Monday Musings: Stop the World...I Want to Get Off

When I was a teen, my mom would take my sisters and me to visit my grandmother (mom's mom) in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where she lived. We'd go for 3 or 4 days, and one of the evenings would be spent on the boardwalk, eating ice cream, saltwater taffy, and French fries, buying t-shirts, and riding the rides in the arcade/amusement area. 

I remember one year we all climbed on to a spinning ride that went really fast forward and sideways and then stopped to go the same way backwards. I rode in the same car as my mom, and, to my mortification, she made the controller stop the ride so she could get off...which meant I got off, too. I was totally ungracious to her and remained embarrassed and a bit miffed that she couldn't stay on for a few more minutes for most of the rest of the evening.

It wasn't until years later that I rode on a ride (one I'd ridden many many times before) and suddenly understood the feeling of sheer panic that can run through you without any warning. It's nonsensical to those who don't understand. There's no rhyme or reason for it, but it takes over and consumes your reasoning until you have to change where you are or what you're doing to even get a tiny handle on sanity again. 

I blame it on hormones.

Funny, right? Not really. Not even slightly. It can be internally terrifying until you ground yourself again.

Fast forward to my own motherhood. I have often complained lamented mentioned in other posts on here that I feel like I'm barely hanging on to this ride called "Life" that sweeps the kids away into adulthood. I often occasionally wish that it would slow down (or even pause) to let me catch my breath. It's an odd sensation, not unlike my poor mom wanting to get off the ride that was terrifying her, making her feel dizzy.

I am dizzy.

I don't know if it's because the beginning of a child's life seems painfully slow that the race to the adulthood seems to speed up exponentially.

There's a saying many older parents use: The days are long, but the years are short.

So how is it that we are a less than three weeks away from graduating our youngest child...and our last homeschool student? How have we managed to finish this chapter so fast? Was it fast? Or is my perspective just skewed by living nearly 55 years of life? I don't remember the years flying by when I was a teenager. In fact, most of the time, they seemed to drag by with all of us anticipating the next phase with the common impatience of youth.

Stuart asked me the other day: "What's next for you?"

It was a hard question to answer...and one that was met with a lot of emotions.

What IS next? 

It's not something I really considered. I've been a stay-at-home mom for so long now, I don't really know how to redefine myself yet.

I guess I wish the wasn't "the end" of our homeschool journey, not because I want to hold back our son...but because I have so much more I want to learn with him.

The days are long, but not long enough, and the years are most certainly too short.

Sigh.

Tuesday Tip

Here's your (non)helpful Tip o' the Day from Ethan at age 4 or 5:

Traditions of Love Lit-Tea-really!

Tradition! Tradition! Tradition! [Click here for a video of this famous song of the same name from "Fiddler on the Roof."]

Anyone who knows me well knows that I love traditions. It's no surprise that I suggested and am working on a story for the Mature Living section of the local newspaper about how important traditions are and how to make them.

But as much as I love them, I know firsthand how incredibly hard they can be to keep going, especially with family dynamics constantly changing and growing.

Therefore, today's "Throwback Thursday" is brought to you by a wonderful tradition we've managed to keep, and Albright College, Ernest Hemingway, Starbucks, and Little Debbie's pumpkin cookies.

It's a little bit of an upgrade since kindergarten...with stories by the Brothers Grimm, milk tea, and pumpkin cookies.

But time shared together -- with books and "tea" -- always makes memories and traditions that are just as sweet!

Starting....

...second grade!

One day down...179 to go. Only kidding. It was an awesome day!

Come Fly Away with Me!

Ethan's special birthday adventure was to the National Air & Space Museum "Annex" (which, ironically, was the same place Edward went for his 6th birthday adventure). He wanted to see a Blackbird and a space shuttle. We saw both -- and more!

It was an awesome day!

Here's the link to the whole photo album.

Our favorite quote of the day:

The wisdom of a 5-nearly-6-year-old... Heard from Ethan in the car yesterday while we drove through D.C.: "I think the Secret Service is really dumb. Who ever heard of writing 'Secret Service' on a car. They're supposed to be SECRET, aren't they? I don't think that's very secret."

Saturday Sweethearts

From the First Day of School on Tuesday:

Love these sweeties with my whole heart!

Introducing...

...our second-grader, Ethan Samuel, Class of 2025:

 

 

Time's a'flying!

Introducing...

...our freshman, Edward Stuart, Class of 2018:

 

 

 Sigh.

Introducing....

...our senior, Emily Susanne, Class of 2015:

How did we get here already???

Friday Funnies

This doesn't apply to us, of course. But it was funny, nonetheless. :)

Saturday Sweetheart

What a difference seven years makes, right? The little guy on the left was 6 1/2 when he first started playing soccer. Now, at 13 1/2, Edward had his first high school game today. He's on the JV team and, while they didn't win, he seemed to have fun.

