Pleasant Surprises

I have to admit...I am a "glass is half empty" kind of person.  When I set out into the world with my children, I rarely set out with the notion that anyone will be happy to see us coming.  I usually expect people around us to be bothered by our presence. By our noise.  By the sheer amount of space we take up!  So last week when we attended a play at the history museum (it was FREE for homeschoolers!) I was pleasantly surprised by the young man at the museum desk who said, " We are so glad you are here!" as he handed me my six tickets. I realized how infrequently I actually hear that. It brought a smile to my face.

About a month ago I took the kids to the zoo.  Banana and Big D had free lunch coupons for their birthdays so we decided to go the the restaurant there, which we never do. I quickly remembered why we never do it as I waited in a long line to order.  There were no tables available.  We had to watch for one to open up and then I sent the kids over to sit there while I continued waiting in line.  The G-man decided he was starving while we waited, so I ended up nursing him in line - while standing up and pushing a stroller. He was still nursing as I ordered and even when the food appeared.  I wondered how I was going to manage getting the food and drinks, the baby, and the stroller over to the table?  The stroller actually came in handy with its cup holders.  The Banana was my hero when she came over and asked if I needed help.  Did I ever!  By this time I was sweating.  We made it over to the table only to find out that we needed a bigger table for all of us and our lunches. We had to move in order to find two empty tables to push together.  Finally, we sat down together to eat.  I was still sweating when we were cleaning up, and was completely taken aback by the woman who stopped me and said, "Whatever you are doing with those kids is amazing. They are the most well-behaved children I have ever seen."  I went back to the table and shared that lovely thought with the kids, all the while tears were streaming down my face. 

Another instance of my pessimism being blown out of the water occurred when I had something I needed to bring to Miss M at her school.  I was lamenting the fact that I had to bring five children into the school office with me just to drop off a tote bag.  I was sure we would cause a ruckus and maybe even distract a classroom or two while school was in session.  So imagine my surprise when the school secretary met us with a huge smile and joked with the kids a bit before we even got the chance to tell her why we were there!  When Miss M got home that evening she told me that the secretary told her she had a beautiful family.  She said they were quiet and well-behaved; better than some of the two-kid families that have been in the school.  My glass was half full. Fuller even. 

Maybe these events will help me to reverse my thinking when I take the kids places.  I really should bring them along proudly, knowing that they are more likely to brighten a person's day than they are to ruin it. I mean, honestly...how could this face not brighten your day?

Is There a Doctor in the House?

The G-man played the patient today. Mr. H and Banana were the doctors. 

They discussed their diagnosis...

...while the patient waited patiently. And cheerfully!

Further examination was required.

Medication was prescribed. 

And the patient was all better. 

The G-man is lucky he has such highly trained medical personnel in his immediate family. Their advice to you? Take 2 Skittles and call them in the morning. 

The Day After

I have always worried about the amount of candy my kids collect and consume on Halloween. I usually try to limit the amount of candy they can have - "You can have two pieces after lunch, and two pieces after dinner". It's not a lot of fun being the candy master, and it only makes the candy stash last even longer.  But it's what I do because too much candy is bad, right?  Well, with that in mind, imagine how I felt when I came downstairs the day after Halloween and saw this....

The good thing is that they were quietly sorting and trading their candy with one another. Some of them were even making a small pile for their dad and me!  And, yes, there were plenty of empty wrappers on the floor also. The candy feast had begun.  

We had the marvelous idea to make cookies using Halloween candy. We chopped up Reese's, Milky Ways, and Three Musketeers.  We emptied fun sized packages of M&M's into the batter, too. They were delicious!

Everyone contributed to the cookies if they wanted to enjoy them. This helped reduce some of the stash. We're thinking it should become a day-after-Halloween tradition. Our only improvement for next year is that we would use MORE candy!   

It was not really a conscious decision on my part, but the kids have, so far, had unlimited access to their candy. And, so far, no one has gotten a tummy ache or even experienced the legendary "sugar high" that parents are so often warned about.  Maybe the lesson I am learning is to let go of some of that control I think I need to have over things. It's a lot less stressful not to have to tell them how much candy they are allowed to eat. And it's more peaceful, too. 

Now...if I could just transfer that lesson onto other areas of my life.  

It was a dark and stormy night....

No, seriously.  It rained all day on Halloween, scaring children everywhere that there would be no trick-or-treating to be done.  Fortunately for them, the rain let up just after dark. The costumes and makeup went on, and the kids went out.

They were dressed as........

A goblin.

The bride of Frankenstein.

Captain Jack Sparrow.

And see if you can guess this one.....

Did you guess it?  He's a ceiling fan.  Get it? A fan of ceilings. I know. It's pretty lame.  Don't worry....we gave him plenty of trouble about his lack of effort this year.  We should expect great things from him next Halloween. Or else he'll decide he's too old to get dressed up. I guess we'll see!

