The Woods Fam

Homework

Well, besides growing up and having to do all of my own homework, I have had two years of practice doing homework with Emma to prepare for this year. A well oiled machine? HA! First off, this is the first time I have felt like my children regressed during the summer on their knowledge and own personal skill levels. So, it's really important that they practice to improve by completing their homework.
Can you say "nightmare"? Emma argues about which books to read and always tries to pick the ones with two words on each page. It's great that she's willing to read and that there are things that she feels confident in doing but I'm trying to explain that in order to be a better reader she needs to try books with more vocabulary... Then we have a new teacher with new methods and new ways of completing homework and Emma argues with me that I'm telling her the wrong way to do it. She wants to do it how she had to last year. She tries the,"Mom, I'm getting Izzy her blanket for her. Can you write the rest of my title for me?" And then she's furious when I tell her I can't do her homework for her. Furious is what Emma seems to be a lot lately. She's indignant about many, many things. Maybe I need to obsurve how I'm responding to her...
Then there's Aiden. Homework is new to him. He's only had it twice now and it is not every day. He was actually very excited to receive his first piece of homework and talked about how he couldn't watch any t.v. or anything when we got home because he had a LOT of homework that he needed to do first. Once he got inside, however, he changed his mind. I finally got him to come start his work and he wouldn't follow a single set of directions I gave him. He tried to do the exact opposite of anything I asked and then when he was convinced he needed to color the picture part first I didn't have the patience to sit there and watch him color... very slowly... But, if I leave the table, he quits! He got me so irritated I ditched the homework. It was a Friday so there was plenty of time. Needless to say, it was too painful to get him to finish it and he was forced to tell his teacher he didn't complete it. When the next homework came home it went like this:
I ask him to bring his homework to the table which takes him ten minutes with multiple requests and multiple t.v. turn offs and steering away from the computer. Then a request for colored pencils which he swears they have to use. He can't find them. I have to get them. We sit. "Okay write your name here." "I can't remember how." "Copy this ." He falls off his chair. He doesn't write his name yet. "Trace this letter." His pencil drops. "Trace this." He flips the paper over and around and upside down. "Start right here. Trace these." "Izzy, what are you drawing?" "Aiden, focus on your homework!" Traces one. Traces another one and tries to switch pencils. "First trace all of them with one color. Then switch." Traces all 3 letters then gets a new color. Starts to color the picture very, very particularly and slowly, changing pencils very often. I stay watching however pained I feel. He can't finish coloring 'cause his hand is tired. We move on. He has to draw his own picture. Then he colors that with at least five interruptions. He moves to the last page and finishes after a total of 45 minutes at the table. Completed: 7 traced letters, 3 of his own letters, and two pictures mostly colored...
Awesome.
When it was time to read together he was being ugly about it and I told him he would have to lay on his bed while we read if he kept it up. Where was he when I was yelling over and over for him while the others and I are waiting on the couch with our books? He's on his bed! "You said I could lay on my bed if I didn't want to read!"
Screw it, man!

Heaven came down and glory filled my soul!

I have dish network. You may think , "Big deal", but I say, "Lord, the light of your love is shining." I cannot begin to describe to you the utter joy we received by pushing the menu button after months of having to flip channel after channel to find out what was on t.v. Every push of a button felt like the holy spirit filling my soul again and again and again. Hallelujah, what a Savior! And let me tell you about all those days I grabbed the remote to rewind the part of the show I just missed or to pause the t.v. and now... now I can pause. The look of the t.v. as it is suspended in mid broadcast is a feeling of pure delight. Then I get up and get myself a little snack and I walk back to that t.v. and push play. It waited for me. The little t.v. waited for me. Oh, then... then a commercial tries to entice me saying, "buy me, buy me" and I say, "Screw you little commercial. I shall skip you." And I skip, skip, skip past every commercial until my beautiful show returns to me. The refreshing, quenching feeling like taking a shower after years without water. Oh, the water... running down my face, pouring over me. My dish... Aiden looked at the new remote as it sat there next to me and he said, "We have this remote again?" And I said, "We sure do, son. It feels like home again!"

