Mother's Day

This is a total stream of consciousness that came to me during church this morning, so if it doesn't make sense, that's the reason why. :-)

Today was Mother's Day, and for some reason, I was missing my grandmothers more today than I have in a while. I think it started a couple of weeks ago when I heard an advertisement for flowers, and the announcer suggested that you could send the flowers to your grandmother. I don't have anymore grandmas, and it's a hole that won't ever go away. Today, our pastor preached about teaching your children their faith story and making sure that they know where they come from. For me, it's easy. I had a wonderful, godly great-grandmother who prayed for me (and all of her offspring) every chance she got. I got to keep my great-grandma until I was already married. And I'm selfish. I wanted the same things for my kids. Both of my grandmas were fantastic women. They each had their own way of living out their faith, and they would have been wonderful examples for my kids. They both got to meet and love Matthew and Nathan. (I will be forever thankful that we were able to visit my grandma in New York when Nathan was just a few months old. It was a rough trip with two babies, but those pictures are precious to me.) Andrew won't have any of those memories. I don't know if it will be something that bothers him, but it makes me sad for him. But it makes me realize that I have to work harder to teach my kids their history. My heritage was living right in front of me, so I couldn't miss it. I'll have to intentionally teach my boys their heritage. Sometimes I get so tied up in the here and now that I forget the foundation. I have three precious souls that I've been given.

On that happy (?) note, I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day!

Happy Birthday Matthew!

Today at about 1:30 (or so) am, Matthew turned 8. He was sleeping at the time (and so was I, for that matter), but I like to remember that he is my one who arrived in the middle of the night. Doesn't every mom need one?

His birthday celebration started slightly off on the wrong foot. He didn't feel very well yesterday, so I let him stay home from church. By evening, he was back to his insane self. Of course, this morning, he was back to complaining that his throat hurt, and his head hurt, and his stomach hurt, and he just didn't think he was going to make it to school. Well, I didn't bake a huge batch of cupcakes for nothing! I was mean and made him tough it out. Strangely enough, he was healthy enough at 8:00 to ask me if he could go and get breakfast from the cafeteria. Hmmm.

He was supposed to have a baseball game today, so I made cupcakes for him to take to his team. Unfortunately, winter is hanging on by its fingernails here in Georgia, so no game. We ordered pizza instead. He did get a chance to play with the new Lego Star Wars set he got. (Suddenly, Star Wars is hugely popular in our house. There are worse things I guess.) This weekend, my parents are coming up, along with my brother's family, so we'll have a celebration then. It's even supposed to be warm!!

Poor, Neglected Blog

To my blog:

I am sorry I've neglected you lately. It's been a very busy couple of months. I've started new classes for grad school, and I'm doing a lot of reading about behavior management and intervention. Plus, I had conferences a month ago and report cards come out this Friday. Matthew's starting baseball, so there have been practices and his first game (which he won, by the way). On top of all that, I've been spending a lot of time writing my state senators as they try to pass a bill basing my salary on how well a seven year old does on a three day test in April. As you can imagine, that's gotten me pretty upset. Thankfully, some of our state legislators have decided that rushing into this is a bad idea, so it's being put off until next year. Hopefully, I will have more time to devote to you (and the three people who read you.)

Sincerely,
Me

What is there to share?

Over the last couple of weeks? Honestly? Not much. Our lives have stayed pretty boring. (Which is a good thing!) We started back to KidzLife three weeks ago, so that's brought our Wednesdays back up to full speed, but that's been about it. We do have colds going through the house. I kept Andrew home from church yesterday because he still had green goop oozing out of his nose and eyes. (He and Nathan both have the same quirk. When they get a cold, their eyes get all crusty and gross. Looks like pinkeye, but it's not.) Thankfully, it solved a major dilemma I had. I take the boys to church at 5:15 on Sundays so I can go to "Big Church", but the Colts played at 3:00 yesterday. They would be starting the second half just about the time we needed to leave, and the game would be over by the time we got home. I didn't know what to do! But with Andrew's cold, I could stay home yesterday evening without feeling any guilt. Plus, it was a monsoon all day yesterday too, so I didn't have to try and go out in it. I heard our pastor's sermon was fantastic, though, so I downloaded it to my iPod. I'm going to try and find time to listen to it sometime this week.

