**I decided I needed to edit this post because I broke my rule about not posting about anybody specific who could possibly see this.
This past year has been full of changes for us, and it turns out, the changes aren’t done yet. Schwan’s is turning out to be a bit more than we anticipated. For the past month or so, Chris has been gone from about 8 am until 10 pm Monday through Friday, and there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight. That just does not work very well for us and the 6 kids we currently have. So we’ve been exploring other options. But lately, I’ve been wondering why do we even bother?
I get so tired of seeing people do the absolute minimum that they can just so they can continue to recieve welfare. I actually watched a documentary once where one of the single mothers interview said that she has the "right" to be a stay at home mom for her child. I hear so many people complaining about Human Services and what they expect people to do…like work. (Oh, and the term "work" is used very loosely, as that can mean "looking" for a job, which can mean putting on your application that you may have a conflict with jail in the near future) Now, I’m just saying, if you want to be a stay at home mom, you should probably wait to have a child until you’re in a stable relationship with a partner who can support you and the baby.
If it was a "right" for people to stay home with their kids, there wouldn't be anybody paying into the welfare system to support them. I get that it is a very fine line that the welfare departments are walking. Yes, the children absolutely need to be supported, as it is not their fault who they were born to. But the problem with that system would be the reason my youngest 3 children are so close in age. If you lose your benefits because the county took your child away, the only way to get those benefits back right away is to get pregnant again...because then you get benefits throughout your enire pregnancy.
So this brings me back to my point about why do Chris & I even bother to both work? If he quit at Schwan’s and we just both ran the existing daycare, we should be able to get all kinds of welfare benefits, right? And before I get a bunch of hate mail, I am NOT against welfare, or food stamps or any of that. They are all important programs that people have a legitimate need for. But it was never meant to be a permanent source of income for people who just don’t want to work. And I really get irritated when people who are receiving benefits bitch about being expected to actually look for a job.
And so, Chris will continue putting in his time a Schwan’s until one of us can find something better. Dang my parents for teaching me that I actually had to work to earn a living and support my family!
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Eight Minutes
So, Tyler & Cameron are at my sister in laws for the week. Fun for them…not so much for me. My last daycare kid didn’t leave until 6, Chris is working until at least 10, we were completely out of milk & I had my online chat for the ADHD class I’m taking. So, the kids & I rushed to the grocery store (as rushed as you can get with a 4, 2, 1 & 1 year old) to get milk …6 gallons to be exact, because I am NOT dragging them all back to the store again this week. We got home about 20 so 7, so I had twenty minutes to unload everybody & everything unloaded, put away the milk & get the kids something to eat so I could be online by 7 for my class.
And I did it. I made the kids a wonderfully nutritious meal of bologna & cheese with potato chips. (I wasn’t in a bologna sort of mood, so I seriously had bread & butter.) But I got to the laptop and logged on by seven, eating my bread & butter, and waiting for the next 8 minutes for the instructor to finally get logged on. She had an excuse…something about having to reboot twice, but still. Even though it wasn’t her fault…if I’d have known I had another 8 minutes maybe I’d have given them some mayo with their bologna or found something else for me to eat!
And I did it. I made the kids a wonderfully nutritious meal of bologna & cheese with potato chips. (I wasn’t in a bologna sort of mood, so I seriously had bread & butter.) But I got to the laptop and logged on by seven, eating my bread & butter, and waiting for the next 8 minutes for the instructor to finally get logged on. She had an excuse…something about having to reboot twice, but still. Even though it wasn’t her fault…if I’d have known I had another 8 minutes maybe I’d have given them some mayo with their bologna or found something else for me to eat!
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Parade Fun
We went to our first parade of the summer last night. If we were willing to put forth a little more effort to drive to more small town parades, I’m sure we could have made it to at least a dozen by now. These days, though, making it to FestAg & Kernel Days each summer is about the best we can do.
The kids had a good time. Chris headed up early with Caleb, Amata & Cameron to enjoy some rides, and then Tyler, Baylee & I went up right before the parade with some DQ cheeseburgers for dinner. (Because nothing says I love you like fat soaked cheeseburgers to clog your arteries) CJ was at the parade, too, but his paternal grandmother is in town this week, so he hung out with her for the day.
