Reading in Bed

I've decided that I rather enjoy the peace in my home after the kids are in bed lately. We stumbled upon a rather effective solution to two different problems. 1.) The kids hate being forced to read, but read voraciously when allowed the time. This causes problems getting the 20 minutes of reading the kids need each day for school. I have had troubles in the past scheduling time for reading during the day. 2.) The kids struggle with falling asleep when they first climb into bed. This leads to arguments and major contention in my home.

One day we decided to move bedtime to a 1/2 hour earlier. The kids could take books to bed, keep the light on for 20-30 minutes. After that time, it is lights out. I don't remember how long ago this started, but it has been very effective. The kids need 20 minutes of reading each day for school. They have to track their reading minutes. By sending them to bed earlier, they feel like they get to stay up later if they read. Plus, they don't feel like it is homework when they get to read in bed.

We have noticed a few things about this process. These are general observations as I would be a liar if I said our kids were perfectly happy with this arrangement every single night.

1. The kids fight less at bedtime.
2. Bedtime is more peaceful.
3. The kids fall asleep quicker once the lights are turned out. Sometimes they are asleep even before lights are turned out.
4. The kids have become the police of their own time. They will either use a timer or watch the clock and they know when they need to turn the light off. We generally don't have to tell them anymore.
5. Any changes to this bedtime routine causes major distress and discord in our home.

As I said earlier, we do not exact this process with the greatest precision every night. Some can attest that bedtime at our house is crazy, awful, loud, and just outright disheartening. But we do the best we can and we have nights like tonight where everything went off without a hitch.

I found a website that talks about reading and the benefits of reading. It says that reading is more relaxing before bed than watching TV. I wholeheartedly agree. My kids have shown me that. I guess we're on the right track here.

Now the challenge for us is to keep up with this routine. We certainly see the benefits of reading, be it at bedtime or otherwise.

Once again . . .

Timothy strikes, once again! So I decided to make this all about Timothy's antics and how I perceive his actions.

Timothy is determined to be the family clown. (Especially with the extended family.)

Yesterday most of my family gathered at my dad's house for dinner. There was jell-o. The jell-o was wiggly. Everybody was fully engaged in conversation, not paying any attention to little Timothy. All of a sudden, Timothy picks up his spoon full of jell-o and starts saying, "It's alive, it's alive!" His antics are hilarious and soon all the attention is on him and he continues for as long as he can keep the attention. At least he wasn't hurting anything, right? I was deeply amused.

As the family clown he certainly gets attention. I think he is giving his Uncle Jeff a run for his money. Soon Timothy will have ousted Jeff from the coveted position of family clown! (Yes, I do hope you're reading this Jeff!) Timothy has soaked up all of Jeff's attitude and magnified it! Uh oh, we're definitely in trouble here!

Timothy is also determined to be the family con artist.

I have cupcakes at my house. Timothy knows there are cupcakes. He had two cupcakes earlier, and there were still four remaining. I made the mistake of leaving the cupcakes on the counter within Timothy's reach. We were all downstairs looking for pajamas and then the kids raced upstairs. I stayed behind to turn all the lights off. John gets up to the kitchen and immediately asks, "Who took a cupcake?" My answer, "Timothy, and he is hiding somewhere!" He had grabbed the cupcake and was hiding in the corner between the wall and the girls' bed. The cupcake was gone. I think he ate it in one bite.

Timothy also discovered that I hide treats in my dresser drawer. Until now it has been a wonderful spot. Even John leaves my dresser drawers alone. It has been the perfect hiding spot. So I hid a bag of chocolate chips in my dresser drawer. Timothy found them. He dumped out my drawer, grabbed the bag of chocolate chips and ran. Unfortunately for him the girls caught him and tattled. Unfortunately for me, by the time the girls tattled, the bag was three-fourths gone!

Timothy is determined to be the family night owl.

Timothy refused to take a nap right after lunch today. He knows if he stays up long enough that I just let him stay up. Usually this works in my favor so he falls asleep quickly at night. But today, not the case. At 5:30 I was calling him to come upstairs as he had been downstairs watching a movie. He wasn't responding. So I sent Emma down to check on him. She came back up saying he was asleep. Uh oh, this is bad for us! Bedtime is going to be a bear. Lo and behold when it came time for bed at 7:00 p.m. Timothy was not interested in going to sleep. He was the one talking and making all the noise. Note to self- do not allow Timothy to take a nap later than 2 p.m! Otherwise we have a child who will be up all hours of the night.

Things I want to remember!

Forgive my sentimentality today. My emotions are still so raw, even after six years. Because I have a lot of words, but too much emotion to fully express how I feel today, I want to just share a few things I never want to forget about my mom.

Things I will never forget:

1. The way we could laugh for hours on end. By the time we stopped laughing, we had forgotten what we started laughing about to begin with.

2. The day I came home from school and flipped my mom off, thinking it was the coolest thing in the world. My mom didn't get mad, she just left my room quietly and never mentioned it to me again. I didn't get a lecture.

3. She flew by herself, despite her serious dislike for flying, to be with me when I had my first child! On her way home she got stuck in the Chicago airport because the weather had delayed the flight from Michigan.

4. We were a dynamic duo at Skipbo and Phase 10. We could cheat like no other but we didn't cheat to win. We found ourselves in fits of giggles when we cheated.

