Bedtime...

What is it about the word "bedtime" that makes your children act like you've fed them 3 pounds of sugar? They were calm and relaxed after dinner, perfect little angels...suddenly mom says, "bedtime!" an they go into a franzy! Kaelyn will dig through every toy she owns, looking for the perfect bedtime companion. Then of course, she has to put them all away again. Haley will empty out the kitchen cabinet, insisting that she needs "just one more bedtime snack" and that she will absolutley starve to death if I don't prepare her a four course meal...okay, well maybe just pancakes. Skylar just can't go to sleep without going over here whole entire day with the rest of us in detail. If she is really on a roll, she will go back years! So, even though I have to be up at 4:30 a.m. to service one of my clients, it seems like I never get to bed before the crack of dawn. Well, maybe that is a little bit of an exaggeration...

Skylar Loves Horses

Horses are my favorite animals. It has always been my dream to own one. I am going to start taking horse back riding lessons soon. I like black horses and someday when I am a grown up, I am going to own one. I want to live in a house with a big yard where I can have horses and a nice little shed to put them in when it is time to sleep. Today, mom gave me a pad of note paper with pictures of horses on it. On the back of the pad, there is a little magnet, to hang iton the refigerator. I'm trying to decide what to write on it.

Christmas Crafts for the Kids

With Christmas just around the corner, our home school curriculum now includes a daily Christmas craft. Yesterday, we started with a very simple, traditional craft. Perhaps you remember it from grade school? I purchased a big bag of pipe cleaners in Christmas colors from Michaels. You can also get these at Wal-Mart. Each of the girls took two different colored pipe cleaners and matched up the ends. Next, they twisted each pipe cleaner around the other, all the way to the end. Once, this was done they curved the ends of their pipe cleaners, and voila! Pipe cleaner candy canes! This is a favorite craft in our family, simple enough for the youngest of our clan to complete on her own. I now have these decorations hanging off every door knob in our home.
The craft for today was an easy "Jingle Bell Bracelet." All we did was thread beads and bells on a wrist sized pipe cleaner. There are several variations on this bracelet. You can make it into an anklet, or use a "bumpy" pipe cleaner for a different look. Again, this craft is easy enough for my four year old to do on her own. My girls got very creative with their bracelets, and we have decided that a couple of them will go on the tree this year.
I've found the internet to be a great source of Christmas activities. We have found Christmas themed downloadables to color, mazes and word finds. Skylar and Haley particularly enjoy dot-to-dot activities, and we found several online with holiday themes.
Well, tis the season to keep busy!

Truama

I know it has been a while since I posted, but you see, I have suffered a traumatic experience. It has taken me some time to recover. Yes, I finally did it. I cleaned out my books, and got rid of several hundred! I didn't think I could do it...several times I nearly faltered! But the deed is done, and they are gone. What am I supposed to do with all that empty space in the garage, however? Watch out Barnes and Noble! Zuly's back!

The Invasion

It all started out innocently enough, a few toys here and there. You know the usual thing…but then, they slowly and ominously started to take over the house! First it was the kids’ room, then the back room. From there it progressed to the garage, until finally, there was no room left untouched! We decided that the invaders had to go. It was a tough job. Broken toys that were thrown into the trash mysteriously kept finding their way back into the house. Toys that were designated to the “donate” pile were found hidden behind sofas and under beds. But in the end, we were successful! However, all is not yet well. Next, we must tackle….mom’s books!

Thoughts on working from home

I am so very lucky that I am able to work from home. I work as a customer service representative, taking calls. This means I can’t have any background noise, or phone calls coming in while I am working. It is such a blessing. However, it does have its ups and downs.

When you tell people that you work from home, they don’t always hear the “work” part. Everyone seems to hear something different. Friends and family hear “I’m home, call me or drop by whenever you want.” When I tell the hubby and the kids I’m taking phone calls, what I am trying to say is, “Please keep the house quiet. I need to create a professional environment.” My sweet little girls hear, “Mom’s working, yell at the top of your lungs!” My son hears, “Mom wants to be serenaded with blaring rap music while she’s on the phone.” I my darling husband turns up the television volume all the way, so that the ringing of my phone doesn’t disturb him.

