The Chronicles of Narnia

Nick has developed a fondness for "Narnia," by C.S. Lewis.  He loves it!  His third grade teacher read the class "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" and Nick was hooked.  I am reading him the first book in the series, "The Magician's Nephew."  Although I am beyond thrilled over Nick's love of this timeless classic, I am surprised because "Narnia" is a fantasy book and I am not a fan of fantasy.  Jay and I prefer non fiction, however, I can picture a 9 year old Mike Siebert being enthralled with "Narnia."  I love to read but I don't like to read out loud.  I read fluently but I find "Narnia" very difficult to read out loud and read fluently.  But despite the fact I'm not overly crazy about the series I can appreciate good writing and C.S. Lewis is a magnificent  writer. I am overjoyed to read the pages and watch Nick's face as the pages come to life for him. 

Our spring break

 This past week was spring break for the boys and we we're slugs.  Ha!  Betcha didn't expect me to say that, did ya?  Jay had been running himself ragged with basketball and school and Nick is just Nick, any opportunity he has to sleep in, he takes full advantage of it.  That's not to say there wasn't some fun involved in the week.  We are talking about the Siebert boys after all. 

 Nothing says fun to the boys like going shooting.  Not only did they get to shoot with their dad but Grandpa John took them shooting once during the week.  The weather proved to be a bit of a disappointment this week.  By Thurs and Friday the sun finally came out but it was cold! 

 Last weekend Sarah and Jenny came out with Curtis (Faith too) and Tommy and we celebrated Curt's birthday (early) with an air soft war.  Is there any other way to celebrate? 

Nick spent time with Nana this week and Mike and I took the boys to Scheels for the afternoon on Friday.  On Thurs we finally got to see this guy, Aaron!  Jay and Aaron are still really good friends but they went opposite directions this year with sports so we haven't gotten to see Aaron nearly as often as we would like.  We missed him!  This picture is not good of Jay but it was the best I could do.  He's proving very challenging to get a good picture of these days.  He's annoyed by his mother always saying to him, "Smile for the camera, Jay!"  I don't know why a 13 year old boy would be annoyed by that! 

Time marches on

I left my former company and my former job almost four years.  In four years things have sure changed not only in my life but in my former coworker's lives also.  My entire department is completely dismantling.  All of us got together tonight because a large number of my former coworkers are headed to new jobs (in the same company) come Monday morning.  Some things never change though because all my coworkers reminded me of all the hilarious stories I use to share about my boys and they all asked the same question, "Is your house finished yet?"  My boys are still giving me plenty to laugh about and yep, my house still isn't finished.  Getting up and reporting to an office was part of my daily routine for 16 years (12 full time and 4 part time).  I wouldn't trade those years.  I remember many, many winter mornings waking my boys up, getting them out of bed and somehow making it to work on time.  I remember trying to juggle work and sick kids.  I remember going into work some mornings feeling completely defeated by motherhood and having a great group of coworkers who listened and encouraged me.  Do I miss them?  Yes.  Do I miss "it" meaning the daily grind of reporting to an office - NO!!!!  When I think of all my former coworkers reporting to a new job on Monday morning it's bittersweet.  But time marches on.  We are all older now.  Some of my coworkers are grandparents now.  Time marches on.......Most of my former coworkers seem happy about their upcoming move but given the fact their former jobs are going away, they are happy to have a job to go to on Monday.  Only God can be credited for leading me to this job four years ago and not a day goes by that I don't thank Him. 

I don't know

The phrase, "I don't know" is heard all the time around our house and the one who is usually asking the question of "What happened" is Mike.  Things in our house mysteriously disappear or get broken and no one knows what happened.  Nick's Kindle went missing in December and no one knew what happened to it, although I blame Jay.  Mike found 8 empty bottles of water in our yard this week and neither boy had any idea whose bottles they were.  Mike went searching for his winter gloves the other day and Yep, you guessed it, the phrase "I don't know" was delivered.  Last week Mike found a small hole in our dry wall in our dining room (yeah, this stuff happens all the time).  Mike asked me, Jay and Nick what had happened and the phrase "I don't know" was uttered.  Seriously, how can two boys have no clue how a hole was put in the dry wall & as Mike likes to point out how can their mother have no clue what put a hole in the dry wall?  Sigh!  Just this morning Mike asked all three of us to congregate in the garage where he showed us a bucket and inside the bucket was a dead bat.  Mike proceeded to ask us, "What happened here?" Almost in unison all three of us replied, "I don't know."  How did a dead bat end up in a bucket in our garage?  Who the heck knows!  Even our dogs have a "I don't know attitude?"  When Mike found that Cole had chewed up our wood on our front stoop he asked Cole point blank, "Did you do this?"  Whenever Cole is guilty he looks the other way as if to say, yes you guessed it, "I don't know."  And so it goes of the I have no clue, I didn't do it and the I don't knows in the Siebert house. 

