All the Little Grubbs

5,759 words and voting

parenting, writing November 5, 2014 Leave a comment

NaNoWriMo is coming right along. I’m at 5,759 words this morning. According to Chris Baty’s book No Plot, No Problem I should be at 8,335 by the end of today so I’m a little behind but I’m not focusing on that.

What I am focusing on is the way getting even a little writing time is making me feel. I can’t even put into words right now how amazing that feeling is.

The thing about adding something big like this to your daily life is that it makes you realize that you weren’t just feeling busy but you actually are busy.

One of the things I took time to do yesterday was go vote. Even though I wasn’t fired up about going, not like I have been in the past. I really have no tolerance for politics. I consider myself to be patriotic, I love our country and support our military, but as I get older I feel less allegiance to any political party. I feel the government has too much involvement in people’s personal lives but when the tables are turned on the government leaders they’d rather us (American citizens) not stick our noses where they don’t belong. Yes, dear Clinton, I do disagree with your infidelity.

So, do I vote? Of course. I am free to do so and that right didn’t come without many sacrifices of those who came before me. And I’m a parent, so I have an obligation and responsibility to be a good example and show them the importance of voting.

Did I get to vote yesterday? Nope. We’ve moved and my voter registration card is lost and my driver’s license has an address from two houses ago so when I showed up at the polls yesterday they weren’t very happy with me.

Oh well. I’m mailing in my new voter registration form and I’m going to get an updated license so maybe next time I can fulfill my civic duty.

NaNoWriMo2014, four stitches and Halloween

3 year olds, children, writing November 1, 2014 Leave a comment

What in the world is NaNoWriMo? It stands for National Novel Writing Month (it happens every November) and I am participating this year for the first time!

I’m excited, nervous, determined and intimidated but I’m doing it.

It’s about time I stop talking about writing a book and start writing it.

I had planned on using yesterday, October 31st to move a desk to my room and get a little nook set up so I can have an official work space, however, Jonah decided a trip to Children’s hospital ER would be a better way to spend the first 5 hours of our day.

He is three so nothing, and I mean NOTHING, that he does should surprise me. I’ve been through this 4 times before, 5 if you count when I lived with my 3 year old brother who tried to die several times but is a living, breathing 23 year old right now.

He comes into the kitchen, while I was trying to finish my coffee and read a message from a fellow mom/writer I’ve recently met. He had on footy pajamas and decided it would be a good idea to go outside in the wet and cold and jump on the trampoline, which I tried to discourage by saying no, but as I said, he’s three.

He decided to go out anyway, except he couldn’t get the door to open. He got angry, I was laughing inside thinking “curses! Thwarted by the door again!” When I made no move to leave my coffee and open the door for him to do something I already said he couldn’t do he grabbed a heavy kitchen bar stool and threw it down to, I assume, make the level of his anger evident. However, he dropped it on his big toe.

The ER visit was fun. It took 4 adults holding him down to get the 4 stitches he needed. After the wrestling, screaming match the nurses and “child specialists” brought him a popsicle and left so we could wait on paperwork for the next 20 minutes. I was sweating and stressed and needed the down time before lugging him back out of the ER and down the street to the ER parking lot which has moved further away since the we were there for his burned hand a few months ago. I thought it was interesting that he got offered his choice of popsicle but nobody asked me what kind of coffee and chocolate I would like after such a disturbing experience.

We made it home by midafternoon and the weather started to get uglier. My kids had costumes and they weren’t very happy about the fact that it was 45 degrees and starting to rain. We invited a couple of friends down for pizza and trick-or-treating anyway.

It was cold and wet and the 10 pounds of candy I bought didn’t get passed out. Halloween 2014, the first one in our new house and new neighborhood is in the books.

family vacation – gulf shores 2014

adventures October 12, 2014 1 Comment

Jonah’s 3

Jonah October 12, 2014 Leave a comment

Jonah had a nice family party here at our new home. I tried not to focus on this being the last baby we have that will turn 3. He was sweet and in a good mood all day, he wanted to thank everyone and give them hugs. He is a little rascal and we all love him so much!

Theodore’s 7 and the surgery

Theodore October 12, 2014 Leave a comment

Theodore chose to go to RJ’s Courtyard for his family birthday dinner. He loved all his gifts and only struggled with choosing which dessert he would get. Sometimes it’s hard to choose when you are afraid you might miss out on something better!

We’re such sweet parents that we scheduled Theodore to have his tonsils and adenoids removed just a few days after his birthday. We didn’t really do that on purpose, it just worked out that way! He had a ROUGH week but thankfully no complications. He enjoyed tons of ice cream, popsicles, pudding and sweet drinks. Right up his alley.

Parker’s 5

Parker October 12, 2014 Leave a comment

Chocolate birthday muffin for breakfast!

“I’m 5 today” sticker from one of his cards was a BIG hit.

He waited a long time to have his own bible and he was very excited to receive this one!

This was Parker’s year to have a “friend” party. He wanted to have a pool party at Grammy and Grandad’s house, but unfortunately we were also in the middle of moving in the weeks surrounding his birthday. We had to postpone because of rain but he did eventually get his pool party. He was glad to get to have two celebrations!

one button

Foster, parenting September 15, 2014 Comments: 2

I decided yesterday that I’m not going to tell my son about that button again.

