Another First Day

Back to school.... again. I'm not quite sure where the summer went, but I do know everyone here was ready for the kids to go back. I love this time of year, and always feel a sense of excitement and renewal. Maybe that's the student in me still trying to come out. Usually about a week before the first day I start making lists of lunch box ideas, dinners to make, outfits for the kids to wear. This year I didn't.

I didn't know why this year was different. I was very laid back right up to the night before. Transition the kids back into an early bedtime? They'll adjust. Go out and get new clothes? It's hot now, and won't be in a few weeks, why bother. I was cool as a cucumber.

It wasn't until the kids had gone to bed the night before the first day that it hit me. This was the first First Day of School ever that I didn't have a child making a major transition. I actually got out a piece of paper to write it all down to make sure. Last year Noah started middle school. Before that Alanya started first grade. Before that Ben started first and Alanya kindergarten. Before that Ben started kindergarten. And so on, back through first days of preschool all the way to Noah starting school. I was sort of amazed.

So this year I have a third grader, a fourth grader and a seventh grader. All big kids. How did that happen? They all love school and are happy to be there. I must have done something right with all those lists I used to make.

What I learned in Junior High

My first child started Middle School recently, and that alone was a bit of adjustment for me. Wasn’t I just negotiating with him to leave his pacifier in the car when we went to tour preschools? Where did the time go? Even more disturbing is thinking that my little boy is being released into that horrible den of pre-teen hell called Middle School. For me it was Junior High, but it’s all the same. You couldn’t pay me to go back, not that I would ever tell Noah that. It is a rite of passage we all need to experience. The cruel twist of fate in my case is that he is going to the same school I did.

Last spring I attended a parent night and as I walked through the doors of the school for the first time in 23 years my stomach dropped a bit. It looks a little different with a new wing, and new color scheme, but so much is exactly the same. The memories came rushing back, both good and bad, but mostly the bad.

All summer it drove me crazy that all I could remember was the nasty girls, the insecurities and the teasing boys. I remember planning my outfit for the first day of school, and then once I got to my homeroom, immediately realizing I looked completely wrong; the sleepless nights; standing against the wall ready to vomit when a slow song was played at a dance. I decided to dig deep and remember some of the positives, and indeed, I did learn a few things about life in Junior High.

People can be cruel. They may regret it moments later or years later, but sometimes something can come over a person and once the words come out they can’t be taken back.
It’s never too late to apologize. When I was in college I ran into a girl from Junior High who had done something horrible to me. We stopped to say hello and to my shock, she apologized. I’m sure it wasn’t easy, but it must have been bothering her for years. I’m not sure I would have been that courageous, but she taught me it is never too late.
Challenging yourself is better than taking the easy road. In 8th grade, due to a scheduling conflict, I got put into a Social Studies class that was a level lower than I normally took. I was the teacher’s pet, got perfect grades, and barely had to lift a finger. And I was bored silly.
Life-long friendships are possible. I am still close to two of my friends from Junior High (Kelly? Mindy? Are you reading this?), and although our lives have taken us to different places and different parts of the country, when we do connect it is effort-less.
Family will always pick you up. The joke in my family is that whenever someone said or did anything hurtful to me (which happened more than necessary in Junior High) my mom and sisters would always respond with “they are just jealous of you”. It probably wasn’t always true, but it always made me feel better.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all bad by any means. I do remember being a part of the school volleyball team, the all-night slumber parties, the new independence, my first “boyfriend” and first kiss in the school gym. More than anything, I have to laugh at it all now as an adult. The things that seemed so important then are so small in the larger scheme of things. My wish for Noah is that he will figure that out earlier than later.

Congratulations Noah!

My handsome son had a promotion ceremony today as he leaves elementary school. He was one of about a dozen kids to receive a presidential award for academic excellence, all A's for both fourth and fifth grades. We are so very proud of him.

I didn't know if I would get emotional, but when all the kids stood up and sang the class song, The Climb by Miley Cyrus, Noah was looking right at me and singing and I lost it.

I know, this picture of him in catching gear has absolutely nothing to do with his promotion... but isn't he handsome? No, I'm not proud.

