single parent

All posts tagged single parent

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 🙂

Does Anyone Ever Like Algebra? Do You Ever Use It?

Published September 18, 2014 by Angela

These are two of the many questions Erin is asking me as we are going through her algebra every day. I have to laugh, because I used to absolutely hate math. But I have had to take so many progressively difficult math classes in college that I actually now enjoy the challenge of working out a math problem.

But no, I did not tell her that she may never use algebra outside of school 🙂

It will all make sense at some point, I am just not sure yet what that point is for her.

Who is Homeschooling Whom?

Published September 16, 2014 by Angela

I am seeing a pattern. And I am not liking it. I seem to be spending more time going through my 8th grader’s homeschooling work, checking her calendar, making sure she has her schedule for the day, etc. etc. You probably know the drill.

But I am not seeing her put forth the same amount of effort as I am. I do not know what else to do to motivate her, but I am fast running out of ideas.

I either need better bribes, or better punishments 🙂

and how is your week going?

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!

I Must Have Needed That

Published July 1, 2014 by Angela

12 hours of sleep straight, only waking up when my kitty thought he needed some attention, has me feeling much better now than I have for the past 4 days. Being a 3rd shift worker and having 9 days off from work is not something I generally look forward to. I rarely have (or willingly take) more than a couple days off in a row. When I am off, I try to maintain my sleep schedule by staying up all night, and sleeping during the day.

A girl’s day yesterday with my 4 daughter’s pretty much pushed me to the limit. I did not feel good eating lunch at Red Robin, I slept through the movie Maleficent, and the several hour mall shopping spree had me at my wit’s end. I kept explaining to them that I just physically did not feel good (they know being off my schedule literally makes me ill), and had to keep apologizing for my lack of patience. I could slowly feel myself turning into one of those parents that make me cringe when I see how they talk to or treat their children. I did not get quite to that point, but I certainly was on my way.

So after all of that sleep, and 4 full days still off from work, I already know I am going to fall asleep for a couple hours, waking up at 2am, wide awake and starving, and be up until about 8am when I am so exhausted I have to go back to bed. I am glad that I do not have anything scheduled or planned that I can’t do around my odd-ball schedule, but I feel like I am missing out on time with my girls; even though we are all physically sitting in the same room right now (minus one), and one is on their laptop, one is on their phone, one is watching television, and I am waiting for a cake to cool so I can frost it.

I also am looking at a whole lot of stuff sitting around that I need to get sorted and taken care of, and have no motivation for that either. So I think I am going to call it a day, eat a piece of cake, and start reading “The Silkworm”, J. K. Rowling’s second book in the Cormoran Strike series (written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith).

What are your plans as we get closer to the Fourth of July?

Waking up To Silence…

Published June 17, 2014 by Angela

…there is nothing better. There are no words. I cannot recall the last time that I actually had the house to myself. With my oldest daughter (FINALLY) home after 6 weeks in South Africa, she has a week off from work to get back on the United States schedule 🙂

So she picked up her 3 younger sisters, took them to the beach for the day, to both of her Grandma’s houses, McDonald’s, and peace and quiet for Mom.

They are walking in the door right now, and the silence is no more.

But it was amazing having a couple of hours of no talking, no television, to fighting, and no asking me for anything.

Thanks Jess, you are the best! And can we do this again tomorrow?