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Craving some sun this summer

Posted on July 2, 2009 9:11 am by TheAngelForever

Right now the rain song from Winnie the Pooh is stuck in my head.

The rain rain rain came down down down
In rushing, rising riv’lets,
‘Til the river crept out of it’s bed
And crept right into Piglet’s!
Poor Piglet, he was frightened,
With quite a rightful fright.
And so, in desperation
A message he did write.
He placed it in a bottle
And it floated out of sight.

It seems like it has been raining here forever. Flood watches are posted for all over the area and it scares me. Our basement has flooded before when the rain backs-up in the archaic city sewer system. Needless to say that is not a charming thing to find when you head to do laundry.

Trying to entertain two little boys in such nasty weather has proven to be a challenge. If only there was a little sunshine. If the sun would come out like we had on Saturday while visiting Uncle I, Aunt M and Cousin S the possibilities would be endless. The boys would be able to splash in their little pool like Cousin S was doing:

We would be able to take out lots of water toys to keep them busy for hours of fun in the sun (with sun screen of course):

NHL could perfect sprinkler running some more. This would certainly be something easy for me to set up and let the boys do on a warm and SUNNY day.

Another perk is my Vitamin D deficient self could obtain some natural Vitamin D from the sun. Of course, it would also help these white legs to look a little less vampire like while outside. I’m a fan of Twilight, but well I could easily blend in with Edward and family. Do not adjust your monitors, I really am this pale and sadly do not tan.

With any luck the seven day extended forecast will be incorrect and we may actually see more sun than rain, but I will not be holding my breath over here.

Categories:
family jsl losing my mind nhl photos road trip sahm summer vent weather weekend

Summer days 2009

Posted on June 19, 2009 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Although many parts of the country are already on summer vacation, NHL has school until the end of next week. Monday and Tuesday are full days, then two half days after that. It is still hard for me to believe that my big boy is going to "graduate" from kindergarten on Monday. I can not believe that I will be the Mommy of a first grader in the fall. It seems like it was only yesterday when we took photos of NHL on his first day and now the year is almost over (photo below).

Recently, I have been trying to figure out activities to do with the boys this summer. We just received information about a summer camp in August that would be fabulous for NHL. They have several different programs that we can pick from for each of the week long sessions. Some have to do with Dinosaurs, Insects and even math fun. We are trying to figure out how to swing at least one session for him.

The boys and I will also participate in the reading program with the local library. NHL did this last year and really enjoyed it. Other than that, the two little guys and I will be entertaining each other for the long haul. NHL will be 6 this summer and JSL was just 2. They love to play together, but the age difference does hinder some things since JSL still needs his naps.

So my question for you this week:

What are some ideas of things to do with my boys this summer? Any thoughts and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the Mr. Linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #53

Categories:
Aloha Friday brothers jsl nhl photos sahm school summer

Playing catch up and the kindergarten blues

Posted on June 15, 2009 10:47 pm by TheAngelForever

It is hard to believe that it is well into June already. Kindergarten kid has less than two weeks of school left and he will be a first grader. This has caused some anxiety for the little guy. NHL does not do well with change. Of course, a lot of this has to do with the absolute hell that he went through when we tried the Montessori school for PreK in September 2007. Similar to the end of last year, NHL is acting out. Today it finally hit on me as to why. He has no idea what to expect in first grade and has loved kindergarten. He does not want it to end. Of course, this only dawned on me after several days of the poor kid crying and having nightmares. None of this excuses NHL’s behavior, but it certainly explains it. Talking with the school nurse helped me to see the light. NHL went to her with an earache today. I mentioned to her how he did not want to go to school this morning and I think he was trying to go home.

Last night was a rough evening. When we went to sleep a horrible thunder storm was coming into the area. Our house was actually shaking when we heard the thunder. We closed everything down and listening to the hail pound outside the house. When we went to sleep at close to midnight everything was still on. At about 12:30 last night I was really warm and woke up. The room was pitch black. No television on, no clock and no fan. I woke JL up and we got flashlights to see what time it was. We found the number to the power company and called. I finally got a person there and found out that there were 1800 people with no power in our are and they projected it to return between 3-4 in the morning. I was thrilled when less than 40 minutes later everything came back on.

Of course, my mind was racing a mile a minute. I could not settle down and sleep. I was thinking about NHL. What are the three of us going to do this summer. Should I try to send him to camp? What are my options for next year if he is not in the first grade class that would be most beneficial to him. The list of things goes on, but you get the point.

Thanks to all of this and trying to take care of things for school (I am the room parent), I am still playing catch up with blog posts. I have three more days of our Disney trip and two days at the lake with family to name a few. I hope to get them caught up soon.

