Northern Wisconsin...over a half a foot of snow in my yard...below freezing temps for as long as I can remember...snow every day...blustery winds...we do have some sun though...sounds like Siberia to me. We are all anxiously awaiting spring to burst forth in all of it's glory and wake up to a wonderland of greenness. I know I'm dreaming but it makes me happy.
Especially after a week of hospital visits with my girl and then she makes a miraculous recovery. Mix of emotions on that one. This is such a stretched out story but it is life perfectly with this Amber girl. A week ago Sunday her sister asked what was wrong with her because she didn't look good. I didn't think much of it or the next couple of hours of fussing and complaining very loudly because that is her temperment. When she started screaming and calling for me, I knew something was really wrong because that is not how she normally is even if she's sick. She showed me where is hurt and I touched her belly and she screamed louder. I called my dad right away to see if I had to find a way to get her to the ER. He suggested that I do because there isn't much in the area of complaint than the appendix. YIKES. Now to find the hubby with my car.
Found him. The friends that were with him offered to stay and watch the rest of the kids so that we could dash off in the blizzard to the ER. Got her in and ran all of the tests. They got her on an IV and she even got a shot of morphine because she hadn't stopped crying and hollering since we had gotten there. Turns out that the IV caused a monster bruise on her arm and she got pinched in one of the blood draw exchanges. The tests showed that it would be worth doing an ultrasound on her belly to rule out appendicitis. Found out this week at the doctor's office that the tests showed nothing. The blip was from an outside contaminant. A little irritating but a blessing in disguise because she was put on amoxicillian and that killed whatever may have been living in her. I think that the combination of the ultrasound pushing on her belly, the IV fluids, the morphine, and all of the prayers cured her. Well, started the fight. We were sent home at 1am and it took us an hour to drive a normally 20 minute drive because there was a new 6 inches of snow on the ground.
Kept everyone home the next day. Sent everyone off on Tuesday. Got a call at 1pm that my Amber girl had spiked a fever again. Kept her the next day because she was still spiking a fever that night. Wednesday she was doing good, I was excited that she was getting better. Then I knocked her off balance. I rubbed her head because I had bumped her and the next thing I knew she and the chair were falling over. Gashed the back of one foot that swelled up to twice it's size and nicked the other. I felt horrible. Kept her home the next day and since she couldn't step on it, we went in to see if it was broken.
Not broken, just a severe sprain that still has her foot swollen a week later. She was put in an air splint and given crutches, which she refused to use until her sister started competing with her on them. Then she lost a tooth and the substitute toothfairy was called in and fell asleep before completing the mission causing all sorts of conversations in our house. Was the toothfairy captured? Was she real? Is a Lego tower the best form of protection for a tooth?
A week later, she decides that she wants to go swimming with her class without complications and has started walking on the injured foot. Caught her running on it today because she doesn't want to deal with the crutches anymore. And as I type this, Daddy is off to the rescue because it sounds like she reinjured it playing with her sister instead of trying not to get hurt. To be 6 again and think you're invincible.
Cookies are baked for her class because they have been AWESOME helpers for her. So I can head off to bed...maybe...ER survey at 745pm? Ugh....
Showing posts with label kids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kids. Show all posts
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
My day
It has been an interesting day today. Had a feeling that it would be after having a great night of wine and talking with some awesome friends.
Over the weekend my Tiny girl started having extreme allergy reactions. It's slowly been building for about two weeks. It smacked her clear in the face today, good thing I had called last night for a doctor's appointment.
This picture of her doesn't do justice to how she looked at the doctor's appointment. Which tells me that the meds are working. Both eyes were bloodshot and the left eye looked like someone stuck a golf ball in with her eyeball.
She has been in the best of moods considering that it's painful to look at and irritating to live with. She's just taking it in stride.
Then after we got home from the doctor and picking up the meds and getting ice cream, this pic happened. My Hazel girl tripped on her sister's bag that was laying on the floor and dropped a dollhouse on her toes. That second toe was almost as large as the big toe at one point. I didn't want to go back to the hospital today, I was happy to see that it was still attached and that she had full function of it.
This girl has had nothing go wrong for her today so far. She did help out greatly when the Tiny one puked up all of her ice cream and lunch. She was great help when her sister dropped the house on her foot. And she's been extra snuggly all week which has been a wonderful surprise.
So, saying all of that...I need to go to bed before someone else gets injured and hope that tomorrow is a less normal day which ends up being normal.
This picture of her doesn't do justice to how she looked at the doctor's appointment. Which tells me that the meds are working. Both eyes were bloodshot and the left eye looked like someone stuck a golf ball in with her eyeball.
She has been in the best of moods considering that it's painful to look at and irritating to live with. She's just taking it in stride.
Then after we got home from the doctor and picking up the meds and getting ice cream, this pic happened. My Hazel girl tripped on her sister's bag that was laying on the floor and dropped a dollhouse on her toes. That second toe was almost as large as the big toe at one point. I didn't want to go back to the hospital today, I was happy to see that it was still attached and that she had full function of it.
