Whew...we survived!

It was a crazy week at school! A fun week but so busy! We had a lot of "extras" this week which means your routine goes out the window and you do other stuff.

Monday we had our Chinese New Year party. Lots of fun but my coteacher got stuck with a lot of the work for it. Makes for a really long day!

Tuesday was the 100th day of school. In our class we made 100 Day glasses. Then we worked on counting to one hundred using a number chart to help us. Then that number chart was used to put one piece of cereal on each number so that we could have a 100 piece snack! We colored a large 100 to make a 100 day crown. We also got to go without uniforms for the day. A good place for teachers to look for ideas is the Mailbox magazine and several teaching websites. Jaron is celebrating on Monday and each child had to bring in 100 things. He took a bag of cocoa puffs!

Wednesday was a normal school day but my back was hurting. It made for a really long day for me.

Thursday was Kansas Day. We celebrated by coloring a Kansas coloring book and tasting sunflower seeds! Then instead of nap we watched the Wizards of Oz! It was a fun day...long but fun.

Today was back to normal but we were playing catch up on all our missed work! All in all I am so glad that I am home and can relax this weekend!

Pain in the....back

I woke up this morning with my back so tight I can't move. It hurts. I couldn't move my neck very far today so I looked like a dog chasing its tail when ever I needed to look at the kids. Picking up cots after nap about did me in, AWANA was rough and I need to get the kids to bed so I can stretch out. I hope it pops soon!

100th Day of School

Here's my co-teacher and I today! We celebrated the 100th day of school by making 100 day glasses, eating a 100 piece snack, and making 100 day crowns. A lot of fun!

Chinese New Year

We celebrated Chinese New Year today. It was a lot of fun. We enjoyed celebrating with our Asian families! The parents supplied most of the treats and helped us to enjoy celebrating their holiday! It was a wonderful multicultural experience.

Chinese Wall Art
We made paper dragon kites...to bring good luck and ward off bad luck...

The Chinese flag

Yummy treats from the Asian market!

This is the hair piece on of my Korean students wore. The Asian kids came in traditional Chinese and Korean outfits. They were so cute!

Full Calendar Week

This week at school is crazy! Today we celebrated the Chinese and Korean New Year! Lots of fun with the kids! Yet super crazy! Tomorrow is the 100th day of school..fun yet crazy... and then Thursday is Kansas Day and we will be watching the Wizard of Oz and celebrating Kansas and it's birthday! I am always amazed at how all the special days fall within the same week on the Calendar

Struggling with Motivaton

I don't know about you but I struggle sometimes to get things done. My house is really bad right now, I have not been good at using my time this week. I got the cooking done but then didn't follow through with cleanup so now that it is Saturday...my job is huge!

Why do I do this to myself? I know better but I don't enjoy cleaning so I justify it in my mind until it becomes a huge job.

Today its cold and I will be better and get the house more in order!

Friday...

and I am doing my Hooray it's Friday dance...

Laughing..it does a body good.

I laughed a lot at work today!

I laughed because one child was convinced she made a "Happy Plate" when in reality it was only kinda happy since she just tried the green beans and applesauce but ate all the spaghetti!

I laughed as a little boy tried to use the zipper of his pants as a pocket and then realized that his pants were simply unzipped...his look made my day!

I laughed during naptime as one of the girls attempted to do an interpretive dance on her cot to the classical music playing at naptime!

I laughed at all the crazy ways that kids can make each other mad...the most devastating being..."You can't come to my birthday" and their birthdays are 6-11 months away!

I laughed so much my sides hurt and I thought I was going to pull a muscle...I also laughed until I nearly cried!

I love laughing!

Parenting...it's not an easy job!

There are times I love being a mom! I love to help the kids learn stuff, to have fun and play, to enjoy the good times! Then there are days when I want to send them back~! Doesn't happen very often but on occasion I would gladly throw in the towel and go back to the life of coupledom(not that I really know what that is like, we have been parents for all but one year of our marriage).

My kids got off the bus today and ran to meet me at the door. Before they are even on the front steps Janea bursts into tears and informs me that she was sent to the Focus Room. This is the place at school where my children have been told to never go. They need to behave, obey and focus on being the best students they can be. I ask why she was sent, she tells me it's for kicking another child and lying to the teacher! Kicking, that is part of being a kid and not controlling yourself, lying is not okay period. Dan and I have worked really hard at making sure that our children are obedient and not lying. We are not perfect parents and our kids do make mistakes and so she was very upset because she knew she had done wrong. I was livid...and rushed to call Dan. Dan as usual sees it simply from Janea's point of view but as I talked to Janea I realized I may have jumped to the worst case scenario, Dan calls me back and we decided that Janea has lost TV for a few days and will have to accept the natural consequenses that come with misbehaving at school. It will take some time for the teacher to trust Janea completely and I hope that she has learned to control herself more.

