Simply Stacy

This looks familiar

A little too familiar.  Gustav is looking a lot like Hurricane Katrina and that is not good.  As much as I have tried to block out the memory of Katrina, it still lingers.  If I had to say it in one word...it would be hot, no wait, scary, no make that miserable.  Oh I have never been good at that one word thing.  I just remember it being a mind blowing experience to watch pine trees almost touch the ground with gusts of winds above 100 MPH.  It was unreal the amount of damage that it did in our area and we are 100 miles north of New Orleans.  

If you had asked me on August 28th, 2005 what modern convenience I would rather do without, I would have said electricity.  By September 1 that answer changed to water.  It was horrible to be that hot and not have water to freely use for bathing, flushing toilets, washing hands, etc.  The boys were five and three and we could not wash their hands inside.  We took them to the river to bath because it was cool and they were happier there.  We all were.  But then our feet were covered with sand and no where to wash them.  We just had to wait for them to dry good enough to towel them off.  Gross, I tell you. 

I am really not wanting to go back through all of this.  And that is not mentioning that I am having to make my way to Jackson to work during all of this.  (I am at work now. The traffic was unreal and the mandatory evacuations do not start until tomorrow.)  I am just praying that God will keep everyone safe and that maybe he could see fit to spare the water pumps on the East Pike Water Building.  I would give them my electricity if would mean that I could have water!    

 

Britt

Tonight's conversation at the dinner table:

Me: How was school?

Britt: Fine.  (His usual...no details)

Charlie: Good.  (starts telling me about his day in detail) 

At some point in Charlie's description of his day Britt interupts with

B: What are you sayin', Willis? 

Followed by laughter from Mom and Dad. 

It's the little things that I cherish the most sometimes!  Have a great weekend.  Keep praying for Gustav to die out! 

True colors...

I know I have said it so many times before but Britt and Charlie could not be any more different.  This has been made even more clear to me in the past few weeks.  Charlie absolutely positively loves school...homework and all.  He was so excited to actually have a page of homework last night.  He rushed in and got right to it.  Britt, well, you know.  He was not so excited, but in his defense he has done much better this week.

Let me give you an example.  Since the beginning of school I have been laying their clothes out the night before since I am not there in the mornings.  I usually not that organized but I shudder to think of the clothes that they will wear to school if I didn't.  I have been doing this for a couple of weeks now I guess you could say we have gotten into a little routine.  I put Charlie's on the side by his bed and Britt's on the side by his bed. 

I was laying them out last night and was running late.  I couldn't find a yellow shirt for Charlie to wear.  So when I finally found one, I just laid the clothes down and went to get ready.  Charlie came in the living room a few minutes later with a serious look on his face.

When we asked him what was wrong and he said that he couldn't sleep with his clothes on the wrong side.  Can you pass down OCD?  Apparently so!

Speaking of wearing colors.....check this out.  It is not just LSU but all college teams!  Cool Huh?

 

Britt's Dirty Jobs Party

I cannot believe that my little boy is eight.  I know it has been said so many times that it goes by so fast, but there has never been a more true statement.  It seems like yesterday that we brought him home from the hospital not knowing what to do with him.  Now we are old pros at the day to day stuff, meal times, laundry, etc.  However, I don't know if you ever get comfortable with how you are doing as a parent.  Maybe that is how is it supposed to be, so that you don't let you guard down.  So that you think and rethink the choices you make on their behalf.  I know that I will not be a perfect parent, no one is.  But I pray everyday for the wisdom to give them what they need to be healthy, happy men of God when they are no longer with me.  (I also pray for the patience to deal with them...see the previous post on homework)   I just hope that the things we do for them and with them are enough to show them a fraction of the love that I feel for them.  I never thought I could love him more than the when I first saw him, but I was wrong.  That love grows more everyday.  As I watch him grow more independent, I pray that he knows Mom and Dad will always be here for him.  To let him soar as high as he can, but to be there waiting to catch him should he fall.