This girl has had nothing go wrong for her today so far. She did help out greatly when the Tiny one puked up all of her ice cream and lunch. She was great help when her sister dropped the house on her foot. And she's been extra snuggly all week which has been a wonderful surprise.
So, saying all of that...I need to go to bed before someone else gets injured and hope that tomorrow is a less normal day which ends up being normal.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
A new thing Tiny loves
I have been disappointed in myself lately that I was raised Catholic, went to a Catholic school for 8 years, and still have limited knowledge of the Bible. Which is my drive to make sure that my girls are well adapted with the Bible to fight all of the challenges that will come their way in life.
As I was searching for something to keep my Tiny busy during the day, I found this amazingly simple Bible verse/preschool program.
This site has an amazing amount of good stuff on it but I am truly in love with this program of theirs.
Each letter is associated with a Bible verse, cutting activity, math activity, phonics fun, tracing activity, color and shape activity, and some story telling.
Violet loves these packets. The amazing thing is that she has 8 verses memorized so far and she understands them AND she uses them on her sisters. Her enthusiasm for these verses has seeped into her sisters and they want to do it now too.
Our learning wall. Things fall down and more go up. She gets so excited about saying her verses. I especially love it because I'm learning verses with her. I have the philosophies and I have the faith, now I'm learning the ammunition necessary to fight my battles.
Pop on over and check out all of the wonderful programs this site has to offer. I stumbled on them by accident and fell in love with them instantly.
As I was searching for something to keep my Tiny busy during the day, I found this amazingly simple Bible verse/preschool program.
Each letter is associated with a Bible verse, cutting activity, math activity, phonics fun, tracing activity, color and shape activity, and some story telling.
Violet loves these packets. The amazing thing is that she has 8 verses memorized so far and she understands them AND she uses them on her sisters. Her enthusiasm for these verses has seeped into her sisters and they want to do it now too.
Pop on over and check out all of the wonderful programs this site has to offer. I stumbled on them by accident and fell in love with them instantly.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Dewey Decimal System
I have to create a whole new schedule for my Wednesdays. I used to take Miss Violet to the library for storytime in the morning, we'd come home, eat lunch, take a nap, go to school to work on kindergarten penmanship, bring all the girls home for homework, dinner, and then off again for KICK (their youth group through church). Last week was the last week until fall for both storytime and KICK.
What I thought I might try is taking all of the girls to the library at the time we would normally go for KICK. This is a huge undertaking because when my girls are all together in a place where quiet is the norm...it doesn't last long. But, if I don't try, I will never know how much they have grown. We had a friend over for a playdate as well, so it was a huge experiment that if it worked would be fantastic.
I packed my bag with colored pencils, regular pencils, sheets of paper, a sand timer, and dice. We didn't use the timer this trip but maybe next time.
The girls looked around for a bit and found some story books and movies. Then they were ready to play my game. They each took a piece of paper and a pencil and some dice (I had many different dice with many different sidedness.) I told them that they needed to roll the dice and get three numbers. Then they needed to take those numbers over to the bookshelves, read the labels at the ends of the aisles, and then read the book labels to find the number they rolled.
For instance: Miss Hazel rolled a 5 and a 2 and a 2. We went searching. We found
She was very excited about that and kept racing to find more. Her friend on the other hand rolled a 5 and a 6 and a 7. She found
She wasn't as excited about the game as Miss Hazel was.
The girls found some interesting books. We should have an interesting week of reading. They did get a little bummed out when they didn't find their number in the stacks. I had to explain to them that they just needed to keep rolling because sometimes the library didn't carry the book on that subject. I had to pull them away they were having so much fun. Here's a few of the books they found...
#650 
#242 
#565
#933 
#232 
#811
#944 
#296
Looking at these titles, I'm not sure that we'll be doing this every week. Unless we return the ones we found the week previous and got a whole new batch. I'm afraid the girls will find some really great every time we go and we'll end up with a miniature version of the public library stored at my house (not that they don't have their own library in their playroom).
I just thought it was so great getting them comfortable at the library. Showing them the abundance of information that is accessible to them. My girls LOVE learning. Especially if I can put playing in the mix as well.
I used to play this game with my hubby for our date nights. Now we're part of The Mental Fitness Challenge and a Sunday school class based on
and he's also trying to finish reading 
. His brain can only take so much information at a time.
Feel free to take this idea and run with it. It helps to have a 12 sided dice so that you can get into the higher numbers.
Let me know how it works for you and what fun things you and your family get to learn about.
What I thought I might try is taking all of the girls to the library at the time we would normally go for KICK. This is a huge undertaking because when my girls are all together in a place where quiet is the norm...it doesn't last long. But, if I don't try, I will never know how much they have grown. We had a friend over for a playdate as well, so it was a huge experiment that if it worked would be fantastic.
I packed my bag with colored pencils, regular pencils, sheets of paper, a sand timer, and dice. We didn't use the timer this trip but maybe next time.
