Trick-Or-Treating

This year, I got to stay home and give out candy while Bill went out with the girls. I was somewhat excited about this opportunity. It is fun to see what the other kids are dressed as. I wore a long black dress with heavy eye makeup. A lot of the little girls thought I looked pretty. :-) One little girl asked me if it was a costume. I said, "Or, I might just dress like this everyday. You just don't know, do you?" I don't think she was satisfied with that answer, but I was. :-)

I'm one of those folks who won't give you any candy until you say, "Trick or Treat." I stare the kids right in the eye until they say it. One kid came up and said, "Give me Twix." Er...that's not exactly right!


I was disappointed in the traffic that my candy bowl got. I started off just giving our one or two pieces at a time. I ended up giving out 5 pieces at a time to empty out the bowl a little! I had a book outside with me and was actually able to read a bit. I also got bored. At one point, I went inside and made a cup of coffee to warm my hands. I didn't miss a single kid. *sigh* You know, I appreciate what the churches and other organizations do with their "Truck or Treat" events. I think they are very nice and you can sure get a lot of candy really quickly at those things! However, it takes away from the neighborhood. My mom once said that Trick-O-Treat was a "treat" to the folks who gave out candy to see the neighborhood kids all dressed up. It's a great way to get out of the house and say "hello" to your neighbor down the street that you may only see once a year.

There weren't really any exceptional costumes that came by my house. The Joker and Batman came together...hmm...

On our part of the block, we all "dress up" to give out candy. So, probably, the most creative costume I saw was our neighbor dressed as a Hershey's Kiss...not sure if that was the type of candy she was passing out or not, though. ;-)

Again, I appreciate what the Trunk-or-Treat folks are trying to do, but I think people should stop and consider visiting with their neighbors once a year, October 31.

Swimming Lessons...ack

Neleh is taking swimming lessons again this fall. Last Wednesday, we went to swimming, dried off, ran by McDonalds for some chicken nuggets before heading to Mass at Mary Queen.

Neleh is 6 years old. Neleh has been taking swimming lessons for a few years now. When she was younger, she would NOT get in the pool with a "boy teacher." Now that she is 6, she should participate in swimming lessons no matter who the teacher is. No more of this song and dance about boy teachers. Or not.

We had a sub yesterday and the sub was a boy. When I saw him from across the pool I thought, "Oh no. Please let her go anyway." Nope.
She saw him and said "It's a boy teacher. I'm not swimming."
*sigh* "Yes, Neleh. You are a big 6-year old now. You can do it." Not happening.
So, Rebekah & I went to the other side of the pool, where the swimming class is. Neleh reluctantly follows. Rebekah & I have a seat on the bleacher to watch the class. Neleh sits too.
"Neleh, you need to get in the pool with your class." No.
"Neleh, you need to at least sit on the side of the pool with your class." No.
"Neleh, you can at least sit at the pool on the other side of the rope from your teacher, yet next to your class." (This was closer to the shallow end where family swim was taking place.) Nope.
"Well, I'm going to sit here and read my book while you decide to swim."
"Maybe I'll jump in at the end."
"Whatever. I'm going to sit here and read my book now." (I'm reading Playing for Pizza, by John Grisham. Good book!) Rebekah and I got out our books and read.

I have "suffered" through this trial time and time again with her! What do I do this time? She's a little bit older now and perhaps things should be handled differently than before. So, I prayed to the Blessed Mother Mary & the Saints to give me guidance! (I'm getting the hang of this Catholic stuff!)

We sat there for 30 minutes reading. Neleh sat there for 30 minutes not doing anything. The lesson is 45 minutes long. After the 30 minutes were up I gave her an offer, "Neleh, you either join your class or you pay for the lesson. That's $4. I'll give you one minute to make your choice." I watched the clock. She wasn't thrilled with either option. She didn't make a choice. As I always tell them, "No decision is a decision. You have chosen to pay for the lesson. You will owe me $4 when we get home. Let's go." So we packed up and head to the locker room.

About halfway there, I mention that her decision has also forfeited the trip to McDonalds. I had not told them that we were going to McD's like last week, but I had already decided that we were going to. She was very upset with this. "You didn't tell me that! I'll swim!" Nope. Too late. She cried.

