Can't keep up...

...so I'm going to embrace not keeping up!

Over a month ago, I used a pinterest recipe to make really good tile and grout cleaner and washed HALF of my kitchen floor... (the end!)

Last night I was reliving my Sept 11 (the original) experience in my head and was remarking to myself that I still have such a good memory.  I was remembering the strange friend who told me that I was the only one of her friends who seemed concerned about the events of that day (??!!), and how the same 'friend' told me how she told her kids to look up in the sky because they wouldn't be seeing any planes up there (as it that was the big deal).  Well all the while I was telling myself what a good memory I had and I was looking around the kitchen for my Sudoku that I couldn't find... turns out it was in my hand!  (I still haven't finished it either.)


We frequently have 7 people at our dinner table, tonight will be 8.  Two need to leave before 5, one won't get home before 6, the rest of us need to leave before 7, one (and maybe one of the guests) is a vegetarian, nothing has been taken out of the freezer (not that the one pound of ground turkey that's in there would feed that many people anyway), looks like chicken nuggets (or left over fish for those of us with mature palates), homemade macaroni and cheese, and cantaloupe it is!

I am in the middle of both the second and third books in The Giver series.  The Giver is one of my all time favorite books, these two...eh...not so much.  They are OK, but not nearly as good as the original.  Why am I in the middle of both?  I originally thought the third was the second.  If I were caught up, I'd link to all these books, but I'm not...see title!

I just got a voicemail from an older lady that wants to usher at the theatre.  I am helping to organize ushers, one more thing to not keep up with.  Anyway, on the message the lady just said "bye now" I love that!  I can't bring myself to say it though, I just like to hear it.  Also "byebye", my mother says that, I like it but just cant say it.  I also can't say "hubby" no matter how endearing Mike is.

I was just interrupted by another usher call and then it was time to take Madi to her sign language class, now I'm right back to finish this.  Even though it's only 10 minutes from Jake's pick up time and I was already out, I had to come home to do this because even though a half washed floor doesn't really phase me, a half finished blog post will drive me insane.

I forgot to shave my legs this morning.

70s on 7

This morning while on my school drop off run, which when Madi goes to the gym early in the morning usually involves two round trips to the neighboring town and back before 9am, I had some thoughts for a blog post.  A few hours later, they don't seem nearly as profound or blogworthy as before, but I'm here so I'll go with it.  Life is crazy, just when I think it might calm down for a second, something else comes up.  I've talked about this before I think.  You know how at the checkout line at the store there is always something pertinent on the cover of People Magazine?  I always wonder, what would have been on the cover if that couple didn't have their baby this week or those people weren't tragically killed or whatever.  Life is like that too.  If XYZ problem weren't on the forefront of my mind, something else would be there.  I supposed that something else would also seem like a bigger deal if XYZ weren't such a huge all encompassing deal.  Well these were the thoughts on my mind between dropping off Mary at her school and coming back home to get Jake to bring him to his school.  Usually Jake is with me during this time, and we get to talk, but I had left him home for the first drop off this morning because he was in the middle of a bathroom situation (not a bad one, just a normal one, but since now, as a public schooler, he doesn't have the freedom to go whenever the mood strikes him, I let him take his time this morning).  This gave me time to ponder.  A couple days ago I was switching the radio channels (yes I am spoiled I have satellite radio in my car), I stopped on the 70s and station, and I've left it there almost exclusively for the last few days.  My default station is usually the 80s.  I am definitely an 80s girl.  These last few days though I am really loving the 70s.  It reminds me of a few things, #1 when we moved to Charlotte in the early 90s, they had a brand new station that played 70s music exclusively, that was my first experience with older music that wasn't "Oldies".  And #2 {if I were really clever I'd make some reference to Jake's bathroom situation here} that whole thing about when they are little they have little problems that I generally don't like because 3 days into parenting my baby had a stroke... well it actually is fairly relevant when I'm talking about myself.  I was born a month into the 70s.  That makes figuring out my age during certain years very easy... 0-9 seventies, 10-19 eighties, 20-29 nineties.  So while I usually love 80s music and had a fairly cushy teen life, there were still some bigish problems that I had to endure in the 80s, moving away from all my friends, a friend's death, boy problems, etc, sometimes those 80s songs remind me of times that were complicated.  70s songs remind me of nothing but being a kid.  It's good to remember being a kid.  It chillaxes you a little bit.  Maybe this is also why I love the Brady Bunch and Three's Company (yay Three's Company...we finally have a TV service that has a channel with Three's Company!!).  Maybe it's also why I've read Are You There God, It's Me Margaret at least once every year since I was 9.  Once in a while, we need to remember being a kid.  All three of my kids are older than I was in the 70s, I need to work extra hard to remember back that far.  If you need me I'll be driving kids around listening to Me and Bobby McGee  or I might be folding laundry watching DVR-ed episodes of  Jack, Janet, and Chrissy!