Another year down

Wasn't it just yesterday that I took this picture? All three of my kids getting on the bus together starting grades one, two and five. They will never all be on the bus together again, and it isn't until I write this that I realize this picture is so special. Where did the year go?

Alanya will finish first grade on Monday, and she has come a long way. It was a rocky start, but her reading has greatly improved and she will do just fine. Her teachers compliment her for contributing yet knowing when to sit quietly and listen. She is enthusiastic and has many friends. I have been joking with her this week that I spoke to the principal because I want her to stay in first grade forever. I want her to grow up, but there is something about a little girl in first grade. You just want to freeze it and keep it forever.

Ben continues to shine and second grade kept him busy as the teachers challenged him to work even harder. Some weeks he had more homework than our fifth grader, but he handled it all with a meticulous perfectionism, wanting everything to be just right. His handwriting is beautiful, and he sometimes is old beyond his years as he chit chats with adults - one of his favorite things to do. At the same time, he's still a little boy who loves a good potty joke. Ben continues to surprise me. Today he brought home a paper and he was supposed to draw a picture of himself in the future. He drew himself at a computer with a big sign over his head that says "MIT". That's Benny.

Noah is finishing his years at elementary school and will be moving to the middle school in the fall. He is my sensitive child who cries watching TV shows. He is outgoing, and a rule follower. His handwriting is atrocious, but his teachers still love him. He listens, questions and participates. Even though we call him "No" for short, he never says no when given a chance to do something at school. He worked in the school store for a month which required us to drive him to school early every day. He was a member of "the Green Team" at school to study and analyze waste in order to educate the other students on where they could make improvements. He sang in the choir and participated in Math Olympiad. He chose to participate in a competitive book club that met weekly and competed with other teams. Most memorable for me, he sat on a committee with me, teachers and administrators that presented our school for a statewide award for excellence. (We finished in the top three as a finalist) Middle school gets me nervous, but I won't have to worry about Noah. He will always find his way.

Another year gone and my little ones are not so little anymore.

Happy Earth Day!

In celebration of Earth Day, the first and second graders had to create hats made out of recyclable materials. Here were our two creations. Alanya is modeling her wreath made of newspaper with paper tulips adorning it. Benjamin went for the "let's see how much crap we can glue gun on this box" method. Both were spectacular!

I think it's wonderful that Earth Day has stretched into much more than a day promoting awareness and education on going green. Teach the children early and hopefully they will incorporate all of these ideas and philosophies into their lives. For a great series on Earth Week and how to incorporate Going Green into your home, check out Jennifer's blog Getting Ahead!

Mr. Noah goes to Concord... Part 2!

Earlier this week I wrote about Noah and I going up to Concord to present his school as one of the best in New Hampshire. (Read about it here) Well, there is good news to report! The principal was called the very next day by the selection committee and was told that our presentation had been one of the best, and we were moving on to the next phase. A site visit at the school is scheduled in a few weeks. At this point, our school is considered a finalist, and this is a big deal, regardless of the final outcome.

Noah was a minor celebrity at school this week. His name was announced over the speaker during daily announcements, and he was thanked for his hard work. He also got an official school district commendation. What I think is so exciting about this is he really gets it. He understands why this is a big deal for the school, the teachers, the principal, the PTO and the city. He took it all very seriously, and is excited at the prospect of actually winning this distinction. Stay tuned!

Mr. Noah goes to Concord

A few weeks ago, the principal from school approached me and explained that they had applied for a special state-wide award given out by the state Board of Education for excellence. One school in the whole state gets chosen and is held up as this superior example of how to run an excellent school. Well, our school made it through the initial application and had been invited to present to the selection committee up in Concord. There would be a half hour presentation and 15 minutes of Q and A. As a parent, the co-president of the PTO, and a former student, I was asked if I would be part of the presentation committee.

A week later, the principal called me and said that the committee wants a student representative to present also... a student who best represents everything that is great about our school... one who is confident... involved... well-spoken and mature... they were hoping Noah would be willing to do it. She said his name kept coming up during their meetings as a great choice out of 620+ students, and did I think he'd be comfortable doing that?? I of course was thrilled, but then was more worried about how Noah would do instead of how I would do!

