Cheesecake, Mud, Sticks and Being Happy

KIMG0489We are almost there! Mr. Little and I have almost finished filling in our Sefiras HaOmer chart. He is very proud of himself. I think he missed one day (though I am not telling him that,) with just a couple of stickers left to put on. (I found a chart off of chinuch.org and put packing tape over it to make it stronger and put our stickers on each day.)

Over the past week I have been thinking about how nice it would be to sit down and write more on my blog. Lately, after my husband is sent off to work, I take up to an hour to do “nothing” and then exercise and shower before getting the boys out of bed. I really feel good, physically, about doing that. Mentally, it takes me the 1.5-2 hours to wipe the cobwebs away from the night, so havingKIMG0403 to get up at 5:30 am 6 or 7 days a week is really good for me (though I still do not really like doing it, it is one of those love-hate relationships.) This morning, when I was thinking how nice it would be to write a little bit to y’all, that little voice in my head turned around and said, “and so, what are you doing about that?” That little voice reminded me that thinking about something will not produce it. That, in turn, reminded me of the mann that we received in the midbar (desert); we just had to *think* about what we wanted it to taste like and it happened. Which was the reason why we had to think about the tastes we wanted on Friday before Shabbos, for for us, at that time, since our thinking created something, it was forbidden to do on Shabbos. Our thinking was our cooking and baking, both forbidden to us on Shabbos. Unfortunately, I am not on that level yet. Baruch Hashem I still have a couple more days of the omer to work on myself!

I am sitting here, trying to ponder on the last two weeks, which is another reason why I should blog more frequently again, for two weeks full of “stuff” is a long time to remember. We have been busy, and yet we have not. The “stuff” we have done you might call it KIMG0417something like “unstuff” for there was a lot of stuff not done, which was the purpose. Mr. Big was doing solely his online college classes this semester. We noticed a change in him about half way through the course. He was not as happy and outgoing as he used to be, and less energetic. Much more of an introvert. We knew the answer as to why – sitting all day on the computer and mostly by himself – but there was not much we could think of doing until his classes were finished. He was finally finished with everything last week, and I had my “plan.” I was so excited about it and talked to my husband about it for several weeks. I was pumped. And then last Monday, he was sick. Sigh. After feeling a bit depressed, I dusted myself off and continued my plan with the other boys while he slept and got better.

I came up with my plan for I am reading The Secret Garden to Mr. Little. At first he did not want me to read, but he was excited to see if Mary ever found the key and found the garden, that he let me read. Now, he tries to get me to read two chapters a night. As weKIMG0446 were reading about a sickly, lethargic, cross little girl, and how she started to transform into a real thinking, happy person, I remembered all my Charlotte Mason readings (I have not read all 6 volumes, but maybe enough to say one whole book? But, I have read the important parts and the rest is really just commentary,) and how she states that children should be outside (ideally) for 4-6 hours a day, being with nature, playing and just absorbing all the fresh air, sunshine and elements. I do try to keep that in mind, even though I don’t seem to be able to take that advice much, but I do keep trying. So, after starting to read The Secret Garden, my mind opened up.

My plan was to basically not do any school work. Mr. Big (and the rest of us, but him in particular) really needed to get back outside and playing in dirt, mud, with sticks, getting dirty, etc. We needed the sunshine to wipe all those cobwebs and dirt away to make our minds sparkle again. My biggest hurdle was knowing where to go. Being still new here, I did not know where there were any good parks nearby. I did not want the regular parks with slides and swings, I wanted a forest park. It took a few minutes of online work, but I found one that seemed like it would be near (in the suburb right next to us, so I just assumed…..) and off the rest of us went. I was relieved to find out that the GPS said it was only about 15 minutes away. It was the most amazing place for us to be. It was exactly what we were looking for and needed. There was a water fountain if needed, bathrooms, yes, a small playground set, and a few signs telling about the place. But most importantly, it had walking trails through the trees, dirt, sticks, and to our surprise, a little creek that was just perfect for boys to walk in with their shoes and pants and shirts….and get thoroughly wet. It was not raining that day, but we have had a lot of rain (15 inches in two weeks kind of rain,) and as I write, we are in the midst of another storm (it really storms here mostly, not just rain.)

