Summer "Break" So Far

Whew! I'm not sure where our first four weeks of summer went, but they're gone. Here's a peek at what we've been up to:

- Ryan (with help of secretary Tobi) coordinates a first-ever fundraiser for his Cross Country team - a Dash of Color 5K and mile race.

collage and photos by Karen Belcher

photo by ESP (Eric Shrum Photography)

photo by ESP

photo by ESP

photo by ESP

photo by ESP

- Bigguns start summer school at their new district! This requires two trips to town a day - one at 6:45 a.m. Luckily, it still gets good ratings!
- Ryan and Tobi start and coach a club track team, requiring four practices a week, four weekend meets, ordering equipment, begging hurdles off of a high school, lots of paper work, and tons of tracking down teenagers to try to keep everything going!

- Ballplaying four nights a week. Daddy coached Cal's T-ball and Reed's parent pitch teams. Two weeks of rain required an upgrade in our texting plan, due to all the "Is the game cancelled?" conversations.

Thank you, Sherry Long, for taking photos. I've been a major slacker!

- Max tags along to almost every game and practice and we try to keep him happy (which is not easy when every time he tries to race a runner they "beated" him!)
- We babysit our two-year-old niece during her Daddy's work times for a week. I still can't do piggies.
- Two bouts of sickness.
- Minimum of 16 trips to town (20 mn one way) per week
- Trip to Kansas to visit family. A great time by all!

-  Usually-nine-hour drive home from Kansas with frequent pit stops for a child with diarrhea.



Did we overcommit? Probably. But we survived, and, after one more week of ball and track, July looks free and clear!

A Tale of Two Sickies

A bug has swept through our household, illustrating what we already knew -- these kids are like night and day. Consider:

Sickie A:

Is “sick” off and on for three weeks.

Sickie B:

Is “sick” only when they are currently throwing up - or don’t feel like going to summer school (never mind that this happened days before the first physical symptoms). 

Sickie A:

Misses two days of school, has nurse call me to pick him up early another day, and skips several of brother’s T-ball games.

Sickie B:

Misses a day of school and doesn’t understand why he isn’t allowed to play in his T-ball game that night.

Sickie A:

Spends his sick days home laying around moping, reading, not eating, and asking “How much longer will my stomach hurt?” 

Sickie B:

After vomiting and watery diarrhea, rallies and proceeds to don a Batman costume and attack his baby brother with plastic balls. Is unfazed by the series of toot-squirts that follow - other than expressing anger the “I didn’t have ANY warning!” and disappointment that his Wolverine jumpsuit has to go in the washer. 

Sickie A:

Carries a barf bucket with him EVERYwhere he goes for days after his last barf incident, “just in case.”

Sickie B:

Throws up in bed, doesn’t tell a soul, rolls around in it all night, then gets mad when I make him take a shower the next morning.

Barf Etiquette

My dear, sweet children,


While it pains me that all three of you have been under the weather in the last week, it has also come to my attention that I've failed to teach you the ins and outs of being sick. Here are a few tips on how to barf without making mom and dad have to go to the (mental) hospital.

Timing:

It would be good if you could get together with your brothers and work out a suitable schedule. Thank you for spacing Reed out a week before Calvin and Max this go-around. And sandwiching your ralphs around five snow days was a good move too. However, barfing events on the eve of a bonfire party and a child's birthday party is not great -- especially when you are running around like it never happened the day of the events and the healthy siblings and I have to sneak out of the house without you.

Don't tell your dad I said this, Max, but way to go blowing your chunks while mommy was running errands. Calvin, you could learn something from your brother. For example, don't wait until Dad goes outside to feed the animals and mom is about to get home. If you do, please act sick and lay down near your puke or go ahead and start cleaning up instead of going back to watching your movie with puke on your sleeve, m-kay?

Location:

Here is a list of acceptable barf targets:

- toilet
- standard-issue barf bucket
- outside

Please refrain from using these spots again:

- All over 2 pillows and the 7 million blankets you insist on being covered up with at night.
- Your almost-asleep baby brother
- The couch cushions, blanket, pillows and all other semi-permeable surfaces in the living room
- Corny Cornopolis, our beloved (so much so that we named him and wrote a song about him) corn pillow, whom we heated up to soothe your belly
- The carpet right outside the room where you left your barf bucket, particularly if that location is within easy shooting distance of the toilet
- The carpet right inside the room where you think Dad is, even though he most assuredly told you (while you were in a movie-induced stupor) that he was going outside to do chores

You all seem fine today, what with your bouncing around on the butt trampoline barf catcher couch playing Mario, but I never would have guessed that the last spew would occur mere hours after you were chasing each other around the house with battle axes. So, if there are more chunks in our future, know that I love you and feel for you, but PLEASE, PLEASE hit the toilet!

Love,
   Mom

Sick

Last week I had to take a day off work to stay home with this little guy. 

Sicky-Squiggs with his best pal and constant companion, Ruff Ruff

I had been with students either on the bus or at a school event for 13 hours the day before, so I have to say I wasn't too torn up about it. Not that I want my baby to be sick, but if ever there's a time where a little low grade fever is ok, this would be the it. 

Ryan had put the kids to bed the night before, and he warned me there was a good chance Squiggy would need a day home. He'd been sleepy at church, a little feverish, and didn't eat well. So I e-mailed good sub plans in that night and when my alarm went off at 5 a.m., I did the "mommy test" on his forehead and called in. I may or may not have done a tiny happy dance when I crawled back into bed. Just keepin' it real. 

Reed and Calvin got to ride the bus all the way to school from our house for the first time, so that was exciting. Even more exciting was waving down the bus that doesn't usually stop at our house in my jammies and crazy hair. 

