Snow on Spring Break

So, I'm sitting here on an Sunday morning because we couldn't go to church due to the foot of snow outside. Yes, about a foot so far on March 21! Crazy! It was beautiful and high 60's on Thursday and Friday, and the boys went and enjoyed playing basketball at our neighborhood park. I was really getting excited for my long-awaited spring break at that point, as I have a million things on my "to do" list.

Then at school on Friday, I noticed a bunch of my students getting checked out early. I questioned them if they were leaving to travel for spring break, and I heard multiple times that they were leaving early because their parents were worried they needed to leave to beat the snow. SNOW? I couldn't believe it, and I was in denial that we were actually going to have our 5th or 6th major snow since Christmas on the first day of my vacation.

However, nature is stronger than my desires, and snow has been falling pretty constantly since late Saturday afternoon. We were scheduled to have our fence built by a fencing company on Monday or Tuesday, and I am hoping it will melt enough to get it done at the end of the week, but rain is forecasted for Thursday, too. I really want to be home when it's being built. I had planned for the kids to all go to adventure club/daycare on Monday, so that I could go to an appointment and run all my errands. That will probably not happen with the amount of snow that will currently have to melt.

Luckily, Stuart rushed back from Camden yesterday morning to get in before the bad weather hit, or we'd be stuck here alone. I think we'll be making hot chocolate and pulling out the board games later today.

Right now, I'll try to be thankful that we have electricity and heat, and hopefully the snow will end today. I'll probably spend tomorrow doing cleaning instead of errands, and maybe I can get away without the kids later in the week to do some shopping.

Maybe there will be some good Lifetime movies on later. Ha!

It Matters

Last summer ended with a completely random thought on my part about going back into teaching full-time. It was really just a fleeting thought and one which I didn't think would ever result in a job. God knew differently. My one check on the website which revealed a job opening which had just been submitted. Then, a hastily submitted application which felt like it was just for practice. Then, amazingly enough an interview call, and a job offer, all within a week! I was shocked, dazed, excited, and scared. I went through the open door and took a leap of faith. It was the most out of character thing I'd ever done. How did I, who had been a stay-at-home mom for six years, all of a sudden become a working mom within a week? People who knew me were surprised that I suddenly had a job, when I never had mentioned that I was looking. . . because I wasn't. Until that one day, when I decided to apply on a whim.

So, here we are. Already it is the beginning of fourth quarter. I am finally in a good routine with my children at home, and though life is always busy, it is much more manageable. I am thankful my children have been relatively healthy (Arden even more than Hudson which is amazing). My students are incredibly smart . . . sometimes too talkative and social, but that is their only flaw. I am in awe how much they are learning and how much I am learning from them. I actually use the words "juxtaposition" and "allusion" quite frequently, and they understand me! Quite amazing for 7th graders!

God placed me in this role for a reason. I absolutely love teaching. When I get in front of the class, I see so much potential. Discussing The House on Mango Street has been a joy. I am transformed into the world of the Chicago ghetto and am befriending the protagonist Esperanza. I desperately want my students to connect with her and feel her longings, joy, and pain. My classes are making deep interpretations, and I am amazed when they can explain the significance of why the shop was called the "Peter Pan Photo Finishers" or the irony in the title "The Earl of Tennessee." Be still my heart.

I am planning my next unit on film and poetry and anxiously awaiting being able to dissect Star Wars with them as we study archetypes, and I feel like a young child who is waiting for Santa to come.

But the best part is that what I do matters. When I'm exhausted, and my own child is clingy, I still feel like it's worth it. I have 75 kids this year, and it is quite a job to learn about them, to know them, to connect individually. I've gotten comfortable enough to be myself -- to be honest, crazy, and even silly in front of them. We have enough rapport to tackle embarrassing questions, serious issues, real-life topics. I've finally gotten to the point with most of them that we have a relationship, a bond. Now, I have the kids who come and visit me at lunch and during their rewards day free time. They just want to hang out and talk about their lives. I've earned that privilege, and I don't take it lightly. I look back on the past seven months, and I see how far I've come. Now, I know why the door opened, the job was offered, and why I took the chance.

I hope my students remember my stories, my example, and my faith. I want it to matter. I want them to be better people, better citizens, make better choices, have better options because of what they contemplated in my class. I am blessed that each day I get to matter and make a difference.

I can't wait until tomorrow to begin another day of learning, laughing, and talking.

Carpe Diem.

