So what now?

Our society has this constant urge to keep each other moving. When you have a baby people can not help but ask you, " so are you having another one soon?". With my fourth child going off to school this year I have been the target of an endless barrage of , "what are you going to do with yourself now that Jake is in school?".
Have I suddenly become useless to society because my child is in school? Have I given up my rights to raise him because he is in school? Silly people!! Silly society!!
Guess what? I choose to stay involved in HIS life just like I have in all of his siblings lives. I don't plan on abandoning his child hood for the sake of my own life. I don't need to go to work or start thinking of myself and what I want to do because I now have free time.

I have learned from raising 3 other kids that I have no free time. I loved being there for Alex to chat about the weird boys at school or being the mom who was willing to french braid 5 cheerleaders hair before a game. I was always available to my boys when they needed me to drop everything and drive half the team to a soccer game. They were never late for practice or missed a game because their mom was "busy" and they couldn't find a ride. I have attended nearly every single gymnastics meet, band concert, baseball game, soccer game, track meet, school play, Open house, basketball game, prep bowl, challenge 24, science fair and spelling bee that has lighted across my path. I have been there...at home...when someones heart was broken by their 'true love" or their staggering disappointment because they were cut from the team. I have whisked them away to a "just you and me" lunch or dinner to commiserate or celebrate the event in their lives. I've stolen them away from school in the middle of the day for a surprise trip to see a movie or go to the zoo because they had straight A's.

I AM THEIR MOM...I am their mom 24/7. I am still Alex's mom, even though she is 21 years old. I am still Jake's mom, even though he is now in Kindergarten. Last night around 11pm Alex, Caleb, Micah and I were playing Boggle on my bed and laughing hysterically over our collective ignorance in spelling words. Yeah, that's right...11pm on a Sunday night MY KIDS wanted me to play Boggle with them. Wonder why that is? Oh yeah, it's because I am their mom and not their care giver who raised them for 5 years and then let the school system handle the rest. :)
I have great kids. I have REALLY great kids. People comment to me on a weekly basis that my kids are so accomplished and wonderful. Guess what? It's because I committed to being their mom and let go of the worldly view that I need "my own life". I don't need it...my job is to turn out 4 new adults who will be cherished by their new families some day.
If you see me soon...and you realize Jake is in school now. Don't you dare ask me what I am going to do with all my free time!! There is no free time when you have 4 kids.

First day of school

Jake started Kindergarten today. I have a picture of each one of my kids standing on the front porch the first day of school. Jake is by far the happiest one. LOL He will go for 3 weeks and then have 3 weeks off before they actual school year starts up. It's a program for Kindergartner's to experience school with none of the older kids around. They will have the entire school to themselves and things won't be as scary.

Jake has been very excited about the whole thing. Last year at this time he would have crawled into his self made shell and refuse to talk...refuse to get out of the car...cry...cry some more...

It's amazing what a whole year can do to the maturity level. He's gone from a scared withdrawn 5 year old to an outgoing fun loving 6 year old. Okay, so he's ALMOST six. Keeping him home last year was a very good decision. That point was driven home as I stood on the playground in a sea of crying, scared kids.

Jake couldn't wait to get to school today. He was anxious for us to hurry up and leave. Alex woke up early and came with us...which made him very happy. As with all the other kids, I got a shot of him standing next to the school sign. He was slightly annoyed that I made him stop and take the time to do that picture. LOL

He walked right up to his teacher and said, "Hi". She introduced herself and then told him that he could go out on the playground until they were ready to start. He didn't have to be told twice...since running and jumping are his favorite things. When we got outside there was another little boy with the same exact "Super Mario Galaxy" backpack. Apparently, this meant they were best friends as far as Jacob was concerned. He instantly started climbing this jungle gym with his "new friend". He's wearing the green shirt, at the top of this yellow climber.

After about 2 minutes had gone by he tossed his back pack at me and said, "Hold this while I play tag with my new friends." LOL He then spent the next 10 minutes running wildly around the playground. I let him do it too...because I figured he needed to release all that pent up energy. I'm sure his teacher would appreciate that thoughtful gesture on my part. :)

We were there pretty early and as he was playing the buses started dropping the kids off and the playground got pretty full. There are 5 kindergarten classrooms at our school. When the classes started to line up he came over to me and said, "who are all those other kids?". I told him that they were in other Kindergarten's and he just looked confused. I snapped a shot of him walking in his line into the classroom. You can get a feel for how the school is set up from this picture. His line is the furthest...you can see Alex standing at the end of the group and Jake is just about to enter the building. It's so nice that they all have their own door directly from the playground.

I walked into the class with him and said, "I'll see you after school" and he said, "OK, bye" with a HUGE smile on his face. It was so easy to leave him there today knowing that he was thrilled to be at school. I can't wait to pick him up and hear all his stories.

YAY me!

Garmin 255W

I used my mom's Garmin twice in June and I loved it...even though I am perfectly capable of printing a map off MapQuest and I rarely get lost. However, the Garmin was quite handy when I missed my exit and it recalculated the next best route.

What I really love is the feature that lets you find points of interest and places to eat around your location. We were able to find a few beach side parks and a cool Japanese restaurant in Shaker Square up in Cleveland. We travel a lot with Micah's soccer stuff , so it was nice to have that option to show us where to go and what we could do in the big breaks between games.

Tilden drove to the last tournament and followed the Garmin's directions. It only took one time and he was completely hooked! LOL He did feel that it made him "directionally challenged" though, as he no longer paid attention to actual road signs and just blindly followed the Garmin's voice directions. We decided this week to go and buy one ourselves because there was a very good sale at Best Buy. We rarely buy ourselves anything in the "luxury" category like this, so I am pretty ...lamely...excited.

The one thing that irritated me when I borrowed my mom's was the fact that my vehicle on the display was a blue car and I just felt that was so boring. When I registered my Garmin today I noticed a little link for the "garage" and when I clicked on it there were all these FREE downloadable vehicles. It took me a full 45 minutes to figure out how to get them onto my Garmin , but I finally did it and here are some of my choices, just to give myself some variety on my trips. (Plus, it will keep Jake entertained when the vehicle is "cool")

Yes, that is a Christmas bulb and it blinks too. There is even a turkey for Thanksgiving and a ton of Christmas and Halloween choices. Fun fun!