The life of a mountain Mommy, staring Cole & Tyler - We4do4H's Blog - Raising Bakersfield

Lunch time rules at school

Do your children have lunch time rules at school - they have to sit quietly at their table and eat, then be excused by the teacher or principal before they can go outside to play? Our school doesn't, grant it our school is only 19 pupils, but still there should be some rules. The kids eat if they want and then just get up and play. Sometimes I don't think Cole eats his lunch, he swallows it whole and he plays around. Since school started we have had problems with him playing at the table, for any meal, laughing, dancing, making body noises. And when we try to discipline him for it he just laughs at us. I'm not sure if it's the school attitudes or a rebellious stage because I'm gone at work more now and he's feeling left out of things. He very seldom goes to town with me anymore, I try to do everything while he is in school - which is darn near impossible on an easy shopping day, much less on a really full day. Am I worrying over nothing?

The things mothers say!

I was telling my mom about my friend offering to keep Tyler all day on Tuesdays when I work at the school, then keep Cole after school so I could go to town and do my shopping, she told me I couldn't do my shopping in half a day and that having the kids together for a whole day isn't a good idea b/c they would get tired of each other. When I do playdates that only leaves half a day to do my shopping, so what's the difference? One I won't have kids with me and can move faster, dont' have to stop for lunch, can make bathroom trips lost faster without having to haul the kids out of the shopping cart or into the largest stall so we all fit (I will not leave the boys outside the stall door, that freaks me out). I swear, sometimes my mother can be so darn negative it's irritating. I need to keep a journal so I won't tell her things, which makes her mad when I don't tell her things. Having your parents live 1/3 of a mile away isn't always a good thing!!! Deep breath, again and again. Let it all flow out. Now down to business - fold laundry and I still have the 4H budget to do, it was due on the 17th of October - only a little late for me!!

Are playdates that important???

I'm debating the once a week playdate thing. Now that Cole is in school, he gets home about 3pm, my trips to town have become very rushed (which would explain why I forget things even when they are on my list!) and exhausting. Tyler and I do a MOMS Club playdate on Wednesdays in Porterville, though we don't go every week, I try for at least 2 a month if possible. But that takes an hour to drive to P'ville, 2 hours for the playdate (10-12), then hurry through the stores to get my groceries, etc., and rush up the mountain to try and make it home before Cole gets here. I have to leave P'ville by 2pm to beat him home, so that gives me 2 hours to shop and feed Tyler. It's always rush rush rush and I'm just not sure it's worth it after all. My neighbor and I switch Tuesday to be the class aide for the K-1 group at school and she mentioned keeping Tyler all day on Tuesdays if I wanted to go to town after I was done at the school (we only work from 9-12), then Cole would get off the bus at her house too with her son. She has a 4 and 2 y/o still at home, so Tyler gets to play with them every Tuesday. But that would mean only going to town every other week, I wonder if I could make it that way or not. It would be easier to go to town without Tyler and it would safe gas money if I only went twice a month if possible.

Am I stressing too much over all this, are playdates important to a 3 year old?

Life on the mountain come fall time

After a hectic start to school this year things are finally getting into a routine (then Christmas break will come and throw everything off again!) I tried several different routines for things, down to emailing my grocery list to my cell phone (bad idea when you don't get reception on the mountain to check things). Finally I resorted to my old fashioned hand written calendar & list (DH says I'm the queen of list).

But this past week I made 2 trips to Bakersfield and still forgot stuff, my mom finished some last minute shopping for me Friday while she was in town. My little Tater Tot (Tyler) turned 3 yesterday and we had his birthday party here on Sunday. I forgot hamburger meat and buns, chips, pasta salad stuff - I'm surprised I remembered the decorations. Talk about a headache for me that weekend. But in my own defense I will say I had a class Monday in town from 6-10 and left the mountain later than planned (about 3 hours later - at least 2 shopping stops wasted), I've had a whole lot on my mind between personal matters, the kids, and the ever present $$$$ concerns of a family.

Every weekend from now til about Christmas time has something going on, even if it's only 1 day of the weekend - makes it very hard to get things done, plus I work every other weekend. On Saturday the real estate office held open houses so that took up my afternoon, then I had a cake to make and decorate, dinner (cheated - we went out for dinner!), laundry and I had to work Sunday morning before the party. At least majority of my house was cleaned on Friday, I only needed to dust and put things away Sunday morning.