 

Britt is my child who is not "into" anything.  He will watch movies etc. but he never has pretended to be the superheros.  When Cars came out, Charlie collected every one he could get his hands on.  Britt, just didn't seem interested.  Transformers, same story.  So when it comes to birthday parties, he is my challenge in finding some theme for his parties.  This year I was thinking about what he is into and all I could come up with was hunting and fishing...we've done that.  Then I went to what does he watch on TV.  Well, documentaries don't lend themselves well to eight year old birthday parties.  Then it hit me...why not a Dirty Jobs party?  I asked him and he thought it was a great idea. 

So, the first picture here is where we made homemade slime the night before to put in the goodie bags.  They had a blast making it and I must say it was pretty fun to play with the gross stuff.  Although I may have green dots on my table for life after the food coloring mishap.  It will just remind me of a fun night with my boys.

The next day we went down to the river and started setting up for the party.  Britt and Charlie were so good all day while we were getting everything together.  Here they are doing a trial run at the worm bucket.

We decided since they would be so messy after participating in the activities that it would be best to serve the cake before the "dirty jobs."  Britt was so excited when I gave him his own Dirty Jobs t-shirt to wear to his party. 

Here he is with the 11 other kids opening presents.  He always amazes me how polite he can be when other people are involved.  Now if I can just get him to be that nice at home.

The first dirty job was to dig worms in the worm bucket. They went two at a time and had 30 seconds to get as many worms as they could find.  We put almost 100 worms in there.  It was lots of fun to watch them get grossed out but keep digging.  Charlie ended up with the most worms.  He was so proud to beat his big brother and all of the other big kids.

Then it was off to the mud pit.  We tied string accross the pit for them to crawl under but they were not belly crawling like we thought they would do.  They finished with hardly any mud on them.  Jack Kelly was the fastest one through the mud.

Then we took the strings down and told them to have at it.  They started off kinda slow but before it was over, it looked like a nasty political campaign there was so much mud slinging. As you can see from the picture I was not immune to the mud pit.  They got me with it and I couldn't stand by and let them get away with it.  I did a little slinging of my own.

They raced to the river, a little challenge they came up with on their own, to wash off.  You could only see the whites of their eyes on most of them.

The last dirty job was to find golf balls in the slime on the river.  Because of the rain there was only one section that still had slime on it and it was pretty nasty.  But they didn't even check up when I told them to go.  They found all of the golf balls in record time.

Then it was time to relax and swim in the river.  They all got in and cooled off.  A few revisited the mud pit and the worm bucket.  It was a fun day!

I had to include this one because I thought these were so cool. Morgan gave Britt some stilts for his birthday.  These just show how much times have changed even from when we were kids.  Pat and I both had stilts but they looked nothing like this.  They were the old fashion wooden kind.  Oh to be a kid again and get to play with all those cool toys. 

Now playing Left Field...

Too much time on the road means too much time thinking usually.  Although, occasionally it can mean too much coffee and/or too much food.  Being that I commute 3 hours a day (that's round trip), there always seems to be too much time on the road. 

To be quite honest I get some really good thinking done usually.  From praying to God, thinking about where I am going in life, about how I can be a better mother/wife to what's for dinner and the endless to do list, and the random I wonder if... 

This last category tends to take over when I am really tired.  I start down a sensible path and end up way out in left field and no one is there to reel me back in.  So sometimes I just hang out there awhile. 

Take for instance this morning.  I started off with a prayer and ended up stopped on the exit ramp looking at a guy with a sign like this:

Now, I know what you are thinking...she started with prayer, she is going to help him.  Nope, you couldn't be farther from what happened.  I am scared of scary looking, homeless guys on the side of the interstate much less when they are four feet from your car when you are sitting still at the stop sign. 

Now before I go any farther, I do help the homeless just not directly.  I give to our community pantry and I donate clothes for a shelter in Jackson.  I also give to a homeless veteran fund at the VA where I work.  I just don't think that it is smart for a woman by herself to try and help directly.  Not in these crazy times.