The girls looked around for a bit and found some story books and movies. Then they were ready to play my game. They each took a piece of paper and a pencil and some dice (I had many different dice with many different sidedness.) I told them that they needed to roll the dice and get three numbers. Then they needed to take those numbers over to the bookshelves, read the labels at the ends of the aisles, and then read the book labels to find the number they rolled.
For instance: Miss Hazel rolled a 5 and a 2 and a 2. We went searching. We found
She was very excited about that and kept racing to find more. Her friend on the other hand rolled a 5 and a 6 and a 7. She found She wasn't as excited about the game as Miss Hazel was.The girls found some interesting books. We should have an interesting week of reading. They did get a little bummed out when they didn't find their number in the stacks. I had to explain to them that they just needed to keep rolling because sometimes the library didn't carry the book on that subject. I had to pull them away they were having so much fun. Here's a few of the books they found...
#650 #242 #565 #933 #232 #811 #944 #296Looking at these titles, I'm not sure that we'll be doing this every week. Unless we return the ones we found the week previous and got a whole new batch. I'm afraid the girls will find some really great every time we go and we'll end up with a miniature version of the public library stored at my house (not that they don't have their own library in their playroom).
I just thought it was so great getting them comfortable at the library. Showing them the abundance of information that is accessible to them. My girls LOVE learning. Especially if I can put playing in the mix as well.
I used to play this game with my hubby for our date nights. Now we're part of The Mental Fitness Challenge and a Sunday school class based on
and he's also trying to finish reading . His brain can only take so much information at a time.Feel free to take this idea and run with it. It helps to have a 12 sided dice so that you can get into the higher numbers.
Let me know how it works for you and what fun things you and your family get to learn about.
Friday, February 24, 2012
A day.
Today is an odd day. It has been a full three months of of running and chaos I have finally caught up with my life. Or at least that's how it feels. Now that I said that my life will probably get chaotic. The hubby decided to stay home for our date last night and I got caught up on a few things. Grandma borrowed my tiny Violet for the weekend (miss her something terrible today). Been a slow morning, everything happening just as it should be and no rush and bothers. Didn't feel any irritation of lack of listening. Sure did miss that this morning. So much that I had to sit down and watch Despicable Me because it's her favorite movie. It's also snowing outside and she loves to walk in the snow. Also ran into one of her best friends at school today. It's going to be a long day for me today I think, good practice for when she goes to school.
She had a successful birthday party and we counted 28 purple puppies. Her sisters even drew her some. Need to get the pictures onto my computer so that I can share them with everyone. She had the best time hugging each puppy as she opened it. Even the ones that I had pulled out of her collection and put in the bag for her to open.
It was a fun party. We did everything backwards. The hubby and I had some missed communication for the day. We ended up with a frozen 8 pound ham when the guests started to arrive. So we opened presents first, then sang happy birthday and had some cake. While that was happening my hubby was fantastically running around getting the grill prepped and burgers cooked. And the ham was ready to eat as the first guests started to leave. She loved it and it was totally memorable for us all.
She LOVES being four.
and I realized that this is totally not what I set out to write about today. I was having issues about what to share here, how much to share, and wondering is my thoughts were even worth sharing some days. So many exciting and interesting things have been happening and I ... don't know. Maybe it's time to just force myself to write every day like I used to for the UBC challenges. But then I was reading another blog yesterday and she said that she is going to be cutting back because the things she's doing in real life are more important and she is tired of having the blog feel like a job. Sounds good to me. Not sure that I am ready for a job yet. Enjoying playing with my girls right now. Did see a 365 day craft challenge yesterday. Might have to take that up with the girls. Could make that into a weekly post instead of daily.
But I have run out of time for thoughts today, need to run off and hang out in kindergarten for a while. Have a fun filled day today. I'm off to walk in the snow and enjoy the silence while missing that tiny voice.
She had a successful birthday party and we counted 28 purple puppies. Her sisters even drew her some. Need to get the pictures onto my computer so that I can share them with everyone. She had the best time hugging each puppy as she opened it. Even the ones that I had pulled out of her collection and put in the bag for her to open.
It was a fun party. We did everything backwards. The hubby and I had some missed communication for the day. We ended up with a frozen 8 pound ham when the guests started to arrive. So we opened presents first, then sang happy birthday and had some cake. While that was happening my hubby was fantastically running around getting the grill prepped and burgers cooked. And the ham was ready to eat as the first guests started to leave. She loved it and it was totally memorable for us all.
She LOVES being four.
and I realized that this is totally not what I set out to write about today. I was having issues about what to share here, how much to share, and wondering is my thoughts were even worth sharing some days. So many exciting and interesting things have been happening and I ... don't know. Maybe it's time to just force myself to write every day like I used to for the UBC challenges. But then I was reading another blog yesterday and she said that she is going to be cutting back because the things she's doing in real life are more important and she is tired of having the blog feel like a job. Sounds good to me. Not sure that I am ready for a job yet. Enjoying playing with my girls right now. Did see a 365 day craft challenge yesterday. Might have to take that up with the girls. Could make that into a weekly post instead of daily.
