Not much room in our lives for anything else!
This past Sunday we started Reconciliation classes for Noah. This is the first half of the journey to his First Communion this year. We’ve always tried to teach our kids about our faith, but sometimes I feel like they just don’t care. I think it’s the “you don’t know anything, you’re just a parent” syndrome. Over the past few weeks of Noah attending Faith Formation classes, I’ve seen a change. He is starting to seem like he wants to know more and he wants to participate more in Mass instead of me nudging him constantly to pay attention, following along, stop playing around. At the parent meeting they said that there is a class for the parents during the children’s class. The idea is to teach the parents what the children are learning on a deeper level so we can help our child now and as they grow. It’s been WAY too long since I was involved in church like this and am looking forward to it. Sunday, the entire family was there ready. We went to Mass, then ate PB&J’s in the car before going to class. The time between evening Mass and the class does not give us enough time to actually go anywhere to eat, so we thought sandwiches in the car would be the easiest. Unfortunately the teacher for the parents was thirty minutes late and so class was a lot shorter than it should have been. Noah seemed to enjoy his class and is looking forward to the next one. The other kids went to the nursery and enjoyed themselves. Makaela at first screamed when John took her into the classroom; but quickly was sidetracked by other things. She survived and ran to me saying “MOMMY!” when it was all over. Now, if we could just figure out how to juggle dinner, church, and these classes we will be fine.
Monday we made dinner together. John had five little helpers for making the salsa!
On Tuesday after Noah’s practice we played soccer with the kids. John and I were on a team against the boys. It was a lot of fun just playing around with them. I have to say with all this running to practices and such I feel a lot like a drill sargent. “Hurry Up” seems to be the most popular phrase. When we play with the boys I always tend to do a little pushing and shoving with them. At one point I picked Noah up to move him away from the ball. John was doing most of the running around chasing the ball with the boys. I figured someone had to be the goalie. We spent about 15 minutes kicking the ball around and still all the kids made it to bed on time. We need to remember to take a few extra minutes like this more often.
It was report card week and Noah and Caleb had all A’s. At this point in their academic careers John and I feel that all A’s are a must. I know it sounds harsh, but these boys are smart and letting them do any less would be bad parenting. Now, when they get into middle school I’m sure we will reevaluate this, but as of now it’s all A’s.
After a LOT of debating I decided to go to “Mommy and Me” at Noah and Caleb’s school. I hadn’t been to one since I stopped teaching. Last year I just didn’t see how it would work, since I still had three to also drag a long with me. This time I started feeling bad, when I thought “Isn’t this why you stopped working, to be more involved in your kids’ life?”. So, I was up early. I got everyone’s lunches packed, dressed, and we were all out the door on time. Noah and Caleb were very excited we went since they both thought there wasn’t a way we would go. We had a few doughnut holes and listened to the school kids sing a few songs they had been learning. “Mommy and Me” plus three was a success and I even got "thank you's" from Noah and Caleb. John allowed me to have the “Greatest Parent Award” that day.
I am still convinced that I can not homeschool my kids. These last two weeks as we try to get back into the routine of “mommy school” the kids have been pushing all my buttons. I’m sure this is just a result of us taking off about a week, so hopefully it will get better. I do have to say the bottom bookcases are working out well right now for desks. The kids have room to work and play. Also, the little kids are getting really good about picking up the playroom/school room all by themselves. Which is good since they are the ones who mess it up the most. This week I took a few pictures. One was while they were listening to some Halloween songs I found on You Tube like 5 Little Pumpkins. They looked dazed but they actually did like the songs.
