A Call For Mrs. Dykstra

 

I don't get very many phone calls.  And, no, my phone doesn't look like this but wouldn't a phone like this be so cool?  Especially if it were turquoise.

Anyhow....

As I was saying, I don't get phone calls very often.  I'm just not much of a chat on the phone sort of gal. Unless I am chatting with the Farmer's Wife.  But lately, my phone rings in the morning and I know exactly who it is.

I get a sick feeling in my stomach.

I carefully pick up the phone, I cringe at the name, my face wrinkles in pain as I tentatively answer, "Hello?"

And it's the school, the office gals, whom I love.

These are the conversations I have had with them....

"Um, Denise, you need to come over to the school.  Your son's toe...yah, you just need to come over and see it."  S3 had kicked the soccer ball with his summer shoes on and literally tore the top layer of the bottom of his big toe right off.  It was just flapping in the wind.  I asked for bandages and got it taken care of in no time flat.  

"We're sorry to call," they said, "But we knew you were right across the road and would want to see it."

They are right, I did want to see it and I was glad they called me.

Another call...

"Denise? Your son just threw up."

S4 had a cough and I am quite certain that his cough that morning was the cause of his throw up because I ran to pick him up (this was the day I was unshowered and looking "rough" was a nice way to describe my appearance) and he then proceeded to eat a huge plate of macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes.

Another call...

"This is the office.  Uh, your son has poison ivy all over his leg.  We just need to know if we can put something on it so it doesn't itch so much."

As it turned out, they didn't have calamine lotion so I ran to the store, got that and anti itch lotion and dropped it off at school.  I had a little ivy dry and we poured that over his leg, the leg that hadn't been mentioned at all all weekend.  The added bonus of the ivy dry?  It looked like his skin was peeling off his leg and it was So. Cool.  Or so I hear.

The craziest call was this...

"Denise? The school.  Somehow your son has had an accident.  He is going to need all new clothes."

I couldn't hardly believe this one.  And on this particular day, I was at work all alone so I couldn't just leave the library open and run home and get clothes and return.

But I did have the suburban and we have been pretty much living in it with football season and all.  I quick climbed all over the seats (in a dress, mind you) and found enough half eaten food and half drinken water bottles to live on for a week as well as numerous shirts, a pair of clean folded socks (we don't even have those at home!) and, oddly enough, a pull up.

As it turns out, this son of mine had an apple and brought it in the bathroom when he had to go pee.  Why, I don't know.  He doesn't know.  Anyhow, he didn't want to put the apple down in the bathroom (thank goodness he thought that much through) but he couldn't just undo his pants so he just unzipped his pants like big boys do and pulled out his "pee-er thing" (as he calls it) but his pee-er thing didn't get out far enough and pee went  e v e r y w h e r e.  

I don't think that word "everywhere" is even strong enough.

Daddy happend to be getting out of work early so I frantically called him, grabbed my son from the school sick room, had him run for the suburban in his long tshirt he got from someone at school, got him into the library and a movie turned on for him with one minute to spare before opening time.

Daddy arrived a few minutes later and saved the day with new pants and underware.

I tell ya, I never know what the school is going to call for.

I am just thankful they always do call me, and I am so thankful I have those office women to help me out this school season. 

But just once, I'd love a call like this...

"Denise? It's the school.  You're boys have no injuries or sickness today.  We just thought you'd like to celebrate that."

Of course, then we would probably jinx ourselves. 

(Thank you Chris and Regina for taking such good care of us!)

Pornography on the School Bus

As the school year came to an end for us, you could just feel the change in the kids at school.  They were ready to be done.

My boys as much as any other school kid.

With less than two weeks of school, S1 arrived off the bus one day and his eyes told me I needed to pay attention to him NOW.

"As soon as my brothers are not around, I need to talk to you and then you need to contact the school," he said.

That got my attention.

I quickly shuffled his brothers outside with food and he informed me very clearly, very calmly, that while on the bus today, a boy had said, "Hey, what do you think of this?" and shoved an ipod or some sort of device in his face.  On the screen was a very vulgar pornographic image.

My heart sank.  I felt sick.

When he informed the boy that it was gross and went to turn his head, a girl ahead of him who he has class with said, "What?  What is it?"

