I'm the mom....

Today I had a moment where I realized the type of mom I'm not...and the type of mom I am.

I realized I'm not the cupcake mom.

And definitely not the Easter Bunny cupcake mom.

Let me back-up a bit.  I was working on a project up in the school library - one of two big ones at the school this week.  A friend of mine called and offered to take Jacob to the park with her twins who are in the morning Pre-K class.  She said they could play outside and have a picnic lunch and then bring Jacob back for his class in the afternoon, so I could get things finished up. I told her it would be perfect - and she said to come down in a few minutes as they were just finishing up the cupcakes that a mom had brought in to celebrate Easter.

I didn't think much about what she had said, besides how nice it would be for Jacob to get outside and run around instead of doing more computer games while I worked on my different projects in the library again.  He is becoming quite a pro at the Lego games, as he has ample time to practice them each week!  We walked down the hallway, chatting about the day and I told him how excited I was that he was going to have a picnic with his friends!  I had a tiny bit of a wish that I could be outside to enjoy the beautiful sunshine, but the moment was fleeting as I really wanted to get these projects checked off before we left for Spring Break!

We met the little friends downstairs and watched as child after child left the morning pre-k class holding onto a precious decorated Easter Bunny cupcake

I kissed Jacob goodbye and waved to his two little friends and gave a bit thank you to the mom & then ran back up the stairs and started to breeze down the hallway.

It was then I thought about those Easter Bunny cupcakes.  How cute they were, and how the little faces of those preschool students lit up holding their precious treats!  I realized with a swiftness that I'm not the mom that is called on to bring treats.  I don't think of it on my own either.  If there is a sign-up, I'll put my name down to bring something in for a class party and there were times in the past when I did some fun decorating of cakes, cookies and such.

I was feeling a little down - that I wasn't fulfilling some mom role that is set out there in how many cupcakes I have made for my children's class.  And as I walked along feeling a little overwhelmed with how many things I thought I should be doing, I glanced up and saw the school.  And then saw into the library with the projects I was helping with.  And that's when it hit me - I'm not an Easter Bunny cupcake mom --- but I'm a mom that does other things....and those things can be cool in their non-pink marshmallow ear sort of way....

....I worked on picture frames, mosaics, modge-podge murals on just about any object you can think of!...and so much more {these are the art projects with the 15 classes for the Silent Auction....ta da!}

I'm also a mom that is an impromptu costume designer!  I received a call 4 days before 50+ children from the school are in a performance....and suddenly need costumes!  The 3rd graders were part of a Columbian Music Performance & the musicians that we hire through a company to work with the students are quite talented....however, they are definitely unorganized!

What was I to do when the thought of all those students would go on stage without "real" costumes?  Well, I called 4 other moms and during a school day we cut, and we cut and we cut - until we had 25 ponchos, and 25 sashes with little flowers on them for the girls, 30+ colored sashes for the boys, and 25 tissue paper flowers to put into all of the girl's hair.

And the performance was fabulous!  Singing, dancing and music galore --- and the costumes were not perfect (there was not one piece of sewing we did!  If we couldn't glue gun it, we didn't do it!), however the children kept saying that they felt like "real professionals" because they all matched and had their own costumes.  It was the cutest thing to see their faces light up when we were helping them get dressed!

And I'm the type of mom - that takes on another step of the Beautification at school.  It was started last year when we did the flags representing all the nations that the children are from....we have over 60 nationalities in our school (that are reported).  The Beautification has continued this year, with finally taking art that the children have created with the new art program - and framing select pieces and hanging them around the school.  It sounded rather simple and something that would be fun to work on --- however, as many projects go, it becomes a little more complicated and a little harder as you get into the work.

This all was going on the week that Jacob got Strep Throat after Bryson already had it last week.  The week that I was supposed to be getting ready for our trip, and getting an apartment rearranged yet again (after buying something from a friend that was moving, I've had to rearrange the place....again!  It's hilarious how often this place gets redone, because of space factors and as it is small I get tired of the same view after only a very short time!).

And amazingly enough - it all got done to some degree.  It was done to the wire on Friday after school, when we finally took one grouping of framed art and went to work on the wall....4 hours later, 5 active children, 2 PTA moms, 2 pizzas and 2 custodians --- we were finally finished (and I can't believe I didn't get a picture of it!).  That is when we realized that all 60 other framed art, will continue to go up - but only one wall at a time.  It took so much longer than we anticipated....but we loved the end product so much more than we thought we would as well!

I'm so happy with the projects that I worked on this week and other weeks at the school.

I also realize that it's okay to be happy that I'm the type of mom that doesn't do Easter Bunny cupcakes.

At least right now.  And maybe for some time.

Because there are other projects.  The ones that I do for my children and their school - and when they see me at the school each time and their faces light up....I believe that they know I am doing this because I love them.  And I love being part of their life.  I love being back in a school setting.  I love projects...I just don't think of cooking projects as much as I do the other projects that fill up my days.

