monkey in the middle

with three boys, there is usually someone on the outs.

the other day i heard from another room, "put it the pee corner!" this was followed by two different devious giggles.

in case you are not a parent of boys, are fortunate enough to not be the designated bathroom cleaner of the house, or your boys have good aim... a pee corner is the area in the bathroom that is next to the toilet and backs up to a corner... it is the result of boys who are careless and have poor aim. enough said?

when i questioned the two boys, who were at this point beside themselves with laughter, they said they were putting the third brother's toy in the pee corner. just because.

not even an hour later one of the gigglers is screaming at the other two brothers, because he wants to play and they are not including him. meanwhile they are laughing and having a great time, just the two of them.

day in and day out, the monkey in the middle is changing, but it's still there.

that is why i take pictures like these...









... to remember that conflict builds character and problem solving skills... and it's all worth it :)

make it a mini goal kind of day

it's that time again... the summer list has been made and plans are underway for yet another wild and crazy parker family summer break! i will share the list soon, i promise. it's not on my list today. (more on that later.)

as i mentioned yesterday, i reaaallly needed this break, but once it started, all i wanted to do was relax and simply veg out or read a book. my batteries needed some serious re-charging  and i would've been so happy doing nothing at all... with or without starbucks (or a margarita) in hand. preferably with, of course.

on monday, i set out to do just that... relax with a venti iced coffee.

too bad for me, my children view summer break a little differently. i was a wreck all day, because i had nothing planned for them. they were bored and wiggly and getting on my each other's nerves... a lot. it was not a great day. i apologize to my dinner guests if i seemed a little grumpy--i was!

unfortunately, tuesday was not much better, as i was too tired to actually plan anything on monday to do the following day. bummer for everyone.... again.

wednesday started off with a dentist appointment... with all 4 kids in tow. exciting! who knew the dentist would be crazy busy, as in standing room only, at 8:15 in the morning?! but an hour later we left with treasures from the treasure chest, sealants on the teeth, and ... the new-found knowledge that natalie has an extra tooth! apparently this is hereditary and i hear my dad has/had an extra tooth? anyone else in the family want to claim responsibility for this little gift? we find it charming and just another reason our baby girl is so special :)

thursday (yesterday) marked the day where i truly got my act in order. it all started with a to-do list. lists are amazing things, i tell you. there is something very satisfying about checking things off! i felt very productive and the day registered low on my stress-o-meter. hooray for that, right?! we even did a little crafting. that's right, craft thursdays are back!

this really isn't a revelation. lists are a must-have in my everyday life. i have even been known to add things i've already done just so i can check something off. ha ha!

this is my list today.



check and check.

how cute is my to-do list? it's even more fun to get things done when your list gives you a little pep talk. you can get your very own mini goals notepad here.

what was on your list today? did you get it done?

the road called parenthood

sometimes you can be chugging along down the road of parenthood when BAM! suddenly you collide head first into reality. it's funny to think that something that has been there all along could be so surprising. maybe that's what we call "denial?!"

we recently received taylor's inter-district transfer request to attend ACMS. i'd type the whole thing out, but remember, i'm in denial. :) i'll give you a hint... the MS stands for middle school. *gasp!*

of course i've dreaded known that taylor would be going to ms next year, but i haven't thought that much about it. honesty though, it freaks me out just a bit. okay, a lot. i asked taylor's teacher to retain him, but he said no. bummer.

then today i was filling in important dates on the calendar when i see that coming up at the end of february is the family life preview night for 5th grade parents. OH.MY.WORD. my son is not old enough for that discussion!! please say it's not so. here we go again. *fingers in my ears* denial, denial, denial.

on the road of parenthood, i feel myself chugging along, slowly approaching a bridge. i have no idea what's on the other side. clearly i'm terrified. but i find comfort in knowing that many a mom and dad have crossed this bridge before ... and survived.

is this what i felt like 10 years ago, tucking my newborn baby into his car seat for the very first time, carefully loading him into our car and then pulling out of the hospital parking lot... onto the road of parenthood for the first time ever?

i don't think so. babies are cute. middle schoolers, not so much! ha!

so all you veteran mamas and papas out there... do you have any pearls of wisdom to share? what got you through this "exciting" (ha ha) time? what should i do? what should i definitely not do? my stomach is doing flip flops here, people!!

as a side note, can i just say that i'm incredibly relieved that i teach first grade and not fifth!! hello, the grossest things we deal with are nose picking (and eating... ewww!) and potty talk. thank goodness!!!


here's tay building a volcano for a school project

stop the presses... it's 2012?!

i realize it's been 2012 for 16 days. i'm a  little behind in posting. by now you should come to expect that from me!

happy new year everyone!




click here for 2011 video.