Good news/Bad news

Good news:

Happy Birthday, Ben!

You are 29 today and I'm honored to have been born the same year as you. You have to admit it's not that many of us born at the end of 78 that were able to graduate from high school in 1996. So... lucky us! You're also a fantastic guy and I'm a better person having known you these 12 years. I hope this year brings you much more than you imagined it could. I love you!Bad news:
I had a busy morning this morning and had some friends come over 45 minutes before I was suppose to meet Aiden at the bus stop. I made lunch, ate lunch, cleaned up a disaster and an hour after I was suppose to meet him I remembered him... He had to ride all the way back to school and wait in the office for me. To make matters worse his bus drives right past the church building on the rest of it's route and he started crying again when he saw it cause he knew his dad was in there. I felt horrible and cried as soon as I was out of the school office. It was so horrible and sad. Who forgets there kid a whole hour after the fact? Not five, ten minutes. An hour! I cried and carried him the whole way back to the car. The we sat in the car and he told me about the good day he had before I ruined it... Then he begged to go back home so he could play with his friends that were waiting. I suck.

Aiden's first day of Kindergarten

This lay out is a little peculiar but this is Aiden's first day of school. He was brave and went right into his class. He rode the bus with Emma and then daddy met him at the school to help him find his class. His teacher's name is Mrs. Fraanzman. He rode the school bus home on his first day and was so late getting to the bus stop that I knew something must have gone wrong. They ended up arriving 35 minutes after the scheduled time but he was as smiley as ever! When he was telling me about his day he said he had a new friend but he didn't know his name. He also said that his friend liked to give thumbs up just like him. Maybe he'll figure out his name soon. :)

Gilead

Our church has a book club. It's comprised of women and we meet once a month. Gilead is the book we are reading this month and was Ben's only suggestion per our request. I have not started it yet but I will by the end of the week. We like to pick different genres every time. I'd really like to read Blue Like Jazz next because a lot of people have read it and I've even heard the guy speak but haven't read it yet. If you have suggestions feel free to comment.

Emma's first day of school in Washington

She was excited and woke up with more than enough time to get ready. We took her to school in time for breakfast and I stayed and sat with her. She did great and was brave. Tomorrow she'll ride the bus to and from school.

Aiden won't start 'til Friday and Emma will be able to eat breakfast with him to show him the ropes. His teacher will ride the schoolbus with them on there trip home after lunch. He's very excited.

#2,#3

I win!

I firmly believe that Bellingham, WA has more drive thru coffee places than the Portland/Vancouver area per capita! To prove it I will start taking a picture of everyone I see and I will not duplicate any one spot. That does not mean there will not be multiples of a chain coffee place. I did not take this picture but I will allow it represent the one on Sunset...

#1

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

The greatest series ever. At least, I think so. I'm happy, my kids are happy. I feel complete. My kids have their mother back and my husband has a wife again. No more books to get a hold of. No more death... (At least we all hope.) Only laundry and dishes and my family and sweet Jesus. I wish I could talk about the book but I wouldn't ever want to ruin it for anybody.

My kids start school next week. We're all excited. I'll take pictures and post them. Until next time...

Softball

Remember when I said I like balls? I like softball. A few weeks ago for our Wednesday night church we met at the park and played softball together. The last bit we let all the kids take turns batting and running the bases. It was so cute watching them try and hit the ball. Then, as soon as they hit it we would scream, "RUN! RUN!" and they'd run for dear life. They had a blast. Here are pictures of my kids taking a turn.

I love that I have my own mit. The first mit I owned got left at Delano Bay by Adam Langford the weekend we had Izzy and the Langfords took care of the high school retreat for us. This is my second one and it definitely didn't get used enough this summer. That's for sure. I need to to throw a ball today. I won't because it's raining but maybe tomorrow. Let's have a ball throwing day tomorrow. How many of you will throw a ball? I will!

