The End of the School Year

It's here! Finally the end of the school year has come. My children attend ESY (extended school year) which allows them to stay in their routine & there's also less regression when school starts back up again. And I'll be honest, while other moms are looking forward to sleeping in during the summer, I don't mind getting up early to see them off to school. It may just be half a day, but that's half a day of freedom and less whinning. And let's face it, even Martha Stewart would agree, less whinning is a "good thing".

The end of school brought home a lot of extra papers the teachers were cleaning out & of course home-made Mother's day gifts. My favorite I don't mind saying is long stemmed lillies made with a cutout of son#2's hand & green pipe cleaners. PRICELESS! I have them in a marble vase. They are precious. Son #1 made me something of clay. I must say I don't know what I'll do with it yet, so for now it's sits on the treadmill. It's a nest with A LOT of little eggs in it. So picture hardened clay shallow bowl, and lots of tiny balls of hard clay. I can guess since with clay & playdough there are sensory issues with my son, that this was his way of making something he had to, in a hurry. What's faster than a bowl & some little balls of clay? So, I guess I'll put it next to the other TWO I have from previous years. Pretty soon, I'll have to get a family of birds to sit in them so people know what they are & don't mistake them for ashtrays.

And for the last little chuckle, I thought I'd share son#1's journal entries for April & May since you all seemed to like them before.

If I went the desert I would see..... "some birds. I would see a lot of sand."

When I loose a tooth..."at the dentist the tooth fairy gets me a new Lego Star Wars game." (can you tell who has a loose tooth at our house??)

I use a computer for..."brainpop jr."

My favorite PE activity is..."scooters. They go fast."

I stay strong by eating..."cheese ritz. I also eat Yoplait."

The biggest thing I've ever seen is..."Arrowhead (his school). It has so many rooms."

I'd like to become famous for..."Lord Vader , from Star Wars."

The last time I cried was..."when there wasn't Lego Star Wars for Windows."

My favorite assemble at school this year was..."about the earth."

The librarian at my school..."showed how to make strawberry ice cream."

If I ever got lost..."I call 911."

If I could build a robot..."he will be like Moby . (on Brainpop Jr.)

An animal I know a lot about is..."a panda. Pandas are cute."

Rollercoasters are..."cool." (my son has NEVER been on a rollercoaster)

When I go to the dentist..."she looks in my mouth."

A fun outdoor activity is..."Jedi Academy." (computer game)

If I were one inch tall..."I would be like an ant."

I want to take a field trip to..."my getto." (Apparently someone's been watching MTV)

At the library I..."can read."

I don't scream whenever I see...(he added DON'T) "ants."

Now I have to go & shower. My kids are gone to school for half a day and after a full day with all three of them yesterday, I'm a mess. Half days are good, but it's sort of like the start of the crab fishing season on the tv show "Deadliest Catch". I have to hurry to meet my quota of things to get done before time runs out and they come home.

Heaven & How You Get There

Son #1 came home from school yesterday in a rather brooding mood. I could tell something was up but with the pitch of his voice I decided to tread lightly. He had a wrapped "present". I asked who this was for, after much protest & whinning I won't subject you to, he allowed me to put it up on top of the tv cabinet so the brothers couldn't get it. Then I sat down to try & figure out what he was thinking about to make him so quiet & frustrated. He sat at the computer not playing it, but staring off at the tv. But I could tell by his fixed stare, he wasn't really paying it any attention. I sat down across from him.

me: "What are you thinking about babe?"

son#1: "Well, I don't want to grow up and be old."

me: "Okay"

son#1: "When you're 80 years old you die."

me: "Some people live to be 90 & 100 years old too."

son#1: "They do?"

me: "Yep."

son#1: "Well, I'm NOT going to heaven."

me: "Okay, but in heaven you don't have to sleep or eat, you just play & you're with God."

son#1: "Well, I'm not going because Papa never came back from there."

me-quietly: "That's right, you don't come back."

son#1: "Well, I'm not going then. I'm going to stay with the Swaims forever." (pause) What happens when you die?"

me: "You mean to your body? After you die, we have a funeral for your body. But you have a spirit inside you that tells you right & wrong, and when you die that spirit goes to heaven to live with God."

son#1: "Well, I'm NOT going. (pause) When is he going to ask me if I want to go so I can tell him no?"

me (chuckle): "Well, he doesn't ask you like that. He asks you to be baptized, which is where you hold your nose & go under the water & come right back up. And he asks you to believe that Jesus was God's son.
See, God had a son, like you're my son. And God's son's name was Jesus. And Jesus died like Papa died. After he died, God took Jesus to live with him in heaven. One day Jesus will come back, then all the dead people will live again and he'll take us all to go be in heaven with God. So you'll see Papa then."

son#1: (processing) "Well, I think Papa misses being here and playing his Hoyle games."(computer games)

me: "I bet he does too baby. I bet he misses you like you miss him. (pause) You know how Matt is your daddy and I'm your mommy? Well, Papa was MY daddy. And I miss him very much too. So it's okay for you to miss him and be sad about that because I get sad too."

son#1: "Yeah. (pause for processing & recognition starts to dawn on him) So Nana is your mommy?"

me: "Yep."

son#1: "She not dead."

me: "Nope, she's not."

son#1 smiles "Yeah. (pause) Well I still think heaven is evil."

me (sigh): "No honey, that's hell. We'll talk about that a different day."


**I had no idea how many times we say "well"--so I apologize, but it is how son#1 starts most sentences.