Do I really sound like that?

Well tonight we got home and the boys went to playing. Hannah went upstairs and Moriyah and I started to cook dinner. I have been doing the evening shift alone this week as adam has had to work until after midnight. I make a terrible single parent!! On to the story. I heard Hannah say Mommy I need your help. I was very impressed because she has taken to talking like a baby lately. She is the oldest one at the daycare. I wonder if she thinks she'll get more attention if she does. I quickly headed upstairs to praise her big girl words and see what she wanted. When I got to the top of the stairs I saw her standing there with her arms on her hips. at her feet was a bed she'd made from burp rags and a baby doll all swaddled. She said "Get in there and clean your room then put away the dish washer" All the while wagging her finger at me. My immediate thought was "do i sound and look like this" obvious answer YES! Those are the only two regular chores our boys have. Funny thing is both my room and the dishes did need my attention. Oh two year olds can speak much truth without even trying!

ugh

I made it through my first full week of teaching kindergarten...kind of. I left Friday sick and then Saturday went to the walk in clinic in desperate need of antibiotics. They always act like they have news to tell me when they come back with the strep test as positive. I already knew. I just wanted the antibiotics. Ooh and they gave me tylenol with codeine. That is some great stuff. I didn't realize it until it wore off. I went in desperate search for the bottle. thankfully my mom took my kids and I got to spend the majority of Satuday in bed. This is the second bout of strep I've had in the last 3-4 months. If I get it again in the next year they are going to send me to a specialist and probably take out my tonsils. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I never ever want to have strep again and if that means no tonsils, well then lets do it. But does it really mean that I have to have surgery. Its a little scary. I have a hard time believing that there are body parts I don't really need. Apparently there are quite a few you can live without.

I took today, my birthday, off. It was a little scary to write sub plans. I don't think I did a good job. I'm sorry poor unnamed sub.

On Friday as I was getting the kindergarteners ready to go my principle stopped by to let me know that I needed to pack "the essentials" for teaching on monday in another room. Aparently they decided to clean the gross mold that is growing in the storage room adjoining my room and she was afraid of bleach fumes and the kids. I have no idea how to pack 'the essentials' I mean I use everything that is out. I just looked around the room thinking right. Because I was sick I decided to deal with it on Monday. And then I got a sub. Poor sub. It must have been an awful day. New room, new teacher, no routine. Those five year olds were probably a mess. I am a little concerned that when i go back tomorrow it will be like cleaning up after a large explosive has gone off.

What have I gotten myself into?

I am a little over halfway through my home visits. It has been very interesting. Tuesday was off with a bang when I couldn't find the house I was going to, only to discover the student showed up at school. The next three conferences were with spanish speaking families and the district had so graciously told me too bad no interpreter for you. Later that day I managed to lock myself out of the house and had to drive to adams work to get a key. We were 15 minutes late for soccer practice and still did not have any dinner. My first day was a doozy.

It has gotten better. I showed up at one house today and found a place set for me at the table. It consisted of a large pitcher full of ice water, a wine glass and a bottle of liptons green tea with citrus. The mother walked around the whole time I was there drinking water out of a wine glass. I felt terribly underdressed.

My room is put together but I am so not ready to actually teach. I have not prepared a single lesson plan or any materials. AHHHHHHH! I'm sure it will work out fine. I had no idea that when I signed up for this job I was also signing up for a weight loss program. Stress has always really "helped" me loose weight and I'm down 5 pounds since tuesday!

Me too!

Tag...you're it!
I've been tagged...here's the rules:

1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.

2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.

3. People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules. (If you don’t have a blog, email me)

4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.

5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Here goes:
1 I love books and it is painful to think about getting rid of them.

2. I now have an office the size of a bedroom. I never thought I'd have an office.

3. I love blue raspberry slurpies or white cherry. But the 7-11 near our home never has those flavors so I end up mixing coke and regular cherry.