The boy turned his attention toward her.  "Wanna see?"

My son caught the girls' eye and shook his head no.  She didn't.

I emailed our principal and I emailed the other boys principal to let them know what had happened and what information we had.

The principal's got back to me quickly and told me they would take care of it.  What did happen, I don't know;  but I do know that for the next two weeks of school, the boys only rode the bus home once or twice.

The evening of the incident, I told S1 he could wait up for his daddy to get home so he could talk to him.  He did.  I had, of course, already given Jake a heads up.  I was busy cleaning the kitchen when my husband arrived home and the two of them sat at the table, my husband eating and my son talking, about everything but what had happened.

When I went to make the bed in our bedroom, S1 talked with his Daddy about what had happened.  He hadn't wanted me to worry, or offend me, in what he wanted to talk to a man about.  Jake handled the conversation with him well, he is always good at talking at length with his boys.

But what shocked Jake and myself, when I learned later, was that S1 told his Dad that for so long at school he has heard how pornography is so bad, how evil it is.  "But I didn't know what it was," he told his dad, "So I had thought about just looking it up just to see what it is.  If that is pornography, I never want to see it again."

I had never given that any thought.

My husband is sure it was a completely innocent wondering.  He told his son that if he ever wanted to know something, ask him.  My husband has always made it a policy that the boys will never get in trouble for asking him something or talking to him about an issue.  We started when they were young when they would want to know what a bad work meant.  Jake has done a phenomenal job at this.

But when you tell your kids to look up what they don't know (hey, they have to learn to use the computer and look things up!), they don't think that it would be bad to look this up. Just so they know.

Can you imagine?

We tried then to set up some sort of filter on his computer, just to be safe rather than sorry even if we believe him that he would not look such a thing up.  He has a little acer computer he uses for email, Goodreads and looking up garden tractors while he listens to old country on an out of town country music station.  I could not figure it out a filter.  On my Mac, I just click parental controls.  On his, I can't find anything to do and I am not even sure what I need to look for.

Anyone have any ideas for us?

I debated whether or not to share this story.  As a mom, I would have wanted a heads up if my son was wondering why something was evil.  But I didn't want to make my son a target at school either.

On the last day of the school year, of all the boys, my son was given the Principal's Award.  I nearly cried.  I tried to video it, but I was on my iphone and I thought I was supposed to tip it to record it correctly, but I did it wrong.  However, if you want to listen to it, you can.




While I am sick that this happened to my son, it was also a real eye opener.  This boy who shoved this image in my son's face? He was only one grade older than my son.

We have to prepare our kids for the real world, but they are kids and I want to shelter them as long as I can.  We also have to be vigilant, safe guarding them the best we can.

I am proud of him and how he handled this situation.

Any of you with any helpful tips for us or stories to share, I would appreciate hearing them.

But as the school year comes to an end for many of our children and before the new one begins, perhaps a conversation with your husband and son about this subject would be a smart one to have.

Embarrassing Moments

Because I know these things would not ever happen to you, I thought you might enjoy laughing at me.

Since I am sure I will be hearing about them over and over again I might as well share them with you all.

In an effort to be friendly and talk to people more (not really my thing, you recall), I got myself in trouble.

Sigh.

I was chatting with the teacher who loves S4 ever so much and keeps a good eye on him for me.  I would truly be lost without Mrs. W.  S4 loves her to pieces.  Anyhow, I was telling her how S4 had been sick but seemed fine and if he seemed sickly at all to call me and I would be there right away to get him.

As I was chatting with her outside the school, a truck pulled in.

The truck looked just like S2's friend ( and near twin ) Jakob's dad's truck.  I did think through that it was odd he would be dropping Jakob off at school.

Then I remembered I was going to be friendlier like the old lady at the library.

So I grinned a friendly hello and waved to him.  I could tell from his tinted window that he seemed surprised but did wave back.

Sheesh, I need to be friendlier, I thought.

And then I seen the boy leave the truck.

The boy was not Jakob.

I have no idea what man I grinned and waved happily too.

"Oh, Crap!" I muttered in my head.

I called my husband.  "Hey, hon, I was trying to be friendly and just waved at some random guy.  Have no idea who he is.  If you happen to hear your wife is a flirt, it's because of this."