So while my brain is still on warp speed, let me see what ideas you may have:

What are some inexpensive things that I can do with the two boys this summer?

Remember that JSL just turned two and NHL will be six at the end of the summer. Trying to figure things out is turning out to be very stressful. I worry that it is going to be a very long summer if we do not have something to get out and do, especially with other children (and adults for me).

Categories:
decisions looking back me moments nhl sahm school sleep summer vent

Ponderings of a PTA Parent

Posted on November 13, 2008 9:08 am by TheAngelForever

It is official, I finally went to my first PTA meeting last night. Something came up in September and the second one was the evening that Yom Kippur started, so I did not attend those.The boys all stayed at home and I set off on my adventure ALONE. Imagine that . . . I actually managed to break away from all three of the boys!

I am not too sure what I was expecting, but it was different. Not different bad, just different. The meeting was very casual and there were about 15 parents there, one teacher and the principal. I suppose this is the beauty of a small school in a very large district. Still I felt like an outsider. I think participating more and going to meetings will help with that, yet I am not entirely sure if I want to.

After just over a year of being a stay at home mom I found that something is missing, my identity. I seem to have become NHL and JSL’s mommy. Everyone at NHL’s school calls me "NHL’s Mom" – not my name. His teacher calls me Mrs. AngelForever, rather than my first name. Sure that is technically my name, but I think of it as more of my mother-in-law. In the classroom when I was teaching I was fine with my students using it, but this is not in that setting. I love being a wife and mommy, but I also need to know who I am now that I am home and no longer teaching. I was always upset that I never stayed home with NHL when I was teaching, I missed so much that I will never get back. As hard as it is sometimes I am glad I am home with both of my boys to see them grow up.

My plan was to get a part time job to earn some extra money and get some contact with other people. The trouble is timing. By the time JL gets home from work it is pretty late. In addition to this we had to factor the time gone, money earned, and gas purchased to get to a location. In most cases it was not worth the effort and lack of family time in the evening. I would love to tutor kids in science, reading or anything else, but that is a hard area to break into.

Blogging is great, but I need actual contact with real people before possibly going to Blogher 2009 in Chicago next summer. What I think I want to do is at least get involved in an organization to volunteer and socalize with other people locally. There is something that I have in mind. It happens to be a cancer service organization that I remember my mother always being active in while growing up. Perhaps I can get her to go with me again and another friend who has relatives involved. Maybe putting this out there will actually make me move and do something.

Hopefully my need for a complete bathroom rehaul and the state of the economy will not dash the dream to attend my first BlogHer conference.

Categories:
decisions me moments my boys NaBloPoMo sahm travel vent

We are not tired Mom

Posted on July 19, 2008 6:30 am by TheAngelForever

As previously mentioned, I just started to do a mandatory rest time in the afternoon. JSL is exhausted, but he will not settle in his own crib. This is partially our fault, but more or less thanks to sharing a room with his big brother. NHL goes to sleep slightly before JSL. We never wanted to put an awake JSL into his crib while NHL was already sleeping. Now 14 months old, trying to teach a little one new tricks is very tough. He screams and hoots and has full blown temper tantrums at the sight of his crib.

Thanks to this I had an idea. I wanted to try a rest time for both boys in their room. I figured if NHL was in the room reading/resting (not holding my breath about napping) perhaps JSL would settle and nap. It certainly could not hurt to try. I knew it would not work right away, but was hoping for the best.

Wednesday was my second try at this. JSL stopped screaming a lot faster. He stood up the entire time looking and watching NHL. Tuesday when I tried this he actually cried himself to sleep standing up. Unfortunately I did not get a photo since NHL heard me coming to the room and said something and woke up the little guy.

Back to this past Wednesday. After quite a long time I admitted defeat, for the day, and went into the room. This is what I was greeted with.

Not sleepy, not one bit

Clearly they were not giving in – stubborn little boys! Hmmm. . . I wonder where they get that from?!?!

I asked NHL if he would go into the crib to show JSL how to rest. He thought that was a fun idea and allowed me to put him into the crib. He was quite impressed with the job and quickly got to work.

Here is NHL being a positive role model to his little brother.

Now we just need to work on trying this out when they are both in their own bed/crib. Hopefully they will work with me on this. Tired cranky boys in the afternoon are no fun. When they have energy to play they are much more fun and do not fight. Yes, even at their age they get into arguements and have tantrums to each other. I will enjoy these while they last and do not involved wrestling and physcial additions to the mix.

The one nice part about no naps, both boys go to sleep quite easily at night. Check out how sweet and peaceful they are. Awwwwww!