messy

I know that the old saying goes "you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar." But I am leaning towards a different saying...

You can paint a turd, but it's still a turd.

Eleven years ago

I found this old entry I wrote when Janie was about 9 months old... Over eleven years ago!!!

10.12.2004 @ 10:57 am

everyday



janie is growing more and more curious every day. she can even stand up by herself now! well, maybe that isn't exactly correct... i have to stand her up, but she can stand there once someone else stands her up. understand?

she is also getting closer and closer to standing on her own literally. she will pull up to her knees. or she will put her hands down in front of her and straighten out her legs so that she is bent in an upside down "v". i keep worrying that she is going to topple over head first, but as far as i know, that has yet to happen.

she is getting more and more beautiful everyday.

Apparently I had an aversion to using any capital letters when I was blogging back then.  It is so very strange to look back at entries from my old blog. It goes from 2004 to this year. Thorough the births of 2 children and two marriages. Through 2 c-sections (one very uneventful and another almost too eventful). Through 3 different jobs and a hundred different friends.

There are so many things that are different, but yet so many things are the same... It doesn't make me sad to read through my old entries, but it does make me feel as though I have grown. Grown as a teacher, as a wife and especially as a mother. It has a been an amazing journey so far and I can't wait to see where it goes next!!

Baking

The absolute best thing you can do for your children is to teach them to do for themselves and to do for others. My mom and grandmother did absolutely everything for me. I didn't have to cook or anything. It was great! Or so I thought... Now I look back wishing I had hung out in the kitchen with my mom and grandmothers more or had someone to teach me things like running a tractor, or even cutting the grass. I started really cooking when I was out of college. I still haven't cut the grass (I'm pretty cool about that one actually). My point is that I had no idea how to do anything other than clean (my mom never minded making me clean lol) I didn't have anyone outside teaching me to plant flowers, shoot a gun, back a trailer, run a tractor. I did learn how to change my oil and even change a tire (thanks Daddy!). I remember getting two job offers when I graduated from college and I couldn't decide which one to take. I actually asked my parents which one would be the best. And that's the one I took.

I now realize I am doing Janie the same disservice I encountered as a child. She asks me for everything. She rarely makes a decision without my input (whether she has asked for my opinion or not, I am usually more than happy to voice it for her...)

So what do I do now? I can't teach her to cook. I don't know how to cook myself! I can follow a recipe, but anyone that can read and understands measurements can do that.

Maybe that's where I start.

Looks like Janie and I need to pick out some things to cook.

BAKING!

I LOVE baking!

Cookies, cakes, pies, ALL of them!

10 things that make me happy

I found a list for a 30 Day Writing Challenge online, and I am going to try to do it over the next month, starting today.

1. Hearing my son's laugh.
2. Hearing my daughter's laugh.
3. Hearing my children play together.
4. My camera.
5. The smell of the air in autumn.
6. The coolness of the weather and the low humidity in autumn.
7. Netflix.
8. An ice cold Diet Dr. Pepper.
9. Putting on a pair of jeans that used to be too small.
10. The sound of the school bell ringing.

That last one is odd, I know. It doesn't matter what time of day, I love to hear the school bell. In the morning I love to hear it because it means my day is about to start and I will get to see my students. In the afternoon (specifically at 3 o'clock) I love to hear it because it means I will get to see my Janie and my Si very soon.

and again...

Seriously... Dealing with this AGAIN this year... My poor child is doomed to be stuck with those kids until she graduates... Or we move...

I wrote a letter to the superintendent a few years back explaining the horrors of having to deal with them in a classroom all day long (since they didn't change classes then) and we got a reprieve last year. It was nice not to have to worry about a student hitting her or spitting on her. With the other issues we had last year, I probably would have had a nervous break down.

I firmly believe that the rights of special education students surpass the rights of regular education and gifted students in the classroom. Which is no politically correct to say, especially since I am in education.

But it is the truth.

And sometimes the truth hurts.

love & marriage

I will never forget how a wonderful woman once told me how absolutely in-love she was with her husband. She was probably in her early 60s then. She said that her children and grandchildren were merely pluses added to her already wonderful life.

http://qz.com/273255/how-american-parenting-is-killing-the-american-marriage/