Your Crazy Mom

Giving Mother Nature the Bird

Sometimes I hate being a woman. This week has been one of those times. I’m sure that my boyfriend and my children are very glad that I am, in fact, a bonafide female, but personally I am giving Mother Nature the BIRD. If I didn’t know better – and THANK GOD I know better – [...]

Buried Treasure

This is my boy. He loves pirates. Before my daughter became a grown-up Kindergartner it wasn’t uncommon to find me at the supermarket with Jack Sparrow in one hand and Sleeping Beauty in the other. Already, she wouldn’t be caught dead in such “baby dress up stuff” – at least not in public where anyone [...]

Mystery Meat Mondays

My daughter is the only kid in her class that brings her lunch to school. Apparently, I’m the only parent in the class who remembers how frightening the elementary school cafeteria is. I distinctly remember mushy bubbles in the hamburger patties, chicken nuggets that could be bounced off of the table, and pizza that was, [...]

Lessons in Math, Reading & Butt Wiping

Since I gave up the working world, I have struggled to keep myself busy. A few months ago, I accepted an invitation from my daughter’s teacher to come into the classroom a couple of days a week and practice reading with the kids. While I love the time that I spend there, I have found [...]

Falling Off the Wagon

This week, I’ve spent enough time in my cobweb infested attic that it should be considered cruel and unusual punishment. My sister’s birthday was yesterday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY SISTER) and for her big day, I created a scrapbook. While I buck the idea that I am any form of a Martha-Stewartish-scrapbooking-mom, I must confess how much fun I [...]

Loving ‘Em One at a Time

February 25th, 2010

eL.

This post was contributed by a dear friend of mine. I have known Noelle, literally, all my life. My admiration for her, her faith and her family has only grown over the years. She has an amazing story of motherhood. I hope this will be one of many contributions of hers to Your Crazy Mom! Bookmark her blog: http://www.triplesmiles.blogspot.com/

Before I became a full time Mommy I was a full time teacher. Over 9 years I had the great joy of teaching 4th grade, 2nd grade, and then my last year of teaching I took my 2nd graders for another THRILL ride and we tackled 3rd grade together:)

The first 6 weeks of school, a teacher always has the daunting task of figuring out her students one by one. What are their strengths? What are their weaknesses? What makes them tick? What is their learning style? Usually by the end of the 3rd week a school, a teacher has grouped her students by ability and learning style. Although I could write a book on this topic, I will keep it short and simple. The bottom line is I know and understand how very important it is to teach on a child’s individual learning level and individually as much as possible! Over 9 years of teaching, I saw many students soar when given just a few minutes of one on one instruction!

And today, I was given that JOY again. Any teacher will tell you, there is nothing more joyful than experiencing that “light bulb moment” in a child.

My children are almost 4, 3 and 2. I will admit most of my instruction to them is “group instruction” Most everything we do, we do together. I have had difficulty at times getting one or the other to cooperate and concentrate while I am trying to teach them something.

Well today, the 2 youngest children were napping. Zachariah had already taken a “cat nap” and was resting in his room when I decided this would be a great opportunity to work with him. He had a letter “V” project that we needed to finish. So I called him out of his room and we went downstairs, just the two of us to work on Letter V. He has never cooperated so well. First, we pretended that Letter V was a road for his cars,

then he glued pasta noodles back to back on his V. Normally, he would have given me great resistance to this task. But without the siblings around, he loved the project!

Then came the light bulb moment! I had been working with him on sequencing for many weeks, it has never clicked, or at least I thought it had never clicked. After we finished the letter V, he ask if we could do “his letter” which is letter Z. So I thought I’d try to get him to sequence the colors and he did it! I would ask him after every noodle what color comes next and he got it right time after time! I was so proud of him!

So I must find a way to give each of my Triple Smiles individual learning time. If any of you moms out there have any tips on this topic, please please forward them to me!

And just for fun after supper, we pretended Zach was a Veterinarian and then he shopped at a Vegetable Market!

“Vegetable Stand OPEN”

February 24th, 2010

eL.

On March, 9^th 1999 while campaigning for the Democratic nomination for the presidency the rumors that Al Gore claimed to have invented the internet began. Here is the exact text of his statement.

“During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country’s economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.”

