The Classics: Floor Surfing

We owned a house in Richardson, TX that had a huge family room. The floor was covered in a plastic "wood" laminate on the concrete slab. DH was travelling 4-5 days a week at that time and Thursday was cleaning day. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were not and with 3 boys under 5 the floor seemed to get pretty sticky and gucky. (This is the house where the raisin bran and milk were dumped on the floor-remember? the boys eating like puppies?) The room had to be 30 feet by 25 feet. The couches were around the perimeter and there was lots of space in the middle.

One Thursday we needed to mop the floor. I got out the bucket and just knew that the boys were going to want to help. I got out extra rags and had them strip down to their underwear. (Hey, I was cleaning the floor-I didn't need extra laundry too.) I start mopping, they start mopping, we are having a good time. We are singing. We are scrubbing. #3 decides he just can't get enough water and climbs into the mop bucket. Water is being splashed all over the floor. #1 decides that #3 needs a bucket ride. He pushes the bucket around the room and water is sloshing out all over the place. #2 is chasing and slips and belly flops. And from there Floor Surfing is born. They would stand at one corner of the room, take a fast little fun and flop onto their belly and slide all the way across the rest of the room.

The bucket ended up emptied on the floor, and all three of them ended up running and belly flopping onto the floor and sliding across the floor. It was a blast. I took a video. There were waves. And really, really tired, happy kids. I used up every single towel in the house to dry it up (so much for the laundry). My father-in-law saw the video and gave me something in between a tsk-ing and a chewing out. Apparently I should have never let them do that. But you know what? my kids like to mop floors to this day. And I was in the Fun Mom's Club.

Has Anyone Ever Thought About The End?

What do we want as the end result of this homeschooling journey? I think it varies from family to family. Our is we want adults who have a knowledge of Heavenly Father, Christ, and their mission in life, are self-sufficient, honest, kind and still love learning and growing. And for the boys-ability to support a family with wife staying home. For girls-knowledge how to run household and parent. (That does not mean the boys won't know how to run a household or that the girls won't be able to support a family-we believe in traditional roles and hope to raise our children to find joy in assuming a traditional role.)

What results does your family want from this homeschooling journey?

Today Is a Day of Discovery

We are re-discovering the horizontal surfaces in the house. Home skills count as education right?

We struggle (like so many others) in keeping a tidy, non-sticky house. (Hey-with toddlers around these dining chairs have seen better days.) If I call off school for a day and we all work together and I make sure the bribe is good enough to keep them on task, we all benefit.

Clean house--sane mama--computer-zombied boys.

Overheard

#1 is helping #3 get dressed for church, as he is tucking in the shirt I hear: "There! Now you are cute!"

#3 responds, "NO! I NOT coot. I cooowa. Weega coot."

I guess girls are supposed to be cute in his 3 yo mind but boys are cool. Who argues with a 3 year old?

Applesauce

67 quarts, 8 pints

no added sugar-all apples and cinnamon

squik, squick, squick

that is noise that my shoes make going across the kitchen floor....

anyone care to enlighten my son?

Tonight at dinner he asked the sister missionaires what a *itch is....

Wet's Go to Dat Houwse Gwammie!

That is what #4 kept saying last night during trick-or-treating. Over and over again. He was so very excited. He would not put on a costume. I don't argue with 3 year olds either so he went in his red Lands End coat. He was a boy little red riding hood. #1 started off as Darth Vader (but as it darkened he couldn't see and ended up being a guy in a black cape and dressed in black, so he settled for a Zorro guy), #2 was Ty Pennington, #3 was an Army guy, #4 was a boy red riding hood, #5 was Little Red Riding Hood using The Coat.

DH is at his sister's wedding. Since I was being single mom I decided to go to my parent's for Halloween. It is an hour and a half away but my parents don't see a lot of the kids and especially not on these really fun occasions that involve free candy. Grammie made potato soup for us. She went trick-or-treating with us. We hit the street she grew up on and visited the house she grew up in. She introduced me to the woman that babysat me when I was 3 or 4. The boys got a few stories from her and me (this is the church Grammie went to when she was a girl, I know where all the rooms are in this house, that yard used to have a pear tree and a little playhouse-more like a shack-that the kids would play in, the barn used to be taller until the neighbor kids caught it on fire). It is quite different trick-or-treating without anonymity. We ran into my cousin and their kids and they didn't recognize us (didn't really expect them to). But it was still very different.

We only stayed out for a hour then we headed back to Grammie and Poppy's to trade candy. #1 ate yet another bowl of potato soup, everyone stuffed themselves with tootsie rolls and m&ms and then we headed home. I arrived home with five happy snoring Brownheads.

It was a good day.