Never Stop Dreaming

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Delightful Day

Squeaker's bio sister is here to spend the night. Everyone is playing games, throwing balls and frisbees (and grapes), jumping on the trampoline, laughing and enjoying one another. It's sunny, albeit with a chilly breeze, but yesterday was cold and cloudy. Shorty and I got out this morning to mow and trim so the yard is fit for company. We had hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill and will make a fire in the pit tonight for s'mores. I wish Ana was here to hang out with us, but otherwise an almost perfect day.

All Worthwhile

Squeaker just knocked on my door and handed me an envelope. Inside, on a thank-you card, was this note:

Dear Mom,

Thank you for all you've done for me and everyone else. I love you and by just watching you you've taught me that there's no way to be a perfect parent but a million good ways to be a great one. You are about as good as they get and I wouldn't trade you for the world. I love you lots. Thank you.

Love,
------- - -------

I don't know if she swiped that from a Hallmark Card or if they should pay her to write for them, but that's about the sweetest note I've ever received.

Where Credit is Due

Last Sunday I felt some twinges of guilt and regret as our pastor talked about honoring others and gave an example of honoring your kids. Ouch. Often I feel very dishonored by my teenaged kids, especially my middle child. I go into "survival" mode and it becomes difficult to honor the good things about them the way I should. I decided last week that I would do better at that even when it is not reciprocated.

So Squeaker went ahead and had a gnarly, hate-the-world-and-everyone-in-it week as if to put my fledgling commitment to the test.

She screamed, stomped, sassed, cussed, slammed, eye-rolled, over-reacted, ignored, cried and even got kicked out of after-school tutoring after just three days for her "nasty, negative" attitude.

However, this week she also reconciled with her adult sister, offered to help out in the kitchen, got along with Lucky, recovered from a tantrum and improved her behavior, pulled a failing grade up to a passing one, got an A on project that she completed without any prompting, did all of her chores every day, and braved school each day even though she hates half her teachers and she feels like she has no friends.

I'm pretty proud of her.

Oh Happy Day

My computer is fixed and back home where it belongs! Okay, big deal...but it's the little things that make me happy.

Drama Boy will be going on an overnight visit this weekend and, along with Sparky, will return "home" (it's a facility but whatever) to his birth mom next Wednesday.

Yep.

I don't even know what to say about that except that I hope and pray and wish and desire for things to work out for them but it's just not a good situation and if their mom really thinks that all of their problems will disappear just because they are with her and not "strangers" she is going to be in for quite a shock.

A Good Day

Tappy is here for the weekend for respite. Everybody was cheerful and cooperative. Almost everybody did their chores. Ana and I got Guitar Hero World Tour with our birthday money. We blew off cleaning out the garage to play it and to take the kids shopping. Drama Boy and The Boss played together with toys and were both funny and happy today. Squeaker didn't have a problem with anybody all day.

All around a pretty nice day.

That's My Boy

The Boss is a funny kid. He is unbelievably stubborn and strong-willed and argues about everything. We're working on that. Sometimes it's frustrating and sometimes it's hilarious.

He has now decided that not only is he "the boss" but now he is "the grown-up" too. He graciously allows me some limited access to his powers. "Okay Mom, you can be the boss today." Gee, thanks, kid. Sometimes he has a narrower time frame. "You're the boss for four minutes." Not that I can't cram a lot of bossing into four minutes.

I am trying to get my room back from him. He recently had to move in with me so we could separate Drama Boy and Sparky. Now that the bigger boys are back in one room we are moving the Boss back into his own room. With much fuss and back-talk, he finally managed to get all his toys out of my room this weekend. He did give my bed a little redo. I don't remember asking for Spiderman sheets.



Yet despite his bossy ways, he is a peacemaker. While playing a Transformers game on my phone in which the good guy Optimus Prime fights the bad guy decepticons I could hear him giving voice to the players. "Do you want to be friends? Do you want to be friends? I'll shoot you then. POW! POW! POW!"



Look at that face. Very intense player. He's got a furrow. And also, if you look closely, a scab from where Seamonkey threw a plastic lion at him.

Last night he was playing Transformers with a pile of toffee peanuts he was eating. One peanut was clearly our protagonist Bumblebee while the others were decepticons. "Pow! Pow! Pow!" Such violence during dessert. He turned to me and said. "Mom, the peanuts are playing. Do you want to play with my peanuts?"

I've never been asked that before. I think I hurt myself laughing.

A Rare Day

Sometimes, once in a very great while, we have a wonderful day when everyone is well-behaved, pleasant with each other, and actually fun to be around. When it happens on a holiday, it is nothing short of miraculous. This Easter was one of those rare days.

All through breakfast, the Jesus Movie Project (we didn't make it to church because the only car that fits all of us wouldn't start), lunch with family, Guitar Hero with the cousins, August Rush (their only Easter gift), jump rope, Apples to Apples, egg decorating, dinner around the fire pit, a night time Easter egg hunt with glow-in-the-dark eggs, more time around the fire pit with the middles drinking hot chocolate and amusing each other with fart jokes (I got to supervise that since Peaches and Monica were putting the littles to bed) the kids were happy, relaxed and even grateful. Yep, you read that right...grateful. The most amazing thing was that I only had to tell them one time to go to bed. Remarkable. Unheard of.

What a gift. Thanks, guys.

Good Times

On Saturday night we told the kids we were going out for dinner. This is not totally uncommon but for some reason the middle kids were almost giddy with excitement (this was before knowing that we were actually going to the carnival and not a restaurant).

As we pulled out of the driveway and most of the way there, the kids called out their restaurant choices and then began to sing them to the tune of whatever song came on the radio.

Pretty hilarious listening to them belt them out to the tune of "the best mix of the 70's, 80's, and more".

Just so you know Hometown Buffet has a nice beat and you can dance to it.

Pretty Cool

Just When We Need It

"And ain't nothin' like finding twenty dollars in the pocket of the britches that you wore last week."

With insincere apologies to country music haters....I couldn't help but think of these Brad Paisley lyrics today. This afternoon I "found" two store gift cards, one lint-covered on top of the dryer and another that has been languishing in a drawer in my bathroom. These cards must be years old and I have no idea where they first came from. They each had $25 on them. Fortunately, ours is a "super" Stuff Mart so I spent my newfound wealth on life's little luxuries like milk, mac & cheese, toilet paper, and dog food. It made my day.