Update:  Miss M went to a costume party dressed as her cousin.  And he dressed up as her!

 

 

More Milestones

From the Merriam-Webster dictionary...

ad·o·les·cence 

Pronunciation: \ˌa-də-ˈle-s^ən(t)s\

Function: noun

Date: 15th century

1 : the state or process of growing up. 

Big D turned twelve today. TWELVE!  It sounds so grown up. So ready for new opportunities and responsibilities. So...so...OLD.  And so soon! Where did the time go?



As I said yesterday, I am often reluctant for these naturally occurring milestones to come along, but this one seems really big to me.



You'd think I'd be okay with this, since I already have a teenager. But for some reason my little boy turning twelve is hard to swallow. I mean, just look at this...



He's still got that great smile, which I love. And while he is no longer a fan of hugs, and he doesn't sit on my lap anymore, he's still got a big heart and a whole lot of love for his family. He has no problem teasing his brothers or sisters, but if anyone else gives them any trouble, you can bet Big D will stand up for his siblings. And, if you judge by his tough exterior, you may not guess that he's so incredibly good with little ones.





Not just with our G-man, but his other siblings, little cousins, and friends as well. I can't even count the number of times people have told me how sweet or how helpful Big D was with their kiddos.



He is a great help to me at home, even with changing diapers! So maybe I shouldn't lament his adolescence so much. There are definitely some positive things that come with growing up. And I am so proud of the young man he has become.

Happy Birthday, Big D!

It's happening...

When you become a parent, things start happening more quickly than you ever thought they would. And definitely more quickly than you would like.  It seems like as soon as your baby becomes a toddler it's time for Kindergarten already, and suddenly you have a teenager in your house!

We've experienced a couple of major milestones at the Reddy Zoo this week.  First, the G-man started eating baby cereal! While I had tons of fun taking pictures of him eating breakfast this morning, it hardly seems possible that he's old enough for cereal already.

He's not exactly sure what to think of this mushy stuff.

And he would much rather just grab the spoon himself.

But he's getting the hang of it.

And, of course, he had a large audience cheering him on.  The other kids always make him smile.

And if that wasn't enough of a shocker for a mama, Miss M got her driver's license!!!!  Yes, I know that Miss M's news is slightly bigger than her baby brother's first bite of cereal, but unfortunately I didn't think to document the event with even a single picture.  She probably would have killed me for posting it here anyway :-)

As reluctant as I am for milestones such as these to occur, it really will be nice having another driver in the house.  Especially one so willing to run to the grocery store for that forgotten ingredient, or to drop off a sibling at soccer practice.  Now, if only a reliable third car (preferably a cute little crossover in a fun shade of red or blue) would just show up in our driveway.  Then we'd be all set.

Birthday Girl

Believe it or not, Banana turns eight today. She's been looking forward to it for quite some time now. "Eight is great!" has become her motto. 

Banana is such a good big sister to G-man and super-sweet with Mr. H. She is my extra set of hands most days; not to mention the only other female in our male-dominated homeschool. 

She often laughs at inappropriate times (like when someone trips and falls), but her laughter is so infectious that the whole family tends to join in, including the person who fell. 

She and Big D share a birthday celebration, as their special days are only a week apart. They enjoyed a beautiful day at the park with 18 of their cousins this past weekend. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BANANA!!

Will it Work?

I miss posting to this blog. It was such a great way to journal what was happening in our family and share with family and friends. It was more than I could keep up with when we started our adventures in homeschooling. But what a wonderful way to document our adventures!

So I'd like to give this another try. I found an app for my phone that's supposed to make posting a breeze. This is my test post. Will it work?  I guess we'll see how it goes.....

 

Here is a picture of our youngest. He's four months old and just as happy as a baby could be. We'll call him G-man here, since we have changed the names to protect the innocent. The rest of the Zoo just loves him. They can't wait to hold him, push him in the stroller, even pick out his clothes!  He is a joy and a blessing to our family. Haven't met him yet?  Give us a call and see when he's available. 

Labor Day Three Weeks Late! :)

Labor Day for the Reddy Zoo means heading out to our grandparent’s lake house. But first we had some things to take care of, meaning sports! Big D and C had their first soccer game and it was a lot of fun to watch. The whole team did really well and didn’t even let the other team score! The Final score was 1-0. I had my first volleyball game that night as well and lucky for us it was at the same place. All in all I think we did alright. The other team had very good teamwork though, so we ended up not winning any of the three games. But we all had fun anyway!

