Sunday, October 28, 2012

Afterschool

I have a focus problem. It's the opposite of ADD. I get so focused on whatever I'm thinking about/working on that the house could burn down and I might not notice.

My mom used to make fun of me and called me the absent minded professor. That started in 2nd grade when I was so focused on finishing my homework before school one day that I walked to the busstop without any shoes on.

I still have this problem. I concentrate so heavily on my projects (primary, my work-from-home-freelance job, cleaning the house, financial planning) that I don't concentrate enough on my children. I forget to be mentally present. And I hate that.

So every day while the kids are at school, I plan a project to do with them when they get home. It helps me change gears, gets me thinking about them, helps me unwind.

This last one was pretty fun. I had scoured the Internet for a good idea, and modified it slightly. I wrote numbers in the bottom of an empty egg carton. Then I placed two beans inside. When the kids got home, we shook the egg carton. We used the numbers the beans landed on to make number problems. Claire wrote and solved addition equations, and since Claire is just starting, during that time, Grace would use the same two numbers to create multiplication and division equations, along with creating fractions that she would then simplify. I loved it. Because usually, I have to choose an art activity for them to both be equally challenged. But this math activity solved that problem. Yay.

What do you do after school? I need more ideas.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Conundrum

What if you just told your daughter to never touch your make up again... And ten minutes later walked back into your bathroom to find this... Do you start another lecture, or melt and give up?

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

It ain't called insanity for nothin'.

( to those of you who haven't yet "jumped" on the bandwagon, take residence in the asylum here.)

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Naming

We had a family meeting the other night. We passed around ultrasound snapshots of our fetal baby girl (!) and then we opened the floor to name suggestions.

When Claire offered up the first suggestion, I laughed out loud. What I received in return was a stern look from Brad and a reprimand: "Write it down!" to which I rolled my eyes and... wrote it down.

...along with the rest of the suggestions. Here's a short selection for your reading pleasure:

1. Marjhayuh (per Claire, please make sure you pronounce the jh as the "ge" in garaGE.)
2. Duhreesha
3. Kirshel
4. Fer-reela (yes, a real suggestion, Fer reela.)
5. Kalichee (which happens to be a type of dirt common to the area)
6. Carilla (not gonna lie. Actually considered this ancestral name for Claire until we paired it with our last name.)
7. Repella
...and my personal favorite...
8. Shaboo.

Heaven help our little girl.