But I have run out of time for thoughts today, need to run off and hang out in kindergarten for a while. Have a fun filled day today. I'm off to walk in the snow and enjoy the silence while missing that tiny voice.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Lessons Learned from My girl today
The sweetest Valentine I got today was the reminder to act like a small child (minus the tempertantrums).
I'm crazily distracted this morning about the budget and paying bills and she is happily playing with the leftover Valentines that her sisters left out. I told her that it was time to get ready to go to the bank and she got SUPER excited. She told me that first she had to get Valentines picked out to give to the ladies at the bank. She picked out three and wrote her name on the back of them all by herself.
On the car ride to the bank, we're listening to a LIFE training...Like Your Life Depended On It. My Violet from the backseat gets all excited, "Mom, she's talking about David and Goliath. The giant pickle bounces and shakes the whole ground." We had just watched David and the Giant Pickle from Veggie Tales last night. Super exciting that she is connecting all the things going on around her life. Loved this training. Where else can you learn through stories about David and Goliath, Superman and Chuck Norris, and Prince?
At the bank, My Violet sneaks the first Valentine up onto the counter for our teller. The lady glows because it reminds her of the wonderful surprise that her husband gave her early for Valentines (a dozen specially dipped strawberries). My Violet tugs on my coat and asks if she can go in the office and give one to the lady behind the desk. She walks in all sweetly and hands out her second Valentine. the lady comes out and lets us know how much this Valentine really means to her today, how very sweet it is, and how it is going to stay on her desk all day long. The third Valentine, we interrupt the lady's phone conversation because Violet has something for her. These ladies have been watching my girls grow up; they love every time I bring them in to visit. My Violet hands her the Valentine, the lady amazes how big my Violet is getting, and asks for a hug from her. My Violet's excitement about handing out Valentines because she wanted to be like her sisters, made these ladies day. She filled their bucket and gave them a joy to remember for the rest of today(and maybe longer). When I told my Violet this she looked at me in shock like I was crazy. She couldn't believe that something so simple could make such a huge difference in someone's life.
These are my lessons for this morning. Pay attention to the information flowing around you. Connect the pieces of what's going on around you. The simple things can make the biggest impact on someone's life that you never thought of before it happened.
Where can you make a difference today? What can you learn from what is around you today?
I'm crazily distracted this morning about the budget and paying bills and she is happily playing with the leftover Valentines that her sisters left out. I told her that it was time to get ready to go to the bank and she got SUPER excited. She told me that first she had to get Valentines picked out to give to the ladies at the bank. She picked out three and wrote her name on the back of them all by herself.
On the car ride to the bank, we're listening to a LIFE training...Like Your Life Depended On It. My Violet from the backseat gets all excited, "Mom, she's talking about David and Goliath. The giant pickle bounces and shakes the whole ground." We had just watched David and the Giant Pickle from Veggie Tales last night. Super exciting that she is connecting all the things going on around her life. Loved this training. Where else can you learn through stories about David and Goliath, Superman and Chuck Norris, and Prince?
At the bank, My Violet sneaks the first Valentine up onto the counter for our teller. The lady glows because it reminds her of the wonderful surprise that her husband gave her early for Valentines (a dozen specially dipped strawberries). My Violet tugs on my coat and asks if she can go in the office and give one to the lady behind the desk. She walks in all sweetly and hands out her second Valentine. the lady comes out and lets us know how much this Valentine really means to her today, how very sweet it is, and how it is going to stay on her desk all day long. The third Valentine, we interrupt the lady's phone conversation because Violet has something for her. These ladies have been watching my girls grow up; they love every time I bring them in to visit. My Violet hands her the Valentine, the lady amazes how big my Violet is getting, and asks for a hug from her. My Violet's excitement about handing out Valentines because she wanted to be like her sisters, made these ladies day. She filled their bucket and gave them a joy to remember for the rest of today(and maybe longer). When I told my Violet this she looked at me in shock like I was crazy. She couldn't believe that something so simple could make such a huge difference in someone's life.
These are my lessons for this morning. Pay attention to the information flowing around you. Connect the pieces of what's going on around you. The simple things can make the biggest impact on someone's life that you never thought of before it happened.
Where can you make a difference today? What can you learn from what is around you today?
Friday, January 20, 2012
Blowing Bubbles Below Freezing
So much fun. We even had colored bubbles so that I could get some good pics of the bubbles in the snow. Last year we saw a teacher doing this on the playground. One bubble hit the blacktop and rolled for a bit before it popped and other popped and crystallized before they hit the ground.
Monday, January 16, 2012
It takes a village.
After a weekend of highs and drops (not lows, just felt like I stepped off a cliff a few times to land on a trampoline) I had the hardest morning ever. I've been writing this in my head today while walking to girls to school and back. Wasn't sure if I was going to write about it but I think there might be some lessons in here that others could appreciate.
