Who Woke You Up

This morning, as all mornings, I turned the alarm clock off at 6:30.  I must have drifted back off to sleep, as always, but woke back up after hearing the squeak of my sons' bedroom door.  Thank God for that squeak cause I had drifted back off to seventh heaven and was getting acquainted with my new house.  I dream constantly and some of them, I want to stay in, while others, I welcome the interrupted sleep.  The squeak pulled me out of my dream home, but I didn't mind because I would have overslept and not wake my fourteen year old up for school. 

I hopped out of bed, as it was now 6:45, which is usually the time that I wake him even though the alarm goes off at 6:30.  I peered in their room and he was up putting on his socks.  "Who woke you up?" I asked still trying to pry my dried up eyes open.  I really need to stop sleeping in my contacts.  "Me," he said sparing me the "duh" I would have added if someone had asked me an obvious question.  It really was a "duh" moment cause I already knew who woke him and me up.  There have been so many occasions that the alarm clock couldn't do its job for one reason or another, but when it was really time to get up, without a moment to spare, I popped up out of my dream world and greeted the day, one more time.  Thank you God.

Back on topic, twice this week, my son has been getting himself up.  I used to have the alarm clock in their room, but for some reason, they never hear it.  I'd love to not have to get up for the two hours that I do, in order to get them out the door.  Me being the good mother that I am, I set the alarm and on a good day, I scamper out of bed and wake the fourteen year old up first, and then later, if I'm still woke, after he leaves I get my eleven year old up.  Since the fourteen year old was already up, I instructed him to wake his brother up before he left.  I drifted back off to sleep and awoke with a startle because I remembered my eleven year old wanted me to iron his school pants.  When I looked up at the clock it was 7:20.  My fourteen year old was already gone.  I hated that I had missed him.  I always give him his morning lecture about being as good as possible at school.  He knows what he should do, but I still like to leave him with my parting words.

When I went into the hallway, my eleven year old was up as I had hoped.  He told me that his brother had told him that I probably wasn't getting back up, that's why he had to wake him.  I went on and ironed his pants as I instructed him what to tell his teacher regarding the homework neither one of us could figure out.  Speaking of homework, in my quest to assist him with my out-dated brain, I discovered there are actually instructional videos on the Internet where people are actually teaching you how to do math.  It must have been too late because I just couldn't wrap my mind around the operations, even though I watched the videos multiple times.  At any rate, after he was finished dressing and prepared to leave, I instructed him to have a great day. 

Since I've gotten off topic so many times during this post, I'll begin one more by saying, I love being a stay-at-home mom simply because I want to make sure that I'm here to wake them up in the morning, if I need to, as well as tuck them in at night.  I love just being available whenever I'm needed when it comes to my children.  Being available twenty-four-seven to your children is one of the most rewarding feelings that I've ever experienced.  Only another stay-at-home mom could possibly understand.  All others can only speculate because if they truly knew, they would be stay-at-home moms too.  On that note, I'm going to skedaddle, I have more hearts to make.  Until next time..."Live your life by loving yourself."
 

I Don't Wanna Go Outside

Technically, I've been a stay-at-home mom for the past six years.  I've worked, temporarily, outside my home for short periods of time, but would consider myself a full time mom.  I've earned my wages, here and there, with the various projects that I work on from my computer.  My secretarial services, along with my poetry-for-hire projects and greeting card collection have kept my family afloat over the years.  I believe I have enough going on that if all of my streams of income were flowing, I'd be a pretty happy camper.  My faith in my creative endeavors has kept me focused to the point that even though I could probably find a job outside of my home, I'm far too committed to seeing them through to the very end. 

