Dusty!

The only thing worse than building your own home is remodeling an older home while living in with seven people. My dear husband built the  stairs  and I have a mess to clean. There is sawdust on everything!

How sweet is that? “Olivia and Mom” (written by Olivia).

I am one of those people who puts the crayons with the crayons, the markers with the markers, lined paper in one stack, scissors just so…. you get the idea. Now if you came to my home you’d cry foul because the disaster you see doesn’t match my words. How is that so? Well, at some point when there were 8 kids and hockey teams and school and babies and husband working out-of-town and absent HEX’s,  I put on blinders. You know, the ones where I can only see directly in front of me. I’ve gotten very good at ignoring the mess so that I can focus on the things that are really important to accomplish, but that doesn’t mean somewhere deep down it doesn’t still bug me. To.no.end.

My girls and their desk of papers and glue and craft stuff….why can’t they keep it organized? I literally spent 1.5 hours separating everything into its own little drawers. I mean, when I want a red crayon I want to know exactly where it is! I need to do a drive-by of the desk everyday so it will stay clean. Side note: I don’t think I like glitter anymore.

Organization was about the only thing my HEX and I had in common and none of my children inherited that gene. My husband doesn’t have it either. Thus I wear blinders to keep sane! :)

I swept and picked up and swept and choked. OMG…. sawdust is horrible.

 

When I got down to fine particles I vacuumed. Then my vacuum died. Really? This is one 30’ X 30’ space. Hello? I still have the rest of the house to do. I’m letting it “rest” and hopefully it will work today otherwise it’s going to get pretty messy waiting for Homer to come home to fix it.

Yesterday I went to Olivia and Lucas’ school conferences. I am so proud! In 8 out of 10 areas of reading and math her scores suggest “Consider Need for Individualized Instruction”. She is Well Above Average or Above Average in everything. And Lucas was the same exact way. Knowing the school day isn’t a struggle and that they learn easily is a relief. With that said, there is also a big down side. This is exactly how Nick was…. above average, but not gifted which means they (as did he) are going to get the same old instruction as the below average kids, get bored and lose interest (as did he). Individualized instruction sounds good, but in reality a teacher cannot provide 25 different levels of assignments…. or even 10 different levels… or even 5 in all the subject areas. (And if you think they can I urge you to spend more time in your child’s room…. specials and discipline take most of the day). So I guess, for now, I’ll be really proud and provide something more challenging at home if they are inclined to want to learn more. If not, that’s okay, too.

Lucas had basketball practice last night. It did not go well. That’s the coach sitting in the bleachers. He told the boys to stand in a line and shoot one at a time. After 20 minutes of this they lost interest (they are five). He sat visiting with another parent and never interacted with them so when they started laughing and goofing off he started yelling at them (from the bleachers, of course). He demanded they come over to him and then started berating them for “not following directions'” (which they had been doing for 20 minutes). I came off those bleachers and across the gym quickly. I told the boys to come here and then turned to him and said, “If you want to sit there visiting, go ahead, but I am going to run practice and you are not going to yell at the kids). And he sat there. And I ran practice.

Next Monday is our last practice and he announced that it is optional and he won’t be there. Guess what? I will be. I will use that gym time even if it is only for my family. And then he made some comment that he was glad we only had three more times to play because he doesn’t want to do this anymore. Arrrgggg! Then don’t volunteer (which I bet he does again next year). On the way to the truck Lucas asked me to be his coach next time. Yes, son, Mom won’t let you down again.

I have extreme sinus pressure and headache, a sink full of dirty dishes, multiple loads of laundry, Elijah’s conferences, a basketball game…. the list is pretty extensive of what needs to be done. Did I mention that my head hurts?

Olivia and Lucas spent the night with Grandma. Nick is still snoozing. Elijah is with his friend for his birthday. Emily is on vacation. Homer is gone working. It is silent in the house. How easy it would be to curl up with a movie…..