Friday Afternoon.

I love Friday afternoons.
School is over for the week and it feels like a weight is off. 
It's a welcome feeling - even if it only lasts for a few hours. 
The kids are being entertained by watching an episode of "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" on Netflix.  I should say that most of the kids are watching Netflix.  Since the older three are mesmerized, Benjamin has situated himself on the kitchen counter and is busily polishing off the goldfish crackers left behind, hoping his older siblings won't notice.  I'll pretend not to notice, either. 
Since Netflix is eating up the bandwidth, blogging is painfully slow.  After having a few exceptionally articulate friends guest post on a well known blog, I have been feeling woefully inadequate at expressing what goes on here in writing.  Sometimes it's pretty chaotic.  Sometimes it's not.  But it's nothing that doesn't go on in every other home that I know -  it can be challenging to write about ordinary things.  Stuff like scraping petrified cheese slices off the kitchen counter, redirecting a toddler climbing the pantry shelves for a shot at an unopened box of Cheerios, breaking up an argument for the umpteenth-million time and rescuing Storm Troopers from the Sarlach Pit that is the downstairs toilet.
 Regular stuff. 
But I'm realizing now things that are regular won't always be regular.  I hear it's a whole new world when everyone can wipe themselves. 

The school year is coming to a close in alarming fashion.  I am grateful at the teacher that Sam has this year.  I admit being less than thrilled getting a first year teacher and not having my request for his teacher honored.  I distinctly recall stomping and pouting.  However - Sam's Pre-K teacher told me to trust her and that she was putting Sam "exactly where he needs to be".  She was right.  Today was "Super Hero Day" in Sam's class.  Each child came up with a Super Hero with powers, a sidekick and a nemesis.  They wrote descriptions of their Heroes and drew pictures.  Today they got to go to school dressed as their hero and present to the class.  Sam was "Garbage Man".  His powers included invisibility and turning trash into treasure.  His sidekick, RattleMan, is a goat that eats what trash Garbage Man can't manage so it doesn't go in landfills.  Lyndrome is a nemesis that doesn't like having a clean Earth. 
We have gotten so much mileage out of this.  It has been great.  Sam gets to dress as Garbage Man again in a couple weeks and tell the school about him.  He is excited.  :) 
Nate is enjoying the two day/week pre-school.  He's getting a lot out of it.  I'm still leaning towards keeping him back a year.  He's ready socially, but with kindergarten being so darn difficult these days, I think it's  cruel to send a kid to school that can't already read.  Sam is now expected to write 6-7 sentences a night in his journal - on top of practicing math and sight words and 20 minutes of reading.  It's really a lot.  We don't push too hard and we do our best to keep things fun...but still.  Some days the homework goes back to school unfinished because it's just not worth it.  I have to remember that all children are not alike, but when I think back and realize that Caroline was reading "Amelia Bedilia" at three and a half, I have to admit - I'm nervous for Nate. 
We're doing a Kiddie Kollege at Caroline's school with the Youngers and it's fun.  The boys come home with a new book after each session and are doing more "pretend reading" - so it's working. 
There are advantages to attending schools with Title I funded programs - even though most people I talk to turn their noses up and can't understand why we would want to send our kids to a magnet "inner city" school (Really?!  Frederick?!  Inner city?!?).  There is a good amount of family involvement, the population is extremely diverse and people are genuinely searching for ways to improve their and their children's lives by advancing education.  There is more of an emphasis on life long learning.  It's a change to be out of our white washed world, but a welcome change.  The younger boys are starting to think of CJ's school as "theirs" and we're considering applying for school choice to enable all our kids to go there.  How nice would it be to have everyone in the same school?!?
Time will tell if that's the right choice...

My 20 minutes to ice my leg are over and it's time to make dinner.  Seeing the ortho on Tuesday because I think I ripped my plantar fascia stepping on that darned nail and the pain is getting too much to take in my lower leg.  Makes me even more grateful that my foot took the brunt of it instead of one of the kids - even though it sucks NOT to be able to run. I am jealous of every runner I see out.  I didn't realize what a part of my life running has become.  But it gives me an opportunity to focus on core - something that is sorely lacking after four abdominal surgeries. I'm learning more about clean eating and liking what I read.  We'll see how do-able it is with a child that eats things that are the color white.  I'm also getting out on a bike.  Someday this all will make me a better runner.  I am determined to turn this layoff into something good. 

  Though I *will* pour myself a small glass of wine while preparing dinner.  It's not drinking alone if the kids are around.  Right? 

Here is the Fantastic Foursome from this morning...