Martin Family Adventure

Creating their own fun

Girly was wondering what she was going to do with her cousins here yesterday. I told her she'd figure something out. And so she did. 

I'm not sure who had the idea first but this is what I was called over to see as I was hanging a load of laundry on the line (in spite of the horrible weather Irene caused here in Vermonton Sunday, yesterday was beautiful out). 

Girly and Hannah took all the wood scraps out of this utility bin that David brought home from work and plugged up the holes (not sure with what), added what looks like a carboard sail and hauled it into the pool. 

The best part, though, was when my niece got into the bin.....and for your enjoyment, I got it on video! 

(yes, at 1:27, Girly does go off to the side and pees in the grass - sigh)

I lose it at 2:53 - I couldn't help it! 

These kids remind me so much of the fun we used to have as kids in the summer. We were always coming up with something crazy and creative. 

Also, Hannah covered part of herself in mud.

Good, cheap fun. It's not clean, but it's good and cheap.

A day of misadventures

Today has been morphing into a day of misadventures. 

Here's a conversation that transpired between Zach and I this morning (very reminiscent of yesterday's coversation):

Zach: Mom have you washed those spoons yet?

Me: No, not yet. I'm planning to get to that sometime today. 

Zach: Those dishes have been there for at least two day or maybe months! 

Me: Zach, they've only been there for a day. 

Zach: Then when am I going to get a clean spoon?

Me: When you wash one for yourself. 

Zach: I told you yesterday to get your butt out there and wash them. 

Me: And I told you yesterday that you can wash them yourself and not to talk to me that way. If you're so impatient, then would you like to wash the dishes for me?

Zach: No!

Me: Then be more patient and show some more respect.

Zach: I'm sorry, Mom.

Erika: I forgive you.

Zach: Thank you, Mom.

Me: You're welcome, Zach.

Zach: I love you, Mom.

Me: I love you, too. 

For the record, I finally did get to the dishes today after heating up a couple pots of water on the stove. Before I got to that, though, Zach washed his own spoon. 

******************************************************************************

I finally told Girly that she was not wearing her pair of jean shorts for another day longer and that she needed to take them off and put them in the washer. They could have walked there on their own, they were that nasty. She put up a fuss about it, but I won in the end. I told her to wash up and get another pair of undies and shorts on. She insisted that she had no other shorts to wear, which I knew to be bull-kaka because I had just washed and folded a bunch of shorts that I made for her earlier in the summer. Right now, though, she's on a jean shorts kick. She brought out another pair of jeans for me and asked me to cut them down to make shorts. I told her I would deal with it later today. She put up a fit and insisted she was going to cut them down herself. I told her that if she did, I wasn't going to hem them for her. She insisted that she could do it herself since she has her own sewing machine and knows how to sew. 

She laid her pants on the floor of my craft studio and was about to cut them herself. WITH A ROTARY CUTTER AND NO MAT! Yes, she was going to use my berber carpet as a cutting mat with a wicked sharp rotary cutter. I had to invoke the threat of calling Dad at work just to get her to stop. So, what does she do? Throws the jeans on my craft table and also throws the rotary cutter. The saying, "don't throw scissors" also covers any other cutting tool, including rotary cutters. 

She yelled at me and I sent her to her room. She came out a little bit later with a pair of capris on and crying because she felt so bad for the way she treated me. She hugged me and apologized. It's nice to know that time outs actually work and that she's thinking through her actions and making things right. See? There's no need for violent parenting. 

*****************************************************************************

Back to Zach, he asked me this morning if he could climb on the roof of the house. I told him, "Absolutely not!" A little bit later, I hear my neice yelling to me, "Zach is walking on the house!"

Yup, I go outside and Zach is walzing back and forth across the roof of the house. Apparently, he only heard the word, "Absolutely," and didn't hear the "not!"

I told him to "GET DOWN FROM THERE! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING? WHAT DID I JUST TELL YOU?"

He said, "Oh, Mom, that was SOOOOOO COOOOOOOOOL!"

*bangs my forehead with my hand*

After we talked about the consequences of walking on the roof and explaining that Dad is only allowed to because he's careful, has experience and he was up there to fix something, he ended up with a time-out in his room. 

*************************************************************************

My niece and nephew are here for the day while my sister is at work. They love the trampoline and so do the neighbor's grandkids. They usually play nice together, but I had to go out and have a talk with my neighbor's granddaughter, explaining to her that, "No, you can't kick Hannah in the crotch on purpose." She promptly through a 6-year old temper tantrum and told me that she was going home forever. I just replied, "Okay." Really, what else was I supposed to say? She offered!

