a blog about life, family and kicking ass.

He wanted a Thomas birthday for his 3rd, he even picked out his own invitations and party plates. I love that it takes so little to make him ecstatic. He talked nonstop about his party and his friends coming over. We ate chocolate cupcakes and cheesy pizza. Then it happened, all it took was a birthday party to usher in the terrible threes. He has already begun to stop listening to us, throw bigger tantrums, and continue to get out of bed 75 times a night. I’m totally positive that he really does need to pee 8 times before bed.  In all fairness, he has improved in other areas, he eats more vegetables and will now try A single bite of most every food (hooray!)  Despite ALL these moments he remains the most adorable child on the planet. I love him to death and wish dearly that he would stay three forever.

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I did it again!  I was barely was able to convince myself to do this race since I spent the better part of this year sick with various colds, coughs and bronchitis’ — one of which was two weeks before the race.  My training schedule was exceptionally abbreviated and my achilles heel was a slightly perturbed beforehand, but I did it.  I went to see a podiatrist three days before (who does that?), and he gave me all these recommendations for resting my achilles. Never mind all that, I did NOT tell him I was running a half marathon that weekend, and I felt great and still do (no injury!) I sure showed him.  Thankfully, I am in much better running shape than last year, so I was able to pull it off. It was a beautiful race day, perfect weather (no rain!) and a wonderful running partner. Sorry Nene, I am posting a photo, but I think we look pretty damn good for just running 13.1 miles.

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Today I am thankful for the little things. Our family google calendar that is revolutionizing our planning and communication. Honeycrisp apples and juicy oranges.  My extra work hours to make extra dollars, yes please. Planned vacations looming ahead to bolster my spirits during the ever present rain and gloom.  This homemade granola recipe. The tax return to be deposited on Friday. The little pink magnetic notepad on my fridge, reminding me to buy the milk I forgot.  Well, and these two of course.  For everyday car rides where my kids say unprovoked, “you’re the best mommy,” and “I love you seventy-six one hundred miles.”  They’re the best.

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Without further ado, here’s what has worked for us (and for her). My Top 10, in no particular ranking.

1. Erasable, lined whiteboard.  Essential if you want to save paper.
2. BOB sight words. They contain little books that are perfect for new readers. Love them.
3. Window crayons.  Who doesn’t want to write on the window?  In a small house, they help us practice spelling and writing in a fun way.  (They kinda suck to clean off though).
4. Mead Products or Brain Quest products. Great for the car, I love the erasable ones and the ones that have perforated lined sheets.
5. Big White bin + Small marker/crayon box. Organization is the key to success.
6. The county library. I refuse to buy books, especially silly reader books.  Instead, we go to the library and pick out handfuls of simple stories.  PS. This, in my opinion, requires a lot of screening.  Not all early/beginning reader books are alike.  So, I tend to have to flip through all of them to pick ones that are appropriate for Addy, yet still challenging.
7.  Story paper.  We mimicked the same one from her class, and have her practice her storytelling at home too.  It was initially an area she was struggling in, but is improving.
8. Sticker charts.  Both our kids are in love with stickers. We buy lots of fun stickers at the local toy store, and once then get to ten in a category, they get a prize. She gets stickers for doing homework, reading a book by herself, etc. Owen gets stickers for eating vegetables.  To each his own.
9. Car rides.  We play rhyme games that are really silly.  We also do a lot of story telling.
10. Coins and beads.  Or really any fun little thing to count, preferably non edible things to help prevent childhood obesity.  Right now we are discussing 100’s, and that would be way too many M&M’s, in my humble opinion.

Lastly, a teacher-husband.  These may be available for a purchase of $30,000 in student loans. And they clean too.  Bonus points!

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Guess which self portrait is Adalyn’s. Hint: it’s not the one with the princess crown.

