Month: September 2009

We have been in school for about a month now.  Things are going quite well.  We have done all of our assignments, and I have only forgotten to send in Ruby’s phonics pages one time.  The reason being that my brain cells were completely fried after working with her on this poster:

This is a poster all about Ruby.  She is the “Student of the Week” and has to make a poster that will tell her class members more about herself than they already know.  We included her full name, her birthday, her favorite colors, songs, food, dessert, game, and pictures of her grandparents, fun things she has done, friends and pictures of her as she became a big sister to Molly and then to Mack.  It turned out really cute, but it was exhausting.  First of all, Ruby isn’t in to crafty things.  She’d rather be running outside or watching a movie….give your scissors and glue to Molly.  Anyway, she did well on this project.  At the end, when it was all over and looking good, she said, “Oh, and I like to color.”  I said, “Yeah, you do like to color.  Do you want to write that as your favorite hobby?” (in the section of “favorites,” of course).  Her reply was, “Hobby?  No.  I want to write ‘I like coloring.’  You just tell me the letters.”  And she picked up her marker, waiting on me to tell her how to write it out.  “UM, Ruby, where are you going to write it?  Are you sure you want that on here?  There doesn’t seem to be any room for…”  She interrupted me.  “Mama, just tell me the letters.  I will write, ‘I like coloring.’  right here.”  “I-L-I-K-E-…Ruby, your letters are getting bigger ann bigger…C-O-L-O-R-I-N-G…..Great, Ruby, great.”  Then, I took it away from her and hanged it up so she couldn’t do anything else to it so that it could dry and not get messed up in the kitchen.

I am glad it is over.  I think it turned out just perfect, too.  I wish I could be a fly on the wall in her classroom on Friday while she tells the class about herself and her family.

I found these pictures when I finally decided to transfer the pictures from my camera to i-photo.  This was from last weekend when we had the jumpy thing at our house.  Their daddy was helping them get comfortable with it.

Once the weekend was winding down, the jumpy thing was losing its appeal a bit, so we watched the kids just play all around it instead of jumping in it.

Molly decides to use the jumpy thing as her pretend house, and she pulls up a rocking chair to relax and read a book.

Then, Mack, recognizing that someone is enjoying themselves, goes over to wreak havoc…after all, that is HIS book.

As you can see, the older sister, Ruby, is quick to recognize turmoil and runs to exercise her authority and get things resolved.

This is serious business.  I am sure the conversation was something like, “Mack, you get away from her right now.  That is not your book.  You have to share.  Leave Molly alone.  I mean it, Mack.”  Macks reply is something like, “My book.  No, Ruby, NO!”

Ruby waits patiently for SOMEONE, ANYONE to listen to her and obey.

Then, Molly, the peacemaking middle child decides to just give in to her brother.  She can’t stand all the arguing.

“Being the middle child is not easy,” Molly thinks to herself.  Ruby is thinking, “If you would just stick with me, you’d be fine and you’d still have your book.”  Mack is thinking, “Yep.  It works every time.  I can dig this ‘baby’ thing.”

He comes back to Molly–just to make sure things are ok between them.  She is his closest bud at this point.  Ruby reads his ploys all too well.

And while Molly isn’t paying much attention to him, she still gives in to his ways…….

Stinker.

The house is so quiet right now.  Ruby is at school.  Mack is upstairs in his bed sleeping.  Molly is in my room, on my bed, sleeping.  AH.  Nice.  My kitchen is clean…as clean as a kitchen can be serving three meals a day to hungry little people who still can’t bring their utensil to their mouths without spilling a little here and there.  We’re working on that though.  Laundry is caught up…as much as laundry can be caught up in a home with five people who change into new clothes each day (sometimes more if you are Ruby or Molly).  Clean bathrooms…as clean as ……ok, you get the point.  Things are in order and nothing is screaming at me, “GET UP AND DO THIS RIGHT NOW.”  I like that.

We have been busy this week.  I could post pictures, but I don’t want to right now.  Ruby had school on Tuesday, as did Molly.  We did school at home on Wednesday and went to church that night.  Thursday was low-key with schooling at home and going on a field trip to the local Fire Station, and now it is Friday!  It is rainy, cool and I am going to make chili tonight.  Josh bought a couple of doors that we are going to TRY to paint and fix into headboards for the girl’s beds.  I will take pictures and post them IF  it all turns out as wonderful as I think it will.

So, here’s to a fun, laid-back September weekend with the family.  And Happy Birthday to Vance!  Sorry we aren’t there to eat up some cake and ice cream with you.

Ruby and I did some school today while Josh was home and could watch the other two.  We were singing the “H” song.  She does so well with singing her phonics words and making the sounds of the letters.  There was a picture of a hamster that looked suspiciously like a guinea pig in another book we have here at the house.  I never can tell the difference myself…they are both under ther category of “gross rat” in my mind.  Well, Ruby thought this was a guinea pig, but knew it was supposed to start with the “H” sound…so she sang, “Hear the huh sound in the H words, huh in “henee pig” and in hat….”  It was hilarious.

A long time ago Molly and Ruby were having an argument over who was going to be first at something.  All you could hear was, “I’M first!”  “NO, I’M FIRST!!!”  “NO, I am FIRST.”  “ME!” and on and on.  I interrupted them and said, “Girls, the Bible says that whoever is first will be last and whoever is last will be first.”  Molly looked and me and said in a solemn voice, “I will be last.”  After a few seconds of silence, she looked at me and said, very seriously, “Does that mean I’m first?”  Again, a hilarious moment.