This story only makes the next one even better.

On the SAME DAY, I was working on making plans for our family to get together with one of our favorite family's we haven't seen in forever.  We haven't gotten together at eachother's houses in may be years - all of us, that is.

Anyhow.

Her husband has this incredible zip line he made for himself their three boys.  An mentioned that the zip line was broken and she would be sure that Jeff had it fixed before our boys were there.  So I tweeted Jeff to tell him we had the date planned and to have the zip line ready.  But that isn't what I thumb typed on twitter.  Oh no.

This is what I tweeted...

@DeGraafJeff texting with An planning the --th at your place. Have the zipper ready :)

Oh, yes, I did.

And he, being him, wondered WHAT ON EARTH I MEANT.

I saw what I had tweeted and wanted to die.

So I tried to shake it off, but then I texted An (who is not on twitter) and told her what I did.

She laughed hysterically (via text).

Then I called my husband.

"Hey, hon, guess what I did now? Um, you wouldn't be able to guess so...."

He then about died laughing.

Ugh.

So, I am thinking I may go back to being a guarded shy person and I will be double checking what my auto correct changes my words to.

You all my now laugh at my expense.

He Stood Up For His Values

Yesterday at school my son stood up for something he believed in.

And I am so proud of him for it.

Heard of the movie The Lorax?

Pretty hard not to.

Our school is decorated cutely with silly Dr. Seuss trees and flying Seuss birds.  The little boys came home bearing some sunflower seeds and some sort of official looking paper that said they had taken the Lorax pledge or something another.  I honestly didn't pay any attention to it because they were just happy about the seeds.

Yesterday S1 came in rather glum.

"What's up?" I asked as I scooped them out some special dirt cake we made on Oreo cookies birthday.

"I had a rough day at school," he said.

He's had a rough year at school.  Keeping in mind what Sue said on the Real Mom's of West Michigan Tuesday, I reminded myself to just listen to what he was about to tell me.

"Tell me about it," I encouraged.

He then explained to me that the teacher had asked the class to sign a Lorax pledge.  He didn't care to sign it, he could care less about the seeds they were giving out since we would have plenty of seeds to plant this spring anyhow, and so he didn't sign it.

He didn't make a big deal about it.  He just didn't sign it.

I would have been proud of him for that.

But then the teacher asked him why he didn't sign it.  He just shrugged and said it wasn't something he agreed with.

The teacher then pulled him out of class and explained to him what it was.  S1 still didn't want to sign it so he just told him he wasn't going to.  And then my son went back to his school work.

Over the course of that day, the teacher pulled my son out of class FOUR times.  Yes, four.  He told him he didn't need to be so black and white on things.

S1 still didn't sign it.

But what got my son right to the heart was when the teacher said, "Don't you read your Bible?  Don't you think we should take care of the earth?"

And my son, he looked right at his teacher who is in authority over him, and was brave enough to say, "I don't want to sign something that is making a bigger deal over creation then the Creator."

I nearly cheered when he told me that.

He had left the school feeling beat up but he left with his head held high.

And I am insanely proud of him for doing so.

My quiet 12 year old son who is growing into a little man already, who is nearly as tall as me, who quietly does his work and is a huge help to us all, who has decided to read his Bible in a year and has kept up with that schedule...I am so proud of him I am crying as I type this.

He asked us not to make a big deal of it.

But when I seen MobSociety ask for a linkup for Let's Hear it For the Boys, I couldn't resist sharing this story.

I hope that I would be as brave as my son has been.

They Thought They Would Pull a Fast One

So they wore the same shirt to school.

They giggled at the brilliance of this.

Of course, one of them went to school in glasses.

And neither of them are in the same class.

But the sheer brilliance of this!

They giggled all day long.

First Day Back to "Normal"

Today was the first day the boys went back to school.  It was also a work day for me.

Last night I had the boys find their back packs (they were gone for good, they were sure, assuring them that they could stay home longer.  Amazingly, S1 and I found them.  Also, we found the lunch boxes. One was hidden, I kid you not, behind a ten pound bag of potatoes.), pack their lunches, pick out their clothes and reacquaint themselves with soap.  Then we all snuggled on the couch, I got out a box of chocolates for the boys to pick through and I read aloud to them from a silly book we have been reading.

