Dear Parents…..

Yesterday Jacob brought a letter home from his teacher in his Parent Folder. I read the letter and when I was done, I was a bit confused and surprised by what I read, so I read it again. Here's what the letter says:

Dear Parents:

Every other week your child will receive a spelling list of 15 to 20 words. The left hand column of words is his/her core words. These words follow a spelling or vowel sound pattern. The right hand column has words that your child should know how to spell in his/her writing.

Here's where I need your help. Every other Monday, please give your child a pretest. This will help your child focus on words that are difficult for him/her. On the following Thursday, give your child the spelling test at home, grade it, and send it to school on Friday. This should only take approximately 10 minutes and will save us a lot of class time. I have attached the spelling test that you will use on Thursday. I appreciate your support.

Thank you,

Ms. Peters

Ok….so here is where I was confused……What? It's Tuesday and I am supposed to give my child a spelling test on Thursday, grade it and send it back to you on Friday? When was the interview for this job that I just got hired for?

Here's where I was surprised—"This will only take approximately 10 minutes and will save us a lot of class time." I guess I didn't know when I was in the classroom that it was even an option to pass my job off on the parents! Man I could have saved HOURS of class time if only I hadn't had to give those darned spelling tests, AND grade them!

Also, I don't know about you but I would have been a bit suspicious when all of my kids had shown up with grades of 100 every other week. I mean, really? Does she think that parents are going to let their kids turn in a failing grade on something they did at home? Or this….."Hey, Johnny! Here's your spelling list. Write these words on your paper and I will grade it in a minute when I am done cooking this chicken. Yes, I know I am "supposed" to call them out to you, but I am really busy so just copy them. You are still learning how to spell them when you copy them."

Just so you know….I am NOT against helping the kids out. This is my child and I want him to be successful. I help with homework, math facts, AND spelling words throughout the week. I just didn't sign up to homeschool, and I don't want to feel like I have to remember every OTHER Monday to give a pretest and then a REAL test on every OTHER Thursday, then grade it and send it back to school. What if I get busy and do forget? Does my child get a failing grade because I didn't do the teacher's job?

And just WHAT IF all of the kids come to school with a 100 on Friday? Does she overlook that because she is so busy doing the happy dance that she actually got all of the parents to participate and grade the home given tests and send them back?

No Talking In the Library!

1982......It is a hot summer day and I am in my bedroom "teaching" my class of kids. There is a chalkboard against the wall and 5 dolls (my class) lined up against the bed. Each "student" has a paper to work on (thanks to my Aunt Melony--the teacher I always wanted to be like even if she did throw erasers at her students!), and I have a grade book to keep their attendance and grades in. Wait, what is that? Is someone talking while I am teaching? I chastise the student and put HIS name on the board....the girls in my class never got in trouble. We all know it is the boys that act up in school, and even as a 7 year old teacher I knew that! The boys hope I don't make them write lines during recess, but I don't make any promises! Outside my bedroom is my dad listening to me talk to dolls and teach them how to add. He is smiling because he is so amused by the fact that I am entertaining myself with this imaginary play time. To me teaching came naturally--even if I did fail all of the boys just for the mere fact that they were boys! It was something I always wanted to do and I knew I could be good at.

Fast Forward 27 years......I now have a 7 year old daughter who wants to be a teacher and she tells me almost every day after school! She sits in the sunroom and carries on the same type conversations with her students as I did with mine. She has the same type of imagination as I had at that age, and I do find it amusing!
Last week I decided to finally open up the boxes of books that had been sitting in the sunroom for a year now. We got a bookshelf from a family that Ben was moving, and I wanted to get the kids' books out and on the bookshelf, so we set to work. During the process of moving books from boxes to the bookshelf, Annalisa got very excited...."OOH! I have an idea! We can make this like a liberry and I can teach my class here. Mom, do you know how to make this look like a liberry?"
I gently corrected her, "The word is liBRARY....not liBERRY....it isn't a fruit. And, yes I think it is already looking like a library."

"Well, what if we get a book and don't know where to put it back? Can you put numbers on the books like in the liberr....library?"

"No, I am not going to put numbers on the books. Just as long as you get them back on the shelf it will be fine. There isn't a 'right' place for them."

"OOOH!! I have another idea....have you ever seen in the library how there is a chair and a place for the teacher to read a book to her students? Well, we can move this chair [enter Ben's photography chair] over by the window and I can read to my students in the library."

"Ok, that sounds good."

"OOOOHHHH!! Then you can hang a sign in the library that says 'Newton Library' so people will know they are in a library. Do you think you can do that, Mom?"

"No, Annalisa I can't hang a sign from the ceiling...I can't even reach the ceiling!"

