Rules That Are Meant To Be Broken

A friend posted about some of the rules in her house, the ones that no one writes down. The rules that you can't even believe you actually have to make and say out loud.

And for some strange reason, she thinks that maybe I have some of those types of rules.  She dared encouraged me to blog about them.

In our house, there's the basic rules. Be nice to each other, don't lie, don't hit, etc... But, of course, with 4 kids, 1 husband (thank Gawd!!) and a miniature zoo, there are some things that always need to be reiterated. Such as:

• We do not lick another person's corn dog. 
• We do not lick our feet (or your sibling's feet) at the kitchen table. If you MUST do it, do it elsewhere. 
• I don't care if you're 6 or 36, if you can't get it into the freakin' toilet, SIT DOWN!!
• Postage stamps are NOT fancy stickers. 
• When drawing a picture of your mother, always, ALWAYS make her butt smaller than it is in real life. Always. 
• The cat is not for throwing at your sister. 
• I don't care if I can't spit your name out when I'm angry. If you know you're guilty, just fess up, even if I did call you by your sibling's name. 
• If mom is sound asleep on the couch during movie time, so sound in fact that she's snoring so loud you can't hear the movie, do not, I repeat, DO NOT wake her up. You've seen the movie approximately 458 times anyways.
• Speaking of movie time, if mom is crying at a movie that she has seen 458 times, do not make fun of her. 
• If I have to pick it up, or tell you to pick it up, more than 3 times, it's going in the garbage. I don't care if it is the Red Power Ranger and he will kill me in my sleep. 
• When your younger brother wakes up, do not tell him it is his birthday. Every day.
• We do not need to break dance at the grocery store. 
• Clothing is NOT optional. 

I'm sure there are many rules left unspoken. Life with kids and a family is just full of unspoken rules that you make up on the fly. But, it wouldn't be nearly as interesting if it wasn't , now would it?

Clever Post Title Goes HERE

Seems like I do these type of posts often. You know, the " I've been busy doing _____" posts. But. I have been busy. No foolin'.

We are on the downward slide of the school year.  And, being the "totally with it" mom that I am, we are scrambling to get done on time. Which means lots of yelling  teaching, begging  time management, and bribing  rewarding for a job well done.

I would honestly have to say, the worst thing about home schooling, for me at least, is how much time it takes. When I have other things to do. But, since I'm being honest, some of that stress could be avoided if I was better at the a fore mentioned time management.


We've being playing soccer. In the ever lovin', constant down pour that is Oregon. Here, most sports are played rain or shine. But, Josie likes it and it gets some energy out of her system. And, it's nice to put her pushing/shoving/kicking to good use.
We had her "end of the season" pizza party two nights ago. Where she wrote down a phone number of a friend on a napkin. Which, of course, I threw away. I managed to put off letting her call the friend for 2 days, saying "Not right now. I'm sure they aren't home." Or "No, we have to leave in a few minutes" Or "Our phone doesn't dial those numbers." But, she's on to me.
I confessed.
She cried.
I typed the girl's last name into facebook, thinking maybe her mom had a page. I found an older woman with the same last name, and we have a friend in common!  So, message to common friend sent. We will see what happens. My luck, we will get the phone number, Josie will call, and a play date invitation will be issued. Then, the whole "we don't let you go to anyone's house we don't know REALLY well" card will have to be played. Then, there will be more crying.
But, one crisis at a time, I always say.

The little boys started T-ball this week as well. Jarrett loves, LOVES to run (ran almost 6 miles in an hour for the jog-a-thon) but doesn't have much hitting power. Jeven, hates, HATES (even asked "Is there any sport I can do that I don't have to run?") to run but has more power behind his hitting. Together, they will make one great player!

My husband and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary! Yay us!  Looking through our wedding album, it's like we're looking at two different people. We were so young and didn't have a clue. Now that we're older, we still don't have a clue. But, we're having a blast figuring it out as we go. ( :

I've missed blogging, posts run through my mind all the time. But, getting them on here, that's another story. But, don't give up on me!  Eventually, my life will slow down. Right?  WHAT?!! It won't?

Well. Back to the time management thing. I will just have to manage to find the time to blog.  I will do it. Pinkie swear.

Name Game

We are very original here, at the Boring homestead. 

