"Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it. ~ Prov 22

As it turned out we DID go to Zoofari last night, and we had a BLAST.  

I'm reading a really interesting book called the Mommy Wars.  It's basically a book dealing with the stay at home mom vs working mom mentality.   Good book.

I worked all my life, up until I was about 6 months pregnant with my daughter, and then I left the working field to be at home.  There were several reasons why I left my job, but the main one was my husband and I strongly believed that my place should be at home with our daughter, and we'd decided that LONG before we were even married.  In fact, I can remember talking with him on AIM when I still lived in NJ about it. 

Anyway ...

We also just as strongly had decided to homeschool, and by the time she was 18 months old, we had preschool every morning for about an hour.  This seemed like second nature to me since I'm an early education teacher.  Along came pre-Kindergarten and the year that Megan would enter Kindergarten I went back to work.  she was able to come with me, since I was going to work in a day care center.  I would be working with the 2 year old class, and Meg would  be in the PreK class.  We would do her school during the naptime, and I would be home by 5 to make dinner. 

This lasted about 5 months.  Because I had been a stay at home mom for so long, my husband got used to me doing everything, and I had to admit that since I'm only human I couldn't do everything a stay at home mom does, homeschool AND hold a full time job.  So I tendered my resignation and went back to being a stay at home mom.  I LOVE being a stay at home mom.  I pick up part time things here and there, and I help make ends meet wherever I can, but I LOVE being a stay at home mom. 

I learned a valuable lesson though through my experience. 

There are all kinds of moms out there.  Moms who work outside the house fulltime and have their kids raised by someone else becasue they're too busy with their careers.  Moms who have to work to make ends meet and even thought they'd love to spend more time with their kids they just can't.  Moms who are able to successfully juggle working and being home.  Moms who stay at home and are too lazy to raise their own kids so they drop them off at daycare all day.  Moms who stay at home and are going to school so they need to drop their kids off at daycare everyday, moms who stay at home and drop their kids at daycare so they can have social interaction with other kids, and moms who stay at home becasue they love staying at home. 

I believe all working moms should stay at home for 3 months and that stay at home moms should go to work work 3 months.  So we can all stand in each others shoes.  Why the war?  Are we so insecure with our own decisions that we need to berate other moms for theirs?  I have been personally attacked for my decision to stay at home by some people my husband and I know, and I've had to learn to let it roll off my back.  Sure, it hurts to be called lazy, but then I've had to realize that it's their problem - not mine.   They're judging me the same way I judged them - I was wrong, and I hope they'll learn sooner than later that so are they.

How about you?  Do you work for a paycheck?  Do you work from home?  Do you work at home?  Fulltime?  Partime? 

AND ...

Are you happy with your decision? 

We brought our 5 pretty painted ladies outside today and let them go.  We opened the cage and they just sat there, so we took them out one by one and they flew away - it was funny though, because I guess they had gotten so used to us holding them, that they just sat there on Meg's finger as she walked around the yard.  She finally started putting them on flowers, and then they flew away.

All in all it was a VERY cool experience and I'd highly recommend it.  It was a learning experience for both of us, and we'll absolutely be doing it again.  Here is the website I ordered them from if you're interested to try it out. 

We'll be ordering the ladybugs next. 

Sadao, my wonderful husband, has tickets for tomorrow night's zoofari at the national zoo.  He works there, so he gets them for free. 

UNFORTUNATELY, this is at the last minute and we cannot find a sitter for Meg.  

(cross fingers)

Someone wanna babysit tomorrow night??!?

UPDATE ... okay, now this is just funny.  We were able to get a sitter (some friends of mine had their plans fall through and we can leave Meg with them) BUT tickets for Zoofari fell through, so we don't need a sitter anymore. 
Life is funny. 

Okay ... this is funny.