Caleb, Baylee & Amata all enjoyed the parade, and got more candy than they will ever eat. But now I can throw away the rest of their Easter candy. There was a girl sitting about 10 feet down from us who kept running in front of us and taking “our” candy, but when she tried to take my the kids’ candy corn, her parents finally noticed my expression and made her give it back to our kids and told her to stay by them. After all, it is an unwritten rule at parades that you don’t run in front of people and take the candy thrown to them!
Amata & Caleb had a couple of ride tickets left, so after the parade, we headed over to ride the carousel. While we were waiting for our turn, a woman came up and said, “hi, I’m J**’s mom.” She is Amata, Caleb & Baylee’s biological grandmother. Amata has been in our care for almost 4 years, and I have never seen this woman before in my life. J**’s cousin, who I do know, was also there, so I do believe that’s who she is, it was just kind odd.
She were nice, she just wanted to take a picture of the kids. She did ask a few questions about them, and so I told her about Caleb’s speech and Amata’s FAS. She said that J** was also very aggressive when she was Amata’s age, so according to her, it’s probably just hereditary. (Because I’m sure she never abused alcohol while she was pregnant.) I also couldn’t help but wonder to myself if J**’s aggressiveness started before or after mom’s boyfriends began sexually abusing her, because one might think that could cause some undesirable behavior. I was polite to her, though, and did let her take their picture.
After that it was definitely time to go home, since it was everybody’s bedtime. CJ got back about 10 minutes after us, he was so tired he didn’t even notice when I took him out of his car seat and took his jacket off before putting him to bed. He ended up sleeping until 10 this morning…and then grandma was back around 12 to pick him up again – I could get used to this, but sadly, she heads back to California this weekend. Guess I’ll just enjoy it while it lasts.
The kids had a good time. Chris headed up early with Caleb, Amata & Cameron to enjoy some rides, and then Tyler, Baylee & I went up right before the parade with some DQ cheeseburgers for dinner. (Because nothing says I love you like fat soaked cheeseburgers to clog your arteries) CJ was at the parade, too, but his paternal grandmother is in town this week, so he hung out with her for the day.
Caleb, Baylee & Amata all enjoyed the parade, and got more candy than they will ever eat. But now I can throw away the rest of their Easter candy. There was a girl sitting about 10 feet down from us who kept running in front of us and taking “our” candy, but when she tried to take my the kids’ candy corn, her parents finally noticed my expression and made her give it back to our kids and told her to stay by them. After all, it is an unwritten rule at parades that you don’t run in front of people and take the candy thrown to them!
Amata & Caleb had a couple of ride tickets left, so after the parade, we headed over to ride the carousel. While we were waiting for our turn, a woman came up and said, “hi, I’m J**’s mom.” She is Amata, Caleb & Baylee’s biological grandmother. Amata has been in our care for almost 4 years, and I have never seen this woman before in my life. J**’s cousin, who I do know, was also there, so I do believe that’s who she is, it was just kind odd.
She were nice, she just wanted to take a picture of the kids. She did ask a few questions about them, and so I told her about Caleb’s speech and Amata’s FAS. She said that J** was also very aggressive when she was Amata’s age, so according to her, it’s probably just hereditary. (Because I’m sure she never abused alcohol while she was pregnant.) I also couldn’t help but wonder to myself if J**’s aggressiveness started before or after mom’s boyfriends began sexually abusing her, because one might think that could cause some undesirable behavior. I was polite to her, though, and did let her take their picture.
After that it was definitely time to go home, since it was everybody’s bedtime. CJ got back about 10 minutes after us, he was so tired he didn’t even notice when I took him out of his car seat and took his jacket off before putting him to bed. He ended up sleeping until 10 this morning…and then grandma was back around 12 to pick him up again – I could get used to this, but sadly, she heads back to California this weekend. Guess I’ll just enjoy it while it lasts.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Catching My Breath
I’ve been thinking that if I didn’t actually have to write these blog entries, I could probably get a lot more posted. I think of things I’d like to post about all the time, but I just don’t seem to get them into the computer! I also think about getting my house cleaned. Like the whole house all at once, not just one room at a time, but that never seems to happen either. You’d think by this day & age, somebody would have figured out a way to let you get things done by just thinking about them.
Oh well, until that happens, we’ll all just have to put up with my sporadic blogging.
