On the matter of a pet

Dear Mom and Dad

May I have a dog. I might not feed my beata fish alot but its small and hard to notice and a dog is big and easy to notice. Maybe if i remember to feed my dog i'll do the same to my fish. And pluls I'll even by most of his stuff. It could even help with me and Daddy. For instince hunting and protecting the House Double time. So can i pleas have a dog.


Sinsirly
Youre Son

My little problem

I have CADD (Craft Attention Deficit Disorder).  I try many things, I start many projects.... sometime they just don't get finished. And most of the time I have at least 3 (or 5... or 10) going at the same time. Add into that the fact that there are actually only 24 hours in the day, and some do have to be spent sleeping (darn it, who knew that this need persists into adulthood as well, huh?!) and you get the picture what my crafty side is usually in some state of chaos or other.

The advent of Pinterest has not really helped with that little problem of mine. In fact, all it accomplished was to add about 30 more projects to my already lengthy list and not necessary tacking them onto the end.

This has been my latest endeavor inspired by this. I like her fabric selection better as the equidistant rows and equal spacing of dots in the rows seem to have been an important detail as my piece came out a bit more "fold-y" that the original author. But despite that, I can say, I smocked (in a non-traditional manner, but still)! The piece of stitchery will be used to make a top for Little Miss, hopefully before the end of summer ;)

Life as it happens

Well, this "writing every day" is nor really happening, but I think I can consider myself back on the horse of blogging.

Last night Sunshine had his first karate practice out of the candidate class. The boy continues to amaze me. The smile and enthusiasm that he has on the mats were not dampened by the set back in his progress in rank. He did look a bit like a fish out of water with some of the curriculum, but caught on quickly enough. His instructor came over to chat with me to see how Sunshine has been handling the transition. He noted that he was very impressed by the attitude he saw (which make my glow just a bit).

And the other day we went to check out our new Lego store. Sunshine got entirely overwhelmed and did not know where to even start. Little Miss, on the other hand, zeroed in on the table with loose Legos and had to be pried away at the end of the visit. Who says Legos are for boys?!

Like a flower

A while back my friends and I did a Pinterest inspired project. Moi, the spray paint queen, was cursing it half way through as the clay soaked up enormous amounts of primer, but in the end it turned out very nice.

So today, after two weeks of empty pots sitting on the front steps, I finally planted the flowers. And I had a helper too. Little Miss loves to help out, and despite her short stature, she can do a lot. The other day as we were cleaning the yard on a warm afternoon, I left her with a rake and a paper yard waste bag for 15 minutes figuring she was going to have fun just pushing around displaced weeds on the sidewalk. When I peeked in on her, I found all the weeds in the bag and her pushing around a broom (that she unearthed herself) trying to scoop up the last little tidbits.

So today this was "our project" that she had a lot of fun with. And as I was checking up on the older brother playing in a sandbox (see the irony?!) I was not surprised to hear her voice, "Mom, time to plant some more". My little responsible child. My not so little baby of the family. The time goes by so fast!

And I am sure that the first thing that she will show dad in the evening will be the flowers that she planted.

Setbacks

I was going to write about this yesterday, but we actually did not find out until today, so this will be a post for both days.

Sunshine has been a karate boy for a long time now. He started when he was 4 and has steadily progressed in rank and skill as the years went by.

2 months ago he got his "brown stripe" belt, which is the last belt before black. Promptly afterwards he passed his "fog test", which is about an hour long workout to demonstrate fitness readiness and basic knowledge to start studying for the black belt test. Do you know my 9 year old can do 100 situps?! The boy has abs of steel... No kidding....

The candidate class has been pushing him to the limit of his abilities. His skills were getting sharper and sharper. He set a good routine with practice at home as well (which has always been one of the weaknesses). But... In the end his age failed him. He just can't keep focus yet for a whole practice. He gets tired and scatterbrained. Feet switch directions and he starts turning the wrong way. It might not be a big deal in the long run as he does know the moves, but in the immediate present it is a hazard to himself and others on the floor. So after much thought his instructor decided to hold him back a few months to let his maturity level catch up with the rest of his body.

There is a huge part of me that thinks it is good. He has a tendency of sliding on sheer talent and holding him back will motivate him to work harder. But there is also that motherly side of me that dreaded the conversation. I knew he would be hurt. I knew that he would see it as a failure. I knew that he would be disappointed. And the motherly part that rocked him to sleep and kissed his boo-boos was not going to handle it well.

So the conversation was tough. The instructor was so very positive and encouraging. But you can see Sunshine's face as he fought back tears.... and as some slipped through anyway. He was quiet on the way to school and subdued saying his good buy as I gave him a hug and held on just a little bit longer than usual.

I spent the day distracted letting the motherly side get carried away with worry. I checked up on him as soon as he returned home steeling myself for a torrent of tears. But... But... There were none. He had an awesome day. He looks forward to starting again next rotation and he will continue with his practice schedule at home in meantime.

I was so proud of him when he passed his fog test. I glowed reading his recommendation letters from adults in his life. I was proud seeing how hard he was working. But of it all, I am the most proud of the grace that he has shown today. I am thinking that he will be growing up a lot between now and the start of next rotation.

May is here

And I am super tired. It has been a whirlwind of the a weekend that was filled with fun and work. Jim has been working non-stop (and I am being very literal here) and on top of that I had to go in to work myself on Sunday. Joy, joy.... I want to try to break the science here with doing a quick post every day about something that was significant to me.

Today's post involves work. Huh! Big surprise given our schedules! As Little Miss gets older, it is becoming more and more rare for me to bump into a project that I worked on in 2007. Time moves on. But this weekend there was a huge computer update and I had to recreate something that was set up a long time ago. The date stamp on what I was working on was 10/17/2007, eight days after her birth. I had no recollection of details that lead up to creation of this "project" as my memory of that year is a little spotty, and it was obviously finished in my absence as well. Took my breath a way to think back where we were on that date.

Oh how the things have changed.

All grown up

We went on a trip.

That should summarize about a week worth of kids' lives, huh?! The 'details' include cousins, grandma, laughter, friends, sledding on the sand, and expanding our horizons. I can write a ton about each one of these things. Tonight though, I marvel at how grown up the kids are.

The plane trips of the past have always been anxiety filled for me. Will the seat in front of us serve as a target of kicking practice? Will the batteries of the DVD player last? How on earth do I change a diaper in an airplane bathroom? What if one of the kids has a meltdown? Will other passengers give me grace on the account of the shorties? And the list goes on...

But all of a sudden... The kids went and grew up. None of those items were in the front of my mind as we boarded a plane. They sat quietly in their seats. They came up with taking turns at the window scheme for all four flights. They listened to flight attendants and used their 'mam' and 'sir' in all the right places. And I did not have to hope for grace, as on each flight we had comments about the kids great manners.

So on those days when I have to tell them to be grateful we are not guppies that eat their young... I will try to remember this trip and the fact that what we teach is actually sinking in.