Insert Witty Title Here---------->

You all know (their picture is at the top of this page!) that I have 4 kids, a husband, animals, etc. I won't go through the obligatory "I'm so busy!" excuses to say I've been busy.

It is now 1:30 a.m. Sunday morning.  I should be asleep but it is far too hot but I'm not going to complain as this summer has been fairly mild. So mild in fact, that we haven't put in our window air conditioners. For the reasons they haven't been needed and to see if it made a difference in our utility bill. It did not make a difference as we've all been taking more showers to compensate for being over heated. And, the a/c would have felt nice today.

School will start shortly and I have mixed feelings. Because 2 of my children are home schooled, I don't have the luxury of looking forward to an empty house once school starts as some parents do. But, I'm ok with it. My other 2 children, my youngest, will be going to K and 1st grade. Which I'm very excited for them, because they're excited, but it does mean my baby, my last baby, will be riding a school bus and starting a life that won't include me. I look at him and see such a little boy, but, I know he's not.
The home school curriculum has been delivered and organized on the school shelf. Josie, 3rd grade, has a lot this year. And, being the  challenging pupil ( attitude wise) that she is, I'm a tad stressed. But, I realize that's not fair to her, to automatically say she's going to struggle, when we haven't even started yet. So, I'm determined to keep my hopes high.

My preschool class at church is changing. I'm losing 3 students to the next level, and gaining 1 from the nursery. 
Last week, I had an extremely stressful day as one of my students had a complete meltdown. As much as I hate to admit it, I physically had to sit on the poor kid to keep him from harming himself, and me. Kicking, hitting, spitting, clawing, screaming. For an hour. Luckily, I do have another teacher in the classroom with me now. She was able to take the other kids somewhere else, so it was just me and the boy. As the end of class approached and he was still not calm, I texted for backup as I didn't want other parents to arrive to pick up their children and encounter the teacher physically restraining a student. By the time help arrived, Bob (not real name) had calmed down and was laying on the floor while I rubbed his back and "shhhh"ed him.  When M* walked in, I immediately started crying. At first I thought it was adrenaline, making me emotional, but after a whole day of crying about it, at home, I realized that a) I felt so horrible for Bob because during his whole melt down, I could see he hated that he was acting that way and he couldn't help it  and b) I took it very personally as I have been the ONE person at the church he has connected to and created any sort of bond with.   It was just a sucky day.

And....I wasn't planning on getting into all that but there ya' go.

To lighten the mood a bit:

Upon unpacking Jayce's (12) bag after he spent a week at camp, I took out his deodorant. To which Jayce declares "Oh! There it is!!"  Not. A. Good. Sign. 

My husband took all the kids plus one friend to Sonic for slushes.  (Yes, that means I had approx. 15 of blissful quiet.)
Jeven, upon walking in and discovering the brownies cooling on the counter, declared:  "Mom, my throat is frozen from my slush. I think I need some of those to make it better."

Of course, I gave him a brownie.

Only a couple more weeks of summer left. Hopefully I can post a few more times before school starts. Fingers crossed!

Laughter=Good Medicine

I love my children. I am even loving towards my children. Most of the time.

But, I don't "baby" my children. There have been times when I've felt guilty because maybe I should have babied them just a little.

When my children get hurt, there must be blood to qualify for a bandage. I know. I'm harsh. Some parents own stock in B*nd-Aid, I'm sure. It would be so easy to just slap a bandage on the child every time they invent a new injury.

When my children get hurt, 3 things happen:

1. I congratulate the injured on their awesome wipe out. After all, if you're going to have a scar, it might as well be from something awesome. You don't want to be 36 and have a 3 inch scar on your shin from when you were 8 years old and a pop bottle fell out of the fridge and shattered on your leg. THAT'S not an awesome story. 
2.  Clean up any blood, apply band-aid ( if qualification has been met) and kiss and hug and send them back out to play. 
3. Make a joke. Try to get them to laugh. It's hard to cry when you're laughing. (although it's fun to laugh so much you cry!)