I let the girls sleep in a little this morning after our long weekend of playing non-stop. This was probably where I went wrong to start with. But I know how much I enjoy those extra couple of minutes. Then I usually give them hugs and kisses and tickles and words of encouragement about their day and what we're all going to be doing and all of the steps that they are accomplishing while I'm getting the lazy bones out of the rest of the beds.
My Violet girl was all excited about our day today because we get to go and teach letters to the kids in my Amber girl's class. Then my Violet girl tried getting out of bed and had the start of a melt down. So I crawled over onto her bed and started getting her up and moving. I knew I was in a bad position by her feet but she normally crawls up and out of the bed. Lesson One: do not assume anything. Lesson Two: do not allow your head to get in the vicinity of anyone's feet.
Instead of pulling her feet up and crawling out the top of her bed...I saw in slow motion...that sinister giggle and sparkle in her eye, her knee came all the way up to the smile, and released the foot at my face. I instantly thought my nose was broken. Thankful my glasses weren't broken. Waited for the blood to start while the other two girls dropped into panic mode. I pat myself on the back for not cussing. Was really amazed that I didn't cuss and started wondering why not because it hurt that bad.
Once I composed myself, I jumped off the bed and finished getting myself ready for the day. I said something about how it was my own fault for putting myself in that situation and for letting them sleep in those few minutes. If I would just stick to the schedule, there wouldn't be an issue about them getting out of bed and getting ready for school. Now, on my walks today, I realized that it wasn't my fault. She saw me there. If she would have been on her belly trying to scramble away and kicked trying to get her footing, that would have been my fault. So I negative talked myself into not beating the tar out of that little girl. Lesson Three: leave any situation where you feel like you may lose control. I walked out of the room letting the girls that I was going downstairs, that they are all big enough to get ready by themselves, and that I needed to remove myself before I did something that I couldn't take back.
Sobbing the rest of the getting ready for school process. The pain and the unbelief and the reality that I can't do it all myself just caused me to lose control of my control. Make that Lesson Four: you can't do it all yourself, God made you companions for a reason.
When my Violet girl came down to eat breakfast, she said "Sorry Momma" so sweetly that all I could do was nod my head and sob uncontrollably. The rotten mom in me wondered which sister told her that she needed to apologize to me. The other two girls couldn't seem to hug me enough and kept checking to make sure I was ok and that their sister was doing what she was supposed to be doing. My Hazel girl asked me if anything ever happened like this before to me. I told her yes, when she was about 2. She hit me so hard in the face that my glasses went flying. I slapped her back and she hasn't even thought about hitting me since. Not very proud of that memory but it worked. She's the one that worries about me and my well-being the most.
Here's the interesting part that leads to the lesson on it taking a village to raise a child. I was worried about going to school today. I always run into a great friend there and we check and see how each other's kids are and how the previous night and this morning has gone. I was worried about running into her and sharing the story of my morning. Because I was afraid of change. I knew deep inside me that she was going to say something that was going to change my whole day around and I was afraid of what that change was going to be. I was also afraid that I wouldn't be able to talk and would just stand there sobbing my eyes out as she looked at me wondering who died.
It has been a morning of quiet walks today. Lots of thinking going on. We got to school and ran into my friend and she could see from down the hall that something wasn't right. I would share a picture with you of my face, but I don't even like seeing it today. I told her what happened and you could see the unbelief. It wasn't until I shared with her what my other two girls shared with me after I brought the dog in from outside this morning that I started the next lesson. My girls told me that my Violet girl didn't think it was her fault, she thought that it was my fault that she kicked me in the face. After my friend heard that she instantly said, "No" in this voice that caused the entire school to get quiet and listen. It was amazing as she informed Violet that any time she hurt someone else that she would be at fault and that she did not make a Godly choice this morning and that she had better start treating her mom a lot nicer...and many other things...I just don't have them all stored away because as she was talking, you could feel the school quieting, the energy flowing through her as she corrected this child who needed to be corrected and she was doing it through God. Then my friend wrapped her arm around me and said, "If we all walk along with her in Christ, it will all be ok." Or something like that...it was beautiful and what stuck with me was the "we all walk along with her in Christ". That lifted my day.
I came home to work on my computer and the snippet I had collect from an audio on parenting came on in my shuffle. It was about how it takes a village to raise a child. The speaker gave an example of how he would handle one of his friends children if he caught them standing on a table. How he would strongly encourage proper behavior and correct wrong behaviors in a Christ-like manner. How he would expect his friends to do the same thing for his children. Because sometimes, it just needs to come from someone else. My hubby said something along the lines of how he was glad my friend did that for me because it was someone Violet knew but could still be fearful of (in a respect aspect).
So it all clicked into place that I needed to share this story. I was so angry and this little girl that I couldn't stand to be near her. I didn't know how I would get through the day because there was no where I could drop her off and come back later when I felt better. It's probably a good thing that I couldn't because it's allowed my anger to subside. I was at a loss this morning and now I have focus and direction. I am in horrible pain and keep bumping my nose and bringing tears to my eyes. I can't wait for my hubby to get home from work to take over so that I can close my eyes. With all of the crying and getting kicked in the face, my eyes feel bruised.