4. I have always wanted to travel, especially to mexico or spain.

5. I have attended a meeting called The BOB SQUAD. I really thought we were all in trouble but Bob turned out to be a man who really resembled Santa Clause.

6. I love to play soccer but don't particularly like watching it.

7. One of my favorite vegetables is brussel sprouts.

8. I have always wanted to learn how to ride horses.

Steve, Kristi B, Emily W.---TAG YOU'RE IT

Extra Extra, Read all about it!

I am a KINDERGARTEN teacher at Evergreen Elementary! I can't tell you how excited, nervous, overwhelmed, joyful I am. It's sinking in. I got my keys today and went to MY classroom. I have no idea what I'm doing or what half the crap thats in there is. But its mine. As well as about 50 little 5 year olds. I think I ought to start praying now!

Our church

We do not meet with an established church. Instead we have been meeting with several couples and working on planting a church. This past week has brought a lot of change to our little meetings. We said goodbye to one couple and welcomed two new couples. Our new friends each have 6 kids so we no longer hold the record in our church!! We do still have the youngest kids which makes things interesting. Stuart and Diesta Love have been here the last couple of weeks and I have really enjoyed hearing them speak. Adam thinks he's like Dumbledore in his calm speaking presence. Its amazing to see the room quiet down and sit with rapt attention with just a word in his calm voice.

We have been able to sing songs this past week because we have more voices. We sang before but it was really pathetic if you ask me!! I still miss the voices from my family. Nothing can beat sitting around singing with the Wilsons and the Wolfgangs. Although I don't add much musical talent to the group I really enjoy listening and trying to keep up.

I am so thankful that we have found people to meet with and to begin the dream of planting a church. We have much work to do but it is good work. I know that Redmond will be blessed by the efforts of this new church to show people Jesus.

Little Mo

I think that Moriyah might be the most uniquely funny infant we have had. Here are some of her funnies:

• She ROARS. Seriously just like a lion. If she hears someone roar she is compelled to roar as well.
• She used to growl, thankfully I haven't heard her do that lately. It was this deep raspy i'm possessed kind of growl. I found it to be a bit creepy.
  
• She loves to eat, not so unique, but she will eat anything we give her. Pickles, blueberries, olives, whatever. But please don't give her baby food. She hates it.
• She waves good bye the right way. Most babies wave backward. Oh not Moriyah.
• For many months now Moriyah has swirled her foot around. You know how you can make a circle with your toes. Well she does that when she is excited, tired, intrigued...whenever
• She gets genuinely angry and yells at whatever has made her angry. IE her shirt, the table, a toy.
  
• she moo's but only with Adam. I think she is going to be a daddy's girl. I tried to get her to moo with me. No dice, just daddy.
  
• She thinks I'm a rock star. At least thats what i call it. Every time she sees me she screams for me. She my entourage. Every mother needs one.
  
• She is so fat she has tan lines on her rolly arms.
  

She brings us such joy and laughter. Little Mo we love you.

Is it REALLY still 2007?

Things I recently overheard...

"Well we were down by the river and there were "beaners" everywhere. Playing their damn (really bad impersonation of latino music) everywhere."

"Have you noticed all the black people that moved in down the street."

"Well you know how black people are..."

"We could tell by their language that they weren't saved. But we decided not to tell them about Jesus" (that second part was paraphrased from a much larger conversation)

"The school population is changing, hardly anyone can speak English now. My job is getting a lot harder"

"They are diverting so many resources into families that don't speak English its ridiculous"

"Well those immigrants...(roll of the eyes)"

As I have had conversations with neighbors and fellow church members there have been little snipits of racism thrown in the mix. I have been taken aback by them and the frequency with which they came the last three days.