All of our first names begin with "J".  All of our middle names begin with "L".  In fact, 5 out of the 6 of us have the SAME middle name. Yes, my husband and I have the same middle name.  Josie is the odd ball ( in oh so many ways).  Her middle name is Lynn, vs. the Lee that we all have.  I liked Josie Lynn better than I liked Josie Lee and back then, I didn't know she would be my only girl.  Some of the grandmothers have the middle name of Lynn as well so it's not a complete shut out.

And, of course, all of our last names begin with "J". 

I know. Corny much? 

None of the names are that complicated. But,there have been a few instances of mispronunciation and spelling.

Jayce:  (rhymes with Ace) Sometimes misspelled Jace.  Or mispronounced Jay-cee.  But, understandable.

Josie: Not much confusion here.

Jarrett:  Hardly ever mispronounced but often misspelled.  Again, understandable.

Jeven:  Now, this one gets interesting.  Not a name you hear often.  And, usually not within a Caucasian family. Just sayin'.  We knew when we named him , that we would be repeating ourselves.  "Kevin?" "No, Jeven." "Devin?"  "Nope, Jeven". 

When I was pregnant with Jeven, we argued on how we were going to spell it for a long time.  I wanted J-e-v-i-n.  At the time, my husband was working with a Kevin that he really didn't care for.  So, he wanted J-e-v-e-n.  As you can see, he won.  But, that's ok.  Looks right. 

Again, his name does get misspelled.  Understandable.  I'm fine with it.  Really. 

But this?  This is a little ridiculous, don't ya think? 

Happiness

Happiness is walking into my sons' room, feeling the warm sunlight shining through the curtains.
Looking down upon my sleeping 4 yr. old.

Happiness is deciding the laundry I am holding, can wait. 

Happiness is laying down next to my sleeping boy.  Snuggling close as the smell of little boy--mixture of sweat, grass, peanut butter and just a wisp of baby--fills my senses.

Happiness is when my boy snuggles right back and whispers "I love you, mommy".

Happiness is when we both drift off to sleep.

Happiness is believing this moment will last forever.

300?

I got on here to post:  "Does changing my blog layout count as a post?" when I noticed...drum roll please....this is my 300th post!

:crickets:

Too bad I have nothing new and exciting to post about.
I've said it here before and I'm not ashamed to say it again--how do I write about the mundane life I lead but yet try to convey the not so ordinary occurrences that happen on a daily basis, that is my life?

You say it with some pictures!  That's how.

Josie and friend, with a Slurpie. Or Shrimp Sucker. Whichever way you like it. 

Finally, the Science Center day  was rescheduled for last week.  We finally got to Newport, not a tsunami in sight, no rain either.
First, the kids spent some time in a lab room, making a "Little Ocean" of their own, complete with a little crab and some fish.

I am sure I'm boring you with saying this again   don't know if I've told you, but I love anything that has to do with the ocean or sea life. So, when we (all the students that were there that day plus their mothers) walked into this classroom, I may have pushed my own child out of the way in order to get a good seat at the table.  Only to realize maybe I should let her sit down and perhaps go stand at the back of the room with the other mothers. Easy mistake.

Next, Josie and G. got to use their slurpie thingys to dig for sand shrimp.  And, cross my heart, a needle in my eye and all that, they NEEDED my help. Seriously. It was hard for their little arms to work the sucky thing. You have to push and pull at the same time.  But:

Success!  

One sand shrimp.  After an hour of slurping or shrimp sucking, we found one. Good thing we weren't getting paid for it.

That's all the pictures I have of that day.  I may have dropped the camera into a tide pool in my attempt of scooping up a fish for the kids to look at.  I was successful!  They each got to hold and touch the little sculpin before releasing him back into his home.  But, my camera paid the price. Thankfully, the memory card wasn't harmed. 

And, if you're keeping track, that's 2 cameras I've dropped into tide pools in the last year.  This last one was the one I was borrowing from my parents to replace the previous one I dropped.  So, now I need to replace TWO cameras. 

So, I need to figure out how to get pictures from my phone onto the computer.  I will put that right on my "to do " list.  At the bottom.

