kid stuff mostly. outings. winter activities. back to subbing.
I could be doing a multitude of things. Cleaning my room. Taking the kids on the bike ride they've been begging to go on. Clearing my island so it looks like an island instead of the start of what promises to be an impressive hoarder house.
Instead I'm sitting here updating my facebook status 100 times, finally deciding I may as well just blog. It's time for my every-second-month post anyway.
Jordan just left to go to a corn maze with a very good friend and her parents. It's strange having someone call here to snatch a kid for the day. It's stranger still to have my daughter have her own social life. Although I must say, that she does seem to gravitate towards very nice girls, and I hope she continues to seek out such friendships as she moves through her child/teenager years. Next year she'll be in middle school. It would be nicer to see her surround herself with niceness than bitchiness and drama.
This morning I told her she should take a hoodie along, being that they are going to stretch the day into the evening with a bonfire and wiener roast. She disappeared into her room for a minute before coming back into the bathroom to interrupt my tooth brushing. Someone always has a question when I'm brushing my teeth. "Where is my purple sweater?" she asked. I groaned inwardly. "Which one?" "You know," she said. "The purple one with the diamonds up here?" Sigh. "Jordan, we threw that out." A look of horror ensues. "You were with me!" I insisted. She was actually, there was much crying that day. "It was too small for you, and we weren't going to save it for Elliot because you had chewed yourself some thumb holes, remember?" At that point she crumpled to the floor in the bathroom and had a mini-meltdown. I can honestly say I don't think that anything could upset me enough to end up on the bathroom floor. Bathroom floors, no matter how recently cleaned, gross me out. I decided against telling her to get up off the gross bathroom floor, being that it was a time of great sorrow and all. Any hair down there was most likely hers anyway.
*****
I've gone back to substitute teaching, and I must say, I'm really loving it. I think more than I did before. I'm not sure if it's because my kids are a bit older and taking less out of me on a daily basis, or what it is, but I'm loving being back. So much so, actually, that on days I don't get called in the morning I'm kind of in a bad mood about it. I have spent September solely in early and middle years classrooms instead of the much-coveted high school, but that's okay. I've actually come to enjoy the middle years this month. I will say though, still, that I could not do early years. Any time I say that to someone they go on about how sweet they are at that age, love school, blah blah blah. They also cry, and can't tie their shoes, and tattle because someone looked at them funny in the hallway. I honestly just couldn't make a career out of 7 year olds. My kids are used to me and my inability to suck-hole them for things that are kind of stupid. I can't very well tell a classroom full of other peoples little kids to suck it up and knock it off and stop tattling.
The other day a kid held his foot up to me and said "Can you tie my shoe?" and my inner voice said "Are you freakin' kidding me? You're in grade 2, maybe go home and try and learn this, or buy some Velcro." And then I tied his shoe.
In all seriousness though, I give total props to the early years teachers. They have so much work to do. Teaching behaviors, dealing with emotions, taking entire classrooms full of kids who can't read or count, and get them doing both of those things and so much more in a few short years. And not one or two kids either, 26 at a time! It's kind of amazing. I want a high school English classroom someday, and I'm kind of assuming (hoping?) that for the most part the kids will come knowing how to read and we can jump into novel studies after a few classes explaining why "your" does not mean "you are."
*****
Our calendar looks kind of nuts again this year, but in all actuality, we are in less than we were last year. On Mondays the boys swim and Jordan will soon start gymnastics. On Tuesdays, beginning this week I will be starting Zumba! On Wednesdays Elliot has swimming. On Thursdays Jordan and Tennyson have piano lessons and on Saturdays Jordan has swimming lessons and soon the boys will start soccer. I'm happy to have the boys in the same activity at the same time. Makes it nice. I think next time I put the kids in swimming lessons I'll get on it sooner and try and book them all in the same hour. Hopefully. It doesn't always work out all perfectly, but I can hope.
People always look at my with sympathy when I say my kids are in this and that. Honestly, don't. It's a social outing. I visit with other parents, I really enjoy watching the kids do their thing, and it breaks up the week. Watching Jordan smile through the whole gymnastics hour while flipping around the uneven bars and balancing on the balance beam is enjoyable. I like going. If I didn't? We'd be at home. Besides, ducking out with one kid while the husband puts everyone else through the bath and pajama routine has it's perks.
And soccer? I love the soccer season in the spring! We went four nights a week again this last spring, and I like going! We're outside, the kids are running around, they love it, we chat with other parents, we get to be outside when the weather finally decides to be spring-like after a long winter. It's not a chore.
Tennyson and Mitch are both enrolled in Saturday morning soccer all winter. It's an hour at a time and they have actual certified coaches running the program, and it'll be interesting to see if/how they improve over the winter.
Taking them swimming is actually somewhat less enjoyable, but I appreciate that the kids will be less likely to drown if they know how to swim, and they like going, so we go. It's good.
Jordan's not in the play this year, because the organizers were kind of late getting organized and play practice is now the exact same time as the piano lessons our teacher tried so hard to organize around the schedules of all her little students, so we may have to wait until next year. A little sad about that, but sometimes that's life. Next year.
