Category Archives: Sue

Two of My Three Daughters

Posted on November 1, 2015 | 2 comments

I know you are not supposed to compare your kids to other peoples’ or each other. But it is hard not to.

Can I get an amen?!

I have three girls, ages 9, almost 8, and 5. My nine year old is uber responsible. My third one is still the clueless, cute 5 year old. My 7 year old. My dear 7 year old. She’s just on another planet. She is clueless on how to do many things her sister was doing at her age, she is struggling in areas Caitlyn sailed through without a pause. She is still working on learning to read and Dear Lord, you can just assume she is going to lose anything you put money into and keep anything that is righteous garbage.

I am not sure what to do. Now to be fair, she did decide last week to start doing the laundry (not including folding) without prompting and did a great job. I am hoping this continues into next week. I can forgive a lot for a kid who does the laundry.

In the meantime, I feel like I am always yelling at her. Always scolding her, always correcting her. I worry she will see the difference between her and her sisters when it comes to my fussing. I hate how frustrated it makes me feel. And how frustrated it must make her.

I have to bite my tongue often to stop myself from saying, “why can’t you be more like your sisters?” I know, no matter how tempting it is, I must refrain from ever saying that to her. Not only because it would not feed her spirit, but also because I don’t want to change her spirit. I don’t want to change her. I just want to know how to get through all the glorious fun chatter, dancing, singing, and merry making that is Sue in order to teach her skills and behaviors she needs to know.

So I will keep trudging along saying,

“I will not compare.”

2 Comments

Posted in #nablopomo, Caitlyn, kidlets, Sue

Preparations Underway

Posted on August 13, 2015 | Leave a comment

True story? I don’t know if I already wrote this post. But I thought it was time to share our homeschooling plans for the year. I am just about done putting together several binders for the girls to work from.

We are doing a lot of projects called lapbooks. In lapbooks you use file folders to arrange information using booklets, wheels, glued in facts, whatever it takes to help the information to stick.

We will be doing these lapbooks for American History, Science, and Art. It is a nice blend of facts and hands on work.

Caitlyn and Sue will continue with handwriting, hopefully cursive for both. Patrice will start with printing. We will also continue with Explode the Code for phonics and Fred for math with Sue and Patrice. Caitlyn will be working with Teaching Textbooks for math.

Patrice will begin with learning the last few of her letters, Bob books, and then Life of Fred early readers. Sue, Caitlyn, and I will chose their books based on level and interest. Right now Caitlyn is working on the Cupcake Diaries and Sue the Critter Club. We picked them up at Costco today. Quietest trip ever through the store as they had their noses buried in the books. I kept having to tell Sue to be careful or she would get clobbered by another shopper, but honestly, I was more than willing to keep my eyes open for her if it kept her reading!!!

We will also continue with our beloved co-op where I will be teaching for the first time–Heroes of the Faith. Caitlyn will be in the 4-6 grade group, Sue the 1-3 grade and Patrice Kindergarten.

I am very excited about our coming year.

What do you look forward to with your kids? What do you like to see them learning/excelling in?

Reading Reading Reading

Posted on April 19, 2015 | 7 comments

This weekend has been a fantastic time on the reading front here at our abode. Caitlyn read Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein in less than a day. Sue had her first turn at reading to the dogs. She read Pinkalicious School Rules to her furry friend. She did it flawlessly. Caitlyn once again read to a canine friend. She chose another Shel Silverstien masterpiece, The Giving Tree.

7 Comments

Posted in Caitlyn, Homeschool, Sue

Vroom Vroom

Posted on January 24, 2015 | Leave a comment

Today was the AWANA (Bible Club) annual Pinewood Derby. This is Sue’s third year and Caitlyn’s fourth. Each year they work with daddy to make a car. Next year we add Patrice. The girls had fun and were good sports.

Random Thoughts of Sue Today

Posted on November 30, 2014 | 2 comments

Sue’s long awaited day came this week. She turned 7 on Friday. I kid you not she has been counting down to her birthday since her last birthday.

We went roller skating. Okay, daddy and the girls went roller skating, I worked on Loom Knitting (finished a hat and started a baby cocoon). I am not exactly safe on roller skates. And it is very scary to me.

She chose Subway for dinner and then home to unwrap presents!!!! It was a good day. It has been a joy to have our spunky, feisty Sue in our lives these last 7 years!

Thank you Lord for our middle girl.

2 Comments

Posted in #nablopomo, Stream of Consciousness, Sue

Sue Turns 7

Posted on November 28, 2014 | 2 comments

We love our vivacious, feisty, loving Sue so very much!

2 Comments

Posted in #nablopomo, Sue

A Picture is Worth a 1000 Words

Posted on November 16, 2014 | 1 comment

And these two are worth a million. Sue said, “mommy, can I eat this warhead?” “Sure, if you can stand it, you can eat it.” This was her priceless face.

The warhead is now floating in a cup of water and has lost all it’s color except one dot. It looks like a floating eye.

Ew.

1 Comment

Posted in photos, Sue

Flexibility is the Name of the Game

Posted on October 1, 2014 | Leave a comment

Thankfully one of the groups I am part of for Homeschooling posted a reminder yesterday for the trip to get pumpkins today. I had completely forgotten.

The weather was beyond ideal for our foray into a wagon ride, picking pumpkins, and eating cider and donuts.