Intelligence 101

Lately my ears have heard the phrase, "I'm not smart" in my house.  These words sting like an insect bite and my heart aches every time I hear my boys say these words, let alone believe them.  I'm hearing more frequently from Jay these days.  He's at the age where he understands his obstacles and how it sets him apart from others.  I heard Dr. Kathy Koch speak at a conference last weekend (Yep, I'm back to the conference again) and she commented on how all the measuring and testing in schools is destroying our kids (agreed) but that every child has an intelligence.  She categorized these intelligences as:
The intelligence of curiosity, to ask questions that others judge irrelevant (this is Nick)
The intelligence of playfulness, an attitude towards life (both boys fall under this category)
The intelligence of imagination, to close your eyes and "see" (my niece, Lauren, so has this intelligence)
The intelligence of creativity, to give birth to new ways of looking at things
The intelligence of wisdom, to experience wonder of the world directly without blinders or preconceptions
The intelligence of inventiveness, hands on creativity (this is Jay.  He constructed an entire tree house himself.  Nick also falls under this category)
The intelligence of vitality, being awake to your senses.  Kids who are in constant motion, kids who are loud and experience things through their senses (this is Jay and Nick)
The intelligence of sensitivity
The intelligence of flexibility
The intelligence of humor, looking at things differently (this is Jay and Nick.  Nick is happy go lucky, Jay has a dry sense of humor)
The intelligence of Joy, people that have this have all the other traits.  It comes from deep inside us when a new connection is made. 
I am really trying to focus on these intelligences and spending a lot of time praying about them, praying that my boys see themselves in these intelligences.  Just this week I was having a "coming to Jesus" with Jay and pointed out to him (again) that his dad and I both struggled through school and that was back in the 80's, when schools and parents didn't know as much as they do now.  I asked him point blank if he considered Mike and I successful.  He said Yes and when I asked him why he thought we were successful he answered by saying, "Because you and dad always put me and Nick's needs above your own."  I was touched and was reminded that in life it's not what you scored on a test that matters, it's not how much money you make, it's about your experiences and how you are loved and how you love others that really defines success. 

Breakfast failure

It has always been important to me to have a hot breakfast for my kids in the morning.  I enjoy serving it and considering they are both ADD, I like knowing I've packed them full of protein in the morning (ha).  We are down to no milk, no eggs and no bread in our house and we are trying to get to Friday before we get groceries.  Since Jay has a love affair with Krispy Kreme donuts, I thought why not, what can donuts hurt for breakfast, on a school day (heaven forbid)?  Jay and Nick devoured their donuts this morning.  When I pointed out to them that this might be the most unhealthy breakfast I've ever served them on a school day, both boys (in unison, I might add) said that in fact it wasn't the most unhealthy breakfast I had ever served them, didn't I remember the time I let them have skillet cookies with ice cream for breakfast???  I gasped!  In thinking back I can confirm I did serve them skillet cookies for breakfast, once.  I think I was trying to show them that sometimes it's okay to let lose and live outside the box!  Good to know I still have it in me.  Ha!

Guns, Camo, Eric Church, St. Patty's day; What a combo!

 Jay saved for several months and with his allowance, Christmas money and birthday money he purchased his first shot gun.  He loves it and can't wait until hunting season. 

 Yesterday was St. Patty's day so what does my Nick do?  He dresses from head to toe in camo.  Even his back pack was camo.  That boy was serious about his green. 

 Last night I went to the Eric Church concert with Jenny and saw my co-worker, Nancy!  The concert was awesome and as always I enjoyed spending an evening with Jenny. 