Squig slept until 7:30. When he got up, I wondered if I was staying home for nothing. Though he still looked a little pale and had the "sick eyes," his fever was very low-grade and he seemed happy enough. And his appetite was back - he insisted on a cookie for keeping his diaper dry (our compromise since we stopped rewarding pooping on the potty--our argument, "Mommy and Daddy don't get treats for pooping." But we so should!) 

But after noshing on a cookie, he didn't want much to eat and he mostly wanted to snuggle on the couch. Twist my arm! After one or both of us slept for a while, I decided I needed to accomplish something with my unexpected day off. Thanks to all the recent snow days, there won't be another day off until the end of May! So, I started working on laundry and other chores, but I had a little shadow. He followed me around and made conversation about this and that. 

The convo turned to Mufasa and Simba (we'd recently watched the Lion King) and then we had an argument about weather Simba was a boy or a girl. I decided to prove it to him and put the movie in. He was so happy that he was proven right - Simba IS a girl, Mommy! (Sorry JTT - he's got a point...you do sorta sound girly) When I corrected him, he burst into tears and ran away, heartbroken. So I did a little damage control and consoled him while we talked about voices changing and then just changed the subject. Little Man was fine, but also warm and snuggly, so I decided to sit with him, just until the scary parts were over. Well, the whole movie was so scary that I ended up sleeping through it like a lazy lioness with Cuddle Bumpkin on my lap.  Hakuna matata!

We ended up having a super-relaxing Mommy/Baby bonding day. He wasn't super sick, but he wasn't quite himself either. And after his extra-long (and, for me, extra-productive) nap his fever spiked a little and he said he had a headache, so Ryan went ahead and asked for the next day off just in case. 

How did Daddy's sick day go? Little Simba popped out of bed at the usual time, and was a chipper, talkative, and needy little guy the whole day! Sorry, Mufasa, but Sarabi lucked out this time! 

Unexpected Day of Rest

I am currently relaxing in a clean house while my children play or nap quietly in their room.  It is Wednesday afternoon. Snow day, you ask? Nope. It’s a balmy 60 degrees outside. In fact, I have a date with two boys to jump on the trampoline sans baby. The phone call I received at 6 a.m. (when I should have been in the shower but was instead indulging in a third snooze period--oh happy day!) claimed we were out today due to a lack of electricity, but I know better. No, we’re out today because of the Biblical promise I have been clinging to this year that the Lord will not give me more than I can handle. 

He must think I can handle a lot. And, being omniscient and all, I really can’t argue with him, but WOW! I’ve been teaching 11 years now, and this is the hardest year of my career. Largest class ever. Largest ratio of class clowns to followers. High number of so-smart-I’m-bored kids, but just enough struggling-enough-that-I-need-you-to-slow-down kiddos sprinkled in to really challenge my pacing and differentiating skills. Throw in major technology problems, new curriculum writing requirements, new state standards (well, federal standards basically forced on the states, but I won’t get into politics...), one son having a rough year himself, and another entering the terrible twos with a vengeance, and you’ve got yourself one heck of a lot to handle. 

I’m sure last week has tainted my view of things. I was sick enough to be miserable, but not enough to go to the trouble of missing work. Max was about the same. I had kids missing school left and right, requiring gathering and explaining of make up work. All week, I basically whined and felt sorry for myself like I’m doing right now in this post. 

But a day of rest on Sunday had me rejuvenated for a new week. (I’m finding there’s a reason God COMMANDS that, though it SO goes against my nature to follow that command...) I gave myself a pep talk. Third quarter of the year always drags, but the 100th day of school has come and gone, so we’re already part way down the downhill slope. I’ve had a few tricks actually work to calm my crazy class. I will survive. And I will also use some of my personal days for “mental health days.” I didn’t want to waste one on a sick day last week. I couldn’t find a suitable day to leave for a sub this week (I’m fully aware that my control-freak tendencies are a large part of my problem. Admitting you have a problem is the first step to solving it. I’m still at step one.) But I had assured myself I would work in an easy day next week and take a day to get caught up and have a little me time. Hehehehehe, but look how today turned out! 

I have accomplished more in the last six hours than I do in a typical weekend AND I’ve been able to enjoy my boys, too. I’ve been using my sister’s “job strips” trick to keep me on task. I still have the rest of the day! And I will go back to only two days with my beloved little yayhoos tomorrow followed by a duty-light weekend with my truly beloveds. And summer is only 68 school days away. Life is good. God is great!

Thanksgiving Dinner - On the Way Up

A lot to be thankful for today. I’m thankful:
- That Calvin got his eight upchucks out of his system earlier this week and not in the middle of everyone else’s and that three of them were at the babysitter’s.
- That Max only ralphed once, but is still feeling enough under the weather that he’s sleeping more than normal today.
- That the bug didn’t bite the rest of us until after we got to enjoy the Layton Thanksgiving Dinner, which tasted so fabulous on the way down – (though sure wasn’t great on its return route!)
- That Reed’s booster seat has a washable cover.
- That Ryan is an expert puller-over, since my car seat doesn’t have a washable cover.
- That Reed’s sheets, jammies, and stuffed animals are all freshly washed.
- That Ryan is a little faster than Reed so our sheets and jammies didn’t have to be.
- That Max waited a little while to have his diaper explosion.
- That Max’s changing table and clothes are also now freshly washed.
- That the TV really does make a great babysitter.
- That this whole ordeal happened on a long weekend instead of during a busy week.
- That, judging by Calvin’s behavior today, we’re all going to be feeling great (and spinning circles on the tile in our Wolverine costumes) in a few days.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!