I was thankful that I received answers to my prayers! I hope a lesson was learned. She DID pay me for the time when we got home. Perhaps the lesson was "Time is money." Perhaps the lesson was "You should do your best because you never know when you will be rewarded or not." *shrug* I don't know. Time will only tell if this disciplinary action made a difference.

Today we had our Homeschool Co-op, Learning Zone. Neleh behaved very well, even though I was the teacher. Somehow she got it into her head that since she had behaved we should go to McDonalds. This is a very tempting thing to do since Thursdays are kinda crazy for us (LZ, drop of Jill, Soccer) and there really isn't any time to eat. But instead of going to McD or any other "eating place" we went to WalMart and bought some peanut butter crackers. They didn't really complain, but I figured a trip to a drive thru would send the wrong message.

Like I said, hard to say if any of this parenting will "work." Guess we'll see next time a boy teacher shows up at swimming lessons...

Fireworks

A couple of the churches in our neighborhood have decided that this is THE weekend to have loud outdoor concerts and fireworks. I could hear Jars of Clay just fine from my porch. Not sure how much tickets were, but I didn't need them.
The fireworks show last night was very enjoyable...except for one thing.
TREES! Why can't people shoot off fireworks for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Valentines Day? There aren't nearly as many leaves to block my view! Why, if there weren't so many leaves around, I could probably have seen the whole show last night, instead of just the high ones.
You know why I like watching fireworks from my house instead of going? 'Cause I LOVE the delay in sound vs. light. It took "one one-thousand" last night between seeing the thing explode and then to hear it. So whenever I saw one of the little ones that is REALLY LOUD, I knew to cover my ears before the sound reached me. I think that is SO COOL! I've known that sound waves are slower than light waves. Everyone learns that with thunderstorms. Yet, I am still so excited about such things when I discover them again and again. Ah, the wonders of creation! I'm hearing really loud music from outside right now. Could that be the REALLY LOUD sound of tonight's outdoor concert? Guess we shouldn't plan to go to bed early. Those fireworks will just keep us up anyway.
The first year one of these churches did this, it irritated me!!! They should stick notes on the doors of all the houses within a mile, "WARNING: Fireworks will start at 10:00PM tonight. Be prepared." Last night, the emergency vehicles came around our neighborhood (police, fire...). I wondered if someone had wrecked their car while watching the fireworks. Everything must have been ok, cause they left soon after. I did think I saw the blinking lights at an intersection nearby. Whatever. That's neither here nor there.

My kids were excited earlier that they were going to go to this carnival sponsored by this local church. They got there with their friend to find out that there is a $25 admission fee!! My comments on that will be kept to myself.

Back to my original subject:

PLEASE shoot more fireworks for the holidays that don't include leaves on trees. Besides, it gets darker at those times of the year. You can get the show started earlier!!

ACK! The stress of coordinating schedules

I am very thankful that we are a homeschooling family. This gives us a lot of flexibility with our schedules and activites. Only one problem, the activities in which we would like to participate are not so flexible. 4:30 is when you need to be there. 5:30 is when you leave. No flexbility there.

Anyhow, I've double-booked my taxi cab service again. Everyday we pick up Jill at the bus stop around 3:45. We then take her to her babysitting job. We are typically home around 4:15. Jill gets off between 5:15 & 6:30, depending on which day it is. I try to schedule around those times. As I mentioned a moment ago, some activities don't have flexibility built in.

Soccer. I gave Rebekah & Neleh a "list" of activities from which they could choose their favorite. This would be the ONE they participated in. Becka chose soccer. We'd missed the LYSA deadline, so we signed up for a team with the YMCA. Last season, we practiced twice a week with 2 games on the weekends! This year, one practice a week, one game a weekend! AND it's a lot closer to the house!! I thought I had chosen a team with a Friday afternoon practice.
Swimming. Neleh chose swimming as her activity. I wanted them to be able to participate in the YMCA's Homeschool Gym & Swim program, but it overlaps the Jill transportation time. So I signed her up for swimming lessons. Now that she is 6, she has to participate in the afternoon lessons. No more school time lessons for kids who should be at school. So I went online and registered her for Tues/Th lessons from 4:45 - 5:30.

