Update-ish

Gah.  My blog is so boring these days.  Sorry about that.

Stress now feels so ordinary that it's not much to report on.  And things happen and then fly by, and I haven't recorded them, and that's the way it is.  Things have happened that have been cool, but they're not Blog Report-able (like the school stuff I'm excited about, and Miciah growing up, and exciting Gospel Doctrine classes).  I find myself thinking about what to post on here.  I'll go through my day and be like, "Umm, I watched Inception again.  That was a good movie.  ...  Guess I'll just not post about anything today."

And there's no real news to report.  Turns out when you stop popping out babies, things get boring.

Here's a short report for each of us:

Rob
His last day of teaching every Tuesday and Thursday is TONIGHT!  The kids are super excited to spend more time with their daddy.  (I don't blame them.  I want to spend more time with him, too!)  

Tamra
I earned a scholarship from Cincinnati State, which is an honor.  Back in the day I earned a scholarship, a really really good one, from BYU and then dropped out of school.  I almost didn't apply for the CS one, since I feel like I blew the first scholarship opportunity I had.  But I decided to let the past go.  Besides, this time I'm finishing.  (Oh, BYU.  You and I are better off apart.)

Miciah
Had her card flipped yesterday at school.  For Elijah this is a common occurrence, but Miciah has had her card flipped like 3 times ever.  What for?  She forgot her library book.  Turns out she thought that yesterday was Tuesday.  Tank's response:  "That's a stupid thing to get your card flipped for.  I forget my books all the time!"  I responded, "Yes, but you're in Kindergarten."  Tank thinks it's a HORRIBLE experience to get your card flipped.  He's a sensitive child.

Elijah
The best word to describe Elijah these days is thoughtless.  He does a TON of things that aren't mean or even really intentional, they're just ... thoughtless.  Like kicking a ball into your brother, while he's standing inches from you and holding a bowl of food.  Or clapping while the teacher is trying to give directions to the class.  Or coming home without his homework.  We're trying like crazy to train some thought process into this child.  He's smart, we know that.  He just can't be bothered to think beyond, "I'm having fun!"  (I blame my brother Keith for this.  Elijah is SO a mini-Keith.)

Along those lines, at the end of March I was the meanest mother ever when I let Elijah suffer the consequences for his actions.  We set up a punishment and reward system to try to train him into remembering his homework.  The consequence for forgetting is pretty steep now, cause he was forgetting 2 and 3 times a week.  A WEEK!  So if he forgets, he has to spend the entire night in his room.  He can come out and eat dinner, but that's it.

On day TWO, he didn't bring home his homework.  That night was supposed to be his first night of Scouts.  He's been so excited to go to Scouts.  For years he's been begging to go.  And I was faced with one of those tough parenting moments.  I really wanted him to go, but I knew we had this new policy in place.  Rob suggested that I could offer him an alternative punishment.  But when I went in to talk to Elijah, and the relief came over his face that he'd be allowed to go to Scouts after all, something, some emotion that I can't name, was turned on inside me.  It was suddenly crystal clear what I needed to do, and I felt almost militant about it.  So I made him stay home.  And, let me tell you, it's stuck with him.  He's WAY better now.  I think he only forgot his homework 1 time in all of April.

Tank
He's learning how to read and doing a pretty good job.  I'm proud of him.  He doesn't always want to do it, cause it's still work for him, but he's doing it more and more easily.  He's doing great in school in this respect and all others.  He's a delightful child.

We're also starting to put our foot down on his crappy behavior, when that surfaces (mainly when he's tired).  No more falling on the floor and moping when you're upset.  No more hitting chairs or couches, and especially not me.  Seriously.  Enough now.


There you go.  Boring as promised.  Soon I'll post about the cool things Miciah has been making.  Pretty neat stuff.  That girl is a creator.