“Oh, I’m PAINED to death” when his tummy hurt.
“Mom! Only 14 more years till I can ride a motorcycle!”
It’s pouring down rain outside and 45 degrees. He comes up to me with a sleeveless shirt and shorts, “Mom, can I pleeease wear these today?”

I came into the playroom today and found Mr. President writing this on the whiteboard while Go Go sat obediently copying it down at the table nearby.

When I asked Mr. Pres what they were doing he said, “I’m teaching Go Go! Maybe he won’t have to go to Kindergarten if I’m good enough!”

And there you have it. Who really needs Kindergarten when you have a big brother anyway?

Occasionally I have one of those days that are wonderful. One of those days when I do most things right. I spend the one on one time with the kids that I always mean to, we learn a lot, we have fun, we make great memories. Those Great days don’t happen all that often and so I started blogging in part to document those good days to help me remember that raising small children is not always hard. I have a friend who blogged about a Great day she had and called it, “I was a Mother Today”. In it she talked about all the great things she did that day and I LOVED the post. How awesome that she could celebrate her really good day. We need to do that as mothers. So much of what we do can feel like drudgery and so I applauded her for sharing. However, there were others that didn’t feel that way. She was maligned for “bragging” because it made others feel bad about themselves. All I can say to those people is-Pulease! Grow up. So, for posterity’s sake, for my own need to remember the good days and to thumb my nose at those who would malign me for tooting my own horn, HERE GOES!

Today the boys got their jobs done so early that we had time to read a story from the Friend before Mr. President went to school.

I managed a trip to the grocery store with no altercations and Blue Jeans got to sit in the “car” cart for the very first time and he didn’t even fall out! He just turned the steering wheel and honked his little horn like an old pro. He thought he was a very big cheese.

I helped Go Go write his very own book just because he wanted to and we illustrated it and printed it up on the computer. It was all about an Orange Race Car-of course. Here is his novel, in all its literary finery;

The Race

We want to win the race. We have an orange car with a wing that goes faster. And we think the other race cars are not faster. We think we will win the race. And then we’ll get the trophy.

The End

He was so proud of that little story that he read it all day long saying over and over again, “I LOVE this BOOK!”. He is now sleeping with it by his pillow.

I played the card game War with Mr. President, which he won “again” and then we read the amazing Chronicles of Narnia popup book we got from grandma.

The boys love to cuddle with me in the morning upstairs in my bed and we haven’t had as many chances to do that since Pres. started school. But today I managed to cuddle with the boys by combining cuddle time with story time and we had a cozy time upstairs in my bed reading Farmer Boy. We learned all about the hard work it takes to make sugar and plant potatoes. I got to point out what a hard worker Almanzo Wilder was at the young age of 9. “Can you believe that Almanzo was harrowing whole fields all by himself?” “Did you notice that his dad didn’t have to stand over him and keep him on task?” “Isn’t that great?!” Gotta love those great literary examples!

It was a beautiful sunny day and so the boys got to play outside in our backyard with the blossoms blooming above them. Then we started out on a bike ride only to realize that it was maybe just windy enough for the kites I’d been saving for a windy day. We pulled them out and tried to find a big field nearby but all were taken and the wind just wasn’t very strong so I told them I was giving up. Catastrophe-note to self-just let them try it even when there is no wind. They begged and pleaded to go out in the back yard to try them and lo and behold they worked BEAUTIFULLY. They had a great time running around and around the yard with their Spiderman and Transformer kites blowing in the breeze behind them. Mr. President took every opportunity to point out that he had been right about trying them even without much wind and that I’d been wrong and later informed me of this deep insight; “The weathermen are right most of the time but they’re wrong some times just like Moms are right most of the time but wrong some times. Though his grandmother Wesel will roll over in her not even dead yet grave, it is true that he’s already figured that little secret out. And today I was thrilled to be wrong just to see the glee on their faces as they ran themselves silly in the wind.

Blue Jeans is a climber. My other two luckily were not, but this one will climb on anything and everything he can. First it was the walker toy/car that he would roll over to my desk and precariously balance on as the wheels rolled back and forth so he could slam on the keyboard. Or he’d roll it over to the table and stand on it to be up with the big boys. Didn’t matter how many times it rolled out from underneath him. He would roll it right back over crying in pain from the bump on his head. I removed that little vehicle from the room so he wouldn’t be tempted again. Next it was the books bin. He would dump out all the books on the floor and then go to my desk to repeat the process. That time, he figured out the benefits of standing on mom’s rolling, spinning desk chair-“Look Ma, No hands!”. I removed that bin from the room opting for a pile of books on the floor rather than having my 1 year old do circus trapeze acts while on a spinning chair. Next it was his baskets of toys. Dump out the baskets, push them over to the desired higher location and climb, thereby breaking my nice decorator baskets in his attempts to reach new heights. The baskets are now often on the top counter in the kitchen where he can only see them and whine with his little hand pleadingly pointing at them. Today, with none of the regular resources left to him, he got into the tupperware cupboard, dumped out all the tupperware, pushed the bin over to the table and stood up on it. He then turned to grin at me with the most mischeiouvous and triumphant grin of utter glee that said, “Face it, Mom, you can’t keep a good man down!” I couldn’t help it. I laughed out loud and got out my camera.

