Project Pickering

I am so ready for summer. I don't particularly like the direction of the breeze in this house, selfishness, rudeness, and a down right unhelpful attitude..so we are going to do something about it. I am sure it is due to the neglect of a franticly studying mom who is gone every night and a clean crazed woman on the weekends. But this isn't the dream I saw when I started this mothering journey. We have a motto in this house and it has been drummed into them since they could hear...(in uterine). Helpful and Loving..and really I am seeing none of that these days and I am saddened...

I want this to be my normal

So this summer we are implementing

Project Pickering

Step 1 Dinner
How did we stop eating at the table? I am still cooking, but some how we are eating separately..that happened gradually and I am not willing to let it go. Back to the Round Table Pickerings...rally round!

Step 2 Chore Packs
This is the best idea I have ever seen and it works so well, I got it from a lady named Teri Maxwell, she wrote a book called Managers of their Homes.  Here is it is in a nutshell...the kids have little clip on nametag badges, the kind with a slot on the top that you can put paper in... you know what I mean. Well..I put 1 -5 pieces of paper in them that have chores written out, (or pictures for non readers) and every day before they start their day, they have to complete their "chore pack" and give it to me when they are done. Things like.. Make your bed.. brush your teeth.. as well as Empty the dishwasher.. or Pick up the living room.  This is a good teacher of independent responsibility and a sense of responsibility to the house. LOVE IT...

Step 3  Whine Room
Self explanatory.. one room for whining, crying and throwing a fit. a room. WITH a DOOR...BY yourself, set the timer  come out when it goes off...IF you are finished. I do not speak Whinese...

Step 4 Love Couch
I used to do this all the time and I have gotten away from it since the kids have gotten older.. I am not sure why but..I like it. When my kids fight, argue, or be hateful and nasty to each other then they can visit the "LOVE COUCH." They sit on the couch ( the one made for two) and hold hands for 5 minutes,  after 5 minutes each sister will say one special thing that they really like about the other. They can hug and say I love you and get up. OR they can stay on the couch for 5 more minutes, holding hands of course.

Step 5 Family Game Night
One night a week.. all of us..(even Taylor if she is home) will sit at the table eat a fun dinner and play games. My kids need to learn to lose and be happy for whoever beat them...this is something that has to be taught... BUY US. The same as winning and being a happy and gracious winner.

Step 6  Mom Time
This is my favorite. Field trips, swimming, reading, snuggling, math flashcard, Hooked On Phonics cooking, baking, sleeping in, walking, nature hikes, bike rides, Movies, a summer full of mommy love.

Without this.. what are we fighting for?

Anticipation is Making Wait

Some of you might know that I have been going to school at JCCC and have applied to the ASL Interpreters Program. I started my first classes January 2010 and at the end of this semester,  I will have had classes for 17 straight months getting all the necessary pre-reqs out of the way. I am down to my last two..Algebra and a health class. (Health.. yes .. we can talk about that later) I am also taking intermediate  ASL (to keep my skills up and ready)

Well, I got an email last week that I have an interview on Tuesday. I am more than excited, and nervous. Problem is, I have a reoccurring dream that has been haunting me since I got that email.
I am sitting in the interview room with people looking at the people interviewing me and they ask me what my name is...I start signing and.. my fingers freeze. They cramp and get stuck together and no matter what I do I can't get them moving. It is torture and embarrassing, I spend the rest of the dream trying to convince them that I really can sign the alphabet and I do know how to spell my name. But it is too late, and then I wake up.

Is that the interpreter student's version of standing in front of a crowd and realizing you are naked? I have no idea, but I hate that dream. I have been practicing every chance I get..just making sure my fingers work. Today Carly Jo and I worked on the alphabet, she is getting pretty good and my fingers didn't freeze up one time.

The anticipation of this situation is getting to me, I am ready to start a new path, learn my fate and face the future of my new career. All that is standing in the way is this tiny little interview and all the other people who have applied for the program.  How easy it is to wonder if I am good enough, if I have done enough. How hard it is to not jump up and down yelling PICK ME PICK ME!

There are only 30 spots, maybe one is mine. Seems very daunting, and I feel ready to start.  As the time creeps up I feel myself stressing out, the waiting..oh the waiting.

Once the interview is over then I can relax because it is all out of my hands. I am sure I won't though. I won't relax until I get that certified letter in the mail saying...welcome to the ITP program at JCCC....

But the good news is no matter what, I am not taking any classes this summer. ONE HUGE break is coming and welcomed. whoot whoot!

Spring Break has Sprung

I love breaks, Spring break, Christmas break and Summer break is my very fav.

HOWEVER, we are on break right now and the one part of it that I do not love is that...today was the grocery shopping day, which means I had to go..with. ALL. OF. THE. KIDS. sigh

If I had been smarter, or had more food in the house, I would have just scratched the idea from the git go. This is what happened when we were getting shoes on.

looks like a face of full cooperation...

