Missing Phones and Harido's

Apologies for the delay in posts.  Turns out my phone was held captive by the van's passenger back seat pockets for nearly a week.  I'm not blaming anyone, just saying I was actually beginning to enjoy being disconnected for the time being.

It all ended when Mike sat in the back seat of the van and discovered the missing phone.  

So there goes that.

What you missed while I didn't have a camera phone:

The kids (all 5 of them) helping me on a catering during a no school day. 

Molly's loose tooth which still remains intact.

The laundry pile, which continues to grow on the couch.

Ross and Mai's strep throat.

Mike's suspicious 'sore' on his thigh.

Me, trying to navigate the van in the snow.

Gunny's rabbit kills on our porch

Anyway, it's obvious I missed a lot; however, life continues on and the sun will come out tomorrow...

I played hairdresser today.

It was the second day in a row without school, so times were getting tough. 

It may be below zero outside, but these girls are smokin'!

January Suck

Actual footage of a real mom surviving an unusually long snow day, followed by Ross denting the kitchen after punching it out of frustration, followed by the news I-35 will have a late-start- (probably no school Wednesday) and finally noticing Maisie's right tonsil is swelled up like a bowling ball and leaking puss... and so many other things I wouldn't dare post on a blog publicly...

We don't lose ourselves in parenthood.  We find parts of ourselves we never knew existed. 

LR Knost

 But my new recipe at dinner was a win... so I'm priding myself in that.

The recipe is here: https://www.tasteandtellblog.com/french-dip-tortilla-roll-ups/

We don't lose ourselves in parenthood.  We find parts of ourselves we never knew existed. 

LR Knost

Bus 8

I believe everyone has memories of their childhood that stand out more than others.  

I'm pretty sure today was one of those days.

Today was the day I rode home on the bus.  

After a morning in which the van didn't make it out of St. Charles, I was left without a vehicle.  

Of course, I had people offering me a ride home, however, I decided to give my kids a memory today.

I rushed out of my classroom as soon as the bell rang.

Didn't want to miss the bus.

I sat next to a 2nd grader on Bus #8 as Molly and Jay's bench didn't have room for me.

And this is how Molly looked for the entire 20-minute bus ride home.  

Complete awe.

She told me her friends were SO jealous she got to ride on the bus with her MOM!

it was a good day.

Vans, Taco Meat and Rashes

A peek into Sunday... 

Not only was the power steering on my 280,000-mile van revived (my arm muscles are SO sore), but tires, tie rods 'rutters'?', and some other metally things were replaced and rotated. 

I don't really get it, but Mike does, and honestly that's all that matters.

Fortunately, I have other skills.

  Like tacos.  

We've crossed into the 3lbs of hamburger supper club.

Unseasoned and on the side for Ross, naturally.

Spent spent Sunday at a wrestling tournament 2 hours away.  Obviously, we didn't make it.  

He went undefeated and broke his record by pinning a guy in 12 seconds.  

He wasn't able to drop down to to 92, but he did weigh in at 94!  

He wrestled 98.  

Got this text this afternoon as I was depositing my quarter into an Aldi's cart...

Benadryl, a cold compress (aka: frozen hot dogs), a shower and clean clothes.

He swears he won't go to school tomorrow until his face doesn't look like AIDS.  

The nurse in me knows it's contact dermatitis and will go away.  

I also know I wouldn't show up for school with a blotchy face in 7th grade either.

Praying the Benedryl is a strong one.  

Saturday Night on Hickory

After a 12:20 dismissal Friday, a full day with the offspring while Mike worked on my van (which had zero power steering this week, leaving my arms to pay the price) a basketball hoop being added into my living room decor, 2 hours flat ironing American Girl Doll Hair a friend over and no mention of a departure time, knowing Ross needs to be at the school by 5:50 AM for an away tournament tomorrow morning and a 1-hour Bob Ross painting challenge, Saturday night at my house looks like this...

Prayers are always welcome.

Snow Day

Our first official Snow Day was filled with  shrieks of excitement, relief the frozen muffins would thaw and be enjoyed later in the day, no sign of the boys until after 8, a sudden ambition to complete not one, but two college writing assignments and the girls fighting over which Youtube family to watch by 9:30.  Molly was complaining about not doing anything fun and since I had plenty of cream of tartar on hand, I suggested the first thing that came to mind.

Playdoh.

Then snowmen...

5 to be exact.

They had to remain un-faced and unclothed.

Gunny kept ripping the celery and figs out of the faces and I don't trust him with a scarf.

Good thing he's cute.

Meanwhile Ross spent the afternoon at his girlfriends farm combing out cows.  

According to her mom, he worked his butt off.

As it turned out, he gained 4 pounds this week.

I told her he needed the exercise.

Little Boy Teenager

How does a mom 'mother' her 15 or 16-year-old son she has only known a little over 2 years?  A very private and independent boy who grew up under circumstances only God knows?  

I'm parenting two teenage sons.  

One of whom was who was born to another woman.  And in a story, I will never know.  