More pictures and an update

We had a fun weekend this last weekend. Our friends Christy and Cheryl from Oregon came with there five kids collectively and stayed from Thursday night to Sunday afternoon. We took Kaylin and Blake's pictures while they were here as well as a picture of my kids all together which is a most difficult project when the mother is the photographer! It was so great having all of them!

After they left we took a family nap together and I woke up feeling a little under the weather. Turns out I ended up feeling a lot under the weather and threw up three times during the night and once in the morning. I felt completely horrible for most of the day yesterday with my head pounding and my stomach and back aching like crazy. Emma was so sweet and fixed the kids' breakfast. Ben had no clue I was sick and got up early for a 7:30 meeting. He came home later in the morning and brought me saltines and gatorade and fed the kids lunch.. After another meeting he came back and took care of the kids who were destroying the house (in a creative way) and gave them some more food and a little extra guidance. Once I was feeling stable enough and brave enough to try tylenol on a slightly empty stomach, I felt so much better. I think I am on the up swing now but will definitely stay in today and be still as much as possible. Time to have some toast!

Jessica's Photo Shoot

The Winner!

Well, if you didn't get to vote, I'm awful sorry. But the winner is...
...in this order...

Chelan Metcalf, earning first place with... the tree base...

Jennifer Ries, in second place with... sailboats...

and Chelan Metcalf, in third place with... the rowboats

Thanks for playing. Good night and good luck!

Friendly photo contest

So, my friend Chelan came to spend the day with me and we had an impromptu photo contest. We both shot an even number of pictures and now you will be the judge as to the true winner. Please pick your top three and we will narrow it down to the blue ribbon winner. Don't try and figure out who shot which pictures. There's no playing favorites in this game! Enjoy and vote with confidence!

Suggestions?

Alright. I need some advice. This is my front door. To the left is a covered car port. There is cement and wall. How can I make my front door area welcoming and pretty when I don't have dirt or rain or sun? What do I do with that empty
space next to the door? There will be a surprise for the best and least expensive idea...

A little of this and a little of that...

So, I'm not so glum any more and I thought it necessary to post anew.

This is Ben. He's away this evening spending time with friends in Portland for a wake on behalf of their good buddy Adam. I'm glad he's able to be there.

While he's been gone I've done some things around the house that really needed to get done! We have a downstairs. There are stairs that go down and then there's a door... That's pretty much it. We can stow some of our precious belongings on the other side of that door but other than that you'd probably rather turn right back around and go up the stairs again. Well, those stairs have been littered with boxes and knick knacks that we just don't need around right now or just don't have a home in the "real" part of the house. They all did have one thing in common... They needed to fit together in just the precise order on the other side of that door down yonder. TRICKY! Well, I did it. It's all in there. There's nothing on the stairs nor on the landing. Nada. It may not be the perfect order and the boxes may not be labeled as to the randomness within the box but gosh darn it nobody can see my crap because it's all hidden away! It feels good. Real good.

The other thing that I will do in the morning is vacuum. I do like to vacuum. it's one of my more likeable jobs around the house. (Not like the dishes which, with a dishwasher, aren't half as bad!) It might not seem very exciting to you that I'm vacuuming but we don't own a working vacuum so we have to borrow one EVERY time. It's nice that we have carpet that hides just about everything, except for the kids' carpet which is a nice shade of white. Big bummer. When we do get a vacuum we're going with an Oreck. We think they're good. I'll make sure to take a picture of it when we get one... in like two months. Until then it will be a vacuuming frenzy on the occasional "Borrowing Day". What's your more enjoyable task around the house? Hope this post was more cheerful. Until next time!

Grumbly thoughts

You may have been a looker but you're sure not a poster so I'm moving on!

I have to confess I'm a little grumpy so if I sound ugly just assume I have the best intentions.