Arden the Princess

Arden is getting more and more hilarious as her verbal skills are taking off. She is talking constantly in long sentences now, and the things she comes up with are so funny! Today, she called herself "Arden" for the first time. She has said "me" or "my" for awhile, but I had never heard her pronounce her own name. When I woke her up this morning, I walked into her room and said, "Who's in the crib? Is it Sleeping Beauty?" She started giggling and replied, "No, it's just Arden!"

She is starting to memorize and sing a lot too. She now knows her ABC song and has some individual letter recognition. I'm pretty impressed at this for a 26 month old. Potty training is still ongoing, but I'm letting her tell me when she wants to go, and she probably makes it 1/2 the time to the potty and wets her Pull-Up the other half of the time. Today, we were running errands, and she started singing in the backseat, "We will, we will, rock you!" She was singing it on tune, too! I have NO idea where she knew this song or knew the tune! It was too funny.

Arden is also the biggest and tallest girl in her class too. She is now wearing all size 3 clothing! She has just a few pairs of size 2 Gymboree pants that are cut a bit longer that still fit, but other than that we are moving into all size 3 for the spring and summer. Her feet are between a size 7 and 7 1/2 now, and we have shoes in both sizes. I actually bought her a Gap dress at a consignment sale this week that was in a size 4, but it looked like it ran a bit small, and it fits her! I can't believe how old she looks since she has a lot of hair and is so tall. Everyone who sees her in stores when we are out shopping always ask me if she is three years old and can't believe she is only (just barely) two. I did cut Arden's hair (just a trim) on Valentine's Day to try to even out the sides with the back. I think I probably cut about 1 1/2 inches off the very back, and I will probably trim it again in June to get it the same length all the way around. I'm debating if I would like to cut it into a bob at some point since it is so straight, and she doesn't like me to put it up or style it. I'm thinking that might be easier to take care of and get thicker if I kept it between chin and shoulder length. We'll see!

She calls herself a "princess" now and is getting excited about trying on new clothes and playing dress up. She came out of her room last week with three of her shirts all layered over each other, and one as a scarf, holding a purse. She then told us, "I'm so pretty!" I think we tell her too often that she is pretty, and I'm trying to switch that to complimenting her on being "so smart!" Ha.

Do you want to save $1100 in one day?

Are you interested? Do you want to know how I saved over $1100 in only one day? It doesn't require that you sell a new product, invest in anything, or do anything illegal! I simply shopped for my daughter's entire spring/summer wardrobe at a consignment sale and sold my children's outgrown clothing in the process! See, it's that easy.

In central and northwest Arkansas there are sales called Rhea Lana or Duck, Duck, Goose (central AR only) that are these amazing, large consignment sales for kids' clothing, toys, and baby equipment. They offer a good selection, so that it is realistic to purchase a large amount of your child's wardrobe with used clothing. Although other items are sold, I have pretty much stopped shopping for anything but shoes and clothing since we have plenty of toys, and it already takes me three hours just to shop for the clothing, and that is all I can do after teaching all day!

The NW Arkansas Rhea Lana sale was this week. I entered in 100 items of Hudson's and Arden's outgrown clothing to sell. As of this morning, my share of the profits (consignors get 70%) was $250. Yea!

Since I consigned clothing to sell, I got to shop at the presale event which is before the sale opens to the general public. Yes, it is tiring, crowded, and hot, but the dollar savings make a couple of hours and a headache well worth it. You won't be able to find as many good items if you wait until the sale opens publically since a lot will already be picked over. Unfortunately, the consignment sales are really only that lucrative for girls up to around size 7 or boys up to size 4. Once boys start school, their clothes are really not able to be resold well due to wear and tear. I am easily able to buy Arden's entire wardrobe at the two Rhea Lana sales held each year in my area. I stick to name brands for the most part, and then I look to make sure the item is free of stains or a lot of wash wear. However, I'm not too picky about colors, patterns, or trying to find certain lines from Gymboree. I'm about practical (ie: what can she wear to daycare every day?).

This sale I purchased 72 items at the presale and then went back this morning to the 1/2 price sale and bought 20 more items. My total purchases cost $415 which totals to $4.51 average per item! This included two smocked dresses, 3 pairs of Stride Rite shoes, and mostly Gymboree/Children's Place/Gap clothes.

Now, let's do the math for real savings. If I purchased 92 items at retail stores, even on "good" sales, I would probably spend at least $14/item on average to get that many items in the right sizes. That would total $1288. Then, let's subtract what I actually spent at the sale which was $420. That leaves a difference of $873 in SAVINGS for purchasing the same number of clothes! Better yet, let's add to that savings the profit that I earned from selling my clothing at the same event which was $250. So, my total "savings + profit" for this weekend was $1123! Pretty amazing, isn't it.