**************************************************************************

Speaking of the neighbor's granddaughter, she was outside a bit later and eating an orange. She asked Zach if he wanted part of it. He said yes and she handed it to him and he quickly rolled it across the street and into the ditch on the other side of the road. 

I got a knock on my door telling me all of this, so I handed a replacement orange to her and then called Zach to me so that I could ask him what was going on. His answer?

"She asked me if I wanted some and I told her yes, but I was really kidding and just wanted to roll it across the street."

It was an honest answer, but then he had to give an honest apology. 

That's when I realized he hadn't yet had his Concerta for the morning. 

****************************************************************************

And to think that all of this happened before 10 am. The day is still young so I guess it's not really a "day of misadventures," it's only been a morning of misadventures......*sigh.* There's still another 8 or so hours to go. 

Lazy summer day adventures down at the river

One of the things that I love about summer is the amount of time that we spend outside. The winter lasts so long here in northern Vermont. I try to spend as much time outside to soak in the sun, the fresh air and the relaxation. Yesterday, my niece and nephew came over for the day, so I took them and my kids to a nearby river for some fun. We were the only ones there. Another couple showed up just as we were leaving. 

Girly and her cousin, Hannah, made and packed the lunches. I brought along a book that I haven't wanted to put down since I started it (Little Princes, if you're interested in a really great and feel-good non-fiction read). Zach brought his nets and jar to catch fish in. It was a relaxing couple of hours and I could have stayed longer. 

Isn't it beautiful? This is tucked on a backroad behind a bunch of brush and trees. You wouldn't even know that it's there unless someone else told you about it. The sound of the water coming over the falls is hypnotic. 

Ethan and Zach were intent on catching the little fish that swam in the shallows. Zach brought along one of his containers to put the fish in to bring them home. 

Zach caught a small brook trout and brought it home and put it in our fish tank. So far, it's doing fine, but the other fish don't seem to like him and they're hiding from him in a corner of the tank. I told Zach that eventually, we're going to have to return Mr. Brook Trout to the river because he's going to get too big for the tank and we don't need him eating the other fish. 

Here's a video that I took while we were there. I find it hilarious that Zach is already telling "fish stories." The brook trout that he caught in the video is supposedly a lot bigger in Zach's mind than it is when you look at it with your eyes. 

I'm changing my name to a 4-letter word

As much as I love being home on the weekends, I'm not-so-secretly wishing that we were away on one of our Meadowbrook weekends. Things tend to be more mellow and calm when we're away from everything. Life seems simple when we're camping. When we're at Meadowbrook, that also means that I'm teaching a class with adults so I can have adult conversations. 

I must be getting older because I long for peaceful moments. As I told my therapist, I'm used to having almost 10 months out of the year to myself during the day so the summer is always overwhelming to my senses. I used to feel selfish and bad about wanting those days back, but I don't anymore. Going through therapy has taught me that my reality is MY reality and mine alone. We all handle things differently and I'm okay with how I handle it. If other people don't like it, it's their issue and not mine. 

When I was in my early teens, my parents got our family wrapped up in a fringe Christian cult (look up "Christian patriarchy" on google and you'll discover the ridiculousness of it all). It was constantly pounded into women that if you didn't homeschool your kids, you don't love them. If you're a mom and you work outside the home, you don't love your kids. If you're a mom and you want to be by yourself for some moments of peace and recharging your energy, then you don't love your kids. If you're a mom and can't wait for your kids to be back in school, first off, you don't love your kids because you send them to school and secondly, you don't love them because you WANT them to be back in school. And by the way, these moms are considered selfish, too. 

Ya know what? I want all of those things and I still love my kids. Immensely. More than the people who claim that I don't love them will ever know. And believe me, I'm a better mom to my kids because they go to school, because I work (though I work from home because I like being my own boss), because I like peace and quiet to myself, because I like to recharge myself so I'm not a zombie and can actually show my kids love, because I'm counting down the days till my kids are back in school (we all thrive on the structure of the school year). 

If that makes me selfish, then so be it. But let me tell you something. If it weren't for all of those things, I wouldn't be emotionally, physically and mentally available to my kids. It's because I love my kids that I do all of those things and I'm able to show that love to them because of it and they know that I love them. 

So, I must be getting old. Noise bothers me more than it used to, I crave peace, the hot weather isn't my favorite thing in the whole world (I MUST be getting old because I used to hate winter and now I'm longer for cooler weather in the middle of my favorite season of the year), and people getting too close to my invisible "3-foot personal space bubble" gives me a touch of anxiety.

