School Lunch

Life has been so crazy these past two weeks.  When I say crazy I mean crazy!  So crazy in fact that I am not even trying to make lunches for the kids.

That may not sound so weird unless you know that up till this past week The kids have only eaten school lunch once this year.  Cariña has only eaten school lunch at most 10 times in her 2 1/2 years at school.  I hate school lunch!!

Anyway, the children have found that the one good thing about this week is that they get to eat school lunch.  I even think Helaman went to bed faster so he would wake up tomorrow and eat chicken nuggets for lunch!

I can't decide how I feel, annoyed and disappointed that they are eating horrible food, or happy just so I can see the joy on their faces every time I ask about their lunch and don't make any judgement comments.  

Here we come, chicken nuggets.

Oh funny kids!

HALLOWEENER

I am sure anyone who half way knows me knows that I absolutely detest Halloween.  I have never in my life liked Halloween.  The only thing that I like about Halloween now is how much my kids love it and how cute they look in their costumes, and how cute it is when they are thinking of what to be for Halloween.

Cariña the cat.  She made the costume up by herself.  She even wanted to put on the make-up herself.  That is the nice thing about the kids getting older, you have to do less.  The downside is that you can't bribe  them to do what you want anymore.  Oh well.

Helaman was a handyman or Fix-It Felix.  He was cute and all the old men loved Helaman and wanted to fill up his tool box (candy bag)

Xenia was a queen.  She wanted to be a cat like her sister Cariña  But we had the dress and she was the perfect size for it so I talked her into being a queen.  I wanted her to be a victorian lady, but that was not good enough, so a queen it was.  I also had to bribe her with wearing lots of mommy's make-up.

I can't believe how bad of a photographer I am.  this was my group shot.

The kids got cans of soda and the ward Halloween party.  I was really annoyed.  But it was their first cans of soda in their life.  I think they only drank a quarter of the can before I talked them into throwing the rest away.  My poor deprived kids! (It was actually pretty easy.  They must have had their fill.)

Anyway this Halloween was pretty lame if you ask me.  Not just the regular stuff that I hate, but the selection of candy that I had to choose from, when stealing candy from my children's bag, was really low and boring.  There were no Butterfingers to steal.  No Heath bars to steal.  Hardly any reeses peanutbutter cups.  Most people had their lights out.  And to top it all off, there were beyond several moms trick-or-treating.  I guess the good thing I have learned to handle better, from the moms trick-or-treating, is the high schoolers.  I can take high schoolers much easier than the moms! :)  I think the most annoying was a mom that came with two buckets and and said "these are for my babies in the car".   I wanted to say if your babies want this candy then they better get out of the car and hold the buckets themselves.  But  I will refrain my that soap box. :)

Well I hope you guys had a happy and safe Halloween!

A conversation

Setting:  The hallway in the house.  I was walking through giving the kids hugs.

Helaman:  (While giving me a hug) Mom are we going anywhere?

Mom: No, why do you ask?

Helaman:  Because you look decent!

Cariña:  No she doesn't look decent because she is making donuts!

(Thank you children for making me feel beautiful!)

HOME SCHOOL FAILURE! (Directed to the teacher, me) updated, please read again

I dream of homeschooling my children, but don't for several reasons.  Although, I do keep my children home through kindergarten.  

My methodology is the no school schooling.  It is where there is no formal education, but you have all the tools, books, etc at home so when they are ready to learn they do.  

Cariña was my first guinea pig.  I was a complete success.  (Obviously she was, but I do say I when I need to feel good about myself! You know motherhood, you have to get your validation when you can! Sometimes even make it up.) When Cariña decided to write, slightly later than others, she was able to write the entire alphabet by herself and her letters were about a quarter of an inch in size.  She had three reading lessons then took off reading and within her 1st grade  year was reading Anne of Green Gables and understood it.

She got the concept of of times when she was five.  She could easily count to a hundred,  add and subtract with no problems.  School was a breeze for her! So when she went into first grade at the top of her class, I felt pretty good about what I accomplished! :)

Then came Helaman.  I figured that it would be a little different, I mean he is a boy, she is a girl.  But I didn't push. I wanted my son to do what he did best, and that was to explore, discover, and destroy! 

