Through the Eyes of a Child

J drew this lovely portrait of Cr & me on Monday at Judo. Do you think this is how he really sees us? We look a slightly deranged. Cr looks like a happy psycho while I look a bit more like an angry psycho. At the very least, I think it's time to start our Family Art Class up again. We'll begin on Tuesday night.

Catching Up

I'm hopeful that this weekend I can get the links reposted on here. I also need to put some serious thought into school and scheduling. The boys seem to have developed an entitlement attitude to playtime before they begin their school work and they are watching too much PBS. I've been lazy and letting them because it gives me more time to get other work done. They need some more structure because they've been prone to picking at each other. I've got some ideas itching around in my brain, and I need to sit down and figure out how to implement them. We have 3 weeks before another interruption (Thanksgiving break) and we need to make the most of them.

For some reason I decided I want to run a 5K. I've never been a runner and I've got short legs, so this is kind of a funny idea. I found a treadmill on Craigslist and my goal is to be running the full 5K by the end of the year (I can run about 1.5 miles now, but the most at once is a half mile-the rest is in quarter mile increments broken up by quarter miles of walking). Our church usually participates in a Walk for Life 5K and I'm hoping to run that without falling over.

I was supposed to test for my green belt in Judo next month, but last night my Sensei said I have to participate in a tournament first. From what I understand, there are two types of competitors I'll go against. The young and spritely teenagers (who may or may not be any good, but they've got energy) or the older, seasoned brown and black belts (who may not have much energy but they are experienced). Given this information, I'm just looking to survive (since I have neither youth nor experience on my side). I won't be able to do one until January so unless Sensei forgets he said I need to do one, I have a couple of extra months to live to study. L and Z are due to test for their third stripes on their yellow belts soon.

Now going back to my first paragraph, I think it's time for me to drag the boys away from the playroom and down to the schoolroom so I can educate them.

I Really Should Have My Eyebrows Waxed

You Are Bert

Extremely serious and a little eccentric, people find you loveable - even if you don't love them! You are usually feeling: Logical - you rarely let your emotions rule you You are famous for: Being smart, a total neat freak, and maybe just a little evil How you life your life: With passion, even if your odd passions (like bottle caps and pigeons) are baffling to others

The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

An Innocent Slip? Or A Warning?

After a spell of disobedience:

Z: "Mom?"
Mommy: "Yeah?"
Z: "I'm really sorry"
Mommy: "For what?"
Z: "You know, for today......and tomorrow."

He claims he meant to say yesterday. We'll see.

Thanks!

It worked, Steven! I've now got all my links saved so I can easily repost them. Once I'm done fiddling with it, that is. That saved me a bit of work.

Thank you (and do I know who you are?) !

Awww...Stink!

I've been messing around with the template and I think I erased all my links. Oops.

The Kid Likes His Juice

M was the first and only boy up for a long time this morning. I was working in the school room and he was down the hall in the play room. He came galloping in holding a sword he'd made out of k'nex, and thrust his juice cup at me. I bent down to give him a kiss. He accidentally poked me in the head with his sword.

Mommy: "You stabbed me!"
M (laughing): "Oops. You're dead."
Mommy: "Well, then how am I going to get you apple juice?"
M (pausing for a second): "Quickly?"

The Manners of a Three Year Old

M: I want juice.
Mommy: Okay. How do we need to ask?
M (thrusting his cup towards me): I want juice.
Mommy: How do we need to ask?
M: Nicely?
Mommy: Right. You need to ask nicely.
M (smiling): Can you get me some juice?
Mommy: You're forgetting a word. How do we need to ask?
M (frowning and puzzled): Loudly??!?

Girly Nouns

In Latin this week we're covering feminine nouns. The example our text uses is table. I explained to the boys about masculine, feminine, and neuter nouns in English. Then, I told the boys that in Latin, all tables are girls.

Z found this to be hysterically funny. He laughed and laughed, and even after he finally got his giggles under control, any time I mentioned the word table and he'd start up again.

However, L had a deeper thought. "Mom, are tables girls in Latin because that's who usually serves them?"

sigh

Z's Seventh Birthday

Z had been planning his birthday for months. Originally he wanted a dragon cake like J's, then he wanted a pirate ship cake, and he finally settled on the castle cake. He wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch and have Cheeseburger Soup for dinner.

We celebrated on Sunday so we could celebrate with Grandma & Grandpa L and Aunt Sh (Sunday was the last day of their visit). I baked the cake Saturday morning and then stayed home from church Sunday morning to decorate it. It was a cool, rainy day and I added to much milk to the icing, and it was thinner and heavier than I had planned (normally I make cakes on dry days, since most days, especially mornings, are dry). My first plan to quickly decorate the cake with "stars" didn't work--the stars were droopy and so heavy the turrets started sinking into the cake and tipping. So I went with plan B, and spread the icing on (I'm really bad at spreading icing on, but thankfully I was able to leave it rough looking, since it was supposed to be castle walls) and used a toothpick to make mortar lines. Z was thrilled when he returned home from church.

We headed to Chuck E Cheese with the hope that we'd be able to get home in time to see some of the Packers. If you guys are forced to go this establishment, I recommend taking 1 adult per child. It goes a lot more quickly when all children are able to play their tokens simultaneously. We were in and out of there in under 2 hours, and were able to make it home to see the 2nd half of the Packers game. Z, being the good son that he is, has developed into a loyal Packers fan. He says when he sees them he just gets this feeling he can't describe (and no, all you doubters out there, I don't think it's the feeling that he's about to vomit). L, on the other hand, has decided he likes the Broncos. Of all the teams he could pick, he had to pick the team that beat us in the SuperBowl? Hopefully it's just some sort of rebellious phase. Anyway, the point of this is that we watched the last half of the Packers game (and they won), and it wasn't complete parental neglect of the birthday boy because he's a fan, too.

After the game Z opened presents. He was thrilled. He received a Lego kit, Imaginext dinosaur, Power Ranger sword, and a green scooter. He also received a green football that L picked out for him. And a green bike. Does anyone care to guess what Z's favorite color is?

After some time out front we had dinner. It was "Scrumptious" and "Delicious" according to Z. Then we ate the castle cake.

All in all it was a great day. Z was happy, but claims he feels the same as when he was 6.