reminder: be normal

i am amused by the fact that everyone views monday as the beginning. how are we ALL on the same wavelength?  imagine a time when there were no calendars or clocks and the only way to keep track of things is by totally being in tune with your mind, body and spirit. a time when you felt it was time to exercise or read or even teach someone something.

a wonderful weekend passed again. it was an overall calm one and it was extra special because i saw many loved ones. anyway, sunday night, late sunday night that is, after i got all my little people settled and snuggled with them until they drifted into their slumber, i was laying in bed doing my usual internet browsing and thinking. and with it being sunday night, i had those thoughts that i am sure many of you do.  thoughts that include, but are not limited too:

"i will get more done this week, maybe clean out the basement"
"i will exercise, in fact, i will take the whole family to the park, every night, we will burn so many calories"
"i will make cookies this week"
"i will get up earlier so i can get more done"
"i am going to get all the laundry done tomorrow, if i just devote my whole day to it, i can get it done"
"i will get more lessons done with the kids this week, maybe we could go to the library every day"

i get all these great ideas. and then with all these great ideas i realize i just need to put these things on my calendar so they will get done. 20 minutes later, i have added 15 reminders in my phone. and i was only on tuesday!

you see, i lead a very....hmmm what is the word...i dunno. my life doesn't typically compare to the lives of other mothers that have 3 kids. we just do things differently in our home i guess, i don't know why, it's just the way it is.  sooo, these reminders that i put in my phone are reminders to be "normal".

one of my reminders i scheduled was to wake up at 7 everyday because i believed that is what other "normal" people do. wake up the same time every day. and early.  the next reminder is "throw in a load of laundry". this reminder was set to go off shortly after i woke up because that seems to be what a normal stay at home mom would do.  another reminder was "lunch" and it was set to go off at noon because i figured that is what every other family does at home, eats lunch at noon.  i even put a reminder on my phone to "take walk" at 7 p.m. because that seems to be the time i see my neighbors strolling about.

we do not get up the same time every day. in fact, i don't even set an alarm because typically i have no place to be in the morning.  i don't do laundry every day. i should. but life doesn't allow me to. the life we have chosen does not always support a rigid cleaning schedule.  we do eat lunch every day. but not until we get hungry. it's sometime in between breakfast and supper, but it is rarely at noon.  my family and i are pretty active. we take walks, go for bike rides, shoot hoops in the drive way and even do some yoga and hip hop dancing together from time to time.  but we never seem to do the same sort of exercise two days in a row. it's always something different.

after setting all of my reminders in my phone i was feeling optimistic that this was going to be the week that we were a normal family. i went to bed feeling great.  monday started off good. woke up early, drank my coffee to get me going, ate lunch "on-time" and so on and so forth. my phone kept dinging as each reminder went off and i would check it off and move onto the next thing. monday night was ok, but each time my phone dinged to remind me of something else i felt more and more agitated.

we went to bed and all was well. i was thankful for the day i had, but i didn't feel complete when i went to bed. i felt out of sorts and was grumpy. i was partly grumpy because i had my day all "planned" and some events didn't go as planned.

by tuesday afternoon, i silenced my phone. the reminders had gotten the best of me. i realized all i did was set myself up for failure.i canceled all of tuesday's reminders.  tuesday was awesome. today was good.  we had a wonderful school day, we ate lunch when the kids told me they were hungry and i got laundry done. i did it when i felt like it. i did the dishes when i noticed nats. i played with the kids when i noticed they needed me. and i wrote on my blog when i felt inspired even though i know i "should be in bed" as some would say. why "should" i be in bed? who says. for me, it feels fantastic to be awake at 1 a.m. I feel like I could write a whole book right now and for crying out loud, everyone thinks we should sleep at night!

anyway, i wanted to share with you what i learned. i learned that i do things differently than my neighbor. and i learned that i really like it that way.

life is good

Hi there.  hope this blog post finds you content and well.  as always, coffee is good and i am alive.  the kids are peaches and handy manny is busy fixing things on my tv for my sons entertainment so i can scribble here.

just the thought in my head for the day...

