Cindy's Life as She Knows It

On Tuesday one of the young men on my son's 100lb football team lost his mother suddenly.  She had been sick and had cancer, but had beaten it once.  It came back quickly with a vengence and her death was a shock to all.  I had to tell my 11 year old that his buddy's mom passed away.  This week has been one of my reflection.  He has asked a lot of pointed questions about death and about how his friend will adjust and how his life will change since his mom was a single parent and he had no siblings.  I answered him honestly when I could and we discussed things when I wasn't sure.  It gave me insight into the caring, thoughtful young man I am raising when what I usually get is often a snarky and rude kid.   However, I have really traumatized my son today. We had another long talk about death in the car coming back from Ecoadventures before going to the funeral home. I was explaining the difference in a viewing and a funeral. He wanted to know why...

     Yesterday tanked after lunch time. Dakota was a beast, I felt defeated, Dad came home stressed and it just led to a tumultuous night with lots of grouching and arguments and tears. Yuk. Then to top it all off we learned that one of the kids on our football team lost his mom suddenly last night. Heartbreaking and shocking and of course it brings to light your own mortality.       So today I woke up ready to make this a better day. Dakota and I had a nice eggs and bacon breakfa st and talked about what the problems were in our day yesterday and how we are all going to work to fix them. Neither of us likes when we are all angry at one another. After breakfast we got to work on morning chores, welcomed the girls and started our volcano, putting it together and then using paper mache to do the outside. He worked on a Scholastic News while the paper mache is drying.  While he paints it I am going to make witches brew with the girls.  I am ho...

Today was our first day back to homeschooling since the Christmas break and it went exceptionally well.  I am trying to work with the advice I received from my homeschool reviewer who was a retired 30 year veteran teacher of kids Dakota's age.  He told me ways to incorporate Dakota's strengths with my demands to keep things more peaceful here at home.  I felt like we were never doing enough and he said we were doing plenty and had a great well rounded curriculum. My osn and I started our morning with less grouching since the puppy made waking up much more pleasant.  We got breakfast and morning chores out of the way and then tried my new Amazon Fire Stick to watch Disney's Johnny Tremain from Amazon Prime.  With the Fire Stick we were able to put it right onto the big screen.  We were trying to read the book, but it was going so slowly and Dakota wasn't enjoying it so I went with the advice I received and just allowed him to go ahead and watch the video t...

2016 has arrived.  I can't say I am glad 2015 is gone because all in all it was a good year for me. minus the cellulitis my granddaughter was hospitalized for late in the year and a few other odds and ends.  I am looking forward to this new year, but my resolutions are not anything outlandish.  I just want to continue what I am doing, getting better at everything I am trying, making good decisions, being a better wife, mom, nana, friend etc.  I have three of my three kids living at home right now.  One has returned to get herself together and get some medical attention she has needed for a long time.  One who is graduating college and hoping to move onward and upward in the upcoming months.  I try to not to think about that.  He deserves his life, but he's always been such a huge part of mine and I had always dreamed he would work nearby so that he could continue to be a part of vacations and football Sundays and family outings.  I know he ne...