Let me tell you he was my little sidekick and I have been depressed ever since he left.  He was cooking with me.  I would look for him and find that he was outside and had raked up seven bags of leaves, and put them in the front yard to be taken away!  He was my shopper.  He had all the store clerks charmed by his hard work bagging and pushing the cart around.  He could also run our small vending machine company if we let him.  He was a man of work and solving problems.  

Well about half way through his kindergarten year I realized that he was NOT THE LEAST BIT INTERESTED IN READING OR WRITING!  I thought that at this point he was going to need a little encouragement, and we were going to need to add reading and writing lessons into the day.  We did.

The results were horrible.  He was not interested and it was a constant battle.  I turned into a monster mother, while he turned into a monster student. Therefore, to spare my son emotional damage I decided to back off and reading lessons became sporadic at best.  I figured that in first grade he would be a little behind in his reading and writing skills but would catch up quickly.  The other subjects I wasn't worried about.  

Now he is in school and it feels like I am a complete failure!  Yesterday his teacher came to me and said, "He doesn't know how to count past 15.  You really NEED to work with him!"  I always felt his counting was fine, and was shocked to discover that he couldn't count that high.  Did I miss something?  Do we not have anything over 15 items in our house?  Am I completely unobservant that I didn't even notice!?  Where am I?  What kind of mother am I, to let my son slip so far behind.

So on our walk home from school I quizzed him and he couldn't make it past 15.  I was in despair about it.  (Ask my mother, I called her up in a panic!)  So I brought him home, gave him a very a high protein and fat snack to stabilize his very low blood sugar.  Then set him down with me to complete his math worksheet that he COULD NOT DO at school.  It turned out that it wasn't as bad as I imagined and he did okay, not perfect, but okay.  Then when we were just counting I decided to change the counting medium. The beads, blocks, and paperclips, that the teacher sent home, did not interest him at all and he would not try.  Then I gave him a stack of dollar bills and do you know what, that kid counted to thirty-six without skipping a beat!

Then this morning I gave him a huge stack of bills and said separate  them into 10s while counting.  This kid who couldn't get past 15 counted to 86!   :) He knew how many 10s there were, and how many ones.  He did need help with the first sound of the next group of tens after Forty, but once he got that first sound he took off and continued counting! (At this point he knows, but just needs the repetition.) Then he grouped the piles into groups of twenty and put paperclips on. 

The first thing I discovered was that this kid is obviously driven by money! :) The second thing I learned was this kid is completely capable and knows the answers but isn't trying.  So now what do I do?  I can't send him to school with fifty dollars  to count, if I don't want to be broke.  

So do I regret keeping him home for schooling?  No.  I really feel he thrived at home and was in his element.  His higher level of thinking was developed and is really strong.  He really is a problem solver.  He is full of facts of all sorts and is successful in so many things. Had I sent him to full day kindergarten, I believe,  he would have missed some key development factor that really helped him develop his higher level thinking skills, especially since he is the epitome of a boy learner. 

So how did I fail Helaman?  I failed to prepare him for a system that I knew he would enter.   Now he is in a situation where he obviously doesn't thrive, he is feeling completely incompetent, insecure, and is shutting off his brain.

I am tempted to pull him out and homeschool him again, but he is going to need to learn the system eventually and I like my kids in public school.  There are excellent teachers who teach great things and sacrifice so much.  In the schools, my kids learn to deal with all types of personalities and are good examples in the school here.  The teachers have commented on how wonderful, kind, and considerate my children are. But now I am not sure what to do and would love any advice.
  

First day of school!

Quotes

1.  A couple days ago I was putting on my jeans and Helaman came to me and said, "Mom are those skinny jeans?"

I had to smile because if there was any piece of clothing that that would make me look absolutely horrible it would be skinny jeans!  So of course my reply was "Heavens no."

His reply was, "So are they fat jeans?"  It made me smile.

At first I thought, does he think I am fat.  So I asked and his reply was, "No mom, it looks like you are losing weight."  I couldn't have asked for a better reply.  I don't even think Sam could have pulled it off so well.

