kids

All posts tagged kids

I Don’t Know Why I Was Even Surprised…

Published October 2, 2014 by Angela

…when I looked in the refrigerator this morning, seeing if someone got into the cookie dough, and it was gone. I had meant to put the package of Nestle Toll House pumpkin spice and white chip cookie dough in my mini refrigerator in my bedroom once I baked the Halloween chocolate chip package and Erin realized there was cookie dough in the refrigerator. I forgot when I left for work yesterday morning. This morning; the whole package had disappeared.

This is why I have a mini refrigerator in my bedroom, as well as the bottom of my entertainment center in my bedroom full of cereal, chips, snacks, etc. When the mood strikes Erin, and she fancies something to eat, she will eat it. She will eat it all. Even though she knows she shouldn’t, and that it upsets me, and it is unhealthy for her; she does it anyway. Such as 24 cookie dough squares. Or 6 cans of slim-fast in one night. Or 8 yogurts in a day. She has randomly cooked full loaves of garlic bread in the middle of the night, so when I go to cook the pasta meal I had planned for dinner; no garlic bread. If she finds chocolate anywhere, she will eat it all. I have had whole bags of chocolate chips disappear, entire cans of Pringles, and a dozen eggs at one time.

If I had a bigger bedroom, I would have a bigger refrigerator. Honestly, if I could get away with putting a lock on my refrigerator and pantry, I would. I am sure someone would consider that child endangerment or cruelty or something else along those lines. Even though she is causing herself issues by binge eating like she does.

Have you had a child, sibling, spouse, partner, friend, or roommate do this? How did you deal with it?

Online Schooling…

Published October 2, 2014 by Angela

…is definitely a big improvement for me than last year when I was setting all of the lesson plans, schedules, checking all of the homework, and then helping her with all of it. Now I just have to help her with all of it. And remind her to stay on task. And answer questions she should probably know the answers to. And remind her to stay on task. And explain to her why it is important to at least move her books from the exact location they were in that morning, so it at least looks like she opened them. And remind her to stay on task. And sit with her through her entire Algebra lessons to help her understand. And remind her to stay on task.

Okay, I think you got my point. I am liking this online environment for Erin (I am working on my 3rd college degree online, so it is definitely familiar territory). The one thing I do not like is the assessments are 4 or 5 questions. If she even gets one wrong, her grade drops by a large amount.

We are still working through the bugs, but she is improving from where she was the first week. Hopefully she is finding her rhythm, and we can keep her caught up. She has one huge writing project that gets shared with the social studies assignments as well, and it does get a bit confusing as to what is due when, and which class they want it submitted to.

I am still hoping she will be ready for public high school next year; she is working towards that goal as much as I am. If she is not, I will definitely go this route next year as well.

We made it past Hump Day, on to the weekend!

Questioning Life Changes, Does it Never End?

Published September 21, 2014 by Angela

I always seem to have a difficult time making very important decisions; never being able to stop asking myself, “but what if I did …”. The past year has been full of life changes for me. All for the positive, but never without stress and worry. I will be the first to admit that I overthink everything. Every single thing. At 42 years old, with a great career, family life, and good health, I still stress over making decisions.

Sometimes I wish I could be a kid again, when someone else would make the decisions for me. Then I wouldn’t be the one responsible when it didn’t work out. I have made some bad decisions; some real whoppers! But I do always own up to them, hopefully apologizing when necessary, and definitely learning from my bad choices.

I watch my girls go through the very same thing. Struggling to make decisions. I can see the look on their face when they are hoping I can and will give them the answer. But I can’t. There are some decisions that they have to make for themselves, to learn and grow from. Even when I know that there will be crying later. Broken hearts. Anger. I have to let them own that. They have to take that road that they choose and decide for themselves if they made the right decision.

My outlook as of late has been to take a positive from a negative, and focus on that. Now if I could just teach that to my girls 🙂

Can’t We All Just Get Along?

Published September 14, 2014 by Angela

Having 3 children each 3 years apart will probably be a blessing in the years to come, but they are certainly spaced out at the ages right now (16, 13, 10) to ensure that they will not ever get along, on any given day.

I have been listening to arguing for the past 3 days over rubber bands. Bracelet loom rubber bands. You know the ones I mean,  right? I have rubber-band bracelets laying around in every room of my house. The girls have 3 large containers (large!) full of these tiny little rubber bands. Not to mention the ones I am picking up all over my floors.

Said 10 year old got a new loom for her birthday on Friday (yes, I knew better than to buy another one, but I did anyhow). Somehow, the rubber bands that they have all been sharing now have separate owners, and one will not share with the other.