And hopefully - just hopefully - that will be just as good as making Easter Bunny Cupcakes & won't put them in therapy because I never made them cupcakes --- because goodness knows we'll need therapy for all the other mistakes I'm making as mom!

{almost} wordless wednesday: a night of drama

Why have Wordless Wednesday if I'm always going to say something?  

Well, it is motivating me to post.  Life gets going full steam and I think of dozens of things I want to post about and update, but I tend to write too much, and I get overwhelmed at myself.  And then day by day, I forget to write down the happenings of our life.  

So, the thought behind posting a picture was to make it easier.  Until I realized that years down the road, we'll want to remember the story behind it...so, perhaps Almost Wordless Wednesday is far more accurate :) 

Two weeks ago on a Sunday evening the children decided to present a dramatic interpretation of Rapunzel!  Madeleine had noticed a book I had borrowed from a teacher that gave an outline of the Rapunzel play, and she adopted that as her Sunday project to write it up, and have everyone be part of the amazing cast.  The children noticed we didn't have enough people for the parts, so they asked our friend from down the hall - she's the cutest little girl and a great friend of all the kiddos almost like another sister in many ways (the boys especially due to the ages and that she is a little tom-boy at heart)....however I think we intimidated her with the grand parade of costumes and cast members...so she decided to participate in a lesser known role.  However, she did promise to come back the next time the children do another play!  

The cast included: 

The King - Lord Bryson the Junior

The Miller's Daughter - Fair Maiden Madeleine

The messenger/knight - Sir Jacob {for every fairy tale must have a knight in shining armor!}

Narrator - Ms. Lillian 

and the little - TALLISH man - Rupelstilskin!  - Mr. Lord Bryson 

and other roles as necessary :)  

It was wickedly engaging...

 and charmingly sweet....

and as all good fairy tales go - the sweet princess got her way in the end! 

 ...and the good knight was only on call - never needing to go into battle

For a finale, Bryson lost his tooth....

....his 8th tooth that is!  Perhaps he should have tried turning teeth into gold instead of straw....the teeth might have made him richer much more quickly!  

I'm not just sitting here twiddling my thumbs!

There is a poem about a girl in a whirl...or something such as that and it goes on and on about how many things are on a to-do list and this girl just keeps going and going until she drops dead.  Or something like that.

I feel that way.

Endless things to be done - such as the pile of laundry that is rising at an astonishing rate over the top of the laundry basket.  Winter clothes that still need to be put away, and spring clothes to come out.  Post office visits to send off items and boxes that have been camped out in the apartment for so long I began to wonder if I should just unpack the box and reclaim what I was going to send out.  Our apartment goes from being cleaned to being a disaster zone in a matter of hours - sometimes minutes - and it's not always the children's fault....and not Bryson's either (does this mean I admit it is me....um, no I'm not that forthright, yet!).   My email box is overflowing and my phone messages never get deleted.  I want to call a dozen people to talk - but I haven't felt like talking on the phone in awhile (weird for me, because I usually love talking about anything at any given time!) and when I do want to talk it's too late, I'm running around the island on a variety of errands or taking kids here or there, or trying to drive in the city ---- which after almost having a bus run right into me one time while I was sitting at a red light and talking on the phone, I don't think I'll talk that much while driving any longer - actually this past Sunday a fire truck almost ran into us on the way home from church too...NY drivers really are the worst!  Which basically means I have 2 hours each day to get in all my phone calls - which is the same 2 hours that I have to do everything else.   That won't work!

There are errands to run, things to take back to stores from the Art Show & Silent Auction at the school, however my life after that event went into super slow mode after the fast track I was on for two weeks - and by slow I mean I was homebound as both boys came down with Strep Throat (different days of course, because that makes it more fun to drag out sickness in a family!) and then last night I landed on my hand/thumb in a very awkward way and we think either it's sprained or I did something to a ligament.  I don't know what I did - but it hurt like crazy and after having iced it and trying to type one handed - Bryson came home and as we were chatting to catch up on the day I could tell the question was coming...it was just lingering on the tip of his tongue.  What had I actually done that day?  I was frustrated because the last few hours had not gone well due to the thumb issue (have you ever tried NOT to use your thumb on your dominant hand?  It's really hard - and it was more than my thumb - the entire left/bottom side of my hand was throbbing in pain).  Anyway - in this frustrated phase I decided I was not going to let Bryson think I had been sitting on the couch all day (the last 2 hours yes, but not all day!), so I remarked,
"It's not like I just sit here twiddling my thumbs!" 

"Of course not - you can't even twiddle one of your thumbs right now!" was his come back.