We all are really enjoying this book.

AND the main character is a girl....AND I did NOT pick it out (but I was pretty happy they did).

It was a good last night of vacation.

But this morning we woke up to temperatures colder than they have been all season - who wants to wake up to that? - and S4 literally bawled from the moment he sat down for breakfast until he sat down in the suburban.  We made it to school on time, braving roads of sheer ice, only to realize S3 forgot his book, S4 forgot his lunch AND his boots.

When I arrived home to get myself ready for work - and find all the lost items I would now be dropping off at school - my husband called to chat with me and ask me to go out and check our outdoor wood stove.  I did, got myself dressed in layers of clothes to ward off the cold, and headed to work.

As I was driving there, I realized something smelled burned just terrible.  I figured it was my coat from throwing wood in the fire, but it seemed worse than that.  I let out my hair from the bun it was in and then I realized....I had seriously singed my hair when I threw wood in the furnace.

The pharmacy was out of sudafed for my cold so I dropped the lunch and boots off, hurried into work and told Alicia my sad tale.  Because she is such a good friend, she painstakingly cut out just the single burnt hairs - as well as she could - so I wouldn't have to chop a huge chunk of my hair off.

My husband, who I had called so he would know my disgust rather than just sending him a text to tell him, laughed hysterically.  Alicia and I did not find it funny in the least.  Alicia painstakingly cut each individual piece of singed hair for me so I wouldn't be missing such a huge chunk.  When she was sure she had most of it she said, "I am so sorry.  Maybe heavy duty conditioner will help it?"

After work, I picked up the boys.  S1 was groaning over the pain of having homework again, S2 was starving and needed cereal post haste, S3 was jumping for joy to go home and S4 informed me he needed a little nap and time with his train tracks but he was NOT tired.

We had to stop at Weicks, the local grocery store, for sudafed for my now throbbing head.  But thanks to all the meth heads, they can't sell me any until the government gets some program done.  The pharmacist showed me the third best medicine for my sinus cold (since the second best was sold out) and wished me luck.

While I was doing all this, I told the boys to get themselves some bag juices for lunches.  I knew we were low.  S1 mentioned Little Debbie snacks and I just waved a "fine" to them.

As I was standing in line to pay I looked for the first time what they were having me buy.  Four boxes of pop tarts (real blueberries in two boxes, but chocolate fudge and s'mores in the other two), cloud cakes (think twinkies), chocolate chip muffins (for a healthy morning snack), zebra cakes, frosted fudge cakes and oatmeal cream pies - gotta have the healthy oatmeal.

But, just being glad we survived the day thus far, I paid and we headed home where S1 retreated to his new office spot in the landing upstairs, S2 devoured two bowls of cereal, S3 and S4 checked on the bunnies and are now building an elaborate train track.

I, my dear readers, am waiting for the third best cold medicine to kick in while I am  hunkered down in the laundry room with seriously singed hair.  Yes, the laundry room.  It's the warmest room in the house and I am terrible cold.  I also have been so on top of my laundry I have nothing soft to sit on.  But it's worth it to share with the world how my day went.

Oh, and S1 just found me.  I have to think through my foggy brain to figure out decimals.  Happy first day back to homework for me too.

How did YOUR first day back to "normal" go?

Breakfast Conversations

On Labor Day Monday, we were all sitting around the breakfast table eating a mini feast.

The conversation moved to the next day being the dreaded start of school when S4 declared...."I hope that  A doesn't kiss me again this year!"

"She did? Gross!" my husband declared, which was all the encouragement that S4 needed to continue his story.

"She DID. She just leaned in and kissed me!  If she does that again, she is so going to get a referral."

"Did you wash that spot really good?" my husband asked.

"Not right away..." S4 faltered, wondering why this was important.

"Well, girls have cooties!  And cooties are gross!" My husband informed him.

"Well, I've taken a million baths since then.  Why would any girl kiss me anyhow? It's not like it was our wedding day."

My husband nearly choked on his sausage.  "That's right, what was she thinking kissing you before a wedding day?  Kissing is for after the wedding.  Everyone knows that."




This moment reminded me of Becca's recent moment like this.  You can read it HERE.

