Life in the Crater house. . .

Why is 3rd grade so hard?   Thomas is learning his clock stuff.  How to tell time, how to write it, and how to figure out the degrees.   I do not remember this degree stuff.   Mark was talking with a friend that lives in Wake county and he said his 3rd grader was just now learning multiplication tables and was up to 5's.   Thomas and his class finished multiplication before Christmas.   Not to say that he knows them all well but, he has been tested on them all.  
Mark will not be home for dinner tonight so we are having Alfredo (homemade) with whole wheat pasta.  Yummmmm!!  I do love my Alfredo sauce.  I have two different ones that I make.  One is very fatty, that is the one we are having tonight, the other is much less fatty.  Both very good just differ in calories and fat content.  Mark has been on a low carb to no carb diet since October due to his A1C.  It is now back under control but he is still doing the low and no carb thing.  This is frustrating since I love carbs, pasta especially.  The kids are excited since Alfredo is their favorite and we have not had it since October.

Confirmation. . .

Jack began Confirmation classes on Sunday morning.  I am very excited for him.  He is also very excited.  I dearly love our Interim Preacher who is teaching this class.  He is like a big ole teddy bear.  He knows the Bible inside and out and I think Jack is going to learn a lot from him.   I don't know a lot about confirmation since I grew up Baptist.  I converted to Moravian after Mark and I were married almost 19 years ago.  Since we have not had anyone go through it recently I feel a little lost.  Cameron was the last one to go through Confirmation and that was probably 15 years ago.   This is going to be an exciting journey for us all. 
Stay tuned. . .

Stay at home VS. Working Moms. . .

Ok, right before I was rushing out the door to get in that car rider line the other day Anderson Cooper came on with his talk show.  He had stay at home Moms VS. working Moms.  One of the working Moms said, "Stay at home Moms are lazy."  So needless to say, I was a little late for the line up.  Those of you that may not know I am a stay at home Mom and have many friends that work and many that stay at home.  I have been on both sides of this argument myself.  I do believe it is quite an assumption for this person to jump, that stay at home moms are lazy.  I admit I have my days when I could be lazy as I am sure we all do. 
I have been on both sides of this argument as I said before.  When I had Jack I owned my own business and Jack stayed with me for the first 7 months in my office.  That was very nice and I am glad I did not have to take him to daycare for those first months.  I am also glad I was able to go back to work.   At 7 months Jack got very mobile and had to go to daycare.  I was sad but he went to a nice place where he was the only baby and got all the love and attention he could stand.  Naturally I felt a little guilty and felt that everyone was judging me to be a money hungry, career oriented, neglectful mother.  These are my feelings and my projections about me.  No one ever said these things to me,  these were things I had floating around in my head.  Once I had Thomas three years later it was too costly for two in daycare so I closed my business and stayed home.  I loved what I did but I believe the choice I made was the best for me.  I am truly thankful, that money wise, it works for our family.  Now I have the other things floating around in my head:  What, you don't work?  Are you stupid? Can you not hold down a job?  Are you lazy?   Once again these are my thoughts no one has ever said these things to me.  Some days I wish I had my resume typed on a card so that when people ask; What do you do? I could just whip it out.  Some days I want to rattle off my resume so that people know I do have a brain and I can do other things besides take my kids to school and do laundry.
I do not judge mothers.  I don't care if you stay home or if you work.  I just hope what ever you are doing it makes you happy.  I think we, as women, put more pressure on our selves than anyone else would ever do.  Just like the thoughts I have floating around in my head  about me.  I am pretty sure no one would ever think those things about me much less say them to my face. 

School. . . today

Jack had a really hard day today at school.   He came home in tears and said, "my teachers hate me."  Now Jack is not my emotional child he does not cry easily.  I looked at him real funny and asked him why he thought that.  He said they all fussed and yelled at him today for no reason.  If you know Jack he does give plenty of reasons to fuss, I am not so sure about the yelling part.  I tried to go deeper to find out what really had happened.  He was accused earlier this week of calling a girl a "Freak".  He did not do this of course.  He and the young lady were talking and he said she was a "neat freak".  You can guess the rest.  Yes, someone over heard them talking and said, Jack called "Sally" a freak.  Well that just escalated and I got ambushed in the car rider line by the teachers.  The teachers told me Jack called a girl a "Freak" and they said the girl was visibly upset by it.  Naturally, my motherly instinct was to talk to Jack and get the whole story.   The whole story is he said she was a "neat freak".  I talked with Jack and explained that you do not call people names at all.  He understands this.  He is not a mean kid, he does not call people names except his brother.  I told him he should go to this girl and apologize to her and let her know he was sorry if he hurt her feelings,  The next day I asked him what she said.  He said she was fine and she was not upset with him and that she was a "neat freak".  I asked Jack if those were her words and he said yes they were.
Being the Mama Bear that I am and feeling my child got the raw end of the deal here I wrote the teachers an email.  I was very nice and I merely pointed out  the above.  I have not had a response from them but then of course why would they email me back to have to admit they were wrong.
Jack is a lot of things but, mean and a name caller he is not.  Certainly not to one of his friends, which this little girl is.
I ask you today to please pray for Jack and his teachers and that God will take this off of his heart and their hearts.  Jack and I have already prayed today for this but every little bit helps.  You know I am a firm believer in prayer.   Thank you.

Sunday Morning. . .

Thomas went to bed sick on Saturday night so it was a given he would not be going to Church on Sunday.  I had Godly play and Board installations so I was going and that meant Mark would be home with Thomas.  Did not get much sleep worrying if Thomas would be up sick during the night.  Needless to say we had a groggy start to our Sunday morning.
We are trying to grow our congregation so I have been working on getting to Church for Sunday School and setting a better example for my kids.  I get Jack up to get ready for Sunday School and the groaning begins, but Mom I don't want to go to Sunday School.  Most kids are like this.  Mine never want to get up in the morning.   Well, the groaning and complaining hit my hot button.  I began my rant with the fact there are people that are forced not to go to Church and are unable to worship their God in public or private for fear of death.  I told him he was being disrespectful to me and to God and that while he was in the shower he should pray for forgiveness.  Not from me but from God.  Yeah, I know, I may have been a little hard core.  I am just sick and tired of hearing the groaning over every little thing and when you start complaining about Church that is too much for me to take. 
So I did not hear any more of that for the rest of the day.  I had several things I had to get out of the car so I sent Jack on in the building and told him I would see him after Church.  Board members sit together for Board installation and then I had to go out for Godly play so Jack would be sitting with his Memaw during Church.  I had three of the sweetest little girls in my class for Godly play and I think I learned as much as they did.  After Church the parents or siblings come and pick up the kids from Godly play and Jack came to get me.  After the kids had gone Jack announces, Mom we have to be here every Sunday for Sunday School.  I had the best time.  I looked at him and smiled, and said, the Lord works in mysterious ways.   I proceeded to explain to the lady that had helped me with Godly play the whole story of our morning escapades.  She laughed and said the same thing.  Jack just sighed and said, I know mommy.
On the way home he talked about how much fun Sunday School was and how he had to be there every Sunday from now on.  He acted as if he would miss something if he was not there.  I am so thankful to the lady that is teaching his class.  I am also thankful for the other kids in his class.
I am so thankful that the good Lord is allowing me to see my child grow in this manner.  Whenever I am down or doubtful he shows me he is still there working as hard as he can.  For this I am truly thankful.