St. Baldrick's

Nearly everyone who looks at this blog (all three of you at this point) already sees my Facebook posts.  But just in case you don't have Facebook.....

Josh will be shaving his head again this year to raise money for children's cancer.  When he shaved his head 3 years ago, he raised over 1000 dollars!  The event is here in town, and he is very excited to participate.  If you would like to donate, you can easily donate online. 

Here's the link:

https://www.stbaldricks.org/donate/participant/567305

If you'd like to donate, but don't want to do it online, contact me and I'll let you know the other options. 

Thanks!

Eye Opener

Josh went to Take Your Child to Work Day with my mom today.  She works, if you don't already know, as a Liason for homeless students in a school district.  She actually "retired" a while ago, but has been working part time still, and she offered to let Josh see what her job is all about.  I picked him up tonight, and as we drove the hour home (and the younger two zoned out with a DVD in back of the van), he talked.  And talked.  And talked some more. 

Now, normally, Josh is more like his dad with processing things.  It mostly happens internally, and sometimes, he never shares it with anyone.  This time though, he needed to talk it out.  I nodded and asked questions, but that was all.  I wish that I had been taping the conversation because he got A LOT out of his day.  I know that he didn't even experience a fraction of my mom's job, but what he saw opened his eyes a little.  I could never do the conversation justice....  His realization that as nice as the family homeless shelter was, having one numbered cabinet and a shared kitchen is less than ideal.  His shock at a story my mom told him about taking a graduating student to a nice restaurant (the one where she took Josh for lunch today) and the student didn't know not to clear the dishes at the end of the meal.  "Mom.  She was eighteen, and she had never eaten a restaurant where they clear your dishes!"  His discomfort that he has eaten at that type of restaurant often.  His processing of the feeling of both guilt and gratitude in the face of realizing that they were delivering stacks of bus passes to kids who have no transportation, let alone a nice home of their own. 

But in all the things he said during the hour, this is the thing that will stick with me.  Probably because it didn't occur to me that he didn't know before...

Josh: We went to see Lynette, and she told me about her job.
Me: Yeah?  What was it like?
Josh: Well, sometimes kids kind of mess up.  And they can't graduate from high school, and that makes things pretty hard.  Well, Lynette helps them do their work on the computer.  They take online classes, and she helps them, and then they can graduate. 
Me: That's a pretty cool job. 
Josh: It was.  She really helps them a lot! And, Mom?  I think I get the Trayvon Martin case now.
Me: Huh.  Why is that?
Josh: Well, you know how everyone thought it was racial?  I didn't know what they meant, but today when we were at Lynette's school, we were walking down the hall, and there were these three boys, and they were Hispanic.  They had sagging pants and gang stuff on, and I was getting a little nervous.  But then, they turned and saw us, and they asked if we needed help, and they were so nice!
Me: And why did that make you think of Trayvon Martin?
Josh: Well, when I saw them, I thought they were mean and dangerous because of the way they looked.  And I was totally wrong.  They were really nice, probably nicer any kids we'd see at another high school.  So I think that probaby is what happened with Trayvon Martin.  I think he looked scary to that man, and he was totally wrong too. 

I would say "out of the mouth of babes", but he is clearly NOT my baby anymore.  He's not an adult yet , but he is definitely on his way.

As we got out of the car, he said, "I had such a great day!" I don't even think he knows how great it was. Yes, he got to go out to breakfast, lunch, and dinner and was treated as a VIP everywhere he went, but more importantly, he learned some things that I could never simply tell him.  Sometimes, I am just amazed by my sweet boy. 

Honored

This morning, our school held our annual Academic All-Stars breakfast.  Students who were on the honor roll during this school year are recognized at this breakfast, and we had 405 student who made honor roll this year at least once.  The gym was packed!

Josh did NOT want to go.  He's a lot like his momma in this respect.  I can remember years of trying to decide if it would be worse to not be recognized or to have to walk up in front of everyone.  My competitive side usually won out, but it was a close race.  So, living up to his genetic makeup, he was very unhappy at the thought of walking up in front of 600+ people.  And I'm not going to lie.  The fact that he had neglected to finish his math homework was weighing heavily on him, which resulted in a tense breakfast.  (With tears and all.  Shhhhh. Don't tell that I mentioned that part!) 

I finally drug him out of the house, and we made it to the gym just as his teacher called his name.  I gave him a shove and tried to take a couple pictures.  Picture fail. 

The only good thing about this picture is that if you look very closely to the left of center, you can see that Josh and Diana were walking up together.  You might say that this is because they have the same advisory teacher and their last names are one letter apart, but I say shut up.  It was totally fate. (They are both in orange too...so sweet.)  

He got his certificates, and then I decided to be merciful to my hormonal boy and told him to go-do-his-math-and-stop-pouting-for-crying-out-loud.  I stayed to watch my other students be honored, and then hurried back to our classroom to take this.

