Burnin' a Hole in His Pocket

The boys' uncle gave them each $10 a couple weeks ago for learning how to do a headstand. I was fairly impressed at the accomplishment, although I informed my brother-in-law that they would have been just as willing to oblige for a buck. Since he handed them the dough, there have been endless discussions on how best to spend the money. I thought that I had convinced Michael to save up for the Lego set he has been eyeing for months, Mission 6: Mobile Command Center. There had, in fact, also been countless discussions about the $90 Lego set. Indeed, some wheelin' and dealin' as well.

Initially, I agreed to pay half of the cost of Mission 6. With the savings goal cut in half, Michael then began negotiations with his brother. I discouraged it with the thought that there might be some Taking-Advantage-of-Younger-Brothers going on, but Jacob insisted that he was in complete agreement with the deal. And the deal was that Jacob would help Michael save up half of the cost of Mission 6 if Michael would then help Jacob save up for half of the item of his choosing. (Michael will surely be in sales someday if his Lego career doesn't lead him to life as an architect.) (Do you even begin to understand how confusing it gets around here with all of these Deals going down?) At both boys' insistence, I stopped defending Jacob, and my only stipulation was that Jacob's money remain in his bank until the goal had been reached. Because you just never know what happens to money once it starts mixing together!

During all of these negotiations, I discussed with my husband my desire to just outright purchase the pricey Lego set for my little Lego Boy for Christmas. After all, while he may have a rather strong dislike for academia, the boy can do amazing things with Legos! He certainly benefits from his hours of lego-ing rather than video gaming. Plus, I reasoned, if he really did work hard at saving his money, getting the Legos for Christmas would be a huge reward for at least trying to achieve such a lofty goal.

However. Today we went to Target because we did not completely fill up our shoeboxes with the stuff we bought on our Wal-Mart field trip yesterday. Every time we've left the house since Uncle John gave them that money, they have asked to bring their wallets. I've put my foot down with a loud, resounding, controlling thud. "You said you would save your money. You need to save it!" Sometimes, though, sometimes I forget I'm a control freak. Today I forgot. It is, after all, their money. To do with what they please. To learn from their actions.

After much, much, much time spent studying EVERY toy in the toy section of Target, I was pleased that each boy chose only small items which meant they would have money leftover. However. It wasn't without some whining and complaining. The first item they wanted to buy was a miniature of one of those claw machines that steals your money and never gives you a prize. That's what they wanted to spend their pooled Lego money on. "It doesn't come with candy," I told them. Aha! Gotcha! "Oh, that's OK," they said, "we'll just use our leftover Halloween candy." I reminded myself that it's their money. But then, as I looked at the box of the dumbest invention ever for $20, a lightbulb went on over my head. "Boys," I said triumphantly, "it doesn't come with batteries. You'll need another 4 or 5 dollars for batteries." Ha! And ha! And they whined and complained. "Can't you buy us batteries?" Then, for good measure once the candy claw thing had been put back on the shelf, Michael said, "Then why don't you just buy Mission 6 for me?"

And herein lies the dilemma. I still want to get the boy his Lego set for Christmas. But will I be sacrificing an important life lesson in doing so?

He was going to save his money, but then he didn't.

But he did only purchase Monkeys in a Barrel, so he still has some money left.

On the other hand, we had a few unsavory moments in aisle 16b today.

But were those moments trying enough to warrant the cold shoulder from Santa Claus?

Why, oh why don't these children come with an instruction manual like the Lego set on my boy's wish list?

ABC Tag

TeacherMommy at Diapers and Dragons tagged me with The ABCs of Me. I love to talk about myself, so I figured why not?

A - Available: Depends what "available" means. Am I available for dating and marriage? Certainly not. Well, except for the dating part. I'm certainly available for that...with my dear husband. Are my kids available? Why, yes they are. When would you like to come over? Hubby and I would LOVE to go on a date.

B - Best friend: My soulmate and husband, of course.

C - Cake or pie: Chocolate cake, chocolate pie. Whatever.

D - Drink of choice: Water. I'm so boring.

E - Essential item you use everyday: I wish I could say with honesty that I use my Bible everyday. Unfortunately, that doesn't always happen everyday. I do use my computer on a daily basis, which is a sad commentary on the way I manage my time. And my priorities.

F - Favorite color: Black. My wedding was black. Well, not my dress, people, my bridesmaids' dresses. My mother flipped out when she heard I was going black. "Well," she said, "if someone faints and dies, we can just turn the wedding into a funeral." Afterwards, she agreed that it was the most elegant wedding she'd ever seen.