I know, I know! Just take them away. I seem to be buying rubber bands on a bi-weekly basis, and I do not recall ever buying these and handing them to one child and saying “Here. These are your rubber bands. You don’t need to share them.” I am pretty sure that I have always encouraged my girls to share, yet I seem to have daily battles over the most ridiculous things. I am trying to not get to the point where I point out the true fact that “All of those rubber bands, and looms, belong to me. I bought them. I went to work to earn the money to pay for them.” Because then I would be acting just like they are 🙂

So today I choose to pick my battles, and this is not going to be one of them. They can fight this one out themselves.

This Is Going On My Wall!

Published September 13, 2014 by Angela

It seems I have been asking the “Did you get your assessments done today?” Several times a day, only to go and check anyways, and then spend more hours getting said 8th grader caught up.

The plan is to be back on track by Sunday night, with all grades going up a level. It is way too early in the school year to start getting behind 🙂 How do you keep your homeschoolers on task?

So True!

So True!

What Say We Try This Again Tomorrow…

Published June 11, 2014 by Angela

… and this time, you do things the right way?

Monday seemed to go much smoother than today did with school being over. I pretty much had the house cleaned Monday morning before I went to bed, so my girls really did not have to do a lot to keep it clean when I got up.

Now, there are a lot of little things that tend to irk me, but I have gotten much better at not getting worked up “over the little stuff“. But one thing that I absolutely do NOT like, is having people in my house, while I am sleeping, and I don’t know about it. If you ask me first, more often than not I will say “O.K.” But to wake up at 3pm to house guests? Not happy.

Now, I live in a house full of girls. Well, except for the 2 boy cats and the boy rabbit. But they don’t mind. So, I will not hesitate to get up, trudge downstairs in my pajamas, and get a cup of coffee.

Coming downstairs in my pajamas, to find my 16 year olds’ boyfriend sitting on my couch, not cool. Not cool at all. I am not talking about Victoria Secret inappropriate sleepwear, but either way, my legs showing, and no bra on, is not appropriate for house guests. So, I had to turn around, go back up to my room, and get dressed. So I could get a cup of coffee.

I had to get dressed. In order to get a cup of coffee. In my own house. Really? Really. 😦

The house was a mess, and nothing was done. The first thing my 16 year old says to me: “I thought you weren’t getting up until 4?”

Yeah, like me sleeping an hour longer would have allowed for the house to be cleaned.

So, I got ready for my day, cooked dinner for my girls and said house guest, filled the dishwasher, had company for an hour, did homework, and now I am waiting to go to work.

I am also waiting to see how long it is going to take my 16 year old to tell me her boyfriend needs a ride home. Because she is going to. (That is something else that really, really irks me), having to take said uninvited house guests home.

And how was your day?

Well Today is the Big Day!

Published June 9, 2014 by Angela

Well Today is the Big Day!

The first official full day of Summer vacation for my girls. So I am putting in the ear plugs, putting on the eye mask, taking some ZzzzQuil ( 🙂 ) grabbing my naked kitty, and going to bed for the day. Keeping my fingers crossed for a house that looks at 2pm the way it looks now at 4am (or even better, which would be So awesome!).

6 Month Check-Up

Published May 31, 2014 by Angela

I figured it was time to check back in with my 2014 to-do list, and see where I am at. My original list can be seen here: https://parenthoodandotherhorrorstories.com/2014/01/02/my-2014-to-do-list/

1) Go to church a lot more – I am pretty successful with this one. I don’t miss too often, because I can really tell when I do; my attitude pretty much tanks.

2) Tithe a lot more- Success

3) Stop swearing – doing pretty well. I still swear, but nowhere near as much as I did. I wonder if it counts if I am still thinking the words, and just not saying them?

4) Stop yelling – Better, but I still have my moments

5) Make and take some “me” time – This made me want to cry when I read this. Literally, I felt the tears behind my eyes. This has not happened, and with my kids going non-stop, and me working and going to college, it feels like it is not going to happen anytime soon. I get a 6-week break from college at the end of June, and the girls will be out of school so hopefully I can make this happen!

6) Patience – yeah. Next…

7) Exercise – LOL. Still. Next…

8) Read the Bible – I am up to 1 Samuel. I have gotten through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, and Ruth.

9) Improve my photography skills – I have not had the camera out very much, at all. I am trying to focus on taking it with me when I go somewhere so I have it handy all the time.

10) Allow myself to be happy – I have been feeling kind of crummy for the last couple of months. As the weather gets nicer, my mood gets more crummy. I think it is just all of the running I have been doing, along with school work. I have been Blessed with so much, and have been focusing on Thanking God for that on a daily basis 🙂

What’s Wrong With the Neighbor’s House?

Published April 5, 2014 by Angela

Why do the neighbor kids all feel the need to hang out at my house? Now, I am not complaining, I really just do not know why everyone always seems to gather outside my door? It’s not like I’m serving cookies and milk and having craft-time at my house 🙂 Once in a while, my girls will go elsewhere, but I would certainly rather have my girls at my house so I know what is going on. I am not a big fan of my kids going to someone else’s house all the time.

Do your kids seem to be magnets to all the neighborhood kids as well?