Happy Halloween Eve!

Admist family drama, I'm going to keep this post short & sweet. Weekend plans have been turned topsy-turvy, but we're still destined to make the most of it and be as positive as possible!

Hope you are enjoying your Halloween-Eve!

GRUMPY With a Capital "G"

* NO SLEEP LAST NIGHT . . . LOUD thunder, CRYING toddler, LOUD phone when the hospital called in the middle of the night, and a BLARING alarm early this morning with a few snoozes hit.

* Pouring rain in the morning.

* Might I mention it was picture day!

* Puppy that refused to go out in the rain, so thus yelped in her kennel as we got ready this morning.

* Puddles as big as ponds on our sidewalks- which Malachi trampled through in his warm sleeper footie pj's- not supposed to be following me out to the van.

* A 6 year old and 4 year old that just cannot leave each other alone regardless of how loud I scream at them and warn them that one of these days they'll end up killing each other with how hurtful they are!

* Stomping through the grass to avoid the awful puddles- get in the van- take off- turn on the heater to warm our wet stockings and shoes- and. . . . the smell of cat poo!

* Arrive at school late for my early morning meeting.

* Get snapped at by a few too many people.

* Confusion abounding.

* After-school program- the book I'd chosen to do literature circles with and spent much time planning, another teacher already taught my book! So, scrap that and good thing I can be flexible. URGH!

* Arrive home, to a grouchy boy that did wonderfully well getting his first allergy shots today, yet is grumpy about cleaning his room.

* Have homework accumlating, mail piled up in jumbles, laundry spewed out on my floor, dog "accidents" (yes, more than 1!) in a bedroom, and screaming kids that are back at it fighting and bothering each other again like Cain and Abel!

Its a WONDERFUL day in the neighborhood, oh such a WONDERFUL day in the neighborhood. . . . Won't you please. . . say a prayer for me today! :) I'm so excited for tomorrow since it is Friday and I get to attend Zach's school to help out with their fall celebration. Afterward, we'll be going to my parent's house for a very fun-filled, exciting weekend, with much in store for us! Oh, I can hardly wait!

Not Nearly Enough Time!

I have a LARGE project- or maybe several LARGE projects coming due soon. I have a book pile of teacher resources that I've been just dying to read. I have 3 small children that yearn for my undistracted attention. Somewhere around my house is a husband that patiently awaits my time to discuss our days, read our devotions and be a companion to. And . . . then. . . . there is a blog . . . .that glares at me every morning as I open my internet browser and remember that once again, I let my readers down (or not so much you, but my children since this is there record of my time with them) and did not get a blog entry done for a few nights in a row!

One very large pet peeve of mine (and trust me, I have several) is when people are amazed at something and they make the rude comment (not meaning to be rude possibly) of, "How in the world do you have time for all that!?" Okay, go ahead. . . I know you wonder as well. I wonder the same thing about my wonderful, dear friends that are so amazing at so many things that I can't possibly imagine being half as good at.

We are each given 24 hours a day, yet not promised that, but gracefully given that! I (like many, many others) prioritize what I spend my time doing and try my best to use that time efficiently. I spend many hours reading research, countless hours studying school-stuff- not for school, but to be a better teacher and co-worker. Its not a job requirement, but it certainly is morally calling me to be the very best I can be, so I study study study until I have a stack of professional books and websites that's just about unsurmountable! Sadly though, I don't spend much time being thoughtful toward others and remembering others' special occasions by sending cards, letters, stopping to visit, etc. I live a very busy, rushed life and don't slow down sometimes to enjoy small little chats with my very curious children. I miss opportunities to enjoy watching them squabble before their old enough to really hurt each other or get to roll on the floor with them and play airplanes.