G - Gummy bears or worms: Definitely the worms. They last longer. You don't just pop 'em into your mouth and they're gone. You can eat them section by section. Much more fun.

H - Hometown: It's the dreaded question any MK faces: "Where are you from?" I've finally reached the "double years" point in my life where I've lived just as long in the US as I did in Africa. That coupled with the fact that I now have my own family, allows me to claim Atlanta, GA, as my hometown. However, I've also lived in Van Nuys, CA (on at least 4 separate occasions); Quebec, Canada; Switzerland; Ferkessedougou, Ivory Coast; Mana, Mali; Bouake, Ivory Coast; Pasadena, CA; Azusa, CA; Birmingham, AL; Athens, GA; Roswell, GA; Norcross, GA; Bethlehem, GA; and now here I am, home sweet home. And hopefully soon to have yet another address.

I - Indulgence: Books, chocolate, and Starbucks' Green Shaken Iced Tea with sweetener. These are the things in which I overindulge.

J - January or February: February, but that's only because there are three birthdays in our family during this month, two of which are hubby's and mine (on the same day!). Otherwise I hate January and February because I loathe the cold, yes, even the Georgia cold.

K - Kids: I've lost count. How many do I have? 4 I think.

L - Life is incomplete without: My husband. Honey, you complete me.

M - Marriage date: 7/2 which, in retrospect was a mistake because now we seldom get to celebrate with all of the other goings-on around that date. We chose that date, however, because we knew we would have MK friends visiting from all over for our wedding, so we chose the holiday weekend. Because we're accommodating like that.

N - Number of siblings: None, and I try desperately to remind my own children how lucky they are to have each other. They're not buyin' it. Yet.

O - Oranges or Apples: Oranges. You know those ones in aisle 5 that come in a blue box. And, if not popped into your mouth, they melt in your hand leaving a gooey, dark, sticky mess that's delicious to lick off? No, really. I'll eat an apple or an orange, though only because I know they're good for me. And quite frankly, I'm so lazy when it comes to eating things that are good for me, that I'd just as soon drink a glass of OJ than peel an orange.

P - Phobias/Fears: Spiders, cockroaches, scorpions. All of which I have found in my house at one time or another. The scorpions really freaked me out. In Africa, the small ones are the most poisonous, so imagine my horror in discovering a tiny scorpion in my children's room when we first moved in. Bug guy told me, though, that these Georgia scorpions are no worse than bees. Hubby can actually testify to that as he was stung by one. I still hate them, though.

Q - Favorite Quote: "I love you" said by any member of my family.

R - Reason to smile: "I love you" said by any member of my family.

S - Season: Summer. Did I mention I loathe cold weather?

T - Tag: I think I'll tag Mare again at Mare's Musings. The last time I tagged her, her rantings thoughts seemed to be somehow therapeutic for her.

U - Unknown fact about myself: Haven't I been rather forthright on this blog? I honestly can't think of anything that would be an unknown and interesting fact (not that everything I've posted is interesting).

V - Vegetable you don’t like: Tomatoes (raw), celery, turnips, avocado, brussel sprouts...Did I mention I don't eat healthy food because I necessarily like it?

Worst habit: Like I'd confess that here! Of the type I'll actually ADMIT to, Procrastination. It gets me in a world of trouble. (OK, and stealing because I stole this answer from TeacherMommy.)

X - X-rays: X-rays? Whatever. May as well have used xylophones.

Y - Your favorite food: Chocolate.

Z - Zodiac: Chocolate. (Just because I think the whole zodiac thingy is rubbish.)

Butter and Tennis Elbow

I'm not a big fan of this growing old stuff. It didn't used to bother me. In fact, I used to scoff at the 30, 40, and 50 somethings who would bemoan another year's passing. I scoffed because I was immune. I could eat whatever I wanted. And when I say whatever I wanted, I mean it. I could eat Snickers for breakfast, pizza and brownies for lunch, and cake chased by a milk shake for dinner. Wouldn't gain a pound. Now I no longer roll my eyes when a friend says she gains weight just by looking at a Crunch Bar; now I understand.

Then of course there's the hair. Because I'm half-Asian, I always assumed my heritage would make me at least half-immune to the grays. I mean, how many young to middle-aged Asian women do you see sporting a head full of white hair? Not many. But I've got them. Got my first one after my first was born. Then one for each baby after that. After the baby of the babies was born, well, the gray began to conspire against me. I try to keep after them with the tweezers. I really don't want to start the cycle of coloring my hair. I know. I'm vain.

