First day of 1st Grade!

Here I am, ready to receive my Mother of the Year award!

Seems I started a post about LO's first day of 1st Grade (which yes, happened to take place over 2 months ago) but never managed to publish it on the blog! OMGeez. I'm awful!

Here she is striking a pose for the camera before leaving for school:

Isn't she just darling?!

Here she is right outside of her new 1st grade classroom:

My beautiful girl!!!

One last stalker-pic of her in the classroom before mommy left...

She had a great first day! And needless to say, she's enjoyed the past 2 months of 1st grade! LOL!

Just as a fun comparison, let's see her first day of school transition from K3 through First Grade!

She's growing up so fast!!! I'm so proud of this sweet girl of mine!

Coming up soon... CHASE'S 4TH BIRTHDAY WEEKEND!!! Two days. Two parties. One amazing little fighter. And one mess of a mommy! We are SO. VERY. BLESSED. to have our sweet boy with us. He's been through so much! God is good! I can't wait to celebrate!!!

Time

Time.

What a rare commodity. Seems I've been running short on it here lately.

And by lately, I mean the past 6 months or so.

My head is swirling with a zillion thoughts on how to get back some of this precious gift of time.

Give up my part-time job?

Walk away from my position with the PTA?

Get another mom to room parent my 1st grader's class?

Quit one of the few church ministries I've always been called to serve in? ((Oh, wait -- I already did that last month.))

:(

There are so many things I need more time for.

Time for my family.

Time to blog the events and milestones I don't want to forget.

Time to play with my kids.

Time to update my almost 6-month-old's (!!!) baby book.

Time to sew my kids' homemade Halloween costumes / dress up play clothes.

Time to clean my house. It's seriously filthy and overlooked.

Time to plan my precious boy's 4th birthday party.

Time to pray and pray and pray and pray some more over Chase's next heart surgery that will take place most likely in May.

Time to update the blog about Chase's cardiology appointment earlier today.

Time to cook healthy meals for my family.

Time to grocery shop.

Time to spend in God's word.

Time to actually date my husband (without 3 kids & a drive-thru on the agenda).

The list goes on and on and on. I'm sure every mom can relate. It's not easy to balance work, family, volunteering and other commitments that require our time. I give kudos to those moms who were wired with the ability to work a full-time job while raising a family and still manage everything else with ease. I'll fully admit I am NOT wired that way.

If you would've asked teenage me what I wanted to be when I grew up, the answer was always the same:

A wife and a mother.

I'm there now. I've arrived. But I'm letting too many distractions keep me from doing my best at these two incredibly important roles that I've waited so long to fulfill.

I find myself missing out on the two weeknights of quality family time that I'm home each week by sitting at my computer, putting the needs of my daughter's school ahead of my family.

I find myself missing out on the ministry opportunity of singing in the choir each Wednesday because I'm so tired and overwhelmed by life to find the strength or willingness to go.

I find myself missing out on the relaxing yet productive Saturdays at home with my family because I'm commuting and working for 10 of those precious hours every Saturday.

I find myself missing out of the joy of worshipping with my family and setting a good example for our kids by attending church on Sundays because I'm too tired from working the day before and am just so desperate for some "downtime" with my family.

I find myself missing out on sharing in special school events with my children because although I volunteered to help with both LO & Chase's field trips, I just realized tonight that they are BOTH next Friday.

With Chase's first 4th birthday party that night.

Followed by Chase's second 4th birthday party the following morning (What? If anyone deserves two parties, it's this Rock Star Heart Warrior of mine!).

Whoa.

If you've read this far, way to go! Regular readers will know I always keep it real here. I'm being incredibly open and transparent with my struggles tonight -- that's for sure! If for no other reason, it's a wee bit liberating to me to put my thoughts out here so I can come back later and see that maybe it wasn't really as bad as it felt like at the time. Maybe?? And brain dumping on my blog has always been a good source of release for my crazy. ;)

So thanks to those of you who made it to the end. I covet your prayers as I work through some difficult decisions in the days ahead. Your support means so much!

Now to try and fit in some time for a few hours of much-needed sleep.

G'nite!


- Posted from my beloved iPhone 5

Beautiful Girl

I couldn't help but post this picture of LO here on the blog. It's her Kindergarten spring school picture and it is AMAZING. I am so in love with this pic!!! It was taken on Valentine's Day 2013 -- just a few weeks after she turned 5 1/2 (on January 25, 2013). I can't believe what a beautiful, sweet, kindhearted young lady she's becoming.

I'm one proud mama. ;)

And yes, certain family members who may see this and wonder... I have hard copies to share with you!

LO and the Author's Tea

Today was a special day for LO! She was selected by her Kindergarten class and teachers to attend her school's February Author's Tea. The Author's Tea is essentially a monthly gathering of selected students who read something they've written to the audience of other students and their parents. It's a special honor and we were overjoyed to attend this morning to see LO in her 30 seconds of glory! :)

 

Way to go, LO! We're so proud of you!! We loved your Valentine's Day story!