"Well, I am already making a sign for our library that says it is the Newton Library."

I think during the time that we moved books, she said the word "library" close to 100 times. I have come to the conclusion that she loves to hear herself talk, and in order to hear herself she must make her conversations longer, thus the reason for repeating non-essential words!
Here is the sign she made......do you see any repetition?


And here are a couple of pictures of the library:

Once she got her class up and running in the LIBRARY :-), she decided to start a good conduct chain. Most teachers use these as an incentive for the kids to be good when they are in other classes, the hallway, or when the teacher steps out of the room. The premise is to get the chain to reach all the way to the floor and then you get a party. Annalisa is doing a paper clip chain and I know I can't wait until the day of the party! Here is her chain.....

When I asked her to come help me unload the dishwasher the other day, she asked me, "Mom, how many paper clips do you think my class should earn if they are quiet while I am gone?"
"Oh, I don't know...2? I think 2 would probably be good." She agreed that 2 would be good and continued to put dishes away. A few minutes later she stood up and looked shocked, "Did you hear that, Mom?" I didn't hear anything, but before I could answer she said, "Did you hear HIM talking while I am gone? HE is going to ruin it for everybody!"
Oh well! I guess even my 7 year old knows it is the BOYS that ruin it for everybody!! ;-)

"Yes, Ma'am.....I did."

I have come to the conclusion that any and everyone who has more than one child undoubtedly has one that isn't--let's say "the most organized". My second child falls into this category. In the past, as I would wash clothes on Saturday I would realize that he only had 1 pair of dirty underwear for the prior week and 1 sock....who wears only 1 sock at a time?? Also, he tends to believe that shorts and pants never need to be washed, so there were minimal amounts of those in his hamper. When I would ask him if he had given me ALL of his dirty clothes, his answer was always, "Yes, ma'am....I did." Upon further inspection of his room I would always find more dirty underwear, socks (actual pairs) and shorts/pants stuffed or thrown in various places that escaped his vision. I am wondering what the parameters of peripheral vision are for a 9 year old boy.
In order to help him be more organized, we bought him crates and labeled them Monday, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri and Weekend. At the end of each day the corresponding crate should at least have a shirt, socks (2!) and underwear. We still haven't accomplished having this done correctly at the end of each day....somehow the socks fly off of his feet only to be forgotten, and the underwear.....well who knows where that goes 90% of the time?
Because I know this to be true, I stay out of the basement (boys' room) as much as possible because it only stresses me out to see the mess. Yes, it stresses me out! I just don't understand how they can't SEE the dirty clothes on the floor!! What's more....if I only had a short-span memory Jacob would get away with wearing the same shirt multiple times in one week... most likely because it is already laying on the floor by his bed when he wakes up. He often tries to get away with it!
Well, today I thought I would bite the bullet and go down there. After asking Jacob multiple times last night "Are your dirty clothes where they should be?" and getting the response "Yes, ma'am....they are." I have decided that is the wrong question! Apparently the floor is "where they should be" in his mind. I should ask if the dirty clothes are in the correct crates. I can't believe I have been a mom this long and I still don't know how to ask questions to my kids!

"Jacob, did you clean your room?" "Yes, ma'am....I did."

If you look closely you can see 4 random socks....1 is by the bookshelf!

My mom wouldn't have let me leave the house with my bed looking like that!

These are his crates....with dirty clothes on the floor beside them!

Such a mess!!

I collected 2 bags and 1 box of toys that weren't put away.

The pile of dirty clothes I collected while cleaning.
This is what his room should look like!

The theme song around our house is "He's still working on me!"

And Baby Makes 6!

I know that some of you have been waiting and waiting for a new post, but I honestly haven't had time to sit down and get this done. I didn't think it would be much different to have a baby in the house since my other kids are older, but I was WRONG! Because my other kids are older there are so many more things that I have to do, but right now I am going to try to update this blog!

