Yes, and please, and thank you.

Manners, anyone?
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As parents, we teach our kids manners from birth. How RUDE, some adults say, when kids do not say thank you for a gift. My boys are taught to hold the door for women. I teach all my kids to look people in the face when they speak to you. I tell Eli that if he is going to be late, make the phone call. Emma, no burping without saying excuse me. Tripp, don't fart in my face. Go to the bathroom.

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EPIPHANY - I figured out that in life -you don't owe anyone anything. You do things out of kindness. When favors become necessities, it takes away the joy and makes it a burden.

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Then, why, as adults, don't we practice what we preach?

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I just heard a story. My little brother (almost 30) had some tickets to a concert. Due to his little boy getting the H1N1R2D2 flu thing, he was unable to go. Wow. $200 worth of tickets, purchased SIX months ago... He gave them to my older brother and his wench. The wench picked them up.... Guess what she said? NOTHING. No thanks, can I pay you something? No NOTHING.

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How Rude, right?

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People take advantage all the time. I hear it, see it, smell it and taste it daily.

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My kids throw trash BESIDE the trash can. No worries, mom will fix it. I am supposed to fix it. To a certain extent. But Eli, at the tender age of 13, has to have some responsibility about him. Dave was more firm with Eli - he taught him to do his laundry at a ten, he is responsible for picking up his clothes. He makes his own snacks, and just recently he sold mums to pay for a Beta Club trip.

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Why do we push responsibility and manners on our children, yet we can't follow thru as adults?

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Why do we make excuses for adults? Some people say that it is the wench's "personality." You know what she is. Just accept it. My mother is a nut. Just accept it.

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But do I have to subject myself to it? No. Yes. Maybe So.

Rainin' on a Tuesday.

Middle of the week crazies!

Homework, homework, everywhere, everywhere.

Instead of doing my homework, I am going to blog to get my thoughts in order.
As if that ever happens.

Last night, we ventured to watch Eli kick at a football game. I love watchin' my little boy kick.

Like he is my little boy anymore. Anyways, he kicked. Some good, some not so good. He still impresses me every time he kicks. My hope is that he kicks all the way thru college. At Harvard.

School is going good for the kids. We seem to be in a new routine and it is going pretty smoothly. We have added Mallie to the mix, and I love her so much. She is a joy, with a quirky personality. But that fourth kid is hard. HARD. Mallie is a great kid. I enjoy her being around. She is one of my own. My issue lies with my other kids. The workload for me is not any harder for kid #4, it is dealing with the interactions between my kids. They gang up on me. Some nights, we are slacking on consistant bedtimes. That makes for overtired kids, which in turn makes for morning tears.

Just imagine. FOUR KIDS TO SCHOOL BY 7:30 a.m.
If someone woulda told me this ten years ago, I woulda laughed. But we make it, it is OK. When I get to work, I take a deep breath. I feel as though I have ran a marathon. In a good way.

Thank You Liquid Hormones.

Busy. So Busy.

Last night, I looked across the couch at my husband. While I was studying the big bang theory, and how rocks either flake apart or fracture, he was reading a book on how to speak in public.

There is lots o' schoolwork going on in this house.

I am a little overwhelmed, as usual. Nah, I don't say as usual because for some reason, I am feeling pretty good so far. Maybe it is large amounts of time I spend studying. I have all day during the day. I will say that when I went back to college over TWO years ago, I had a very very very hard time getting my work done. My baby wasn't even two yet. Emma was three. I also had Mallie during the days. And I watched Ethan (who was six months old) one day a week that summer. How I did that, well, I have no clue.

I guess I have no problem with it really, cause stay at home moms don't do anything anyways.... that is my soapbox. I will get on that another day.

Anyways, things are looking good. I try to tell Dave that it will go by so fast. If I play my cards right, I should graduate NEXT December. That is pretty good, considering a couple of semesters, I only took seven and nine hours.

My other thought is how college only really teaches endurance. Take poor Dave, for example. He is in a COM 100 class. Speech, right? Well, at any given time, I can turn on the local TV station and see him talking in a meeting. He does announcements at church at least two Sunday's a month. But still, here he is, trudging along. Getting it done. I am so proud.

One of my classes is Child Development from birth to age five. I live this course every day. I could probably tell some stories that would make the book. I spend time defining placenta previa. Been there. How about a definition for torticollis? Been there, too. Separation anxiety? Still living it.

It is all about endurance. And $3250 a semester.