Favorite Fridays

I love Friday nights.  The moment Rockstar walks in the door we're on!  Fridays usually mean something fun with my family. (followed by a hot date of course) Right now we are in the middle of basketball season and two of our three kids play, so that means lots of small town gyms. Towns with names like Ashby, Battle Lake, Underwood and Rothsay.  They are all a little different and yet all the same somehow with their smells of popcorn, hotdogs, sweat and glue. When we moved back to our home town after living in a large metro area for over 13 years it was an adjustment.  There are both great reasons (Starbucks)  for living somewhere, and some not so great ones (rush hour) I guess.  But overall we've loved the change.  It 'feels' right to be here.  We've even found really really good coffee and now instead of rush hour we get stuck in the occasional 6 car gridlock while waiting for the town geese to cross the road.



My parents...'Grammie & Papa' with Gracie at one of her recent games

Of course there are days when I wonder what in the world I'm doing back here?  Back here, where many times our Friday night dates end up at Fleet Farm.  Sometimes I long to go into the City to the theater.  (ok who am I kidding...we didn't do that when we lived in the City)  But now that we don't live there I wish we would've done that more often.  Thankfully our 'little city' does have some really talented people who dance, act,  and play beautiful music.  We get to enjoy their gifts without having to pay for parking.  That way we always have enough cash for our run to Fleet Farm afterwards.  Nobody even wonders why we're all dressed up  just to buy windshield wiper fluid.  Yep, that's a Friday night for ya around here.... the nights that I've grown to love, goose poop and all. 

Home- learnin' aint too bad

Our son Dboy who is 16 and a sophmore this year likes to tell people that he's "home-learned" by his mama when asked about school.  He also says it in this really bad hillbilly type accent.  (can you hear the banjos in the background?)  He apparently has his father's sense of humor. 

We do have people ask us frequently why we've chosen to homeschool so I've made a really
short list and posted a few pictures that convey some of the reasons we homeschool.

Reason 1. 

 The heavy lifting power I now have at my disposal is priceless!  You can tell from the look on his face that he's so EXCITED to be our pack mule.  I know it's 'teaching' him all kinds of important life lessons.  (his dad is behind him with the cattle prod)

Reason 2.

Store bought bread is beneath us, and all kids need a good dose of Home Economics.  She has her own really cute orange apron so she feels special while doing the family baking.  (notice there is no cattle prod in this picture)  I'm standing just outside the frame with the whip.

 



Reason 3.

Well what did you think dishwashers were for?  PARENTS?  Ha!!  We start them on the dishwasher before they are weaned.  Rockstar and I figured that with three kids we'll have been able to avoid the dishwasher for about 28  years total.   When they all leave home we're just going to use paper plates and our fingers. 






So there you have it.  Our homeschool philosophy.  It's all about what's BEST for the KIDS.  If you want to know some other reasons why we homeschool I have posted a tab on the homepage.  It's not required reading, so there will be no testing.  (See I slip into that teacher mode real easily)  Well, I better get busy...I have to warm up that cattle prod...there's bread to be baked and some heavy hauling to be done.  Education is important. 

Sweet Feet (NOT)

"It smells like feet in here!!"  My family is just used to me blurting this out.  That or other versions of the same phrase...."Gross, I smell feet."   "FEEEET"   "I smell feet again people!!" I'm not sure why I think I smell feet so often. Well, actually  no, I DO know why.... it could have something to do with the gym bag collection that gets left in the front entry.  This habit makes me so crazy I've been known to literally foam at the mouth and start things on fire with my death ray vision.  You know how weight lifters have those big veins that pop out of their arms, and necks...?  Yeah, well I'm pretty sure if you looked at my neck closely you'd think I was up for the Mrs. Schwarzenegger pageant.  When we were kids my brothers and I knew if moms' lower teeth showed ('the fangs') we had about 10 seconds until detonation.  When my kids see the neck vein, the foam, and the couch cushions smoldering....they know...."Uh oh. Mom smells feet!" Gross?  Yes.  Very gross.  We are big sports people around here...plus we have a family membership at the Y.  So gym bags, well, they are just part of life.  I have nothing against the bags.  In fact I love a blue Nike gym bag as much as some of my purses. (ok, that might be a stretch)   I just don't like said Nike bags in my entry.  Where they smell.  Like FEET!  I'm hoping that my children work harder at breaking this habit.  It's getting quite expensive to replace the couch cushions and my neck hurts.

The days of Superman & Elmo

I know that I'm not having any more babies. I've known that for quite some time obviously.  However I still wax nostalgic every now and then of the years gone by with my kids.  The days when I loved to kiss their chubby feet, and rock them to sleep while they made those cute little chipmunk squeaks.   The other day I happened to be in the baby aisle at the store for some reason.  I think I got lost while looking for the papertowels when suddenly I saw it.  The bright pink bottle.  I cracked it open and took a long whiff.  Ahhhh Baby Magic.  Suddenly I wanted to buy a cart full of Pampers and a 3 pack of Onesies.  I resisted, but I did buy a trial size of the lotion.  I don't know what possessed me, but it's kind of fun to see it in my purse now.

I loved the days of Superman and Elmo jammies.  The days when the tub was full of boats, squirt guns, and rubber duckies.  I wish I could have known how fast the time would go.  I might have enjoyed the splashing more.  I don't know about the flooding though.  I mean honestly, the amount of water that would end up on the floor was staggering.  There is nothing quite like snuggling with your freshly scrubbed children though.  Their noses so pink and shiny.  Their damp heads against your chest while you sing favorite songs and read favorite stories.  In our house daddy always did the final tucking in.  Usually there would be some squealing too.  A decent goodnight tickle by dad was just as important as the singing and stories.  Even as teenagers daddy still does the final tucking in.  There isn't so much tickling anymore...but every once in a while an arm wrestling challenge is issued and Dboy and dad head to the table.  Much to Dboy's dismay his dad sufficiently whoops him everytime.  Much jeering and hollering ensues.  This has replaced our stories and singing...but that's ok, I'm kind of tired of Good Night Moon.  We'll break it out for the grandkids one day and it will seem like a new story once again. 