So that's our update! I know, you didn't know how you were going to live without it, did you?

If Only. . .

I'm a big Harry Potter fan (not like up at midnight to see the first showing of the latest movie fan, but a fan), and recently I've converted Matthew to my ways. Well, I didn't so much convert him as he converted himself. One day, Matthew was flipping through the channels on the TV, and he came across The Sorcerer's Stone. (Great movie, by the way) He loved it, and quickly discovered that I have the DVD of that movie. So now, he watches it at least once a week. I was watching it with him the other day, and I decided that I need some magical powers. At the end of the movie, Dumbledore claps his hands, raises his arms, and the Great Hall's decorations are instantly transformed. I would love to have that power. I clap, raise my hands, and the laundry's folded. Or the family room is cleaned up. Or my bed is made. I wouldn't use it for world domination or anything of the sort. Just to get stuff done around my house. Wouldn't that be great??

Or maybe I'll just be happy for a magical power that will help my kids get along.

Woo Hoo! Post 150!

According to blogger, this is my 150th post. Wish I could make it more exciting, but this is what you get. We had a pretty good Christmas. The boys got what they had been wanting.

We didn't get them too much else. I thought that the one big gift would probably be enough. I think we could have gotten away with just getting them the Wii and nothing else. :-) They've played it ALOT since they got it. Actually, they're playing it again as I type this. It is getting them up and moving. I played Wii Boxing today and ended up winded! It's hard work!

My parents and sister were here for Christmas too. It was fun to have family here for Christmas. This is actually the first time we've had family here on Christmas day. Last year we were up in Indiana, and the two years before that we were here by ourselves. I got a Honey-Baked ham for Christmas Dinner, (Manna from heaven is all I can say) and my mom made her Cheesy potatoes. Yum. We spent the day relaxing and watching the boys play Wii games (or playing them ourselves). Matthew is good. I mean, REALLY good. He beat all of us at pretty much everything. He has a lot of hand-eye coordination, and he picks up the games very easily. Even Nathan started getting the hang of the games. He has a tendency to get frustrated if he doesn't get something right away, but he was very patient and worked his way through it when he was stuck. I was very proud of him!

Hope that you and yours had a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Cookie Time!

Today is December 12th. In exactly four weeks, I will be taking my Praxis exam on the Foundations of Special Education. I also have a Literature Review that needs to be done in a month. Plus, my school bag weighs close to 1000 pounds from all of the papers I have to grade before Friday. But did I do any of that today? No, of course not! I made these:

and these:

and even whipped up these for supper:

It's Christmas baking time at our house! Matthew helped me with the Chocolate Cookie Sandwiches while Nathan was at choir practice for the Christmas Eve service (http://www.christmasevegwinnett.com/ if you're interested in coming! You won't be disappointed!).



And both boys helped with the cut out cookies. (For a while at least)





Yes, that would be Andrew's hand you see at the bottom trying to sneak a scrap of cookie dough. He's very much like his mom! He was our little helper.


I finished by making potato latkes. Two other teachers and I served them yesterday to our classes to celebrate the first day of Hanukkah, and they were fantastic! I picked up some potatoes when I was out grocery shopping today so I could make them tonight. They were almost completely traditional, right down until the point when I served them with bacon. Not very kosher of me. :-)

Finally got everything cleaned up. Just in time to make my cinnamon swirl bread I always make for Sunday morning. Tomorrow, I'm going to make caramel macchiato thumbprints and biscotti. I've never made biscotti before, so wish me luck!