Why I Despise School

I'm thinking that post title is going to get someone's attention.

Yesterday I was chatting with one of my friends who is sending her firstborn off to his first year of preschool this year. She and I and Alicia were all chatting about this huge day in mom and son's life when I sort of got on my soap box.

Everyone seems surprised the first time they hear that I do NOT like my boys going back to school. They are stunned. But the teachers and staff have gotten used to me after all these years (how old do I sound now) and know that I am a useless parent to talk to the first week. I walk around all wet with tears and blotchy with emotion. I'm an ugly mess.

But I try to smile while I drop the boys off, leaving my youngest for the last toughest goodbye.

Yes, S4 goes to school full time this year. Each and every day. Leaving not a single child in my care for a few hours.

But this, this is why I despise school.....

I despise it because for three months I get to be the mom. I get to care for my boys and know what has happened in their day before they excitedly tell me about it. If they are mad or sad or bored or have a thrilling book or a new fort of a great catch, I know it.

I can tell when they are hungry (which, granted, is always), over tired, frustrated, irritated with each other, bored out of their mind, dreading the field work, too excited to sit still because they know a beach day is coming.

I know every book they are reading and I love this because I can talk S1 about it and I treasure those moments.

Then school starts.

I drop them off and for the first week or so I may get a full detail.....

That I get from them but I have not actually taken part in.

I have no idea who they played with at recess, if they were nice or mean, if they liked their lunch, if they ate it all, if they were sad at all, if they were lonely.

I get bits of information here and there but soon enough I only hear if they had a good day or not and am informed they need food.

Not to mention that as soon as school starts, they have MEAP testing. I hate MEAP testing. I know it is of no fault of my boys teachers, but the state test that puts such stress on the boys so that all they can think about and talk about is MEAP and hope and pray they can pass causes my intense hate of the stupid test. It's weeks before they actually begin to learn anything at all at school because we all are stressed and taking MEAP tests.

The school gets them for seven hours. It takes an hour for them to arrive home on the bus. That leaves me approx. four hours with them.

In that four hours I have to feed them snacks, dinner and before bed snacks. We have at least one hour of homework with each of the younger boys, the older two retreat to their bedrooms because the table is now always being set or cleared of dinner or homework and then the line to the shower begins.

In that mere four hours I also have two hours of football to look forward to this fall, and church wants us for another whole night.

I have no snuggle time, no one on one time to know who my boys are anymore.

Oh sure, I get letters home from the teacher telling me this and that....but I don't know them anymore. I give my boys over to the school and loose nearly everything about them.

When school lets out for the summer, it takes a few weeks for them to return to the boys I know. And when they do, the summer truly begins.

And when school approaches I brace myself for nine months without the close relationship our family shares.

It rips my heart out.

And that is why I despise school.

Even if the school my boys attend is a school I love dearly. It's not the teachers...it's the time away from my boys that makes me despise school.

And that is my soap box for the day.

We Need New Pets For School

This week, S3's teacher sent home a note letting us know that the class would be studying pets. There is a form to fill out to see if parents would bring in the child's pet for a show and tell at school so the kids can talk about all the different pets and how to care for them.

I think S3's teacher is very brave.

Can you imagine having all sorts of pets in school?

But then S3 and I had a little chat and I had to send her an email thanking her for her brilliant idea.

S3 was making his lunch for the next day and we were discussing bringing pets into school. I asked him what he wanted to bring and he shrugged with an "I don't care" attitude. " I guess Josie," he stated, as though he HAD to bring a pet to school and it might as well be her even if he didn't want to bring her.

"Why Josie?" I asked, quite surprised but already forming in my head all the stories I could tell about her to make her seem interesting even if she wan't much to brag about.

"Well, Sadie would be too hard to take to school."

I imagined her hauling me down the hallways, hiding behind people, barking at everyone and had to agree that while she would be memorable, she would not be wise choice.

"You could bring a chickie," I suggested. S3 is my biggest fan of chickens, he and I share that bond. His eyes lit up momentarily and then his shoulders slumped. "But Chickie is so big now that no one would want to hold him."

Well, he had me there. I thought about running down to Family Farm and Home to get him a new one but you can't really do one baby chick. And I didn't really want a bunch of baby chicks on the porch right now. AND we are getting a little flock of grown chickens from a friend so we may not even need a baby chick....