So I am looking at this man's sign, which isn't the one above, but is well written like it, and I am thinking...where did he get the marker to write that sign?  I am an educated woman with a good income who can never find a Sharpie when I need one.  I have to use them at work, and still they are never around when I need one.  But the homeless guy on the corner found one?  Do they issue people Sharpies when they come to repossess their houses?  Sorry your homeless, here go make a sign.

These are the kinds of things that ramble around in my head.  It is not often that I share them because quite frankly, I am scared that if the wrong people were to find out how left field my thinking is at times, they would consider me to be a candidate for the psych ward.  Not that I haven't been there...but that's a story for another day.

Every five years or so...

I look back on my life and I have a good laugh.  That is one of my favorite lyrics (written by Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls).  There are times in life where you feel the shift take place.  Both boys going off to school was it for me this time.  I no longer have toddlers.  It's official now; no more denying it. 

I sat down last night before I left for work and updated the calendar.  It had gotten to be too much for Pat and I to keep up with in our heads and too many separate sheets of paper to fit on the refrigerator.  So the calendar was updated with all of the soccer practices, soccer games, school parties, boy scouts, birthday parties, and what ever else landed on there.  It seems really busy.  Too busy.  But I remember a time when I sat in my living room holding my newborn child, envious of a friend who was talking about all of her children's commitments...see the above list for examples.  I couldn't wait to get there.  Now that I am here how does that feel?  Hectic?  Yes.  Fun?  Yes.  Right where I want to be?  Yes.

But I do miss the days where we just sat on the back porch watching them play in the backyard.  No homework, no activities to attend.  Just our little family.  We still have those days and we make it a point to do it as much as possible.  I realize that it will only get busier and busier.  But who says you have to be at home to spend time together...Wendy's has tables right?  (Don't freak out..that's not the only time we sit down together to eat.)

So I guess it is a good time to look back on preschool years of my boys' lives and reflect.  Here's some of what I have learned from them so far: 

1. You cannot get silly string off of vinyl siding once it has dried.

2. No matter how hard you try not to laugh, you will at least smile at their wrong doings if it is cute enough.

3. They will use the above smile against you in the long run.

4. If there is a mud puddle within walking distance, they are in it. No matter what you say.

5. Wounds heal and blood comes out of clothes.

6. A child crying doesn't bother you, but YOUR child crying can make you certifiably crazy.

7. Hearing your child sing Twinkle Twinkle over a baby monitor is much more charming at 1 PM than at 1 AM.

8. Sometimes the only veggie you can squeeze into a day is ketchup and that is okay.

9. Not over reacting when they fall as toddlers is not a natural response, it is learned.

10. Getting little boys to help with chores is more about challenging than asking.  For example, oh no honey these grocery bags are much too heavy for you...

11.  But more than anything I have learned that being a mom is the hardest, yet greatest thing I have ever done.  I love it!

Homework

 

It is not a shock to me that in the second grade a student, let's call him Britt, will have homework.  Afterall, we have had homework at North Pike since K-5.  However, the shocking thing is that said homework is "Soooo HAAAARRDD!!!!"  according to the aforementioned student.

Britt has hated school since he started two years ago.  Well, hated may be a strong word...really disliked.  He asked me the first week of his K-5 year how many more days.  To which I replied well, til next summer.  He then said, "No how many more days til I am FINISHED with school?"  Meaning done, graduated, no more teachers no more books...finished!  That was when I realized that it was going to be a LONG thirteen years with this one.

He is so smart that at first we thought he was just bored.  Then we thought maybe he just hated being inside...which I still hold as some of the reason he doesn't like it.  But this year I have come to the realization that he is just down right L A Z Y. 

He doesn't mind school this year.  He actually has uttered the words, "I like second grade."  My response was to hold my breath and make sure that if it was a dream I didn't wake up.  However, the homework situation has not changed.