Constantly being asked to do things, look for things, having a whistle blown in my ear, listening to the dogs with their squeaky toys, seeing my son trying to cut an acidophilus pill he needed to take with a bread knife, hearing my daughter telling her brother to "shut up" for the zillionth time......all while hearing, "MOM!" I thought of changing my name to a 4-letter word. Something like "F*ck you." This would mean that my kids would not be able to call to me any more since that kind of language is supposedly unacceptable in our house. I say "supposedly" because my son (12 years old and autistic and who didn't take his Concerta this morning) feels this is completely appropriate and acceptable language. I realized that changing my name to a 4-letter word wouldn't work because Zach would still be calling for me. 

This is my reality. Want to challenge it? I'll trade houses with you for a week, but I guarantee that after one hour, you'll be begging for your old life back and you just might have a little more respect for how I show my kids love. 

And ya know what? I wouldn't change it for anything.

101 ways Zach finds to use the F-word...Way #2

My kiddos are both home today as they haven't been fever-free for 24 hours. They should be good to go back to school tomorrow. In the meantime, being home and having their normal routine disrupted by this yucky virus has turned them a bit bored and cranky with each other, even more than they usually are. 

Zach loves to watch "Dora the Explorer." He never got into it when Girly was in her "Dora Phase." Girly, being almost 11 years old now, thinks Dora is stupid and childish and Zach, at 12 years old, thinks the show is fascinating. 

After Zach watched an hour of Dora this morning, Girly wanted to turn the channel to something else. This is conversation that I was treated to:

Zach: But I want to keep watching Dora!

Girly: But you watched Dora for an hour already!

Zach: But I want to keep watching Dora!

Girly: I'm turning something else on. Dora is stupid.

Zach: But I want to keep watching Dora!

Girly: No, I'm watching something else.

Zach: But I want to keep watching Dora!

Girly: Too bad. I'm changing the channel.

Zach: Holy F&CK!

Girly: Mom! Zach dropped the F-Bomb!

 

Yes, welcome to my world and Zach's Way #2 to use the F-Word.

Never a dull moment in this house

It's been far too long since I've written here. Life is continuously an adventure here in the Martin house. It's not that I lack stuff to write about, but I'm always running around in a million directions so this blog often gets over looked, but no longer. 

My mom (Donna, from Spatuals, Corkscrews & Suitcases) and I talk often on the phone during the week, being that she's in Rhode Island and I'm here in Vermont and we're the best of friends and I hate being away from her. We connect as often as we can on the phone and through email. She's given me the motivation and some ideas for my blog and as she usually does, she made me laugh and snort at the list she gave me. You'll soon see this blog come alive with posts pertaining to that list. You see, she gets to hear the good, bad and ugly of our adventurous life. Most of it is just downright laughable and I don't think most people would believe me if they heard most of the stuff that goes on here, but I'm going to attempt to put it all out there because it's memorable and laugh-worthy. Hey, if it's insane, I might as well share it because then you can feel better about your own life, right? After all, I tell David that's the reason I watch shows like "Keeping up with the Kardashians" (don't judge me!). He says, "How can you watch that show?" I tell him, "Because watching their lives makes me feel like mine is somewhat normal!" 

Speaking of not normal...

Life is never a dull moment in our house. Then again, there never was when I was growing up either. My family lineage is destined to be full of the "crazy." I think that's what keeps many of us feeling so young. I look at myself at 34 years of age and wonder why I don't feel as mature as I should be at this age and now I know why. It's the "crazy" in our family gene pool. It just passes from generation to generation and each suceeding generation seems to get even more of the "crazy." My poor kids. haha!

At the beginning of March, we got dumped with 25 + inches of snow.

The kids didn't have school for two days because of it. Our back door was drifted shut (above). The drifts at the school completely covered the front entrance and went right up to the roof! 

So, what do you do on snow days when you're stuck safe inside? You (the girl-child) build forts in Mom's studio...

And more forts...and then while you're (the boy-child) sticking your tongue out at your sister, the dog sneaks in for a kiss. Blech! Ew! And your sister finds it funny because payback is a beyotch!

And then later on, you both put on bathing suits and fill up the jet tub and pretend it's summer. But the water starts to get cold and I come in and you (the girl-child) say, "Mom, the water was getting cold but now it's warm again." I say, jokingly, "You didn't pee in it, did you?" You giggle and say, "Yeah!" Your brother gets disgusted and says, "Ew, Girly. That's so gross." He squints his face and says, "There, I got you back!" Yes, he peed in the tub, too. ugh. *Sigh*

There are definitely times when I'm so glad that even at 12 and almost 11 years old, you two are still very childlike. But believe me when I tell you that I'm going to be telling these stories when you bright your first dates home. 