The boys were so anxious to get out to the country that they caught a ride with their cousins. The rest of us just waited until morning. All our bags we packed so all we had to do was load up into the car as soon as we woke up. Upon our arrival we found out that the first activity of the Labor Day Regatta had already begun - the Walk/Run. We weren’t too disappointed. The boys were really the only ones interested anyway. After we had a delicious breakfast of pancakes and sausage the run/walkers returned with prizes! For every activity that you participate in you have a chance to win a ribbon for 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place. The family and/or cabin with the most ribbons at the end get to put their name on a big stone for everyone to see. That has been us for two years in a row now! The next activities in the regatta are the sandcastle and sand sculpture building contests. Those are closely followed by kayaking, paddle boat, sail boat, swimming, and rafting races, plus a water balloon toss! During all that our family hosts a hole in one golfing contest, to see who can hit it closest to the flag. We all had so much fun in the sand sculpture contest building a flip flop, a digital clock, a bumble bee, and so many others. How did we fare in the swimming races? Almost everyone who swam got a ribbon! Of course after this we are all very tired, but the fun has only just begun because then there is church on the hill and a big party! We all celebrate mass together and then have a Bar-B-Q and dancing. Everyone had a blast doing the Cha-Cha Slide and the Cotton-Eyed-Joe! We also participated in a Hula-Hoop contest but none of us won anything except Banana. She won a black eye from getting hit with a Hula-Hoop! Everyone was pooped after all of that, but it’s the country so of course we stayed up until about 11:30 playing games! Another thing people like to do out at the country is fish, but not MiMi, KK, and Me. We went with Grandma to look at some of the houses that were having open houses. We just think it’s cool to see other people’s cabins, but for Grandma this just means DECORATING IDEAS!!! All the houses were very cute, but when it was all over we decided that our cabin was still the best! Dinner that night was pork steaks. YUM! After we were all stuffed we loaded up into the car to head home and say good-bye to the country house for awhile Monday morning we woke up in our own beds.(That we had to make right away because Mom was in one of those cleaning moods.) Yay for us, right?! So we cleaned and cleaned until we were all really hungry. Mom and Dad took everyone out to Macaroni Grill for Mom’s birthday a day early! We had so much fun over the Labor Day weekend and we hope you had a good one too!

Miss M :)





Dad's Fish



Big C and cousin El playing in the sand



Mr. H havin' fun in the lake



Playing cards with cousins while waiting for the Bar-B-Q

Banana, Mr. C, and El getting comfy in the recliner

The Run/Walkers!

FOOTBALL!!

Little Cousins are so cute! :)

Lunch on the beach

Back to Busy-ness

We kicked off our third year of homeschooling last Monday, and the day went quite well.  Better than I ever expected, in fact.  Almost too well, if you know what I mean.  Being the planner that I am, I had a schedule –with start times and end times – from which to work, and we pretty much stayed on schedule all morning.  We prayed together, I read aloud to the kids, and we studied a painting by Cézanne.  Each of my elementary kids got to practice reading, we talked about Vikings, went outside to study ants, and the younger two made boats out of egg cartons while the boys read to themselves.  Banana said that she loved school.

Around noon the Hot Lunch Crew, a.k.a. Grandma and Grandpa, came to feed the kids and help with the last few subjects of the day.  (I get the chance to go grocery shopping and run errands in the afternoons on Mondays.  God bless the Hot Lunch Crew!!)  We attended a Back-to-School Barbecue with our homeschool group that evening, after which the boys had soccer practice.  And to end the day properly, I made sure to look over the kids’ math and grammar before going to bed so they could look over their work the next day.  Yes, Monday went very well indeed!

Then came Tuesday.  There was a little less enthusiasm for school that morning.  We hadn’t even started yet when Banana declared, “I’m quitting school!”  She had been a Kindergartener for exactly one day!  She definitely had a difficult day on Tuesday, but things got better after that.  She realized that the older kids have more on their agendas than she does, much to her delight.  She is always finished before lunch, while the older kids still have a few things to work on after lunch.  And seriously…who would want to quit Kindergarten??

I am pretty excited by the number of things we accomplished this week.  To increase the level of couth in our home, we listened to a little bit of the life of composer Franz Schubert, and began learning a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, in addition to the Cézanne painting.  Oh yes, we are civilized here at the Reddy Zoo.  We also worked on the kids’ handwriting and reading, not to mention the other educational basics - grammar, religion, history, nature study, and Banana’s new favorite subject – Math!! 

Miss M is doing well with her studies so far.  She hangs out with us in the mornings for a little while, but she does the bulk of her work independently.  However, since I have 3 elementary kids and a preschooler this year, I am extremely busy throughout the mornings.  This means that I don’t read e-mails, make phone calls, or check off anything on my to-do list until after lunch at the earliest.  I have never had this level of busy-ness in my entire life.  But it is also the BEST kind of busy-ness I have ever had.

Here are a few pictures from our first week.  I hope to take more pictures of our activities this year.  We do so many things I would like to capture and remember.  These are just a couple of pictures of the kids reading...

...doing math

...and cooking!  (Isn't that one of the 3 R's?)