I've spent a few months, delving into my masters program, while my family continues living around my constantly being glued to the computer or textbooks. I miss them. I think they might just miss me a tad. And, some nights I wish there were just a few more hours in the day! Then, I think about how I manage my time and I thought I could cheat the system a tad by waking up early, working through breakfast, eating small snacks throughout the day (multi-tasking) while I worked, worked, worked, and making it home for a nice large supper. However, that's about worn me thin and back to the ill-health I was at several months ago. So, the saving time with working through meals and the stress of work right now has caught up with me and I'm trying to slow down, re-focus and re-align my priorities with how I should be spending my time to be well-rounded and the best I can be at the same time.

I don't know if this link will work, but as I drove the boys home from church tonight (Awanas), I heard this song on the radio. It was Chris Tomlin, "I Will Rise" and was just a very powerful message to me. It really has nothing to do with the blog I've just written, but is just a very thought-provoking and humbling song. If it doesn't work, maybe type that into Youtube.com and it will bring up several videos for you to choose from.

We are one day closer to the weekend. It will be a very fun-filled, family-filled, jam-packed, stressful, emotional, exciting, physically-exhausting weekend, but I'm gearing up for it and super excited. I'll have lots of exciting things to share with you next week, including some new pictures!

Monday. . . Need I say any more???

Today was a Monday for sure. Its supposed to be the first full 5 day work week with students in a very long time, which at the end is Halloween so the kids are already wound up all week long! Sickness is going around rampant (knock on wood) and I have late night meetings every single night this week! Ah. . . . staying positive though, I managed to file away one stack of papers from my desk today, so it made me feel a bit more productive. I also made some neat things for our upcoming reading night that I'm helping with.

My OCD is spreading a bit to my kids as Malachi has started to try to rearrange the DVD collection. I'm not sure what he doesn't like about it, but he likes to take them all out and try to put them all back. Its kinda like me switching and re-organizing things over and over until I think I have them JUST so! This scene here makes my chaotic nerve go biserk though:

Finally, the last few pictures are the remaining ones from our capitol tour. I really would recommend it to anyone that is interested. Its such a beautiful place (which it should be for all the money of ours they have used), but its very historical and amazing.




The artwork is just something to be in awe over:

This was NOT part of the 296 steps for Zachary:


This is Logan scared of heights from the 2nd floor. Needless to say, he could humbly admit that he was not ambitious to climb to the top of the dome.


One of the house chambers:


No flash, so a bit blurry:



Malachi and Zachary were looking out from the 3rd floor window:

Sorry its blurry again. It was the only way I could get a semi-decent picture.

I kicked myself for not having my boys "dressed up" for pictures but this was such an impromptu trip and tour:

The artwork on the ceiling reminded me of Michaelangelo, of course, only what I've dreamed.

296 Steps

Last weekend, while I attended my Reading Conference, my boys explored Topeka. They went to the Museum of History by themselves and then picked me up after my conference to go on a tour of our state's capitol building. They will be closing the capitol for 2 years to tours because of renovations. So, we decided to take advantage of the free family adventure and tour the capitol. Zachary is finally old enough to understand a lot of what goes on and appreciate a lot of what the capitol had to offer, including the 296 steps to the very top!!!

See, the tippy top in this picture???? That's where they climbed too and WERE OUTSIDE!!!!

Here is Zachary and Logan on the capitol steps:



Shawn took these pictures since he took Zachary by himself while Logan, Malachi and I waited below.

Suzie's Recovery

Poor SuzieQ has not felt well at all since her surgery. She hasn't eaten hardly at all and just lays around with a sad look on her face. She's being spoiled right now, with the boys leaving her alone (except petting her) and getting lots of cuddle time. We had movie night last night, but she didn't last long through it before she fell fast asleep! Hopefully she'll start feeling better soon.

Even though yesterday was nice out, I turned my heater on for her to enjoy. Its her favorite spot of the house now!

What might Mr. Malachi be up to in this picture????

Wonder what those orange sticks are in his hands???

Carrots . . . . left over from supper time (we used some in our chicken noodle soup) and he didn't want to let go of them!

Even after being dropped in the dirt, he still picked them up and carried them around. (Don't worry, he wasn't about to eat them!)