He still hates it.  I know it has only been a little over a week, but they did give them homework the first day.  I have been at my wits end more than once with him.  Why you ask?  Well, he whines and moans and cries and does anything he can to try to get out of it.  When in actuality he is just prolonging both of our suffering.  I have tried everything I can think of to get him motivated.  Nothing so far has worked.

Monday of this week it was raining and he had one assignment...write his spelling words (15 of them) two times each.  I thought well this can be a test because he is not missing going outside and I don't have to help him read the instructions, etc.  Let's just see how long it will take him to write 30 words that, may I remind you, he has printed on a sheet in front of him without me continually telling him to do it.  The results of this little experiment?  It takes a non-motivated second grader one hour and forty five minutes to write thirty words.  To say it another way...that's 3.5 minutes per word.  Whoa Nelly that's a lot of time!  And that is not the worst of it.  That is one of the things he does pretty well.  The reading is the killer for us. 

Now I say all of this to say this...I keep hoping that I will find the magic cure for this problem.  That I will stumble upon the one thing that will motivate him to just get it over with and be done with it.  I have tried reasoning with him.  Along the lines of the faster you do your homework the more time you will have to play.  I have tried spanking him...yes we spank our children.  I won't go into it now, but I believe that is the right thing for them at times.  I do not want to reward him for doing something that I believe is his responsibility so no bribing is allowed.  Nothing so far has worked. 

 

Until yesterday.  The Lewis' are still in Jackson so Alleigh and Rusten have been staying with different people while they attend to Heidi.  Well, today Pat picked Rusten up and Alleigh rode the bus home with Britt and Charlie.  They were so excited to have some play time together.  They came in and got their snacks.  Well, I have established this rule at the beginning of the year...no playing until homework is done.  Britt was the only one who had homework and when I realized that I thought that would just be fuel for the fire.  I told Britt to bring me his bag and he went and got it without fussing.  He started telling me about his textbooks at school.  A stall tactic for sure. 

To my surprise.  He opened to the story he was supposed to read and he looked at me to see if I was listening.  He fussed one time about how he didn't like it and began reading.  He read the entire story in fifteen minutes even with the distractions coming from their room.  Amazing.

So what now?  Tonight when Alleigh and Rusten aren't there for motivation, he better still be able to knock out some homework.  Or else Mama isn't gonna be happy.  And everybody knows, If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!

Sassy Scrappers

 

It seems like forever since we last met.  I am looking forward to Friday night!  I wanted to give you a little preview of our layout for this month.  It is very adaptable so if you will be able to do your own thing this month, but here is my layout.  I went with three pictures, all of churches that mean something to me.  I am going to ask you to journal on this layout so you may want to start thinking about what you would like to say about the pictures that you bring.  We are going to be doing some stamping this time as well.  Don't forget that we are staying afterward to work on our own projects but childcare is not provided for that.  So plan to hang around for awhile and talk with us even if you don't have anything to work on.  Or bring your projects and actually get something done.  It usually is a little of both.  See you Friday night. 

Update on Heidi

She tolerated the surgery well.  She has only about 20% of her small intestines left but they were able to reconnect everything without having to do a colostomy bag.  The Lewis' have a long road ahead of her but they are really happy with her prognosis.  There is something about almost losing a child that will make you face anything you have to face, as long as you still can see her face. 

Please continue to pray for them. 

Prayers for Heidi

Our friends, Amanda and Clint Lewis' little ten month old girl, Heidi, is in PICU in the Blair E Batson Children's Hospital in Jackson.  She had her first surgery when she was only 3 days old to fix a blockage in her intestines.  She has been doing really well until this past Thursday.  She began vomiting and was taken to the ER in Brookhaven.  They air lifted her to Jackson.  She was taken into surgery Friday morning and she was found to have another blockage.  She lost most of her small intestine.  She did not tolerate the surgery very well and they ended up having to stop before they began reattaching the intestines. She has been sedated all weekend just allowing her heart time to rest.  She is scheduled for surgery again on Monday to try and finish the repairs. Please pray for all involved.