Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Tuckers 9th Birthday


Tucker's last year in the single digits! Thadeus wanted to do something special with him for his birthday this year so the two of them went over to Arkansas, on the White River, for a all day guided fishing trip. I think they both had a great time and Tucker tole me that he wasn't trying to hurt my feelings but that he had been having so much fun he didn't even miss me!  On his actual birthday the weather was so beautiful that we ended up outside most of the day. We were all out front riding bikes, well i was just taking photos, but all the boys were ramping bikes and having a great time. Thadeus got the little dirt bike out for Tucker to ride. I think that made his day!  We made a pinata and tried to round up all the neighborhood boys to whack it with us but most of them were not home. Our friend Noah came down though and the boys had fun smashing it with the bat, all except Rollin who was last in line and didn't get to hit it.  We went out to dinner that night for BBQ ribs, Tucker's choice of course. And for desert........ root beer floats!  I can't believe I have been his mom for nine years! He is amazing! I love you Tucker James Andrew! 




















Monday, August 13, 2012

August 13th

Well lets just see if i can focus for a moment and document a few things. First of all The school next to us began classes today which has applied to me the great pressure of needing to ready this family of mine for the school year. I will officially be schooling three children. A third grader, a second grader and a kindergardener! I'm definitely feeling the pressure!  So I spent quite a lot of time this afternoon unsuccessfully searching for just the right curriculum.  I guess I'll have to leave that on the mile long "to-do" list.  However, this morning was a bit more successful. I managed to get all three boys signed up for soccer. Tucker and Rollin will be on a team together, with the same coach and some of the same kids from their baseball team.  Okay it was the last day for sign ups, and yes sign ups have been going on for at least a month and a half but look they are signed up now and with a couple of hours to spare!  Success!  After that we had an extremely pleasing library visit. The boys were so well behaved I was sort of blown away. They were each allowed to choose 5 books.  It is important for us to establish a number before we enter the library and it worked very well, although Tucker and ROllin each came home with six, Fynneus definitely had just five. I am certain because he counted and stacked them 7 times before we checked out.  Tucker had some specific topics in mind, so we asked the librarian to help. He wanted books on edible plants, animal tracks and signs, and a "how to guide" on field dressing animals, specifically deer.  The librarian was so sweet and eager to help and she found tucker a whole stack of books on these various topics.  Then to find a book on edible plants we had to cross over into the adult section of the library.  There we found multiple books on edible plants and even one on medicinal plants which is currently his favorite.  After the librarian retreated to her desk Tucker began to look through the stack of "juvenile" books she had found for him. He was so disheartened at the content and drawings/images in these "baby books". So we continued to look through the adult selections and while this was more up to par with his interest he quickly realized that his own reading skills are not yet refined enough to devour the information the way he would like to.  I encouraged him the best I could and assured him that his reading will improve but he was solemn for a good part of the afternoon.  Everyone seemed (mostly) content with their selections so we checked out and I was really not even too disappointed  about not getting a single book for myself, although I was longing for some inspirational homeschooling and parenting information, I was glad just to walk out still calm and collected and with three, okay, two smiling boys. Success!!  Then we went to get groceries! I don't really feel like talking about it. Fast forward a bit to this afternoon. Rollin approaches me with complaints of a headache, I am in the middle of insisting that he drink a glass of water when Tucker pipes in, "hey Rollin would you like me to make you some lemon balm tea, we have it in our garden it will help with your headache".  Rollin happily agrees and they run out the door to gather leaves. Rewind back to breakfast: The plan is to make scrambled eggs with crumbled sausage and onion, I grab my favorite skillet, drizzle in the olive oil, chop the onion, and then as I add it to the skillet I think to myself "that oil looks funny" then grab the bottle to add just a dash more olive oil, and as I tip it into the skillet, like I do almost every morning I realize I am holding in my hand the fancy bottle of dish soap that normally sits next to the sink.  Fail.


Unrelated to today, I took Fynn grocery shopping with me and he saw some black cherries in the produce section and began to beg for them as if it where a rare forbidden candy. I agreed and he cheered and thanked me repeatedly. When we got home in all the confusions of unloading groceries and breaking up fighting brothers I sent all three boys into the living room, they were slightly disgruntled over the situation but Fynn announced to them, "well we got cherries, and that's good news!"