Where There's a will.......there's a crazy kid with that look in her eye!

Once in awhile I say......"I'm bigger than you, that's why I'm the boss!" Okay, I said it 5 times, yesterday. She is 2. Need I say more? I mean, if you think it's hard being me, I guess it's 10 times harder being she. SHE is Tenesee Rose. She is the queen of the house. She wants to trim the apholstery with scissors and decorate it with ball point pen. She has a desire for sugar in the morning and at noon and when we lay down for ni-night. No I don't give it to her....every time.

Discipline is weird. I mean if you really John Wayne them, they mind you, but flinch when you make a sudden movement. If you "time out" them to death, they don't take anything you say very seriously. A lot of it is distraction with a 2 yr old. "No, that's Mommy's phone....OH LOOK, there's your phone!" (as I toss it over in the grass and high tail it to the house!) No, but really. Tenesee is a big person trapped in the unfolding of a little being. She is so delicate and so strong. I have to respect her individuality and at the same time help her make it to the ripe ole age of say...10, without getting squished. Your kids have to know what "no" and "stop" mean.

Ha...that reminds me of a story. A stubborn sweet and terrifyingly honest old lady lived in Riggins awhile back. She told me that she really wanted her kids to understand the dangers of the highway. So she had her 5 yr old son stand on one side of the living room and she went to the other side. She RAN at him and hit him with every ounce of her 100 lbs!! He went sailing. THAT, she said, put the fear into him. UH, ya think!...I don't think he worried about the highway near as much as he kept a sharp eye on Mama! (you know that kind of discipline is only funny in stories, books and movies!)

So here I am in the throws of mommyhood. Homeschooling three girls. Third grade, first grade, and pre-pre-school boot camp. It's all about preperation and you can never quite be prepared. The moment I get it all written down....this beautifully scripted plan for the day, written on perfectly clean white paper, with my favorite pen....it all goes awry. WHY? Could it be that the lessons we are learning together aren't just about arithmetic? Could it be that the reason I homeschool is not just to taint their world view with my hill billy hippieness? I know that it is a bonding and love lesson that we are all going through. If we can get along, if we can share and give, if we can talk and not yell...we are learning some of the most important lessons in life. LOVE. PATIENCE. KINDNESS. UNDERSTANDING. Maybe today we can keep our sanity. Maybe the "list" should look something like this:

1. wake up whining and sit on mommy's lap shoving baby on floor.

2. help baby up and say "I'm sorry", and mean it.

3. help make breakfast and forgive yourself for spilling the oats on the floor.

4. fight with sissy over who gets the stool next to the heater, but forgive her for hitting you.

5. get out school books and whine about what to draw for language arts.

6. take 15 minutes upstairs to think about appriciation and come down and try again.

7. forgive mommy for saying "UUUUGGHHHH" like a highschool girl because you are whining about it....AGAIN!

8. make lunch...yay!

9. go for walk and take recycle and trash down to dumpster after fighting over who is carrying the heaviest bag.(REALLY!?)

10. say sorry for hitting and stop crying. we all have to carry a bag, get over it!

11. come back and work on math sums....with no quarreling?

12. nap time....yay!

13. dinner prep, kick big kids outside to climb trees and chase helpless animals, and put on Robin Hood for the 2 yr old AFTER she helps clean up the mass mess of toys on the living room floor, picks up the salt shaker she's licking, and goes pee pee NOT in her pants.......whew!

If a list looked like this then maybe it would be more like, "ALRIGHT! I'm doin pretty good today!! Check it off, check it off! Man, I'm organized!! Look at us go! We are really getting stuff done, I tell you!!" (As I tell the girls.."This is called sarcasm.")

This is truly my lesson: Don't expect a day to be "perfect". They are all perfect in their own imperfect way. SLOW down, hold the babies and enjoy the sunshine on your face...or the rain on the window. Play in the dirt with them and know that THAT IS "getting something done".