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Since I am essentially the first of my friends to have a school age child, I definitely felt overwhelmed at the prospect of kindergarten.  Truthfully, I had few strong feelings about where and how Adalyn should be educated, which was a bit of  a mistake on my part.  Both raised in public schools we felt fairly happy with our education, although I am sure it could have been way better.  We knew that private school was out of the question financially, and homeschooling was not going to be good for anyone in our family, so we were left with public school or some type of charter school.  Our decision was relatively easy since we missed any type of lottery for charter schools (damn you procrastination!), so she landed herself in the neighborhood school.  *As a caveat, when we moved to Portland, we intentionally looked at school ratings and chose a neighborhood that had decent schools.* Which itself begs many questions, such as do we choose a diverse school (which is difficult to do in Pdx), or the best school or just go with the neighborhood we want to live in, etc.  In the end, we chose a well rated school in a neighborhood that we liked.   The next question was difficult.  Should she go half day (for free) or full day for $335/mo (the curriculum is full day)?   We debated for weeks.  Our concerns were that she was a little less mature and less advanced than some other kids.  We assumed she would need extra attention at home, and given that the school day included lots of non-educational moments –would it be a waste of time and money? While there are moments that she is probably not learning, the socialization and peer effect have done wonders.  She has grown and matured in huge and exciting ways this year. She has learned to read, made friends and is starting to learn how to maneuver those challenging moments when someone doesn’t want to play with you or be your friend.  For that, I am grateful.  Have we spent additional time with her at home, absolutely.  But that is the plight of public school system.  It is necessary to supplement, to see the gaps and make sure my child does not fall through them.  For now she has a great teacher, a decent school and well, great parents.

Stay tuned for my favorite items that we use to teach Adalyn.

Resources:  Some of these I perused, some I used and some I thought might be helpful.
Waiting for Superman — good for discussion
Charter Schools
Great Schools
An Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading
Spelling City
The Well Trained Mind
Cathy Duff’s Top 100 Picks

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I have a friend named Anna. She is amazing. She is kind, hilarious, fun and complex. She sings, makes art and makes a lot of people laugh. Unfortunately, for her friends, she moved to Germany last summer with her new husband and we miss her terribly. She has a wonderful little blog, she’s taken to finding treasures in Germany and sells them on an Etsy shop.  Check her out.  I even won something from a giveaway of hers and I never win anything. Besides that, she is somebody everyone should know.  (Photo by Anna/Dom)

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I can often be in a food rut, cooking the same things and not trying new recipes.  So when I have the opportunity to cook for friends, I leap at the opportunity. I love entertaining. But I also have trouble coming up with a good menu.  With a helpful tip from here I tried her method, simply cooking what sounds good. I used freshly baked  bread from Grand Central Bakery, Ina’s Provencal Vegetable Soup (it was stormy weather), and topped it all off with a french apple cake, which was heavenly. But the star for me was the salad. Champagne vinegar, finely diced shallots, juicy oranges from my sister in law (who got them from her mothers tree!). I made it again two days later with burgers and scallion mashed potatoes.  Delightful.

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So, sometimes I get these weird thoughts, for example, that I am being lazy or that I don’t do much in life.  Today I was thinking that way, so I decided to do a little experiement.  It went a little like this:

0730 Dragged myself out of bed (shoot, I am already running late)
0735  Make breakfast for the kids — HA! cheerios it is.
0740 Make Addy’s lunch
0745  Dress owen, and ask addy 12 times to get dressed
0750  yell at addy to brush her teeth
0755  Quickly brush addy’s hair, put on coats and grab backpack
0800 Load owen in stroller and walk to school, thank god it’s not raining
0810  Arrive at school, walk adds to classroom
0815  Complete form at office
0820 Walk home
0830 Arrive home, make a coffee and toast (ahhh)
0845  Put away laundry (finally)
0915 Talk to SIL on phone
0920 - 0930 Strip addy’s bed, switch the laundry, rewash laundry since I forgot the soap
0940 Make owen PB&J #1
0945  Update bills, yuck
0958 Call a lady about a thing for my mom
1000  balance checking account, leave VM for my dad
1007 call sister, hang up before VM (I have issues)
1015 Start DVD player for owen, good mom!
1040-1115 Dad calls back
1115  Stop doing taxes becuase it is annoying me
1120  ”Help” owen pick up the books he knocked down while he was climbing on the desk
1130 make 2nd cup of coffee (this is gonna hurt)
1135 Make PBJ #2
1145  Pretend to eat Owen to make him giggle endlessly, sigh
1147  Help owen to the bathroom, since recently he’s been peeing ON his pants
1150 Unload the dishwasher, curse the landlord for having a shitty dishwasher
1155 Put owen down for nap, thank god for naps, thank god for little boys who still nap
1200 Finish the dishes, grrr.
1201 Remind Owen that nap time is currently underway
1205 Make a sandwich on the last 2 slices of good bread (it’s the small things really)
1210 Remind Owen, again, that it is nap time — was I saying something about him napping well?
1211 Throw out moldy apple butter, bummer
1215 Regret the decision to have a 2nd cup of coffee

I think you get the drift.  The thing is, I’m not complaining. It’s been a great day peaceful, quiet and with a little bit of sunshine.  BUT, it is totally ridiculous to think I do nothing.  Also, I must thank my husband who does the aforementioned on more days than I.  Lub you.

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