Tag Archives: family

Self-proclaimed Geek

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This was totally not what was on my mind this morning until I had a text conversation with one of my best friends. In the time span of 3 minutes we had 2 obscure sci-fi late 70′s and 80′s references.  I’m not sure many people can pull that off (well, I think the 4th Frog’s husband might be able to pull it off).

You see my friend has been selling off a lot of her household items so, naturally, I asked if she was going to be moving back home.  Her response was a sad one as she is not able to move back home yet, and she said she felt like Scott Bakula hoping that every jump would take her closer to home.  I lost it when she texted that, not only because I was HOOKED on “Quantum Leap” (thanks, Mom!), but because simultaneously I was sending her a text about our youngest’s (her Godson) First Communion being scheduled for May 4th next year (yes, she is someone that I have to give dates to as soon as I know them!) and said “May the 4th be with you!”  What follows is where our conversation went after that:

And that, my friends, is one of the reasons I love this girl so much.  If you can’t be a geek with your friends, who can you be a geek with?  By the way, I do think this “geek-stuff” is hereditary.  Again, I must thank my Mother for that.  Boys I’m sorry, but with 2 geeks for parents, and a Geek-Ma (as you lovingly refer to your Grandmother) I think you are doomed for geekiness as well!!

Once Every 4 Years

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On December 31st, every year, there is talk about what the new year will bring, what we will do differently in our lives, and what positive changes we will make. Yes, like everyone else, I also made my resolutions.  However, like most, many of those resolutions went by the wayside.  That is why, on this Leap Day, I think that it is the PERFECT opportunity to “leap” into those resolutions and tweak them or make new ones.

What does it mean to “leap”?

As a verb, leap is defined as

      -to spring through the air from one point or position to another; jump: to leap over a ditch.*
       -to move or act quickly or suddenly: to leap aside; She leaped at the opportunity.*
As a noun, leap is defined as:
        -a sudden or abrupt transition: a successful leap from piano class to concert hall.*
*definitions from dictionary.com
As a family, we will be making the leap to a better organized home (stay tuned for tips in that area).
As a mother, I will be making leaps to increase my patience level and finish reading that darn Chronicles of Narnia series out loud to the boys.
As a teacher, I will be making leaps to continue on my journey of teaching my boys to the best of my ability and taking the time to recognize when we need breaks from “normal” schoolwork and perhaps need to spend time with our many board (educational) games.
As a wife, I will be leaping at opportunities to continue being my husband’s cheerleader, teammate, sounding board, and partner in all aspects.
As a husband/wife team, we will take the leap of paying off both vehicles over the next 12 months…WOOHOO!!!
As myself, I will be leaping at all opportunities that land in my lap:  being the newest member of the FitCity Moms blogging team, creating and sustaining my health counseling/fitness training/menu-planning/etc. business (STAY TUNED FOR ANNOUNCEMENTS IN THAT AREA!), spending more time reading/studying about my faith, and taking more moments for myself and realizing that by doing so I am creating a better wife and mother for my family.
What areas will you take a leap in, or what will you be leaping to?

Invasion of the Body Snatchers?

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I think that I can fully understand why, in some species, parents eat their young.

Our 12-year-old old must be having a spike in his testosterone levels, that can be the only reason that I can think of that my sweet, first-born boy has been replaced with this monster.  I want my child back who will listen, joke, laugh, complete chores, follow directions, and not stare off into space when I talk to him and answer me with a surly attitude.  I am hopeful that after a bit of time with him creating a slide show on the computer today that he will return to normal.  I feel like this may be the male version of what my friends with daughters deal with when their girls are PMSing.

Our 10-year-old old has turned into a somewhat moodier version of himself. If my agenda does not line up with his it seems to become optional.  Other than that, he hasn’t changed too much, and if I were the type of parent that ate my young he would still be safe.