And then it was time to head home for our book work for the day.

As we were driving Patrice said, “I wonder what happens when you go to the pumpkin patch and the zoo in the same day??

The day was gorgeous, sunny, perfection. And I wanted to be the fun mom, so we found out!!!

We went to the zoo too. And I am so glad we did.

See that little fuzzy blob way in the distance to the right of the red ball and just to the left of the rock that sticks up? That’s a giraffe. That was born LAST NIGHT. We saw it when it was just 18 hours old. It is the first giraffe born at our zoo in 22 years. And we saw it!!!

That wasn’t all.

We went to the kangaroo exhibit. You walk into a large area that is decorated with cute Australian buildings and the wallabys and kangaroos are laying or hopping around. And today one of the girls had a Joey in her pouch. And we saw it!!!!!

Factoid for you: The gestation of a kangaroo is only 30 days. Baby kangaroos are the size of a lima bean when they are born. They do not have eyes. As soon as they are born they latch on and start eating, round the clock. They hang out in the pouch about 4 months before they venture out.

It was so amazing. I felt so blessed and lucky to be able to see the baby giraffe and joey.

It was fun, two field trips in a day, but rest assured tomorrow there will be some catch up to do…hope the girls are ready!

To Give or Not to Give

Posted on July 31, 2014 | 2 comments

Ten years ago right now hubby and I were planning our wedding. Bridesmaid dresses were ordered. We were finalizing invitations and closing in on menus, anticipating a day neither of us ever thought would come.

One thing I didn’t have to do? Buy my wedding dress.

I was engaged once before. I found my dream dress. No one but my mother ever saw it. Even after the engagement ended, it was still my dream dress. It almost got donated to Goodwill by the dress shop, but I “happened” to call on the day it was slated to be donated.

My grandma stored my dress after I rescued it. Now, I had a dress, but no one to stand beside me.

But I couldn’t let it go.

Along came this guy, this great guy. One thing lead to another and I had an engagement ring on my finger, and his agreement that I should wear my dress, regardless of how it had come into my possession.

I love my dress. So very much. Wearing it next to my wonderful hubby was more precious than I could have ever imagined.

After our wonderful day, I began researching how to get it cleaned and cared for in the best way possible. I found a place to take it. They cleaned it and boxed it for me.

Now it sits, in the back of a closet. Not discarded, but rarely thought of. Hubby has asked what I want to do with it. I always brush it off. “I don’t know. Do you think one of the girls will want to wear it?”

Once again, the conversation is abandoned.

So it sits.

Recently a tweet caught my eye. It was about donating wedding gowns so they can be made into gowns for babies who die before or at birth, or who never leave the hospital to go home with those who love them.

My heart feels a tug.

What about my dress?

Can I bear to give it away?

Sue, in the wonderful voice of a 6 year old, declares she wants to wear my dress…but she has so many years. Won’t she want to pick her own? She did fall in love with the same part I did at the very beginning…that bead work on the bodice. It still makes my breath catch in my throat.

I’ve polled Facebook. I’ve polled Twitter. Everyone’s experience with their wedding is so personal, there is no magic answer for the dress. I look at my Sue, whom I hold in my arms every day, and my heart sees the mamas laying their babies to rest. My gown may or may not adorn Sue on her day. Could it, should it, rather bring just a bit of comfort to mamas and their hurting hearts? Do I hold on, or let go?

2 Comments

Posted in Sue, wedding

Crunch Crunch goes the Parenting

Posted on July 12, 2014 | 4 comments

Crunch, Crunch

I could have sworn I just swept the floor.

Crunch, Crunch

Between my toes.

Crunch, Crunch.

Patrice, you dumped cereal all over the kitchen floor.

Crunch, Crunch.

Cue sobbing child running to her room yelling, “Sue did it.”

Crunch, Crunch.

“Did you dump cereal on the floor Sue?”

Crunch, Crunch.

“No I DIDN’T.”

Crunch, Crunch.

“Yes you did,” Caitlyn chimes in.

Crunch, Crunch.

“Why do both of your sister say you did and you say you didn’t?”

Crunch, Crunch.

“I took the cereal, I put it on my spoon and I catapulted it!”

Crunch, Crunch.

There will be no punishment today, mama is laughing too hard.

Part of me wants to yell and rail against these messes. I’m still sweeping up flour from the other day and now there is cereal everywhere. They clean up some, but I’m the one left digging it out of crevices, finding it in the A/C vent.

The bigger part of me? Laughs and laughs and laughs. I grew up as an only child. There were a lot of dynamics that reduced the silly in our house. But when it happened–the huge rubber band fight my dad and I had, my mom singing in the kitchen, Mom and I devouring an entire box of Klondike bars so they wouldn’t melt on the way home, of course–those are the best memories. Those are ones deepest in my heart.

I want that for my girls. I want the silly memories. I want the unexpected silly memories.

Today is an incredibly hard day for me. I am fighting tears, my fuse is short, but that’s not the memories I want for my girls. I want them to remember when had a flour fight, or giggled at an inside joke, when we laughed when they thought we would cry.

This is what I want for my girls. So bring on the catapults, bring on the flour, bring on the tie dye. I’ve got all I need to clean up the messes, let’s have some fun!!!

4 Comments

Posted in Caitlyn, depression, Patrice, Sue