ramblings

bought 90% of my vegetable seeds on Friday, the chipmunks are out of dormancy, the robins and sandhill cranes are back, I have heard geese migrate over, humpty dumpty has resurfaced, owls are nesting, pileated woodpeckers are starting to vocalize, so just a matter of time now...

Recap of our Spring 2014 Break

Saturday- Tuki's DI competition
Sunday- we ushered at church, Tuki & Ve went to an overnight birthday party in which they
               attended a water park, ate at Olive Garden, stayed at the hotel, went out to eat again and
               then went to Mr. Peabody and Sherman movie. Mim was acting her usual selfish self, so I
               left the house, went to two movies at the theater
               and purchased my band new running shoes, and her running flats.
Monday  - I ran for the first time, Mim and I walked the dogs, she ran her track meet, we attended
Tuesday - Ran again, cleaned the house, two girls went to track practice, we all attended Divergent at
                 the movie theater..Tuesdays are $5.00 movie nights.
Wednesday - Ran again, Ve and Mim went to track practice, Tuki and I attended her painting at the
                 library, went to Bill's pizza
Thursday - Ran again, track practice for the two, and then did nothing the rest of the day
Friday - Ran again, went to cousin Natania's for the afternoon, walked and ran today, took the girls to
              King Cones
Saturday - Ran again, Mim went to Pam's for working off her flats, The wee ones and myself went to
                  Appleton. I managed to purchase 3 beautiful Easter dresses at Burlington's for a total of
                  65.00 and 11 shirts (3 sweatshirts,  8 t-shirts) all for only 17.00 at Jansport Was very
                  disappointed in that the Mall didn't have a book store, so didn't find any good books to
                  read!!!
Sunday - we won't be going to church, but we will walk the dogs, I will run and hopefully finish my paper and then get ready for the start of school in which we only have 9 weeks left...wow

Every day I also worked on my paper for class, we walked the dogs and I managed to read 5 (kid chapter books)

So essentially we ate our way through Spring break since the weather hasn't been cooperative, but spent less money than if we went somewhere.

Run - Day 6 - over at RUN FOR FUN

My running posts can now be found here: RUN FOR FUN OVER 40 private running blog.
I am going to keep this one for family news.

Run - Day 5

Ran 2.3 miles in 29:53 minutes...with Tuki and this time she was not a good running partner..as soon as she saw we were going further, she started complaining that she couldn't do it even though we had at the start of her complaining not even gone as long as past runs, and then she took off and left me in the dust as soon as she was a minute within the sight of home.....not a lack of energy, but certainly a lack of want.

Tuki's painting at the local city library

she was proud of her accomplishment

Run - Day 4

Ran 28:53 min for 2.2 miles. My chest does not hurt anymore from the pounding from my rapid heart rate and my heavy breathing, so I am getting better. I decided to go longer even though I am still walking/running 1:1 because I wanted to exercise in the ballpark of 30 min..the "ideal" time for workouts. I don't plan to extend my run time until next week. Tuki hung up her shoes today...:(
It was also drizzling out the whole run as well...reminds me of the good ole days of running thtough anything and feeling great afterward...

The two older girls went to track practice again today, last day this week.

Run - Day 3

It felt much worse but for good reason, we ran it in 20:34, a 1 min and 10 sec faster time with the same methods..Tuki was my running partner again. The other two went to track practice at the high school. Ve was sore but liked it..good for her a 10 year old running with high schoolers.

Run - Day 2

walked 1 minute - run 1 minute. Tuki ran with me and it took us 21:43 to run 1:7 miles..Ve is at track practice with Mim. The runs felt just ever so slightly better than yesterday...slightly, and still no recovery on the walks...


Photos of Mim at her first track meet this year. She was the third runner in the 4x4 relay..her split was a 69, not the best, so I advised her to talk with one of the coaches so he can help her train to improve her time.

Run - Day 1

Walk 1 minute - run 1 minute - about 21 minutes or so, not an exact time since I didn't start my watch right away, for 1.7 miles..rapid heart rate and not recovered before rest was over......a long way to go, but this I am ready to try...feet felt good except for blister on heal on right foot due to new shoes....

Spring Break

We are on Spring Break..today is the official first day, currently it is a high of 1 degree outside. According to the forecast, the temperatures won't rise high enough for a good melt until AFTER we return fron the break. We aren't doing anything this year for several reasons.

1. I am attmepting to save some money
2. Mim is in track and they have a meet today and practice this whole week
3. I have a big paper to write for class
4. I finally have bought new running shoes and will begin running, huffing and puffing outside....