So, in short, we all had fun. I did not venture into the water like they did, but I so enjoyed the sunshine, smells of nature, and just sitting there watching the boys…well…be boys. It KIMG0460was such a hit that on Tuesday, when Mr. Big did feel better, and I told the boys we were not doing school work yet again, and we were going out, there were shouts and yells and pleading about going back to the same place, which was the plan. The first day, it was mud and water, which surprised me for I thought there would be sticks as well. We did some math though and found out this math equation: Mud+Water=Shoesstuckandfallingoff. However, they did not disappoint me on day two and they found the sticks and the skipping rocks as well. Even though Mr. Big thought he was too big to play in the water and get thoroughly wet, like his brothers, he roamed, got his shoes all wet by walking in the water, and I even caught him with his hands all full of mud. Yes, deep down inside, he is still a boy, and I was so happy to see that!

Wednesday, one of the first things was, “Can we go back to the water?!?!?!?!” No, we found a different place. We didn’t have much time for it was raining on and off, and I did not want to get tired of such a fun place too quickly. As we were driving around and around and around, trying to find the entrance of the walking trail (it ended up being a biking/walking trail opposed to a nice forest park, but it went through trees and under bridges so we had fun walking,) I decided it was time to purchase rain boots and rain jackets and umbrellas.

Thursday started out with, “where are we going today, Mommy?”. It was really hot and humid and we found another park, though we had to stay on the paved trail for theKIMG0424 unpaved area, where I wanted to go, was all rained out. Only 1 boy was smart enough to bring his new rain boots, and he got to go through the little “lakes” on the grass (some were knee deep!)

My initial plan was to be somewhere for 3-4 hours, but we never stayed more than 1.5 hours, but it definitely was worth it. It did not take much, and by Sunday we saw the fruits of the (oh so hard 😉 ) labour. Mr. Big started smiling more, he looked a bit more happy than he was. Yes, just the fact that he did not have school helped, and yes, even the fact that I took him off of almost all computer time helped, but I think things moved faster with our outings. Monday morning, after he came home from shul, he told me he was helping the rabbi with the shul’s renovations and needed a tape measure and that he is going to Lowes with the rabbi to get stuff. He was in the house, talked to me, got what he wanted and was gone again in abut 45 seconds. I stood there and smiled. *THIS* is what I remembered him being like. We did not go out to forests this week, but he has spent most of his week going to Lowes with the rabbi and changing faucets and whatnot at the shul (all by himself (and he is only 14!)) He is confident, smiley, teaseable, and is interested in his amateur radio again. *happy tears*

Lesson learned: Mr. Big needs his online college classes, that is how we are getting him into university to be able to get him what he wants. We do not want him in a classroom there yet, we feel the college atmosphere is not good for him, at least not right now. But, instead of 4-5 classes at a time, we will focus on 1 class. The rest of the learning will be with me, which is what I want (and miss…) so that way he is with people most of the day.

I’m off, I need to finish getting myself ready and wake up the rest of the beautiful boys. Mr. Big is supposed to be studying for his General Class license, but he is busy playing with his radio…. need to bug him to find his book. Next time, I’ll be able to tell you all about our family project we are in the middle of!

KIMG0466Wishing everyone a wonderful Shavuos, and I’m reminded that means the giving of the cheesecake, which we already made this week (yum!) I am thinking I will wake boys up with their favorite song of the season; Stay Up All Night. And since we are just a few days away, I won’t mind them playing it many times over the next few days.

Chag Sameach!

Almost Normal

KIMG0336Phew. I think that after 7 months things are almost normal. Almost. It has been a long wait to get to where we are now. 3 moves – hotel for a month, apartment (though nice and cannot complain about the layout, just could not breath, let alone walk inside before people below complained and no place to send boys out to play,) and now our new house.

My goal: Empty out boxes and put things in a real home as I unpacked so I would have a nice, organized house.
Reality: It was a race to unpack all boxes before Pesach to get rid of all the boxes and check for chometz. Most things have a “place” but not necessarily the place I want or one that is a good one.