Kind of crazy how they have all decided to suddenly grow up a whole bunch, and become so interested in things, and become good at some things and less interested in others. It's almost like they are real people. Almost. I'd still like to think they are just my little kids.
Instead I'm sitting here updating my facebook status 100 times, finally deciding I may as well just blog. It's time for my every-second-month post anyway.
Jordan just left to go to a corn maze with a very good friend and her parents. It's strange having someone call here to snatch a kid for the day. It's stranger still to have my daughter have her own social life. Although I must say, that she does seem to gravitate towards very nice girls, and I hope she continues to seek out such friendships as she moves through her child/teenager years. Next year she'll be in middle school. It would be nicer to see her surround herself with niceness than bitchiness and drama.
This morning I told her she should take a hoodie along, being that they are going to stretch the day into the evening with a bonfire and wiener roast. She disappeared into her room for a minute before coming back into the bathroom to interrupt my tooth brushing. Someone always has a question when I'm brushing my teeth. "Where is my purple sweater?" she asked. I groaned inwardly. "Which one?" "You know," she said. "The purple one with the diamonds up here?" Sigh. "Jordan, we threw that out." A look of horror ensues. "You were with me!" I insisted. She was actually, there was much crying that day. "It was too small for you, and we weren't going to save it for Elliot because you had chewed yourself some thumb holes, remember?" At that point she crumpled to the floor in the bathroom and had a mini-meltdown. I can honestly say I don't think that anything could upset me enough to end up on the bathroom floor. Bathroom floors, no matter how recently cleaned, gross me out. I decided against telling her to get up off the gross bathroom floor, being that it was a time of great sorrow and all. Any hair down there was most likely hers anyway.
*****
I've gone back to substitute teaching, and I must say, I'm really loving it. I think more than I did before. I'm not sure if it's because my kids are a bit older and taking less out of me on a daily basis, or what it is, but I'm loving being back. So much so, actually, that on days I don't get called in the morning I'm kind of in a bad mood about it. I have spent September solely in early and middle years classrooms instead of the much-coveted high school, but that's okay. I've actually come to enjoy the middle years this month. I will say though, still, that I could not do early years. Any time I say that to someone they go on about how sweet they are at that age, love school, blah blah blah. They also cry, and can't tie their shoes, and tattle because someone looked at them funny in the hallway. I honestly just couldn't make a career out of 7 year olds. My kids are used to me and my inability to suck-hole them for things that are kind of stupid. I can't very well tell a classroom full of other peoples little kids to suck it up and knock it off and stop tattling.
The other day a kid held his foot up to me and said "Can you tie my shoe?" and my inner voice said "Are you freakin' kidding me? You're in grade 2, maybe go home and try and learn this, or buy some Velcro." And then I tied his shoe.
In all seriousness though, I give total props to the early years teachers. They have so much work to do. Teaching behaviors, dealing with emotions, taking entire classrooms full of kids who can't read or count, and get them doing both of those things and so much more in a few short years. And not one or two kids either, 26 at a time! It's kind of amazing. I want a high school English classroom someday, and I'm kind of assuming (hoping?) that for the most part the kids will come knowing how to read and we can jump into novel studies after a few classes explaining why "your" does not mean "you are."
*****
Our calendar looks kind of nuts again this year, but in all actuality, we are in less than we were last year. On Mondays the boys swim and Jordan will soon start gymnastics. On Tuesdays, beginning this week I will be starting Zumba! On Wednesdays Elliot has swimming. On Thursdays Jordan and Tennyson have piano lessons and on Saturdays Jordan has swimming lessons and soon the boys will start soccer. I'm happy to have the boys in the same activity at the same time. Makes it nice. I think next time I put the kids in swimming lessons I'll get on it sooner and try and book them all in the same hour. Hopefully. It doesn't always work out all perfectly, but I can hope.
People always look at my with sympathy when I say my kids are in this and that. Honestly, don't. It's a social outing. I visit with other parents, I really enjoy watching the kids do their thing, and it breaks up the week. Watching Jordan smile through the whole gymnastics hour while flipping around the uneven bars and balancing on the balance beam is enjoyable. I like going. If I didn't? We'd be at home. Besides, ducking out with one kid while the husband puts everyone else through the bath and pajama routine has it's perks.
And soccer? I love the soccer season in the spring! We went four nights a week again this last spring, and I like going! We're outside, the kids are running around, they love it, we chat with other parents, we get to be outside when the weather finally decides to be spring-like after a long winter. It's not a chore.
Tennyson and Mitch are both enrolled in Saturday morning soccer all winter. It's an hour at a time and they have actual certified coaches running the program, and it'll be interesting to see if/how they improve over the winter.
Taking them swimming is actually somewhat less enjoyable, but I appreciate that the kids will be less likely to drown if they know how to swim, and they like going, so we go. It's good.
Jordan's not in the play this year, because the organizers were kind of late getting organized and play practice is now the exact same time as the piano lessons our teacher tried so hard to organize around the schedules of all her little students, so we may have to wait until next year. A little sad about that, but sometimes that's life. Next year.
Kind of crazy how they have all decided to suddenly grow up a whole bunch, and become so interested in things, and become good at some things and less interested in others. It's almost like they are real people. Almost. I'd still like to think they are just my little kids.
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