This is what Kindergarten looks like today.

This is what Kindergarten looks like today....

Above is a picture of Nathan's homework and classwork for his Kindergarten year. 

• 137 pages of homework (yellow section of paper)
• 743 pages of classwork (white section of paper)
• 19 phonogram tests (10 blue ribbons for scoring 100%!)
• 6 recited poems
• 180 days of school

Two weeks before the end of school, Nathan came home with 'Graduation' pictures, much to my delight...

On the last day of school, there was "Kindergarten Promotion Ceremony"...

The children were awarded certificates for moving up to First Grade...

As part of their performance the Kindergartners recited the Preamble of the United States Constitution.  Seriously. Here's the video:


Lastly, I discovered as I read the program from the Kindergarten ceremony that Nathan has formally started his political campaigning....Hahaha!!

In a nutshell, that's what Kindergarten looks like today.  I have a sneaky suspicion that everything I just described is far from what you personally experienced as you moved from Kindergarten to First grade, right?! My, how times have changed!  

"Why are you doing this...?" she asked.

There were bombings today in Boston.  Planted at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.  Over 140 people were injured.  We will be saturated with media speculation and analysis for the remainder of the week.  Then the attention will trickle down.  Until the next horror, then the cycle will begin again.  It's made me melancholy, no doubt.

Back in September, I was describing to a girlfriend my bi-polar schedule between my full-time job and Nathan's half-day (3 hr) Kindergarten class.

"From 6-7 is Breakfast and Play-time.  Between 7-8, we go for a walk outside.  Then from 8-9 is his computer time.  9-9:30 Homework.  10-11 Quiet Time in his room.  11-12 Lunch.  12:15, I take him to school. I pick him up at 3:15.  3:30-5:00 Snack & TV time. And I'm working in between all of this."

She stared at me.  Hard.  Then she asked, "Why are you doing this to yourself?  Why don't you just find a daycare and be done with it?"

My reply was to the point.  "Because ten years from now, I don't want to look back and regret that I didn't at least try to make this work." I continued, "When Nathan was only two months old, I sent him to a in-home daycare, while I worked and I've always regretted it.  I look back and I know I could have kept him and worked from home but I didn't.  Instead someone else raised him 8 hours every weekday and I regret it."

The timeframe of this schizophrenic schedule occurred at time when we just moved into a new house.  Furthermore, to add insult to injury, Greg also just started a new job. With his longer hours away from home, the burden of parenting fell squarely on my shoulders but I took it on...


For moments like this one; Nathan and I, holding our plates and eating lunch on the swing (pretending it's a train) and giggling about something, though I can't remember the details.

Moments like this wouldn't be possible if I handled our situation any other way.

I stated later in that conversation that I may have a nervous breakdown juggling conference calls-temper tantrums-Fusion training-child negotiations-Project ATOM-Spalding Phonograms-FY14 MPM Production and Stage-Kindergarten homework-Apps Midsize definitions-Science and Art time-OwnIt tickets-"Boo, did I scare you?" interruptions...and so on.  But what I won't have is another regret that I didn't at least try to make it work.

And days like today when disaster and uncertainty abounds coupled with the knowledge it is only a matter of time before tragedy strikes again.  It confirms...that for me, it's been the right thing to do.

 
But if your talking to me and I can't seem to register or comprehend what your talking about, I just have a temporary case of brain-fog.  It will clear up...eventually.  haha!!

Distractions of an Organized Mind

People have always said "Your so organized."  It's true I am organized but I honestly think the only reason I'm organized is because I'm also easily distracted.  Case in point:

I went into the kitchen for a mid-morning snack during work hours.  I should have grabbed my snack and headed back to my office.  Instead, I found myself eating a huge chunk of french bread and staring at a disheveled cabinet.  It bothered me.  I stood looking at it for a few minutes, considered what the shelf above the microwave looked like and decided I needed to 'rearrange' the two cabinets. 

This exactly what I looked like as I pondered, eating a chunk of bread....

I finished my snack and was ready to make a switch-a-roo with the cabinets....

I grabbed a step ladder and started pulling contents out of both cabinets.

When I finished, I looked at the rearrangement, which made better sense and went back to work.