My Day

If you're here for a bright, shiny, spirit-lifing post, keep browsing the interwebs. If you want to hear the brutal reality of my sucktastic day, read on.

It was a normal day for the most part. LO was back to school (thankyouJesus) and that left just me and Chase. He's still a potty-using fiend which is fabulous on the one hand, but ohsoveryannoying on the other one. He's getting to the point where he's self-sufficient in there, but every time he heads that way a certain very lazy and tired pregnant mama must remove herself from the couch and meet him in there to assist. Imagine that about a dozen times just before lunchtime hits, and you'll have a tiny glimpse into my morning. Oh, and add the fact that the boy, while he was in desperate need of a good #2, simply refused to knock it out and chose instead to wander the living room aimlessly all morning, whining that his tummy hurts. OMG. Seriously?

I won't get into the detail here since I feel it deserves its own lengthy and annoyingly irritating post, but I've been monitoring my blood sugar 4x/day for about a week now and have learned some interesting things. Like I'm on the path to gestational diabetes. Like my doc wants to put me on medication. Like I'm choosing to manage it with diet, which for those of you who know me rather well, know that I am NOT one to make healthy food choices consistently and am NOT one to walk away from sweets. So imagine the fun this is for me. More on that later.

After lunch I decided to call about LO's new furniture. We were told 4 to 6 weeks, but that it typically was coming in earlier like 3 to 4 weeks. It's been 4 so I thought I'd inquire about it. Lo and behold, the woman dares to tell me that LO's bed IS STILL IN PRODUCTION and wouldn't be here until MID-MARCH.

I just died.

I couldn't believe it. You're probably aware that we can't do anything to set up the baby's nursery until we get LO's new furniture and do her room first. So this puts a HUGE delay in getting things ready for the baby. And let's not mention how completely and totally inpatient I am about all things fun and home decor-y. And on top of that, I'm pregnant, people. Ever heard of nesting?! I'm driving myself INSANE not being able to do anything with LO's room or the nursery, but it was okay because the furniture was supposed to be here Any. Nuggin'. Day.

Notsomuch.

So once I'm done with my first bout of tears over the furniture, Chase and I head out to pick up LO. Boy was I pleased to hear she had a blue day (imagine the rainbow... blue's towards the bottom... 'nuff said). Great. Then there was the fact that a little fender bender took place in the pick-up line that should've resulted in the side of MY vehicle being scraped up, but luckily the rude lady in front of me was talking and wouldn't scoot up for me to go around her, so the guy behind me went around me and was the lucky one to get hit instead.

Then we get home. And I see a huge pile of fresh dog poo in our front yard. Thanks, unknown neighbor or wild dog/coyote.

And as I'm helping LO get set up to do her homework, Chase heads off to the bathroom to go pee. While he was sitting on the potty, he magically managed to pee All. Over. The. Floor. instead of IN the potty.

Whoa. Could this day get any better??

It's nap time. Things are starting to look up for me. Oh, and LO ate some of the Lay's sweet heat southern barbecue potato chips that I left out on the counter and about cried (not really, but sort of) over how hot they were, so that was funny. ;) She kept eating them, though, but then proceeded to clear out her cup of milk from the fridge. It helped make my day just a little better. (I'm a horrible mom.)

Okay, so this sums up my day so far. Yes, I fully realize all of these things are completely trivial and just a blip on the radar compared to what some people are going through, but it's been a crappy day and I just felt like sharing.

Woe is me.

Okay, I'm over it. The End.

;)

Tough Job

When LO attended a local private Christian school for K3 and K4, I served as the "Room Mom" both years and absolutely loved it! I'm passionate about communication and made sure my parents were aware of all of the activities happening in the classroom as well as the various volunteer opportunities available for them to serve. These parents were always on the ball, happy to sign up to help in the classroom, send in items for class parties, etc. My job was Room Mom was fun, relatively easy and a great way to learn which parent goes with each child. ;)

Fast-forward to LO's first year in public school for Kindergarten. I'm serving as the "Room Mom" for her class again this year. We have 21 students, which would mean we have 21 parents/guardians to participate in the classroom.

Yet I'm about to pull my hair out!!!

We have a need for a simple computer lab volunteer. They help turn computers on. And maybe help the kids "point & click" on the right thing during the class. It's a 30-minute obligation.

I've had ZERO parents sign up (besides myself and my co-Room Mom). ZERO.

Seriously? For Kindergarten?? This is the kids' first year of "big school" and I can't get a single parent to sign up to help in the computer lab?? I understand not all parents have the stay-at-home flexibility that I have, but come on. It's like using ONE LUNCH HOUR EVERY OTHER MONTH to volunteer and help out in your own kid's classroom. Is that seriously too much to ask?

Apparently.

