kids

All posts tagged kids

The Light at The End of the Tunnel

Published March 29, 2022 by Angela

Nope: Just kidding! Life cannot be that easy. What I cannot believe is that I have not posted here in nearly 3 years! Oh, the things I could have shared 😊

I know we all went through some things as soon as coronavirus became the main topic of discussion and started controlling our lives. I had several weeks off from work, then working remotely, then back to in person for a bit, working remotely again, got covid somewhere in there, and things are basically back to normal now in my area.

I had one of my 4 daughters move several states away and get married, move back to our hometown, move in with me, and eventually move into their own home (Thank you Lord!)

We raised some ducks and chickens for a minute, got a rescue puppy (adorable!), and planted a lot of things in the yard.

Laney

I crocheted a lot; more projects finished than unfinished. I read a lot, cooked a lot, failed at starting sourdough, and made many chocolate mayonnaise cakes. I watched a WHOLE LOT of television. Many of my old favorites; and discovered some new favorites as well. I watched the entire series of Grimm, Madam Secretary, Stranger Things, Outer Banks, Survivor, and many others. Got myself hooked on General Hospital again, and also watched all of my British favorites, including Father Brown, Rosemary and Thyme, Poirot, Mrs. Marple, Taskmaster, 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, Gogglebox, and the classics on YouTube, like Charlie Chan, Alfred Hitchcock, and old Black and White Sherlock Holmes episodes.

True Story!

I had another ankle surgery to remove the 3 plates and 17 screws that were put in from an broken-in-three-spots trifecta of ankle breaks (my surgeon’s words, not mine) 3 years prior. One of the screws going into the back of my ankle bone had worked its way through and was sticking out of the front of my ankle bone. That was a couple weeks off from work to recover, but my ankle feels so much better, and I regained a lot of movement I have not had since the break.

Benjamin (grey) and Franklin (cream)

Things are somewhat/mostly back to normal, but I will save that for my next post, as this one has become much longer than I expected!

More to come! I wish you all the very best of everything!

If I May Interrupt Your Currently Scheduled Broadcast…

Published November 16, 2017 by Angela

…to discuss something that I have quickly realized is an epidemic in my community. I have been aware of it, heard some talk here-and-there about it, but when it begins to affect my personal life, I feel I must take action.

It is children being raised by their Grandparents. I do not see this as a bad thing, and am grateful for every single grandparent who has taken on the responsibility of raising their grandchildren, because their own children are unable or unwilling to.

It's hurting again drawing

My 13 year old daughter has two best friends, one who lives with her Granny, and another who lives with her Grandma and Grandpa. These girls are always at my house. I feed them, I take them to church, and one of them spends at least 4 nights out of 7 at my house. I am okay with that. I know the grandparents of this one girl, and they are also raising one of her brothers. They send food over, take the girls places, etc. It is a group effort, and I am glad to be a part of it.

So what happened yesterday was my 13 year old shows up with a boy from school. He doesn’t have his house key, and no one is home right now.

Okay, fair enough. I ask him where he lives, and he says he is going to walk home. No problem. I told him he will be leaving by 7:30.

Feeling under the weather all week, congested and with sinus headache, I fell asleep while sitting up in my bed reading a book. I wake up at 11:45 pm. I go in the living room, and there sits said boy, watching television.

“What are you still doing here?!?!?!” (my daughter is sound asleep).

“I don’t know.”

“Who exactly do you live with?”

“My Grandma.”

He gets his coat on, grabs his backpack, and starts heading out the door.

“What are you doing?!?!?!?”

“Walking home.”

“Uh, the hell you are, it’s freaking midnight.”

Sad Kid Image

azloraimt.deviantart.com 

Anyhow, to make a long story short; I know; too late: I drop him off at a home with 3 cars in the driveway, lights on, front door is locked, he walks around the back, not to be seen again. Now I don’t know if he got in the house, and this isn’t a great neighborhood. I am not about to knock on the front door, walk around the back, or continue to sit in my vehicle in the middle of the road.

I was so stressed and upset about the well-being of this boy when I got back home that I had to take a Xanax just to calm the hell down and try to get back to sleep. I barely slept, and woke up still worrying.

I cannot imagine what kind of life this 13 year old boy has that he can be gone from his home at midnight, and there is not one single person who cares enough about him to be looking for him, texting him, anything.

