Take Five Fridays (on Saturday)

So, I'm a day late with this. At least I don't have to add I'm a dollar short, because blogging is free. And since I am the boss of me in the blogosphere, I can cut myself some slack with the deadlines;-)

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Take One

Memorial Day turned out to be a beautiful, perfect sunny day. 75 degrees, a small parade, visiting the graves of family members passed on and a stop at an ice cream place that I went to when I was a little girl. Being a military family, we don't get a lot of opportunities to say to the boys, "I came here when I was little" or "I did this here when I was your age". Being in Ohio for the year has presented more than one opportunity for sharing those experiences with the boys.

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Take Two

I haven't been sleeping very well these past couple of weeks. There is a whole range of emotions mixed from pure joy and excitement that Chuck will be home soon, to being a bit overwhelmed with everything that has to be done along with the frustration of the fall out of the boys being upset about leaving. Jaden's teacher caught me after school yesterday and mentioned that Jaden had been a "little restless and off" these past couple of weeks. (I know, I deal with it at home, too.) She said she thought that maybe he was just excited about his dad coming home. I told her that was part of it, but that he was also having a hard time leaving here, his friends, his little world here that he's come to love. She goes on to say, "Well, his grades aren't going to be quite as good as they have been in the past grading periods, just so you know." What I said: "Well, I kind of expected as much. Thanks for the heads up. I've kind of had to pick my battles with him this past month." What I thought, "Geez, lady, the kid is 8. He's a second grader, not trying to get a scholarship to Harvard. Can we evaluate the big picture here." As long as he's moving on to the third grade, I don't think it matters that he got an S instead of an S+. *SIGH*

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Take Three

Because of the above mentioned sleep deprivation, I have been treating myself to a vanilla latte at McD's a couple of times a week. So, yesterday, I go to get my latte, and because they do these punch cards, I got one for free. That is a great start to a day, don't you think?!

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Take Four

Danger Boy Story: I heard suspicious thumping upstairs when the boys were supposed to be in bed. I went to investigate, and there is Jaden, with the top half of his window down, head out, watching the neighbors setting up for a garage sale in their driveway and talking to a friend two doors down.

Mother Alarm goes off: "Danger, Danger!" I ask him what he is doing? Tell him he's not supposed to open his window like that, not lean out the window because he could fall out and splat to the ground and die. (Yes, harsh. When you have a Danger Boy, you have to speak their language.) He tells me that he was hot. I ask him why he has jeans and a sweat shirt on over his jammies. He tells me he didn't want anyone to see him in his jammies. Ummm, do you see what I am up against here? When I told him he was in trouble for being out of bed and hanging out the window, he tried to argue, "Well, you never said I couldn't 'look' out the window. You never told me I wasn't allowed to put down the top half." Remember that post I had about "specifics" and "detailed" directives? Here is another reason why! They act like they have no common sense sometimes. Maybe this one has a good future in the military or politics!

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Take Five

I still have quite a bit to do to get things ready for the move. A few smallish things in the house won't take that long, but there is also yard work that needs to be done. Mainly, the helicopters from the tree in the back yard need to be cleaned from the gutter and the flower beds need to be weeded and raked. It's been either raining buckets or a soggy, wet mess out there since Wednesday. I barely got the lawn mowed this week. Now it's Saturday and the boys are playing with friends "their last weekend here" they keep telling each other and their friends. To get them back into work mode after being cooped in the house all week is a battle I don't feel up to, yet. Maybe later, maybe tomorrow. It IS their last weekend here.