The only way to resolve this issue is to work in the wee hours of the morning, or what Ani poetically calls “the butt crack of dawn.” So I stumble out of bed anytime between 4:30 am 5:30 am to work. Well, I have to be up soon, so I’d better get ready to call it a night…

Haley Loses Her 1st Tooth

Yesterday I lost my first tooth, and I am very excited. I put it under my pillow in a little bear tooth fairy box. Then when I woke up this morning, I had a dollar! I love to get money from the tooth fairy. I have an empty medicine bottle, and I put my dollar and all of the rest of my money into it, but I want a better container. I made a notebook with a story about my first loose tooth. Bye! It was nice telling you about my tooth.

What do you mean you want me to cut the grass? It’s almost winter. Lawn mowing season is over! (Christopher- the sports fanatic)

Time Warp

Today started out like every other Sunday, with the usual frantic activity getting ready for church entails. Shane and I had the usual arguments about who would dress the girls and get breakfast ready. This was a good Sunday. I actually had time to put on some make up, so I look pretty cute. We rushed off to church, to minutes early as usual. (Shane hates to be late). He was a little crankier than usual this morning, because it is the first Sunday of the month, and we are fasting. Kaeyln managed to sneak out of the house wearing her pink Sleeping Beauty slippers, but we didn’t want to go back home to change her shoes.. We got in some exercise, going from door to door, trying to find one that wasn’t locked. The chapel was still dark, and the church was empty.

People slowly began to trickle in. Either church was going to be really late this morning, or almost no one was planning to show up. Our friend, Betty arrived, “You’re here rather early.” Yikes! Daylight savings time! We forgot to set our clocks back! What would we do with our extra hour? Because we are fasting, we couldn’t even go out to breakfast. “Great, now I have to go an extra hour without eating,” was Shane’s comment. However, every cloud has a silver lining. We were able to go home and exchange Kaelyn’s slippers for a more suitable pair of shoes.

Impending Grandparent-Hood

As I am sure I have mentioned, Ani and Alvin were married in April. It was a beautiful wedding, culminating with a honeymoon in Hawaii. My daughter was, of course, the most gorgeous bride in the entire universe. (I may be just a little bit prejudiced) Alvin looked pretty great too!
Just a couple of months after the wedding, the kids announced that we were going to be grandparents. But the real surprise came when we found out Ani and Alvin are expecting twins! Of course, the entire family is thrilled! Ani and Alvin are to be the proud parents to little Amaya and Alvin.
The kids invited us to view a 3D/4D ultrasound of the babies. I was so thrilled! We all crammed into the ultrasound room where soothing music played in the background. Both babies were facing Ani’s spine. The nurse conducting the ultrasound gave her some lollipops in the hopes that the sugar would induce the twins to move. However, those are stubborn little ones! They refused to show their faces. Little Alvin did go to great lengths to insure that we know that he is definitely all boy! The technology for these ultrasounds is truly amazing. We saw Little Amaya’s foot, and it was so clear! You could tell exactly what it was, you could even count the toes. Ani and Alvin were very disappointed because they really wanted to see their children’s’ faces.
I, on the other hand, found the whole thing very exciting. You could even make out the textures on the umbilical cord. I have to say, though, it did look rather crowded in there….

Time

My friend Mary emailed me a poem she wrote about time. This got me thinking.

Several weeks ago, I went to see a psychiatrist. I told him I was depressed and needed drugs. He thought this was hysterical. He advised me to forget about the drugs, and try getting some rest! Now it was my turn to be amused. After I picked my self up off the floor, I decided to follow the doctor’s advice. I came home and made a list if my responsibilities and priorities.

