August 17, 2006

Hello Everyone,
August 17 means it is mama's birthday! Happy Birthday! I hope you have a good day, either relaxing or invigoratingly busy, whichever you prefer.
We have had a very rainy day, today, and our roof is leaking again which is very depressing. Ben has been up there countless hours trying to find the point of entry of the water to seal it up, plus we have 2 tarps up there held in place by concrete blocks and sandbags, and still lots of leakage. I foresee us finally giving in pretty soon and hiring a roofer. The ceiling is going to need some repair as well and I'm thinking we may just get the popcorn acoustic coating removed while we're at it. Ugh. The joys of home ownership.
The boys had a good 3rd day of school. They meet me over by the west bike rack, which means they are not going out with the rest of their class to wait over on the east side where the car pick-up is. The school is very strict about security-- who is allowed in and out of the school and who's allowed to pick up the kids. So they have older "safety patrol" students who escort the little ones out to the west entrance of the school to wait for whomever is picking them up. It was so cute to see Brigham and Joseph each being held by the hand by an older student to be passed on to me. I'm pretty impressed with that aspect of the school so far. I did have to deal with my first taste of east coast liberalism permeating the elementary school when a notice was sent home about the unit on sexuality and family relationships which is mandated by the Broward County school district for Kindergartners. To their credit they did have a form the parents could fill out to request their child not be included in this unit, although to me it sort of seems like a form should be sent to *permit* the child to be in the unit, the default being that Kindergarteners not be exposed to this sort of material. My boys are still 4 years old for heaven's sake! (At least for a few more days). Anyway needless to say my boys will not be attending those lessons.
This afternoon the boys were pretty worn out from school and a little-bit-too-late bedtime last night, and we dealt with some fighting mainly between Brigham and Joseph. And to my dismay they have picked up the "I hate you" phrase. I'm not saying it was from school, because I dont' know that and in any case I'm sure they would come up with it one way or another. But it made me sad hearing them shout that at each other, and we had a long talk about not saying "I hate you." "You're making me mad," "I don't like it when you...," "Don't talk to me right now," are all ok when you are angry, but not "I hate you." That is what Satan wants them to say so they should not say it! I think they understood that, but we'll see what happens when tempers flare. I sure remember Mama and Daddy telling us not to say that to each other, but I had no idea how it tears at a parent's heart to hear that phrase being flung between your dear sweet children.
Another unfortunate phrase that I'm regrettably hearing is from my little Mosey! The big boys have a way of saying in a sort of taunting (annoying) way, "Ha, ha, I got your toy," or whatever they're trying to gloat about, the key part of the phrase being the "Ha ha" which they say in the MOST teasing way possible. Well, Mosey has picked this up, but instead of using it to tease his brothers, he's starting to use it to tease me!! "Ha ha, I run away from you mom!" "Ha ha, I got your phone mom!" I guess I should expect that, since he is the youngest and smallest. He probably knows he's asking for trouble by taunting his big brothers like that, but what is his mom going to do to him?
Oh, before I close for the night, I added *one* more column of pictures on my website