From the Mouth of Nora

Nora was in rare form yesterday. We were eating dinner and out of nowhere she said, "Pa used to be fat but he's not anymore." My dad has been loosing weight...I guess she noticed! Then, about two minutes later she said, "Mom, I don't like OLD. I like young, because young you LIVE. Old is not good!" I have no idea why this was on her mind, but she's always thinking!

Amazed

Sometimes my daughters just amaze me. I look at them in wonder and can't believe that they are mine, and yet I share them with another mother too. What a gift. I'm very thankful.

What makes a "super-mom"?

A recent facebook post has got me thinking...what makes a super-mom? The context of the facebook post was about being a super-mom by working all day at a corporate job and still managing the grocery shopping, dry cleaners, dinner, and then spending time playing and doing art work with the kid(s). The emphasis was on doing all this AND working all day. It sort of made me feel like a super-dud.

I spend 24 hours a day, seven days a week with three kids. I don't earn any money, juggle off-hours emails and phone calls with my work team, or dodge traffic twice per day in a 45-minute commute. I don't wear a power suit or have power lunches -- or power anything for that matter. Wait, I take that back -- I sometimes eat a Power Bar for energy. I don't have goal-setting meetings, annual reviews, or annual merit raises. The only people who report to me are under four feet tall. What do I do? I wake up, feed the kids, dress the kids, teach school, some days pay bills and deliver the kids to practices and classes and doctor's appointments, clean house, do laundry, buy groceries, cook dinner, bathe kids, put them to bed, spend a little time with Tony, and then go to bed. Then I wake up the next day and do it all again. And some days I don't even feel like I do it all very well.

So, in today's world, what does "super-mom" mean? It seems to imply successfully juggling a career and family. I'm not the definition of today's super-mom, but I'm not June Cleaver either. My house is not spotless, and some days I don't even manage to put on make-up, much less a dress and pearls. I'm just a regular, boring, non-super-mom. For the record, though, I wouldn't have it any other way. I just hope super-moms realize it's a pretty big job being a non-super-mom too.

Jack, My Little Buddy

Jack has been gone for over a month now, and I still miss him -- we all do. Nobody knows better than my friend, Linda, how much I loved Jack. She knew me when I brought him home as a little puppy. Plus, Linda loves her dog, Brandy, so much, and Brandy is getting old now too. This past weekend, Linda and Greg brought their boys to our house for some camping fun. Well, they brought something else too. Look at what they gave me...

This was one of the most touching gifts I have ever received. Needless to say, I dissolved into a crying, blubbering, hugging mess. I just love it, and the picture even looks like him. What an thoughtful and awesome gift!

Linda and Greg are involved in a family business that makes and sells these personalized rocks. They are awesome! They can be made in just about any size and can be customized to your specifications. The web site is www.rockyourworld.us.

Scavenger Hunt and Acorn Math

I'm trying to have school outdoors as much as possible while the weather is good. Plus, it seems like Nora just learns more if she can keep moving. She has a really hard time sitting still at the table. Or course, we still have to have some "table time" to practice writing, but there is much we can do outdoors. Today we had a scavenger hunt (which ended with eating apples we scavenged at Pa's house), and then we did math with acorns. The girls also love having their pictures taken, so we took a break for a quick photo shoot. Then they finished up with sight words, spelling, and coloring pictures. It's going to get a lot more challenging this winter!

Now we're off to our homeschool soccer co-op group!

Chirping Like Birds

This week we're learning about animal homes! Today we have been on a walk pretending to be birds and finding nesting materials (and looking in the trees for nests). It was a beautiful morning for a walk, especially with kids who are chirping like birds. This is what we made...

Have we forgotten?

Friday morning the girls and I went outside to say the Pledge of Allegiance. They noticed immediately that our flag was flying at half staff and wanted to know why. I explained, as best one can to three little girls, that we fly the flag at half staff on certain days to show respect for people or events. Then I tried to explain about that awful day on September 11, 2001 when the "bad men" killed a lot of innocent people. I was choked up and trying not to cry as I looked for words to explain terrorism to small children -- and in a way that would not make them fearful of it happening to them. September 11, 2001 is a day that will be locked in my memory forever.

As we finished our school day on Friday and set off on our field trip to Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead, I explained that everywhere we saw flags on this day they would be flying at half-staff to remember the innocent people who lost their lives. Guess what? As we drove the 30 miles to our destination, I saw only TWO flags lowered. One was at a school and another at a home. I'll bet we saw 25 flags, and only TWO were flying at half staff. Not even churches had lowered their flags. I was, and still am, dismayed. What would it feel like to be the mother or wife or daughter of a 9/11 victim and see that just eight years later people cannot even be bothered to lower their flag to half staff -- such an easy yet overwhelmingly symbolic gesture.

I hope that as the years go by, we Americans do not forget what happened on that day, or on ANY of the days when we should lower our flags in honor of fellow Americans. If you fly an American flag, and you're in doubt about when to lower it, look on the internet. Do not forget what an important and symbolic gesture it is to fly the flag properly. As a mother trying to teach her children about love of others and love of our country, it is important to me that my girls understand the symbolism of the American flag. You can probably imagine how it changed the perspective of three little girls as we set off for the day watching for lowered flags and instead saw that people didn't take the time to fly their American flag at half staff on such an important day.

Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead

Yeah! I have Summer (my granddaughter) for the weekend. Today I took all the girls to the Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead. They had all been there before, but they were still very excited to go. We met a friend and her daughter there, so it was quite the girl party!

San Diego Visitors

Laura, Derrick, and Isaiah (my sister and her husband and son) were here visiting from San Diego over Labor Day weekend! The girls got in some great play time with their cousin. I got a couple of hilarious pictures where Isaiah dressed himself up in princess/fairy clothes. It was priceless, not to mention pretty darn funny! We had bonfires and made smores in the evenings, took the kids for rides around the field on the 4-wheelers, played games, and just generally enjoyed watching the kids have fun together.

Homeschool Week Four

This week we're learning about opposites, fruits in general, apples specifically, the letter "A," and the number 12! Today we cut open two different varieties of apples and counted their seeds and compared their sizes, we cut open a lemon and looked at the seeds, we tasted both and compared sour to sweet, and then we made the apples into applesauce and observed how they changed when heat was applied. Then...we ate our applesauce! Yummmm! And after all of that, we went to the zoo! After the zoo we went to Costco, where we looked for things that started with the letter "A" and looked for anything that displayed the number 12 (which Nora was very proud to find on a trash can). We love school!