never before seen "footage" of a rare species

these jammies were from last winter and they became a favorite.

he pretends that he is a rare green-striped tiger when he wears them.

i have tried to retire them, but they seem to get "discovered" every time.

don't think that i haven't fixed those holes,

but this tigers' toes are too long and the stitches just won't hold.

besides, have you ever seen the things that rare green-striped tigers do?

they hunt, run and jump in the most ferocious and extreme ways.

i guess for now i'll just enjoy this rare species until it becomes extinct.

first born

two friends have tagged me for this on facebook.

and since today is his day anyway, i thought i'd go ahead and do it.

hard to believe 15 years ago , on a rainy monday,

that my first born came into this world at 10:14 am.

i can still recall it as if it were yesterday..........

Was your first pregnancy planned? NO.

Were you married at the time? no.

What was your reaction? scared, but in awe.

Was abortion an option for you? NEVER.

How old were you? 17.

How did you find out you were pregnant? missed period(s).

Who did you tell first? friends, boyfriend-who is now my husband.

Did you want to find out the sex? YES.

When was your due date? January 31, 1994.

Did you have morning sickness? a little bit.

What did you crave? salsa, mashed potatoes with cranberry sauce

and marie calenders pie (cherry) with vanilla icecream.

Who/What irritated you the most? hardly anything because i slept all the time, but the sound of chewing really got to me.

What was your first child's sex? male.

Did you wish you had the opposite sex of what you were getting? no. i wanted a big brother to lead the tribe of children i'd have.

How many pounds did you gain during the pregnancy? way TOO many, didn't you see my list of cravings??

Did you have a baby shower? yes, three.

Was it a surprise or did you know? i knew.

Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? no.

Where did you give birth? sharp murrieta.

How many hours were you in labor? 5.

Who drove you to the hospital? my mama.

Who watched you give birth? both of my parents, he was "our" baby, as i was still their baby.

Was it natural or c-section? i have had all of my kids natural. no c-sections or episiotomies.

Did you take medicine to ease the pain? no. i have never used medication during birth,

it would be distracting to me.

How much did your child weigh? 7lbs. 8 oz.

When was your child actually born? February 7, 1994.

What did you name him/her? i named him Christian.

How old is your first born today? today he turns 15.

happy birthday, son.

so off i go to make him a white-texas sheet cake-

it is his FAVORITE cake in the whole wide world.

it probably has more calories than all the cakes in the whole wide world too.

i chose this LIFE............

and i don't ever want to imagine what kind of life i would've had without him.

sprouting wings

today was monumental for me as a homeschooling mother.
one of my students sprouted his wings as a writer.
you may have a student like this, he is the reluctant one,
the one who reads later than the rest.
he takes longer to learn
his multiplication tables and he pretty much despises any
kind of structured learning.
he is the middle child.
not the oldest, not the baby and not the only girl.
it has always been hard for him to find his place.
not just with regards to school, but in life.
he is the stubborn one.
the one who makes my blood pressure
rise every time we have some sort of confrontation about
not putting forth his best effort or paying attention.
he is the one that made me doubt whether or not i should
even be homeschooling at all.
he is the reason i searched feverishly for different ideas about teaching.
it is because of him that i found out that not all children are auditory learners,
which you'd think i'd know, because i am not one either.
yet he is the one with the neatest handwriting.
he is the first one to put his boots on and lead me outdoors.
he is the one with an artistic eye and a gentle heart,
he can quite often be seen following the shadow of another
small boy, his little brother.
he has his ears tuned to the birds that frequent our yard
and constantly comes inside with descriptive narratives
of things he has seen as he peruses the property,
pellet gun in hand and camera in his pocket.
the assignment was simple enough:
write me a paragraph about our day at nannie and papa's yesterday.
make it in chronological order, starting with breakfast,
which were yummy "mamacakes".
pay attention to punctuation and spelling and i will help you
with paragraph structure later.
he is in the sixth grade, this should be no problem you say.
well, not for my boy.
this is usually a most painful process,
ending with discouragement on his end
and disappointment on mine.
disappointment in myself because maybe i have
not been the best teacher.
maybe he needed special ed.
maybe i wasn't patient enough.
but in the end it was because
he just wasn't ready,
he hadn't sprouted those wings.
but today he did
and it happened so much like all of the rest of his
"learning", very out of the blue, quite naturally
almost as if he'd always written this way.
beautifully constructed sentences, colorful adjectives,
very well written feelings and emotions about what
he did, what he saw, tasted, touched and felt.
and all i can say is
i am one PROUD mama bird!

the great outdoors

i can remember being a child

and sitting in a classroom,

the doors were open to let

some fresh air into an overwhelmingly

stale and stuffy room and my mind would drift.

it drifted so far into the p.e. field

that my concentration level was

practically zero.