Am I the only one whose been hearing this or maybe its just being in central oregon. Truly their is very little diversity here. Perhaps its that I am so accustomed to the diversity that I've always lived with. One thing that we noticed that is extremely odd here is there are hardly any asian people. I didn't realize it until we went back to Portland.

what is in a theme

"Get your biscuits in the oven and your buns to the fair" is the theme for the 2007 Deschutes county fair. I'm not sure who comes up with these or why. I think the theme should be come have fun and spend an arm and a leg. Thats basically my fair experience. But not this year. We have discovered a loop hole. If we enter something into the fair we get free admission all week! How glorious! We told the boys that if they wanted to go to the fair this year they had to enter something and then we'd buy them one of those ride bracelets. So...
Andrew has entered a crayon drawing.
Isaac has entered a picture of the black bear he took while at the zoo in portland
I have entered a sunset picture I took while camping this spring.

Adam wanted someone to enter him into the fair. No takers so far.

So if your biscuits are in the oven you should get your buns to the fair. I wonder if they realized that the biscuits would then burn. I mean its pretty dangerous to leave something like that in the oven.

kodak moment

VBS in Portland

This past week we headed up to portland so that adam and isaac could be in the vbs at pump church. We left sunday morning and got to gresham right about when church started at East county church of christ. We headed in and as we walked in the door, being about 15 minutes late, one of the members looked at us and said, "Welcome home sarah." Thats what it felt like. It was so good to get to see and talk to old friends. East county will always feel like my spiritual home no matter where my physical home may be. I love Redmond but it has felt like a spiritual wilderness for this past year. I really miss being a part of a faith community.

Beautiful

Thank you Father for all the beautiful things you have placed in my life.

The Wizard of Oz

Isaac had the privelage of being one of the munchkins in the high schools performance of the wizard of oz. They did a great job. But the highlight of the show was the munchkins. Isaac was not just a munchkin, oh no, he was a city father. Thats him in the blue suit. He's quite the cutie, but don't tell him.

On Parenting and police

So Moriyah is the worst infant of all my kids. Isaac was a quick second. followed by Hannah and then Andrew. This ranking is according to sleep. Moriyah is nearly eight months old and still doesn't sleep through the night. She has a hand ful of times slept most of the night. This means that it has been over two years since I regularly got to sleep at night.

Some nights are better than others. Moriyah is the most clingly of all my kids. she screams if she sees me and I do not pick her up immediately. It is such a blood curdling scream that one day our neighbor poked her head out to see if she was ok. I had just put her down to help hannah with something. I was right there. She was fine.

If I am holding Moriyah and I don't feed her when she thinks that I should, which is every two to three hours, she begins to claw at me and even tries to rip the neckline of my shirt off. It has gotten so i can hardly rock her to sleep. She just screams because I am not feeding her. I can't tell you just how frustrating this is.

We have tried things that have worked in the past to get our dear children to sleep through the night. We moved moriyahs bed down stairs so that she could cry. When we did this with andrew it took all of a week and he was sleeping like the best of them. Moriyahs bed was in the living room for several months. We gave up. No amount of letting her cry it out seemed to help her sleep. Maybe I have been too inconsistent with her. I have no idea. I'm just exhausted and frustrated and nearing the end of my sanity.

It was 95 degrees today. Naturally everyone has their windows open. It gets really cool at night so we put our box fan in our window before we went to bed. The fan was on low. It creates this great white noise as well. Seems to help me sleep, aparently too well. At 3:30 I heard Moriyah and got up and got her. She was sitting up in her bed, which is unusual. I thought that she must have been crying longer than i heard her. Hannah was awake too, the girls share a room now. I said good night to hannah and took moriyah in my room. I was feeding moriyah when i heard our door bell ring. then a series of loud bangs on the door. I was trying to rouse adam to answer. next thing i know i see a flash light and an officer walking through my hallway. He went into each of the kids rooms then left. Aparently one of our neighbors called the police because moriyah was crying.

