hooray for the weekend

Friday means activity club for the kids, except Jon and Charlotte. Sometimes Paul and I get a bit of quiet with the 3 little ones, but only when Emily has Friday off, because then she can drive the BIG van and take all the kids. Abigail drives too, but not the BIG van. So, when Em works, daddy drives the BIG van, and I get to stay home and have some non-quit time with Jon, Charlotte, and Jon.

Today is an Emily-day-off, and it is nice!!! I let Kathryn, 10, and Evelyn, 8 skip school today to get some attention, and be with Em....Em took them all for a walk on this chilly, rainy day, with their umbrellas! Anyone who knows kids, knows kids like umbrellas. And sometimes the mom is too practical (or impatient) to let them get any use out of them... So, they walked in the rain. And then Em made some corn chowder, yum, while I mixed up some chocolate chip cookies quick. The school kids will love coming in the door through the rain, to find cookies. Save some for the second trip kids!! Right now Kathryn, Evelyn, and Jon are watching Monsters, Inc....we usually don't watch movies during the week, just some shows on PBS, like Bob the Builder, or Calliou....and a few mornings a week, Curious George and Berenstein Bears...but Kathryn isn't feeling so great, and I'm coming down with a cold or just plain tired or something, I'm welcoming the vegging....(is that a word? it should be).

I just plain don't like to see kids watch their lives away....there is just so much to DO! We have playdough, crayons, paints, dolls, 10-15 doll strollers, 4 or 5 dollhouses, and bins and bins of dollhouse people, and furniture. I love it when they set it up all over the livingroom. Or make a tent under the kitchen table. Or even play ship in their bunk beds....In the nice weather, no way are they going to be in here in front of the tv....we have a trampoline, which gets more use than I ever thought, a swingset, a sandbox (which needs new sand), and a huge pool for the summer. But sometimes, on a hot afternoon, when they've been going and going all day, a movie is nice. And on a Saturday night....a time and place for everything.

We didn't own a television until our 9th child was about 6 months old....My husband and I both grew up with them, but didn't want to raise our kids with all that garbage...but I think there is a middle road. My teenagers like American Idol, it's kind of fun.

My kids get teased on the bus...called Brady Bunch...and much worse. And get called Mennonites, and Amish, and comments are made about me...My oldest daughter on the bus this year just feels sorry for the kids who do the teasing, their homelives aren't all so good. These guys take it pretty well, and stand up for themselves. My girls all wear skirts to school. On gym days the little ones who don't change for gym just wear skorts. This is okay with them, they aren't kicking and screaming about it. My older girls have made it all through school wearing skirts, and they think it was good for them. They do wear pants when doing things that common sense would require pants, like outside stuff, and Ab wears them to college in the cold. Em is a nurse, and wears scrub pants everyday...but the skirts, I believe, are modest...it sort of protects the girls in a way, these are good girls. My daughters have noticed the difference in the level of respect they've received when wearing pants... I try not to have rules about things, but to encourage them to do what is good, pure, and right. And not to judge others who have the freedom of conscience to wear different clothes. The same goes for make-up. None of my daughters wear any. Nor do I. That does not mean they think badly of anyone who does. Anyway....part of me would like to pull them out of school, and hug and protect them from the awful world. But part of me knows that they need to learn to stand on their own feet, and learn to get along in this world. But I DO let them take quite a few days off to have time with me, and do fun things.