I got a piano tonight. I'm really happy. I couldn't play it very much before it got too late so that sucks. It's old and pretty and the tips of the keys aren't all broken off like my old piano. That's good. I want to write lots of songs. Hopefully I will.

I just read the fifth Harry Potter book and it wasn't the most uplifting. Death sucks. Loss sucks. Being stuck in a hard place sucks. In Harry's life and in my own... At least I'm not Harry... That's good. I've got parents and a great family. Nobody wants to kill me. Oh, and I'm not in school anymore! That's always good!

Since I was in such a sad place after finishing the book I thought, "Hey, I might as well watch the East County Memorial service for Adam now..." but I couldn't find it... Oh, well. I'm sure I'll come across it when I'm very cheerful and decide to put it off again... Figures.

I'll post a picture of my piano when I feel like it...


Or you all could get up here and visit me. My mom is the only one off the hook. (And Jess because that would be evil of me!)

Camping at Lake Chelan

If you were expecting an actual picture of Lake Chelan you'll just have to look on the internet. My camera is too heavy for me to carry around all the time! Here is a picture of Izzy with her friend Victoria.Here is the fire master

This is Emma with her summer friend, Kelsey, who left to travel back to her home in Texas. We are thankful Emma got to be with her for the short time they had.

Ben washing dishes. I didn't wash a single dish... Lucky me...

The kids had fun drawing each others outlines with chalk. There were dead bodies everywhere!

We had a great time. The weather wasn't as hot as we expected but we made due and played games under canopies when necessary. We went tubing and rented a jet ski. We spent time together and ate together. Good times.

Camping

I love camping. I grew up going camping and have taken my children camping since they were babies. Some of the best camping trips are doing nothing. Lounging on the hammock or reading a good book (well, not with young children around...)

I have so many great memories of camping and some not so great memories. I hate waking up soaked and freezing and feeling so desperate to sleep that I'd scoot as far away as I could from the puddle soaking into my sleeping bag instead of figuring out a new situation in the middle of a cold, dark night. I remember putting layers and layers of clothing on my little babies, socks over there little hands, because I knew they wouldn't keep there covers on. And there's the evenings when it gets cold enough that you'd sooner choose the warmth of a sleeping bag at 8pm rather than shiver by a fire. Then, of course, you wake up with your butt hitting the hard ground when it should have been high above it on a fully inflated air mattress. There's also the question of whether or not to share covers with your spouse or be in your own sleeping bag... Good times.

The there's the entertainment of animals nearby. The squirrels, the raccoons, the occasional deer, the skunks and a bear if you're really lucky! There's the campgrounds where you have to keep your food and even your toiletries in the car for fear of dangerous beasts intruding into your perfect vacation. We've woken up to the sounds of exploding pop cans. Then sending Ben into the darkness to scare away the raccoons who were not at all scared to be there. And you have to be careful, of course when leaving your campsite, to put up everything from lunch lest it be stolen by birds and squirrels. Fun...

What about food? Are you a simple, quick meal planner or do you make more elaborate meals than you would in your own kitchen, with your dutch ovens and your hot coals? Have you had a delicious cobbler for dessert after a great steak dinner or do you hot dog it and finish the meal off with the last bit of your Coke or Dr. Pepper? Quesadillas or peanut butter and jelly? We've done it all.

And then there's camping in a tent trailer which we acquired not too many years ago. Ahh, the feeling of being off the ground... It's nice, isn't it? Even the convenience of sitting on the side of your bed without your knees at your chest is refreshing. Now, I do like the tent trailer but am I not being consistent if I think that motor homes and campers aren't quite "camping"? Don't get me wrong, I love them. I love looking inside all of them and the electricity and the luxury is fantastic but if that's the only way you've ever camped then that's plain cheating!

On Thursday we leave for our church campout at Lake Chelan. We will be tenting it and dutch ovening it. I am very excited and anticipate when I will be done packing and can just enjoy sitting and fellowshipping with our newly found friends. Think of me and I'll pretend you're camping with me.