Making History

Everything from yesterday is in the past, and therefore its part of history. I happen to love history, which is probably why I document and record our family's history.

I started this blog over two years ago. Those of you that have stuck with me, thanks. I started this blog to help me get through the days when the only adult I was speaking to was my husband (besides myself of course.) I even documented my last days of teaching, which seemed tedious when I wrote it but now it makes sense in the progression of things. This blog made me accountable to my children. When I stopped teaching I was so concerned with the day to day activities. Really I was worried that I would use the TV as a babysitter melting their brains, so my solution was to set up a schedule that included crafts, experiments, and outside. I blogged weekly capturing those memories, and I'm so grateful I did.

Most everyone thinks of their day to day grind as mundane and not worth mentioning; however, they are dead wrong. Its those days that make history, your family's history. Ten years from now I won't remember that my 5-year old got his first loose tooth today and that he asked his big brother how his day was at school. I won't remember that my 6-year old told me to remember to tell his teacher that he won't be in school on Friday, how responsible. I won't remember that my 2-year old kept writing in this blog post by pressing the keys, running away, and giggling. I won't remember that my 3 month old kept rolling over for the first times only when I left the room. Figures, just when I have to pee he rolls over. If I don't write it down what will sustain me when I'm 80 in the nursing home?

When I took a hiatus from the blog when I was horribly sick carrying our 4^th baby, my husband asked when I was going to start up again. My sarcastic answer was probably something like, “I'll leave the computer next to the toilet, so between dry heaves and vomiting I might write something clever. All while taking care of the other three children.” However, that was the first time I realized that even if no one reads this, it still matters to my family.

When I got a new phone last week, I wasn't happy about loosing my old phone. But when my husband said I could take epic videos I started vlogging. That's right, I have my own YouTube channel. I know you are probably thinking what took me so long, but now I can document our homestead activities for our kids in the future. If I had a video of my parents or grandparents explaining their chores on a daily basis it would be worth more to me than anything.

So when each of my children graduate I will compile these blogs in a book for them. I might even make a video compiling all my vlogs. As high school graduates it might not matter to them then, but it will matter, someday. It's our family's history.

 

 

 

 

I'm 5

“Is my birthday tomorrow?” Was the question my 4-year old kept asking after we questioned him about what he wanted. This went on for about a month.

He knew exactly what he wanted, which was a Wild Kratt's suit with creature powers. I'm very familiar with the public TV show, which always leads me to the theme song replaying in my head. Gonna go wild is right, wild crazy.

My son picked three of his friends from his preschool class to invite along with his grandparents, cousins, and friends of the family. As everyone pulled into our drive way, they were greeted to a giant bouncy house on our lawn. We splurged on the bouncy house because I didn't want to plan games for the kid's entertainment.

Two days before the party I called the rental company to reserve the bouncy house, the giant obstacle course was the only one left. I went to the store to buy party favors, food, and decorations. The night before the party, I cleaned the house. The morning of the party I made the food for the 11am party, which didn't include the cake because there was no time. My husband picked up a cake when he picked up the bouncy house. I hung a couple of balloons on the mailbox, which was about it for the decorations.

Right before the party I was stressed and I felt like the party was going to be a disaster based on my last minute planning. I was scrambling around the kitchen when I looked out the kitchen window and saw a blur of kids in the bouncy house. Their screaming and laughing was enough for me to realize that my son and the other kids won't remember the food or the cake. They didn't care if the house was clean or if they streamers were hung. They will remember the fun they had, and my son will remember how special he felt on his birthday.

My husband and I will remember eating the hell out of that cake after the kids went to sleep at 7pm. Birthday success!

Tooth Fairy

“My tooth hurts.” My 6-year old son whined.

 

I looked at the offending tooth and wiggled it. I must have made a disgusted face because my son immediately shut his mouth and pushed my hand away. I smiled and said that he was going to loose his first tooth. He was so excited because his friends in his class had already lost some of their teeth.

 

A couple of days went by before he finally decided it was time for the tooth to be gone. He ate an apple and it came right out. I'm still surprised he didn't swallow it, it was so tiny. He put it on the window sill in the kitchen and forgot about it.

 

I started looking up the going rate for a tooth, which was crazy. The internet had the tooth fairy giving a couple of dollars to a crisp hundred dollar bill. I really wanted to do something different, which led me to discovering a company that sells animal teeth that the tooth fairy can trade for human teeth. My husband said he could just go out back and pull a tooth out of one of our pigs that had kicked the bucket. I'm still not sure if he was kidding or not, but the idea of pulling dead animal teeth gave me a shutter and a quick “No!”

 

The internet gave me the next idea of giving a quarter and a coin from another country. I loved that idea because we had a jar with foreign currency just collecting dust. At least it could collect dust in my son's piggy bank.

 

Our night time ritual went by and my 6-year old still didn't mention his tooth. I asked if I should go get it for under his pillow. He simply said no and rolled over in bed. I was disappointed because I was ready for the tooth fairy to come. I had done my research and even had some glitter to top it all off. The next night was the same, followed by the next night, and the next, until my husband said he will when he's ready. The next morning I asked him why he didn't want the tooth fairy to come, he explained that he didn't want her to take his tooth. Whew! I was so relieved that he didn't say he was scared of a little mosquito like creature that would fly into his room and his bed at night to take something that belonged to him. Yeah, because that's not scary.

 

That night my 6-year old wrote a sweet note asking the tooth fairy to leave his tooth. My husband helped him make a lego box with a lid to store his tooth and any future teeth, which was gently placed under his pillow.

 

Bright and early the next morning my son ran into our bedroom to show us what the tooth fairy left, a quarter, an Australian coin, and a note with glitter on it. We found Australia on the world map, which is where the tooth fairy had just come from before she made a visit to our house.

 

This ritual continued until the tooth fairy didn't make it to our house when he lost his third tooth. He was so disappointed in the morning, but the next night she explained what had happened. She was in Korea and had to stop across the ocean because of a thunderstorm. With her note and a quarter, a Korean coin that had 100 on it was left. My son was very excited that he had 100, which made up for any storm. (It just so happened that my brother was stationed in Korea when he was in the Army.)

 

A friend asked me what will happen when we run out of foreign currency, after all that is a lot of teeth between all four of our kids. I said, “The tooth fairy will just have to go to the bank to exchange her currency.”