I home school the kids, and this is important to our family. Giving this up is not an option. I thought about giving up my small home based business, but then how would we be able to afford gas? I thought about giving up picking up my niece and nephew after school, but then they would become latch key kids and grow up to tell their therapists awful things about me. After exploring all options, I decided that housework was the only thing I could afford to ease up on. But wait! What about my adoring family? Surely they would help! Plan A: I told my loving family what the doctor said, and asked for some help around the house. My son was still laughing on his way out to shoot hoops (after filling the sink with his dirty dishes). My three little girls haven’t gotten over the nightmares…
To be completely fair, my husband did try to help for a minute, but the lure of the television was just too strong.
So I went on to Plan B: Just let the house go! This worked out okay for a while, but then visions of Children’s Services showing up, taking one look at the sink full of dishes and the toys strewn all over the house inundated my mind.
Right now, I am working on Plan C: Nagging the family to death. So far, this plan has not been successful, but I am not giving up without a fight!
In the meantime, the psychiatrist has offered to set up a bucket and hose in his office so that I will be able to fit in a shower during my next visit to him…..

Hip parenting?!

Ok, so as if I am not under enough pressure…today I found an article called “Hip Parenting”. Under the caption is a picture of a proud father with his son….dad is sporting tons of tattoos and a Mohawk haircut. Great…just when I thought I was getting the hang of the whole parenting thing, (it’s only taken 24 years), now I find out that to be a good mom, I have to be hip! In the 80’s I found out I needed to work outside the home to be a good mom. After all, what kind of example was I setting for my daughters by wasting my time at home? In the 1990’s, the catch phrase was “quality time”. That was an interesting one….it doesn’t matter if you only spend 10 minutes a day with the little ones, as long as it was well spent. And here I was, convinced I needed to put time and effort into parenting! Now, I find that I need to be a cool mom, or my kids could be warped for life. If I don’t get my nose pierced, my daughters may decide to join a cult, or may need years of therapy! According to my kids, I don’t even know what hip is! Maybe I need to wear belly baring fashions. Although I don’t think it might look too attractive after 5 kids, it works for Brittany! Oh wait…she lost custody of her kids. Maybe instead of playing the “Wiggles” CD in my minivan, I should be exposing the kids to “Sublime” and taking them to church meetings on the back of a Harley. After all, Madonna is actually writing books for children now…
I think it may be hopeless. I am just not “edgy”. I will never get the hang of being a perfect parent.

Musings

We have so much to be grateful for today. Shane's mother is doing much better, and is on the road to recovery. She had surgery yesterday, and a pacemaker was installed. Last week, when Shane received the call telling him that his mother was on life support, we were convinced that Shane would loose his mom! Today, she has been moved from the ICU to a regular room and is doing much better.

I am so grateful to all of our family and friends who remembered Barbara in their prayers. We are convinced that your prayers made the difference. Thank you.

Halloween

Today Haley turned 6 years old! Our family tradition is that the birthday girl (or boy) gets to do whatever they want for the entire day. Christopher took Haley to build a bear. She built a “Cat in the Hat” and dressed her in a pirate costume to match her own Halloween costume. She named her Elizabeth Swann. Her brother also gave her the “Spiderman 3” DVD.
We all went to “Trunk or Treat” at our church, along with my sister Diana, her Husband Mike, and the kids, Daniel and Michelle. We decorated our van with skeletons. After the kids got tons of candy at church, we drove over to the West Side. The entire block was decorated with wonderful Halloween decorations, and every house was giving candy and treats. I have never seen so many kids out trick or treating. We had to stand in line at each house we went to! At one house, we received gift certificates for a free week of karate lessons! After the kids filled their buckets, we came home to sing Happy Birthday to Haley, and to eat the chocolate cake we baked.
It was a great Halloween, shared with family and friends. Now we are just worn out!

About Kaelyn

My name is Kaelyn, but everyone calls me Pickle, because I like pickles. I am 4 years old because it was my birthday. I got a skinny pig for my birthday. Her name is Strawberry Shortcake. I like to hold her. My favorite color is purple.

