... funny things are everywhere

When you're eleven...

... and you're a dreamer more than a doer, you drive your control-freakish mother kind of crazy.

But I'm slowly learning to accept who you are and find a balance between pushing and guiding. I want you to do great things because I know you can... but I need to come to terms with the fact that YOU have to choose those things with YOUR heart.

Creative James vs Athletic James: I think I know which one would win.

But it doesn't have to be one or the other, right?

<3

crafty things

So James and I went to the scrapbook store on Thursday night... he wanted to get a few sheets of grey cardstock, and I... well, apparently I'm still afflicted with a patterned paper addiction, even though I don't really scrap any longer.

Surprisingly, we both used our purchases right away. He made a Gandalf the Grey hat and staff, and I made a few cards.

I'm back!

I seem to have taken an unusually long break from blogging. Sorry about that. It was totally unintentional. I guess I just got busy. Caught up in other things. Like putting out the fires of troubling behaviour from my kids... and avoiding the nightly newscasts as the federal election campaign progressed. *sigh*

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Today was Star Wars Day. May the fourth. You know... "May the fourth be with you."

* drawing by James, done in March

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Tonight was Math Night at the boys' school. It was a chance for moms and dads in our community to see first-hand how math is being taught these days, using the Three-Step Problem Solving method. I worked with a few teachers to obtain funding for the translation of materials for this event so that parents whose first language is not English could get involved in the interactive problem-solving activities we undertook.

Lots of other stuff to tell you, but I need to make lunches tomorrow and then get to bed. I want to get up for the 7:00 am spin class, if at all possible.

Thanks for dropping by! :)

ten on Tuesday

Hey, it's still Tuesday... for at least another hour here in my time zone anyway! :)

Here are ten random things on my mind tonight.

1. We're into the second week of the third month of the year. Where has time gone? It seems like only a few weeks ago we were opening presents and sitting down for Christmas dinner.
2. I thought I might get back to scrapbooking regularly, but it hasn't happened yet. I've made a few more cards though. This one was made for a coworker of mine who left on parental leave at the end of February. Still waiting for news of baby's arrival though. His poor wife!
   
3. James is sick. It's just a cold, but his cough sounds terrible. I feel like a bad mom for sending him to school with that barking cough, but I can't keep him home if it's only a cold. I just don't have that much paid leave from my job! Besides, if he's well enough to play tennis, he's well enough to go to school. lol
4. Actually, Mr. J wasn't quite well enough to play tennis tonight. His coach had to cancel tonight, but James and I decided to hit a few balls anyway (since I had to drive Thomas to the club for his squash lesson anyway). James only lasted 40 minutes on court. He looked tired, missing shots he'd usually make rather easily, and by the time we stopped, he was nursing a headache. Poor kiddo.
5. Thomas had a rough go of it last month. He seems to be doing better this month, although it's still early yet! Usually March is our Hell Month, but I'm hoping maybe we got it over and done with early this year. Fingers crossed...
6. Speaking of Thomas, he drew this (energy cycle illustration) at school and entered it in a contest. An actual mail-in contest. Remember those? Seems like a really long time since I mailed anything in for a contest... it's all internet-based now.
   
7. I've spent so much money on books from Scholastic this year. Wow! I love that the boys are reading so much, so I'm happy to buy lots and lots of books for them. Their favourites this month: a Big Nate comic book, a Star Wars tag team head-to-head book, a book called Rules about a girl with an autistic brother... I wonder what next month's order will bring.
8. I haven't been running much since the fall. I was trying to keep going on the treadmill on this winter, but it just wasn't meant to be. I find the treadmill to be harder on my feet (plantar fasciitis and/or achilles tendonitis, depending on the day) than running outside.
9. I've been on the tennis court two or three times a week. I'm working on seeing the ball better and getting in position to hit the ball at the proper height. It's not as easy as the kids make it seem!
10. I can't wait until all this stupid snow and ice disappears. Daylight Savings Time starts soon, and spring can't be too far behind, right? :)

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Now that I'm done, it's almost Wednesday. Have a good rest-of-the-week, y'all!

random bits

I'm still at it. I'm working away at my mom and dad's gift album. Not much longer until I can package it up and mail it off. Hopefully!

Okay, sorry... you don't have to be polite about it. Just say it. Yuck! This layout did not work out the way I wanted it to. But then again, I didn't have a plan. I just started cutting paper and sticking it down.