Suddenly, his eyes got huge. His smile was bright. I mean, if you could actually see the turned on lightbulb above his head you would because he suddenly had a brilliant idea.

"I KNOW!" he nearly shouted and then he began to stammer over his words in excitement..."We could go and buy six cows and maybe a bull too because we need a daddy but six cows and we could milk them or whatever or we could ride them, yah, we could ride them or, no, we could buy six horses! Yah, we could buy six horses and we could ride the horses and we could take them to the school for pet day and we could ride the horses to round up the cows and we could take them in...no, that won't work...oh, I know! We could ride the horses, one for each of us, to round up the cows and we could herd them by the window and then my whole class could see our cows and horses."

I was stunned into silence.

"Can we, Moma?" he pleaded, taking my silence as a good sign of his sheer brilliance. "Can we get a get just six cows and just six horses. And a bull. But six cows and six horses? Please?"

I was still stunned so he grasped at "Aunt Ginger could help us."

Aunt Ginger who works on a cow farm and has horses.

"Well, we'd have to run that one by Daddy," I finally said.

And then I quickly typed an email to his teacher telling her what sort of a mess I was in now because of her "bring a pet to class" assignment.

To which she responded with great laughter. And this email response to my "thank you, thank you very much..."

I AM LAUGHING HYSTERICALLY!!

Now THAT would make a great blog post!! (Of course questions would follow

as to the credibility of my teaching, but hey, what could I say?!!)

Remind Eli that it does say one pet per student. And, if he considers

cows and horses his pets, then I'd love to meet them (or one of them!).

Oh, you're quite welcome!!

So I did blog about it. And if anyone has suggestions for me...send em along. Before I have to find six cows and a bull and six horses.

But to be fair, I did ask him the next morning if S3 would tell his teacher what he was hoping to bring in and he informed me he was now thinking of kittens. Kittens would be much easier to work with.....

Though not so blogworthy, you know?

Am I Tired????

People often ask me if I am tired. Because apparently I look tired. What a lovely thought.

This always causes me to pause, this question of "Are you tired?"

As if I need to say "Am I a mom?"

I mean, if you are a mom isn't part of your job requirement to be able to take nap at any moment to try to regain the years of sleep you have missed out on?

Am I tired.....sheesh.

I mean, why should I be?

My alarm goes off at five. If I am unimaginably lucky, it is just hubs and I in bed. But usually it is me and hubs and one other boy. Sometimes two other boys.

There is a dog panting in my face, waiting for me to show signs of life. She does not know the meaning of minty fresh.

There is another dog in the kennel, whining and crying and reminding me she is there.

I let them out and they immediately begin to bark to the heavens, announcing to all the invisible critters that were considering attacking us all that they have, in fact, returned to the outdoors and are keeping their eye on all the totally invisible and silent ruthless critters out there.

It's then I crawl back into my warm bed. I know, I need to start coffee (wouldn't a coffee delivery just be...wonderful? Like, with an IV so you wouldn't even have to drink it! You would get the wonderful aroma and taste in an IV so you would bounce awake, one cup of coffee already running through your veins) and get started on the day. But it's winter. And bed is warm.

Soon I'm calling sleepy boys to wake up. Then the fun really begins. There is the panic I may forget to feed them (this has never ever ever ever ever ever happened. But they are gripped with fear they may miss a meal.) Then it's the whole "What will I wear?" and even if I have been on top of the game to lay their clothes out, they will forget, they may cry over their favorite shirt MIA or pull out their most favoritest clothes they must wear...you know, the ones with the holes in knees, three inches too short and the completely stained shirt.

(note to self: do not wash these clothes this time. THIS time, Throw. Them. Away. For. Good.)

I cannot imagine how girls are in the morning.

And then the bickering begins. The "I wanted that cereal and he ate it all" and "Don't take my hat" and so on and so forth.

The dog sees the cat and the inside barking begins.

A game of football starts up in the living room while I am in the shower.

We have ten minutes before we have to leave. The only boys dressed are the ones who slept in their clothes.

Down as much coffee as I can in one sip.

Warn everyone we MUST LEAVE NOW!!!! I point to the tv. "When Jon Shaner does the next weather segment, we are OFFICIALLY late!!!"