It absolutely breaks my heart. What the hell have we become as a society? There are parents who don’t care about their kids any longer, and can’t be bothered to take care of them. We are failing our children. The responsibility falls on the grandparents so very often, and they lack the resources, room, energy, and likely knowledge of this new digital social media world we are in now.

This one incident has pushed me in the direction of seeing what kind of resources are available in my community, and what I can do to help.

Success! 2 Down; 2 To Go!

Published May 26, 2016 by Angela

Graduation went fantastic! Kendall has already moved out, a couple of weeks ago, and our relationship has definitely improved.

And as much as I complain about my kids; I am truly Blessed to have been given the responsibility to raise these little girls into beautiful, smart young women!

Is it easy? NEVER.

I honestly look back on some of the things I have went through, and do not know how I made it.

Would I trade it for anything? ehhhh; we will just let that one go for right now.

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I’ve done good; willingly or not…I have been raising some pretty amazing women!

How To Stress Out Your Mom…

Published May 19, 2016 by Angela

Stressed Mom 3

  1. Get a letter in the mail the high school sends in March, letting her know you are in danger of graduating.
  2. Do not let her see that letter, or mention anything about the above situation.
  3. Make her pay $250.00 for your cap, gown, and invitations.
  4. Make her spend $40.00 on stamps, and $80.00 on photos for the invitations.
  5. Make her find addresses and fill all of them out, and get them in the mail.
  6. Continue to NOT tell her there is a chance you are not graduating at all.
  7. Tell her on Monday, at 2 pm, that she has until 3 pm, that day, to pay $161.00 for your band camp bill, or you do not get to receive your diploma.
  8. Again; continue to NOT tell her there is a chance you are not graduating at all.
  9. Let your school counselor call her at work to tell her to get ahold of you and tell you to get to the school, or you are not graduating.
  10. WHAT???
  11. Tell your Mom you are doing your best, but you just do not think you can get it done in time.
  12. Again; do not mention the letter sent to her in March that you opened and disposed of.
  13. Let your Mom call the school counselor 2 hours later, and have the counselor tell Mommy that they sent a letter in March.
  14. Let your Mom find out that you have one more assignment to do, that has to be turned in that day, but you have to work that night.

Stressed Mom 4

I wish I could truly express the amount, and severity, of emotions I was going through for a couple days. But honestly, I would not wish that on my worst enemy. And I have a few.

She passed her class, and she will be graduating with the rest of her class.

And I will be so happy to have the graduation done, the open house finished, and I can go on my merry way, worrying about the 2 girls I still have at home….

UGH

 

It’s Getting Close!

Published May 10, 2016 by Angela

Am I too excited? Probably. Feeling stressed about getting the open house invites out, getting the decorations and centerpieces, and still homeschooling a 9th grader.

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But my soon-to-be graduate is working again, and she is as ready to fly the coop as I am to see her go.

Keep in mind; I have 2 teenagers here sharing a room that are eying the real estate!

Cat Life

The Cats don’t care. Just give them peace-and-quiet!

 

The one thing I know about her more than anything, and the reason we butt heads so much..is I was exactly like her growing up.

Hoping for the best, planning for the worst, and living it all day-by-day.

 

I Think She Is Doing It On Purpose…

Published April 29, 2016 by Angela

…being as irritating as possible, in the hopes that I will tell her to move out before she graduates. Before she gets a job. Before she can financially support herself.

I really do not think she understands that once this happens, she will truly be cut off from any financial assistance from me.

PAOHS 4-28-2016

The only thing that I am still obligated to pay for (kind of), is the car insurance that automatically comes out of my paycheck every week. Which is why two weeks ago I took her to our Secretary of State and signed the car title over to her. Which means I am NOT obligated to have insurance on the car I gave her. But she sure is. That also means I can cancel the insurance tomorrow if I choose to do so.

She has her Senior prom tomorrow. She graduates in 4 weeks. I keep telling her to focus on school; not on how fast she can be a grown-ass adult and living on her own.

So the drama continues. I honestly hope that she is still living in this house when she graduates. Because if she isn’t, I am probably not likely to host her open house the weekend after.

Yes; I am a bad Mom.

I do not care.