Noah and I had to go to school early twice last week for meetings to prepare. He was very serious about his role, and made suggestions on how he could participate and what he could talk about. We sat down and wrote up some note cards just in case he wanted them, but we knew it would really be spontaneous questions we would have to respond to.

This morning was the big day, and this picture was taken on my cell phone shortly before going in to face the selection committee. There were six of us, the principal, Noah's teacher, myself, a guidance counselor and the school reading specialist. I immediately could tell we scored points by bringing a student, as neither the school before us or after us had a child with their group. The person in charge came over and chatted with Noah and took him to get something to eat. He came back with a chocolate croissant with powdered sugar all over it. Right as we were about to start Noah is ready to start chomping on it! I leaned over and had to whisper to him to wait until the dvd presentation began, then he'd have twenty minutes, but as soon as it was done he wasn't allowed to take another bite! Then halfway through the dvd, he starts sneezing... big juicy wet ones. I had given him two tissues in advance, but had to go digging for more in my purse. It made me smile because he is so confident and mature... but he's only a kid. A kid that wants to wolf down a chocolate croissant and wipe his nose on his sleeve!

After the dvd, the questions started and the second one was for Noah! "Noah, my daughter is about your age, if I brought her to your school, what would you say to her to convince her that your school is the best school to go to in New Hampshire?" I held my breath. I have never felt it more difficult to bite my tongue, not prompt, and let him speak for himself. I was hoping his answer would be something about the after-school academic enrichment opportunities available, or any of the other great answers we had worked on. Instead he came up with his own. "I'd tell her that the relationships between the students and the teachers is really great. We all get along really well... well, most of the time (chuckles from the grown-ups here). And I'd tell her about all the fun stuff we do at school like Pizza Night, that's my favorite." Phew! He did it. Pressure off a bit.

I got my opening when a question about getting parents involved with the school came up and I gave my schpiel. All in all, everyone had a chance to spin our own specialties, and why we were picked to participate in the first place. Near the end, Noah's teacher made an opening for Noah to talk a little bit about student opportunities, and he did well again. Before I knew it, we were packing up. They thanked us for involving a student and commended him on how well he did. I commented I was more worried than he was. "You should be very proud of him, he did a great job." That he did. And I'm glad it's over!

Love the one you're with

I wasn't sure what to title this entry, but for some reason that song "Love the one you're with" keeps popping into my head. That great song that preaches making lemonade out of your lemons. The glass is half full song has always been one of my favorites.

This has been a phenomenal winter so far. The last official total snowfall number I heard was 55 inches and we've had more since then. At school the kids have had more inside recess times than outside with the cold and windchill. For the first time ever, the school decided enough is enough. We have the snow, let's embrace it. Love the one you're with. This week is Winter Fest.

Teachers were able to sign up for a number of activities that were ongoing. Snowshoeing has been a huge hit, and the physical education teacher is now talking about getting snowshoes for the school. The kids did sledding while experimenting sliding on various things including Frisbees, their bottoms and cardboard boxes. Some classes did winter animal tracking in the woods. I was lucky enough to go in today and help Noah's class of 5th graders with snow and ice sculpture with the art teacher. The kids made all kinds of animals and colored them with spray bottles of food coloring. We had a light coating of about three inches of snow last night on top of everything else, and the sun was blazing. The kids had an absolute ball.

Winter may get us all down, but it sure can be beautiful and fun..... doo doo doo..... doo doo doo.

100 Cheerios

Minutes ago I almost killed Jason over Cheerios.

Alanya has a 100th day of school project, and part of it is counting out 100 of something. She chose Cheerios and there has been a container of 100 Cheerios on the counter for a few days. Well, I look up and Jason has the container in his hand and is shoveling a handful of Cheerios in his mouth.

You'd think from my scream that a child was bleeding. Thank goodness Alanya wasn't here to see it!

Frugal Friday #2

Last Friday I did a look back at everything I had done that was frugal over the course of the week. As I sit here today, I'm not sure this is going to be so easy. Last week was all about shopping, but this week was definitely not a shopping week. Probably the most frugal thing we did was Jason and I sat down this past weekend and planned our meals for the week based on things we had in the freezer and fridge, and I just picked up a few things to round it out. I knew what we would have, and it kept me out of the grocery stores all week.