S3 looses his coat. Or lunch. Or shoes. Or snow pants. Or boots. Or back pack. Or all that. Every. Day. Even though last night it was all laid out for him.

Jon Shaner begins the weather on Fox 17.

We are officially late.

I am screaming now. Because I am such a great mom.

I'm the last person out the door, even though I was the first one ready. S2 has taken over the radio. We are blaring.

Blaring.

I didn't drink enough coffee for blaring.

We arrive to school where I am already giving out game plans to get in the doors before they lock. "Okay, we are in the parking lot. Unbuckle. No! Don't climb over the seats yet! I am still driving! No, we cannot finish listening to this song. We are LATE, remember? Okay, go! go! go! go!"

The doors open and literally we all fall out of the suburban. It takes six tries to get all doors shut (there are only five of us. We only have four doors.)

We shuffle run into school. We shuffle run because it's not a good example to run into school. It also hazardous as it is winter. And icy.

On a good day, we make it in before the doors close and lock. On a regular day, we walk through the office, waving hellos as we do. And then I usually have to notice someones cool jewelry or shirt or hair style and comment on it.

Because I am the only girl in a house of boys.

We speed walk to classes.

I break a sweat.

We wave hello's to other parents and get asked by boys when they can come over to our house and remind S3 that he HAS a lunch he does not need to BUY a lunch.

Someone always always always always laughs at us. Every day. Always.

I leave when they all know what we are having for dinner. I am usually planning dinner in my head as we walk in the door. Because saying "I'm not sure what's for dinner" makes them panic that they may starve.

We have never ever not eaten dinner.

That is just the morning.

In the afternoon there is mountains and mountains of laundry. There is dinner to make. And snacks. Because what if they were to starve (they never have)?

I scroll facebook and twitter on my phone when I realize I have begun talking to the dogs as though they are children.

Just when I am so tired I cannot keep my eyes open, the boys arrive home from school.

They are starving.

Every thing I have cleaned all day long is now muddy, covered in something or spilled.

As I am finishing up dinner prep, they have homework questions.

We do reading and papers and S4 asks me a hundred times "what's a number between 2 and 21" from his Vtech computer.

I oversee lunch making while babysitting a Pillow Pet I am sworn to protect with a long list of rules. Daddy tries to kidnap said Pillow Pet. Screaming ensues. Tickling usually follows. It's a tough job.

Boys go to bed. Hubby mentions he hasn't seen me, how about I watch American Pickers with him?

If it's a good night, I do not fall asleep on the couch.

But that also means that when the show is over, I am in the kitchen washing dishes.

When I fall into bed, I do not toss or turn. Not once. I am instantly asleep.

And start all over again the next day, maybe with work at the library thrown in too.

Work I love.

Life I love.

Because this insane life that is frantic running all day long?

I love it.

I am so very very blessed.

But totally wonder how anyone dares to ask me if I am tired. Or assumes I read books constantly. Or can take a nap every day. Or get bored.

I laugh at that.

I am too blessed to be bored. And too busy to sleep.

So, yes, I am tired every single day.

But I wouldn't have it any other way.

School Morning Ramblings.....

Because there are soooo many things I have to share with you and because I could write for a whole day if only I had a whole day to write, I bring to you, the condensed version of our school mornings.......

Today we are getting rain. Much rain. But when it was time to take the boys to school, I had them dressed ready for the weather. I even had on my big rain/barn boots...a bit overkill I think because by the time we got to school it was dry and when I got home it was a bit sunnish outside. S1 kept asking me if I was SURE it would rain all day. I assured him it would. It wasn't until I was home that I realized why he was so concerned on the weather....had it been nice today I am sure he would have been begging to stay home for opening day of early doe season.

Many more hunting post to write this year, I am sure.

His teacher is digging into more new favorite authors for him since he has pretty much read all of Gary Paulsen's books (I am taking all suggestions for the boy). He has been able to show off some of his summer pictures and the ones of the boar head on our living room wall. I am very thankful for his new teacher.