Whew, I needed to express some frustations - I feel better now!!

We're still up here!

Things up on this mountain have been crazy for the last month, but I think it's finally starting to settle down. My work scheduled has finally worked itself into a routine, I work 4 days a week every other week basically. It just happens to be a Monday, then Fri-Sunday of the same week. So Tues, Wed. and Thursday are my days to clean, do laundry, and grocery shopping. It's hard to squeeze a weeks worth of stuff into three days so that I'm not booking myself on a day that I work, and it's torture to myself, but unfornately that's how my life works sometimes.

We were able to save our 4H club, we are now a Cloverbud run club (5-9 y/o), but it was a lot less stress after the first meeting was done. I was able to delegate the next months lessons and activities to three other moms so I don't have to plan every little detail.

And here in the near future I'll be working at the school two or three times a month, I'm going to share a Tuesday with another mom, so I'll have her kids while she works at the school and she'll have my youngest while I work at the school. It works great for our schedules and still gives us the opportunity to be at the school with our sons. Oh and we have 6 news kids in the last 3 weeks, so our enrollment is up to 16 I think.

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It's the first day of school on the mountain!

It's official, I'm now part of the schooling community. Cole proudly stepped on the school bus this morning, gave his bus driver a hug, took one picture for mom and sat next to his friend in the front seat, all the while talking 90 miles a minute. BUT, Mommy didn't cry like everyone thought I would. I think daddy might have teared up a little, it was Tyler who cried and cried and screamed for his Coley. I think mostly b/c he wanted to ride the bus with him, not so much that he is gone for the day, but you never know what those 2 year old minds are thinking.

And to add to Tyler's missing his brother today he's going to a Women's luncheon with me - just what every boy wants to do!!

I'm lost, we got up on time this morning and everyone was dressed and eating breakfast before 7:30, but so far I haven't done much else. I have laundry to do and finish cleaning the house before I pick up my mom and m-i-l at 11:30 for the luncheon, better get after it I suppose.

Special things my sons do.

Okay, Tyler is downstairs again in the potty - I can't even get a post typed out before he says he has to pee again.

But that is not what this post was about. Do you ever let your kids wash your feet while they are taking a bath? I sometimes use their bath time as a relaxing foot massage for mommy time. The boys love to wash my feet and play "doctor" as Cole calls it. He'll put a washcloth over my leg and the toy frogs under it to "heal" my wounds or aches. It really is relaxing, if you can handle their slight touching that tickles. If I'm lucky after their bath they rub lotion on my feet too. I know this sounds funny reading it, but there is a point to it all. Do you ever get near someone and get that tingly feeling on the back of your neck or have the hairs on your arms stand up? I've always been told that that feeling is the energy you are receiving from a person, somone who obviously has lots of good energy surrounding them. That's the feeling I get from Cole when he's rubbing my feet/legs, and that motherly wish for my child to be a doctor when he grows up starts working.

We're 5 for 5 so far....

Tyler has made it to the potty 5 times so far today and has peed every time. He's even come down stairs twice to tell me he has to go pee - it's a miracle!!!! I'm so happy, and of course I bought a box of pull-ups yesterday at Costco - might be giving those away to anyone with a boy pretty soon.

Okay make that 5 1/2 - he went poop and didn't even fuss about it, he flushed and pulled his undies back on, he skipped the wiping part but that's okay, mommy can fix that. I'm just so excited - I'm hoping it clicked in his little brain that he needs to go potty in the toilet and then we're closer to that Disney trip.

I want a kitchen make-over

There are several rooms in my house that could use a make-over, or just a finished project. But all the HGTV shows are for the LA area only, and that just irritates me. I'd really like someone in an "A" frame house to have a make-over so I could get some ideas with limited space and very few vertical walls. Jason, maybe that's an idea for a future promo or something - there has to be some local designers/contractors willing to do something to promote their business and think outside the box (literal translation since I don't have a "box" home). Maybe I just need to stop watching these programs, it's not like I don't have anything else to do all day.