"WARNING TMI" or "Merit Badge in Order for Mom" or "Say YES, it's good"

Every now and again I am hit with the conviction that we - as parents - aught to have merit badges like the scouts do.  One merit badge being for every time you successfully potty trained a kid.

And now - a merit badge for when you said "YES" to something for the benefit of the kid and you had all reason and logic would dictate, and the planets were alined to say NO.

A binge in selfishness was *certainly* in order and due.

I am at a point of said selfishness - my moon is aligned such that I AM THE CENTER . . . so motivated by pain since it's my first day of . . . *cough* "aunt flow's" visit and she always comes with such a wallop of pain.

My spine and legs are trying to pull away from my body and to walk independently of me, and my back keeps me doubled over in submission . . . . so I go for the big stuff - the vicodin, and if I don't fall asleep soon, I usually start to get sick to my stomach.

But, it seems that at this moment where every.single.thing. is getting on my LAST nerve, my 7yr old wants to do LEAPS AND BOUNDS in learning and - inspired by finding his dad's "diary" from when his dad was his age - now my boy wants to write in a notebook too.

This is leaps and bounds because up to this point he has had no interest and - dare I say - an aversion - to writing.  Even to write his name - especially his LAST name, which is a mouthful, I grant you - would cause tears and fits; and all this time, every time, I asked him to try to read something he'd says "I can't" . .

Now -really, does it have to be right now*eye roll*! He comes in with a note book and draws pictures and is attempting to sound out a story.

And I try to sneak away and go to bed early "Mommy doesn't feel good" . .

But he finds me in the bathroom - and is on the BATHROOM FLOOR asking me about this word, that  word, can I help him . .

"Yes," I say thinking GET OUT!  GIVE ME SOME PRIVACY!  GO BUG YOUR DAD! LETS DO THIS LATER! LETS NOT DO THIS AT ALL!

Nevertheless, I know if I drop this ball now- that's it - I'm not going to get this chance later, and I can't call up his enthusiasm when it suites me, and honestly, I LOVE what I'm seeing happening before me . . . so Yes it is.

I praise his work so far, tell him I'm proud of what he is doing, but that it's really hard for me to read his writing without spaces. And then actually tell him - nicely- that mommy needs her privacy here and I'd meet him in my bed if he wanted to continue.

In bed we continue to talk back and forth and he continues to write and draw.

I suppress the desire to nit pick EVERY mistake, a "d" flipped backwards, the switch from lower case to upper case letters and the total lack of a period . . . and just put in little helps along the way 'cause I don't want this beautiful thing to stop.

And the vicodin is kicking in, and I'm now throbbing at a dull ache . . .

and my boy has gone from this:

It says "A plane. A plane flies. And I am in the plane."

To this!

And it is actually a complete story -  which he read back to me (picking my chin off the floor).   He has sworn me to secrecy, and these are the only excerpts that he has OK'd for public viewing . . the rest is for Grandma's eyes only.


 And he is still writing -

I have ask for NOTHING of this, kinda been begging for it to stop, really.
So.  I think I need to add a SAY YES badge to my sash - or some such ceremony - this one was EFFORT!

But I'm so glad I did.

We are rich!

I will bear the brunt of being poor.

Perhaps that is a poor statement in and of itself - wealth is so relative.

Wealth, like fame, is all about perspective.

So, now, in small town America - my family find ourselves below the poverty line.  In essence because we chose that lifestyle; large part is that I've chosen to stay at home with our kids.  We cut corners, I chew my nails off when making a budget and living by it, we are careful when defining the necessary.

Yet my goal has been to have contentment at where we are at, and to gratitude for what we do have.

When, then, my daughter made the statement that "We are poor!" I asked her why she thought so - the answer was as expected; she can't buy the stuff she'd like.

I told her that we are wealthy compared to other countries, I named a few.  I pointed out what we do have and there are so many out there with less.  She, at least, has the option to save up for something she'd like, since she gets something that *most* children of the world do not - an allowance.

I think she got it.

My hope is that my kids don't grow up with the idea that they are poor, or lacking.  I want them to feel they are fine- cause they are!

There is no poverty in possibilities.

There is riches in gratitude.

When we do nothing at all.

We went to a drive-in double feature last night and all were in bed by 3am.

One of the benefits of no public school - we didn't have to worry about whether or not it's a school night!

Anyway - back to subject -

This morning I was loving not getting out of bed' til late, having no hurry to change out of jammies and LOVING having nothing on our calendar for anybody!

Hubby was loving that too.

So out of our languid attitude today hubby has already taken the boys out into the back yard and done some archery.  Then -

Andrew is sculpting.

I made the clay for them, but it really just took a few minutes.

I used:
 4 cups flour

1 cup salt
1 1/2 cups hot tap water
2 teaspoons vegetable oil

Step 1: Combine flour, salt & water. Add oil. Knead. If it is too dry, add water. If too sticky, add flour.

 Alex (just turned 5) is painting some wooden cars.

Sarah comes and works on sculpting in between episodes of whatever she is watching on netflix at the moment.

Once Andrew's sculpture is done he wants to make some craft he found in a book that was strewn around here . . .

Of course little brother doesn't waist much time in jumping in on whatever bigger brother is doing so he got crafty too . .

 It's *ROADS* obviously!

Feeling happy with that, he made a lego man.  Silly me, thinking it was a robot . . . it'a a man.

And then Sarah shut off her netflix and started painting. Painting while singing . . . .

Not an ounce of prompting from me -
just a whole lot of "YES"'s

Record keeping . . .

So - here I attempt again to note down the learning we do without even trying; last night we watched "How Stuff Works" about Wheat, Corn, Coffee and Salt.

And Andrew is now on Minecraft . . . whole lot of subtle learning there . . .

And just now this morning - Sarah- my dyslexic picked up and is reading "Lift and Separate" Baby Blues book #5

Finally on our way to the local mill pond we listened to "Stink-Solar System Superhero" which surprisingly was a fun story around the planets and the demoted-to-dwarf-planet the planet previously known as Pluto and the mnemonic  "My Very Energetic Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas." for the planets - Mars, Venus, Earth, Mercury . . . etc.  So we get home and watch on Netflix "The Planets" and that was the end of the day! 

*blow* cough cough . . . .

Getting all that dust off this blog.

There - that's better.

I know it's summer, but when does learning stop?

We went camping these few days and my girl brought a book she is reading.  A Book. She. Is. READING!  It's still a very "simple" book to read, but while we were camping she curled up in the hammock and went at it.  (heart glowing)

Last month, June, she finished reading the big book of Dick and Jane.  For a reward we are going to Barns & Noble so she can pick out a *NEW* book.  Yay!

Love how she's doing - seeing how she struggles so with reading.  :-)

Rube Goldberg Machines

Andrew, my "maker" has been reinventing this versions of  a hot wheels Rube Goldberg Machine.

Today we did this after we watched this video: 

And a Mythbusters where they did a Rube Goldberg machine for Christmas.  Seemed appropriate: 

Showcase

Something I hope to do again . . . Andrew did this:

  

Ironically, I admit to being a dyslexic, and the error in the spelling of camouflage is something I would totally do -even had to rely on the computers spell check to get it right this time- but the mistake is my husbands.  Hehe -

And Sarah did Mermaids . . . so *we* knew Mermaids liked to drown people long before that Pirate of the Caribbean movie.

Then there was a talent show, and it was so much fun!