Thankful Thursday

In the spirit of Teacher Appreciation Week, I am going to take this opportunity to carry on about how thankful I am for the teachers involved in my children's educational journey this year. I'm feeling blessed that my kids are being well cared for by incredibly giving teachers while they are away from me for many hours each week.

My love of our chosen preschool for Mathilda (and all of our children) is no secret. I drive 10.5 miles each way, passing several other preschools along the way, to send my baby girl to the school that I know is the best choice for her. The teachers are what make her school so special. I am so thankful to my friend who first introduced me to the school, and for these two wonderful teachers who have introduced all of my children into the world of being students.

Today I had the pleasure of being a guest at preschool for Mother's Day tea, just one example of Mathilda's teachers going far and above the call of duty to make this first experience with school as special and magical as possible. The kids sang, danced, made us beautiful gifts, and served us lunch that they helped to prepare. If you follow me on Instagram, you can see some pictures. Unfortunately I remain technically challenged and do not know how to get photos from Instagram onto Blogger.

I have been so blessed this year because Connor and Lucy both have teachers who are perfectly suited to their personalities. Lucy is like a delicate, fragile little flower who needs someone gentle and sweet. She has a wonderful teacher who just gets her and treats her exactly as she needs to be treated. Connor tends to get a little frazzled and sets really high standards for himself. His awesome teacher is mellow and kind and helps keep him grounded when he starts to get wound up a little too tight. They are both dedicated ladies and I'm so grateful that my kids were assigned to their classrooms.

Connor's teacher is hosting a Mother's Day Poetry Cafe tomorrow afternoon, where all of us moms and special loved ones will get to hear our kids recite poetry that they've written themselves, and enjoy some light refreshments. Again, I know this kind of thing takes effort and time far beyond the hours spent in the classroom.

Now that Bethany is in middle school, I don't have as much interaction with her teachers as I did when she was in elementary school. But I have found all of her teachers as a whole to be very organized, helpful, and responsive. They have each helped to make Bethany's transition into middle school a very smooth one. They all keep careful track of student grades online on the Parent Portal, so it's easy to see how Bethany is doing in her classes at any given time. I realize this takes a lot of time outside of the classroom, and I'm so thankful that they take the time to do it. Bethany is the type to email  her teachers if she has any issues with homework or anything else, and they have been really good about getting back with her and addressing her concerns. One teacher even sends out frequent email updates to parents, which I absolutely love. He takes the time to let us know when big tests are coming up, when he's going to be out of the classroom, and to remind us it's time to turn in fundraiser money. As our kids get older, being involved in their education is still important. Thankfully our middle school teachers seem to understand that!

Teachers give so much of themselves to their students. They work long hours, and wear many hats throughout the school day...educator, counselor, mediator, and many more. They also spend a lot of their own money to make their classrooms inspiring learning environments. Today I'm feeling thankful for all my kids' teachers do for them.

What are you thankful for today?

Do you love your child's teacher(s)?

Are your kids doing any special Mother's Day things for you at school?

ENDED Warner Bros. Mother's Day Movie Night Giveaway

Mother's Day is coming up on Sunday, May 12. This holiday is one of my favorites because I get spoiled just a little bit, and I get to pick what we do for the day. I haven't yet decided on plans for this year, but if our rain streak continues, it might just be declared a movie day - my picks, of course!

In honor of this most special day, Warner Bros. has put together the Best of Warner Bros. Mother's Day Movie Night Blog App. Check out the Guess-the-Scene Game, Words in Film, and Movie Night Conversation Starters. Then use the Rafflecopter form (way down at the bottom of this post!) to enter to win one of the following Blu-ray classics: either A Star is Born (1976), or Caberet (1972). The winner's prize will be randomly chosen.







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...and the Mother of Year Award Slips Through My Fingers Once Again

Sometimes I am like a petulant child. That is not easy to admit, but it's the truth. I try to be flexible, and to stay positive, and to be happy. But sometimes, when things don't go my way, or the way I had visualized in my mind that they would go, I just don't flow with it very well. To put it mildly.

Today was one of those days. It wasn't a terrible day, but it wasn't what I wanted it to be, so I was ticked off all day long. All. Day. Long. I feel like there are two days in the year when I get to call the shots. One is my birthday, and the other is Mother's Day. This is probably a stupid frame of mind with which to begin any day because, number one, there are five other people living in this house; number two, four of them are children; number three, I can't control all things no matter how badly I want to believe I am entitled to do so; and number four, well, I'm a grown up and I should know better. I was so annoyed that I wasn't having the kind of Mother's Day I had been looking forward to.

Well, here's the thing I'm beginning to realize now that I'm not quite as annoyed as I was earlier in the day. I called the shots today, alright. I chose to be crabby and angry and annoyed and to cling to those feelings like a drowning man clings to a raft. I could have had a good day, a different kind of good day than the kind I wanted to have, but still good. Instead I chose to have a crappy day. I chose to be inflexible. I chose to wallow in my disappointment. Sometimes I am lead blindly by my emotions. I am caught up in a relentless tidal wave, and even though there is a part of me that knows there is a way out, I refuse to acknowledge that truth.

Nonetheless, there were a lot of good things about my day, even though I chose to hang onto the stuff that made me crazy mad and focus on those things all day. But there were good things, and right now I'm going to focus on those.