S2 is "adjusting" to school. He has a great teacher who is very involved in the rodeo it seems. He did some digging and brought home the football coaches phone number one day last week, just in case we thought we should call him of course. We didn't, maybe next year. His locker is filled with pictures and it makes no sense as to what they are. There are pictures of cats that were kittens when they were alive and well many moons ago. Ducks. Snakes. An odd combination that sums up his life so far. He has lost a lot of friends to other schools this year and I think his teacher is working hard to make sure he realizes school is still fun.

S3....oh my. He's forgotten his glasses twice now. He has gotten a "note home" twice as well. He loves school and does not mind that he has to go at all. Always a bit scattered in thinking and loving to a fault, he has had the hardest time getting into the swing of things and yet he is also the one who is easy going about it all and looks forward to school. His teacher is taking it all sweetly...thank goodness. And bless her!

S4 has me walk down with him every single morning to check on his classroom. For days all he could do is peek in. We now have met the teacher and said hello, which was good because his brothers were coming home saying they had met her and he had not yet and he was sure that she wasn't really going to teach and the classroom would disappear. It hasn't. We have checked all the lockers and he climbs in one every morning and has me shut the door on him and then search to find him. I have told him he can't do this when school starts because his teacher might not find it as funny as we do.

I'm not sure what the teachers DO think of us. I guess it doesn't matter but sometimes I wonder as we come down the hallway, all big booted and chatting away and telling each other goodbye by giving the evenings menu and them reminding me to check the stand and look for hunting licenses and etc.

S4 has the hardest time with it all. He keeps asking when the "good ole days" will be back. I was confused by this until Saturday when he beamed all day (even with the rain and not being able to play outside for the second Saturday in a row) and declared that the "good ole days have returned!" On the last week of the month he starts school. I cannot tell you how much that will pain me.

Funny story to end this rambling post with. The boys seem to think that now that school is in session they no longer have to set and clear the table or mow the lawn or any other such chores that they have. The lawn was soooooo long so I pulled S4 onto my lap and mowed it on the new to us Wheel Horse. (Keep in mind, with the boys around I haven't mowed the lawn all on my own in about two years or so.)

The reaction it caused.

I heard the shock in my husband's voice. "You knew how to start it?" Um....yup.

The boys got off the bus. My mom and niece were here, Jr was visiting for a few hours and all they could ask me about is why I had the garden tractor out and how did I know to mow the lawn. I finished the lawn up later in the day and I seen S1 keeping a close eye on me, sure I would run it into a tree or something girlish like that.

Moma's driving tractors. What has the world come to with them not around the farm to keep it all in control?

Ramblings as Summer Comes to an End

I am apologizing now for any therapeutic blog posts i may, in fact, post this week. This is our last week of summer vacation.

The.

Last.

Week.

I imagine you know this about me already, but in case you are new to reading this blog, I like my kids home. I enjoy watching them play. Oh, sure, they make me pull my hair out and I loose my patience with them but as a whole, I'd rather have them home than anywhere else.

Because I enjoy them.

Because I love them.

And because all through the summer I know everything about them, I get to see their personalities explode outdoors as they play, and then they go to school and I won't know them again until June.

This is rough week for me....because I go between getting teary eyed and emotional to being all "we must live every moment to the fullest!" to thinking I should start them on a schedule of proper sleep.

I'm a basket case this week. I just wanted to forewarn you. Next week I'll be sobbing. Seriously.

But then you will get normal blog posts from me again.

I just felt you should be warned.

I Can See Clearly Now, Part Two

So, real quick, S3 came home minus his glasses. I nearly panicked when I couldn’t find them in his back pack, but there were there all zipped up safe and sound.

Phew.

His teacher called then about as soon as all the boys got off the bus. She wanted to let me know how it went today with his glasses, telling me he took them off and cleaned them and put them in the case so often and she wanted to know if he had to wear them all day (yes) or just sometimes. She had him give a class demonstration on how to clean and care for his glasses and we are both hoping the newness of the glasses and case wear off soon.

But, funny story. He was headed to lunch when he looked at his teacher and said “oh, I had better take my glasses off now for lunch. I wouldn’t want to spill food on them.”

Here is another photo from this morning. I wasn’t going to use it, but then again, it shows S4 in action so perhaps you will all understand school mornings more. Keep in mind that baby Jr was in the car seat next to me for this photo.

But, hooray! We survived day one with glasses!