The brand new 7-year- old would probably be the first to be eaten.  He is nowhere near the angelic  boy he once was.  Apparently, he doesn’t need to shower unless he feels like it.  He also doesn’t need to put his dishes in the dishwasher, clean his room, or do anything other than play Lego or be on the computer. He feels like he should be allowed to dictate what he does and when he does it.  Needless to say, this does not fly well with us.

I am sending a plea out to whomever took my awesome boys and replaced them with these versions that look like them to please switch them back, otherwise we may have to resort to eating them.  Quite frankly, I don’t think they will sit well in my digestive tract so please consider my plea.

Cooking & Happiness (how are they related?!?!)

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If you know me, or have been checking in on my blog for any length of time, then you know that I LOVE to cook.  There is something very satisfying about putting a few things together, that on their own are just fine, and ending up with something amazing, nourishing, and delicious.  However, even I get stuck in a rut every now and then and have the desire to throw my bamboo cooking utensils across the room (especially during February…this must be all around rut month – more on that later!)

We’ve all been there, we’ve all succumbed to crappy drive-thru food.  Well, what if you could go to a nice restaurant for a change? Here comes the happiness part:   I’m here to give that opportunity to you!  I have ONE $50 Restaurant.com gift certificate to giveaway to a lucky reader/subscriber! Restaurant.com has GREAT restaurants located all over the place.  This would be a fabulous date night!  Happy, happy, joy, joy!!

Let’s make this contest related to happiness.  After reading the quote below and posting what you will do to be happy this weekend,  like this post and head over to my Facebook Page Hip2BeMom and like it.  The $50 giveaway is posted there with the opportunity for up to 10 entries! The contest runs until Sunday, so get crackin’, I can’t wait to see what everyone’s happiness factor is!!!

GOOD LUCK!!!

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”

-Mahatma Gandhi

What will YOU do to be happy this weekend?

Letting Go and Letting God

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I know it may come as a shock to some of you that I am pretty much a Type A personality.  I like order to my days, I like lists, I like checkmarks next to tasks that have been completed, I like a meal plan for the week, I like knowing what is coming next; whether it is in the next hour, next week, next year, next five years, I like to have a plan.  That is one reason that it is so very hard for me to “let go and let God” happen in my life.  I know that God has an ultimate plan for me, and I know that my plan may not fit into that plan.  Believe me, I know…

Nineteen years ago, when I was preparing to graduate from highschool, I NEVER would have imagined the life I’m living now.  However, my plan did intersect with God’s plan in many ways that I have now come to realize as being divine interventions.  I had planned on being a teacher, but in a highschool language arts classroom.  God must have whispered in my ear that I was more suited for early childhood education, for that is where I ended my scholarly journey in education (after going down many other paths related to education) and I do indeed have a passion for the young, formative years.  However, I did not know at the time that my shift in majors and how long it took me to actually earn my degree (due to taking many extra courses) would lead to me to be perfectly well-suited for being the teacher of my own classroom of three energetic boys!  I also did not realize that God was a part of this plan until seven years ago when we began our homeschooling journey.

You see, one part that I purposely left out in that first post about our home school was how much the decision to home school was prayed about.  I didn’t feel like I could do this when the idea was placed in our heads and I kept praying about the decision that we needed to make, hoping that the answer to my questions would be revealed in the manner that we needed to register our kids to attend our church’s school.  God had other plans, and I am now so grateful that the answer kept coming back (and keeps coming back) that it is  my duty and privilege to school my children.  I was very much reminded of my calling this weekend at Mass during the communion hymn: “O Lord, in my eyes you were gazing, Kindly smiling, my name you were saying…”  (from the hymn Lord When you Came to the Seashore) I trusted this call implicitly, and while I will still pray about this decision every year, I have yet to hear a shift in what I am being led to do.

Being the “heart of the home” as I have been called to be for my family has become my vocation.  Once again, it was NOT in MY plan to be the woman who I have become, but I must say that I kind of like her!  It’s a challenge, yes, but everything worth doing is (labor and childbirth, anyone?).  I NEVER saw myself here, but God did…

There’s no place like home(school)!