If I worked outside of my home, there is no way I'd be able to spend the time that I do, cultivating the things that I feel are my destiny to fulfill.  The same hours that I spent working for someone else, I spend double that time working on finding my niche in this world.  I've gotten so used to doing my own thang, I don't even know how I would act having to work for someone else outside my home.  I wake up every morning in time to get my boys off to school and after that, I am free to do whatever I want until I'm needed by them again.  If there's an emergency at their school and I'm needed, I'm right here to spring into action.  If I was sitting on someone elses time-clock, I wouldn't have the freedom to come to my children's aide.  They are my number one priority and I'm at their beck and call until they are able to take care of themselves. 

I sit here watching the evening news and that's another reason why I don't wanna go outside.  There are a lot of disgruntled people out in the world and Lord knows I can't tolerate too much craziness right now.  I've been in my little cocoon with my family long enough for the tough-skin to wear off, so I'm not very tolerable when it comes to dealing with foolishness.  Right now the world is at an all-time high of unrest and I don't wanna be anywhere near the man or woman who has issues so unbearable that they don't want to go on, and decide to take a few people with them cause they know that they're unhappy too.  I'm so comfortable with my own four walls that I see no reason to disturb the groove that I've been vibing to for the past six years. 

Who cares if our funds are short.  At this time, there are a lot of people with short funds and they are working outside their homes, adding to the stress of not having enough money despite their hard work.  You can't control your work environment, but you can control what goes on within your own four walls and that brings a lot of comfort.  The security I feel when I'm tucked away inside my home is priceless.  It's sort of like a prisoner who's been locked up for awhile and his release date has come and it's time for him to go back into a world that he's no longer familiar with.  There's a certain amount of uncertainty that's felt and, even though he's longed for his freedom, he also knows that that freedom comes with a price.  Will the world accept him back into its arms?  As far as I'm concerned, the world isn't so loving right now, so I'll stay within the confines of the prison I've established for myself.  Within my prison walls is love, unity, security and joy.  There are days when the outside world makes contact with my sanctuary, but for the most part, I'm content with being quarantined from the working-outside-the-home population.  Until the next time..."Live your life by loving yourself."

I Really Want to Home School

I love snow days!  Why, you might be asking?  For one, as a stay-at-home mom, I don't have to worry about getting that dreaded phone call from one of my childrens' schools informing me that, yet again, something has happened at school involving one of my children.  I'm not going to say that my children are saints because they're not, but I know what I have instilled in them and that is good, old-fashioned home training.  Can good, old-fashioned home training compete with what's beyond my own four walls?  My philosophy has always been, "Don't start none, won't be none."  When I get a call from school saying that my fourteen year old has been in another confrontation with another student, in the back of my mind I'm wondering, what did the student do to my son to initiate the confrontation? 

Let me give you a little history on the situation.  The school district that I reside in leaves much to be desired.  For starters, they combined two rivaling school districts into one.  Please tell me what sense did that make?  I mean, think about it.  These children are from different neighborhoods that have a history of dislike for each other.  They put them into a confined area and expect there to be peace?  Come on now, give me a break.  At the beginning of the school year, I composed a poem and passed it along to the head principal, hoping that she would make a big deal out of it because it was speaking on the subject of unity within the school walls.  I was really hoping that they would adopt it as their school anthem or something.  Something that the children could recite and get into their spirit, so that they could start thinking as a unit, instead of thinking about the different "sets" they represented. 

Well needless to say, my poem was not taken seriously and the discord continues on a daily basis.  The school is monitored by two uniformed police officers, as well as security guards for the district.  There is a metal detector at the school's entrance, as well as a security guard with a wand to make sure that weapons are not brought into the school.  When I come up to visit, which I often do to let them know that I am, indeed, very concerned about my child's education and well being, they search my purse and wand me down.  I don't mind this because I know that it's for the good of the environment. 

If school is about getting an education, but there are so many distractions in the learning environment that a child cannot concentrate on learning, what is a parent supposed to do?  I'm thinking about the poor mom who used someone elses address to get her children into a better district and was sent to jail for ten days.  As a mother who purposely became a stay-at-home mom to keep a better eye on her children, I am truly considering home-schooling them for the rest of their K-12 educational life.