Hoover Dam was erected on the border of Arizona and Nevada along the Colorado River. The dam was originally named the Boulder Dam and it took five years to construct. Upon it’s completion, the dam was the largest concrete structure as well as the largest hydroelectric generation station in the world. Since then it has been surpassed in size and strength and is currently 38^th on the list.

Beer Bread Recipe: 3 cups of self rising flour, 3 tablespoons of sugar, 1 can of beer (the darker, the better) Mix and pour into a loaf pan and bake at 350 for 50 minutes to 1 hour. Slice and serve. YUMMY.

What do Al Gore, the Hoover Dam, and my favorite beer bread recipe have in common? Not a damn thing… except, I learned them all from the internet. Were we just all stupid before the creation of Google or what?

My kids started playing on the computer when they were old enough to sit upright. It has taught them a lot, but Google isn’t going to replace a good education and discipline at home. There are just some things that the internet, television, and video games can’t teach our kids. I know, because I saw a lot of those kids who are now legal-age adults in Las Vegas this weekend. Some of them had clearly skipped the chapters in life on integrity, self-control, and self-respect.

While I don’t encourage allowing your kids to continually glaze over in front of the light of the computer screen, there are some great kid websites out there that promote learning, reading, and fine motor skills.

http://www.pbskids.org/

http://www.yahooligans.com/

http://www.starfall.com/

http://www.tumblebooks.com/library/asp/home_tumblebooks.asp

www.coolmath4kids.com

February 19th, 2010

eL.

When I “retired” back in June and decided to give the stay-at-home mom thing a try, I thought that I would surely lose my mind within the first three months. One thing is for sure: my children and I have had ample time to get to know each other. I’m sure that from time to time they get sick of me and there are certainly days that I am more than happy to see them go to Papa’s house. However, all in all, the past seven months have been the best of my life.

When you spend days on end together you have to find things to do so you don’t strangle each other to fill your time. After all, the family that plays together – stays sane together.

Movie Night
About once a week we have a movie and popcorn night. Since we’ve had so much snow recently, we’ve had a LOT of movie nights and I regret not buying stock in Redbox. The catch to this one is you might have to suffer through Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses in order to have quality time with your kids. I think of it this way, regardless of the movie, it is generally an hour and a half that I don’t have to hear my name over and over and over again. Where we live, we have a dollar theater close by and on Tuesdays they also have popcorn and drinks for a dollar. I think we may go there today. Some movies that didn’t make me want to gouge my own eyes out this year were: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Planet 51, Aliens in the Attic, Up, Monsters Vs. Aliens, and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

Lessons in Good Sportsmanship
My kids love to play games and it’s my opportunity to give them a healthy dose of good sportsmanship because you have to earn your winnings in this house. My daughter loves to play cards and as a result has learned how to add, subtract, figure odds, and count cards. I’m tempted to take her to Vegas with me. Just kidding. Seriously, she does love to play Hearts and Rummy and regularly beats us all. My son likes the staples of Go Fish and Old Maid – but he’s still terrible at both. Some of our other favorites are Hungry Hungry Hippos, Disney’s Scene It, Hang-Man, and last, but not certainly not least – the Wii. If the Wii is out of your price range and you have younger kids, the V-Motion game by V-Tech is a great option. Both of my kids love to play it and the games are interchangeable with their hand held V-Smiles.

Culinary Experimentation
Everyone usually has a hand in dinner at our house – literally, so eat at your own risk. I’ve discovered that if the kids help with the preparation, getting them to eat is usually less of a fight to the death. Pizzas are a favorite around here and relative cheap to make at home. I buy the Pillsbury refrigerated dough, cut it into individual sizes and then let them run wild, piling them with toppings. Other group cooking activities include cookie and cupcake decorating, muffins, any type of casserole. The messier it is, the more they love it.

The Family Workout
Usually once a day you will find our little troupe involved in some sort of indoor calisthenics. From running around the living room, to doing pushups off the coffee table there is a lot of physical exercise that goes on our house. Ever seen a four year old practice yoga? Come by after dinner on Tuesdays and Thursdays and my son will show you a half moon pose – or maybe a full moon pose depending on if it’s post or pre bath time. If he’s not working out with me, then he is sitting on my stomach while I do Pilate’s 100’s asking, “Mommy, how does your tummy feel? Does it hurt yet?”