PAOHS 2 4-28-2016

I swear to goodness if one more of my children asks me for one tiny thing, my head is going to explode.

I hate seeing I have a message or missed call on my phone. Because I start wondering what one of my kids is asking me for. And 99% of the time, that is exactly what it is.

Yes, I gave birth to them.

No, they did not ask to be born. And when one of them had the nerve to say that to me? My reply was, “It is a good thing you did not ask to be born; because the answer would have been no!”

This sense of entitlement is literally driving me mad, and I am partially responsible for it. Being a single parent with 4 daughters, it was, and still is, hard to fight a specific battle with each specific child every day. Sometimes I gave in. And now I am paying for it.

 

How Bad Should You Make Your Child’s Reality?

Published April 26, 2016 by Angela

I should clarify.

I am talking about my 18 year old daughter who will graduate high school in a month, wants to take a year off before she goes to college, got fired from her job, and is going to move in with her boyfriend of 6 months.

Stressed Mom 1

Now you get the picture.

I have a running bill of over $500.00 that she owes me for her cell phone and monthly cell phone bills. And I made it crystal clear that she is not moving anywhere until she has a full time job, because once she goes, I will not help her.

I will NOT help her. Bad Mom? Whatever. I still have a 14 and 11 year old daughter here that I am raising alone, so if she wants to be a grown up, she can be a grown up.

The way I see it, is if you are not going to college, you have 16 hours a day available to work in order to financially support yourself.

Stressed Mom 2

Ramen noodles? You better get a taste for them. Planet Fitness? Yeah; I ain’t paying that.

It is so tough watching them spread their wings to fly when you can see the crash and burn coming right around the corner.

Parenthood is way over-rated. I was never meant to be a Mom, and should have never been a Mom. But that is a whole different post I will share with you soon enough.

How do you tough-love your kids when they refuse to listen to logic and reason?

So Is It Considered Snooping…

Published March 31, 2016 by Angela

…when you have 2 different daughters who leave their Facebook accounts open; one on IE, and one on Google Chrome? Literally, the computer was completely shut off, and I turn it on, and go to get into my FB account, and voila, they each have their accounts open on a different platform.

Oh; yeah, the answer is “NO”, it is not snooping. I have 2 daughters, one is now 18 and an “adult”, who I am literally counting the days until her graduation, her open house, and packing her up and moving her to Colorado.

Call me a bad Mom, I honestly do not care. My 14 year old has been trouble since she learned what the word was. She is smart, beautiful, and abandoned by her father when she was 4, so any man, and yes I mean Man, that gives her attention; she is all over it.

Kids on Computers

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So I am going to sit here and make sure my girls are safe. Because no one else will. And, unfortunately, no one else cares.

You Really Can’t Fix Stupid…

Published March 24, 2016 by Angela

…I mean; I keep trying, but Stupid just does not get it. So I am done wasting my energy, and it is time to let the courts decide how stupid Stupid really is.

Men are stupid 1

Is this a man-bashing? Absolutely not. Both of my brothers got custody of their daughters when they got divorced. But the writing is on the wall, and Stupid decides to not see it.

My 18 year old stopped spending weekends with him over a year ago, because of his girlfriend. He is 38, she was 19.

About 2 months ago, my 14 year old refused to go with him as well, because of said girlfriend. And he told me, “I will never put anyone before my girls”. But he did.

And now this “man” who cannot support his children emotionally (I don’t need his financial support, and he doesn’t pay it, so don’t even start!), is having another child with this girl who my children cannot tolerate.

Does he have a right to his decisions? Absolutely. Do you agree with him putting his needs before his 3 daughters? hmmm

I am praying that my youngest will just stop wanting to go. I will never put the idea in her head, or encourage it, but I am praying for it.

It is a toxic environment where I had to find out from my oldest daughter that this young girlfriend was finding random people to come home and have sex with both of them.

Yes, the lawyer has already been contacted, as well as my local “friend-of-the-court”, but boy aren’t they slow?

Men are stupid 2

So yeah, don’t listen to me, don’t assume I have OUR children’s best interest in mind…but I will make you sit in front of a judge and explain yourself. Because I have the best lawyer in my town on retainer, and since you owe me $10,000.00 + in back child support, I am just gonna assume you don’t have any.