As I sit here typing this, to my right is a sweet, cute, bright-eyed baby boy wearing a onesie that says "so cuddly" (which is very true), sucking on a pacifier and staring at the TV. A baby boy I never anticipated having, but couldn't imagine my life without! He is 6 weeks old (yesterday) and a true blessing to our entire family.
Here is the run-down of what has happened over those last 6 weeks......
On August 18 we went into the hospital to have the C-Section that would bring our newest blessing into this world. He was born at 11:34 a.m. He weighed 6 lbs 12 oz (a bit smaller than I expected) and was 19 inches long (my shortest baby yet). He was absolutely beautiful!! I remember Ben bringing him over for me to see, and I immediately thought he reminded me of Cole when he was born. I remember laying on the operating table looking back over my left shoulder at Ben holding his baby boy with a proud look on his face. Then it seemed like everything was spinning....I saw Ben leaving the room with Benjamin but I didn't know why. I remember trying to ask him where he was going, but then everything went black. 3 hours later I woke up and was being wheeled to recovery. Cole, Jacob and Annalisa were all waiting for me to come out of surgery and there were tears from Cole and Annalisa--they were a bit worried about me since they saw me with the O2 tube on my face. While I was in recovery I hazily remember the nurse telling me she was going to take Benjamin to the NICU because his O2 levels were not good. I never thought that he would actually stay there.
What happened to me.....I had a lot of adhesions due to prior C-Sections and also the right side of my uterus was bleeding pretty bad and it took them a while to get it to stop. The doctor said I almost ended up getting a hysterectomy, but thankfully they were able to stop the bleeding. Because they had to separate my uterus from my abdominal wall I was very bruised and sore--much more sore than with the previous C-Sections. Also, I lost quite a bit of blood, so I had to have a blood transfusion the next day. After the transfusion I started to feel better and not so tired all the time. I must say that God totally had His healing hand on me through the whole procedure and recovery....and STILL!
What happened with Benjamin.....when I was 8 weeks pregnant I was told that I had antibodies in my blood. This was not good news. Because I am Rh- and Ben is Rh+ I have always had the Rhogam shot which is supposed to prohibit the formation of antibodies in the mother's blood.....but obviously it had not worked for me when Annalisa was born. Since I had the antibodies we spent the entire pregnancy monitoring the antibody levels and checking Benjamin through ultrasound for signs of anemia. We never saw anything to indicate that he would be anemic at birth, but we still knew it was a possiblilty. The other possibility was that he would be severly jaundiced due to the antibody levels in mine and his blood. It turns out that he had both the anemia and the jaundice. He ended up staying in the NICU for a full week. During that week he was on oxygen, under the special lights to bring his bilirubin levels down, and he had a blood transfusion as well as a blood exchange. Through everything he was a real trooper. It was very difficult to have to leave my baby at the hospital when I went home, but thankfully I had my wonderful mother-in-law here to take me to the hospital to see him every day. Benjamin got to come home to us when he was 1 week old, but he was still on the O2. The doctor's wanted to wean him off, so he stayed on for another 2 weeks and then they let me turn it off. He has been off of the O2 since the 1st week of September and he has done great!
The other kids LOVE having him here. Whenever he makes the smallest "peep" they run to get him, comfort him, hold him, change him...whatever they think will make him happy! I am so glad that they love him so much! God has truly blessed me with this wonderful family!!
While I was in the hospital Cole turned 11....his birthday is August 20. He had a fun time with family at Amazing Jake's and I got to see lots of pictures of all the things they did. On September 4 Annalisa turned 7 and we took her out to dinner and bowling to celebrate her birthday.
I am loving being a stay-at-home mom again! My kids are getting to do things that they couldn't have done if I were still working because there is no way I could have had the time off to get them from meetings or practices. Ben is traveling a lot with his job, but we are so thankful for the paycheck.
My life verse is Is. 40:31 "They who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not faint." It seems that in our marriage we have done a LOT of waiting on the LORD--this is also HOPING in the LORD--but just when it seems we can't wait any longer His promise comes true....we soar on wings like eagles....we are able to make it through the days without losing our hope in Him. Man, I love GOD and I love that He loves me!!

The Countdown

I am very excited about what is going to happen in 5 days........I will have a new baby to hold! On August 18, 2009 at 10:30 am I am going to have a C-Section to deliver little Benjamin Emmanuel. After all of the scares the doctors have given me over the past 2 months, everything looks perfect with the little guy, and I am doing well. I would say "great" but it wouldn't be true. My finger joints are pretty sore, and my feet swell quite a bit at night. That isn't painful--just ugly! LOL Also, he has dropped and is laying on just about every nerve possible down low making it a bit painful to walk as of last week! All of this is going to be totally worth it though once I get to hold him and kiss him and watch his daddy and brothers and sister welcome him into this world. I am not excited about the fact that I have to undergo surgery---I hate that part---but I am excited about what it will bring about. I have been washing, drying, folding and hanging all kinds of baby clothes trying to get ready for his arrival. It has been such a long time since I have had a little one that I am sure there are things I will need but won't even think about until after he is here. I put the car seat and stroller together all by myself! Annalisa put the high chair together with direction from me--now she sits in it to watch TV (crazy girl!!)! Jacob and Cole put together the pack-n-play with no help at all. They even all went shopping with me to pick out gowns, towels, socks, receiving blankets and burp cloths. Cole said it was the most fun he ever had shopping since he got to pick things out! So, there are 5 days left and we will have a new addition to our already wonderful family to make it even more wonderful! I will post pictures after he is here!