Bedtime with Mommy
My favorite part of the day is bedtime. As much as I enjoy the quiet that ensues, I love spending time with my children before they fall asleep. I’m not a co-dependent mom who has to smother her kids at bedtime, but we do read books and occasionally still rock and sing in the rocking chair. My daughter is learning to read, so story time takes a lot longer, but I don’t mind so much. I listen to their prayers, say prayers over them and tuck them into bed. When it’s time for me to turn out the light, each child has a routine. My daughter gives me three kisses, says “I love you. Goodnight. Have a great sleep,” exactly three times and then I tell her “No more talking.” My son gives me one hug and a kiss and says, “Good night. I love you. When you gonna go to bed?” I say, “Not for a long time. Don’t get out of bed.” Maybe they’re weird. I dunno. If they are, they get it honestly.

February 18th, 2010

eL.

Several months ago, I began to notice that my son’s left eye was wandering. For seemingly no reason, his eye would turn inward at random. While most families would dismiss this as a lazy eye, my heart went into a panic. The year before, a good friend’s nephew had experienced similar symptoms and was diagnosed with a very dangerous form of cancer in his eye. He had been the same age as my son at the time.

Thankfully, we received a mild diagnosis of vision problems and my little boy was fitted with the cutest pair of glasses you’ve ever seen on a kid. My friend’s nephew hasn’t been so lucky. After a year of battling the disease, exhausting the family’s finances and enjoying a year in remission, at the age of six his cancer has returned. The prognosis isn’t good. The doctors are saying that the next course of action will be to remove the eye, it’s surrounding tissue and bone. Even with those extremes, the odds are against them.

I’ve never met this little boy and still, I cried today.

Over the past couple of years, I have learned the hard way how very FRAGILE this life is. In the blink of an eye, our flimsy realities can shatter leaving us with only remnants of what used to be our lives. The things that used to be important become irrelevant. Dreams that once were sought after are abandoned. Everything changes… the way you think, the way you live and certainly, the way you love. While I never anticipated that I would grow up to be a crazy mom, I am so thankful that I did. My little family is my whole world and they bring me more joy than all of the freedoms combined that a single life could ever offer me. Even though my world is nothing short of pure chaos most of the time, it is EXACTLY where I want to be.

Tonight, before my head touches my pillow, I will sneak into my kids’ rooms and watch my babies sleep. I will lean over their beds, kiss their cheeks and whisper in the dark how much I love them, how thankful I am to be their mom, and I will pray for their health and protection.

Be thankful.

February 17th, 2010

eL.

Once upon a time, my sister gave me a birthday card with a picture of a large loving family on it. In the background of the photo, you could see a kid hanging halfway over the fence. The caption said, “Do you know how we always pick you out in family photographs? You’re always the one who is trying to escape!”

Back before I became a crazy mom, I didn’t quite mix in with my family. In fact, I was like a drop of heathen oil in a vat full of Southern Baptist vinegar. I can clearly remember looking at my parents and shouting at them, “I am going to choose the most difficult road in life possible and I’m going to make it just to prove to you that I can!” Wow. I imagine that they half expected me to sprout a second head at any moment. My mother must’ve been wondering what she’d done wrong as a parent because even now, reading my insane statement, I’m left wondering if maybe she’d been smoking dope while I was in the womb.

That’s a joke, Mom. Don’t call and yell at me.

Needless to say, I was wild and I worried my family to death. But being the wonderful people that they are, they never gave up hope on me. They prayed that someday I would come to my senses and I did. That is what family does. They hold out hope even for the hopeless. They never stop believing, trying or loving. They are always there with open arms, ready and willing to welcome the wandering back home.

Every day I worry that my children, particularly my daughter, will be just like me. Even worse, I fear that she will not want to be anything like me. Regardless of how I score on this life-quiz called motherhood, I hope that I will always live honestly in the eyes of my children. I pray that someday, they will look back and remember a mom that loved them more than life itself… despite the fact that she had an ugly second head from time to time.

Giving Mother Nature the Bird

Buried Treasure

Mystery Meat Mondays

Lessons in Math, Reading & Butt Wiping

Falling Off the Wagon

Loving ‘Em One at a Time

I Learned it Online

The Family That Plays Together

Reality Check

Escaping the Family

Categories

The Discussion