last night in bed i was reading about syria and war. typically things i try to avoid reading because i am helpless and i find it to be disturbing.  but, for some reason, i felt the need to be brought up to pace. left with a fearful feeling in my gut, i went to bed.  as i woke up this morning and read online, there seemed to be 3 or 4 articles that i kept seeing regarding cancer, especially the rise of cancer in north america.  wait, north america...that's where i am. so i read the article. gahhh. why do i read things about a war that we cannot win and a disease that apparently our north american lifestyle is promoting?

and when i read stuff like this, i am not just concerned about the well being of me, but my children, whom i make decisions for, my husband, my whole family, my friends, YOU, yes, i am even worried about your safety and health!  and then i hear handy manny. a good samaritan, helping friends, teaching people and always providing quality work.  i look out my window, and the sparkling september sun that i talked about yesterday came back for the day to shine on my life.  i think about the lessons we will do in our homeschool today; the ones that i planned for my kids and no one told me how to do it.  i think of all this. i think of how despite what is going on around me that is bigger and scarier and out of my control, what is going on right around me is nothing less than perfect and delightful.

it is recited often that ignorance is bliss, and it is.  every day we are learning and growing, and that is important. but sometimes i wished i wouldn't have learned about syria. i wish i wouldn't have learned that my can of pepsi and my microwave are killing me. i wish all i knew was that the sun glimmers on me and my family, God loves me unconditionally and that handy manny is a cool dude.

raise your mug.  celebrating what is good in my life because i know i cannot do it all. we will do our best today. we will learn. we will eat fruit. we will use our microwave. we will trust our God. and maybe i will go buy 30 jugs of water to stash in my basement for doomsday.

Books And Movies Including Kids With Special Needs

This is going to be an ongoing post on my blog and I will update it as I find more.

Books and Movies for children that help explain disabilities and diseases in a non-scary way:

1. Handy Manny Season 3: Episode 15 "Story Hour/Long John Lopart" is about guide dogs, being blind and braille.
2. Arthur Season 13: Episode 1 "The Great Mrs. MacGrady"  is about cancer.

Fun Ideas For The First Day of Homeschool

i love september. where i live it is cold at night this time of year and in the morning it is cool and crisp, just enough to where you slip into a fleece parka and need your slippers on your bare feet so they don't freeze on the floor.  no more air conditioning or fans at full blast. windows cracked in your house and the air is perfect.  the sun seems to give off a different kind of sparkle in september as well.  taking in this phase of nature can cleanse you of any negative energy or worry, even if it is just temporary, it is very therapeutic!

our first day of homeschool was yesterday.  it was magical.  the night before the first day of school (do you got that, lol) as i was tucking the girls into bed we were talking about our first day of school.  they kids were SO excited.  just really pumped about being in a new grade and excited about everything we were going to learn together this year.  as homeschoolers would know, homeschooling is just different than public school.  but i sensed that the kids excitement was the kind that they couldn't wait for the first day of school. like it was going to be different than any other day in my house.  we do some sort of learning everyday but to them, this first day was really going to mark some milestone in their life.  i tucked them in and went and laid down in my room where my husband was fast asleep and my son was waiting on me so i could cuddle him to sleep.

once he fell asleep i was laying there realizing that this first day of school maybe meant a little something different to the kids than it did me.  to me it was a time of getting back into the groove of some of our school routines. sitting as a group reading and discussing. making more trips to the library. learning daily again instead of casually the way it was over the summer.  for them it was more.  i was starting to worry that i was going to let them down.  i wanted to have a nice plan for our first day.  so aside from my lesson plans, i got up and planned out a few more fun activities to help make the first day of homeschool exciting.

Here are the special things we did:

1. I found an "All About Me" worksheet on-line and printed one for each child.
2. We measured everyone and marked how tall they were on the wall.
3. We traced their hand prints.
4. Took pictures of each of them.

These very simple, non-original ideas were exactly what my kids were seeking.  I felt this acknowledged and celebrated their excitement.  The "All About Me" worksheets were great too as we now have a keepsake along with their height, hand print and picture!

We had a fun first day and they are still so excited to spend time in our classroom!