Breakfast

For a second, I thought leaving my kids on the chairs in the kitchen during snack time might make me a bad mom. Then I changed my mind and decided that I'm a good mom for finding a creative way to entertain my children while I clean the kitchen. If they can't be outside due to "hazardous/incliment weather conditions," the next best thing is looking outside while they eat their cheerios. 

Dictionary (according to a working mother of 2)

8:00 pm: when I am free to relax with no kids... but only after I clean the entire house, do all my lesson planning, and go back in JB's room roughly 15 times for requests covering all of, but not limited to the following:  water, book, light, door, diaper, medicine, fan, humidifier, blanket, song, prayer, animal, doll, etc. 

Bedtime: when we go to war with JB.

Coffee: when I hit 10:00 am and realize I'm addicted.

Dissapointment: when I set down the coffee I poured at 10:00 am and don't find it until noon, and it's cold. 

Excellent Christmas Present: when my husband buys me a coffee mug that keeps my coffee warm for 12 hours, so that no matter when I find it, it's still drinkable. 

Exhausted: when I fall asleep at 8:34 pm and sleep all night (for three days in a row). Also known as sick. 

Fertile: when I want to jump my husband all day long but abstain because 9 months is too soon for 3. 

Finished: when there are six full baskets of laundry downstairs, but they are all CLEAN and DRY. 

Gross: when no matter how hard I try, I still can't get the saliva, dirt, food, oil, bodily fluids, dog hair, and who knows what else off of AJ's Beanie Baby Bear because I can't get it away from her for long enough to put it in the washing machine. 

Helpful: when, after AJ spills, John helps me scrub the floor. Then he dumps out the rest of the bottle so that he can help me clean up again. 

Improvisation: when the copy machine is broken and my entire day of lesson plans changes in 2 minutes. 

Naptime: when I lock my toddler in his room and let him do whatever he wants for an hour and a half.

Productivity: when I get a whole basket of laundry folded before a single pile gets pulled off the table by a toddler.  

Teacher: when I can get 27 first graders to follow directions all day with no problem, but can't get my 2 year old to listen for more than 5 minutes without getting frustrated.

There are so many more I could add, but it's 9:00pm and I'm ready for bed! Maybe later. 

2014

What a year! I started off the year about 50 pounds heavier than I am now. No, my New Years resolution was not to lose weight, I was 9 months pregnant when this year started. Here's a quick breakdown of the most exciting moments of 2014. 

January: 

Jenna Nicole moved in with us to help out with childcare. (What a blessing!)

Audrey Jean was born (8 lbs 12 oz) on January 26. 

February: 

Grandpa and Grandma came to visit. 

Angela and Eric went on their first date leaving TWO kids at home on Valentines Day.

Angela went back to work at Kuyper February 17. 

March: 

John, Audrey, Oma, and Angela went to Colorado to visit the Bos family. 

Eric went to Texas on a mission trip. 

April: 

Angela cut her hair and finished working at Kuyper.

Angela hosted a mom's night sleepover.   

John and Audrey got a new baby cousin, Liam, in Indiana!

May: 

John turned two years old. 

John and Audrey got another new baby cousin, Ethan, in Michigan!

We spent Memorial Day weekend with friends in a cottage by a lake. 

June:

Jenna moved out and back to DeMotte.  

Angela started watching 2 extra kids for the summer. 

John, Audrey, Angela, and our 2 new friends went to parks, museums, farms, libraries, and more!

July: 

We spent a week with the extended Roosma family at a cottage on the lake!

Eric bought a new truck for his 26th birthday. 

August: 

Eric and Angela celebrated 5 years of marriage. 

Angela got called on, interviewed, offered, and accepted a full-time job at GRPS (all in about 2 weeks!)

John and Audrey got ANOTHER baby cousin, Annalyn Faith, in Alberta. 

September: 

Angela started teaching in a bilingual 1st grade classroom. 

Grandma and Grandpa Roosma visited and we went to Artprize. 

October:

John and Audrey went to Oma and Opa's for a weekend. 

Angela got to work late and sleep in for her 26th birthday. 

November:

We celebrated Thanksgiving/Christmas with the entire Hubers family in DeMotte!

Audrey started walking. 

December:

We spent a week in DeMotte at Opa and Oma's for Christmas. 

Brought in the new year at home, kids in bed, parents unpacking and relaxing. Here's to another exciting year!

Polar Express Day

Today in First Grade: 

We read the book "The Polar Express"

We wore pajamas. 

We followed train tracks in the hallway (duct tape tracks with masking tape cross bars connecting all the first grade classrooms, the bathrooms, and outside for recess. Straightest lines we've had all year!).

We marched around the playground in a train during recess along with many kids from other grades. 

We built train tracks with our groups. (yay for cooperative learning!)

We found magically appearing tickets for the Polar Express with our names on them!

We sequenced story events. 

We added and subtracted presents, bells, and train cars. 

We wrote our own Polar Express stories. 

We read and stamped our favorite lines from the story. 

We made a graph of our favorite parts of the story. 

We had a geography lesson about Grand Rapids and the North Pole. 

We watched the Polar Express movie. 

We ate popcorn. 

We drank hot chocolate. 

We ate cookies. 

We each took home a jingle bell to remember our day. 

We had a blast!

Those kids thought today was a fun day and didn't think they did any learning. I'm a sneaky teacher!

(This is from Friday, December 12. It got lost in my drafts).