There are three certificates in his stack, one for each quarter because he made honor roll each quarter.  In fact, two of them say 4.0.  But it is the one that says 3.8 that I am most proud of.  The B+ that stopped him from straight 4.0s represents his character and the kind of person he is turning out to be.  To remain professional, I will just say that the B+ caused a lot of anxiety in our house.  We still don't know why he didn't get an A, and that elective class has been the most problematic of the year.  He hates it, and the grading remains a mystery.  I have offered probably a hundred times to let him move from that class.  But no matter what, he just wanted to stick it out.  Don't get me wrong.  He has been miserable.  And sometimes miserable to live with regarding this subject.  But.  He wanted to stick it out, and he is mere weeks from finishing the year.  He didn't give up no matter how much he wanted to, and I'm proud of him.  It is the same sheer will that made him a "difficult" toddler.  And it is the same sheer will that will take him far in life.  It may not always be easy to deal with, but I'm glad that he inherited that from his parents too. 

March

It seems like March came in like a lion and then went out like a bigger lion.  Lots of rain this month meant that we didn't go out much! Soccer got cancelled A LOT, and I spent a lot of time on my couch watching the kids get wet outside and then screeching at them to please take off your wet things before you come inside. 

My mom pointed out that I hadn't blogged in over a month, and I was sure she was wrong.  Nope.  A whole 33 days have passed, and I literally had to go look at the calendar to see just what we've been up to for that many days......

James' team made it to the school finals of  Battle of the Books. I was pretty impressed with those four boys!  Josh was always on a team with girls, and the girls helped organize everyone and make sure the books had all been read and re-read.  I wasn't sure how things would go with James' team.....they tend to be more interested in playing in the mud and creating elaborate Lego scenes than organizing a team to read 14 books!  With a little help from Sarri, they pulled it off (and more.)  They ended up losing in the semifinals, but we were very proud of their efforts.  In the car, racing to his first soccer game which had overlapped with the BoB finals, I asked him if he thought he might do it again next year.  "Um, why wouldn't I do it again next year? We were AWESOME."  Why indeed. 

Abby was chosen as Student of the Month for March, and John helpfully offered to skip the big trip to Izzy's (the prize for Student of the Month is a free buffet) and watch baby Parker, so that Judy and I could take all of our honorees for dinner.  I'm pretty sure he got the better end of the deal, but the kids were so happy.  I even had Josh's free buffet from last year saved, so at least I didn't have to pay all that much for our "special dinner."  James sidenote: I have been trying to really limit the soda that the kids drink, so I told them "water only" at Izzy's.  James was less than pleased and went on a water strike.  Unfortunately for him, the food there is very salty, so by halfway through the meal, he was THIRSTY.  Still, he refused to drink any water.  Judy and I watched, more than amused, as he tried to quench his thirst on cantaloupe.  He must have eaten an entire cantaloupe! If it upset his stomach, he managed to hide it from me..... Abby can take out her earrings, but she is finding it very uncomfortable to do it, so she has been opting to just wear her old ones.  Maybe next month she can start accessorizing! And, amazingly, her totally dead, mostly gray front tooth is STILL hanging on.  She goes to the dentist next week, so I HOPE that they "accidentally" pull it out.   Her biggest news, though is that her daddy finally let her cut her hair. It just goes to her shoulders, and it is really cute.  To my delight and her decidedly not delight, her curls are still there. 

Josh finished up his indoor soccer season, and he starts practice for outdoor this week.  Soccer all the time around here.  If it would stop flooding every five seconds, it would be a lot more fun! His team will definitely be the Bad News Bears this spring.  They have not quite enough kids and are again playing in a hard league, so we'll be happy with a few goals.  He does get to keep playing, though, and that seems to be what makes him the most happy.  He still has his "girlfriend", and that still means that they occasionally sit together at lunch and sometimes text each other.  Sometimes.  He is looking forward to the end of the school year, but I'll be a little sad to not have my daily connection with him when he heads off to seventh grade! In just a few weeks, he'll be closer to thirteen than twelve, and although the adolescent mood swings are a lot to take, I am enjoying this age just as much as I thought I would.

Despite the rain, we've had a lot of fun this month.  A few dinners with neighborhood friends, a really fun make-your-own-pizza party, a PE birthday party, a cousins' beach trip for me while a MASSIVE sleepover happened back home, a girls' day with Molly and Judy, a St. Patrick's Day party, a trip to Big Al's, a bowling/movie/sleepeover extravaganza for the boys while Abby enjoyed being an only child with a special candlelit dinner and movies with just Mom and Dad, and a spring break where doing nothing meant a lot of time to relax and rejuvenate before the last big push toward summer.  It's no wonder I haven't had time to blog (or take any pictures, apparently!)