Thanksgiving Road Trip

I am not writing this from home. Indeed we have traversed 3 states and 400 miles to spend Thanksgiving with family that we only see once or twice a year.

But, let me backtrack a moment. You already know that Tita was sick last week. But, then over the weekend, Bubba got sick and then Sose got sick. Everyone is on he mend now, so it appears that i was some type of 24 hour or 48 hour thing, thank goodness. But, it also meant that I got to drive the entire 8 hours of the trip.

Not a problem. I have done it before with and without kids. But, we usually leave very early in the morning. This time, we left in the afternoon since the kids all had a half day of school. They actually did very well. Let me note that we are in the ice age without a DVD player or any type of portable electronic game. We do have Satellite Radio which is awesome, so maybe not entirely in the Ice Age.

After about 2 hours, I gave the kids each a new set of color wonder papers which amused them for 2 hours until it got dark. Of course, we had the requisite "Are we there yets" and "She's looking at mes". But, they did pretty well.

This is a good thing because we may end up driving to Florida instead of flying next year, if airfare keeps going up. Blah! We will get a DVD player at that point. We may be crazy but we aren't batshit crazy!

The Best Laid Plans...

So, after I whined blogged about events this morning. Tita woke up with a fever rendering all of my plans for day pointless.

Phone calls were made and plans cancelled. No Open House and no girl scouts for Lika as I am not putting Tita in the car to drive Lika to and from girl scouts and no one is available to transport her. Lika will not be happy when she gets home.

I am waiting to see if Tita's fever re-emerges after the morning's dose of medicine and hoping that she just has some kind of 24 hour bug rather than anything more serious.

I also managed to find a minor flood in the basement due to the drain being backed up. If Tita wasn't sick, I wouldn't have decided to try and catch up with the laundry. I would probably not have even gone down there until later today or tomorrow and it could have been sooo much worse.

Almost time to pack

Sose has had back to back trips since September, maybe even August. She leaves on Monday and if we are lucky, she is home for dinner on Friday, rinse and repeat..repeat..repeat.

It is wearing all of us down. I woke up thinking today was Friday and that she would be home by the end of the day...Nope, it is Thursday. I have to take a deep breath and get ready to start a busy morning of getting us all out the door since Thursday is also Bubba's preschool morning. In a few minutes, I have to get lunch together for the girls and wake them up and get them ready for school.

Tita is disappointed that we can't attend the open house at school tonight. Why do they have these things in the middle of a school week? Why not have it on a Friday evening or even Friday and Saturday? Lika has girl scouts tonight and there is no way for us to get to both things. Not to mention, Open House gets very crowded and I really don't want to keep track of all 3 kids by myself while worrying about getting everyone home in time to do homework and get to bed so they can get a good rest for school tomorrow. I guess Tita is disappointed because she was excited to show us things she was working on, I can't blame her either. Sometimes, parenting is not fun!

Hard to believe that next week is Thanksgiving. Tuesday is a 1/2 day of school and then we will be driving to see my family. We stay in a hotel, which the kids think is just about the greatest thing ever. Their honorary grandmas should both be in attendance (both my former Big Sisters through the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program...I am too tired to link, use google friends). We will hang out with family, play Monopoly with the teenagers, and catch up, and of course swim at the hotel and let the kids bounce on the hotel beds.

Most importantly, Sose will be home and we will get to breath and be.

Letters From santa - Buy 1

So, if anyone doesn't want to write a letter from Santa themselves....I will do it for you for 10 dollars (5 for additional letters).

That includes all shipping costs and supplies.

Shoot me an email and I will send more info.

You are such a Mom!

"You are such a mom!"

This is what someone commented to me on Facebook after I updated my status with something kid related.

20 years ago, I was not ever going to have kids. Had no interest in having a family and possibly inflicting the abuse I went through on a new generation. As I grew and learned and made different choices, I knew that I didn't have to repeat the patterns I grew up with. That doesn't make it easy by any means, there are days when I work very hard to make different parenting choices than what I grew up with.

Somedays, I struggle with the idea of being "just" a mom since I don't have a professional job at the moment. Indeed, our oldest was amazed when she heard me talking about having a job the other day and she learned that I indeed have a whole other life before kids.

Other days, I am happy being "just" a mom. Last night, Lika had a huge tantrum and was sent to bed early. The other 2, instead of acting crazy, decided to behave very well. I think it was Tita realizing she didn't want to go to bed early and Bubba following her lead. So, after Tita completed her homework and studying, we played CandyLand and read stories before bedtime.

It is amazing to see how they grow and change everyday and I am privileged to witness this and to hopefully be a positive influence in the adults they will become someday.

And as Uncle Ben told Peter Parker (aka Spiderman), "With great power, comes great responsibility!"

Letters from Santa

If anyone doesn't know, you can send a letter to the US Post Office in Alaska and they will put a postmark on it and send it to your kiddo at no charge. You put your letter from santa in a self addressed envelope and drop that in the mail and "santa's helpers" will send it to your kiddo. I am off to buy special "santa paper" and envelopes so I can do this. We have not done it before and the kids always love getting mail.

Here are the full directions from the US Postal Service:

Santa’s Reply Letters – North Pole Postmark

The Postal Service is helping create holiday memories for children. Parents, guardians and other Santa’s helpers can craft a response from Santa and mail it in a second envelope to the Fairbanks, AK, Post Office. Postal elves at the nearby North Pole Post Office will open the envelopes, postmark Santa's reply letters and mail them back to the children they are addressed to.

After writing Santa's response letter, place it in a stamped envelope addressed to the intended recipient. “Santa, North Pole, Alaska,” should be included as the return address in the upper left corner of the envelope. This envelope should then be placed into a larger, properly stamped First-Class Mail or Priority Mail envelope with your correct return address and mailed to:

North Pole Christmas Cancellation
Postmaster
5400 Mail Trail
Fairbanks AK 99709-9998

North Pole postmark requests must arrive in Fairbanks, AK, before Dec. 15, 2007. Please mail your request by Dec. 10.

Flubber

Bubba's preschool teacher showed this stuff to the kids a their Halloween party and then shared the recipe. It took us 10 minutes to make (5 to gather the bowls and ingredients and 5 to mix).

Tita picked purple tempera paint to mix in.

This stuff is great! It is stretchy and slimy looking but not wet. You can shape it and cut it with scissors and pull it apart and then mush it back together. A perfect thing to make on a day off from school!

Don't tell the kids but I have some gold and silver glitter paint that I will be using to make them some for their christmas stockings.

We also made Oobleck, which involves cornstarch, water, and food coloring. Mix them all together and you get something that looks like a liquid but feels like a solid until you try o pick it up. It is much, much messier than Flubber though. Go google it.

Here is the recipe:
Flubber

3 cups warm water
2 cups white glue, such as Elmer's Glue-All
2 tsp Borax, such as 20 Mule Team Borax
Two containers

To make flubber:

Combine 1 and 1/3 cup warm water with 2 tsp of Borax in a small container, and stir until the Borax powder is fully dissolved. In the second, larger container, thoroughly mix 1 and 1/2 cops warm water with 2 cups white glue. Also add the optional liquid watercolors and glitter in the larger container. Next, pour the Borax mixture into the glue mixture, and use your hands -- or your kids' hands -- to completely combine them, lifting and turning the glob of flubber.

Store it in an airtight container or ziplock bag and it should keep for at least 2 weeks. I am also told that white vinegar can remove any stains (a theory I will probably be testing today).