Vanity is one thing. Then there are the small painful annoyances like backaches. Or tennis elbow. I first began to experience tennis elbow a few months ago. It was an easy, self-prescribed fix: become temporarily left-handed, however clumsy that made me. It worked. The pain went away. Until the other day.

The project from the Prairie Primer was some good ol' fashioned butter churnin' minus the churn and the fresh-from-the-cow cream, of course. We've done this project before only each of the children had their own personal baby jar filled with cream. Much easier and quicker to shake into butter consistency. But no more baby food jars in this household, so I had the bright idea of making one large tupperware of butter and having the kids take turns.

They were all highly enthusiastic about a first turn at the shaking. Their enthusiasm faded somewhat after each turn when they realized how difficult this task was. I therefore assumed most of the shaking. I saw Jacob eye the extraordinarily large value sized block of butter from Sam's Club that was sitting on the counter. Finally, he couldn't take it any longer. "Mommy, there's butter right there," he offered.

"I...know..." I said, breathlessly as I continued to shake the stubborn cream, "...but...I want...us to do...this...just like...Laura and Mary." Yeah, kids. You're not going to fool me into using modern conveniences. You're going to make butter this way so you can learn how difficult life was for them. So you can understand how easy we have it.

I'm not sure any lessons were learned except that I'm getting old. Because all of that butter making brought all of the pain back to my elbow. Like I said, I'm not a big fan of this getting old stuff. Not a huge fan of our homemade butter either.

Corncobs and Little Life Lessons

Since teaching 4 children, starting a business, and trying to keep the house saleable clean does not keep me busy enough, I decided to throw in some more curriculum. Just to shake things up a bit, and just in case the kids aren't learning enough with the adequate teaching materials I already possess. Truth be told, my aforementioned curriculum addiction is the likely culprit. At any rate, we began working through the Prairie Primer this week, and I absolutely love it! I've always been a fan of Laura and her Little House, and this is a wonderful way to pass a beloved series on to another generation. And so far, so good.

Today we made corncob dolls. Even the boys. And, yes, of course their daddy couldn't be prouder. After the dolls were assembled, I informed my little pioneers that for one hour they would only be permitted to play with their doll. Obviously, this was met with a chorus of "why"s. Life's little lessons dictate that we must learn, like Laura, to be satisfied with what he have and to entertain ourselves with what is available to us.

After my edict, I overheard whispered boy plans: "Let's rip the corncob apart!" In order to save my carpet from corncob guts, I gave another lecture about respect and taking care of what we have. Reluctantly, they began to play with and care for their dolls, although the boys continued to be boys. Michael held his over a cold burner on the stove. "Look," he exclaimed, "I'm burning its head. Can I color its head black where it got burned?" Great idea, Michael.

Although the hour was a long one, they busied themselves with the doll. However, I did allow some non-Olden Days items: markers and construction paper with which they made food for their dolls. The fact that they made bear meat, carrots, and an assortment of berries at least assures me that they've been listening to the story.

New Hobbies

Right. Just what I need. Since I have so much time to work on the hobbies I already have! But today's co-op sparked a new interest in the boys and in me. We've been working through the Keepers of the Faith series with our homeschool group, so in a very politically incorrect way, the boys have been learning "boy" things, and the girls are picking up "girl" skills. You know, so we can ensure our daughters' success barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen and so the boys can hunt and gather.

Today's girl skill was cross-stitching, something I enjoy doing on occasion, but a skill which tries my patience when I'm trying to teach it. I was therefore very happy to have the opportunity to send my daughter into the capable, sewing hands of another. And she did great and even admitted after much prodding that this teacher was indeed much more of a patient cross-stitching tutor than I!

While the girls were busying their hands with their dutiful female activity, the boys were outside learning archery. And from the best of the best I'd say; their instructor, one of the fathers, is some sort of weapons expert in the Marine Corps (or at least was at some point). He was very patient with the boys, and they did very well! Jacob was the first to hit the target, and they both improved a whole lot just in the short time we had. I really wanted to try my hand at it as well, but none of the other mothers appeared as enthusiastic and since it IS all about the kids, I let them get their time in. But...the instructor was kind enough to send us away with a handful of arrows, so you just know it won't be long until we're all out in the backyard trying to be Robin Hood. And since we'll be studying the middle ages next year anyway, I think I see a whole unit study developing!