The Bible instructs parents to be training their children to follow Him. It is my prayer that Dan and I help Janea and Jaron to be the best kids they can be and that they grow to Love Him. Training a child is hard work...certainly not for wimps!

Whew...is it Friday yet?

Wow! We had a busy weekend!

I can't believe that I have to go back to work tomorrow and that it will only be Tuesday.

We got a lot accomplished! Yeah us!

A rundown of our accomplishments:

• oil changes for both vehicles
• new wipers on my car
• grocery shopping
• church in the morning and evening Sunday
• one meal fully cooked and put up
• family fun time
• haircut for me!(so much better!)
• laundry
• some housecleaning...we could have done better but we were a little busy:)

So now Dan is at work and I am getting ready for the kids to be back to school and me back to school. We're off and running for another week.

Overheard...

the kids were in the living room and here is what I heard...

Jaron: "I have more sence than you!"

I went in to find out and Janea was counting the money in her piggy bank! Jaron has more coins(cents) then she does!

So not Martha

Well, as much as I like to think that I getting better at cooking and making yummy dishes. Things like tonight happen. I couldn't open the spaghetti jar for ravoili, I dropped the pasta dish as I was trying to drain the pasta. I forgot to warn Dan that the burner may be hot and he nearly burned himself. So I will stick to teaching preschool and forgo my lofty thoughts of being a chef! We eat but it isn't always the easiest endeavor!

It's Friday and it's a 3 day weekend..

and I am so glad!

It was a good week...we had our frustrating moments but I would say the week ended well.

I have not done as well at my cooking as I could have but since this is a three day weekend I am planning on getting more on track!

Some of our plans for the weekend include:

• oil changes for my car and the van
• new wipers for my car!
• grocery shopping
• haircut! (It's getting bad)
• clean house
• laundry

Plus our usual Sunday activities of going to Church and choir practice! I always enjoy going and worshipping at our church!

All in all it should be a good weekend!

Brrr...Brrrr....Brrrrr

It's in the single digits and the temperature just keeps on dropping. I'm dreading the bus stop in the morning...it's so cold! It's nights like this I am thankful for a warm bed, comfy jammies and thick blankets. It's nights like these that I am glad that Dan and I have so many comforters on our bed...since he isn't here until the wee hours of the morning I can keep as many as I want all to my self and be warm in my nice cocoon.

One of those days

You know the one's where things are just enough off that you are sighing alot.!

Today was that day. My alarm went off when it was supposed to, however, I didn't get up, I turned it off! I have set my alarm to go off an hour before I have to get the kids up so I can get in some quiet time with God and I can charge my batteries. I have found it's really helped me with my attitude. Well, this morning, I woke up 7 minutes after I have to wake up the kids. So we were scrambling this morning!

Both kids were moving in slow motion. We made it out the door just as the bus is coming up the street so I didn't get to tell them bye and remind them to be on their best behavior.

Jaron went to the buddy room today. He was not listening or sitting still. Janea also had to pull a card in her classroom. Not the greatest day for the Jonathan kids, they WILL do better tomorrow!

I'm Cold!

I have been cold all day! My feet are freezing! How many layers are too many? Right now I am wearing at least 3 and I am still cold!

Early PJ night

Today I get to work and head to the classroom and am told that I am needed to sub over in 1/2 grade. I enjoy getting to go over to the elementary side and spending the day with the older kids. As the day goes on all I can think about is my pajamas. I want to be comfy and cozy and warm...I think I was cold off and on and the thought of being warm was very appealing! I honestly had my PJ's on by 5:00 tonight. Dan got me new fleece pants with penguins on them that are oh so comfortable for Christmas and boy once the kiddos get to bed I am hitting the hay! I'm tired and ready for sleep!

A $19 fix

For the last month my tires have been losing pressure. Dan goes and fills them up and within 10 days they need air again. Well today we took them in to be looked at, halfway expecting them to tell us we need new tires. Turns out they had minor issues that were causing them to lose air but they could be repair! Praise God turned out to cost $19.

A lot on my mind

Have you ever been confused or perplexed? Do you ever question what your initial plans were and think about what needs to be done? I am so there right now.

