Seth

Seth had his 8th birthday this week.  He loved his Carrot Cake decorated with gummy frogs.  (His choice, not mine)  but the best part, for him, was having the last day of school be on his birthday. 

Today we got to celebrate a big event with him.  He was baptized.  We were able to get permission to baptize him in the big pond on our property.  It rained all morning and was only in the 50's temperature wise, so we knew the water would be cold.  Chris convinced Seth to go with it by telling him that he would have a great story to tell people.  We had a small gathering of people and we made everything short and focused on the ordinance itself. 

A Conversation With Violet

V:  Daddy, I'm the Queen, and you are the King and Callie is the princess. 

Chris: if you are the Queen, what is mommy?

V:  She's the servant.

Apparently my four year old is trying to dethrone me.

Scout Camp

I need to own up to it.  I never get on my laptop computer.  Which is why I NEVER post pictures anymore.  It's so old and slow and frustrating....but I can't justify buying a new computer just to post pictures on a blog.  I have a huge load of pictures that I want to post on here though.  I will jump ahead for the moment tho, and post some pictures that our Scout Master took at scout camp last week.


 Landon had a really good time, and it was so good for him to get away from his mother and experience a little growing up without me.  Chris is the Scout Master's Assistant so he was there to make sure Landon came home alive.

This was their first day as camp.  This is a really goo group of boys.  Chris says that he never heard any of them try to demean or put down anyone else the entire time they were there.  By the end of the week they were all tired and they had plenty of chances to be snarky at each other, but they chose to be kind instead.  These boys are so good for Landon to be around, it makes my heart happy.

That is not my son, but Chris is there in the back, in the red shirt. I thought I'd throw that in to prove he was there to supervise.

This is the last day of camp.  My little man came home really tired.

Maybe I will get on tomorrow and try to post the massive amount of pictures to show you just how much all my littles have grown in the past year......maybe.

Parental Frustration

I have a child who works for hours and hours on his homework at night.  (Not because he doesn't understand the work, but because his mind wanders a lot.). I don't like it.  I wish he didn't have homework, but he does, so I make him complete it in hopes that he will get good grades and feel good about his performance in school. This is a child with no friends, and low self-esteem.  I want him to have success in school because the social part of life is so hard for him.  Maybe if he gets good grades then he can feel successful and like himself.

THEN THERE ARE DAYS LIKE TODAY.

Days when I feel like my efforts to prepare him for the future are worthless.  He has missing assignments at school.  Assignments that I know are finished, he just hasn't turned them into his teacher.  I've nagged and reminded him to turn them in all week, and yet when I ask about them he panicks and has a melt down.  He flails around, hitting himself in the head and calling himself "stupid".  A complete overreaction to a simple question.  I feel like I'm making it worse.  I don't know what else to do except tell him to "try harder tomorrow, because why spend hours and hours doing assignments and then not get credit for them?" He's smart and has an amazing memory, he just has focus issues and I don't know how to help him.

I'm not saying this to garner pity or receive advice.  Just spewing my thoughts so that someday I can look back and remember.  As for today I can only hope that he will grow and mature and reach the potential I know he has in him.

An interesting conversation

This morning we were driving home from grocery shopping and Violet and Callie were singing a Backyardigans song and then suddenly they both went quiet.  I didn't think anything of it until Violet yelled

Violet: Hey! What are you doing?
Me: We are going home.
Violet: I'm not talking to you, mom! I'm talking to Callie.  Callie, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
Me: What IS Callie doing?
Violet: She's picking her nose.
Silence
Violet: What did you find Callie? What is on your nose?
Callie: Boogers.

Racism in the Home

We we're watching Little Einsteins and Callie always gets a little worried when they don't have enough power to fly Rocket.

Callie: Oh no!  They need power!  Oh no!
Violet:  Mom, what kind of power do you have?
Me: Power?  Ummmm.....I have mom power.  That's how I get all your clothes washed and make you dinner.
Violet: Oh.  That's white power.  I have pink sparkly power.
Me: Wait.....are you saying I have White Power?
Violet:  Yeah.  Your power is white.
Me:  Okay.......sounds good, I guess.

Violet: Oh, and Dad....he has Black Power.

Yuck!

Vomit, vomit and more vomit.......I'm exhausted.


Also, any changes have been put on pause for today.  Maybe we will revisit it tomorrow, or next month.  Sigh

New Pictures!

I finally got around to taking new pictures of my kids.  I mostly like them.  I have a bunch of pictures from this past summer and fall to post, just to remind myself what we've been doing.  It may not happen anytime soon.

 I have a feeling that life is about to get a little more stressful around here.  There is change in the air. I will keep you posted.