Tuki attended a Destination Imagination competition on Saturday. First time ever, she liked it, the team didn't rank high, but there were only 5 members on the team, 1 kindy, 1 first, 2-second graders, and 1 third. 8 years old was the highest age. This was Tuki's elementary school's first year trying this.

Then on Sunday, the two wee one started attending an overnight birthday party in which they went to a waterpark, Olive Garden, hotel, and a movie...they are still gone. Mim commented last night that it was weird without them at home.

Mim made pancakes and her first patch of chocolate chip cookies last night. They both tasted wonderful.

I have Mim on a behavior contract for track. She has broken it several times in only 11 days after signing it. I sometimes wonder will she ever start to learn, because she understands the benefits in good behavior, and not because I force her to comply..anyway I see her doctor on April 17, this will begin Mim's sessions for her behaviors. We waited 6 months to see this doctor, but I heard she was really good with adoption issues and adoptive children..I sure hope so.

I feel with Mim we take 1 step forward, immediately followed by 2 steps backward. I think she understands something, mainly because I talk it to death, and then when it comes to applying it in a new situation and even sometimes an old situation, she will say "you didn't say to do that" even though I have said it thousands of times before....it is EXHAUSTING to me.

In addition, she constantly compares herself to her two sisters, who are 7 and 9 years younger than her one minutes, and then the next minute she demands to be treated like an older child thar is allowed more privileges...another exhausting roller coaster we deal with much too often.

Mim

wrote a track behavior contract under my guidance. I decided to do this since her attitude and behaviors tend to get a whole lot worse during a sport. Her raging has been tough as it is, and I wanted to curb her raging during the season when she was more tired ad stressed due to having less time for her tons of her homework. The contract has a list of 16 items noted as to how she is to be behave. This way if she breaks the contract then she knows it was her fault and not mine since it was what we both agreed upon. I have pointed out a few points to her over the weekend as she was pushing and letting her emotions start climbing. She readily admits that she lets the emotions control her rather her control her emotions, thus the out of control raging. Plus she admits she likes to lose control periodically (in her case monthly), but hen of course she blames me for her LOVE of losing control. BTW I see the therapist starting April 17th and then after that I make appointments for her. Her track coach knows and will dismiss her from practices without penalty.

I am hoping for the best.

Tuki's leprechaun trap

Tuki's leprechaun trap, 

Tuki's Leprechaun trap, I am so glad we do not have a another 2nd grader in this home. I am tapped out of trap ideas. I suggested just putting glue on the bottom of the trap like a glue trap for mice, I shared he might lose a leg or two but he would still be trapped, she didn't like the idea, so instead he will be trapped at the bottom of a golden colored Gatorade bottle eating lucky charms...good luck leppy!! (3 photos attached)

Ve laughed and laughed

Ve laughed and laughed, and even down right giggled and giggled, when her and I, and when her and Mim were reading the "Miss Mary is Scary"  Weird and Weirder books. She laughed, do you know what that means? She understood the book, she was enjoying the book, she was interacting with the book, and most especially she wasn't just working so hard on decoding the words that she found the book just another long and tedious assignment she has to do for school. So we will continue onward with our nightly reading and hopefully she will move upward in her understanding and enjoyment of books.

Ve has picked up social English easily, but academic English as been difficult. So I decide that this year, when it seemed she was flat lining on her learning, I would provide reading interventions with her at home daily. She and I mostly, and sometime her and Mim read two chapters together, currently at her reading level which is a DRA of 34, which is the middle of 3rd grade...a year behind her grade in school. With our nightly interventions and reading sessions, I have already seen huge improvements,

HELP SAVE HUMPTY DUMPTY!!!!

HELP SAVE HUMPTY DUMPTY!!!!

Humpty Dumty (named by my girls) sits at the end of our yard urging cars as they are passing to slow down. This year, during his vigilance in keeping us safe, he has been slowly drowning because of old man winter's snow...Everyone everywhere, start singing and the energy from our sound waves will unite in the air and the heat will eventually melt all the snow!!!

Spring has sprung!
The grass has ris!
I wonder where the flowers is?

Pass this on to SAVE HUMPTY DUMPTY..we (Hunpty and our household) thank you!!!

We feel the heat already...keep it up!!

(sidenote - it gets even worse - this photo was taken last weekend, after this Friday night's snowfall, Humpty's eyes have now been covered, and we only see his red hat and yet he still protects us, what a guy!!)