About Haley

Hi. I am Haley. I am 5 years old, and I am going to be 6 tomorrow. I like to draw and paint. This is my favorite thing to do. I am very creative. I also like to make up stories. I love my mommy. She is the best mother I ever had, especially when she makes me Eyeball Punch for Halloween. I love to play with my mommy. I love to be with my daddy. Once we drew a train together. I have a toy Thomas the Train. It moves with a switch. I like to play baseball. My dad is trying to find me a baseball field. I think it will be lots of fun playing baseball. I really like it when my friends come over, and my cousins. I love my cousins. I love my brother Chris. I love my big sister Ani. I love to play with my toys. My favorite toy is Doodle Doug. He draws cool pictures. I like to feel colored sand.

My favorite foods are candy & banana splits.

I am home schooled. I like the games we play in school. My favorite is “Mother find their Babies”. Now I like my new sight words. I also like when we do art. I do homework and Math.

My favorite holiday is Halloween, because that is my birthday! I am going to dress up as Elizabeth Swann from “Pirates of the Caribbean” when she is dressed as a pirate. I have an angel costume. I like to play dress up with my sisters. I like to play “Tickle Bug” with my family.

If I could travel and go anywhere, I would like to go to the Hershey Candy Factory.

When I grow up I am going to play the drums and be a Missionary.

Bye!

About Skylar

My name is Skylar. I am 7 years old. My birthday is June 14th. I am home schooled. I like a school game called “Get the Bunny to the Log”. It is a reading game. My favorite color is yellow. I like horses and I have always wished for one. I have been pony riding, and want to take riding lessons. I also like jewelry, especially pearls. I like to play video games, and I like pokeman. I have some pokeman cards. I also like dragons. I pretend that I have dragon eggs, and when they hatch, I have new pet dragons. I like to paint. Once when we did art, we made our own play dough, and I made mine really fancy. We were talking about texture. I like to sing. I have a harmonica. I go it from my grandma. I like to play it a lot, and I never put it down. I want to learn how to play the flute.

I drink out of a big girl cup. I lost three teeth and I have a new one coming in. My favorite time of the day is mornings. I like it when a new day starts, because you never know what to expect.

I am going to dress up as Dorothy for Halloween. My costume is a little big, so I am trying to gain weight. My favorite holidays are Christmas and Easter. I also like my birthday, because I get to do whatever I want.

I have a fairy costume. I like to play dress up. My favorite toy is a stuffed animal I made at Build-a-Bear. It is a poodle with a baby. I like my Barbie’s and my American Girl doll. Her name is Leah. We have two matching outfits.

We might be able to get a camping truck and travel to places. We will only take a few toys. I like to travel to different places. I want to go see Miami Beach.

I like to be my family. I like to play games with them and read stories.

When I grow up I want to be a chemist and mix potions.

First of all, we would like to introduce our family. We are the Ortega family. My name is Zuly, and I have 5 children. My oldest, Ani, is 24 years old. My only son, Christopher, is 18. Skylar is 7, Haley is 5 (almost 6) and Kaelyn has just turned 4.

Ani is married, and I am fortunate to have a truly wonderful son in law, Alvin. They are making me a grandmother! The twins (that’s right) are due 01/18/07. One is a girl, Amaya, and the other is a boy, Alvin. We are thrilled and can’t wait to welcome the little ones into our family.

Christopher has been working at his first job. He went to South America this summer, and got back too late to register for college, so will be starting this spring. Christopher is a sports fanatic.

Skylar is 7 years old. She is home schooled. She loves all animals, particularly horses. Currently, Skylar is learning how to play the harmonica. She is friendly and outgoing.

Haley is 5 years old. She will be 6 years old on Halloween. She is very creative, and loves to draw and make up stories. Haley is very affectionate and loving.

Kaelyn is 4 years old. She is bright, and has a great sense of humor. She is always trying to keep up with the older girls. Kaelyn is rather shy.

I am a stay at home mom. I home school my 3 little girls, and work from home. I am also taking online college classes. I am a bibliophile; I love opera and the theater. I am an animal lover, and a pescoe-vegatarian. (The only one in the family).

As a family, we love nature and the outdoors, board games, good movies, and just being together.