One of Those Mothers

I think I have turned into "one of those mothers". There is a little girl at Maddie's school that is driving me insane. Maddie is a little dramatic so I am not sure that everything she tells me is exactly as it went down, but yesterday I had my fill. Everyday she tells me of the "problems" they had during the day. It is usually something small, but today she wrote on Maddie's shirt. Not a little bit, but several huge streaks. Maddie waited until we got into the car to tell me about this. I decided I was taking this little girl on myself. So today when I picked her up at school I asked the little girl is she wrote on Maddie's clothes. She said, "I don't know." Okay I know these children are only 5, but they know if they wrote on someones clothes. I asked her not to do it again and left. Now I am concerned that Maddie is going to be one of those children who doesn't stand up for herself. I have told her over and over not to play with this child, but she feels sorry for her because no one else will play with her because she is so mean. Maddie lets this child manipulate her into playing with her. Maybe I am taking this too serious but I believe the adult we become has a lot to do with our personality development as a child. By no means do I want Maddie to be the bully, but how do I instill in her not to take this crap. I don't want her to be a follower. I want her to be comfortable with who she is, but she isn't comfortable with this if she tells me about is daily. Any suggestions? I won't always be there to be the MOTHER that butts in.

By the way---funny, but not funny....today when I picked brother up we got into the car and he said you big butt came to get me today. First we don't say butt, so I am not sure where this came from. So I told him we don't say butt. So he fixed it and said you big hiney came to get me a school. Should I take the hint?
Funny that he said this, but I tried not to laugh in front of him. Anyway.

Eli is Three

Well technically he will not be three until tomorrow, but we celebrated today. We had the best party today. We keep them small, just family, but they really are better this way. Madelyn's 1st through 3rd birthday parties really stressed me out. We would have all these people over, during the holidays because her birthday is 12-24, and have balloons, clowns, you name it. I would be so stressed by the time it got here that it really wasn't worth it. Finally when Madelyn turned 4 I said I wasn't doing it anymore. We still have parties, but they are localized to just family. Today my dad, Modena, Jetta, Nathan, Vickie, Rayford, Jon, Poppy, Robbie, and Moder joined us to celebrate number 3 for the Big E. I really had a great time. We had lunch, cake, ice cream and good family time. I am really blessed for the family that I have. It is amazing how easy it is to take it for granted. I have looked over the last few years of my life I see so much that I have let pass by. I get so absorbed in my husband and babies that I just let things go, but today was not one of those days. I really enjoyed the time with my family and we got to celebrate 3 fingers. That is what he tells me....Mom, I am going to be 3 fingers. He loved being able to play outside with his sister and Robbie. I believe his favorite toy was the Lightening McQueen car that came on top of his cake. He really enjoyed himself. I did too. It was nice and no stress. I am so thankful the Lord has blessed me with 2 happy, healthy, and beautiful children. Today are sermon in church was on how do you know you have been blessed. The easiest way is by seeing proof. I remember about 1 year ago I had taken a pan out of the oven and set it up on top of the stove. Little Eli walked up and placed his little had on the pan. He immediately began to scream at the top of his lungs. I was beating myself up because I had put the pan to close to the edge and because of me he was hurting. We had recently had a sermon on believing with all your heart. The sermon came to mind and I grabbed Eli up and started praying that the Lord would take the pain away. I prayed and prayed. I just a few seconds he stopped crying and there were no signs of him touching the pan. That was my proof that all I had to do was ask for a blessing and I would get it. I asked the Lord for a wonderful husband and healthy children and I got blessed with so much more. I have a great family and I am so thankful for them.

Just like Daddy

It amazes me how fast children pick up the habits of their parents. I am sitting outside on the back deck enjoying this glorious day. My son is potty training so the question came up as to when was the last time he peed. Of course he hasn't since we came home, so what does DH do? He lets him pee off the back porch. Are all men obsessed with urinating outside? My husband loves to pee outside and now he is teaching our son. I don't understand why they can't just walk in the house. We have 3 toilets in the house, but they chose to go outside. I am honestly a bit jealous because I can't do this with ease. I have heard other women say that their husbands/sons are the same way. Maybe this is a natural born instinct of a man? We live back in the woods so it really doesn't matter, but I think if we lived in town he would do the same thing. A few weeks ago he took the children deer scouting while I took a nap. When they came back he told Maddie to tell me what happened. She told me all these other great things that had happened on their trip. DH took off his jacket and one of the sleeves was missing from his shirt. Maddie then began to tell me the story. They had walked for about an hour, way to far from the house, when she decided that she need to take a poo. They couldn't get back to the house so DH lets her poo in the woods. He doesn't have any paper so him being the great dad that he is he rips the sleeve off his shirt and she uses this. SOOOOOO Funny. I love it. Thank goodness it was him and not me. I wouldn't have been able to tear my shirt because I would have been laughing. My dear husband....he keeps me laughing all the time. One of the many reasons I am glad he is mine......

Daddy

I came home work today to a wonderful creation. I am so proud of my little husband that I have to tell you about it. Over Christmas my sister and brother in law tore down their old swing set. Their boys were way to old for it and it was getting OLD. So we asked them to keep the slide because we wanted to build the children something at the house. We really didn't want to spend the money on one of those outragous swing sets, but thought we were going to have to. Joel is one of those people that is great with his hands so he thought he could save us some money and do it on his own. Well he started today and I am so proud of him. He has built the children this great swinging set. He has built the base so that he can create it into a tree house. He has the slide already on and we hope to finish tomorrow. He worked so hard today all by himself. He amazes me. He is such a good daddy. I didn't even know he was going to do this today. He surprised us all. The children were so exicted when we got home today. They had to take several trips down the slide, which is very fast. He is going to also put a sandbox underneath so that the children can play in it. He is so good. I am so happy that we found each other. He is a blessing to me. I have not figured out how I deserve him, but I am so happy that I have him. I love Joel.

Disappointed

Friday Madelyn and I went to a girls basketball game at a local high school. My sister-in-law is the asst coach so we went to show our support. Of course Madelyn wanted to sit close to the top so that we could see everything going on. I think she did this because I am clumsey and there was the chance that Mom might fall down the bleachers and everyone would get a good laugh. Anyway, "up top" is where all the younger people sit. By younger I mean the children in high school.
These children need to have their mouths washed out with soap. They showed no respect for me or my child. I could not believe some of the foul language that was coming out of their mouths. If they could have heard how stupid they sounded they would have quit right away. I can handle a little foul mouth, but not every word. I am not sure how anyone was supposed to understand what they were talking about with the cursing. If this is what we have to look forward to as the next generation then we are in BIG trouble. It wasn't all the children, but you know the saying. If you sleep with the dog you are going to get fleas. If I EVER hear my children utter those words or is someone else does. I really hope they tell me so I can wash their mouths out. They should have hushed out of respect for me, but also for Madelyn. I should have been a good mom and stood up and said something, and I am not sure why I tolerated it. That is the word I was looking for.....tolorated.......why did I do this. How many others things am I going to tolerate? Homosexuality, bi-racial marriage, my child's vocabulary. I am going to promise you right now.....I will not longer tolerate this type of language around my children........I will pick up on the others later.