Doing it all

Well there is one thing I know for sure - I'm glad that I'm no longer a working mom who has to "do it all." Going to work all day and then coming home to STILL have laundry, healthy meal planning and preparation, house cleaning, grocery shopping, other errands, PLUS the most important time with the kiddos, husband AND time alone.......... it's just tough, plain and simple. I am very sympathetic to the parents who have this looong list and am simply grateful that I have some time to just do things a little more slowly. Even without a full time job, I've managed to find ways to fill my day and still feel behind on the essentials of home management. That said, I'm signing off from this blog. I'm moving on to some other projects that are very important to me and something has gotta give. I started another blog long before this one that I plan to maintain with mostly photos and short captions of what we're up to.
Feel free to check it out:
http://walkerwalkietalkie.blogspot.com/

Thank you for reading my blog.
The quitter won.

Rainy Day Garage Sale

 

When I take a look at the toys in this picture, I can easily tell you when they all entered our house, and that is when Luke was around age 1. I was a stay at home mom(the first time around), and when the days were long and I needed Luke to be distracted by something, an easy fix was to get a new toy. So, whether it be Target, Craigslist, or Berkeley Parents Network Marketplace, I would seek out a diversion. At the time, it worked perfectly. Now, it is just too much. The clutter of toys in every corner is something I cannot handle, so a few months ago I started a "neglected toy" box out in the garage. I must admit too that some of those "neglected toys" were actually annoying toys. The toys that have too many pieces or that are too noisy or that just plain old generate fighting or a sassy attitude were sent to this box. And you know what? We didn't miss any of them. Occasionally I'd pull one or two out for the boys to play with when things got dull, but once again, after a few minutes, the toy would be abandoned again for something else. So off it went back in the box. 

So recently, Luke became fixated on wanting some new toys. He knew exactly what he wanted and I knew that I definitely didn't feel like springing for new toys just days after Christmas. So I told him that if he wanted something new, he had to sell the old. He was ok with this, so we started the big cleanout. The best part about it was that the rain came and there was nothing to do outdoors, so we worked on our rainy day garage sale. We photographed all of the toys one by one, posted them online in a photo album and waited for buyers. The photo above is of the "store" that Luke set up on the first day that someone came to pick up what they requested. Luke demonstrated how everything worked, took the money and put it in his wallet, and remembered to say "Thank You" as we said goodbye.  It was a lot of work, but a worthwhile rainy day activity. Let the lessons in money begin!

/a/

And so it begins. Luke is recognizing sounds in words and each day I ask, "Is this the day that I write on the calendar that he started to read?" He knows quite a few sounds in fact, and I am getting ready to make a nerdy chart about it. Today we were making A's in our playdough and I asked Luke what sound the A makes. His answer was, "Africa, Alligator, Alistair." The reading specialist in me was aflutter, so I had to add "Antelope and Alphabet." The fact that he could hear the /a/ sound at the beginning of the words, any sounds in fact, actually gives me a sigh of relief.  I have met so many kids in grades K-8 who could not recognize letter sounds that I had this fear that my child would be one of them. Now I just need to continue to remind myself that he's only 3 1/2. It's okay to just let him lead the way and support him as he goes. It's not a race for him to be reading, despite my total interest in sitting him down for a daily lesson. What can I say? I miss teaching and am so excited to see Luke getting closer and closer to the grade school days.

Perfect Mommy Monthly

If only EVERY day was like this one! We covered the floor with newspapers, we took off the clothes and we busted out all of our paints and paintbrushes. The boys went hog wild with trying out different sized brushes, mixing colors and filling page after page with paint designs. At the end, we pulled out the finger paints and they made hand prints on a big box and then hand prints on themselves. It was LOTS of fun, including the bath afterward. This is definitely a weekend activity if it is wintertime because it takes two people to keep the paint covered little one from running away and two people to carry the paint covered boys all the way upstairs to the bathtub....without getting too many walls and carpets hit with paint in the process.
Hopefully this memory will inspire me to do more art projects. They are by far the most fun way to spend a morning, but I need to get over my neatnick tendencies in order to do it.

Sister Weekend in San Francisco!

sisters-26
Originally uploaded by fofanancy

Last weekend I had the pleasure of spending 3 days with my big sisters. We'd been planning a trip for years, but never actually did it...until now! We went to the spa, we shopped, we dined and danced to dueling pianos. It was a weekend of relaxation and a true vacation. I look forward to next year!!

Closure

During Christmas break we made the tough decision to move Luke from one preschool to another. He had been at his school for nearly two years, so, although starting him at a new preschool in January was a good time, he still needed to learn the lessons of closure. We felt strongly that he and his friends and teachers at his old school needed a chance to sort of wrap things up mentally and say a goodbye together.
Today we had a goodbye party. I picked Luke up from his new school and took him to his old school for lunch. The moment we arrived, the kids surrounded Luke and I think I heard about ten "I missed you's." It was so heartfelt and it honestly made me feel sort of guilty, like I was tearing Luke away from his true allies. They were like old friends, back from college, anxious to catch up on all that had happened while they were apart. I don't think I was quite aware of just how sentimental these little guys can be.
We took photos, ate lunch and cupcakes and played for what kept turning into "just a little bit longer mommy, ok?" All in all it was the best closure that I think I could model for a preschooler. We exchanged phone numbers with the other parents and Luke was ready to call his long lost friends on the phone the moment we got home. He was crushed when they didn't answer. This led us into a new life lesson about how sometimes you have to leave a message and wait for them to call back.

Here are some photos of Luke with his buddies and a special project that all the kids made for Luke. It is glittered hands waving to Luke, so pretty, that we hung it on the wall. It will allow us a little nostalgia for the love that literally poured out on Luke, the day he said goodbye.

Birthday Wishes

Today is my birthday, and I have had the rare opportunity to answer the phone most of the times that it rang today. I wasn't in a meeting, an interview or writing up something for a deadline, which gave me much more freedom to answer the phone when it rang. It was great to connect with some friends I don't see very often. Overall, it was the first birthday in awhile where I felt like had a chance to just take it all in and feel the love.
Speaking of feeling the love, I thought I'd drum up a photo of when I was tiny. It illustrates very well the age difference between myself and my older siblings and just how much love I have been getting all of these years.