Here's my predicament:

Dan and I are approaching our 10th wedding anniversary. When we got married we had planned to go to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for our honeymoon. About 4 months before our wedding Dan got a better paying job working at a manufacturing plant. Due to being a new hire he did not have accumulated vacation time and so we changed our plans. Instead of a week long trip to NC we went to a Geneva Illinois for a longer weekend. We had a nice time and enjoyed ourselves. We decided we would go to the Outer Banks for our first anniversary. Fast forward to October of 1999. I'm feeling strange, not normal, and so we decide to take a pregnancy test...it's positive! So we're due 4 days before our anniversary! Janea was actually born 18 days before our first anniversary but there was no way we could travel and leave a newborn! So we decided to wait until our 5th or 10th anniversary. At 5 years, we couldn't afford to go and we had two kids 4 and under. Now we are approaching 10 years and I don't know if the kids could handle us being gone for a week.

We are looking at places to stay, attractions we want to see, and starting the beginning of the planning process for the trip. Janea is wanting to go...since we will be going to the beach. At the same time we have never taken a family vacation to anywhere. So my question is should we just take a family vacation this June and then in a few years when they are much older plan an extended second honeymoon trip or should we just try and take one this year. Parenting is such a challenge. Dan is worried if we take the kids that I will feel jipped out of getting to see all the stuff I want to see. I am worried about how the kids will take us going for at least a week once you count in travel times.

Marriage is important and getting that time to reconnect with your spouse is so important. Parenting is important and so is building family memories.

Thanks for Helping

Today it dawned on me...I may not have leaders tonight!

I have great Sparks leaders who are Calvary students and they won't be back till next week! I was kinda starting to panic.

I am thankful for Mrs. Beck for coming tonight and to Jeff for helping kids with sections. A big thank you goes to Megan and Aaron tonight too since they helped listen to verses.

I am excited to see what the next semester brings for the Sparks program at my church!

Ouch

I hurt my thumb tonight...I was slicing potatoes to make Crock pot Beef stew and I not only sliced the potato, I sliced my finger. It was bleeding and it hurts alot.

This is how I know I am not the greatest chef...I make really careless mistakes!

Explain to me how I can cook all day on Saturday and only have made enough meals to last through Tuesday night???

I broke down and ordered pizza tonight. The kids were begging, and I was tired. I have to do better, these new resolutions are hard!

Kids Say the Darndest--Chapel edition

We have chapel every Monday morning, it's a lot of fun, we sing and the listen to a short lesson given by Pastor Ryan (one of the pastors at FFC). Well, today we were sitting in chapel and my co-teacher and I were quietly saying how one of our students seemed to be on another planet and she said"it's like he's not even here". Well, one of our other students was sitting on her lap and points right at Pastor Ryan (he thought we were talking about the Pastor) and says"He's right there".

I must admit I lost it...Poor Pastor Ryan must have thought I was nuts!~

Back to Reality

Today was the last day of my 2 weeks off.

Tomorrrow we go back to school, back to work and back to a school year schedule.

It's been nice to see Dan every day (even with all our ups and downs the last few weeks).

I'll miss sleeping in past 7 every morning...6:30 comes early round these parts.

I'm glad the kiddos are going back to school, they so need to get back to a routine.

We will be back to all the fun things that go along with a busy schedule.

Just call me Martha...

Today I cooked all day. I made lots of yummy food for next week. I had the idea to make food on Saturdays and portion it out for the week. I often don't want to cook when I get home from work and Dan is looking to take food for his lunch to work to help save money. So I cooked lots of yummy stuff.

Chicken and Noodles..yummy

Cheesy chicken and broccoli casserole

I completey boiled and deboned the chicken for dishes.

Homemade meatballs

I am quite tired but feeling really good about what I accomplished today. I still have more chicken for another dish but I ran out of steam today. Will be cooking more tomorrow.

The thinking of a child

So Dan got me an MP3 player for Christmas and we have a subscription to Rhapsody right now so I am trying to download lots of my favorite music onto my device before we cancel our subscription. Well he and I have been talking about different songs and making different playlists for both his device and mine. Well, today Jaron made up his own playlist. Of things he wants to play and do...and Janea got into the act too!

Jaron's Playlist:

1. Carpet Roll Race

2. Play computer

3. Somersault Race

4. Break time or a Hop Race

5. Watch TV--Spongebob Squarepants

6. Lunch break(or dinner, snack)

7. Jump over the pillows

8. Catch

9. Roll the Ball Race

10. Pillow Fight

Janea's Playlist

1. Fuse Beads

2. Draw

3. Play Tag

4. Pillow Fight

5. Lunch

6. catch

7. Play Snap

8. Play Go Fish

9. Play UNO

10. Play Trouble

This is what happens...

when you turn your back for a few minutes. The kids decided they needed to decorate themselves with ink...they so need to go back to school...too much time on their hands!

If I wasn't laughing already I would be laughing even harder!