I am proud of myself for how I reacted compared to how I could have reacted. But I am still at a loss of what to do about this tiny girl. She needs some form of punishment and needs to understand what she did wrong. But I don't think I have it in me to do. This is why God created companions and why we need a village to raise our children. The village isn't always those who live around us. The village is the people that affect our lives. I received prayers from a friend in Florida today after she read my post on FB (all it said was that it was going to be a long day). I'm sure there a few other friends out there praying for me right now because I don't think I would be as sane as I am right now if it weren't for their prayers.
So pray for this tiny girl and my sanity today. Praying your Monday started better than mine did.
I let the girls sleep in a little this morning after our long weekend of playing non-stop. This was probably where I went wrong to start with. But I know how much I enjoy those extra couple of minutes. Then I usually give them hugs and kisses and tickles and words of encouragement about their day and what we're all going to be doing and all of the steps that they are accomplishing while I'm getting the lazy bones out of the rest of the beds.
My Violet girl was all excited about our day today because we get to go and teach letters to the kids in my Amber girl's class. Then my Violet girl tried getting out of bed and had the start of a melt down. So I crawled over onto her bed and started getting her up and moving. I knew I was in a bad position by her feet but she normally crawls up and out of the bed. Lesson One: do not assume anything. Lesson Two: do not allow your head to get in the vicinity of anyone's feet.
Instead of pulling her feet up and crawling out the top of her bed...I saw in slow motion...that sinister giggle and sparkle in her eye, her knee came all the way up to the smile, and released the foot at my face. I instantly thought my nose was broken. Thankful my glasses weren't broken. Waited for the blood to start while the other two girls dropped into panic mode. I pat myself on the back for not cussing. Was really amazed that I didn't cuss and started wondering why not because it hurt that bad.
Once I composed myself, I jumped off the bed and finished getting myself ready for the day. I said something about how it was my own fault for putting myself in that situation and for letting them sleep in those few minutes. If I would just stick to the schedule, there wouldn't be an issue about them getting out of bed and getting ready for school. Now, on my walks today, I realized that it wasn't my fault. She saw me there. If she would have been on her belly trying to scramble away and kicked trying to get her footing, that would have been my fault. So I negative talked myself into not beating the tar out of that little girl. Lesson Three: leave any situation where you feel like you may lose control. I walked out of the room letting the girls that I was going downstairs, that they are all big enough to get ready by themselves, and that I needed to remove myself before I did something that I couldn't take back.
Sobbing the rest of the getting ready for school process. The pain and the unbelief and the reality that I can't do it all myself just caused me to lose control of my control. Make that Lesson Four: you can't do it all yourself, God made you companions for a reason.
When my Violet girl came down to eat breakfast, she said "Sorry Momma" so sweetly that all I could do was nod my head and sob uncontrollably. The rotten mom in me wondered which sister told her that she needed to apologize to me. The other two girls couldn't seem to hug me enough and kept checking to make sure I was ok and that their sister was doing what she was supposed to be doing. My Hazel girl asked me if anything ever happened like this before to me. I told her yes, when she was about 2. She hit me so hard in the face that my glasses went flying. I slapped her back and she hasn't even thought about hitting me since. Not very proud of that memory but it worked. She's the one that worries about me and my well-being the most.
Here's the interesting part that leads to the lesson on it taking a village to raise a child. I was worried about going to school today. I always run into a great friend there and we check and see how each other's kids are and how the previous night and this morning has gone. I was worried about running into her and sharing the story of my morning. Because I was afraid of change. I knew deep inside me that she was going to say something that was going to change my whole day around and I was afraid of what that change was going to be. I was also afraid that I wouldn't be able to talk and would just stand there sobbing my eyes out as she looked at me wondering who died.
It has been a morning of quiet walks today. Lots of thinking going on. We got to school and ran into my friend and she could see from down the hall that something wasn't right. I would share a picture with you of my face, but I don't even like seeing it today. I told her what happened and you could see the unbelief. It wasn't until I shared with her what my other two girls shared with me after I brought the dog in from outside this morning that I started the next lesson. My girls told me that my Violet girl didn't think it was her fault, she thought that it was my fault that she kicked me in the face. After my friend heard that she instantly said, "No" in this voice that caused the entire school to get quiet and listen. It was amazing as she informed Violet that any time she hurt someone else that she would be at fault and that she did not make a Godly choice this morning and that she had better start treating her mom a lot nicer...and many other things...I just don't have them all stored away because as she was talking, you could feel the school quieting, the energy flowing through her as she corrected this child who needed to be corrected and she was doing it through God. Then my friend wrapped her arm around me and said, "If we all walk along with her in Christ, it will all be ok." Or something like that...it was beautiful and what stuck with me was the "we all walk along with her in Christ". That lifted my day.