Perfect way to have a good laugh :)

I have projects to finish at home - but even more at school.  And just when I think I'm going to finally work on such projects - an "emergency" arises where 3rd graders don't have costumes for their dance performance that week...and I jump to the ready.  Because a girl in a whirl is always ready and crazy to take on the latest and greatest emergency.

Ah.  Life just makes me laugh right now.

I'm maxed out - and yet I find myself at times like now where I'm sitting down and I honestly can't figure out what to do.  I should really go to bed - but come on hours of just sleeping.  There is so much to do in the whirl of life!  However, that whirl gives some serious burn-out and I think that is where I actually currently am.

Burned out.

Ready for spring.  Warm weather.  And getting away from the whirl of this everyday life.  And the best news - we actually get to go away!   At least that is the plan.  Tickets are purchased.  Rental home secured.  Children excited.  And soon we will have those clean clothes to pack into suitcases to take us in 1 week to....

the happiest place on earth (or at least one of them)! 

and we will visit our old favorite places that we used to live by and enjoy on a semi-regular basis like this place which Bryson used to be able to view out of his office window at Harcourt.  He actually could see the dolphin pools from this window - and the parking lot from another window...the kids liked the dolphin window when we visited his office, I like having him look at the parking lot and tell me when it looked empty so that I could pack the kids up and head over to our "zoo" for a few hours.  

And we are planning to spend at least one day here - sun.  relaxing.  kids playing.  sounds of waves crashing.
Heaven on earth.....

I can hardly wait.  I wish were there now - but I'm trying desperately to lose those 5 pounds that I was already supposed to lose and again my home is not in any sort of shape to leave for renters that are coming to pay us to use our space while we are gone.  I'm excited that we'll be able to make a bit of cash with an apartment that would normally sit empty - but now I wonder how much I should clean.  Do I need to worry about those shelves in our pantry closet that I have been meaning to organize but haven't gotten to yet?

Anyway - point to all this chatting about life and how busy it is....well, actually I don't know if I have a main, main point - but I did want to be sure that I documented that I was not just sitting around twiddling my thumbs!

And now that that is clear - here is a fast review of March....and April since we are just about at that half-way mark!  Where does it go, where does it go?!

wordless wednesday: faces of jacob

almost wordless that is!.....

the other night I turned the camera over to see what jacob would give me as i have wanted to capture his many faces.

i could stare at this face for hours!

funnies by Madeleine

I was working on something in the Living Area, when I heard Madeleine in the kiddos room, while they were playing...

"No, you need to listen to the moral of what I am telling you!" 

**************************

 We drove home from church and offered a ride to two other women in our island (their husbands were both sick today).  As we were coming home, I told them that Madeleine and I had seen 'Mars Needs Moms' the other day and how much I had enjoyed it.  When asked why, I started to give an overview of the movie, what the plot was about and such....however as usual I was getting sidetracked while trying to tell my story - the boys were asking questions, we were driving and I was giving directions, and other things.

It took me a good 5-8 minutes to retell what should have only taken a few minutes.

As we dropped the first gal off at her building, I sighed while saying, "Why am I so long-winded.  It always takes me so long to tell a story".

Madeleine offered her advice with,
"You just need to do a summary mom.  You tell your characters, some attributes you should know about them, the problem, the solution and what the big idea is.  That's it."

I'm so glad that school is paying off for Madeleine - whether it be learning about morals in the Fables she read and even wrote herself to the summaries she writes on what she reads - she really does understand what she is learning and is applying it....even if it does come out in a cute and funny way!

funnies by Jacob

I want to be a Rocking Star!

************************

While having a bowl of vanilla yogurt as a pre-bedtime snack, Jacob remarked to Madeleine....

"Look, it's white - like ME!"

{I think this might have stemmed from tonight...because looking back he has never made a comment on color, however we drove Madeleine to Activity Days and she brought two friends - Aoi from Japan, and Pauline from Malayi, Africa. We then took home Madeleine's leader and her two girls who are adopted from China.....we were the only white ones in the car :) Also he is one of three in his class that is "white". I wonder in his 4 year old mind what he thinks of this - as it is the first comment I can remember that he has made in reference that we all have different colors on our skin, but I love that is was so simple as to compare it to yogurt. Should all the world say it and see differences so simply.}

We sat down to a very late lunch today, and in the middle of eating Jacob had a few sneezes, the first one was small, the second one medium which he caught and sneezed in that way that it never really comes out. He immediately looked relieved and said, "Whew!" and only then the 3rd sneeze came out with a HUGE rush, and with it parts of his food/lunch which all landed right on his plate. It was gross and funny all at once!

We all erupted in laughter, as Jacob pulled his characteristically funny faces, and I wish my camera had been nearby to capture those amazing faces {these faces are some random pictures from this past week}.

Someday I'll get lucky and be able to photograph the many funny, and crazy faces that he does....he really is a ham and knows it, but at the same time pulls these faces that are completely Jacob and just leave us laughing and realizing how lucky we are to have him in our family!