No one wears Superman, or Elmo jammies in our house anymore.  No one needs a rubber duckie or toy boat in the tub.  None of them can sit on my lap without causing me to let out an "uff da you're heavy".  Their feet aren't so cute and chubby anymore...and I certainly don't feel like kissing them.  But...if they wanted to use some of that Baby Magic in my purse I might consider it. 

A Family that Plays (music) Together...

One of my most favorite memories as a child was lying in bed at night and hearing my mom make popcorn in the kitchen and listening to my dad play guitar.  As the popcorn smell drifted upstairs I'd hear my dad tuning up for some golden oldies.  The Beatles were really big in our house.  In fact, I consider myself a "Beatle Baby" as I'm sure John, Paul, George and Ringo serenaded me from the ol' turntable as my mom rocked me to sleep.  As the corn popped, and my mouth watered, my parents would usually break into some kind of song.  He'd start by warming up  his guitar with a little ditty I loved called "Alice's Restaurant."  And then, at some point they always seemed to sing "Brown Eyed Girl."  Mom, would be melting butter and singing harmony from the kitchen..... "Do you remember when.... we used to sing...Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la- dee-da- la-dee-da...brown eyed girl"  I usually sang along quietly,  trying to match my moms notes.  I liked that we were both harmonizing with dad, it was kind of  like my own little secret.   I remember thinking if the song were "Blue Eyed Girl" it could have been about me.  I still pretended it was anyway. 

I took piano lessons for many years, played in the marching band, sang in various choirs and singing groups. One of my younger brothers took up piano and guitar too.  I wonder how many hours we spent on our big upright?  It was my Grandma's piano and the one my dad learned to play on too.  Every now and then dad would come in and plop down on the bench beside me and I knew it was time to get serious.  It was CHOPSTICKS time!!!  Sometimes I would play the top, and sometimes the bottom...but the goal of our chopsticks duet was not to make beautiful music... nope, it was to see who could be clever enough to mess up the other persons rhythm.  For a long time I was the underdog, but over the years was able to trip up good old dad a few times too.  This past Christmas our Gracie and her PaPa had their first "Chopsticks Showdown" I tried downloading a short 35 second video of them,  but for some reason blogger wasn't allowing me to.  Suffice it to say Gracie will be the underdog for a while too...but PaPa better watch out because she's feisty!

As I watched my dad and daughter duke it out on the keyboard it brought back so many fond memories of our little den with the big piano on Channing Ave.  I love that my kids will now have some of the same memories too.  Our son Dboy,  has followed in his PaPa and Uncle's footsteps and become a pretty darn good guitar player.  I'm thinking it sure would be fun to have "Alice's Restaurant" played in our house too.  We'll have to get Pa Pa workin' on that next.



This is by far and away one of my favorite Christmas pictures from this past year.  Dboy on guitar, PaPa rockin the bass, and Gracie tickling the ivories with some "Joy to the World" and "Deck the Halls."  It made me really glad that I grew up in a house with lots of music. And even more glad that my kids are too. Oh, and I saved the best for last....sometimes my parents would let me and my brothers come downstairs and join them for popcorn.  Even on a school night!!  Now that really was music to our ears.

So that's what cool is?

I consider myself to be pretty cool.  Hip even.  What I mean by that is, as far as moms go I think I normally pass the test with my kids. Now mind you, I'm NOT one of those moms who wants to look and dress like her teenagers.  Frankly, I think skinny jeans are from the devil.  However I don't wear 'mom' jeans either, nor 'mom' sweaters with embroidered cats on them. (Those are definitely a blue light special from hades)  I don't spit on kleenex (anymore) to clean a dirty face on the way to church.  I try my best to not sing along with the pep band when they play "Freezeframe" by the J. Giles band.  Seriously, that one is tough.  It's so darn catchy.  Take a moment and sing it if you can.

So you see, we've established that I'm your basic, normal-ish trendy enough to make the cut mom.  But for all my mom coolness I cannot for the life of me understand this pose my daughter is demonstrating.  Its' sweeping the nation.  It's on every teenager's Facebook and it's always the same!

The pose by the tree above is a little less gangster.  But here, not only do we have gangster we have 'I'm gonna rob that gas station with a butter knife'. (all the while wearing my pink hat with a cross on it that I got at Bible camp)  What makes it even more funny to me, is that this picture is so uncharacteristic of her real personality.  

She usually looks like this!!  See, a sweet, cute smiling face.  No weird lip contortions and sideways peace signs.  No scary butterknife looks. (I realize the sombrero is a little distracting, but it was her Birthday and we love enchiladas)  My point is she's really quite a lovely, well mannered girl.  Polite, kind, great with little kids, loves her daddy, loves her sister, loves her brother (most days) works hard at school....but ask her to strike a pose...any pose she wants and she goes right back to this...

When I ask my kids why this is standard in the 'coolness industry' they can't even tell me. They just look at me like I'm wearing one of those uncool cat sweaters.  So,  I've come to the conclusion that in teenager land contorted lips + sideways peace sign = cool. It just does. Period.  I only wish the J. Giles band would make a comeback, because then I could sing along with the pep band and be cool too.  True dat.