I came home to work on my computer and the snippet I had collect from an audio on parenting came on in my shuffle. It was about how it takes a village to raise a child. The speaker gave an example of how he would handle one of his friends children if he caught them standing on a table. How he would strongly encourage proper behavior and correct wrong behaviors in a Christ-like manner. How he would expect his friends to do the same thing for his children. Because sometimes, it just needs to come from someone else. My hubby said something along the lines of how he was glad my friend did that for me because it was someone Violet knew but could still be fearful of (in a respect aspect).
So it all clicked into place that I needed to share this story. I was so angry and this little girl that I couldn't stand to be near her. I didn't know how I would get through the day because there was no where I could drop her off and come back later when I felt better. It's probably a good thing that I couldn't because it's allowed my anger to subside. I was at a loss this morning and now I have focus and direction. I am in horrible pain and keep bumping my nose and bringing tears to my eyes. I can't wait for my hubby to get home from work to take over so that I can close my eyes. With all of the crying and getting kicked in the face, my eyes feel bruised.
I am proud of myself for how I reacted compared to how I could have reacted. But I am still at a loss of what to do about this tiny girl. She needs some form of punishment and needs to understand what she did wrong. But I don't think I have it in me to do. This is why God created companions and why we need a village to raise our children. The village isn't always those who live around us. The village is the people that affect our lives. I received prayers from a friend in Florida today after she read my post on FB (all it said was that it was going to be a long day). I'm sure there a few other friends out there praying for me right now because I don't think I would be as sane as I am right now if it weren't for their prayers.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Monday, December 5, 2011
Meet Me Monday - St Nick Comes Tonight
Truth About Santa Claus by James Giblin
Love this book. Spent all morning trying to remember the actual title. Which meant looking through my notes (not there or there or there) and then going to the library website (non-fiction Christmas) and then I popped over to Amazon to see if they carried it and had a picture of the book cover (no luck). I have requested it from the library and will scan the cover once it's in my possession.
I found this book two years ago while searching for a good book to explain to my hubby why I celebrate St Nicholas and Santa Claus. I celebrate St Nicholas because he was a real man who lived his life to help those in need. If we had more people in this world like him, we would be getting better instead of worse. I understand that Santa is the embodiment of St Nicholas placed on Christmas for those who don't want to celebrate the birth of Christ. I wanted to celebrate St Nicholas and then have limited presents on Christmas day to celebrate the gifts given to Jesus for his birth. The hubby didn't follow my thinking and with how shy my girls are, placing them out there with no Santa like most of the population just seemed cruel to me.
I found this book and read it for myself and then shared it with my girls. I think I've tried telling 5 people about this book so far this year and decided that I just needed to post about it and then I could share it with everyone. I really enjoyed how the author shared the facts as well as the legends that have grown over the years.
Tonight St Nicholas comes to all the houses and fills the stockings with goodies. This year I had the girls write their letters to Santa and place them in their stockings for St Nicholas to collect. The hubby had to speak up and wonder how St Nicholas would get the letters to Santa..."by email" was his response. Grrrr....why can't he just understand and not cause issues?
So the stockings are hung by the bar with care...but the fireplace isn't finished yet. (Put that on my list of things I need to share...hubby's handiwork.)
Not sure what St Nicholas will leave this year. I got some movies that the girls have been talking about and I got some juicy oranges. Gotta go dig through my bins to see what else little I have for them.
Praying that St Nicholas brings you the answers to your greatest need this holiday and that your stocking is overflowing.
Do you celebrate St Nicholas or Santa Claus or both?
Love this book. Spent all morning trying to remember the actual title. Which meant looking through my notes (not there or there or there) and then going to the library website (non-fiction Christmas) and then I popped over to Amazon to see if they carried it and had a picture of the book cover (no luck). I have requested it from the library and will scan the cover once it's in my possession.
I found this book two years ago while searching for a good book to explain to my hubby why I celebrate St Nicholas and Santa Claus. I celebrate St Nicholas because he was a real man who lived his life to help those in need. If we had more people in this world like him, we would be getting better instead of worse. I understand that Santa is the embodiment of St Nicholas placed on Christmas for those who don't want to celebrate the birth of Christ. I wanted to celebrate St Nicholas and then have limited presents on Christmas day to celebrate the gifts given to Jesus for his birth. The hubby didn't follow my thinking and with how shy my girls are, placing them out there with no Santa like most of the population just seemed cruel to me.
I found this book and read it for myself and then shared it with my girls. I think I've tried telling 5 people about this book so far this year and decided that I just needed to post about it and then I could share it with everyone. I really enjoyed how the author shared the facts as well as the legends that have grown over the years.
Tonight St Nicholas comes to all the houses and fills the stockings with goodies. This year I had the girls write their letters to Santa and place them in their stockings for St Nicholas to collect. The hubby had to speak up and wonder how St Nicholas would get the letters to Santa..."by email" was his response. Grrrr....why can't he just understand and not cause issues?
So the stockings are hung by the bar with care...but the fireplace isn't finished yet. (Put that on my list of things I need to share...hubby's handiwork.)