Costco was the second place we went and by far...the most painful. At least 4 women looked at me with pity and said something along the lines of.."I forgot about spring break" or "must be spring break" I even got a "God Bless You" as my kids were "ice skating" down the aisles.
Annabelle decided that, in the middle of me checking out, she had to poop, and there was no waiting. EMERGENCY!!!  So I sent all the girls to go to the bathroom with her.
Now, you might be reading this judging me for letting my children go into the bathroom alone, but

1) there is only one way in and one way out
2) Mckenna is 8
3) I was almost finished.

Hopefully though..you have been in one of these situations and you are just feeling bad for me at this point and not judging.

I was almost done paying when Mckenna came out. Annabelle was on the toilet and needed to be wiped. and she was YELLING from the stall.."mommy wipe me". (can I get a poor Christi here?)

While I was wiping the butt of my youngest, Carly Jo was playing with the electric dryer, making the most noise possible. Hands in, hands out..hands in, hands out... and Jayme was complaining that a lady had brought her two sons into the girls bathroom. This lady, by the way was judging, she was giving me the "I can't believe you let your kids in here alone" and "man I am a way better mother than you" look.
Whatever lady..your kid is like 14, I think he can pee by himself. (slight exaggeration perhaps)

When we were ALMOST free,  the lady at the door decides that.. even though I have been there 2 times a month (minimum) for the last ohh...8 years or so..she should check my cart and make sure she really does count every item. She even stopped counting to say.."kids, I can't count the items if you are standing in the way" ARE YOU JOKING RIGHT NOW?? Give me my damned receipt and let me out of this store. (if I was going to try and steal something, it wouldn't be the day I have four children, acting as though they are in some serious need of medication, along with me.)

After Costco we went to Whole Foods, always a favorite. For those that don't know...They hide a stuffed frog somewhere in the store and if the kids find it, they get..and orange or apple or pencil...something fun. The kids love it. Well TODAY apparently the frog was on vacation, in Florida, so we spent 15 minutes wandering the store looking for that thing for no reason.  Carly Jo was having a hard time with this because...the frog is a TOY. She was pissed. Whatever...they gave them all a clementine anyway, probably to get them out of the store and so Carly Jo would cease the interrogation. (they obviously forgot about spring break too)

Now it is 10 and I just heard the last peep from their bedrooms.  I am TIRED.

She doesn't look tired

She looks ready to start some trouble

oh, she is laying down...must be tired.

ohh yeah..she is down.

I love having my kids home, but I am considering hiring a babysitter next time I need to do a full day of shopping while they are home. Tomorrow we are doing something way more fun than grocery shopping.

What are you...CRAZY?

Because you are dragging me right there with you....

I want to preface this by saying I love my kids school! Oak Park Carpenter ROCKS. I like the principal, the teachers (some of them I LOVE..literally L-O-V-E), the support staff,  the parents...all of it..EXCEPT the theme days. OMGOSH THEME Days...just the thought makes me break out in a sweat. 

Spirit day, hundreds day, cowboy day, pajama day, orange day, yellow day, purple day(I am totally against purple day especially after last weekend). It isn’t enough that my kids show up in clothes...THAT ARE CLEAN. Do they REALLY have to be a certain color, and if the kids show up in the correct color....they get a PRIZE. oh the pressure... So now if I don’t find ORANGE for them.. ALL of them...to wear tomorrow...at the SAME TIME... I will have kids in tears because they won’t get the prize. 

Crappy parent alert. (Again) GEEZ can we be realistic?   How many orange shirts do you have in your wardrobe, yellow? 

This seriously stresses me out, on top of remembering share days and book reports and which day THREE different kids have PE and need to wear their tennis shoes.  (which..hmm..yeah I don't get a star for that one either) I have to find an orange shirt for EACH of them to wear tomorrow. Who makes this crap up? And why do they hate me? Is it personal? OH, it FEELS personal right now at 10:00 at night as I am STILL stressing about it! Is there some fun that I am missing out on by being a negative nelly..I am sure there is..there ALWAYS is. but it is passing right over me. So at least i admit that...right?

I have no idea what I am going to do for tomorrow..I am not sure that I have any one color enough to have all the kids wear the same color on the same day, except for RED, which I bought for the SPIRIT DAYS...but that is all I got. I wonder if I can put marker on their foreheads ...would that count? On top of it all I am volunteering in Jayme’s class tomorrow, so I get to be there and look out into the sea of orange to see Jayme with a orange stripe on her head. That is assuming I can find an orange marker around here somewhere. If you see my kids with a orange line on thier heads..tell them you think it is awesome!

By the way, these are pictures of Annabelle, hijacking my computer tonight while I was at School. I am posting them because she is the apple of my eye. and it’s my blog and I can. She used photo booth and found setttings I didn't know existed. smarty pants...Enjoy!