freitag

Friday, Friday, Friday.
Oh, how I love thee.
Sleeping in on Saturday,
I look forward to it
so expectantly.

yeah, I just made that up. I am so gifted.

Today was Muffins with Mom at Maya's kindergarten. It was wonderful. They made muffins for us and we had apple juice. They each made us a handprint tile, which turned out beautifully. The end of the morning, they performed "What a Wonderful World" for us singing and signing. It was so... adorable! All the moms were crying. Ugh. Tug, tug. That would be my heartstrings.



Can I say, I love Mother's Day.

This is the one day of the year where my kids all show appreciation for what I do, and they all do it at the same time. It's amazing. And Wayne, of course, is sure to make me feel quite doted upon.

It's also a time for me to really honor and respect my mom's and grandma's legacy of mothering. I'm fortunate to still have both my mom and grandma still here with me. I have friends who are not so fortunate, and Mother's Day now holds a bit of sadness for them.

And my mom and grandma are sane, which is a nice perk. Like, we don't have this crazy dysfunctional relationship that makes me cringe when I think of them, which I know is the type of relationship that some women have with their moms.

This year for Mother's Day, I invited my mom and dad over for brunch (croissant french toast, sausage, vanilla yogurt with strawberry sauce, and mimosas (or just plain ol' OJ); in the afternoon, we go to my aunt's house for Mom's Day Dinner.

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Today Paige and I went to Oasis for coffee when she got home from school. It was really nice to just spend an hour chatting with her about stuff that doesn't lead to disagreement :-) No, we haven't been disagreeing lately. Sometimes we drive each other crazy, but since we started this new philosophy on parenting, life has been so much easier. We took the ever present power struggles away from our relationships with our kids. Have you ever thought of the difficulties you might have with your kids and how a power struggle is often at the very core of those difficulties. It's amazing how once you eliminate the power struggle, life becomes so much calmer. Again, I cannot encourage you enough to look into Positive Discipline. It has truly changed the dynamics within my family.

I think of all the spanking I used to do and the yelling and the pulling out of my hair and on and on and on, and it is so peaceful around here now. It was so easy to implement, too. The older kids think it's a pain in the ass sometimes, but they are sooo cooperative. We definitely have moments where lids are flipped but the difference is how we (Wayne and I) react.

Look for a class near you. You will not regret it. If you are in Pierce County, I know where you can take the whole series for only $10. Amazing!

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Maya started swimming this week. She looks awesome. She was in level three when she stopped swimming last summer, but I backed her down to level 2 since she's been out of it for so ling. Level 3 kids have to swim the LENGTH of the pool, which is really hard when you are only 6 and haven't been swimming in 9-10 months.

She is in a class with 5 other kids and only 1 teacher. She gets very little swim time, so I think we may do private lessons again. It just sucks to have her sitting on the wall bobbing and kicking the whole time when I know she is capable of much more. She is the only kid in her class who doesn't need the teacher to keep his hand on her while she swims. I can't wait for them to start the crawl and back strokes. She's got a kick ass backstroke. Her crawl isn't bad either, but she needs to work on her side breathing.

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Well, I am going to play Tile Tower on Webkinz now.

I'm listening to a really awesome podcast-- This American Life-- my all-time favorite NPR program. I love NPR. Anyway, Check it out, if you haven't already.

OH!OH!OH! I almost forgot: Wayne and I bought tickets for the Hi-5 show that is coming to town in August. Maya doesn't know yet. She will be ecstatic. Make sure the volume is up on your computer, if you click the Hi-5 link.