Here's a little trip down Memory Lane with the blog post I wrote on his first-ever day of soccer back in 2007.

I'll repeat it: What a difference seven years makes.

Tempus Fugit...Or In Which Time Flies Over the Summer

I suppose it was my own doing, since I was the one who wished for a summer of boredom. Instead, we got a summer of chaos, in which we felt we were only just keeping our heads above water.

I'm not sure exactly what happened.

I remember the feeling of freedom as the school year came to a close. I remember thinking of the possibilities of what we could do...and what we didn't need to do. The whole summer sprawled before us. We talked of joining the pool. I dreamt of leisurely moments of sitting outside and reading or coloring or simply watching the clouds drift by.

Snort.

Today, I returned a bag of summer toys I'd bought at the beginning of the summer. Jump ropes and bubbles and jacks and marbles... I'd had a brainwave in the beginning of our summer break to do stuff -- like play outside -- with the kids. I'd been excited to finally have the time to play again with them. The customer service clerk at Toys 'R' Us asked me why I was returning everything. I told her it was because we didn't have time to use it, didn't really have time to play. She asked me why, and I told her. She assumed it was because "teens don't play," but I told her my teens do...we just didn't have the time due to other activities crowding in.

I felt very sad as I walked to my car. Sure, it felt better to return things we weren't going to use and get the money put back in our bank account. But I felt -- afresh -- the speed at which time is passing. When did I stop having enough time to play with my kids?

That said, the activities we did were fun. Here's some of what happened:

Emi and I did the "Official College Tour 2014" together,  even buying t-shirts from each of the universities. She did some job shadowing for her senior project and held the WWCS birthday picnic and WWCS Open Forum. Edward grew 6 inches and took some more one-on-one soccer lessons and started playing on the high school soccer team. Ethan finished first grade and read lots of chapter books. And I was able to write a ton of stories for the newspaper. We did manage to attend/host some picnics; light some fire pits; and make some s'mores. Stuart completely redid our main bathroom. High-five, Honey!

So all was not lost.

But I won't be lying when I say that I'm almost (almost) excited for school to begin so as to get back some of our routine.

*wink-grin*

How about you? Are you getting excited for the upcoming school year? Do you find that time is flying faster as you get older? Share your comments below! I'd love to know I'm not alone.

Muggiest Monday Musings

Happy Monday!

It's hot. Very hot. But then it's July, and it should be hot, right?

It's funny to remember how much time we spent outside as kids during the summer. I don't know if it was because we didn't mind the heat...or our parents minded us going in and out. Either way, we had lots of fun in the sun.

Summer is nearly halfway over, which is kind of exciting and kind of sad.  We always have so many fun things we hope to do...and somehow the days pass one into another without us remembering that. My goal is always to make sure that we relax and have some moments of boredom, both of which I think are extremely important to children. Our modern culture has us raising our kids expecting to be entertained EVERY moment of every day. As a stay-at-home mom, I find that that can be especially exhausting to all of us. My mom never did it for us. Of course, she played with us and did things with us, but there were times when we were expected to entertain ourselves. Idle grass...

So Emily is in full-swing rehearsal mode and  has been busily working on her part in the play "Twelfth Night." They have been practicing for it nearly every day. It's the first of its kind for our county park system and should be a couple of fun nights. If you're in the area, the play will take place at the Gring's Mill Park at 6 p.m. on August 3rd and 5th. The costuming alone is phenomenal! And I'm know the acting will be even better!!

Edward and Ethan have been participating in the Vacation Bible School week at our church. The opening night was last night, and it was loud and overwhelming to say the least, especially for the youngest family member. But I think Ethan will adapt. (It's his first-ever VBS.) The staff are letting me stay with him, and I'm doing whatever I can to help out with the 32 (!!) pre-K kids in his group. The entire amount of kids (ages 3 to 6th grade) attending last night was 299!!  We'll see if it continues. They had the county's largest-ever Twister game. (Pictured above.) It was hilarious to watch the kids trying to follow the instructions. Someone came with a ladder-truck from a local fire company so that we could get photos of it. They managed to do so before a huge storm hit.

We ordered some of the coursework for Ethan's kindergarten school year. It should be exciting for him when it arrives! We'll order the rest next month and whenever we need it. It turns out we'll need to do kindergarten and first grade on our own since he misses both age cut-off dates for Agora. Still, that takes some pressure off of us and allows us to determine the timing of everything. Not a bad way to school...especially since we're starting him so early.

And one final tidbit: The kids each got a haircut last Friday. We went to the in-store salon at Walmart to get Ethan's hair cut (since it was only $8) and ended up with three new 'dos.  I think they look really nice. What do you think?

Monday Musings and Memories

Happy Monday!

Wow! Is July really speeding along...nearly the middle of the month. Sheesh!

It was amazing to go to Target yesterday and see school supplies out ALREADY?!?!? Seriously? I mean, don't we get to enjoy a bit of summer break without thinking about "back to school"?