(I even heard one of my all time favorites, Paradise by the Dashboard Lights, yesterday (Don't judge me!), but I couldn't stay in the car and listen to the whole thing because I had a baby with me who had just soiled his last diaper (there's that #2 again) and I was on a mission to get him one before he soiled his carseat or my car seat!!)

{Insert clever title here}

We're 50/50 on the great public school experiment of 2013.  If I were writing this on day two, I'd be saying Jake is LOVING it!  Since it is now actually day four, I'll go with Jake is liking it.  It's a good little school, and I'm thinking it will be a good year for him. 

Madi is back to homeschooling.  She and I are very happy with this decision.  There are so many reasons for this, I don't even know where to start.  Since I couldn't even come up with a title, I'm pretty sure I don't have the mental energy to do this post justice, so I'll let the picture of day 1 do the talking.  Anyone who knows Madi can tell from this picture that this droopy shouldered girl is not Madi.  She's back to homeschooling (or will be when her virtual school classes kick in) and the sparkle is back in her eye.  It was only gone for 48 hours, but that was the longest 48 hours we've lived in a long time!

She did get a nice backpack out of the whole thing.

 

Jonathan is currently dual enrolled in three college classes and so far so good.

 

Mary has been a sweet and quiet addition to our family, tonight she had "pride night" at her school and came home with this...

 

Excuse all the mess in the background, I am a homeschooling mom after all.  I expect I'll have a clean house in about 8 years, until then I'm going to enjoy what I've got!!

7 QTs

1. Jake got the teacher that used to be a homeschool mom!  AND Josh from next door is in his class and sits right next to him!  Either they are really taking care of us at that school or God is giving us even more than I was asking for (or both)!  Of course I think Jake was praying for the teacher and Josh too, and I know I have a hard time saying no to him.

2. Madi got her schedule yesterday at orientation!  That was a huge prayer answered.  When we walked into the cafeteria at four minutes before the event was to start it was already packed in there and the guidance counselor and assistant principal were going on and on about how they did their best to get everyone's schedules, but some people, especially new kids, might not have them yet.  She did!!  Yay!!!  And it is mostly great!  She starts her day with Art and then Chorus.  The only glitch in the schedule is that she is in regular Geometry instead of Honors.  She filled out a request to change that, and my current prayer is that she can switch without it messing with the rest of the schedule (and all of the teachers we've already met).  An option would be to do Geometry Honors on virtual school, which would mean she could even leave school early.  The downside to this is that I'd still have to be the nag who says, "did you do your Geometry?" instead of the nice mom with cookies.  We'll see what happens next week.  They said sophomores might not get their requests addressed until the end of the week.  In the meantime, she might find out that the regular class isn't so bad and no one will try to sell her drugs or anything.

3. Jonathan starts three new dual enrollment classes on Monday.  He walked around at the school today to make sure he could find all his classrooms.  He is taking another English class (Literature composition I think), a math class (so I can stop hounding him about the Teaching Textbooks Pre Calc that he hasn't come close to finishing), and Intro to Theatre Arts (which he could probably teach ;) )

4. Mary has two Chinese friends here visiting right now.  I let them eat grapes up in her room. (Her room is Jake's room and it is so spacious and clean without all his stuff in it).  Jake's room is now the loft and it is as cluttered as ever! (Not ENTIRELY his fault.)

5. Little Mermaid pics...

 

6. I have a new baby cousin in CT!  He is my cousin Allie's baby.

 

Is he cute or what??  His name is Kade Matthew and he will be three weeks old tomorrow.  I don't get to meet him until Thanksgiving.

 

 

7.  School orientation pics...

Looking for more to read, go see Jen at Conversion Diary, I was the 156th person to link to that today!

Pretty Happy Funny Real

Pretty!  We went to our first ever Quincinera on Saturday.  It was Mary's first too :)!

Happy!!

 

Funny...

 

REAL

This is, as of now, the only curriculum that I am teaching this year.  The reality is, on Monday, Jake will be in fifth grade at the local elementary school, Madi will be in 10th at the High School, and Jonathan will begin three new college (dual enrolled) classes {he got an A in his first college class by the way!}  Mary already started school last week at a completely different school.  Today is Madi's orientation where she will finally find out her schedule, and tomorrow Jake has orientation and will find out who his teacher is.  There is a fifth grade teacher who homeschooled just a few years ago, and it would be awesome if he ends up with her.  It would also be great if he's in the same class with his buddy Josh, who rings our doorbell every single day. 

 

I'm off to tour the school...

 

 

 

 

Will be back with Little Mermaid pics eventually!

 

In the meantime go to Like Mother Like Daughter for more pretty happy funny real.