Thank you oh wonderful neighbors for calling the police for my crying infant. I hope you are so diligent in your vigilence for child abuse when it comes to actual abuse. I am so frustrated and tired and now angry. I am the only parent who ever goes outside with my kids. In fact all the kids in our neighborhood end up in our driveway to play with adam and i. I could tell you the names of all the kids in our neighborhood and what is happening in their lives. I feel like i've been parenting about 10 kids in the last two weeks. But thanks again wonderful neighbors for noticing my daughters crying. I am never going to sleep at night. How will moriyah ever learn if i can't even let her cry once in a while? I bet someone just wanted her to be quiet so they could get back to sleep. Jerks.

black sheep

Every family has one. Someone who is just different, who doesn't seem to fit, the black sheep if you will. I am that sheep in my family, the black one. I realize that this has a negative connotation to it but bear with me. This weekend Adam and i went camping. We invited my mom and her family. We left friday set up camp then picked the boys and my sister up from school and headed out. My mom had to work saturday so her husband was going to come out and set up the tent saturday morning then they would all come out after she got off work at 7. They were bringing more fire wood. This is important. So 9 o'clock rolls around, then 10 o'clock. The kids give up and go to bed. Adam had a headache and went to bed. So there I was sitting around a pathetic onelogkindasmoldering camp fire by myself. I went to bed. As soon as I got all snuggled into the covers I saw headlights and heard my moms voice. Up I got. Here comes the black sheep part.

She is by herself, no husband, no son, no son's creepy friend. There was a fight with inevitably no winner just hurt all around. Next pulls up Jed, step dads best friend, a very drunk step dad, another friend of theirs and my brother. They pile out and from that moment on the weekend was just pretty sucky. The weather even got worse. There were many drunk men, much discussion about sex, both persuasions, more drugs and just plain stupidity. I love my family but I just don't know how I came from them. I have never felt like I fit in. Being different is hard.

I guess it boils down to being in the world but not of it. I have been struggling with this concept since forever. How do i have meaningful relationships with my family but not get inmeshed in the drama and other stuff? I have not been good at it and I don't know that I ever will be. My current dilema is that now my kids are exposed to it. Is that good bad indifferent? I can't decide. I know that they are aware of more than i probably give them credit for, especially isaac. How do I deal with that? I don't want them to get the idea that their grandparents and stuff are bad. I definately don't want them to ever say anything along those lines to their relatives. I know that there must be other people who deal with this. I am in need of good sound wisdom, more patience and a large billy club.

Congrats on making it through my rambling thoughts tonight. i am still chewing on the situation and how i should respond. My mom and I have an odd relationship in that she asks me for advice on what to do in certain situations. I never know what to say. I always feel a bit akward.

We lost

for all four of my faithful blog readers we lost our house. although this house had been on the market for nearly a year in the same weekend some other more fortunate person put on offer on it to. And we lost. No walk in closet, fenced front yard, built in hutch, island with pot hanging from the ceiling thingy. Nope none of that for me, at least not yet. We are still looking. We found another couple options so if you would keep us in your prayers that would be wonderful! Losing sucks.

wooohooo

i coached Andrews soccer team this spring. I enjoyed definately learned a ton and would enjoy doing it again. Of course we had our ups and downs. one kid i suspect has a mild form of autism such as asbergers. he would always say see ya later gator. to which i was to respond after a while crocodile and he would say toodles noodles and run to his dad. if i didn't we would have to say goodbye again.

today was our last game and our party. each kiddo got a trophy and i got a huge water bottle. the kind thats in the shape of one of those water cooler jugs. i also got chocolate covered coffee beans and a $40 gift certificate to starbucks. just incase you didn't catch that i said $40. I couldn't believe it! Woohoo.

it was such a great surprise gift. We're waiting to hear but if all goes well i'm getting a house on mothers day! i've never been so impatient in my life. Call already and accept our offer!!

The research says what?

Well it has taken me quite some time, and i'm still not completely done, but i feel much more educated about the issue of homework than i did before. I read two books. The Case Against Homework by sara bennet and Nancy kalisch. I also read, well almost, the homework myth by alphie kohn. Both were very interesting.