Not sure what St Nicholas will leave this year. I got some movies that the girls have been talking about and I got some juicy oranges. Gotta go dig through my bins to see what else little I have for them.
Praying that St Nicholas brings you the answers to your greatest need this holiday and that your stocking is overflowing.
Do you celebrate St Nicholas or Santa Claus or both?
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Recycled Project - Advent Calendar
I loved advent calendars growing up. Raised in a Catholic family we did the advent calendars, lit the advent wreath, and had St Nick come to visit. I am trying to keep some of those traditions alive for my kids. Since today is the first of December, I thought I would share my advent calendar with you.
It has morphed to this as my kids have grown. The first year was little toys wrapped in paper and tucked into an old popcorn tin. A new little toy every day. Then I stuck the toys into old socks because wrapping 50 little toys was just too much for me. Then I decided to put little candies in Easter eggs and tucked them into the same original tin. 75 eggs was easier than 75 toys every year.
This year, I looked at my stack of recyclables and decided to do something with them for advent instead of the usual. Still stuck with the candy idea instead of toys. Almost went to the picture idea because we've been having issues with sneaking candy. May need to work on that idea for next year.
First I tore off the top of 6 egg cartons and painted them while the girls did random art projects of their own. Thought I had pictures of the painting part, guess I was having too much fun. Then I glued two bottoms together to make a set. Was going to try and make it closeable but then all the candy would fall out of the top half. Eh...the girls will love it this way as well.
Then I spent last night tracing a plastic egg to make 72 circles to cover each pocket full of candy. Cut them all out and put them somewhere safe until this morning. (Yes, did this last part all before 5am and washed the floors and did the dishes.)
I chose for our selection some mint chocolate M&Ms, some mint truffle kisses, mini Tootsie Pop Drops, and mini Blow Pops. I was just going to do the chocolate mint but then I saw the Tootsies and the Blow Pops and knew the girls would enjoy those as well.
It has morphed to this as my kids have grown. The first year was little toys wrapped in paper and tucked into an old popcorn tin. A new little toy every day. Then I stuck the toys into old socks because wrapping 50 little toys was just too much for me. Then I decided to put little candies in Easter eggs and tucked them into the same original tin. 75 eggs was easier than 75 toys every year.
This year, I looked at my stack of recyclables and decided to do something with them for advent instead of the usual. Still stuck with the candy idea instead of toys. Almost went to the picture idea because we've been having issues with sneaking candy. May need to work on that idea for next year.
First I tore off the top of 6 egg cartons and painted them while the girls did random art projects of their own. Thought I had pictures of the painting part, guess I was having too much fun. Then I glued two bottoms together to make a set. Was going to try and make it closeable but then all the candy would fall out of the top half. Eh...the girls will love it this way as well.
Then I spent last night tracing a plastic egg to make 72 circles to cover each pocket full of candy. Cut them all out and put them somewhere safe until this morning. (Yes, did this last part all before 5am and washed the floors and did the dishes.)
I chose for our selection some mint chocolate M&Ms, some mint truffle kisses, mini Tootsie Pop Drops, and mini Blow Pops. I was just going to do the chocolate mint but then I saw the Tootsies and the Blow Pops and knew the girls would enjoy those as well.
And this is how they wait on my counter for the girls to wake up. Which the alarm has just rang for me to go and do. Another filled day awaits...but I so need a nap. Glad today is Thursday and I know the day will end with the hubby taking me out for our weekly date. Wonder where it will be tonight.
I also wonder how many of you celebrate Advent and if you do calendars. Would love to see them.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Recycled Projects - Angry Birds
ItDecided to break down and let the girls take a shot at Angry Birds. They always want to play a game on my computer and most of the ones that they ask to play have timers and the girls don't want to have to race the clock.
These girls are amazing at this game. The figured out the physics of it without me having to explain it to them. I don't even know if I showed them how to play before they took off with it.
With all of the Christmas adds coming out we started spying the physical, at home versions.
I just know my girls and these games would play for a limited time and then they would get shelved.
While we were at the store the other day, we spied some Angry Bird stickers. I got the typical, "Mom, can I please?!" I asked if she would play a game with them and she told me yes. I knew that if I didn't get the qualifier before we bought them, that they would become another thing collected in her stuff.
It turned out to be a good time. A board is in the works. So far the game is playing like old-fashioned marbles. That is alright by me.
These girls are amazing at this game. The figured out the physics of it without me having to explain it to them. I don't even know if I showed them how to play before they took off with it.
With all of the Christmas adds coming out we started spying the physical, at home versions.
I just know my girls and these games would play for a limited time and then they would get shelved.
While we were at the store the other day, we spied some Angry Bird stickers. I got the typical, "Mom, can I please?!" I asked if she would play a game with them and she told me yes. I knew that if I didn't get the qualifier before we bought them, that they would become another thing collected in her stuff.
We pulled out the milk caps and started sticking.
Then we started playing and coming up with some rules to the game.
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