Happy Friday!

Its been a LONG day with many many miles on the road and many doctors appointments to go to today. Zachary's allergy appointment in Topeka went well, although the doctor got a bit snippy with me when we started talking about allergy injections. . . but it all got figured out just fine. Zach will start those weekly for 3-5 years!!!! (I asked, "how long will he need these?" and she said, "Oh, definitely for 3-5 years! So, I thought, "HOLY COW!") They did confirm that he does indeed have asthma, gave him a flow meter to check his "output" and also we have a prescription for an EpiPen when he starts his injections in a few weeks. Oh, joy!

Suzie had her dr. appointment this morning to get "fixed" and she's a bit tired and groggy tonight. Poor little baby. She's such a wonderful, calm little girl. I hope she stays being a good dog.

As we drove past a pasture this morning, Logan said, "Look at the cows, Mommy! They havin a meeting!" I asked why he thought that and he said, "They standing round a circle."

Here are some pictures from many weeks ago at the carnival they attended with my aunt:

Logan golfs like his daddy:

Here is Malachi sneaking some people cereal to Suzie:

The funny part was that if he looked over at me first and saw me looking, he would nonchalantly act like he was getting ready to put that piece of cereal in his mouth! hmmmm . . . little mr. sneaky! :)

The other day, while driving in the van, there was a bug of some sort crawling up on the back of my seat. Since Logan sits directly behind me, he started yelling about it, which sorta almost freaked me out a bit. Logan was trying to scoot forward so he could smush it with his shoe and Zachary started to get hysterical! (remember, we are a family of bug-loving-boys) He said, "Logan, if you were that tiny, little bug, would you like it it someone tried to smush you? How would that make you feel! Huh? Huh? Logan, do you want someone to step on you and smush your guts out?" Logan thought for a minute and then decided to proceed and kill the bug. Thank goodness because I might have had to pull the van over and kill it myself! :)

Swamped!

I have a bit of homework to get done, so need to make this a short post. We have parent teacher conferences this week, and tomorrow I get to attend Zachary's! I'm so excited for it, as well as a bit nervous.

Despite the warmer weather, Suzie is definitely taking after me in her love for hogging the space heater! Even when its not on, she'll lay right up next to it. Can you say "hot dog"!?

Malachi is starting to read, well, maybe he's still just a picture looker and likes to chatter about the pictures.


I thought this picture was adorable a couple days ago:

This picture is even better:


I started thinking about the whole "Halloween" idea and I just am not a big fan at all of Halloween. I was subbing yesterday and we were supposed to pass out flyers to go home about a local haunted house. Well, I was told to not give one to a certain student because they were "very religious"! I kinda felt a bit offended because I consider myself a Christian, yet Halloween is such a tricky time of year. I hate all the evil-ness of it and I don't think I would even have the courage to attempt a haunted house adventure, but I think there are some fun things to go along with fall time such as carving pumpkins, dressing up in fun costumes and enjoying family time. And, if my kids are not a part of all this, they're not going to have the experiences or background knowledge (reading teacher talk) to understand some of the basic picture books that we are bombarded with.

But, have you ever thought about Halloween??? I mean, this morning as I dropped Zachary off, I thought about how often we tell our children to NOT answer the door to strangers, yet what do we do all evening of the 31st???? And, we tell them to NOT take candy from strangers, yet we teach them to go beg for it??? Maybe it's ok, just for this one night. Have you ever heard that a time or two??? Halloween bothers me on so many different levels, and its not just about being a Christian. Its about being a concerned and protective parent. I remember several times going with my middle school friends where people (some just very kind ones) would invite us in for a little while. And on the really cold Halloweens, we actually took them up on that! Can you believe how naive I was!? I'm thankful that we have a family get-together this year so we can enjoy that and it takes the pressure off of staying home and just not doing Halloween. However, I did recieve a nice box of free books to pass out. So, the first 100 trick-or-treaters to my house will recieve something much more long lasting and healthier than an old piece of candy!