Goal setting, an offshoot of dream wishing

This morning I am pondering my summer goals. With the long weekend ahead and the concept of rest iminently on the horizon, I know that I need to get this in writing before I cheese out and have another summer with no impact. Yeah, I want my summer to make an impact this year; impact on home, health, and happiness ( oh look, alliteration without effort! SCORE!).  I want the boys to disengage from the TV and computer and spend more time doing other things that are of value to them. That's my job as a parent and I sometimes don't do this well.

I want to drop the weight that I've embraced for too long for no reason. It's a spiritual issue, too. Embracing something for too long for no good reason is a definition of sin, so I definitely need to deal with it. In fact, this morning, instead of eating sugary muffins, I opted for the Kashi Go Lean flax with honey and oat cereal. I added fresh blackberries to help fight the gag reflex because the cereal alone sort of tasted like the goat pellets at mom and dad's smell. Guess I won't be getting any free cereal from Kashi for that review. :) But I feel good about my choice because it clearly has more healthy to it than my sugary lemon poppyseed muffins. And Yes, I am talking myself into being ok with the choice.

So I'm thinking about using the blog to help me stay honest about my summer goals. If I have to report to you, my 3 readers, then I might remember that when the temptations hit. We'll see...

He takes the big DUNK!

Josh got baptized last Sunday, and I am finally getting some of the pics online. We are so blessed to have wonderful, loving, supportive family and friends in our journey as parents.

This is Josh and Kaitlyn. They are BFFs from birth. Kaitlyn came to watch Josh get baptized and got a big education. As a Lutheran, she had never seen a full immersion baptism. She thought it was super cool. And loved that "Baptist" music. Good times!

Silly Brothers having fun, stopped for a moment to get their pic taken. The shades help them see the pictures in 3D.

My Mom came into town to be a part of our celebration with my niece Erinn. It was a quick trip, but I am so thankful they were able to be here and take part. Josh thinks they are super neat and really likes the goat milk and yard eggs his Oma brings when she comes to visit from the farm.

Here, Josh is surrounded by some very influential men in his life. Brett and Scott are uncles by love and spirit. They love my boys like their own and I am so thankful for their presence in our lives. Ryan is the big brother who teaches Josh so much every day. Some days I wish it weren't quite SO much, but he takes his role very seriously and is leading his brother well. And Daddy, the most influential guy around. My son couldn't have a better model of how to be a man of God.

There were others, but they avoided the camera. Silly people. How can you make THE BLOG if you won't get your picture taken? I don't have any images of the baptism itself, but a video should be coming. What a wonderful time to celebrate God's goodness to us!

A quick catch up and some FUNNY stuff

Mom was wondering why I hadn't changed my blog in a while... been a bit busy. End of School. Baptisms. Sick husband. That's why. And nothing really earth shattering  has happened. Except for Last weekend. And I just haven't taken the time to get the pictures ready to go. Surely this weekend I'll feel like doing that.

So, in my absence, enjoy these gems from Sleep Talkin Man.. He sure does have a way with words!

"Your blue sky thinking is blighted with dark clouds of piss-poor ideas."

"They're not love handles. No. I've got love impact protection barriers."



"You wanted to be WHAT when you grow up? Boy, you must be SO disappointed the way your life turned out. So sad."
 
"Before you say anything, I want you to take a long, hard think.... Longer... Longer!... Keep thinking... Keeeeep thinking... Did I say stop thinking?... Longer!"


So, off I go to another day of teaching, er, child wrangling and I'll "keep thinking" so I can share a fantastic blog soon.

Quotes of the week

It has been a stellar week for people saying things that I think are Hilarious with a capital H. I laughed so much and am thankful for laughter as I head into the weekend.


Captain Random (a student on the way to our field trip): Yeah, she's got a big head just like my mom. My brother and sister have big heads too. Me too. It runs in our family, the big heads... we are all known for our big headedness.

Mr. Biology: Mom, why did God make us have fingernails?

Mr. Loyal: So, mom, is Mother's Day this week? Cuz you are the best mom.. really. and if I ever got another mom I know she couldn't be as good as you, cuz you rock as a mom.

Mr. Biology: You said I grow when I'm asleep, well why does this part grow when I wake up from a nap? (pointing to his crotch)

Ms. Literary (asking a question to our guest author): What thing is the most inspirational type thing that motivates you to do this job? (emphasis on this was like she was discussing phlegm)

Mr. Biology: If butterflies get their wings pulled off do they become caterpillars again?

Narrator of BUGS, the best 3D IMAX field trip movie ever: And then his antennae carress her back as he completes his mating duties in an attempt to soothe her for his getaway. (3 story image of praying mantis reproductive acts accompany this brilliant statement)(teachers are silently laughing so hard they are crying in an attempt to  regain their composure and soothe the thoughts of the parent phone calls to follow) (parent volunteers stare straight ahead and pretend it never happened)

Miss All A's: Mrs. Willingham, what are we supposed to do now that TAKS is over? I mean, we've learned everything already. And I mean EVERYTHING.

Yep, quite the week. People are so funny.

