Fleur

Meet the newest member of our family, Fleur! She is an 8 week old kitten that David and the kids diligently worked on convincing me to allow them to get her. A patient of David's took in a pregnant stray cat and needed homes for the kittens. Anyway, to make a long story short Fleur came home with us yesterday and is now a much loved member of the family.
After many discussions as to what to name the new kitten we finally decided on Fleur. I had a dog in high school with a Korean name, our older cat has a Spanish name, and our dog a Russian name, so we figured it was time to choose a French name. My sister-in-law was a ton of help in making suggestions, but unfortunately no one in the family could agree on their favorite, or the kids couldn't even come close to pronouncing it. Finally we settled on Fleur (which the kids still butcher a little bit, but they do pretty good).
Luna (our other cat age 11) isn't too happy with us right now, but I think she'll adjust pretty soon. She just doesn't stay in the same room as the kitten for very long before taking off for a better spot in the house. We haven't introduced Mishka (the dog) to the kitten yet, as the kitten has been staying upstairs so far.
The kids are enjoying playing with the kitten and probably overwhelming her a lot, but Fleur's doing really well with it all and seems to enjoy the kids. So now my house is even more of a zoo than before. . .

Little Mother. . .

I am blessed. Not only has God given me two wonderful young men to raise, but He blessed us with a lovely little lady to complete our family. I don't know what our family would be if any of them were missing as they each add something necessary to our family. They are all unique and special.
This week I have been struck by the little lady of the house and the way she is already wired together with a mothering heart. The other evening David was entertaining the younger two, while I was working on homework with Skye. David was playing the upset baby to which Isaac's response was to hit on the baby to make it cry more (because to a young boy's mind that is hysterical as long as it's a play baby like Daddy), but Nicole was the opposite. She lovingly stroked the "baby's" head asking what was wrong, ran to get blankets to tuck around the baby to keep him warm, piled her stuff animals around the baby so he wouldn't be scared, and brought the baby snacks and sang him songs. It was so precious to watch.
Then last night she pulled out all of her baby dolls, carefully dressed them so that they would stay warm, fed them their dinner, tucked them in. Then she asked them if I would watch them for her while she went shopping. As she pulled her purse onto her shoulder, she turned back to them and stroked their heads, and whispered to them that she loved them and that she wouldn't be gone long so not to cry. Then she gave them this look of love and concern that I can only guess is the look I give the kids when I regretfully leave them with a sitter and am worried about them.
Even though Nicole can play soccer and sword fight with her brothers, she is definitely wired together differently than they are. She's already becoming such a young lady at the age of 2 1/2. What a pleasure it is to have her in our family.

Tales of a childhood Volcanologist

Anyone that has known Skye for any length of time knows that he wants to be a volcanologist when he grows up. Yes, I know that he is only 6 1/2 but since he was 3 years old he has been obsessed with volcanoes, and it doesn't seem to be letting up. While his friends change daily/monthly what they'd like to be one day, Skye is unwavering and doesn't hesitate to announce that he'll be a volcanologist. Of course then he has to explain to most people what a volcanologist is as they stare at him blankly wondering if they really heard him right. When we moved into this house and he got to choose how he wanted his room decorated, he insisted on a volcano room. So his room is now painted with two giant volcanoes erupting on the walls, and several posters/pictures of volcanoes and lava. Any TV show that mentions volcanoes has to be watched diligently by the whole family and then discussed in order to satisfy Skye. He's always asking which college he should go to to become the best volcanologist ever. He's repeatedly announced to us that he's moving to Hawaii after college with his one son to be a volcanologist there, and that if we want to see our grandson we'll have to fly to Hawaii to see them. I could go on and on with how this obsession has played out, but I did want to share a anecdote that Skye came home from school with yesterday on how he is now influencing his friends. . .
Skye always reports his playground activities when he gets home, usually it's Star Wars or Indiana Jones, or some such thing that he played with the other boys. Yesterday he walked in and announced that he played Pompeii with his friends. I gave him a blank look and asked for more details--how does one play Pompeii, and how did he convince his friends to partake in this? He went on to explain that they built Mt Vesuvius in the sandbox, then created the town of Pompeii at it's base. When the construction was finished the "smoke started to come out of the mountain. Most the people stayed and watched the smoke come closer, but two people went running off to escape. They had to run very fast and were so very scared but managed to escape the smoke. The people who stayed behind were covered by the smoke and choked to death," related Skye. I never did get a clear picture of if his friends were playing the part of the people in Pompeii or if they had stick figures or some such thing to represent the people. But I can just picture him relating this all to his friends in encouraging them that this would be a fun game to play. I had to laugh. I don't know if he'll actually decide to be a volcanologist when he gets older, but I think he'll always have something for volcanoes even if he doesn't.

