Goin' green

Gianna, getting bigger and leaner by the minute.

Things are greening up around here, ever so slowly.  I have halted my garden plans for the past few days, due to rain and cold weather.  I am a wimpy farmer. But, I am wearing my down jacket today! Crazy NY weather.

Friday night, we had a thunderstorm. RWF and I both enjoy a good thunderstorm. It was even more exciting because the power went out.  We sat in our dark, quiet house, whispering and waiting for the lights to flicker on.  After waiting for about 20 minutes, we went to bed, excited to go to sleep to the noisy rain and thunder. Then, about 5 minutes after we crawled into our bed, we heard Bode crying and screaming.  Our kids are "white noise" addicts.  So when the power goes out, the white noise stops, and babies wake up. So dealing with the wake-ups (plural) was not fun. But we did enjoy the storm while it lasted.

Then, on Saturday morning, we discovered this:

That is the top of a very tall tree.  Crash, boom, in our yard.  Luckily, it didn't hit the nearby power lines (or our house)!  RWF and I walked around the yard, trying to find the broken stump that the tree split from.  Finding no stump, RWF looked up and saw that it had actually split from the very top! Yikes!

Saturday, Bode had his last indoor soccer game. Next Saturday, he starts a new soccer team outdoors. It will be his first 'real' soccer team/game. I am so excited.  I went to our local sporting goods store and bought him his first shin guards, socks, and shorts.  

On Sunday, we visited Nana, Aunt Dawnie and Uncle Craig, and Aunt Debbie. It was a nice afternoon. The babies just love spending time with their family.    I didn't take any photos because I have found, I rarely have time to stop and take a photo!  I am busy with one child or the other when we are visiting.  The parenting does not stop, even when you are surrounded by family.

The bullying continues at school for Bode.  So, we are having to step up our talks with the teachers involved.  Bode was not in school last week due to sickness, and he still talked about this bully and the meanness. I don't like that this bully is in Bode's head, even while he is away from school for a week.  On Monday, I had hoped that time away from the bully meant that the bully would forget about the meanness. But Bode came home from school and told me that the bully had pushed him down and "was mean" during recess. That's it. It needs to stop now.

Happy Tuesday.

xo

Friday

Confession time!  I am not really feeling "Friday Love" today. I'm not feeling much "love" for anything around here (except my family, of course!).

There is currently ice on our patio deck. It has been raining for the past 3 days. I love the rain. But it has also been cold.  Yesterday afternoon, we had a bit of sleet.  Today's high is 36. So this hasn't been a Spring rain. It has felt more like Winter.  Does that explain everything?

I got my hair done this past week.  And then I had it done again, on an emergency "re-do" basis, two days later.  And it is still not to my liking. And I hate to say that my hair is going to affect how I feel about myself.  But I am going to say it.  I feel unhappy because of the state of my hair.  I either cringe and look away from the mirror, or get thisclose and study every strand of hair on my head for longer than I have time for.  Every time I go out, I think that people are looking at my hair, and thinking, "Whoah, is that a box job?"   It is seriously sad to admit that my hair is going to affect my outlook.  And I do think about other people with real hair issues, and other real issues...and feel juvenile and silly for my imagined first world problem. It is a minor, cosmetic thing that has had an impact on me. And I do not consider myself material or vain. But there it is, for your consideration (or not).

I am also bummed because I can't find my camera's battery charger. It is just another reminder of how disorganized I am these days. My camera has no battery so I can't take any photos.  And don't even get me started on my iPhone! That is another mess I have to clean up. These type of things don't make me feel good about myself.

But the one thing that has got me in a funk and consuming my thoughts is that there is trouble at Bode's school. There's a boy (a kindergartner) that is giving Bode trouble.  I found out a few days ago that he called my boy a name.  My precious boy.  This big kindergartner called Bode "idiot."   And the reason I know this is because this boy labeled my son "idiot" while Bode's father was a few inches away.  RWF was the one that reported the name calling to me. When I heard this, I had a physical reaction.  There was a heat that rose up inside of me, and I felt such anger.  And thank God that I was not there when this boy uttered this word to my Bode, because I would be in a lot of hot water if I had taken matters into my own hands at that moment. After I found out,  I talked to Bode's teacher at school, and she is going to work on this issue (apparently, she is already aware that something is going on during recess).  I knew that there was trouble at school because Bode has been talking about "the bad boys" on the playground. It has obviously been on his mind, and I feel bad that I didn't give it more attention. I didn't know that there was name calling involved.  Unacceptable.

It just breaks my heart that my sweet boy has been bothered like this, by silly boys. It makes my stomach hurt to think that he has experienced anxiety over these silly boys at school, where I can not guard him from this cruelty. I want school to be a safe haven, a positive place for Bode to learn and have fun.

And I know, I know, I KNOW that this is going to happen. This is going to happen at school because kids are just cruel sometimes.  But my boy is 4.  And I don't want him to be called names by another boy who is 5. A boy who really shouldn't know to call names, or even know the word, "idiot." And to be fair, maybe he doesn't know. Sadly, maybe he has been called this name himself, by a "friend," or worse, a parent or a sibling.  But I'm doing my part to stop it.  I want this boy to be educated on why name calling is not smart.

So, that is why I'm in a funk. And why I'm just going to concentrate on this photo and be happy about all the blessings in my life.

((((LOVE))))

And maybe this photo, too:

(MAH BABY....SWOOOOON)

A big THANK YOU to Aunt Dawnie, who sent me a slew of pics of baby Nico.  This made me feel so much better. I think I have more photos on my old laptop.  I just have to crank the ol' computer up and see if they are still there.

I hope that this Friday finds you happy and ready for the weekend!  I'll be back, if I can get some Friday Love inspiration.
Happy Friday, everyone.
xo