2.  I was doing Xenia's hair the other day, and she asked me, "Mom can I have a bum in my hair?"
I was slightly confused and imagined someone sitting on Xenia's head.  Then it occurs to me OH A BUN!  It was pretty funny because the rest of our conversation consisted of bums in the hair.  Then a couple of days later Xenia said, "Mom do you have a bum?"  I again imagined my backside and said yes.  As soon as I said yes I realized what she was talking about.  It was a good thing the answer was yes to both.

3. Cariña was wondering  how she looked like dad and I.  I explained that dad gave half of his genes, and I gave the other half.  Then her body used some of our combinations and made up new ones to make a unique  Cariña.  But she still could not figure out how she looked like her dad.  I started explaining all over again and she interrupted and said, "Mom I know why I have your genes because I was inside of you, but how did dad's genes get inside?"

my reply, "UMMMMM, just ask your dad?"

The miracle burn oil

This is a little gem that I have found.  It works so well I had to share.  I have three stories to share to illustrate miracle of this oil.  Let's start with story #1.

This story is pretty simple and if my success only came from this example I would not feel the need to share.  Here it goes.

#1 I was baking cookies and was trying to hurry.  We all know what happens when their is a large cooking sheet in the kitchen.  Yes I bumped my arm against the cookie sheet.  It of course hurt.  I remembered reading about this oil and thought why not.  Let see if it works.  So I put a drop on my burn, and within 20 minutes the burn was completely gone with no signs of a burn.  Wow I thought that is pretty great.  I like it.  Then story #2 happened.

#2 Again I was making cookies in the kitchen.  This time I didn't bump my arm on the cookie sheet, I bumped my arm against the side of the 350 degree oven.  This burn was much more severe.   I quickly grabbed my oil and put some on.  I only put on one drop hoping my results would be the same.  They were very similar and I think they would have been better if I would have put on more applications.  This time the pain lasted longer, probably an hour.  I mean it was a more serious burn.  I didn't get any blisters and the dead skin stayed on my arm like a scab and came off a couple of weeks later.  You can't even tell where the burn happened.  The scar is so faint that I can barely tell.

#3 Then something worse happen.  My yard has probably several billion ants.  It is horrible.  I read on the internet that to kill ants you sprinkle baking soda on the pile then pour boiling water.  So I sprinkled the baking soda and prepared the water.  I turned off the water grabbed a towel and lid to carry the pot outside.  My sister had boiling water poured on her and I didn't want that to happen to me, so I was really careful.  Well I got to the pile took off the lid and picked up the pot.  A BIG splash of water came out and splashed on my foot.  I was wearing a pair of mary jane shoes with no socks on my feet.  The water hit my foot and settled right under my shoe and continued to burn me.  I yanked of my shoe off,  poured the water on the ants, which are not dead by the way, and came inside.   By the time I got inside my food had started to swell and was red.  Again grabbed my oil and put several drops of oil over the top of my foot where the burn was.  About twenty minutes later, the part of the burn that wasn't as severe, was not red anymore.  This burn was more painful and put on several applications of the oil.  Two and a half hours later my burn was still very sore, but I was still able to put on my shoe and walk to pick up my daughter from school.  I kept putting on the oil and by the nest day everything was completely healed, except for an area about the size of a dime where the burn was the worst.  Again the skin was dead and just sat there protecting the area until the new skin came in.  It peeled off and I have no scar!

A couple of weeks later I was watching a cooking show and a girl was running with boiling water.  She slipped and dumped the pan of water on here legs.  Several minutes later they checked her out and she had second degree burns down her leg.  I felt so bad because I knew that this oil could have really helped her.  So what is the moral of the story:

A: Eileen needs to stop working around hot objects.

B: Don't run with a pot of boiling water

C:  Hope it doesn't happen to you.

I am not trying to get you to buy this oil, but  am so amazed by how well it works I just had to share.  I also haven't posted in about a year, I figured it was time.

ps Sorry I don't have pictures.  I did think about taking them, but thought no one really wanted a first-aid picture.