Conference Reports and Right Now

We had conferences with the boys' teachers last week.  

Brody (4) loves to play in the house corner and dress up.  He has several friends he enjoys at school, including Andrew and Landon.  He needs to keep working on writing his name, drawing, and scissors skills.  

Colby (8) catches on to school work quickly.  He has gotten perfect scores on all his spelling tests.  He needs to work on talking less in class and being responsible about turning in his weekly poem and reading log.  

Braedon (10) qualified for title 1 reading for the last three years and did not qualify this year.  He is now reading and doing math slightly above where he should be.  He is on the last test for state capitals and just finished x12 on Mad Minutes.  He needs to work on his handwriting.

Right now, Brody has music blasting and is doing this crazy, stomping, spinning, smiling dance.  Colby is singing along as he and Braedon play a racing game on the playstation.  Braedon's head is bobbing to the music.  I haven't been home much this week with my own conferences, and I really need to catch up on the normal housework (and dig in to some more heavy-duty housework).  I wanted to take a moment to appreciate these boys.

Valentines Post-Pinterest

Our Sunday plans were altered this morning when my van wouldn't start.  Thankfully it was just a battery issue and is now fixed.

So, since we couldn't go to church, we finished our valentines.  I found this post on Pinterest (love that place, btw) and that's what all four of us are using this year.  Who doesn't love glow sticks?  I just hope they make it to school mostly intact.  Braedon, especially, is having a hard time not breaking them.

A couple of years ago I bought out Walmart's clearanced boy valentines for a quarter a box or less.  I thought I'd be set until we got all the boys through Valentine's Day parties.  Now I have loads of really cool homemade valentine ideas pinned, and may never use those cards stored away in a box in my basement.  Oh well, I'll hold on to them for a year or so and then will either use them as games/crafts at school or give them away for someone to use.

Here I am on Pinterest (in case someone besides my sister is reading).  Until I figure out how to post pictures here, that will be the place to find my ideas for the preschool classroom (plus good recipes and organization ideas I hope to try).

I'm trying to think of a good catch phrase to use to post about some of my favorite Pinterest finds each week.  A friend of mine is working through several Pinterest craft and recipe ideas and posting photos on her Facebook page.  I'm hoping to do something like that here too.  What are your thoughts?

Catching up

I've been trying to post most days here.  However Wednesdays I work late and those days won't always have a post.  Thursday I was not feeling well and actually fell asleep before 7:30.

Yesterday Brody's daycare was closed.  Since I don't have preschoolers on Fridays (we work on paperwork, lesson plans, prep-work, and do many other things we aren't able to do while we have kids), I brought him with me.  He was excited to bring his lunch in the Spiderman lunch box.  He was able to entertain himself for much of the day, but I did have to pause to read to him a few times.  :)

We left the school to hurry home to pack the van for our Scout Camp-in at the church.  Colby and Braedon are both in cub scouts this year and since Ron was schedule to work Saturday morning, the other four of us camped without him.  It's fun to see the boys making and playing with their friends.  Colby has always had many good friends, but making friends has always been tougher for Braedon.  He is beginning to really make a number of good friends though.  In fact two of the boys from his den asked to come sleep on the floor with him.  They whispered for a bit after lights out, and then fell asleep.

Let me say that sleeping in a cold church basement with fifty other people is tough.  When half of those other people are adults, and half of those adults snore, it gets tougher.  I did sleep, but was awake 4-5 times during the night.  Next year we are bringing more blankets, though.  (And if I thought I could handle having things stuck in my ears all night, I'd bring earplugs too.)

Braedon's den was in charge of breakfast this morning and they did a wonderful job cooking pancakes and sausage.  Braedon was so excited to show me that he could make pancakes and insisted I come into the kitchen to watch him flip them.  He can now do fried eggs, pancakes, and toast, but is confused how I can manage several things like that at the same time, so while he could make a full meal, he probably won't be turned completely loose just yet.

We left the church sped home to change clothes and headed to my school.  We had several parents interested enough in the Love and Logic training to devote a Saturday morning in training.  I was in charge of childcare and not all of the families brought their kids, but I know we had at least four families present.  I'm told there was a great deal of discussion, which is fantastic.  I had my three boys and four other children.  It would have been perfect had I had enough sleep, but I am pretty sure I was a bit short with some of the older kids (two of which were my own).  Nothing major, but one of those things I wish I would have handled better.

