Couldn't Have Said It Better. . . .

This is a great article that explains how I feel about public school.  Please read it.  I'd print it here if I didn't think it was nigh unto plagiarism to do so.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705389548/Why-schools-need-our-kids.html

Not sure why it's not hyperlinking.  Still learning curve on the mac.

Introducing. . . Maggie.

Maggie needed to do a digital collage for her class.  I thought I'd Share it with you.

Life Stages

You should check out the "What Stage Are You In" Post from the Power of moms.  It breaks down child-rearing/School Volunteering stages into several categories.  This article is right on the money.  I am definitely in an in-between stage.  When I had many young children at home I volunteered a lot more at the school than I do now.  Now they are spread out at 4 different schools AND I have a challenging toddler at home.  I find myself doing much less volunteering than I ever have and only have 1 baby at home instead of three. I do so little because the idea of taking Ben anywhere where he might need to stay quiet for a few minutes is repugnant.  His speech delays necessitate a lot of screaming and repeated phrasing, so I can't take him anywhere.  It makes a convenient excuse to say no, but part of me feels bad.  I LIKE helping out.  I LIKE being at the school.  I miss knowing all the moms and everything that's going on.

BUT, I wouldn't want to go back.
Yesterday I babysat two little angel girls ages 3 and 1 1/2.  They were angels and I was about to tear my hair out from "Help me" and "Down" and a million other changes.  I don't know HOW I ever did that. 

HAPPY DANCES!

Coming up in 4! days I will be sending Nathan off to that incredible land known as First Grade.  This monumental occurrence is grounds for that elusive, but oh-so-exhilarating rite-- THE HAPPY DANCE!!!!!  Ben will still be at home with me all day, but it's amazing how much easier one is than two.  He's my gym buddy.  And he naps.  Booooo Yah!!!.  If I seem to be belaboring the occasion,
I apologize.  It's a day 15 years in the making.  I have not had only one child at home during the day for that long.  Incredible!!!. Wow.  A lot of exclamation points in this post.  Happy Dance! Happy Dance! Happy Dance!

Sleepovers: Our View

I'm reprinting something I found today after much discussion from child #3 about our family rule of not having sleepovers except with cousins.  We are not the only family in the neighborhood with this rule, but still he pushes.  It has ALWAYS been the rule, but I thought this was a pretty funny article.

For the first time we know of in general conference the subject was mentioned, by Elder Lawrence of the Seventy in October 2010.  He said:
“May I express my personal warning about a practice that is common in many cultures. I am referring to sleepovers, or spending the night at the home of a friend. As a bishop I discovered that too many youth violated the Word of Wisdom or the law of chastity for the first time as part of a sleepover. Too often their first exposure to pornography and even their first encounter with the police occurred when they were spending the night away from home.

Peer pressure becomes more powerful when our children are away from our influence and when their defenses are weakened late at night. If you have ever felt uneasy about an overnight activity, don’t be afraid to respond to that warning voice inside. Always be prayerful when it comes to protecting your precious children.”

Letter to my Child's friends and parents:

Dear ________ (friend’s name),
My daughter has made it VERY clear that she is NOT happy with our family policy of not having sleepovers at any of our friends’ house (“worst parents ever” were her exact words).  So that you understand that this is nothing personal (in other words, she likes you very, very, much, and so do we), here is WHY we don’t allow our children to have sleepovers at friends’ houses when it isn’t necessary:
1.       We make the rules for our family, and we are very, very cool.
2.       We like to inflict unnecessary torture and pain on our children, and make their lives miserable for no reason.
3.       We don’t want our kids to have any friends.  Especially not nice friends like you.
4.       We understand that if our daughter doesn’t attend this sleepover that her life will forever be ruined, and she will never, ever, ever have another friend.  That is exactly what we want to happen.
5.       During those 8 hours you are asleep, we understand that you will find a cure for cancer, solve world hunger, discover the lost city of Atlantis, and provide democracy to China.  We don’t want our daughter to be a part of ANY of that.
6.       Our kids love us sooooooo much that they cannot stand the thought of being away from us for one night.  We would not want them to have such a miserable experience with their friends (we must shield them and keep them in a bubble!).
7.       We do everything just because everyone else does them and because they are culturally acceptable to do so.  If everyone else was just doing sleepovers, then we would change what we do and be like everyone else, because that is the best way to live our lives! We so bad want our kids to understand that we change our standards for every exception that comes along the way!
8.       We know that kids are always on their very, very best behavior late at night away from home when adults are asleep (especially as they become teenagers).  We would love to establish a repeated pattern of our kids spending the night with their friends so that when they are teenagers it is a common practice and they can act their very best in the wonderful environment that repeated sleepovers provide!  It is when they are at home that they are wicked, wicked little monkeys.  We want them to stay at home so we can keep our eye on them because we don’t trust them at all.
Thanks for being so understanding of our family rules!
With love,
Your friend’s dad"

The Time Value of . . . Time!

I am sitting at my desk covered in dried mud. On Saturday my Father in Law brought over his backhoe to dig out the area for a retaining wall that needs to be completed for our pool construction to begin. Let me say at the outset that I am so thrilled and grateful for his help. He is wonderful. In doing so, however, as is so often the case with big projects, we hit a snafu.  We pulled out a water line-- the water line, in fact, that regulates all of my upstairs sprinklers. Did I mention it's August and eggs fry on the sidewalk here. No really. It's kind of hot.

ANyway, the grass is in SERIOUS danger of Dying so we have been trying for days to get this thing fixed, but we also have Tennis practice, piano lessons, swimming lessons-- so the job (mine now, ya know cause hubs is at work)gets done in the late afternoon in the hottest part of the day.

Each day I complete what I believe is the final portion. AND each day something else turns up wrong. Today, beyond frustrated with the mud and dirt and sweat and heat and after many calls to my sprinkler guy, I finally decided that there's a reason I went to law school-- Because I never would have made a great landscape engineer. I'm going to go shower and wash my hands of the ENTIRE mess all Pontius Pilate-like And hope it rains cause my sprinklers still don't work.

This is just a stock photo, but this is representative of the chaos and despair outside my home.

Meanwhile-- the house is trashed, the baby is walking around in a diaper outside all white trashy and I am Uber Frazzlemommy!  Mwahhhhahhhhahhh!
Moral of the Story:  Don't spend 12 hours doing yourself what you can pay someone else to do in 3. 
p.s. Sprinkler man will be by tomorrow after work (insurance sales) if he doesn't have the flu.  Score One for Passing the buck-- and a little bit of cash.  So worth it!