2012 has been beautiful. weather wise, anyway. seriously. 65 degree days. do i wear sandals or sneakers with my jeans today? even the plants are confused!

it's been business as usual around here. plan, prep, clean up, work, school, repeat.

i've been working on my 35 things list. just a little bit.trying to be a little more organized. if only pinterest weren't so distracting.

zach is finishing up his learn to skate class. on saturday he jumped. like both feet got off the ice. considering i've broken my arm a few times skating, i'm impressed. and overjoyed for him.

ben had an azaing week at preschool. his teachers have commented on how much his behavior has improved since the beginning of the year. a mama loves to hear good things about her chickadees.

taylor entered our school's math bowl and will be competing with a team in a math competition. he was so anxious to find out if he made the team that he begged to go to school when he was suffering (quite miserably) with the flu. goofy kid! so proud of him though and can't wait to see my little professor shine.

natalie spends most of her time singing and dancing and learning new words and taking care of her stuffies and baby dolls. it amazes me how strong that instinct to nurture is. as a mom of three boys, this is completely new and different.

joe has been busy working on a little project for me. i'm thinking it will make a good little post in the future, so for now mums the word.

i hope 2012 has been treating you well. are you sticking to your resolutions so far? i didn't make any this year.

help!

natalie pulled a dress out of her drawer and put it on her head. thinking this is surely a sign that she wants to wear the dress, i put it on her. she pranced about, cute as can be. that's when i saw it.

a piece of the underskirt (?) had ripped apart from the dress and was dangling about. oh no! what shall i do?!

you think i should sew it? wellllll... ok! 


( i will put a photo of the finished product here)


i love that i can say that :)

happy birthday and dash of honesty

i re-started this blog one year ago today, which happens to be my dad's birthday, so happy re-birthday to my blog and happy birthday to my dad!

with birthday wishes out of the way, i'd like to get serious for a moment.

some of you readers have made comments about me being a super mom (or something like that), and while i thank you for the compliment and am happy to know i appear to have some parts of my life in order, i want you to know that it is sooooo not true!

the truth is, i'm figuring things out along the way, probably just like you are!

one thing i've learned from being a mom and teacher is that no two kids are exactly alike and kids behave differently at home than they do in public... sometimes drastically so, sometimes just slightly so. as a parent, i get to experience both extremes and something right about in the middle! most of the time i am happy my own kids keep me on my toes, because i feel it makes me a better teacher. other times i wish their own teachers would just take them home for the night so i could have some peace and quiet!



ever since going back to work after natalie was born i've been struggling with how to balance work and home. i find i spend waaay too much time on work stuff, but i can't seem to lessen the load. no matter how much i try to be organized and on top of things, there is just always a ton to do and if i'm not prepared, then i can't do my job and i let lots of people down. if i commit more time to planning and preparing my lessons, i spend 10 hours a day at school and my own family suffers.



i'm not complaining, just trying to explain that things are not always rosey around here. that my life is real life, no matter what it looks like on a blog.

and things are not more difficult just because natalie joined our family (currently, she's the easy one!)



i feel teaching has become more demanding over the past few years and my own kids are getting older and their needs are changing. i feel i've got the baby and toddler thing down, but pre-teen? not so much. and if you think i'm refering to taylor, he is only part of that picture. i think zach is going through a super-early, pre-teen, classic middle kid quandry. oh, the attitude! i know what you are thinking--not zachy bob?!? i know, right?!



so that may explain why i haven't been posting as much. i've just been trying to figure out where and what can be cut from my life to make things a bit easier on me. by no means do i want to cut the blog out completely... writing here makes me happy. it's an outlet. and a reminder of what we have done and how far we have come. i want to write more! and i will as soon as i can.

promise!



joe and i have been watching mad men on netflix. seeing what things were like 50 years ago... well, let's just say i am so thankful for a wonderful husband who willingly helps me out. and when neither of us know what to do, at the least we have each other to laugh with! (even though he looks super serious in this picture, he's a very funny guy!)

happy wednesday everyone!

baking bonanza 2011

i've had thanksgiving on the brain since friday, when i was finally allowed to think about something other than school.

i'm looking forward to so many things. here are a few...