Mind you, I went into the kitchen to get a snack.  I didn't set out to reorganize kitchen cabinets.  I just got completely distracted.  And now the cabinet is better organized. 

Yep, I'm organized but I think it's only because I'm easily distracted!!

Brene Brown's Parenting Manifesto

Though this week has measured up as one of the busiest weeks ever (when is it not, right?), I've been totally inspired in the midst of the chaos. In some ways, all the inspiration has fueled my tank to move on to the next task, check off the next item on the to-do list and despite how physically tired I feel, I keep moving forward.

One of the life-charging (not a typo, I got all charged up!) inspirations I came across is a free download from Dr. Brene Brown's website. "The Wholehearted Parenting Manifesto".



I LOVE this so much, I printed out a few copies. At first, I taped this to the hall wall where I would see it daily.  I thought about that and asked how likely would it be that I would stand in the hall reading it?  So I framed it and placed it on my desk, thinking I'll definitely read this every day where it's in my line of sight.

Then BAM! Inspiration hit like a lightening flash.  I wanted to read this out-loud to Nathan, every day.  I want to speak these words in the form of a promise. Promises about my commitment in parenting.  The irony in this is that it's less about what Nathan thinks, he's only 6- he's not really gonna 'get it'. But later, after I've spoken these words over him a million times....he will.  For now, it's about me, my intentions and the power of my speaking them out loud and after having done that, remaining steadfast in them.  Is it self-accountability?  I don't really know, I just thought it was a good idea!

Mindful of my audience, I divided up the 12 intentions and added them to a little jar that I quickly sticker-ed as the "Promise Jar".  I explained to him, that each day he gets to pick a promise for me to read out loud to him.  He seemed to like the idea and we put it into practice right then.  He picked one and I verbally made my promise to him.

"I promise the greatest gift I can give you is to live and love with my whole heart and to dare greatly."
Then he asked me what that meant and we talked about it. A good moment.  In a crazy busy week.

The Promise Jar is now waiting on his nightstand, amidst all his boyish treasures, waiting for tomorrow's selection. :-)

Good stuff for my soul. In a crazy busy week. :-)
How I found time to post to my blog, God only knows.
Truth be known, ain't nobody got time for that!

We Now Return To Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

Though there were thank you cards to write, laundry to fold and grocery shopping to do, I didn't feel like doing any of that this weekend.  Instead I snagged some down time to work on 2 videos that will be incorporated into this years family scrapbook.

There was a weekend in January when Greg was called into work for a server that went down.  It was a Saturday, so I offered for Nathan and I to tag along to keep Greg company. Luckily, I had my camera so I pounced on the opportunity to take footage of Greg at work. Since it's my perpetual goal to document every day life, capturing Greg at work was brilliant because it's something we rarely get to see!




The next video is from Nathan's birthday party.  Since I threw this party together in about a week, I didn't have as many details as I would have liked but in the end, the kids had fun and that is all that really matters to me. Typically, I forget something the day of the party, it's just bound to happen and this year I forgot to take pictures of the cakes - doh!  I just had one to many parties on my mind, hahaha!

Here's the video for Nathan's Birthday Party:



Guess I'll work on that grocery list now - BLEH! ;-)

Christmas 2012

Somehow, I captured almost all of our Texas Christmas in video and compiled all the footage into a single video for our 2012 scrapbook.  Taking 7 days and consolidating down to 6 minutes is no easy task, though finding a 6 min Christmas song for the background music proved more challenging.  I had a song to use already in mind but its time was shorter than my video.  I had to tag on another song.  This is the issue I wrestled the longest with - Not compiling the video footage!  I'm much to obstinate (read anal-retentive)  and hated tagging on another song and half a song, at that.  In the end, I just had to let it go.  Besides, it was 3:30am when my resolve was weakest.. :-)

Enjoy. Oh and happy new year tomorrow. :-)



Music: You're Here and Heaven Everywhere by Francesca Battistelli

The Hull-idays Family Pictures Behind the Scenes Video

Since I've discovered integrating pictures with audio & video to fully document life events, I have so enjoyed the end-results.  So why wouldn't I infuse our 2012 family pictures with behind the scenes video?  Exactly.

So here it is:


This will be one of the last videos that will make it into our 2012 family scrapbook.
Of which, I am thrilled to be wrapping up very soon! Woot, woot!!