We thought we had it all checked for chometz when, a couple of hours before Pesach, my husband and son emptied one last box and guess what? Half a loaf of bread was packed away from 7 months ago! Yum! Not. The movers were not supposed to pack perishables – they made sure I understood that. For 7 month old bread, there was not very much penicillin on it, it was just hard Melba toast like pieces. (Maybe it really was not a perishable after all?)  I 2015-04-15should have known better than to buy bread. In any case, I am back into making our own bread again. And we are back to almost a full school schedule again. I have been trying for a week now to finish this post, so I’m not quite in a nice schedule for myself, but I am trying. One of the things I am working is getting outside more myself. We have a swing set at our new house and I enjoy sitting on a swing, looking at the backyard. I never really did that in our other place and I missed out on a lot of nice flowers, etc. So now, I have made more of an effort to enjoy the outside and I have found a new favorite tree. 🙂

What is interesting is how the boys have changed over the last several months and how I feel I am almost starting over from scratch with how we are learning. I am not quite sure what is different or why, and maybe perhaps it is just the fact that we have not done regular learning for such a long time and it might just be the new environment. But, whatever the case is, it sure is good to get back into a schedule. Two weeks ago I was ready, except for the fact that I did not have a schedule, and voila! I pulled out of a pile an old schedule I made for one boy at the beginning of the school year. I am not following the times, but it was nice to see what we were supposed to be learning this year. Unfortunately (or maybe really fortunately for me), being 3/4 of the way through the year, we were still on the same books we started the year off with which made it easy to continue on. We have finished some of the books over the months and now the goal is to finish the rest of what we are doing over the next week. I have put together a 1 month schedule for next month of a few of the books I really want the boys to read through this year.

I have decided to choose 6 books (including math), with 2 of them being done each day and doing 4 of them twice per week. I think we can get most of it done. The trick is working in Mr. Little. He has all of a sudden decided he KIMG0328*NEEDS* to learn. I told the boys there would be no computer for math for the week. They did not like that. I like it though. I am not minding printing things off, at least right now. It is a nice change of pace. In any case, I think the boys are doing more while not being on the computer. The boys have done math online with Khan Academy for a few years now and they now have early math online so Mr. Little has been going through that. This week I have decided to take a break from the computer and went to Dad’s Worksheets Online and http://www.mathworksheets4kids.com (because they both have answer keys!) and printed off various sheets there, some new stuff, though mostly review. Mr. Little insisted I print off stuff for him. So, I found a nice worksheet for him. He was so excited he made me print off 3 more pages. Daddy got to correct his worksheets before supper. 🙂

Results:

Day 1: One beautiful boy is trying to find his independence right now, and even though he tantrumed the first time he had to do the worksheets, I made him sit beside me and we did them together. It took us a while, but we got them done.

Day 2: came, and even though he still did not like the paper sheets, after a while, he actually asked for my help and sat beside me to do them. Half way through the page he was confident enough in himself and so I let him finish the rest on his own while I pulled his brother over and helped him with the same work. Said boy was excited when he got the right answer to a question his brother needed to go over (which is a VERY good thing for said boy.) It was then a race to see who could finish the pages first.

Day 3: They still did not like the fact I had paper sheets, but they sat down (or laid down, whichever they preferred)KIMG0332 on the couch and raced. I found out that I really like working on math with each boy. I have not told them yet, but I think that next week we still might do paper sheets. I enjoy stumbling upon new ways for me to do math. I am a math person, but give me a question to do fast, I falter. Tell me I have 5 minutes, I relax and can do the question quickly. I am learning new multiplication techniques (stumbling on new techniques really,) and enjoy teaching them over. Said boy who does not like math has picked them up really fast. I think we are both realizing how non-overwhelming it can really be and it is almost fun. I try really hard to sit still while he thinks – half out loud and half quietly, letting him take his time. It is hard when he comes up with numbers in the middle, which to me seem wrong, but in the end he gets the right answers. He is just not verbalizing all his thoughts. He has figured out how to do some math problems his own way and I have to remember to sit still and let him be. It is a correct way, just not the way I would do it.

KIMG0331
Where’s Waldo? Oops, I mean find three boys. 🙂

We took some time off yesterday (Sunday) and went to a nice park that we went to in the Fall. We sat on an old fallen down tree and had a little picnic. The boys enjoyed the woods and the nice honey smells and then afterwards they all went on a 10 mile bike ride with the Scouts as part of the cycling merit badge. It is an optional activity but all the boys in the Troop want to do it. Our new life consists of many different and new things, along with new friends and new places. It takes a while to get used to all the new things, but things are slowly becoming familiar. The nice thing about time passing and things moving on is that there are ample opportunities to have a fresh start. This year has definitely been a challenge for everyone in all aspects, but the school year is almost finished and summer will be upon us very soon. That gives me a little time to get myself into a nice routine and make one for the next school year (and maybe write more often!)

Wishing everyone a beautiful week!