End of Summer

Today was the official end of summer. . . Skye had his first day of second grade today. He was so excited to go in and be a big second grader! We all went in to school last night to meet his teacher and see his classroom. His teacher this year seems to be the opposite of his teacher from last year. She was short and plump, and gave off a wonderfully, warm "mother hen" type of personality. I felt sick all day yesterday just anticipating Skye going back to school. But once I met his teacher I felt so much better about it all. (Thank you Lord!)
Skye came home from school today feeling so proud. He rushed to tell me about recess and lunch (the most important times of the day), and with some prodding told me about his classroom and work as well. Then he was quickly off to play with his little brother who had been missing him all day today. Skye has grown a lot this summer (and not just in height), he seems so much different from the 1st grader of last year. I hope that this year builds him up and is a special one for him!

Allowance

Well this week we decided to start giving allowance to Skye. He starts second grade tomorrow, and since we have no clue on this whole thing, just decided that this seemed like a good age to start the whole process. Neither David or I like the idea of it being directly tied to chores around the house, etc. , but talked about it with Skye as it being a part of being a member of the family, and being old enough to handle it responsibly. We actually have been talking about it with him for the past several weeks. Discussing that all we have comes from God, giving back a portion of what we receive to God, etc. I hope that we are handling this right.
Looking around at friends and acquaintances I really feel that a good perspective, attitude towards money, budgeting, debt, etc. is one of the important tools we need to give our kids that will last into their future. I've seen how a parent's attitude towards budgets, personal spending, etc. seem to pass almost directly onto their children with horrible consequences at times. So the question is, what can we be doing to impart a good relationship with finances to our children?
I try to make every effort to introduce the kids to money issues. When they ask to stop at McDonalds for a treat and we don't have the money, I try to explain to them that we don't just go because we want to, saving up money for what we really want, and limited resources (at their level of course). But do these thing sink into little brains?
Yesterday Skye was asking why his cousins and grandparents get to go to Egypt for Christmas and he can't go. I felt I had to swallow my pride a bit in explaining to him that we didn't have the money for a trip like that, and that people can't always afford what others can. We discussed it for awhile as he had a lot of questions. It's hard as a parent to admit that you can't give them everything everyone else has. But then I felt better after it, hoping that by discussing it with him he gleans that there are special things that he gets to do that we save up for, but we can't afford everything. So we have to pick and choose and save wisely for what we really do want. We don't have to keep up with the "Joneses" and some things are better if you have to wait for them. Skye really is becoming such a mature young man, he can have really deep conversations without even realizing it.
So to close, as I'm rambling a bit here. . . I'd welcome any suggestions anyone has on giving our children a healthy outlook on finances.

Bike Ride

David and I decided that for our birthdays (a month ago now) we wanted to get each other bikes, nothing fancy, just whatever cheap bikes we could find at Walmart so we could take some family bike rides. Well we couldn't afford to get our bikes when our birthday's arrived, but we finally saved up the money this week and purchased the bikes, and a seat for Nicole to ride in on the back of her Daddy's bike.
So this morning we took our first family bike ride. It was so much fun. We did have a bumpy start-they are repaving all the streets in our neighborhood so the first section we rode was literally very bumpy. But we soon got out of the construction section and enjoyed riding through the neighborhoods all together. What fun! I'm not much of a bike rider, but it sure was fun going as a family all together. We're looking forward to more family bike rides. . .