The thing is, when he walked in my room yesterday, fully dressed, needing help with his hair, I zeroed in on that stupid button. I didn’t stop to appreciate that he had fully dressed himself. Not just because he’s 10 now and I don’t have to help him get dressed, but because he has full function of his body and his mind, to be able to do what so many take for granted.

I might have told him “you look nice.” In the next moment though, I shattered it. The building up, the comfort and security of being seen and appreciated by someone who loves you, with my stupid focus on that button.

“You sure you don’t want to unbutton that top button?” I asked. The room felt heavier immediately with tension and judgment and criticism. We’d been down this road before, even if I’d tried to keep it light-hearted and tried to explain why people just don’t button that button, it didn’t matter.

“Why should I? Are you saying I look bad?”

“No, it’s just…it just looks…well, a little dorky.”

My son I should be learning from, not teaching, says, “Who cares? I like it this way. It’s useless to unbutton it.”

He is right. I know he is right. There are a lot of times when buttoning that top button might be important. A job interview let’s say or his wedding day. But not right now. Not when he’s 10 and heading to worship a God who doesn’t care what he’s wearing.

So yesterday was it. If someone does think that he looks like a nerd, or a dork, or whatever the going term is for someone who isn’t dressed just like everyone else and they make that known, I’ll be reminded that having a kid who doesn’t care whatever one else thinks about his fashion choices is really the better thing.

spring 2014

daddy, field trip, Foster, gratitude, holiday, homeschooling, Jonah, Katie, memories, motherhood, Parker, potty-training, priorities, siblings, sports, Theodore, Toddlers August 18, 2014 Leave a comment

training for a 5K

humor March 25, 2014 Comments: 2

I bet that title got some people’s attention.

Especially if you know me at all.

I do not run. A few of my close friends in the past have spent time trying to “teach” me to run. They were great teachers but apparently I am not a quick study. Obviously, running is NOT like riding a bike since once you learn to ride a bike you never forget. I know I must have ran as a child. At the very least I spent a year as a 2 year old once and I needed to run away from my parents

I always joke, “if you see me running something is probably chasing me.”

Which led me to this fabulous idea regarding training for a 5K. The research into this has been low I will admit. It’s really just in the planning stages at this point.

All kidding aside there probably are people out there who research what motivates people to run. They probably have all the great ideas of having the race support a good cause, giving out t-shirts and free snacks at the end, trophies and medals….

However, I think of those things and my affinity for running does not increase at all. Am I a heartless person who doesn’t care if we find a cure for cancer or free prisoners in other countries or save cute little puppies? I don’t think so. In fact, I think you would be hard pressed to find anyone who would say “no, I think cancer is cool, those prisoners are getting what they deserve and I’ll just take those puppies out myself {insert evil laugh here}.”

So, I’ve come with up with THE motivational tool that I think will finally work for me. It didn’t just come to me, I’ve been saying it all along!

I referred to it above and you probably thought I was just kidding.

Here’s how it would go:

{Race advertisement shows a ferocious bear (or tiger) growling with it’s mouth open, sharp teeth exposed and dripping saliva to show you are about to be the next meal.}

FOR THE RELUCTANT OR DEFIANT RUNNER….THIS IS YOUR KIND OF RACE.
Want to lose a few pounds but not your life?
Want to test your fight or flight response as you are getting up in age?
Come to the race of your life! Literally.

Then when the actual race day arrived, the animal handler who has kept food from their beast would be at the starting line. Now don’t freak out…the animal would be in a cage.

Until the starting whistle…then the gates would open on the beast and off we would all go!

I understand that this may seem a little drastic, or possibly that it might terrorize the fans that have come to watch (maybe not if you’ve met the Romans). For those of you who may not be 100 percent on board we will still offer a t-shirt and medal at the end. It’s not like we would have to really buy that many…{insert evil laugh again}.

F-L-O-T-E spells FLOAT

homeschooling March 12, 2014 Leave a comment

This is just a small glimpse of what “school” looks like for us. The thing about homeschooling that is so precious is it encompasses all of a child’s life. Foster and I were doing a spelling lesson so he was the main focus at the moment, but Katie wandered in and I told her she could work on her handwriting and Explode the Code. The three little boys were doing their own thing with Legos which led them to want to find a rope so they could play “buddy fishing”. Our two-year old Jonah was sounding out words with Foster before I started shooting this video, then he was just climbing on the table and enjoying being a part of our conversation.

Teaching at home allows kids to joke with their siblings or parent while they make mistakes on a lesson. If I had a video of my 10-year-old self in the classroom setting I was in, there would have been rows of desks, posted rules and regulations and A LOT of “be quiet” and “stay in your seat”.

There would not have been laughing at my mistakes and being able to change them immediately. There definitely wouldn’t have been challenging HOW a word is spelled and debating the fact that F-L-O-T-E does in fact spell float.

A child that is taught at home gets to stay in their pajamas on rainy mornings and play Legos for 2 hours before writing a word. They get to watch their dog chase a stink bug on the floor and laugh with their family.

Home education is a priceless privilege and gift.