He's a typical teenager, and I thank God for that. 

He's funny, smart, his cheeks turn red when embarrassed, tries harder than we notice, loves video games, friends and inappropriate jokes.  

He only comes to me for help when he needs his nice clothes ironed on game days,  when we run out of dinosaur egg oatmeal or he needs a ride home from practice. 

Today I noticed his voice had changed.  He sounded older.  My heart knows his childhood is coming to an end, and that boyish giggle always had my heart.  

These days I don't hear it as much as I'd like to, or as much as his friends do.  

During the week he doesn't say much in the morning and keeps to himself.  We've learned this after many mornings of empty responses to "Good Morning."  

And that's okay.  

When he feels like talking, my ear will always be open.  

When he chooses silence, I choose to respect his silence. 

I know I will never be the mom he wanted.  She took off when he was young.

But with this crazy privilege of being Mack's mom, I can only trust God knew what He was doing when He chose me to mother him.   

Surely, He knows I'm clueless.

Right?

 I do know teenagers need a place to figure out what feels right to them. 

 Somedays it's everything and some days it's nothing.  

I've never believed being a teenager is easy.  

And some days our greatest job of Mom is to pretend we don't even notice. 

Yet here I am, watching him laugh himself into hysterics with his siblings in a warm home, clean clothes, a full belly, and safe people to call family.

 That little boy giggle will always have my heart...

Vagina Pics, Keto and Sledding

Last night the girls begged me to get the baby books out.  I figured 'why not'.  I almost got my wedding dress out, but decided that would be pushing it.

They came across the printed newborn photo of Maisie with the umbilical cord leading to my vagina.  

It lead to lots of questions.  Her folded ears, the blood, the vagina... even Mack took a double take.

Then tears.

Molly had a breakdown we didn't have a photo of her right after she came out.  Then she saw a photo of Maisie with Mike, Ross and myself in the hospital bed.  She searched and searched but couldn't find a picture with her in this same scenario as a newborn.

She was crushed.

This all happened while I was attempting to write a college paper on the Jahi McMath case regarding parental rights and life support.  

In other news, Ross made a decision to cut 5 lbs by next weekend for a wrestling tournament.  I told him he could do it if he really wanted to.  I put him on Keto.  Breakfast was an omelet.  By 10:00 he started to panic and asked for sautéed shrimp.  At noon he said he was STARVING.  I told him to drink some water and eat a cheese stick.

He said he was too weak and actually looked pale.

I gave him bullet iced coffee and ham/mayo/cheese roll-ups.

He was still starved.

2 hours later he was sneak-microwaving microwavable chicken sandwiches from Costco.

We'll see how the rest of the week goes...

This snowy day lead to lots of sledding.  Especially by the girls.  

Ross attempted to sled, but his first trip down he claimed a stick stabbed him in the butt hole.

Long Week

Is it just me, or has this week lasted a month?

Friday marks the end of first semester and boy is it time.  

Time for new students, a new schedule, new graduate classes and another day closer to summer.

Molly is having daily clothes drama and can't have any part of her neck showing, Maisie is asking me to cheat for her on her typing tests and can't breathe out of her nose at bedtime, Rumba is back in business after I ordered a new lifetime battery and once again I'm fresh out of dinner ideas.

Mack practices from 5-7:30 p.m. and Ross practices from 6:15-7:45 a.m.  The laundry and dishes have become ridiculous, the dishwasher is leaving 'sand' in cups and a part of me is freaking out while another part of me is waiting to see if someone else deals with it.  Today after a particularly rambunctious class, a student asked how I stay so laid back and don't yell at kids.  Are you serious!  I explained how I'm am miraculously able to completely zone out during chaos (I'm just really tired) or use their behavior as my own personal entertainment!  

It's no secret I don't get out much.

I organize a bi-monthly food pantry out of my classroom.  The numbers have drastically increased over the past year and this week I had over 2000 lbs of food delivered to my classroom.  When it was all said and done, I was left with a single case of pinto beans and 5 loaves of organic wheat bread.

What you missed was the Day's Of Our Lives drama over food, the couple who arrived 45 minutes early to get first dibs, the lady who fell down on the box of spiral hams and came up claiming someone was taking her food, the lady chasing frozen chickens in the parking lot after they rolled off her cart and under parked cars, the woman who got kicked out of Winterset's Food Pantry last month after she punched someone in the nose...  

I'm not trying to make fun in fact, I find it quite sad, yet fascinating at the same time.  

I've always been really weird like that.  

So I will continue.

Today I came home right after school to finally tackle the mountain of laundry that formed over the week, knowing full well almost everything would need to be ironed to be worn without looking homeless.

Molly got ahold of my phone and decided to photograph the house.  As I've fallen behind, I'll share her view through my camera lens with you today.

Below you will see our new coat hook and shelving in the mudroom.

A new rug thanks to Cindy :)

Clearly, I took this photo of Molly after school.  At the time I thought I'd send it into the Hidden Valley.  But then realized the bottle of ranch was turned backward.

Molly took these...

TGIF in 6 hours.