The case against homework
The book by bennet is much more user friendly. it is basically a how to guide to reduce or stop homework overload. it had a section detailing the research that has been done on homework, a section that seeks to inform parents on what homework has the most value and what is just busy work. What follows is a section on how to write notes or otherwise communicate with the teacher in order to reduce the amount of homework for your child. the last section of the book explains how to organize other parents to lobby for a more lasting change in policy for homework in your district. It is filled with real life examples from many different parents, including the authors who followed this strategy in their east coast private school.

the homework myth
The homework myth is a little more scholarly. It looks at homework from many different angles. Much of the same research is cited in both books. Kohn looks at teacher prep, misconceptions about learning, current trends within education and how those effect homework. Not sure whats at the end seeing as I haven't made it there yet. This book was harder to read, I got bogged down when he just wouldn't stop talking about the many and varied reasons its difficult to research the benefits of homework.

What I think...
I will be very hesistant to assign homework. I think that reading is probably the most valuable homework but I never enjoyed reading something that I HAD to read. I also see that one of my darling kids feels the same way.

I had no idea that the research on homework showed that there was no benefit for elementary kids. Are you kidding me. According to Kohn that old 'ten minutes per grade level' was just invented by Harris Cooper, a homework researcher. Apparently Cooper did a metanalysis of like 140 studies on homework and decided that 10 minutes was a good rule of thumb but that the research didn't actually address that issue. In fact the research showed only a small correlation between homework and achievement in high school. Of course i didn't go and check Kohn's work. I have no interest in pouring over data and reading a research report. I'll just take his word.

I got the feeling while reading these books that people think kids should have homework and lots of it because they'll just watch tv if they don't. its like people don't trust parents to raise their own kids. I have strong feelings about this but for now I'll just say, so what if they do. Its not the schools job to raise the kids but the parents. I'm a bit tired of everyone dumping more and more parental responsibilities onto the school.

Its just so fun!

i got my camera, I love my camera, i want a new lens! Here are some good pics so far. I'm still learning how to use some of the functions. I never took a photography class or anything so its all new. Enjoy!

i cant wait!

Well Moriyah definately has whatever stomach bug we all had. Which translates into being awake much of the night. Yuk! She is now sleeping and i have tried to lay her down four times but she just wont stay asleep. i have given in and am just holding her. i started surfing the web and was looking at my new camera! Its the canon rebel xti, the digital slr! it was ordered last week and i keep thinking that i'm going to get a knock on the door and it'll be here. no such luck yet. im just sooo excited. this is what i remember feeling like for the couple weeks before christmas as a kid. my poor kids are going to hate me for the first couple weeks but i'll have to get some practice in. hee hee hee!

HELP!

This is the life of a mother. So far this week i've had 3 kids with diarrhea, 2 vomitting (with horrible aim i might add), two fevers, several upset stomachs, a runny nose and i think Hannah woke up this morning with the flu. All she's done today is sleep. Moriyah just got 3 shots, so i've ruined the only well kid. i don't want to have to deal with anymore bodily fluids, please just keep them to yourself.

I can feel myself starting to succumb to whatever has been floating around my house and all i want to do is go to bed. Sadly that is not a luxury a mommy gets when she is sick. Lucky for my kids that our screen restrictions will be very loosely enforced while i fight this bug.

We need a time out

This past Friday I substitute taught at the boys school for PE. I ended up having both the boys classes during the day. Here are a few things that I learned...

1. Every third grade girl will cry no matter what.

2. Boys need far less encouragement to play basketball.

3. Even if a game is not about scoring points kids will figure out a way to create a point system and therefore a winner.

4. When there is irrational crying nothing really helps, so just pray the forty minutes ends quickly.

5. Every kid wants to offer helpful advice about what is going on, even though you clearly have two perfectly good eyes and ears.