Mary

Today is our first day with our Chinese exchange student.  She arrived at about 9:15 last night.  She is currently in her room with the door closed and no noise coming out.  I'm letting her rest or whatever she's doing for a little while longer.  She ate breakfast with me, Jake and Madi this morning and we chatted for a while.  She played a beautiful song on the piano for us.  She was kind of looking at the piano and I told her she could play it.  She said something about her 20 hours of travel plus staying in Beijing for a few days before that, and I wasn't sure what that had to do with whether or not she could play the piano, but I know guess it was her way of saying she was a little "rusty" after not playing for a few days.  You would never know it by the way she played.  Just like you would never know Madi threw up during intermission when she was playing Ariel on Thursday and the camp that she works at was there to see it, but that's a post for another time... just remember I'm stress mama who wrote about EXTREME a few posts ago.  Back to Mary.  The other day Jonathan and Chloe were watching Tarzan (the Disney one) (they have this plan to watch 100 movies together this year) (Tarzan was the first movie Jonathan saw in the movie theatre, he was 3)  (this reminds me of when they do that pop up thing with movies on TV)  (maybe they don't do that anymore, was that a 90s thing?).  I mentioned how I am bugged by the part in Tarzan when they (Jane and company) teach him all about being a human with a five minute slide show.  I am reminded of that as we get to know Mary though, (whose real name is Hong Bing Pan {or Pan Hong Bing}), I feel like we were trying to tell her everything about being an American over breakfast on the first morning.  We mentioned things like Thanksgiving and Halloween, New York City, showers and dishwashers, junk food, cell phones, and of course the biggies around here church and theatre, so we're well on our way.  I explained how Madi and Jake have always done school at home, but this year will actually go to school.  Neither one will be going to the school she is going to go though.  It is a funny thing to have a stranger from a strange land move into your house. We had practice the past two summers with our short term exchange students, but this is the real deal.  It is kind of exciting.  She told us last night that she has fun with everything, we're off to a good start.

A tale of two restaurants

It's barely 1:00pm and I've already ordered two iced teas from two different establishments today.  The dichotomy of the two struck me so profoundly I figured I'd take a stab at writing about it.  This morning seven of us theatre moms went across the street to the local coffee shop to make candygrams for this weekend's shows.  Candygrams are little bundles of candy that can be sent back to the kids in the show during intermission, it's 5 cents worth of candy sold for $1 that make the young actors feel priceless.  Anyway, we have the very nice little coffee shop/ restaurant in a prime location to do this.  The food and drinks are yummy and they have various tables and comfy couches to sit at.  Sounds great right?  Here's the catch... they are mean there!  The owner and namesake has always been mean in a quirky sort of way, but today, even the usually nice waitress was terrible.  Here we are seven people buying drinks and at least 3 people ordered a full breakfast as well, but they showed us in no uncertain terms that our presence was not wanted today.  The theatre kids who frequent this place all the time are used to this treatment, and it's just not right.  It's not just us young people who feel this way either (I'm young..ha!), a few weeks ago I got into a conversation with some of the geriatric volunteers at the theatre and they feel strongly that the owner/ namesake is a "not nice woman".  It's annoying because this place is so convenient and pretty yummy.  I gently made my opinion known today, the theatre supplies this place with tons of business, and it would be wise for them to show us a little respect.  I left a tip larger than the cost of my dumb drink and didn't even use my 10% off discount card because I had already felt so put off by them.  I don't feel like going there anymore.

Fast forward a couple of hours, while out running errands I realize that today is the last day of the month, ie the last day of a free large soda at everyone's favorite fast food restaurant. (I use the term everyone loosely because we all know about the controversy, but this is not about that!)  Never one to pass up free stuff, I pulled into the drivethru where a smiling young girl tells me it will be her pleasure to serve me.  This is not through the machine, the smiling young girl is actually standing outside in 95* weather waiting to relay my order to the people inside.  I ask if I can substitute my free soda for an unsweetened iced tea, of course it would be their pleasure.  In no seconds flat, my free drink is ready at the window and the people inside thank me again for letting them give me a free drink.  I can bash corporate America with the best of them, and love to be able to give business to the small town locals, but sometimes big business is a little nicer than regular people, and other times, as in this case it is A LOT NICER!!  Interestingly enough Jonathan just turned in his first big project for college.  It is a five page essay on the positive side of the fast food industry.  He will be happy to hear this story. 

If I were smart and eloquent I could turn this into a whole thing about the teenagers (who so often get a bad rap in our society) at the fast food franchise who were so smiley and friendly versus the middle aged crabs at the other place.  Or perhaps I could point out the Christian business practices of said fast food place as compared to the very unChristlike behavior of the mean people, but my time and braincells are running low, so you'll just have to think about those things for yourself.