacher gives the class a few minutes in class to read each day. He apparently thought that was sufficient so he hadn't brought the book home to read like the rest of the class. He was way behind. Well our little chat with his teacher during parent teacher confrences motivated him to spend several hours reading this weekend. I decided to read the book too. So one evening I read it. I enjoyed it. It is about a 15 year old boy who wakes up invisible. His clothes show up on this invisible body which is determental in keeping people from seeing him, so he runs around trying to solve the mystery of his invisiblenss in the buff. While going naked is a pretty logical thing for someone in this situation to do I am not sure the author needs to dwell on it and constantly remind us of his nakedness. It even gets more interesting when he meets and falls in love with a blind girl. Luckily the girl can't see his naked body. That would be a bit much for me. But she is aware of it. I am a bit naive but not so much to not recognize that this puts an interesting dimension into their relationship. What 15 year old boy could run around completely naked with his girlfriend and not be affected. And even if she can't see him I bet her imagination was working pretty well. Anyway I think I would have rated this book a little higher on the "appropriate for 10 year olds" scale if there would have been more clothes involved or at least less talk of nakedness. There was also a few words used pretty commonly that are not allowed in our house. While most of the world probably doesn't find them offensive, I do. Anyway the book was pretty interesting and fairly well written. I am just not sure I am ready for my 10 year old to read about teenagers falling in love even if it is not the main topic of the book. I wouldn't go so far as to say I would forbid him to read it (I didn't) but I just think I would have thought twice about assigning it to my 4th grade class. I hope this doesn't make me sound like a prude, I'm not really. I just don't know why he can't enjoy a good Little house, or Anne of Green Gables book. I enjoy the innocence of children - I'd like to keep them that way as long as I can.

I've got some pretty smart kids

Last week was parent teacher conferences. I usually look forward to this time of year because it means we get a day off of school. I also like to meet with my kids teachers and since I have very smart kids it boosts my ego to hear how well they are doing. Well this term two of the three kids had walking report cards. I hate those, I feel so cheated. What a waste of time. We have to go around to several stations where we watch our kids do math problems, read to us and do various other things they have been learning. The purpose is so we as parents can see what are kids know. Well maybe that is beneficial to deadbeat parents who don't pay any attention to their kids. But I live with my kids, I talk to them on a daily basis. I help them do their homework or at least check it when they are done. I listen to them read every day -I already know what they know. What I don't know is how they are behaving at school, are they fitting in with the other kids, or are they keeping up with everyone else. I really want to know if they are the smartest kid in the class but it is tacky to come right out and ask that. I thought about not going to the walking report cards but that would make me look like a bad mother- so I went.

The walking report cards pretty much lived up to my expectations of a waste of time but the one teacher I did get to meet with opened my eyes to some issues my oldest son is having in the 4th grade. He loves school, he loves his teacher, he loves his friends. He doesn't' so much like to do homework and he has some pretty good rationalizing skills when it comes to explaining why he isn't doing his homework. First of all they don't have all that much homework and when his teacher says he can do it either at home or at school he just always chooses to do it at the place he is currently not in. 4th grade is a bit different than the younger grades. The teachers expect the kids to be a bit more independent, keeping track of what is due when all by themselves. I thought that sounded like a pretty good idea so I let him take the reigns when it comes to getting his work done. His driving skills need some work. But all in all he is doing pretty well. He spent several hours catching up a few things this weekend and now we should be back on track. School can be exhausting, I can't wait for summer.