PROBLEM! I email the soccer coordinator to make sure I know when Becka's practices are. I learn that they are on THURSDAYS AT 4:30-5:30! Hmm...this is a problem. I could drop Jill off at babysitting around 4:00, make it to soccer in plenty of time, but then have to rush down the street to swimming lessons and be a few minutes late. THEN, having to leave Neleh at swimming lessons to go back to soccer to get Becka early so we could go back to the Y and pick up Neleh. *whew* I'd asked a few friends if they'd be willing to help, but I hadn't heard anything back. STRESS OUT TIME!!!

The more I thought of this situation, they more troubled I became. I looked online and there aren't any open soccer teams at feasible times. The one available team practices during the Jill transportation window. What am I going to do??

*light bulb above head* Maybe I could change swimming lessons? So I go to the website and discover one lesson block that might work for us. However, it is during the Wednesday Jill transportation time. Hmm...on Wednesdays Jill can go to church with her client's family. We were planning to go to Mass all together. BUT since it looks like we have no other option, everybody wins. I think Jill wants to still go to GROW to see her friends.

Jill gets to go to GROW

Rebekah gets to go to soccer (without just being dropped off and picked up in a hurry)

Neleh gets to go to swimming lessons (without Mom abandoning her for a while!)
And I don't have to drive myself crazy!! Just a lot of driving...but not totally crazy.

$1000 Yard Sale for Missions

We had a yard sale this past Saturday to raise money for our friend's upcoming mission trip to Rwanda. We, the Longworths, hosted the event, yet over 20 individuals/families contributed time and stuff.

I've got to share a couple of the fun stories from the experience...

First off- I received TEN different "deliveries" on FRIDAY! That was awesome. We thought we had a lot of stuff before that! Thanks, guys! Friday night, we had a big group of folks helping us set stuff out. It took 2-3 hours for 5-6 people to get the job done. I think we had more folks at one point. I can't imagine how long it would have taken Bill & I to have done it all ourselves!! Also glad we decided to set stuff out on Friday night!!

One of the things that was donated was a recliner. Bill took it upon himself to be the guard of the sale and sleep in the recliner that night. Our neighbor arrived home from playing bridge that night, around midnight, and went shopping, since Bill was in the yard anyway. :-) We like to share the story that our first customer was at MIDNIGHT. :-) People started shopping as early as 6:30 AM on Saturday. I was glad I'd decided to go ahead and get up early! (If you know me, then you know that I don't get up early for much. Yup. 6:15 folks. 6:15. Miracles do happen!)

One of our first customers of the day was a guy headed to work. He stopped and paid for the recliner, but said he had to go clock-in before he could come back! He did. He ended up visiting our sale 3 times and buying some of our bigger items.

We had a VCR...looked new in box. Anyhow, we couldn't find the remote that went with it. If it had a remote, it may have mistakenly went away with a couple of TVs sold earlier in the day. When asked, we said it cost $8. This guy said that was too high since it didn't have a remote. We went down to $5. He wanted to pay $2. No way, we said. The next guy who walked up bought the thing for $8. There were four sales on our block. A few minutes later we saw guy number 1 carring a VCR from the neighbors yard. Buzz is that he paid $1 for it there. Good for him. Glad we got our $8.
The next story involves cookies. We had a little bake sale with cookies, brownies, a cake, cold drinks, etc. at the "check-out." We had a bunch of "add-on" sales with these. And for folks who couldn't find anything else to get, they often bought cookies or a coke to help out. This one group of ladies bought a couple baggies of cookies ($.25 each) and were headed to the car. I'm not sure if they ate them on the way to the car or what, but they were soon back at the table buying another set of baggies. Next thing we knew, they were back and just bought a plate full of Liz's cookies!!
Last little comment from me...
We had A LINE at the sale. Yup. People actually had to wait in line to "check out" at one point!! We got everyone to help with that and I think there was still a line (up to 4 people deep). Thankfully, we had friends helping us with that too!!!

Yippee! Ain't God good! Praise God for the wonderful work He did on Saturday. We may be "professionals" or good at "wheeling and dealing" but the LORD is who really did all the work. And YES - we did raise over $1,000 for Emily's trip!!!