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The decision to home school our children was kind of made by accident.  I was educated to be a teacher, so naturally I assumed that I would always be in a classroom of 20 plus children.  When my second son was born at the close of a school year (only 17 months after the first one was born), we did make the decision that I would be a stay at home mom…at least until the kids were old enough to go to school.

I’m still not sure how we began down the path of educating the boys in our home, we just did what came naturally and explored, played, read, painted, played games, etc.  When our oldest was 5 1/2 and ready for kindergarten, by our state standards, we just weren’t ready to send him off yet, so we thought we’d try the  ”home schooling thing” for a year since kindergarten was not required. When registration for first grade came around, we realized how much fun we had been having (and I realized how lacking our schools were compared to what my children already had learned) and stuck with what we knew.  This all happened about 7 years ago, and since that time I am convinced that we made the right decision.  Sure, we have months where money is extremely tight but we figure it out.  I also have days where I question our decision and wonder if all 3 boys might be better off in a traditional classroom because I’m forgetting to teach them something.  However, when I look at my boys and realize that they all have an actual LOVE of learning and will research subjects that interest them (modified Nerf guns and darts for further firing range, anyone?) I know that it’s worth it.  I have to agree with John Holt (a pioneer in the homeschooling community) when he says that “…learning is a natural process that happens to anyone who is busy doing something real for its own sake…” (p. 31 in “The Teenage Liberation Handbook” by Grace Llewellyn).

Unfortunately the teacher in me still can’t resist having my checklist of goals and standards of learning, so I can’t completely let them have control over their education and I applaud my friends that have faith in allowing their children to do so (I wish I could be like you!). However, when they do show an interest in a subject I let them go at it full force.  Honestly, they have yet to disappoint me in the ways that they are conquering the world, and I am very proud of them for the way that they rise to the challenge.

As far as being “shielded from life” goes (which a good portion of the population thinks happens to home schoolers), my boys have such an active extra-curricular and social life that I can hardly keep up with them at times!  Sleepovers, hanging out time (I’m not allowed to call them playdates anymore), swimming practices/meets, cross-country practices/meets, track practices/meets, text messages, IM’ing on online games, and the list goes on and on are proof that we are doing it right and allowing our children a good mix of activities in their lives.

So, whether it is alphabet magnets all over the floor and refrigerator, maps laid out all over the table to consult while making their own, reading for countless hours on end, or researching what interests them I am a firm believer that in our family: “There’s no place like home(school)!”

I smell a memory

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I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have smelled the scent of sandlewood in the air and searched for my Grandmother, you see she favors Shalimar perfume and that is one of the main scents in that perfume. I have a similar experience when I catch a whiff of English Leather. Our priest while I was growing up (and more like an “uncle” to me because he was so close to our family) sported that cologne and when I encounter it I am 6 years old again and at Mass. Scientists have long known about the powerful association of smell to memories, and according to How Stuff Works;  ”A smell can bring on a flood of memories, influence people’s moods and even affect their work performance. Because the olfactory bulb is part of the brain’s limbic system, an area so closely associated with memory and feeling it’s sometimes called the “emotional brain,” smell can call up memories and powerful responses almost instantaneously.”

The only problem with this phenomenon is that my husband knows my weakest one (and is very good at triggering it multiple times a year)…give me the scent of fresh sawdust anytime and I am immediately transported to my Grandfather’s workshop and the countless hours I spent out there with my tiny hand-broom and dustpan sweeping up sawdust. I loved the workshop and loved, even more, that I was allowed to explore – within reason – and hang out. Floods of memories have been coming back to me this week as my husband has been building an oak desk for me in order to be more organized with homeschooling, blogging, planning, etc. (at least that’s the idea!).  I am grateful for the memories, and grateful to my husband for seeing a need and making the solution with his own hands…Grandpa would’ve been very proud of you!

What smells trigger happy memories for you?

Do you notice an association of food smells and what you eat?  (Do I sense a future post on this one?)

Please share your scent related memories below, I’d love to read them!