Tag Archives: Michael

21
May
2013

Mini Gardener

By: Megan

In just a few months Elise will start preschool. I will miss my constant companion. She rarely misbehaves when we are out running errands. In fact, I think she enjoys a trip to Target almost as much as I do. Maybe she loves errands because when she is sitting in the cart facing me she has my full attention. She jabbers on about this and that and I talk to her about the virtues of Greek yogurt over the ones with the cartoon packaging. We give and take, her and I. I will miss her but I am also so excited for her to start school. She loves to be around people even though she can be quite shy. She is always asking to go to drop in care at the Y, “Play with friends at Kids Stuff?!”

Bittersweet is this whole raising children thing.

Yesterday Michael chose a career path and Patrick was invited to a birthday party. They grow up so quick. All three of them pissed me off to the point of giving me a stress migraine at swim lessons last night but after dinner (which they didn’t like so they went to bed with only a few cherries in their bellies) Michael helped clean up toys without a complaint. Patrick scrubbed the kitchen table and chairs clean, which is helpful for me and fun for him because he gets to use the coveted squirt bottle. He was even kind and generous enough to let Elise work alongside him. Although at one point he said, “I know! How about I squirt and Elise scrubs!” Tim and I both replied “No.” in unison from the kitchen sink where we were finishing up the dishes.

They grow up so quickly.

So today, while looking over the following photos, I am making a pledge to myself. I will do my best to keep perspective about how fleeting this time with them is. Yes they can be little shits but they are our little shits and I want to soak up as much time with them as I can before they realize that I am just a Mom who blogs instead of doing laundry and I am not the all-knowing, Super Woman they think I am. Also… I am going to make myself take even more photos because I seriously  don’t want to forget the day that Elise and I bought flowers for the front yard while wearing a hand-me-down sweatshirt from her brothers.

I also don’t want to forget that she chose a $2 watering can that was pink with purple stars on it as a reward for being such a patient helper while I loaded bags and bags of rock onto a flat-bed. Or how clever she thought she was when she learned how to use the rain barrel I installed.

And boy was she mad when she tried to carry the over flowing watering can over to her newly potted flowers and all the water kept spilling out.

She was concentrating so hard, and was so frustrated that she gave me the stink eye when she saw that I was documenting her trials and tribulations.

In the end there was enough water in the can to get this shot.

But by the time I moved around to the other side of her, the watering can was empty.

She filled her can, frustratingly carried it the 5 feet from the rain barrel to the flower-pot a dozen more times before she was content that her flowers were sufficiently hydrated before she would come inside for lunch.

Yeah. More photo taking, more time with kids because they grow so quick.

20
May
2013

Career Day

By: Megan

Friday I do my weekly, get what I need to make through to big grocery shopping day shopping at Target. While we are in Target I tend to wander the isles with Elise because… Target is awesome and I love everything there. Plus, this past Friday, we had time to kill between Elise’s swim lessons and PJ’s Preschool Graduation. I got what I needed and then we swung through the kids clothes sections and hit up the clearance racks for play clothes because the sandbox, while awesome, lends itself to the kids needing at least one extra set of clothes a day and I didn’t want to spend big money on clothes that would be the go-to sand and summer fun clothes.

While weaving through the racks with the world’s biggest shopping cart that Elise insists on riding in, I saw something that I had never seen at Target before, Minecraft tees. This is huge people. My kids LOVE Minecraft. All three of them. Elise likes to have someone build her pink houses and then fill the pink houses with pigs and sheep. Michael has built condos and explored caves while battling creepers. Patrick… well he likes to build sculptures and blow them up with TNT.

For those who haven’t heard of MInecraft…. Minecraft is like Legos but with a never-ending world to explore. The game is made of blocks and each block can be moved and placed. You have to mine for resources and plant wheat and raise cows for food. It is like pioneering but with zombies. Michael’s school is even offering a few different Minecraft classes this summer for varying age levels. (click and down load the summer Youth program to see classes on everything from video game design to robotics to music and sports classes) It really is a great game.

Of course, I bought shirts for everyone. Even Elise got a boys size XS shirt that she wore with leggings all Saturday. The boys wore their shirts to bed on Friday and then all day Saturday. They only took them off because I promised them that I would wash them and they could wear them on Monday to school.

Fast forward to this morning. Shirts were clean and laid out the night before. Michael already had his on along with his Minecraft sweatshirt I made him for Christmas 2 years ago when I came down stairs. He was PUMPED to show his friends his shirt.

Then as I was loading lunch boxes into backpacks I remembered…. It is  spirit week at both the boys’ schools….Today at Michael’s school it is “Career Day-Dress like what you want to be when you grow up”

SH!T! DOUBLE SH!T!

This lightbulb moment happened at 8:35am and the bus comes at 9am. Awesome. So I braced for the worse and started into a spiel about Spirit Week and started to work some Mom spin/hype magic. If advertising or publishing companies ever wanted to learn from masters they need look no farther than a time crunched Mom trying to sell her kid an idea she knows they will resist. We are spin magicians. Halfway through my impromptu spin campaign I could already see that he was starting to recognise that he would have to change out of his Minecraft shirt but I could also tell that he was coming around to the idea of “wearing a costume all day at school and pretending to be a grown up! How cool is that. You are so lucky!!!”

