Cindy's Life as She Knows It

Yesterday we had a family snow day.  Dad worked from home, college son and girlfriend were here, Dakota and I took the day off.  The snow had actually fallen the night before and the day dawned sunny and clear.  We all hung out for most of the day and then at 4pm my daughters both arrived, as well as my two granddaughters.  My husband and younger daughter and I took Dakota and Natalie, my 3 1/2 year old granddaughter, sledding.  We went to a nearby park with big hills and spent almost 2 hours sledding and hauling each other up the hill.  The kids had a blast.  Poppy wore himself out and I took tons of pictures!  I love capturing the fun they are having, the blue of their eyes and the rosy red of their cheeks! The cold warranted a warm drink and some donuts at the nearby Dunkin Donuts and then home to the rest of the gang for a steak dinner with microwavable sides (not my usual - but quick and easy!)  Dinner was noisy and chaotic, but that's...

Two years ago when my little son and I were going to Walt Disney World in Florida, I used the services of a fabulous travel agent from Destinations to Explore named Regina.  She answered all my questions and set us up for a fabulous time with absolutely everything taken care of.  No worries.  When we returned I chatted online with her about how becoming a travel agent would be a perfect "second career" for me now that I have raised three kids and the last is ten.  We talked about my family's love of travel and how I have been organizing trips and activities for Maryland homeschoolers for the past fifteen years.  She suggested I put an application in with her travel agency and gave me all the information.  I did put an application in and sent along my resume.  I didn't hear anything back and soon I was too busy with life to even remember I did so. Last week I got an email from Destinations to Explore.  The name sounded familiar.  It was the ...

"You are only as happy as your saddest child" was a quote I read recently.  How true!  When your kids are doing well it's so much easier to be at peace with your own life, but when one or more of them is having a hard time, my personal stress is directly proportional to this.  And I guess the more children you have, the more opportunity you have for stress.  And then there are grandchildren.....   Ah, a mother's work is never done. My husband doesn't get it.  He doesn't get why I stress and fret when one or more of our four children or two, soon to be three granddaughters are sick or stressed or hurt or worried.  My heart is so directly linked to theirs that I feel their pain almost as acutely as if it were my own.  Today my older son is having girlfriend troubles.  He is hurt and anxious and angry and I am anxious about what will play out with the relationship because if it doesn't work, he will be heartbroken. My heart aches for him. ...

Monday mornings are hard anyway, but a freezing rain, gray and gloomy Monday morning is especially trying.  I knew Dakota was not going to be a happy camper anyway when I woke him, so I decided to provide an enticing morning to help get us going for the week. We started off our morning together in the livingroom in the recliners, under blankets, eating pop tarts, Mom drinking coffee and Dakota drinking milk while we watched Magic School Bus videos.  We love them and the air pressure and weather episodes are tied in to our meteorology unit for Science.  Ah, I see a smile on my little man's face!  My daycare baby Brookie came and she joined us in the third chair with her flower blankie and a bowl of dry Fruit Loops.  Yes to this!  I am watching and planning out our day, tweaking things so we can do most of our work right here.   And like all well laid plans, a train ran right through them.  My mother, my daughter and my two granddaughters all...

So this week has been extremely busy or what we call normal.  Yesterday we were dropped off at 10:15 at the Maryland Science Center for the homeschool days there.  I was very disappointed that they decided to change policies and told me we could not, as members, see the planetarium show for free with our membership because it was a homeschool show.  No.  Not really.  You show it there at the planetarium other than homeschool days....  It wasn't worth the fight, but I wasn't paying $13.00 to see something we were entitled to for free.  We walked around the near empty, but brutally cold center until it was time for our Forces of Nature IMAX show.  It was extremely well done, but very loud.  Very powerful, just like the weather. After our IMAX we had the "treat" of eating in the cafe.  Dakota asked that we not take our lunch and so we had lunch there, which was average at best.  Both places - the cafe and the lunch room, were FREEZIN...

Today we woke up to crazy cold weather.  The temperatures are low, the wind chills lower and there is ice and snow on the ground to add the look of a frozen tundra. I thought I was going to be able to stay in all day because they cancelled our homeschool review for the afternoon, but my daughter's car door broke and I had to run out to pick her up and take her to work.  The roads were actually in good condition and I was only gone about a half hour.  I got home just in time to start Dakota on our schedule.  While he made his bed and straightened his room, I made chocolate chip pancakes.  I was surprised yet again when he willingly went into his room at 9:30 to have his personal reading time.  This is the kid who complains loudly for all to hear about how he hates to read, yet this half hour of time seems okay for him. 10am brings morning work for him that is done independently.  He works on language arts activities and some fun papers. ...

Yesterday, besides being my younger daughter's 27th birthday, was also our first day back to school after the Christmas break.  We had needed the break and made the most of it, but it was time to get back.  I had done a lot of planning for both my homeschooled son and my preK granddaughter and daycare baby and I was ready.  I got up at 5:30am to have "me" time before school and then the day ran pretty much on schedule.  It wasn't without it's bumps and my son was sooooooo tired, but we made it.      Our day included 30 minutes of personal reading and 30 minutes of morning work for my son to start off the day independently while I made Alligator A's and practiced writing and sounding out the letter A and reading alligator books with the littles.  Then they played and watched an alphabet video while my son and I learned about the atmosphere layers using a labeled balloon and watched some awesome Youtube videos.  We did a little paperwork, mana...