We came home to take a nap.  When I woke up Ron was home and told me that the Nascar draft was tonight and that he would take the boys with him to Martensdale.  So now I'm relaxing on the computer and eating chips and salsa for supper.  The salsa was made by my dad with Grandma Lewis's recipe and it is yummy!

Tomorrow we have Sunday School and church.  Mom and Dad aren't going to be home, so lunch is to be determined.  We will be finishing our valentines, and the boys need to finish their reading for the week.  Then the busy week of Valentine's Day and the boys' conferences will be upon us!

I remembered the concert

Colby had his second grade concert tonight.  Our music teacher organizes concerts for the even grades (K, 2, 4, 6) each year throughout the year (Kindergarten does a Christmas concert, Second grade performs in Feb, etc).  Two years ago, when Braedon was in 2nd grade they had to reschedule their concert a couple of times and finally canceled it due to weather.  He should have a concert later this year (maybe around Easter...).  Anyway, the kids did a nice job tonight.  Everyone seemed to be singing and enjoying themselves.  Two kids from each class were chosen to say a sentence or two to introduce each song.  Colby was the boy narrator in his class.  The little booger didn't tell us he had this position.  We found out when we read the program.  He did an excellent job!  Good thing I didn't forget the concert...

Sick Day

I got to stay home with Brody today.  Yesterday afternoon and evening he couldn't get very far from the toilet, so we decided not to send him to preschool and daycare and risk spreading whatever bug around.  However, he was perfectly fine today.  Oh well!  It couldn't hurt to rest up after fighting off that bug.

So I did get a little decluttering, vacuuming, and laundry done.  I certainly could have done more, but I guess I'm happy with what I did.  Brody got to play with his 'guys' and dress up as Captain America, and play video games, and watch his shows.  We sat together on the chair to watch Barney and Caillou, not exactly my favorite shows, but we did watch Sid the Science Kid too).  Love to be able to spend the day one on one with each child every now and then.

Brody will be back to school tomorrow.  Braedon has a doctor's appointment and Ron has the day off to take him.  I'm heading in early to work to figure out what I need to prepare/adjust.  I was not in the room Friday (inservice) or today, so I'm sure I have things to catch up on before the kiddos get there.  Tomorrow night Colby has a music concert, that I keep forgetting about.  So we'll do that too.  

Superbowl Plan B

Superbowl Sunday... We planned to have friends over to enjoy the game, the commercials, and the food together.  However the snowstorm yesterday changed our plans.  Seems to be a good thing.  Our antenna tv proved unreliable at bringing in NBC tonight.  And my four year old couldn't stay off the toilet for long.

However we did enjoy fun, food, and family earlier today.  My siblings and their families were all together for pizza and other treats at my parents' house.  The boys got to play in the snow with Kayleigh (their 2 year old cousin) and I got lots of Jacob time.  Love holding my little nephew!  He's just a couple months old and super cute.

And Colby got an invitation from the neighbor boy to come over to play and spend the night last night.  This was his first sleepover and we weren't sure he would stay, but he did and really enjoyed himself.

I get to have one more day off work tomorrow with a sick kiddo.  Plan to have 15 minute spurts of cleaning and computer time throughout the day coupled with some snuggling on the couch with Brody.

Honey, I'm home!

My last post was from mid-August.  That is my busiest time at school.  Between preparing my classroom, doing home visits, and attending teacher meetings I don't have much time for extras.  Throw in getting three boys ready for school to begin and you can see why I had to take a bit of a break.

Once I got out of the routine of blogging, writer's block set in.  Then I just didn't know where to begin.  My mom and my hubby and my sister have nudged me off and on for awhile now to get back to blogging.  Ultimately, it seems strangers are dragging me out of seclusion.

I've had a fellow blogger leave a couple of messages while I was 'gone' (I wasn't really gone, I check several blogs daily) to check on me.  And it seems I just won a contest on another blog and my blog was linked to that announcement.  How embarrassing--to have folks coming here to this sad little place that seems to be abandoned.

I have decided that I will begin blogging again a little at a time.  My initial focus is going to be to record the happenings of our family here on the blog.  As I get back in the groove I will try to delve back into sharing some preschool and bargaining adventures.

I have never figured out a good way to share pictures on the blog and I'm currently without a camera.  So that will be a goal for the upcoming months.  (I have discovered Pinterest and I would love to create a two way connection between this space and that space.)

So welcome back.  Make yourself at home.