This is so frustrating. I have another classroom program (reading to the kids!) that needs volunteers; again, only myself and my co-Room Mom have signed up to help. The sucky thing is you can't bring younger siblings to these volunteer programs in the classroom, so I have to make arrangements for Chase each time I go to help with the computer lab or the reading program. It's a bit of an inconvenience but I don't mind doing it occasionally. Only since there are NO parents interested in helping in their child's classroom, I'm gonna need to do it a LOT more frequently than occasionally.

GRRRRRRR!!!

This is NOT what I signed up for! I just cannot fathom how parents are so disinterested in helping in their child's Kindergarten class. I get that parents work, parents are busy, etc. But the most frustrating part is NONE of them even bother to respond to my emails! Not even just to tell me they work and aren't able to help. That'd be nice to know and so appreciated! But it's frustrating to keep contacting my parents and get ZERO responses from them.

I guess if this is what it's gonna be like, I'll be sure NOT to sign up for this in the future. I just hate that parents' lack of involvement cause parents like me (who love to serve!) to give up and walk away from the opportunity to make a difference in their child's class because they can't get parents to reply to a simple email, to just communicate with me!

Ugh. Thanks for letting me vent. Hopefully this will improve as the school year continues, but I'm not gonna hold my breath.

Seriously, though. What am I missing? What am I not understanding? I'm all for working parents to dodge the bullet of volunteering if they truly can't get away for one lunch hour every other month. And I get that some stay-at-home parents may have younger siblings they can't make alternate arrangements for so they'd be able to serve. But is it really too much to ask for parents to RESPOND to me to let me know this?? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!!!

Ugh. The End.

First Day of Kindergarten!!!

Whoa. I cannot believe I just sent my little baby girl to "big school" for her very first day!!! I'd like to state for the record that it is currently 8:40 AM and I have not yet cried a single actual tear, although it's definitely still pretty early. ;)

Last night we were able to do all of our prepare-for-the-first-day-of-school stuff, from picking out her outfit, to painting her fingernails, to planning her lunch. For the most part, I was pretty much prepared and ready to get this day rolling bright and early this morning.

I was up at 6:10 AM to get ready. I was downstairs cooking LO's special first-day-of-kindergarten breakfast, which included blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon and chocolate milk.

She was quite pleasant to wake up (nothing like her mommy!) and came bounding downstairs for breakfast. Even with both of us being extremely quiet, to my amazement, Chase came down less than 2 minutes later. No biggie! This worked out for us today, so he enjoyed a yummy breakfast alongside his big sister.

While LO was getting dressed and ready for school, I packed her lunch, exactly to her specifications:

• PB&J (shocker, I know)
• Carrots
• Cucumbers
• Apple Slices
• Yogurt (not pictured)
• Juice

I'm beating myself up right now because, while I remembered to include a sweet note in her lunch, I forgot to add a cookie in there to surprise her with an extra special treat on her first day. #mommyfail

After she was ready, we went outside for some first day of Kindergarten pictures!!

I can't believe how big this girl of mine is!

Let's flash back for a moment, shall we? Here are last year's first day of K4 pictures:

Cool stuff!

And let's not forget the first day of K3:

She's so totally the same but yet so totally different! It's insane how fast time flies... it's totally true what they say!

Anywho, back to our day... After taking pictures out front, we all loaded up in the car to head to school. Luckily we got there waaaay before the craziness and were able to get a quick parking spot. Hubs and Chase waited in the car while Mommy and LO went in (but not before a few more pictures in the parking lot). I let LO lead me to her class and she was greeted immediately by one of her teachers. She was so so so much different than Monday at Meet the Teacher when she hid behind me, clinging to me, unable to speak or make eye contact with her teachers. She's really warmed up quickly and I'm so very proud of her!

I took a few more pictures in her classroom before heading out. Ain't she purdy??

Before I left, the students were all asked to sit at the tables, so I snapped one more pic...

As you can tell from this last one, she was tired of taking pictures. In fact, she said exactly that just seconds before I snapped this pic!

Haha! I'm so glad we had a great morning and she did such a great job with her first day of Kindergarten. Today should be interesting as it is the start of an entirely new routine for the kids and I. Since Chase was up and eating breakfast bright n' early, my plan is to feed him lunch around the same time LO will eat hers at school (11:30 AM), then put him down for a way-earlier-than-normal nap at 12:30 PM. I'll need to have him up and ready to get in the car to pick up LO by 1:45 PM (yes, I'm that crazy mom that wants to be one of the first ones in the car pick-up line) as school gets out at 2:30 PM.

I can't wait to hear all about LO's first day of Kindergarten and I also can't wait to see how Chase handles his new routine today. I'm really looking forward to having some fun mommy/Chase time now that she'll be at school every day. There's a lot of good stuff happening and I promise I'm doing my very best to embrace it -- without tears!

HAPPY FIRST DAY

OF KINDERGARTEN, LO!!

MOMMY LOVES YOU BUNCHES!!!