5. She always said she enjoyed hearing me practice both the piano and flute although I knew most of the time I sounded terrible.

6. She made the most of bad situations. I made my brother mad one day and he kicked a hole in the wall. She turned that hole into a bigger hole that eventually became a closet.

7. She always knew when I had a bad day.

8. She made the best cinnamon rolls and the best snickerdoodle cookies.

This list can go on and on, but I fear the length of this post if I do. It has been said that time will erase all pain, but I seem to feel it as acutely now as I did six years ago. There is a void, replete with questions that will not have answers until we are reunited someday. So I must continue to plod along, hoping that I don't defile her name. I must keep her memory alive and give my children the opportunity to know the woman who helped shape my life!

Just a few more!

I know some of these pictures are a few months old, but I had to share anyway. This is what happens when the pictures stay on the camera for months on end! But it has been so fun to go through the pictures. Enjoy.

Micah gets to wear Daddy's hat for a few moments.

 

Emma and Micah having fun together. Is it obvious to you who put that hat on Micah?

 

My two sweet boys! Timothy does have sweet, non mischievous moments!

 

Every time Timothy wears this suit he says, "I look like the Bishop!" I love this boy!

 

Random pictures, thoughts, etc.

We signed Amber up for Fall and Spring soccer. She's such a cute soccer girl! Her favorite part: the treats at halftime and at the end of the game. She does like to wear the uniform too.

 

 

 

I can't say I'm the best soccer mom though. I don't like sitting out at the field when it is cold and rainy. My dad thought he was done with kids sports when we all grew up, ha, little did he know his grandchildren would tell him about every game! Amber is very good at the pouty face that says, "I'll be so sad, disappointed, and scarred for life if you don't come to the game!"

Here's a picture of the kids in their Christmas outfits. Okay, so I bought the outfits at Christmastime, but didn't specifically buy them for Christmas. Make sense? Anyway, I searched high and low for an outfit that was reasonably priced for Micah. And then I talked to somebody at church about pink ties for the boys. My personal mission changed. I had to find a pink tie for Micah! John just rolled his eyes at me when I told him. He didn't think I would actually do it! Then I went shopping with Cori! She saw the outfit and it was the only one at that store in Micah's size with the pink tie! Wahoo, mission accomplished. He's so darn cute in the pink tie.

 

Okay, so Micah loves my phone. My screen has scratches, evidence of Micah's obsession with my phone. So we found him his own phone, one that looks suspiciously similar to mine!

 

Of course Amber has her princess crown on. She believes she is a princess and I will not change that for her. Despite any difficulty I may have with her, she will always be my princess.

 

Look at that face. He always looks mischievous. He always looks like he's planning his next move. And that smile, he knows what he's doing! He's so darn cute it is hard not to laugh and it is hard to get mad sometimes!

 

And then there's Emma. She hides from the camera it seems because I was hard pressed to find a picture of her. But when she allows the pictures, she is my little angel.

 

Visit by the Candy Fairy

Yesterday morning my house was visited by the candy fairy! To adequately explain this occurrence, I need to back up a bit.

A couple of weeks ago I had a bag of chocolate that I took to my Young Women activity. Amber had asked if I would save her a piece of chocolate. And I had told her there probably wouldn't be any left over. Well, I got home that night, she was in bed, and I had a little bit of chocolate left. But I didn't want to wake her. So I had John put chocolate under her the girls' pillows. In the morning they found the chocolate and I told them the candy fairy had visited and left the chocolate under their pillows! I had to do some fast thinking when Timothy felt left out. So I dropped a piece of chocolate next to his bed and told him he had just knocked it off his bed when he moved his pillow during the night!

Okay, so fast forward to yesterday morning. Everybody was supposed to be getting dressed and ready for the day. I was in the kitchen making breakfast and all of a sudden Amber comes running out, "Mom, the candy fairy left smarties for Emma!" Then she ran to Timothy's room. "Timothy got some too! And there's some for Micah, and I got some too!"

At this point I thought John had been sneaky and left the smarties for everyone while they were downstairs looking for clothes. But then why was there candy under my pillow and under John's pillow? Still I thought, John was just being funny and trying to help the kids improve their moods a bit.

But my assumptions were wrong. John had not played candy fairy. I had not played candy fairy. So who did? The evidence points to Amber! I guess Amber has picked up on the fact that the candy fairy was fired recently and she took over the job! Gotta love her. She didn't tell me what she was doing, she just did it. I am in awe over how grown up Amber is becoming!

Tooth Fairy Adventures

Amber lost a tooth on Sunday. To say the least, I was not prepared for this occurrence. I knew she needed to get that tooth out as the new one had started growing behind and looked to be growing too far back. I had John work on the tooth and he eventually pulled it out!

But this created a problem. We weren't prepared for a visit from the Tooth Fairy! Oh no. What do we do? Amber wants to put her tooth under her pillow and she will be severely disappointed in the morning if she doesn't get anything from the tooth fairy that same night. So yes, I lied to my daughter. I told her the Tooth fairy doesn't work on Sunday so she might as well wait until Monday night to put her tooth under her pillow.

I think I will be forgiven for telling this lie to my daughter. I had to. I had to prevent the attitude stemming from the disappointment of not being visited by the tooth fairy.