-baking
-mashed potatoes
-chocolate pecan pie
-the start of the christmas season

it's such a fun and happy time of year. don't you agree?

today started with a trip to raley's. i hadn't been in raley's for a while. i was back and forth all over the store. again and again and again. bleh.

i had ben, zach, and nattie cakes with me. i told them i was going to starbucks after raley's and if they behaved i would get them something. that's a win-win situation. peppermint mocha frappuccino to celebrate a successful shopping trip or to cheer me up after an awful one!

when we got out of the car we gathered in a circle, put our hands together, and cheered "we will listen, we will help, we will be sweet!" have you seen anyone rally their team in the grocery store parking lot before? ha!

the trip was mostly successful (minus the zig-zagging). ben jumped the little checkered squares down each aisle, completely oblivious to all other shoppers. it's like a cruel joke from grocery store designers. "let's see how many moms we can drive insane with a checker floor pattern." muhahaha.

however, i was happy to see only friendly faces in raley's today. lots of smiles and patient shoppers. unlike the rude shoppers i encountered in target yesterday, but i won't go there. oops, too late!

so after our starbucks treats, we headed home where i baked all day afternoon long.

i wanted to get an earlier start, but i tend to procrastinate. even though i was looking forward to baking, it can be a challenge to work around rowdy boys and a sleepy girl's nap schedule. but i finally got the ball rolling around 12:30 and i just pulled the final pie out of the oven. my favorite--chocolate pecan. it tastes like sticky sweet chocolatey candy bar goodness. oh my!

my chocolate pecan pie never looks pretty. in fact, it always bubbles over or the crust cracks... somehow the sticky goodness always gets under the crust, so cutting into it and serving pretty slices is impossible. but whatever, because it tastes amazing!

right now the boys are playing outside. in the dark. i remember how much fun that was when i was growing up. they are having the best time and i am enjoying having the windows open and listening to their laughter and smelling the pie aroma in my warm house. nattie is cruising around, alternating between throwing toys around and watching the wiggles. oh yeah, we have another wiggle fan in the house! i broke out a video the other day and the girl is mesmerized when i put them on.

i am so thankful for this break and time with my kids. they were driving me a little bonkers about two hours ago, but now they are asking if they can have a camp-out together. love that. and them! maybe sometimes all you need is some pie to sweeten your perspective?


apple pie with crumb topping. found the recipe on allrecipes.com. it had 4.5 stars and a lot of reviews. i doubled the crumb topping. wouldn't you?


libby's famous pumpkin pie. recipe is on the back of libby's canned pumpkin. i had to drive to my mom's and get a can of evaporated milk from her neighbor and our friend lynn. when i opened my can of evaporated milk, it was orange! gross.


my fave--chocolate pecan. zachary asked if there were beans on the top. then he asked if they were bugs. ha!!

i have one more pie to bake tomorrow and then baking bonanza 2011 will be over. phew!

this weekend

• we all woke up bright and early saturday morning to ben singing shouting GOOD MORNING, GOOD MORNING, GOOD MORNING TO YOOOU!
• joe took ben and zach to a free ice hockey clinic at the local ice rink.
• zach signed up for a 4 week introductory class--his first class was today!
• i had not one, but TWO peppermint mocha frappuccinos and i would have had another if starbucks delivered.
• went shopping for our operation christmas child boxes.
• listened to christmas music while out and about today, because joe wasn't in the car to turn it off.
•  swept the floor two, three, four, five, six times! that has gotta be a record--sweeping and mopping is not a preferred activity.
• started to take down halloween decorations, but lost momentum due to a horrible head cold/headache.
• wishing i could go to bed, but dreading the night-time stuffy head snifflefest i will experience once i do.

i will try to post some pictures of our weekend tomorrow. and some of halloween, too.

just. too. tired.
to do it right now.

under the weather

on the hottest day of the year, my darling daughter caught a cold.

as weird as that seems it just goes to show that germs are everywhere. rain or shine. all you parents out there who tell your kids to put a coat on so they won't catch a cold, don't bother! coats are not magical screens shielding us from germy harm.

boo to germs.

on the bright side, nat's been cuddling a lot, which is sweet. in fact, we've been taking shifts holding her throughout the night, because she can't lay down. and when i say holding her throughout the night i mean, joe takes shift #1 and i sleep from 8-12 and i take shift #2 while joe sleeps from 12-6. during the weekend i would then go back to bed at 6 and sleep until 8. and IF she napped during the day, it was vertically and in our arms, as well.