Late Night Prank Misadventure

I have a girl-child that loves to pull pranks. I'm not sure how it all started, but trust me when I say that it's turned into a monster! My son is also playing pranks now because he's trying to get his sister back. She's not the only victim of his pranks, though. It started out as trying to get even, but now my hubby and I are victims, as well. I have to say that these kids have been quite creative in their pranking. Of course, the MTV show, "Pranked," and YouTube videos have been particularly helpful in giving the kids no end of ideas. 

My kids take melatonin at night. It's a natural sleep aid and helps them to fall asleep and sleep well. In fact, I take it, too. Well, the other night, my daughter faked taking it so that she didn't sleep through the night. She woke up at 4:45 am, unbeknownst to us. At around 5 am, we heard a bit of a commotion so David got up to find out what was going on. 

Zach was disoriented and had water on his face and his bed. Fortunately, Girly took a video of her prank (it's nice to have evidence for the parents). I had to chuckle when I watched the video at her telling Zach not to wake Mom and Dad up. There's a bit of darkness at the beginning of the video, but hang in there. 

Here's what she did to him. None of us were impressed, but Zach, after the fact, thought it was a pretty good prank. 

Even though we've told them to hold off on the pranks, I have a feeling they're not going to listen. Just like they didn't listen when we told them the same thing before this prank was pulled off. 

There's never a dull moment in this family.

Doctor's Appointment Adventure

One of the many things that I love about Zach and his autism is that he takes things literally and he has no filter. There are times when this makes conversation awkward, but more than not, it makes conversations and circumstances positively entertaining. 

We went to a doctor's appointment yesterday for a follow up on Zach's meds. When we walked into the room the nurse led us to, she got Zach's weight on the scale. He asked how much he weighed and she said, "You weigh 89 pounds." He then asked her, "How much do YOU weigh?" I had to remind Zach that a question like that is not socially acceptable but the nurse then spoke up and asked him if he wanted to get her weight on the scale. He lit up and said "YES!"

It was really nice of her to humor him. He learned how to use the scale, took her weight and then said, "Are you healthy?" She told him that she was, but that she eats too much healthy food and that she weighs a little more than she should. 

Zach then initiated a conversation with her about the swimming he's been doing at a local indoor pool. He's so excited about being able to do the doggy paddle that he learned this summer and having access to an indoor pool is fascinating to him. Up until just recently, he hasn't been that great at initiating conversations and including people in that conversation. It was usually a one-sided conversation and only about things that interested him. The nurse got right into the conversation with him and they carried on for quite a while. She told him that she used to do a lot of swimming when she was younger and that it would be cool if the two of them could go swimming some time. Zach thought that was awesome. 

Zach asked her, "But, how do you stay up in the water if you're a little bit ffff........." 

I interrupted at this point and reminded him, "Zach, make sure to use appropriate words.'

He said, "How do you stay up in the water if you're a little bit.....heavy?"

She told him that fat floats. He was intrigued by this. She then told him, "If we go swimming, you have to promise me  you won't laugh at the rolls in my swimsuit."

He asked, "What rolls?" He takes things literally and thought she meant bread rolls. 

She started laughing and then told him that he made her day and "Zach, you're so refreshing. You're a breath of fresh air."

Zach said, "What fresh air?"

More laughing. :) I love his perspective on things.

Dollar Store Adventure

I should have known that taking 4 kids to the dollar store would be an adventure, even if it was only 25 min. away from home. 

My sister's kids, Wednesday and Pugsley, were here today while their dad and my hubby helped to move my uncle and his girlfriend into a new house. I had to make a run to the dollar store and Ben Franklin's store to pick up some items for one of the kids that we pulled a card for to donate "wish list" items to. 

It's an adventure just trying to keep tabs on 4 kids (ages 11, 11, 10 and 9) in the dollar store. I kept Zach with me and told the other kids to buddy up with each other so they could look after each other. I told them they could each pick out one item to bring home. It's amazing how long it can take some kids to pick out what they want when others know exactly what they want even before they walk in the door. 

There's a huge gum-ball machine near the front of the store at the end of an aisle and it's bound to catch the eye of any kid, especially Zach's. He asked me for a quarter to use in the machine. I told him that I didn't have any cash on me. Now, while other parents may say that as a way to say "no" to the gum, I said it because it's true. I  never carry cash on me. Any and all cash will always get pilfered from my wallet by the hubby and Girly. 