Another regular money saver for us is packing lunches. I was thinking about this today as I packed up three lunchboxes (Jason packs his own). Alanya would eat hot lunch at school every day if we'd let her. When she first started school, we let her pick and choose because it was still so exciting for her to have a hot lunch. But at $2.00 a pop, that really adds up. Ben likes to say that I could feed our whole family for a week with $2.00 and a few coupons. Probably not, but he's on the right track. The rule had been two hot lunches a week, but we weren't really sticking to it. If it was a busy morning and the kids all said they wanted hot lunch, it was easy for me to agree. New rule is once a week. Period. Don't think my kids are suffering, this isn't the lunch we'd get 25 years ago in a crumpled bag. Today Ben and Alanya both had hot chili in their thermos. (I just got chewed out by them because I put the wrong thermos in the wrong box! Ben was not very pleased he had the Hannah Montana thermos, and Alanya said there was way too much chili in hers! Ooops!) We had the chili for dinner this week and it has two kinds of beans and is loaded with vegetables. Hope they aren't forever labelled in school as 'the gassy kids'. Noah took peanut butter and jelly on two leftover pancakes. For Noah it's always pb&j, it's the vehicle that carries it that changes for him.

This year while packing lunches I also changed the way I did drinks. Fifty cents to buy milk? Are you kidding me? I have reusable plastic drink boxes and they take one for lunch and one for snack. When this school year started I switched from two milks to a milk and a water. The kids stopped complaining after two days, and I save a full gallon of milk a week.

What else did we do to save a little? We moved forward with refinancing. Paid bills online. Wore warm socks and shoes and a sweatshirt while home so I wasn't tempted to turn the heat up. Threw a snack in my bag when I went out in the morning so that I wouldn't impulsively buy anything to eat. It's the little things that add up. Thanks to Jennifer at Getting Ahead for encouraging me to reflect a little!

Will my children ever go to school?

It started with the ice storm, two days of school cancelled. Then a delayed opening, another snow day. The holiday break. Monday the new year is supposed to start at school, only a delayed opening. Then today, another snow day! Alanya may be in first grade until she is 12.

If this blog had sound, you'd hear Ben and Alanya arguing over the computer right now. I think they have had enough, as have I. It's not even a good day to play outside as rain, freezing rain and sleet will be coming down all day. I'm not sure I'll make it. If I don't blog again within 24 hours, assume the worst and send in the troops!

Spelling test results are in!

Today was Alanya's big test and after days of being tested and drilled by Ben (read about it here) the results are in. She got all ten regular words correct, and although she didn't work on the five optionals, her teacher said everyone had to try them. She got both 'apple' and 'October' correct (Ben taught her to look around the room for clues, like the calendar - smart boy), for a final mark of 102%! It is already up on our refrigerator, although she did ask if we could have it framed!

Spelling Lesson or Life Lesson?

Yesterday Alanya came home with her first official spelling list. If you can remember back to first grade, can you remember how that was an exciting thing? No clue of the hundreds of spelling lists to come, she was finally "big" like her brothers. She proudly used a magnet and put that list up on the refrigerator. no. at. cat.

As she skipped off, Ben came up and looked at it with me. The spelling pro that he is being in second grade, he remembers well how the first grade list is set up - 10 words and 5 optional words for those who want to be more challenged. Ben always did all 5 optional words. He looked at the list. an. ran. man.

He took a deep breath and said, "Mom, what do you think? I think she should have one week to get used to it and not do the optionals, and then next week maybe choose one optional word to try. I think five big words is too much for her." It was true concern in his eyes as he tried to protect his little sister. He's no fool. I readily agreed that we should take some time to ease into the optional words. will. mom. dad.

Later in the evening when Daddy came home she proudly spelled October while reading it straight from her list. She was so proud of herself. Then Ben got the list down and asked if she wanted to 'play school' with her spelling words. He quizzed her, and made word scrambles, and started a word find. Alanya thought they were playing and had no idea. He really does love her.