all i thought about during those times

were the little flowers with heart shaped

petals that, when tied together, made the prettiest

bracelets.

they wilted quickly, usually by the time

recess was over, they were dead.

fast forward 20 years

and i am so pleased that often times

this

is our classroom.

the GREAT OUTDOORS.

and if anything wilts, well,

it doesn't matter,

because there is no rush.

we can just pick more!

they amaze me

by how astute they've

become

watching and listening

for different bird calls,

and then there is

the joy on a certain face

when he

takes notice for the first time

of the velvety stuff

growing on the rocks.

a discussion is sparked

about direction and moss

and how it looks like a little kingdom.

they bombard me with

"look at this mama

and this...",

and i am filled with such

joy because, much like them

i am constantly amazed

at the beauty and wonder

that has gone into

designing the great outdoors

and best of all

sharing with them

just WHO is in charge of it all

and the small talk which ensues

as we ponder over whether or not

what GOD has is like

having "the force".

little boy

luke skywalker-check

hot wheels-check

little robot guy-check

toe nail clippers-?



this was taken about 2 weeks ago, i took them away from him after i took this picture. but strangely enough no one can seem to find the clippers again. we are all struggling with using baby nail clippers, they just aren't cutting it! = )

locked in

wow! what a morning!
so far we have:
~found out we are "locked in". yes, dad, aka. my darling husband, God bless him for getting up at 4 am to go to work in the pouring rain, left with all three sets of house keys in his truck. so i am locked in this house with three very-anxious-to-go-out-and-play-in-the-puddles-boys.

~a badly cut finger. as they were going to surprise me with fresh-squeezed orange juice middle son cut his finger with a new knife that is very sharp. i know because i just cut myself the other nite. "can you just pretend you don't know what we were trying to do mom?" says my little guy." "just put super-glue on it so it stops bleeding," says oldest son. "that's what you'd have to do in the wilderness so you wouldn't bleed to death."

~someone changed the settings on my blog to enable the Hindi language, so every time i wrote something, these strangely beautiful letters kept appearing as my words disappeared and i couldn't figure out how to fix it.

~i am out of dish soap AND laundry soap and have no way to get 1) out of the house and 2) to the store AND you can imagine how much laundry there is and dishes to do, after all it is monday

~the dishwasher, the appliance, (not me), is still broken..........talk about penance, penance, penance.............

got to go.......i hear plans for a "great escape". something involving climbing out windows, bedsheets, extension cords, etc. they are letting the cats in through said windows right now.
i have to take this kind of thing seriously. oh the thinks they can think!!

wordless wednesday

i have seen this post title around the web and hope no one minds that i am borrowing it!

papa, only you............

can prevent fires.

last night when we were done with all of our Advent prayers and the wreath blessing, i realized i had left the matches out. now my kids are aged 14, 11, 9 and 4, so it is not like there was imminent fire danger, but obviously papa, my dad, firefighter for the forest service/camp pendleton for 30 years, needs to give someone (and we all know WHO that someone is) a lesson on MATCHES because this is how i knew, this is what i heard..........

" do you want me to show you how i can light a match without burning myself?"

so papa, if you read this blog as much as you say you do, it is time!

the tale of a honey bear

this honey bear has been waiting patiently to be used as a water bottle by a very busy and always thirsty little boy............

i am happy because we are "re-purposing", the big kids are happy because they don't have to give him water all of the time and he is happy to have such a cool water bottle.........i do wish he was bigger though (the honey bear, not the little boy!)

LITTLE BOY SEWING

man fighting a dragon

a spider eating candy, a plain spider, a balloon and a guy throwing a spear

ps. i guess this is what i get for asking a boy to sew with me!

What Boys Do

This is what my boys do anyway when they know I am not looking.......My oldest and youngest are home alone with me on Mondays and Wednesdays, while my "middle" children go to classes outside of our home and any chance they get, off they go, zipping around our property on this little old golf cart which their father just "had" to get for them. These two boys were born ten years apart and yet I amazed at how close they still are and how much fun they can have together. This has to be one of the greatest benefits of homeschooling-the strengthening of family ties that bind them in ways that could not possibly happen if they were separated all day long, five days a week. I have found that taking a few enrichment classes has been beneficial in keeping all of my children apart just long enough to miss each other and it gives me time to have one on one time with whoever is home with me each day. I find myself missing whomever is not here and long for the days when they were younger and they were ALL home, all of the time. However, those days are gone and so I seek to find comfort in days like today, when I get to witness a moment like this:

P.S. Now they know I am watching.......

P.S.S. A few hours later, I heard cries of "All Aboard!" as all 4 of them took turns going for rides. Their laughter resonated through the yard and into my bedroom window while they pretended they were on a train and I thought to myself: life really doesn't get much better than this does it?