Molly asked approximately 547, 349 times for a popsicle today.  I have decided not to ever buy a popsicle again.  When they aren’t here, she doesn’t ask.  If they are here, that is all she asks.  It will make a woman crazy.

We have had a great Labor Day weekend and have enjoyed good food and fun family time, as well as wonderful times with friends.  We are blessed, that is for sure!  If I get around to it, I will post some pictures later.

Molly and I were sitting at the computer looking at old pictures together.  She likes to do that.  I asked her, “Molly, do you remember when Mack was like this?”

There was silence, then she asked, “Was he scared?”  I can see that.  I can also see that response after looking at this picture, too.

It does look like he is either scared or just so fat that he cannot even move his eyes!  Oh my goodness.  He was so chubby!!!!

And then I saw this picture of Ruby:

Awwww…..how sweet of a face is that?!  She hadn’t even started getting her freckles yet.  It reminded me that I haven’t told the story from when I picked her up from school on Friday.  She had four tootsie rolls, two packs of sweet tarts, and a lollipop and Laffy Taffy in her bag.  She said she got all that candy from answering questions right this week.  Mack was hollering out for the tootsie rolls, as was Molly.  I handed them some candy and told Ruby I noticed that she didn’t like any of that candy.  I asked her if there was any candy in the teacher’s drawer that she liked, and she said no.  Then, she said something soooo sweet.  She said, “I just look in there and pick out the ones that my family would like.”  Sweet girl–thinking of Molly and Mack while she picks out the candy she is rewarded with.  I wanted to stop the car and give her a big bear hug for being so thoughtful.  She is definitely growing up.

And this picture above is a sweet picture of Molly smiling at Ruby.  She was probably 2 years old.  She thought it was funny when we saw a picture of her in a diaper.  Thank goodness we only have one kid in diapers.  He even tells me when he wants to go poop in the potty!  And then he does it.  Maybe by Christmas we can be out of diapers…probably wishful thinking, but a girl can dream, can’t she?

OK, now off to greet some folks who are making their way to our house for a LOVELOUD meeting.  I will take some pictures and share them later.  Should be a fun evening!

Today I went to my friend, Mary’s, house to get some medicine that she says will help with a potential UTI.  We’ll see…I sure hope it does help.  BUT, while I was there, I found a cute bike in her garage!!!  It is a hot wheels bike with flames and a race car number and all.  She is having a huge yard sale next weekend to raise money for her 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk.  I did give her some money for the bike, but she probably could have made more if I had left it in her sale.  I also found a cute, cute rocking chair.  I want to paint it black to match some other porch chairs we have.  Here is what Mack wanted to do as soon as I unloaded the car,

He is so funny.  I guess he might need the helmet on if he decided to get crazy with the rocking chair on the porch.  You never know with him.  What were the girls doing, you ask?  They fell asleep in the car, so I left their doors open and the garage door open and let them finish their nap.  It was all for the best.  

Now, off I go to clean toilets.  Fun, huh?

It all started back when we lived on Towey Trail (we only moved a month and a half ago, but still).  Mack and I would say our goodbyes to the girls and their Daddy in their room and make our way to the closet of his room.  We would wait quietly, giggling and he would wrap his soft, chubby arm around my neck and say, “Where Daddy?” or “Hide.”  We were in the closet “hiding” from Josh.  We went here every night, yet when Josh would somehow find us–after looking under Mack’s crib, behind the tractor, etc—Mack would be so excited and laugh and laugh and say, “Gen (again).”  It was so cute.  Actually, not was, but still is.  We leave the girls and their Daddy and run off to hide in the closet.  It is so funny how he really thinks we are hiding from Josh.  And he still laughs hysterically when Josh finds us.  Oh, I hope I can always remember this time.  I am sure one day it will not be cool to hide in the closet with your mama.  He’s a cutie.

By the way, Marcy, this is the Mickey shirt I was telling you about….not sure if you think it is too girly or not…Josh seems to think so.  

I took a look back at pictures from this time last year to see how much the kids have grown.

Here is Ruby on her first day of Timothy last year:

Evidently, she was in to posing last year, too! (Fall 2008)

And here is she again on her first day of school this year:

She has changed a lot to me!

And here is Molly last Fall, wishing she could go to school:

And then this year on her first day of Timothy:

She seems very much the same to me, but her attitude has improved significantly in recent days.  Being a four year old seems to work well for Molly.

And this picture is of Mack this time last year, and he looks exactly the same.  He hasn’t changed much at all to me…except for getting taller and losing half a roll on his thighs…he is still a squishy, squeezable “baby.”

My oh my how time flies when you’re having fun….or something like that.  We have had a great week so far.  Ruby did very good with her home school work and was ready to go to classes today.  Molly had a fabulous time in her art and music classes this morning, too.  She made a beautiful fish and a bird in a nest.  I will have to take pictures of them and post them here.  She was very proud of herself, and we were proud of her, too!  Mack and I enjoyed a trip to Publix for a lot of Buy-One-Get-One’s.  He enjoys his time with me and vice versa.  He talked a ton the entire time, which is so funny to me considering I was, at one time, concerned that he wasn’t developing well in the speech area.  His favorite thing to say is, “Hey, Mama…..”  He doesn’t mean it as a greeting or even to get my attention for anything specific…he just likes to say it over and over.  

Let me go get Molly some “Fire Chips” before she has a breakdown.  We haven’t had one in a while, and I want to do whatever I can to help this trend continue…….