6. It really sucks when the teacher doesn't leave plans for you to follow.

7.Whistles are very commanding.

8. Blood gets everywhere and very quickly.

9. I have two of the best boys ever, and they're both good at basketball.

10. I never want to teach PE again.

This and That

My boys have been blogging lately. Many of you know of their old site, scurvy. They decided to go solo and get their own blogs. Isaac kept Scurvy and Andrew created a new blog called Meme. Check it out and look at the world through the eyes of two little boys. Please leave them a comment. they had come home everyday and checked their blog for comments. Only to be disappointed. I made a mental note to leave them one. Andrew checked his blog and said, "Yes! I got a comment!" Then I heard, "Oh, it was only mom."

Moriyah is seriously chubby. and we love it! I think that she's going to catch up to Hannah any moment. Hannah feels like you might break her if you squueze too tight. She just now weighs over 22 lbs. They are both darling and i love them very much. I would like to stop having the opportunity to love on them from the hours of 10 pm and 7 am. Hannah has very rarely slept through the night since september. Most nights Moriyah does better than her. I would love prayers for long uninterupted sleep.

We have been going to a church that is called SNC, it makes me think of SNL, saturday night church. They have a great band, the worship feels a bit like a rock concert. We are trying to get settled in their. the families pastor is very nice and a couple of the boys friends go there. The wolfgangs are doing pretty good over in very sunny and warm Redmond!

What is good for our children? Initial thoughts

Well when considering homework there are several components. First that it will help kids learn, or reinforce what is taught at school. Second that it helps them become more responsible. This is what I always thought the purpose of homework was. I guess I never thought about if homework really did do the things I expected it to.

My kids school district has a policy of 20 min a night. When we met with the teachers at the beginning I thought it was a great idea. That's not too long. Well Andrew is in 1st grade, each night he has an Accelerated Reader book he must read three times, a work sheet to do front and back, sometimes two worksheets, vocabulary words, spelling words and theme words for the week. Just recently she sent home books that have been photocopied to be read each night on top of the other stuff. Now any reasonable person can see that this will take a seven year old much longer to do than twenty minutes. Isaac's is not much better, time wise. But we have plodded along because, well i don't know. I guess because responsible parents make sure their kids do their homework.

My concern is that Andrew isn't enjoying any of the reading he's doing. Because his homework takes so long he no longer wants me to read out loud to him. He wants a chance to do other things. If kids spend all days at school then have to work for an hour or more they are going to miss out on some very important experiences. My kids like school and are able to do the work given to them, I can't imagine the home of a student who is strugling. Kids need the opportunity to do creative things that they think of on their own. Schools have been lessoning and lessoning the amount of time spent teaching the "less important" non tested subjects, art, music, pe.

There is a book that I am going to start reading called the homework myth by alphie kohn. Alphie kohn is notorious in the education world for being a bit extreme. He has written many books the only other one I'm familiar with is punished by rewards. He does not believe in any extrinsic rewards for kids. There is an article he wrote about this very subject here.

I'm sure I'll have many more thoughts on the subject as I make my way through the book. So stay tuned

Homework-opinions please

Well i was just wondering what you think about homework. Did you like to have homework when you were in school? Do you like homework for your kids? Why? Just trying to see what peoples thoughts are so if you ever had homework please leave your thoughts, i'll tell more about my thoughts later.

what i learned today

i just rediscovered how much i love teaching. i started substitute teaching in december. i just take 1 job a week on adams days off. so far i've been in a 2nd grade, sophomore english, middle school, and kindergarten. it was my latest assignment, kinder, thay reminded me i love teaching. i don't know exactly how to describe why but its challenging and new each day. it demands so much of you, which is good and bad. It has been such a blessing to get out and teach a little. i am hoping that i could work out a job share situation for next year. i guess we'll see how that goes.

My beauties

Moriyah today, what a cutie!
















so beautiful princess

Here's my goofball.

what puppydog eyes!