The next one turned out a bit better, but it still felt forced:

I'm thinking that my creative side has been buried under all those tennis balls I've been hitting lately. ;)

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Speaking of tennis, I've been staying up way too late, watching matches streamed live from the Australian Open. I'm LOVING all the tennis but was very disappointed when I woke up Thursday morning and checked the scores on my Australian Open iPhone app to see that Federer had lost in the semifinals. Too bad... I love watching him play.

 

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What else? Have I mentioned how much I'm loving my iPhone?

* taken using the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone

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One last thing to share.

* the first page of Thomas' awesome comic book

I love that Thomas loves to draw comics. Many of the stories are derived from the silly books he reads, but the storylines and characters are not exactly the same, and there are very clever plays on words and silly jokes that require a bit of thought to dream up and put on paper. What a great way for him to express himself!

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And that's it from our part of the world. I hope all's well where you are.

Harry Potter obsession

James has read the first five books in the HP series since the beginning of the school year, and we've watched the first two movies together as a family. I've never read any of the books or seen the movies before this, so it's all new to me... but I definitely see the appeal.

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This is what he did last night:

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He made HP's pet owl, Hedwig, out of toilet paper rolls, kleenex, paper and scotch tape. Plus a couple of wooden coffee stirrers to hold onto and self-adhesive black gems for the eyes. This photo doesn't do it justice - it looks so much better in real life.

Only two days 'til Halloween. I think the boys are going to go CRAZY with excitement before then. lol

Have a great day and a fun weekend! :)

creativity

Creativity takes many forms in this house... Thomas and James went through their building with Lego phase last month, and they've gone through diorama-making jags in the past, but lately, they've both been drawing comics.

Meanwhile, my creativity has been put on hold as I try to organize my photos from 2010. I'm hoping to start some sort of gift album for my mom and dad in the next few days, but life is jam-packed with tennis, school council and work stuff. We'll see.

It's the beginning of a new week - I hope you have a good one ahead! :)

It's almost Halloween!

A few friends and I just had an email discussion about how much we dislike Halloween.

*gasp* I know a few of you are shocked.

Well, they talked about what they didn't like about the day. Myself, I don't have strong feelings one way or the other... I'm not a fan, but I don't mind it either. The reason I don't mind it is I've never made a big deal of it. I've only ever made one costume, and that was enough of a fiasco that I swore I'd never do it again... so every year since then, the boys have worn store-bought costumes. No muss, no fuss.

We are not Halloween scrooges around here though. We decorate. We carve pumpkins. And, of course, we hand out candy. Just enough to create excitement without too much stress. :)

James is already looking forward to the big day. This came home in his backpack last week.

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I'll leave you with some photos of Halloweens gone by. I'm thinking I really should get these scrapped at some point!

 
* Thomas (4 months)

 
* Thomas (2), James (5 months) and me

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Ten days to go! What are your plans for Halloween this year?

ups and downs

To follow up on Friday's post, things are a bit better here. The project is getting done, bit by bit, and the attitude... well, it's not perfect, but it's no longer 100% negative, so it's a workable situation.

I'm always amazed at what this kid can do when he puts his mind to it. I hate that he has such difficulties focusing. And I know, if it's frustrating for me, it must feel even worse to be on his side of it.

All these ups and downs, they wear us out.

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Breathe. Just keep breathing, right?

time management struggles

I think my older son inherited the procrastination gene from us - big time. I mean, what are the chances that he'd escape it? Both his father and I are both carriers. ;)

Seriously though, it's been a rough start to the school year. He's not the world's most organized kid, and I've tried to stay on top of his workload by reading his agenda daily and helping him organize his workload by breaking it down into doable chunks each day... helping him learn what he needs to do to get things done.

It's challenging for me. To be patient. To model good time-management skills, especially when mine are shaky to begin with. To be hands-on, but not too much so. To be positive, even when he is being negative. To be mindful of the challenges he faces, but not to accept them as excuses for not even trying.

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* spring 2010

* fall 2010

I wish he had this kind of interest in the stuff that he NEEDS to do for school. :P

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I dropped by the school this morning to talk to his teacher. She is very good with him - she understands his challenges but isn't willing to let him off the hook for assignments and whatnot. She spoke to him, in front of me, about her expectations of him. We set out a plan, and hopefully, now that he knows that his teacher and I are both on the same page, he'll be able to accept my help without pushing back and shifting the blame.

*sigh*

Tell me I'm not the only one who's going through this kind of thing...