Needless to say we’ll be having some lessons about how we don’t climb on the table in the near future. And hopefully my little photo shoot won’t undermine them!

We have wanted to start a tradition of family service and so this week we decided to do a little food drive for the local food bank. Today the boys and I went to pick up all the food and they collected quite a bit! And I think the boys felt good knowing they were serving. But the greatest thing about today was the woman we collected from who has very little herself who gave two whole grocery bags full of food-the most of anyone we collected from. She explained to me that even though she doesn’t have much, she knows what it’s like to have less and she wants to give if she can at all give. What an amazing hands on lesson and example for my boys of the Widow and her mite. I told them the story and Mr. President was of course baffled by her giving so much when it just didn’t make sense to him logically. In his little mind it was crazy that she would do that. But I’m so grateful they got the chance to see that! I hope they never forget it.

“Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.” Mark 12:43-44.

A miraculous thing happened today. For any of you who know Mr. President at all you will know how miraculous this truly is. The ramifications are HUGE. So huge that I had to write about it. Mr. Pres is full of questions. Full of whys. It never ever stops. But today I saw the light at the end of the why tunnel. The boys were pretending to be foxes. Mr. Pres wanted to know exactly what they ate and before coming to me and asking me what they ate, he actually got out our Encyclopedia of Animals, turned to the Fox page and then he and Go Go read it together to answer THEIR OWN QUESTION! I was jumping up and down with excitement in my giddy anticipation of the future. And it was so fun to listen to them figure out how to say the harder words together. I should have recorded them discovering together.
How wonderful it is when they can actually answer their own questions!!! Wow. Dreams really do come true!

Mr. President was playing “house” with his friends today and he came walking down the hall to say “goodbye” to his “daughter”. From this I deduced that he was the father going off to work for the day. I noticed he had a square paper something in his hand that he had made and it looked to me like a briefcase. Having grown up with a father who took a briefcase to work, I naturally assumed this to be what it was. Impressed with his artwork I said, “Is that your briefcase?” He said, “No, what’s a briefcase? This is my computer.” Ah. Yes. Of course. Excuse me while I take my old self and go hang out with Ward Cleaver.

We just started having the boys bring the big garbage cans in after garbage day. They are twice their size, but they LOVE doing it. Today as I drove into the driveway and saw the empty garbage cans ready to be brought in I asked Mr. Pres if he wanted to bring them in. He said, and I quote (and will quote again when he’s 13) “Oh PLEEEASE can I? Please oh please?”
Anyone know of a drug I can give them that makes this joyous desire to do chores stick? I’d bet even in this economy you could make a fortune on that kind of drug!

I had another grand Motherly Moment of Wisdom today that for some mothers would probably have been a no brainer, but not for me. I’m a little slow when it comes to stuff like this so I’m going out on a limb here sharing my thick headedness for all to read.

Today I was spending some quality time with Mr. President making banana bread. I wanted this to be a happy bonding time with no fighting, arguing or yelling, which for Pres and I is quite a feat! To do the mixing for our bread we used the kitchen aid mixer. This is over in the corner between the stove and the sink so when I bake with the boys, we have to crowd into the corner because moving the mixer is too hard as it’s so heavy. This was the case today and I kept getting really annoyed at Pres for pushing his way in to see the bowl and getting in my way constantly. I was just about to growl at him to stay back for a second when providentially a thought occurred to me. “Move the mixer to the other counter.” Those of you less block headed than myself would have seen this as glaringly obvious, but unfortunately such was not the case for me. And so I moved the mixer. I hefted it and all it’s heaviness over to the long counter where we could both be more comfortable and I wouldn’t get annoyed. Yes, it was heavy. But to have the rest of our time together be peaceful was well worth it.

How many other problems that I have with my kids could be cured just by simply “moving the mixer”? How many problems could be solved just by having a slight change in my point of view?

I’ll tell you what, though. I’ll move the mixer anytime for this cheeser grin.