Full Hands, Full Heart

I don't understand why people think I'm crazy because I have more then 1.2 kids. Any day I take the kids out in public, I'm sure to hear the phrase "You have your hands full!" I always reply with "and my heart too!" People usually smile and tell me my kids are cute. Unless, like the lady at the grocery store yesterday, they run off in a disgusted huff before I can respond. Really? I wish I could ask people like her a few questions. Like: Why is my having 3 kids who actually know how to behave in public such an inconvenience to you? What about my kids disturbs you so much? When you were a kid, did you dislike children as much as you do now?
I value my children. I see their worth. I know that they are fully human, now at their present age. They contribute to my life and bring me joy. The inevitable sleepless nights and frustrated afternoons that come with having 3 boys under 5 is a small part of the overall blessing of being their mother. I think a lot of the problems we face in our current culture could be solved if Motherhood was respected and children were valued.

Start Again

They boys sing a song for the days of the week that goes "Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and then we start again!"
I am hoping to pick myself up a bit and do as the songs says - start again. I have been trying, it seems in vain at times, to follow my Mother's Rule of Life. Most days I do alright. The past few months have been better then the beginning of the year. But then its really easy to be better then awful! I have a few new ideas on how to work my Home Management Notebook. I think I am going to do as one blog suggested and have certain pages that I use over and over again laminated and have the whole thing spiral bound. I wish I could remember the site. I'd share it. Not to mention, I'd like to look at it again. Oh well! Hopefully I can recall enough useful information to put some of it into practice. I really do a lot better taking care of my kids, the house and the dog, not to mention myself, when I keep to my routines. With 3 small kids in the house routines are necessary. Its the only way anyone ever gets to wear clean underwear. Which reminds me I need to go throw my sheets in the wash and finish making the bed. Clean is comfortable!

Smarty Pants

The picture of Joseph counting was taken almost a year ago. He can now count to 100 independently and is quickly picking up the pattern to count over 100. He also recently started reading. All the sight word and phonics work of the past 4 years has really paid off. I actually saw the moment when reading clicked for him! It was amazing! He was looking at a book that we have read a thousand times (wish I could remember the exact book, I was to excited about the moment to remember that detail) and he was going along half reading, half repeating the memorized story when he came to a word he wasn't sure about. He stopped, looked at it, and then sounded it out. He looked up at me for approval, I gave it, and he smiled a huge wonderful smile that told me how proud he was of himself in that moment. Then his reading became slower as he thoughtfully looked at each word as if for the first time. Saying them slowly. Looking at each letter and word come together to form a new world. At only 4 years old, he is an independent reader who can take almost any book of his shelf and happily read it to himself. He has even advanced to the point of being able to read silently to himself! Simply amazing!
Leo isn't too far behind. While Joseph is extremely determined and focused once something has grabbed his attention, Leo is a creative dreamer. He likes to look at the pictures of a book and make up his own stories, or variations on the current story. The perfect example of the difference in their personalities came during basic math last fall. The was 1 green worm and 1 blue worm. I asked the boys how many worms there were. Joseph quickly said "1 green worm and 1 blue worm is 2 worms!" and then Leo replied "The green worm is the mommy worm and the blue worm is the daddy worm. On Sunday they take their little worm baby and put him in his little worm car seat and get in their little worm car and go to little worm church!" I said I really liked his story and asked him how many worms their were. He said "3! The mommy worm, the daddy worm, and the baby worm!" I've told Leo he needs to work on writing his letters and words so he can write down his stories so other people can read them. He liked that idea a lot.