So, for those of you who think consignment shopping is just too much work, you ought to try it at least once. Here is the break-down of how much time it cost me to participate:
1) hanging old clothes and pricing them online - 3 hours (for 100 items)
2) putting on labels that I printed at home and pinning on the sales tags - 1 1/2 hours
3) checking in my items to sell at the sale - 1 1/2 hours
4) shopping at the sales - 4 hours (includes two trips)
TOTAL: 10 hours labor

If my "savings + profit" was $1123 divided by 10 hours of labor/shopping time, I just made $112 per hour for my time. Yes, I think it is worth the effort. Don't you?

A Full Week

This seemed like the first full week of school that we've had since early January due to all our snow days. Stuart left to go to Camden to visit his parents on Thursday, so he could attend his dad's oncology appointment today. So, I've been single-parenting for the last 24 hours so far.

The week has been pretty good, and fortunately no one had to stay home sick this week. However, we began the week with a plumber cutting out a square of drywall out of our wall behind the master bathroom shower! I came home from work on Monday to see a hole in my wall. That isn't the best way to start the week . . . especially when the plumber revealed that there was actually no leak in that pipe, so the hole was actually a big waste! I then began the hunt to find a drywall repair person who can make my wall look new again. Hopefully, I will get a reasonable quote from someone who is coming to look at the damage tomorrow.

Arden made some big strides this week with potty training and has been going 2-4 times on her own in the potty each day, which is a big increase in the frequency of recognizing that she "needs" to go. I haven't even been taking her at all yet and just letting her tell me when she wants to go. Today she even pooped in the potty for the first time (sorry if TMI!) which is a huge accomplishment. We even called Daddy in Camden to tell him the news. Arden was actually able to talk to him herself and tell him the good news! The boys had a lot of trouble with attempting #2 in the potty, and she is about a year ahead in age of when they began this stage.

I went to a conference in Springdale today, so I had a sub. It was actually a really, really good conference, and I took away many hands-on activities which I plan to try in the classroom in the coming weeks. It focused on integrating drama, art, and music with literature, and the presenters were all from major universities around the U.S.

Owen went to Fast Lane after school with his classroom teacher, as he won an outing with the teacher at a school fundraiser auction earlier this year. He had a great time with several teachers, their winners, and their own children. At first he was a bit apprehensive about spending time with his teacher outside of the classroom, but it turned out to be much more fun than he expected, and it was good for him to see that she is a regular person and a mother, too!

Have a great weekend!

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

We've been busy, as usual, since my last post. We returned to school after the last round of snow days which I mentioned in the last post, and then we had ANOTHER snow day on Tuesday of this week due to slight ice! So, that makes 8 snow days to make up this year. Our school district voted to give up the student break on Feb. 15-16 and remain in school to make up two of the eight days.

Stuart and I did an early Valentine's date and went to the Todd Agnew, Meredith Andrews, and Pocket Full of Rocks Christian concert here in town last Friday night. We got a babysitter for the kids and really enjoyed it. Stuart worked at the World Vision booth before the concert and during intermission. He has really gotten involved with that ministry which sponsors needy children around the world, and Stuart is working to promote child sponsorship at our local church. We just signed up to sponsor our second child monthly, and this little boy is one who shares the same birthday with Hudson. It is a really neat ministry to communicate with these children across continents and help provide financially for their food, medical care, and education for only $35 per month.

We enjoyed a fun Super Bowl party and fellowship time last Sunday with our small group from church. The kids enjoyed playing, and I think only the husbands and Owen were watching any of the game. I know the Colts were one team, but I couldn't tell you who they played or who won! I just enjoyed visiting with friends, watching the kids play, and eating lots of yummy snack food.

After we returned to school on Wednesday from our snow day, Hudson came home sick. He was subdued in the car when I picked him up on Wednesday afternoon, and then right after dinner began to throw up. So, he stayed home on Thursday with Stuart. Hudson managed to make it back to school on Friday for his class Valentine's party since he hadn't been sick since Wednesday night. However, he was still pale and lacking energy. Well . . . when I picked the boys up from school on Friday, Hudson threw up in the car on the way home from school and then more once I got him inside! Ugh! I guess he wasn't quite over the bug after all, or he tried to eat too much at the party, and his stomach couldn't handle it yet. He is still laying on the couch this morning and also has congestion and a cold. He hasn't gotten sick again, but he is running a slight fever now. I'm just hoping he gets better soon, and that no one else in our family gets the stomach bug!