Guess not.

Stuart says it won't be long until they have out all the Christmas stuff. Give 'em a month or so, he says. Which reminds me that they are...drum roll, please...171 more shopping days until Christmas. This has been a PSA brought to you by Writer's Block.

So many thoughts...so little brainpower to get them written down.

My boys are vacuuming for me as I type. Really cute. Edward is manning the larger (real) vacuum, while Ethan follows using his Fisher-Price (pretend) one. Edward volunteered. Really sweet, huh? Emily is at play practice for "Twelfth Night," which opens on August 3rd, pending no rain. I think she's actually pretty excited, and she's really clever at learning her lines so quickly. Here's hoping she remembers them under the weight of her nerves.

Speaking of school. I heard Ethan whispering sounds during the prayer time at church yesterday. He was sounding out the word "EXIT" at the back of the sanctuary. He was quite pleased with himself when he figured it out...and so was I, though I did remind him that we should be quiet since we were praying. He's so clever with his learning, sucking it all up like a very thirsty sponge. I get excited by it, but then I'm quick to remember that the other two were just as clever. It makes me feel very blessed...and very daunted, being their teacher.

We suffered through a mini heatwave at the end of last week, and I don't think the air conditioner turned off at all during that time. I know that other parts of the country have been suffering for much longer, some without power. With temperatures close to 100 on Saturday morning, Emily decided she just had to have the next book in the Ender's Game series. So since we have a small used bookstore up the street that carries them, she begged Stuart to take her. He told her it was way too hot...but, being the book lover that I am, I said I would go with her. I've been looking to buy the book I Captured the Castle for less that the $14.99 Barnes & Noble is charging...so going along I knew I might get lucky and find it there.

Wow!

We hadn't even gone 10 feet and the wave of heat nearly melted us into a puddle. We made it there -- found her book and a bag of others (not the original one I hoped for but $5 for a bag of books?), as well as a book of short stories by Fitzgerald -- and back without frying too much. Yikes. What we do for our kids, right?  And, just for the record, it got to 102 F on Saturday.  Hot enough to fry an egg?

I am actually (finally) reading a book again. It's called The Janson Command, the sequel to a Robert Ludlum book I read a few years ago. Not written by him, of course, since he died back in 2002 and this just came out but still very good. I have a stack of other books to read, and I'm hoping this greases the wheel for me to get reading again.

I'll end with a photo I decorated in memory of Molly, Edward's guinea pig. It was a hard day yesterday, but we know that God cares for all of His creatures, big and small, and that He loved her, too.

Saturday Sweetheart

Our nephew, Erik, graduated from high school this past Wednesday.

Today, his parents celebrated his accomplishments with family and friends. It was such fun to see him and give him a big hug, remembering all those years ago when he was just a little (a relative term -- no pun intended) boy with imaginary "guys," one in particular named "Joe."

...

Gosh, the days fly by!

We're so proud of him!!

Comma, Comma, Comma Here

Here's a handy tip to remember:

What a difference a comma makes, right?

Time 4 Reviewing

Starting today, I've been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review.  (We're considering our options for next year's schooling so this should be really helpful and fun.) My opinion will be entirely my own, so be sure to come back and read about my experience.

Time4Learning can be used as a homeschool curriculum, for afterschool enrichment and for summer skill sharpening. Find out how to write your own curriculum review for Time4Learning.

End of School

We're finished. Capoot. Done. Fini.

WOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOO!

The beginning-of-school photo (3rd and 7th graders, respectively):



The end-of-school photo (4th and 8th graders-to-be, respectively):


As I always say, what a difference a year makes.

A-Picnicking We Go!

Today, we went to our end-of-school picnic...

...and came home with two hamsters that the kids "won" in a raffle.

Sigh.

I guess I should have put down my foot...or Foote. (He's getting rather heavy.) *wink-grin*

Still, the kids had a great time, running around and having a water battle with squirt bottles and water balloons. There was lots of good food, fellowship, and fun for the adults, too, chatting, catching up, and learning about each other's kids and school years.

It's always so hard to believe we're at this point in the year.

Always so hard to believe our kids are about to advance to another grade level.

Sigh.

Will somebody PLEASE slow down life for a little while. Just so that I can catch my breath...please?

He's a Poet...Does He Know It?

Edward's working on a poetry unit in Composition...and we think he might have a hidden poet inside of him.

In honor of his hard work and creativity -- and because it was his birthday a few days ago -- I am highlighting him here on my blog:

Loud

The other day,

I thought I heard

A firetruck siren

Loud as a bird.

It wasn't a truck.

It wasn't a bird.

It was a baby,

Loud as I heard.

The Cat-Dog

One day I walked

To a doghouse,

Expecting a dog within.

What I found

Wasn't expected though,

Not expected at all.

What I found was a crazy cat

Eating crimson crayfish.

Chewing on crabs,

That crazy cat was,

Sitting in the doghouse.