I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up as soon as I saw him start to get interested in “wearing a costume.” He didn’t answer. I thought I blew my timing and I would have to deal with sad sad tears that were my fault because I promised him something and now I was taking it away. The seconds turned to minutes and let me tell you what…. I had to resist every temptation to start giving him options of careers I knew I could throw together quick. If he said Weather Man (like he did on his first day of Kindergarten) I would be fine. I knew he had a button up shirt and tie hanging in his closet. Done and Done. I began praying- Please say Weather Man. Please God let him say Weather Man. Anything beyond that… well lets just say the creative genius side of me isn’t an early riser… I would have been up shit creek.

He looked around, furrowed his brows, pursed his lips and stood quietly. I was just about to ask him again so I could start the mad dash to dig for some random clothing item when he said, “Can I just play video games when I am grown up?”

I told him no that wasn’t a job and he had to choose a job. Quickly.

It was now 8:39 and I was ready to turn him into a weather man whether he liked it or not and then he said in a hopefull voice, “What if I make the video games? Is that a job?”

I looked at him in his Minecraft t-shirt and his Minecraft sweatshirt and said, “Yes Michael it is. Get your shoes on and I will tell you all about a guy named Notch.”

PARENTING WIN! We were out the door in minutes, on the front lawn talking about Notch and  we had time to spare. TIME TO SPARE. By the time the bus pulled up he had his future all planned out. He will work at Nintendo for a bit because he really likes Super Mario Brothers but when he wants a break from Mario he will go work for Notch at Minecraft.

He is awesome. Tim and I made that kid.

14
May
2013

Easy Reader

By: Megan

Before school Michael reads his early reader book. Twice a week he turns in one of these books and brings a new one home. The first ones he brought home had three word sentences that he struggled through. He is now reading paragraphs and doesn’t sound like a robot. I am amazed at how far he has come in just a few short months. Sky is the limit for this kid. Although Tim would be quick to point out that Astronauts don’t limit themselves to just they sky….

12
May
2013

Mother’s Day Project

By: Megan

I love you Mom. Thanks for all that you have done and continue to do for me. You always answer your phone when I call, even when you are a work. You have patiently recited the recipe for scalloped corn every time I call and complain that my Better Crocker cookbook is missing one page and it is the scalloped corn page. I love you.

Today we are spending the day building a sand box. I get to do a project, the kids are helping out and when it is done (in theory) the kids will play nicely in the sandbox with little supervision  It is a Mother’s Day project that keeps on giving.

We are using cedar so we don’t have to deal with sealing, staining or painting it for years to come. Also, pressure treated wood isn’t ideal for kids because of all the chemicals that are used to… well, pressure treat it. The downside to using cedar is that it is spendy. We priced out the wood needed for the sandbox with cedar boards and it was $150.We were not going to compromise on the cedar so we looked for another option. Just so happens the same amount of 1×6 6 foot boards of cedar fence posts cost only $34. The only difference it that the fence posts would need some sanding. We bought a couple of packs of 80 grit sandpaper for $3 a piece and got to work. By taking the extra step of sanding we were able to save $110 and when you have 54 square feet of sandbox to fill with sand every extra dollar saved helps fill the sandbox a few square feet deeper.

 Patrick help sand too but he required more supervision so I wasn’t able to snap any photos. Patrick and power tools, even cheap, low voltage power tools without sharp points, is a scary concept. He did do great work with the mallet though. Smashing things is his forte.

Look at that almost smirk. He really does love to smash.

Tim helped with the last few hits.

Elise wasn’t very helpful with the building process. She did however get the rocks mowed, so that is one chore I can take off my to do list.

We bought 20 bags of sand from Menards where they were selling them for 2 for $3. We bought 20 knowing it wouldn’t be enough to fill the sandbox but it would be enough to turn our van into a low rider. 20 bags of sand is heavy!

SAND! This expression is why we did this on Mother’s Day. Nothing could make me happier after the last few very challenging months weeks with Patrick than to see this kind of pure joy radiating from him.

Tim used the wheelbarrow that we bought back when we did our first yard project 5 springs ago. We bought our home in the middle of winter. This mound is what was under the snow in the backyard. There was also a 15 inch dug out drop off that spanned the back of the yard (you can see some of the ledge in the upper right hand corner of the photo. This weekend’s project was much more fun and we were able to complete it in one weekend.

This is now the view from our basement office window. I can blog, Pinterest, edit photos or sew while my kids play just a few yards from me. Tim and I both have very fond memories of giant sandboxes in our respective backyards. We both remember playing for hours building little cities and giant castles. Nothing is sweeter than seeing your child play like you did as a child.

This has been my favorite Mother’s Day yet. I slept in until 9. I got to play in the sun. I built something with my kids and husband. I took a long, long, long hot shower and no one banged on the bathroom once. I didn’t do dishes but the kitchen is clean. The kids went to bed without a fuss and I got to drink a beer and eat some pizza while watching one of Tim and my favorite shows. Thank you Tim for the perfect day. I feel loved. I am blessed.

a few more pics here.