We don't have any big plans for Valentine's Day since we already used a babysitter last weekend. We might order take-out for tonight and rent a movie or something simple like that. We both agreed that we were just too tired since Hudson is sick to do anything but rest this weekend. However, Stuart did get a really nice "present" this week because we traded his 2009 Honda Civic for a used 2009 Honda CRV! He got the Civic last June when his old 1990 CRV was dying and having engine issues. We couldn't afford a CRV then, and I hadn't gotten my teaching job. Stuart liked the Civic, but he found that he was just too tall to drive it comfortably for longer distances. So, he had been looking for used CRVs that we could trade up for with very little cost difference. He found this used CRV that is royal blue with gray interior that had only 7000 miles and one owner for 7 months! It was a good deal, and it is only a little more each month for us than the Civic was costing. He is so, so happy to be back into a taller vehicle!

Arden is driving me crazy by trying to potty train, which is all her idea since I wanted to wait until school was out. She is refusing to wear diapers and can undress herself and rip them off. She only wants Pull-Ups (which she also takes off about every 30 minutes). She is constantly saying she needs to go pee pee and undressing herself. Yes, she is actually going about once a day on the potty but not consistently. It is a lot of work because she can take off all her clothes and her Pull Up by herself which she routinely does about 15 times per day! The boys NEVER undressed themselves, so this is very different for me at this age of just turning two. Also, she is very independent and stubborn and refuses help with putting clothes back on, so it takes a long time to get her dressed again, and it usually results in her screaming in frustration or anger that I force her to let me help her. I hope she masters the whole potty training thing soon! This stage is exhausting!

Have a good Valentine's weekend!

Snow Days (again!)

We had another large snow on Thursday night and Friday. It began with sleet on Thursday night, and we accumulated around an inch of that. Then on Friday, it snowed literally all day until around 9 at night. It was beautiful to watch, and at times it was really heavy with large snowflakes. It reminded me a lot of when I lived in Colorado where snow like that is common. We ended up with about 5 inches of snow on top of the ice. Needless to say, no one was able to get out on Friday or Saturday. We were stocked up with food, and I don't think many people lost power since we got more snow than ice (compared to the huge ice storm last January). Stuart bought a snow shovel before this snow, and we actually shoveled part of our driveway. This is the first snow shovel we've owned in our entire marriage, so you can tell that the weather is different here than in central Arkansas! Stuart is already talking about getting a 4-wheel drive vehicle as his next car!

I have enjoyed being home with the kids on Friday and today. I think we will probably resume school tomorrow (Tuesday), but today is already our seventh snow day this month! I know that people are upset that school has closed so much because all the days will probably be added onto the school year and push back the date that summer vacation can start. I'm already looking at my last teacher work day as June 10 which is very late. However, I've actually appreciated the snow days! As a working mom this year, I've enjoyed reconnecting with my kids for more frequent breaks and getting projects done around the house without having to wait until Spring Break! Since Arden is in daycare this year, I have missed being with her as much as I was during the week last year, and the snow days have given us lots of time to play and watch Dora together! I don't mind having less summer in order to see my children more frequently along the way. For me, it's been a nice break and a way to reenergize for the rest of the school year.

I can't believe that it's already February today! Wow! I guess most of January was taken up with seven snow days and two large storms. Stuart and I have a sitter and are planning to attend the Todd Agnew concert here in town at a local church on Friday night. I plan to do our taxes in the next week, and I hope we get back a little bit of a refund. Then, the students are out again on Feb. 15-16 while teachers have professional development. We don't have any big Valentine's Day plans, but we might order Mama Fu's for take-out and bring it in.

I've been getting two flooring bids the past couple weeks and trying to figure out the cost of getting wood flooring installed downstairs in our house. I am missing my wood floors terribly since I loved them so much in our last house. Light colored carpet everywhere is NOT kid-friendly! It looks like I've decided on a local, family owned business to do the installation, but no one can get my wood for as low a price as several internet suppliers. They are quoting me $1.75/SF less on the exact brand and style of wood that I know I want because a good friend has it in her house. I want the 5 inch, distressed style planks that work well with kids and pets since they won't show scratches and nicks as much. So, I'm debating if I go through the trouble of having the wood sent by freight to my house where I have to arrange to have it unloaded, meet the delivery truck, and inspect it myself for damage. Right now, I think I will try it for the first flooring project which involves laying wood in the hallway, dining room, and office, since I will save $800 on those rooms alone just by purchasing the wood direct from Georgia. Depending on how much money we can save, I would like to get the first part of the wood flooring done before school gets out for summer.

Well, I'd better start my crock pot meal, so that we can eat tonight! Happy snow day!