Kids and Garden and Stuff

When he moved from TX to VA in November, 2009, Broadway was thrilled to learn his new high school has JrROTC. He doesn't even mind that it's Air-Force ROTC even though he wants to join the Army some day. His ultimate goal is to become an Army Ranger.

Needless to say, the kid LIVES for ROTC these days. They only have uniform day once a week, but I don't think he'd mind a bit if he got to wear it every day. He has been participating in tons of after-school ROTC activities, community service events and training exercises. Getting straight A's in the class is nice, but getting a ribbon or medal to pin on his uniform is a veritable Nirvana in his eyes!

Today was uniform day. He was kind enough to allow me to take a picture of him. Apparently, wearing the uniform requires a certain level of ceremony. Smiling is not part of that ceremony.

Don't mind the ugly gates in the background on the front porch. That was a feeble attempt on my part to keep The Skink contained. Much to my consternation, she figured out how to escape from mommy's dumb gate in less than 3 minutes flat. Before I knew it, she was butt-scooting down the front steps and making for the road. Of course at that point I had to figure out how to let myself out of the gate... I wasn't as quick as she was (LOL).

Iraq has fully recovered from her bout with the stomach virus, thank goodness. Unfortunately, 2 days without her medication has left her very anxious. When she got home from school, she started crying immediately and told me she did NOT know how to do her homework. I picked up the 2 sheets of homework she had and reassured her she had done the same kind of thing at least 20 times  in the last few weeks. No dice! The tears continued. Then the wailing started. *sigh*    *deep breath*

I calmly offered her the option of going up to her room and taking a nap, or sitting down quietly to do her homework.

Don't you wish it were that easy??

I always follow up with what I say... yet she always has to test the boundaries of my sanity just to make sure I still have some hint of it left.

I finally got her to sit down and look at the paper (once she decided she did NOT want to take a nap). I attempted to get her started on her math work by drawing out a number line to make adding and subtracting easier. I made the dire mistake of drawing it on one of those magnetic, erasable pads. In a huff, she erased it and screamed that she didn't WANT the help of a number line - she wanted MOM help. (Yes - and I can assure you MOM was craving a little help too!)

*another deep breath*

I calmly informed her that MOM HAD helped her by drawing her a number line which she chose to erase. I again offered her a nap.

In tears she wailed that she was SOOOORRRRRRYYYYYYYY! She didn't MEAN to erase the number line and would I PLEAAAAAASSSE draw her another.

*another deep breath*

"I'm sorry. I can't understand you when you use that voice. When you are ready to use a nice voice without wailing, I will be able to understand you and help you."

*Sob* "I'm..." *sob* "trying!" She gasped.

"Noope... still can't understand you." *another deep breath*

At this point I'm starting to wonder when I will keel over from hyperventilation.

Amazingly, after only four or five mom-daughter exchanges, she realized she could do the homework, and that she was really quite good at it. Five minutes later she was skipping out the door to play with some friends across the street.

*banging head against wall to relieve stress from not loosing it with Iraq*

It has been raining on and off the last few days and Iraq has not had to water her garden. Still, she enjoys going out each day to admire her masterpiece that she herself grew from teeny little seeds. Gardening has proved a calming influence on Iraq... as long as we do everything HER WAY and the plants are kept in neat, orderly lines. This is how she has them arranged currently:

And just look at how our strawberries are doing!

And:

The Skink spent the morning wearing a Little Swimmer diaper as a hat. I was thankful it had Nemo on it as opposed to being plain white... She would have looked like a tiny little Klan member if it weren't for the fishie! She is a gangsta at heart, preferring to wear her absorbent headpiece down over her eyes. If I tried to pull it up a bit, she would yank it right back down and peek out at me with glowering eyes - ever questioning why I would try to *fix* something that she thought was fine just the way it was! My bad!

As for me, I am very happy to say that my new washer and dryer were delivered today! The Skink was most helpful in closing and locking the door each time the poor delivery guys would run out to grab another part or piece. I got some great exercise wrangling my tot as the guys worked their magic. The  washer and dryer can be used as side-by-side units and you can buy the pedestals for them, or they can be stacked. The house we're in right now is almost 100 years old and has been retrofitted to accommodate a  stackable unit. The new ones fit perfectly in the space :o)

Aint they beeeyoootiful? The last washer and dryer we bought were a really nice used side-by-side set which now resides in my parents' lower level laundry room. A stackable unit came with our rental house, but unfortunately the washer needed to be banged every now and then to get it to spin, and the dryer chewed up it's fair share of our clothes. I really can't complain... I mean, most rental houses don't even come with a washer and dryer! We also have some wonderful landlords (they came with the house) and the last thing we wanted to do was complain about this proverbial "gift horse." I'm really excited about this set!! They will work in whatever house we end up in next (though we plan to stay here for a while). Yet they also mean a little less stress in my charmed life. OK - enough blogging - I gotta get back to reclining on my chaise lounge and eating bon-bons! (Yeah - like that's ever gonna happen!) LOL!