Path of Destruction

It seems I'm leaving a path everywhere i go today. Coffee spilled on the computer, children with unexpected bumps (they bumped into me, honest), conduct cards marked which maybe should not have been marked, lunch on my shirt, queso on the chair.. just one of those days I guess. I wish someone would wrap me in bubble wrap so I could be a little safer to those around me.

So, I will take precautions... no flamable liquids, no stopping at the grocery store, no washing of the dishes, and certainly no cooking dinner. What a disaster that could be! I pity the thought.

Really, it'll be safer for everyone if I just send someone out for dinner tonight. I should probably even just stay away and go read in my room. I'd hate for anyone to get caught in the undertow.  But if someone could come and make sure I haven't bled out from a papercut, I'd really appreciate it.

Weekend Update

Been a little busy this week.

It was our first TAKS week experience, Ryan taking the test and me administrating it. That was 2 very long days.  And in the middle, of course, Josh gets a fever/tummy bug for about 24 hours. And Chris has something going on in his respiratory system, like bronchitis or pneumonia or something. I'm not really a bad wife, he just won't go get it checked out. Actually, he tried to on Friday, but got to the new dr. office and thought it looked more like a OB/GYN than family practice, so he cancelled the appt. So I don't really know what it is. But it did add a bit less sleep to the rotation.

The weather has been a little bipolor, hot, then cool, then wet/hot, then more hot. I think that was our last cool spell.  I really miss the cool weather and am so thankful for our cool winter and spring.

I'm looking foward to the last 4 1/2 weeks of school. Time to wrap up and teach the stuff I haven't gotten to all year. Lots of special things like field trips, special events, and fun plans.  It should be a good time.

Anyway, I'm feeling kind of puny today, hoping it's not what Josh got. So I'm going to go find somewhere to get rid of this headache.

Later, peeps.

Questions from the back seat

The offspring have reached an enchanting new stage of life.. they have really honest, deep questions about the world around them. And their favorite time to ask is right after school, on the way home after Mommy's long day of work.

 To truly understand the quality of response they get, please imagine yourself being verbally pummeled in tag team style after a 9 hour work day that involved answering 15, 000 questions, running 2 meetings, managing the behavior of 35 children that are not your own, teaching subject matter for 4 hours, planning for 3 different subjects, answering 17 e mails, meeting with the boss regarding 2 critical matters, and listening to 3 co workers vent about their personal problems.  And that's a fairly normal day. I don't say that for sympathy. You simply need to know that I'm not in top form to answer these stumpers.

Here is a sampling of questions from the back seat that I recall from the last 2 months:

1. Where do babies come from?
2. Why do we pay taxes?
3. What is 3 +3+3++6+2+112+5+6 -4 divided by 3?
4. Why do we have to fill up the car with gasoline instead of something else?
5. Can I have a snack?
6. Are babies sinners?
7. What does the government do?
8. Is President Obama a good President?
9. Why does Uncle James have 6 kids and you only have 2?
10. When are we getting a baby sister like Matthew and Ethan got?
11. Do you like XBox or Wii more?
12. Are we ever going to fly on a plane?
13. How do you start a business?
14. How many people can I blow up when I join the Army?
15. Why do we get to eat nuggets and fries if they aren't really good for us?
16. If you had to live without chocolate or coffee, which would you choose?
17. If Jesus loves everyone, how come everyone doesn't love Him?
18. When I'm 16 can I drive Dad's truck?
19. Why doesn't Purple go to church with us?
20. How long until I can get married?


Now go back and reread and try to think of an answer after you run a half marathon. 

That's the kind of response I tend to give.  Which leads me to all kinds of guilt about not being a good enough Mom and spending quality time with my kids, and training them for the future. And while YOU, gentle reader, might give me grace and say "Honey, no one expects you to be able to answer that at that those times." my children have other thoughts. See, they still see me at The MOM, all powerful, all knowing, and completely faithful to meet their needs. They don't yet know that I am frail and more than a little imperfect and I don't have every answer. When I tell them "I don't know" they chuckle and think/say "yeah, right, you know, you just don't want to tell us." So, what's a girl to do? Delegate, of course!

Now, dear internet friends, which one would you like to answer?? Please, give me your best, so I can have it ready if they ever start to repeat.

Weekend Woes or Wonders??

My weekend plans were derailed by a stomach virus which took up residence in my youngest child. The original plan was: go to Ft Worth on Thursday night with my husband and spend Fri and Saturday at Youth Lab learning all sorts of new stuff about working with teenagers, hanging out with other youth workers, hanging out with our teen leaders, and being a grown up with no kids of my own to take care of.

That was the plan. Instead I got to: Leave school early on Thursday to take my dehydrated son to the Dr. so we could get antinausea meds so he'd stop throwing up, spend Thurs. night as a single Mom trying to get a fever to come down and get my little guy rehydrated, spend Friday at home with him as he came back to life and take care of my oldest and his mood swings at being taken out of school early for the 3rd day in a row.

On the bright side, I got LOADS of laundry done, spent some good quality time with my kids, achieved a nice, high Bejeweled score on FB, slept in until almost 9:30 on Sat morning, finished a fairly decent novel, deposited check in the bank, made oldest child feel special with a little after school snack at Sonic that his brother didn't get, AND I didn't have to wear makeup!

Woes and Wonders, it's all just a matter of perspective.