The kids woke up early, but Mattie crawled in bed with me, cuddled up, and went back to sleep. The rest of the kids left us alone until we were ready to get up.

Chris made me breakfast in bed; an omelet, cinnamon rolls, and a smoothie. He brought it at just the right time, as Mattie and I were waking up.

The kids made me nice, sweet cards. I love each of them. Really, the morning was lovely. Everyone hung around in bed with me and nibbled on my omelet and stuff.

My friend Tina delivered the new Sookie book to me, by way of our friend Aimee, so that I may read it this week before Aimee (who is the owner of the book) even gets a chance to read it. I love Tina, and seeing her smiling face made me happy.

Our moms came over, and they brought me nice little gifts. We had a good visit.

Chris made all of us a delicious dinner. It was really good, and he worked hard on it. Bethany helped a lot too.

Chris really tried to cheer me up. I remained more or less stubborn in my resolution to not be cheered, but he did try.

The moral(s) of the story is(are): My expectations are ridiculous? Maybe. I need to learn to roll with the punches? Definitely. If I want things my way so badly then I should probably prepare a little better? Yep, that too. Enjoy life and focus on the good instead of the bad? Yes! Accept that everything is not always going to end up how I want it to be? For sure!

By now you probably think I'm a complete jerk for admitting, well, that I am indeed a complete jerk. Ugh. It's embarrassing. But I'm betting I'm not the only one who has sabotaged an entire day for no good reason. Right? Right?

(awkward silence...)

Even if no one else wants to admit it, I'll take one for the team. I'll be the one to let everyone else know the truth. Sometimes I am an a-hole. Sometimes I have unrealistic expectations. Sometimes I don't appreciate the efforts of others as much as I should. Sometimes I wish I could re-do a whole day. Sometimes I feel like a massive failure of a human being.

Tomorrow is a new day. Thank goodness.

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Every Day Really Should Be Mother's Day

My days have been a blur of activity and every time I sit down to write a new post, I end up falling asleep in my chair before I even get started. And so it will continue for the next month until the long anticipated summer break begins. This weekend we will be celebrating Connor's First Communion, so that of course means a blitzkrieg of cleaning and baking and ironing (because the wet towel in the dryer trick has its limits). Today I spent some time doing a little yard clean-up, and it felt so good to be outside enjoying the warm sunshine (finally! spring in Michigan is worth waiting for!).

I know it will probably be two weeks before I get a chance to plant my garden, but in the meantime I am enjoying watching everything come back to life after the grueling winter we just endured.

Mother's Day was a nice reprieve from our crazy schedules. After blissfully sleeping in, I was served breakfast in bed, which I shared with four children who were clamoring all over me. I was treated to homemade gifts and cards from all of them, so I feel it was a fair exchange. Bethany wrote a song and sang it for me, Connor made a book about why he loves me, and Lucy made me a plate. Chris couldn't wait for Mother's Day to give me my gift, so I got my new phone a few days prior. I no longer feel like I'm living in the ice ages now that I have a Smart Phone. My only lament is really Android? No video editing apps?? (If someone knows of one, let me know! Please!)

After a lazy Mother's Day morning, we picked up both of our mothers and headed downtown for the afternoon. The plan was to park at the Riverfront, walk to the Ren Cen and take the People Mover to Greektown. After navigating our way through the maze of the Ren Cen to find the People Mover, we were disappointed to find that it was closed for the day. My blood was boiling a tiny bit because that place is so confusing, and you need a security guard to let you on the elevators, and since it was Sunday those security guards were few and far between, and taking a stroller on the escalator is a pain in the butt (and the security guards don't seem to like that, but they also don't seem to want to be bothered with letting people on the elevator). So we made our way back to the ice cream shop on the first floor and let the kids spoil their appetites by eating over-priced dessert before dinner. I didn't order Mathilda her own cone, figuring she and I could share. She was not on board with that plan, so I hurriedly ate the top and gave her the rest. The kid likes her ice cream (picture Cartman from South Park screaming "ma ice cream, MA ICE CREAM," all through Kroger, which is what Mattie sounded like the next day as soon as she saw that I put ice cream in the shopping cart. She really thought I was going to break it open and let her dig in right in the store.). Once we left the building and got back outside, I was no longer stressed and just enjoyed the leisurely walk along the Detroit River. This is one of my favorite areas downtown. I can't wait to go back in a few weeks when they'll have the fountain on and the kids can run around in their swimsuits to cool off.

A random ice sculpture. For you non-Michiganders, that's Canada across the river.

After the kids enjoyed a ride on the carousel, we drove over to Greektown and had pizza for dinner at Pizza Papalis. Last time we were in Greektown, we ate Mexican. Maybe next time we'll actually eat Greek. Mathilda slept through the entire meal and woke up screaming just as we were getting ready to leave. She is in full Terrible Twos mode (when she is not being sweet as can be and saying things like "hug" with her little arms reaching out to me, or even "I love you, Mama," because YES! she says that now!) and I felt for Chris as he drove us home while Mattie screamed bloody murder the whole way, because driving with a screaming banshee in the backseat is no picnic. Her latest party trick is getting her arms out of the car seat straps, and that's really fun while driving along the freeway. When we got home, she brought me her jammies and asked me to put Diego on for her, and all was well in the world once again.