Currently, my list has: 

• school
• house cleaning (which includes laundry, dishes, assembling a new dresser, cleaning out closets, etc...)
• babysitting
• soccer 
• Sunday School lesson writing
• nursing home visits
• counseling family members 
• worrying about said family members
• watching t.v.
• figure out how to get pictures off of phone
• trying to do Weight Watchers (again) and NOT feeling like a failure because I may go over my daily points allowance because my freakin' "to do" list is so freakin' huge. 

 So, my 300th post. Not so exciting. But, I think it may have motivated me to resume regular posting.  Yes, I think I will!!

• regular blog posting

Putting it on the list is the first step.

My Kids Are Not Weird

The other night, after a seemingly extra stressful day (it probably wasn't extra stressful as much as my 4 or 5th stressful day in a row), I snuck out of the house on the pretense of needing to go to the store. Which I did. After I sat down in a restaurant and ate a meal. By myself. It was delicious!

Behind me was a table full of mothers.  Gabbing and having a great time. It was hard not to over hear their conversation.

"You know, Barb home schools her kids. Can you believe that?'
"That's crazy!  Why would someone do that to their children?"
"Her kids are going to be SO weird. They will miss out on all the social aspects of school!" 

I held my tongue. After all, I came for french fries with ranch peace and quiet. Not to get into a discussion on home schooling with strangers.

But, it did get me thinking.
When we first started talking about home schooling, our kids being "weird" was a concern.

I think we can all think of at least one home schooled kid that had pants up to his waist, pocket protectors and would rather debate politics than play on the play ground. But, I think, today, home schooling is different. At least, in our house it is.

My kids are smart but they are not nerds.  They would much (MUCH) rather play outside than discuss anything. They enjoy learning but I do not force a lesson out of every single thing we do.

As we sat in the dentist office yesterday, a mother came in with a young boy, probably 4-5, the age of my youngest.  The dentist my children see is a pediatric dentist and in the waiting room, there is a small playhouse for the kids to play in.
This mother proceeded to explain, to her 4-5 yr. old, how the house was built and some differences between a real house and a pretend house and how maybe this house could have been built in a different country and blah blah blah.
Me? I sat and read my magazine. My kids? They had their faces plastered against the windows, yelling "MOM!! HEY MOM!!!LOOK UP HERE!!! QUIT READING YOUR MAGAZINE AND LOOK AT ME!!!"

When we told family that we were going to home school, we were NOT met with support. Some were blatant about not supporting us, some kept their opinions to themselves but we could tell what they were thinking:

• Our kids would not get a proper education. ---The schooling program we use actually tests the children's progress twice a year, officially.  Both Jayce and Josie (the ones being home schooled at this point) scored far above the state's standards. Of course, I personally believe the standards for the state are low. But, my point is, my kids are learning. Just as much, if not more, than public school children.

• Our kids would not have a social life.---This one cracks me up. Seriously. At any given day, you could stop by my house and truthfully find at least one child that does not live here. Or, you would find one of my children missing as they are at some function that involves other people, which in fact would indicate a social life.  We sign our kids up for sports, they meet other kids. It is very rare that we go out in public and the kids NOT see someone they know. 

• Our kids would be weird.---Okay. You got me on this one. My kids might be a tad...different. But not in a "nerdy" sort of way. They are weird because Jeven wears shorts and tank tops in the winter. They are weird because Jarrett does not like cheese. (that IS weird in our house). They are weird because Josie talks and sings to herself, all. the. time. They are weird because Jayce thinks he's not weird. 

This post is not, by any means, a "I hate public school and anyone that puts their children into public school"post. Every parent does what's best for their children. In our case, it's half at home with me, half in public school.
And, we believe it's working, for us. For now.

My children are not that kind of weird.

George Spielberg

My son is on his way to becoming a world famous film maker.

This video is 4 min. long, which may be too long for some people to sit and watch but..I think it's hilarious and any time my son will spend all day doing something other than tormenting his siblings, I support that.

It literally took Jayce and his friend all day to film this. They wrote the entire thing themselves and aside from the cameo appearance of the friend's little sister,  they filmed it themselves too.  You will have to look past the 12 yr. old editing skills and appreciate the time and effort it took to make it.

And, in case you're wondering , it was NOT filmed at my house, so disregard the address displayed on the house!  You will not find us there!