monday morning

The girls are gone, the Z-man is asleep, and once again, it's eerily quiet at my house. Those first few moments of quiet on Monday are so strange.

Embracing the silence, and moving on...

Now, what to do? Cleaning out and organizing have taken top priority recently.

Let's go into the girls' room.

All of their stuffed animals are supposed to fit into this nifty little pink mesh-thing:

But, upon further inspection, I find, stowed away in an under-the-bed-box, this little guy. (There were quite a few other stowaways with him!)

So, being the mean reasonable mom that I am, I gave the girls a choice to make all the animals fit in the pink-mesh-thing themselves, or to let me take care of it for them (i.e pitch them myself.)

The result was this motley crew, delivered to my room with "ransom" notes around each of their necks. I was informed that I was the cause of splitting up families, that certain daughters would never see their mothers again, and that brothers and sisters were being parted forever.

Seriously? Oh, the drama.



And, yes, I'm sorry, Black Dot, but I'm sure you and the others will find a nice home somewhere else. Good bye!

little miss spunky

Little Miss Spunky and I have been learning to work together a bit better over the last few weeks.

An actual conversation between us (before we took spring break):

Me: M, I don't like this.
M: What?
Me: Homeschool! I don't like homeschool!!
M: Oh.
Me: So, here's how it's going to work. Are you listening to me?!?
M: (lying in an arc over the chair) Yeah.
Me: Ok, I'm going to give you work, and you're going to do it. Are you listening?!?
M: Yeah.
Me: Ok, so what did I say?
M: Um...I have to be good, and listen...
Me: No, that's not what I said! It's very simple really. I give you work, and you do it. Now, tell me what I said.
M: I don't want to.
Me: Well, if you don't tell me, then I'm not going to know you understand, and this is NOT going to work!
M: Ok, you said, you give me work, and I do it.
Me: Yes, you've got it. Because as far as I can tell, we've got two options next year: homeschool or public school.
M: I am NOT going back to public school.
Me: Well, if you don't do your work, you may have to.
M: Why?
Me: Well, they can make you.
M: THEY can't make me do anything. I can do whatever I want and I am NOT going back to public school!!!
--end of discussion--

Elf family?

sleep standing?

Ever heard of it? I hadn't until I checked on M last weekend after church. She had been putting up a major fuss about not taking her nap (even though she was exhausted.)

I was busy downstairs when I noticed that it had gotten unusually quiet upstairs. "Could it be that M actually fell asleep," I wondered? Yes, and never before in such an unusual position.

Later, when I asked how she had managed to fall asleep standing up she said, "Well, I was playing, and my head just kept getting heavier and heavier until I just couldn't stay awake."

scardey cat

Every Thursday morning, my friend Ingrid and I swap babysitting so that we can attend staff meetings. Her youngest son loves to play our video games which include oldies like "Pac Man" and "Space Invaders." M usually sits nearby

to cheer him on, while A takes on an entirely different role: hiding on the couch under her blankie. Occassionally she gets brave enough to peek out from underneath it.

I haven't quite figured out which game it is, but one of the games in particular makes a sound that A is afraid of. She insists on playing "Pac Man" when it's her turn, but as Ingrid's son says, "Yowr not vewy good!" She's still too little to run away from the ghosts effectively.