**I must put a disclaimer in here. I have been VERY fortunate that we have not had a serious injury. We've had surgical glue once (Jarrett) and a broken collar bone (Jayce).  We've even only had 2 ear infections EVER (not counting me). No strep throat (again, not counting me) and, Thank you, Lord, no close calls.  I'm talking about the usual scrapes and goose eggs and little cuts that happen when you're an active kid**

Like I said, there have been times where I regret being so harsh.  Like when we were at a birthday party, at a park.  Jarrett came running over to me, crying. Hands on his head.  I saw no blood, no broken bones. I dried his tears and told him to go back to playing. Later that night, as I was giving him a bath, I noticed the HUGE goose egg and abrasion on the back of his head. Guilt. Galore. But, he never told me what had happened, he never acted strange (saw no signs of serious head injury. I'm not so harsh/stupid that I would not notice that), never gave me any concern. 

I like to think I'm calm and don't over react.  I like to think it teaches my children that life can sometimes hurt. But, you gotta keep going. And, if you can, tell a joke and laugh.

Josie was cleaning her hamster's cage.  Jingles was sitting in her carrying case, the one we use when she travels. (Don't judge. Josie bought it with her own money. Jingles has actually traveled 1 time.) Jarrett decided to stick his finger in to the case. He has small, old man hands and his fingers are kinda bony. Jingles got excited, I'm sure thinking his finger was a french fry, and bit him. Hard.

He cried. There was blood. 

I said "Uh-oh.  Go in to the bathroom and rinse it off."

Jarrett:  "Cry, cry, cry." (  Bleeding, bleeding, bleeding)

Me:  "You know, in the movie Spiderman, Peter Parker gets bit by a spider and turns into Spiderman. Maybe you'll turn into Hamster Boy?!!"

Jarrett: silence

Me:  "Here, dry off your finger.  I'll put some neosporin on it.  This is the same medicine I used on the cat last night (whole other story). So, now, maybe you'll turn into Cat Boy?  Which would you rather be?  Hamster Boy or Cat Boy? "

Jarrett: " Cat Boy. Then I can eat the hamster."

We both had a good laugh. He felt better.  Kisses were exchanged and life went on. 

34

That's  how many days of "summer" we have left. 

I say "summer" because here in Oregon, the weather hasn't been very summery.  We will get a few days of really warm weather, then a few days of over cast, cool skies.  And even some rain.

As much as I hate to be hot and sweaty, I do feel a little cheated. 

Because, so far, our summer has pretty much sucked. 

We haven't done anything super fun. I don't have a great tan. We didn't win the lottery. 

My "to do" list I started before school was out in June doesn't have much crossed off.

So, here we are, with 34 days remaining.  We are going to try and cram as much in to these 34 days as possible.

We are done being sickly.  I am feeling somewhat better.  Largely due to my inlaws, they kept the kids for 2 whole days and I was home. Alone.  And, although I didn't get as much accomplished as I hoped, by the time the kids came home, I was feeling refreshed and renewed. Does wonders.
Still "exploring" some things and trying to learn why I was feeling the way I was, and trying to prevent it from happening again.

Jayce left for camp for 5 days. In another state. First time for both of us, him being so far away from home, for so long. With no way to contact him. Unless it's an emergency.  I don't think the counselors would consider me wanting to yell at him because he left his dirty clothes on the floor (AGAIN!!) an emergency.
He will be home tomorrow and I can't wait to hear all about it. 

In the past, I've written, somewhat vaguely about my husband's job and how it makes him feel.  Lately, it's become more apparent that he needs to be doing something different. But what? These days, a job with comparable pay and benefits is hard to come by. 
We did have an interesting offer last week. But, the cons certainly outweigh the pros of said offer. I'm thinking he will turn it down but he hasn't made the official call yet.

We are still hoping to make it to the aquarium. We are hoping to go camping again. My husband and Jayce will be going to Wyoming to go hunting with my brother. 

All things we are looking forward to.

And, there are only 142 more days until Christmas. You're welcome.