Zach asked me, "Can we ask the store lady to borrow a quarter?"

So cute! As if you could just go up to the lady at the register and ask to borrow a quarter for the gum-ball machine. It was a viable solution to the problem, in his mind. 

There was a woman in the aisle that overheard us and started chuckling. She took out her wallet and held out a quarter to Zach. Normally, I tell the kids not to accept candy or cash from strangers, but she said that she didn't have her kids along with her and she thought he was adorable and wanted him to have a gum-ball. She saw that my nephew, Pugsley, was standing there, too, and she handed one to him. I told her, "Oh, that's so nice of you, but you don't want to be handing those out. I have 4 kids with me!" She handed one to Girly when she walked up and then handed us another one to give to Wednesday when she came along. 

It was so sweet and the kids were stunned by the generosity of a stranger. So was I. I was touched. We all said thank you and I told her how wonderful she was and then she and her husband walked on and continued their shopping. 

Girly said to me, "Mom, that was a really nice lady." Yes, she definitely is. I'm hoping that she got as much happiness out of her 4 quarters as my kids, niece and nephew got out of them. Such a simple and random act of kindness, but one that showed the kids that a quarter can go a long way to make a smile. And as a mom and aunt, it showed me that there are still kind people out there that don't have any ulterior motives when handing a child a quarter for a simple gum-ball. 

Bless you, quarter-lady.  For putting a smile on all of our faces, including yours. You were part of our adventure today.

Last night's adventure - holiday concert

Yes, I know I said I would post about losing weight, but instead, I'm posting about our adventure from last night. 

My daughter is in her second year of band and she loves it. She's so musically gifted and adores her trumpet. She's actually a third generation trumpet player. My father played trumpet in high school, I played trumpet in school and Girly started playing trumpet last year. She's now in 5th grade and she's constantly getting better.

Last night's adventure was the holiday band and choral concert. Oh yes, she's also in chorus this year (her first year). There's just something very enchanting about grade school band concerts. The excited faces, the pretty dresses, the hair done up, the jewelry, the shoes, the boys in their button down shirts and ties. The missed notes, the off key notes, the times when it sounds amazing, the times when you hold back a snicker. But in all, it's enchanting and perfect, even in its imperfection. 

(Girly is the one in the middle row, all the way to the left.)

We have almost all of her performances on video, except for the first one that I couldn't get last night because I didn't realize that the batteries in the camera were dead. Interesting story there - my daughter went to basketball practice one night and was worried that her brother would get the dogs to chase the cat (her "baby") so she set the video camera on the counter and hit the record button. 17 minutes and 33 seconds later, it got turned off and come to find out, her brother was actually on good behavior that time. But....it killed the batteries. And doesn't it figure? The first band performance was the most amazing of all of them! I'm hoping to find another parent at the school that took video and can email it to me. I even sent the hubby with the video camera to one her of concerts that I missed because I was teaching that night. 

(Girly is in the back row in white, all the way to the right end.) A bit of a rough start but the trumpets really rock the song!

Last night's concert outfit is possibly one of my favorites so far. I love the fancy white dress that was a hand-me-down from a school friend. I adore that my daughter doesn't mind that it has a few spots on it here and there. She thinks it's her best and most fancy dress ever. Right now, it's one of her prized possessions. It's amazing what something so simple as a hand-me-down dress can become to a little girl with wide eyes and a big imagination.

It's too big for her but that didn't stop her from having a friend gather it in the back and tie it together with a hair elastic. That girl-child of mine is so self-assured that she thought nothing of wearing it like that. If fact, she was so proud of her dress and how she looked. I really love that I live in a community of down-to-earth families that don't mind it either. A couple of moms mentioned to me that my little tomboy looked beautiful in her dress and thought it was cute that she tied it up in the back to make it fit.

The black cowboy boots rock my world! Our neighbor's grandson gave them to her since he had outgrown them. Something I learned a long time ago is that my girl-child has her own style, her own clothing agenda and there's no use in trying to pick out her clothes for her. There are times when she doesn't want to bother and asks me to pick them out and when I do, she doesn't like my choices, so I've pretty much given up on that. Her choices remind me so much of myself as a child. And as an adult, for that matter. I cherish that she's so much like her mama. We have so much in common. It's like having a little Mini-Me.

And speaking of hair elastics....they're not just for making a dress fit. Her hair knots so quickly and she didn't feel like brushing it for the concert, so we put it back in a pony tail instead. The hair hanging to the side isn't long enough to fit into the hair elastic, thanks to her self-haircut in the summer of 2009. It's still growing out. 

I love this child. :)