5 days and nights of that...? not so sweet.  

tonight is night 6 of this horrid cold. so far nat has been in her crib for her longest stretch of sleep since wednesday. we are at 90 minutes right now. i just finished the lesson planning i didn't get to do while i was home with her on thursday afternoon and friday. there has been coughing, but no crying. i am going to bed now and i am hoping and praying i actually get to sleep more than 4 hours in my own bed tonight.

i am hoping and praying sweet nattie gets a good night of sleep, too.

and joe--he's sick now, also.

goodnight :)

6 weeks

it has been six weeks since school started.



six weeks of crazy, chaos, and complete exhaustion.

i am tired. all of the time. and my house is messy. all of the times. and my kids need a referee. all of the time. see a pattern? bleh.

the blog has taken a backseat. but, you knew that already.


love this photo. perfect match to the boys' personalities right now. there is the spazzy little brother in front hamming it up 24/7. then on the left we have the sneaky brother who looks sweet and innocent, but he can be really rotten when he thinks no one is looking. on the right is the pre-teen brother who is too cool for pictures.

a lot has happened in 6 weeks. there is much i want to share. you are going to have to come back tomorrow to find out about the most important update though.

i did it again. i am such a tease. but it's so much fun! see you tomorrow.

same bat time, same bat channel.

july in pictures

we've been busy checking things off our summer list. school starts aug. 10th. that's right around the corner. gotta get check, check, check while we can, can, can.

i will post soon about some of our recent adventures. for now, enjoy some photos!


















































that was a lot of pictures! i realize there are not many of taylor and that is because the boy doesn't want to be photographed like the other hams in our house. "too old, too cool, too busy." i remember going through that phase. i'm pretty sure it means puberty is around the corner.

darn. i was hoping my kiddos would skip that stage entirely. ha!

i LOVE friday

today was a good day!

i encountered several very nice drivers on the road. wish i could say people stopped and waved me in more often. such a simple, but really kind thing to do. today it happened more than once. LOVE that.

i had coffee and a leisurely stroll with a friend. it's nice to get out sans some of my kids and have some grown up time. plus when you have cute babies with you, people usually smile when you walk by. LOVE that.

i went to the doctor and weighed less on their scale than the one i have at home. it's a doctor's scale, so it must be right. LOVE that.

i bought some baby food at whole foods and the cashier said i could go back and get two more packs... free! LOVE that. she also said my baby is cute (which she is). LOVE that, too.

i observed my children helping each other on different occasions without a grown up asking them to do it. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that!

i don't have to make dinner... it's pizza and movie night. LOVE that.

so many wonderful things crammed into one friday. i hope you LOVED your friday, too. 

  now tell me something good about your day.

thursday randomness

no craft to post about today. we have been running here and there and everywhere. or so it seems. but we did craft today, so next thursday i will post some darling paintings of dancing cows and dancing kids. i know, i know. it will be sooo hard to wait! so here's a sampling to tide you over.


too cute, right? any guesses as to whose cow this is?

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this morning the boys were having mandatory outside time. does anyone else have to force their kids to play outside? we've had a few incidents of mud fighting recently, so before i left them to make mud pies  unsupervised i nonchalantly reminded them that people with good character make good choices and do the right thing even when they think no one is looking. ha!

i'm just going to say this...
my children are a work in progress.

and now i will show you this...

 
and this...

i was so mad. i did not yell though. i think i whined a little. seriously? you did this again? seriously?!!! then i filled a bucket with soap and water and brought out a broom and scrub brush and some towels. they cleaned it up. as best as a 4 year old and 6 year old can. after zach hosed off the patio and it dried, ben cleaned the window and zach set up the table again. all by themselves. that made me feel a lot better.


what do you do when your kids keep making the same "mistakes"?

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when the boys were babies, they spent a lot of time cooling down in a bucket. buckets are the perfect for pint sized fun! i will have to see if i can find pictures of the boys in their buckets.

last week we finally had the chance to put natalie in a bucket and let her splash around. this girl LOVES water! she had so much fun.






she has recently started pulling herself up to stand and she did that in the bucket. no pictures of that though. scary!

i seem to remember a picture of me and my brother swimming in buckets at grandma lorraine's when we were little.  

 mom?

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6 weeks ago we decided to cut ben's hair. shave it off and give him a summer cut. like his dad and brothers.

this is what his hair looks like today...


i cannot bring myself to cut it! it's his benny -fro. now i think i'll just let it grow and grow and grow. i think i'm afraid that if i cut it, it will never be the same.  

what would you do?

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if you have more than one kid you know just how hard it is to get a good picture of all the kids together at the same time. you know, a picture with everyone simply looking at the camera. smiling would be a bonus. well i haven't done that yet, but i did get a good shot of 3/4 of the parker kids. enjoy!


"ahhh!!! he's gonna push me in the pooool!"


"aaarr! whatcha be lookin' at?"


i wonder what they are looking at?



winner winner chicken dinner!

as busy as we are some days, i sure do love summer and being at home with my kids is the best!