Enough

Wow, either I've been exceptionally lazy when it comes to my blog lately or my boys haven't given me much to blog about, probably a little of both.  Things in our house are slowing down a bit and just this past week the weather brightened, a lot!  We've been enjoying the nice weather and a slower schedule.  This past weekend my mom treated my sister and I and took us to the "Hearts At Home" conference.  This is the second time I've gone and it never disappoints.  I seem to walk away from the conference feeling refreshed, motivated and inspired.  I took four workshops and all four were fabulous.  As I concluded my day and reflected on what I had learned I picked up on a common theme that I heard in all of my work shops - Slow down!  My mom and Kim said they picked up on the same theme.  I titled my blog "Enough" because one workshop I took was entitled, "The Power of Enough."   It related to money and asked the question, when is enough, enough?  I have really thought about that question and I hope I continue to think about it in the months to come.  It is my hope that I'm able to change some not so becoming habits I've established with myself and my boys.  In my opinion, this world of raising kids is different for my generation of women than any other generation.  We've been told that in order for our kids to be successful they need to be in every activity and when they get involved in those activities, in order to be the "best" we need to sign them up for extra lessons on the side so they can "craft" their game.  Our kids are bombarded with social media which makes them well aware of what other kids are doing, what they have and so on.  And now that common core is here (don't even get me started) our kids are being labeled and pin holed into a category that tells them they aren't good enough. Parenting is hard enough as it is.  I don't know what the answer is but from my own perspective I do know it's hard work and I've only been given a short amount of time to mold my two.  I heard an excellent quote over the weekend which I will share, "I will pour myself into this task of disciplining and shepherding my children.  I will not waste this precious time that has been given to me.  I will forsake the "good" to have time for the BEST and not worry about what others may think."  This quote was written by a Joy somebody.  I take no credit in it but wow, it was one powerful quote for me! 

Birthdays, sickness and spirit week

 This week my mom and Leslie celebrated their birthdays.  Nick, my mom and I visited Leslie this week to wish her a happy birthday.  We celebrated with my mom last Sunday night.  She also spent a weekend in Indy with her friends - so fun for her.  I wish these ladies a fabulous year.  They are sure special to me. 

This week was Nick's spirit week.  He was all set to wear this hat that Jay is wearing but then he got sick.  I can't complain though.  Overall we've had a good winter, health wise.  Jay's had perfect attendance and Nick has only missed 2 days of school this school year.  The weather has been cold, cold, cold.  We finally got a break today.  It's sunny and 40 degrees but everything is muddy and wet and so it goes!  Spring is right around the corner.....I hope!

Laughter, the best medicine

Sometimes in life you say things you don't mean and sometimes words cross your lips and you're like, "I said WHAT???"  That happened to me today.  I was getting my hair done and complaining about my gray hair.  In fact, today was the first day I had to finally break down and get all over color.  I was complaining about being 40......wa wa!  I even went so far as to tell my almost 30 year old hair dresser all the things I loved about being 30 then I realized how I must have sounded, like a crotchety old lady who can never think of anything nice to say.  I certainly didn't want my 30 year old hair dresser to think 40 was that bad and here's where the story turns around.  When I realized my words were going down the wrong path I started to share with her all the things I love about being 40 and it hit me like a ton of bricks, I laugh more now that I ever have.  As I said the words I hadn't realized that fact until I actually said it but it's true.  I love the season of my life that I'm in with my family.  Just today Jay had us in gales of laughter over a story about school.  Nick had me cracking up tonight when we were talking about our family vacation.  My mom and I share a belly laugh together every day.  And the best part is Mike and I laugh more together now than we ever have and trust me, our marriage is built on laughter but now we see the humor in everything.  We are entertained by our dogs which I realize makes us old but it's true.  We love making fun of their personalities together and are quite entertained by them.  Rather than laugh at each other, we laugh with each other.  Just today I went to get on the treadmill while it was moving and classic Amy move, I missed it and tripped.  I immediately started cracking up and Mike started chanting his "handicapped" song to me that he always does when I do something crazy like that.  Now that we're 13 years into parenting, we have learned we'll never survive it without laughter.  On Valentine's Day, I planned a night out for Mike and I that happened to include a vow renewal ceremony.  I failed to mention that aspect of the evening to my husband because I knew he'd do it.  It wasn't that I wanted to surprise him, I just wanted to hear the speakers who were speaking at the event.  We showed up and when they gave Mike the vow renewal certificate, he asked what the certificate was for.  He was told it was the vow renewal certificate.  Mike's shockingly quick response was, "Vow renewal, I thought we were going to Bass Pro Shop!"  We continue to laugh over that over that incident and I'm sure it will be a Valentine's day we'll laugh about for years.  So even though my hair is gray and my metabolism is in the toilet, my stomach muscles get a work out everyday from laughter and that my friends is the best anti aging fighter I can think of.