June was a very busy month for us. I think there was only one weekend we were not traveling, and so of course we were at the camper that weekend. I am so glad we decided to get a seasonal site last summer. We don’t even have to move it over the winter, and it’s all set up and ready to go whenever we can get out there. (And they have a baby pool, which is VERY important to me!)
We went to my cousin Tracy’s wedding the last weekend in June. It was very pretty, and my girls had a blast at the reception. My sister Megan hit the dance floor with Amata (A.K.A “Mini Meggie”) and Baylee is apparently quite the little groupie! She would stand on the dance floor for 10 or 15 minutes at a time just staring at them. At one point the guitar player got down on his knee to play to her. I’d love to show you some pictures of it…at one point I thought about bringing my camera, but it was a fleeting thought because I completely forgot to grab it.
On the way home from the wedding, we stopped at the Mall of America to take the kids to Underwater World. They all really enjoyed it, although it was quite spendy. We’ve gone before and I didn’t remember it being so expensive. (And Caleb & Baylee were both free because they are both under 3, so it wasn’t because there were so many more kids that is seemed expensive.) Oh well, it was probably worth it since they all really did get a kick out of it.
From there we went to the Rainforest Café for lunch. They little ones really like seeing the fish & animals there. It was also a little spendy, but that was probably due to the fact that I completely forgot about the gift card I had in my wallet. I was ready to head home after that, but for some reason Chris always wants to walk through Nickelodeon Universe. That’s not a fun area for me to walk through with 5 kids on a weekend…without a stroller. We made it, though, and finally made our way home to pick up CJ from respite care.
Our Forth of July week & weekend was not so very exciting though. Unless you consider 2 children under 3 with very runny diapers & vomiting exciting. I seriously cannot even count how many diapers we had to change. I chose not to count how many towels, sheets and blankets that had to be washed, because I think it would just depress me. Caleb seemed to be better by Saturday, so I decided he could go camping with me, the boys & Amata. We decided to skip heading out to the fireworks show when he threw up at the table.
Fortunately by Monday, they both seemed to be fully recovered. I am slowly, but surely making through that pile of laundry! Here’s hoping the rest of July goes better, and it not quite as busy as June was!
Oh well, until that happens, we’ll all just have to put up with my sporadic blogging.
June was a very busy month for us. I think there was only one weekend we were not traveling, and so of course we were at the camper that weekend. I am so glad we decided to get a seasonal site last summer. We don’t even have to move it over the winter, and it’s all set up and ready to go whenever we can get out there. (And they have a baby pool, which is VERY important to me!)
We went to my cousin Tracy’s wedding the last weekend in June. It was very pretty, and my girls had a blast at the reception. My sister Megan hit the dance floor with Amata (A.K.A “Mini Meggie”) and Baylee is apparently quite the little groupie! She would stand on the dance floor for 10 or 15 minutes at a time just staring at them. At one point the guitar player got down on his knee to play to her. I’d love to show you some pictures of it…at one point I thought about bringing my camera, but it was a fleeting thought because I completely forgot to grab it.
On the way home from the wedding, we stopped at the Mall of America to take the kids to Underwater World. They all really enjoyed it, although it was quite spendy. We’ve gone before and I didn’t remember it being so expensive. (And Caleb & Baylee were both free because they are both under 3, so it wasn’t because there were so many more kids that is seemed expensive.) Oh well, it was probably worth it since they all really did get a kick out of it.
From there we went to the Rainforest Café for lunch. They little ones really like seeing the fish & animals there. It was also a little spendy, but that was probably due to the fact that I completely forgot about the gift card I had in my wallet. I was ready to head home after that, but for some reason Chris always wants to walk through Nickelodeon Universe. That’s not a fun area for me to walk through with 5 kids on a weekend…without a stroller. We made it, though, and finally made our way home to pick up CJ from respite care.
Our Forth of July week & weekend was not so very exciting though. Unless you consider 2 children under 3 with very runny diapers & vomiting exciting. I seriously cannot even count how many diapers we had to change. I chose not to count how many towels, sheets and blankets that had to be washed, because I think it would just depress me. Caleb seemed to be better by Saturday, so I decided he could go camping with me, the boys & Amata. We decided to skip heading out to the fireworks show when he threw up at the table.
Fortunately by Monday, they both seemed to be fully recovered. I am slowly, but surely making through that pile of laundry! Here’s hoping the rest of July goes better, and it not quite as busy as June was!
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