And The First Shall Be Last. . .

We have really been struggling lately with Isaac. While he's ultra helpful, always wants a job to do. He also always wants to do everything (not letting anyone else help) and to always be first. We've been trying to work on this for awhile with him. Talking about taking turns, making others happy, not pushing, etc. Well today on our way out of walmart, when he shoved his sister out of the way so he could climb in the van first, I had it. I was standing there in the walmart parking lot looking for a quick brainstorm for how to handle this situation without just losing it like I felt like doing. So I quickly blurt out a new punishment, "Isaac, you can't be first to do anything for the rest of the day." He just looked at me in bewilderment and said, "What do you mean mommy?" Good question, I thought for a second and explained how for the rest of the day he had to wait for someone else to go ahead of him. To get out of the car he needs to let one of the others get out first, when getting lunch he can't have his plate and drink first, but needs to be after someone. If they are picking out popsicles he needs to let someone else pick out there popsicle ahead of him and then he can pick his. As I explained this I'm sitting there thinking, boy is this a stupid punishment or what. But Isaac is looking at me with pure shock on his face. He asks if he can have turns at being first, and I realize that this really is impacting him (good I hope it helps!), so I explain that tomorrow we'll take turns as usual, but that for the rest of today he doesn't get to be first at anything. He looked crushed, but I could see him thinking, "She'll forget" as he started to brighten up. As we pulled into the driveway I reminded him that he needed to let the others out first, he moped through it, making it hard for them to pass him on the way out, but he did it. At lunch he was sad when I placed his sister's plate and cup down before his, I could again see him thinking, "How long is she going to remember this for?" So we still have half a day (and a trip to church tonight) to go. We'll see how we do, and more importantly we'll see if he does any better with taking turns tomorrow. . .
**UPDATE** Well it is two days later now. I did manage to remember the punishment the rest of the day, as did Isaac. And it's only been a couple of days, but he's been doing much better than before on letting others have turns being first, etc. Maybe my dumb idea wasn't so dumb after all.

Back to School Anxiety. . .

Ok, I have to admit, I am a whole lot more nervous about the school year starting then Skye is. He's looking forward to it in fact, while I'm just dreading the whole thing! He starts second grade next wed. Tuesday night we'll find out who his teacher and classmates are. I think that this is the part that makes me so nervous. He made some good friends in 1st grade and I worry that none of them will be in his same class anymore. Is he going to find a good nitch again? Is his new teacher going to be patient and understanding with him? After the fiasco with the first week of school last year, I'm nervous what this year will hold. Yes, I know that he's now had a year in a traditional classroom, knows people, and it should all go much better. But I still find myself stressing over it all. I tell myself to trust God's plan for Skye, that there is no point in worrying, but I still find myself heading back into the worry. Luckily I've been able to keep this worry from Skye so he's just excited about the whole thing of being a big 2nd grader. So think of me next wed. on the first day of school for Skye. Into your hands Lord. . .
I also have to admit that I just hate the idea of summer being done. While we've still had a schedule these summer months it's been much more relaxed. We've had time to do fun activities as a family, and just enjoy each other. The kids have had a great summer of really playing with each other and bonding together (sometime to the point of fighting, but in all they've done really well). I hate to think of getting up at 5:20 each morning again, rushing to get Skye out the door by 7:15 to catch the bus, not having the big brother there to help entertain and delight the younger ones. With David's weird work schedule our family time will again be limited, with the only full day together being Sunday. Just the hustle of the school year. Ugh! I should have a better attitude about it. The schedule will be better than last year as Isaac is switching preschools this year and it will only be a 1 minute drive down the road to take him and pick him up, plus that will only be 3 days a week that he goes in the afternoon. I know we'll settle back in the routine easily enough, it's just hard to say goodbye to the days of summer. . .