Megan's friend is over for the night and she LOVES bugs.  Zoe, who's 5 absolutely LOVES bugs.  It's cute how she's not even the slightest bit squeamish -- I mean, I see a bug and I'm like .. AHHHHHH ... yet she really loves bugs. 

Anyway.

She's here tonight and wanted to put her hand into the butterfly habitat.  Couldn't wait.  But as I took the habitat down I couldn't help but notice that right by the zipper there were two butterflies.  To MY eyes they were MALE and FEMALE.  To Megan and Zoe they were "hugging" with their bottoms. 

Yes ... My butterflies are multiplying AS WE SPEAK. 

I found this in one of my cafe moms blogs ... I LOVE IT.  I'll warn you though -- if you're a mean mom too you might be accused of raising a robot. 

Mean Moms

Someday when my children are old enough tounderstand the logic that motivates a parent, I will tell them, as my Mean Mom told me: I loved you enough . . . to ask where you were going, with whom, and what time you would be home.

I loved you enough to be silent and let you discover that your new best friend was a creep.

I loved you enough to stand over you for two hours while you cleaned your room, a job that should have taken 15 minutes.

I loved you enough to let you see anger, disappointment, and tears in my eyes. Children must learn that their parents aren't perfect.

I loved you enough to let you assume the responsibility for your actions even when the
penalties were so harsh they almost broke my heart.

But most of all, I loved you enough . . . to say NO when I knew you would hate me for it.

Those were the most difficult battles of all. I'm glad I won them, because in the end you won, too.  And someday when your children are old enough to understand the logic that motivates parents, you will tell them.

Was your Mom mean? I know mine was. We had the meanest mother in the whole world! While other kids ate candy for breakfast, we had to have cereal, eggs, and toast.

When others had a Pepsi and a Twinkie for lunch, we had to eat sandwiches.

And you can guess our mother fixed us a dinner that was different from what other kids had, too.

Mother insisted on knowing where we were at all times. You'd think we were convicts in a prison. She had to know who our friends were, and what we were doing with them. She insisted that if we said we would be gone for an hour, we would be gone for an hour or less.

We were ashamed to admit it, but she had the nerve to break the Child Labor Laws by making us work We had to wash the dishes, make the beds, learn to cook, vacuum the floor, do laundry, empty the trash and all sorts of cruel jobs. I think she would lie awake at night thinking of more things for us to do.

She always insisted on us telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. By the time we were teenagers; she could read our minds and had eyes in the back of her head. Then, life was really tough!

Mother wouldn't let our friend’s just honk the horn when they drove up. They had to come up to the door so she could meet them. While everyone else could date when they were 12 or 13, we had to wait until we were 16.

Because of our mother we missed out on lots of things other kids experienced. None of us have ever been caught shoplifting, vandalizing other's property or ever arrested for any crime. It was all her fault.

Now that we have left home, we are all educated, honest adults. We are doing our best to be mean parents just like Mom was.

I think that is what's wrong with the world today.   It just doesn't have enough MEAN MOMS!

 

Have you heard of cafe mom?   I absolutely love it.  Its an online community of moms.  Homeschooling moms, moms who scrapbook, moms who are stay at home, moms who work full time -- whatever group you fit into, there's a group for you.  It's a great source of information and support. 

I'm the member of a couple of homeschool forums, a stay at home moms forum, and Baltimore moms forum a forum about moms who've miscarried, and a few others.  I really enjoy reading the posts and learning about these different moms who are dealing with the same issues I deal with.  Excellant support system.  Here's the link if you'd like to check it out.  If you decide to join let me know and I'll send you the link to my homepage. 

Well, Girl Scouts has officially come to a close for this school year.  Last night Megan had her final Court of Awards and she received some more badges.  I love the iron on ones - not so fond of the ones I have to sew although, one of the moms said that a hot glue gun works just as well so I'll definitely be trying that.

I'm sorry I don't have any pictures to show you, but as we were walking out of the house I dropped the camera and it broke.  My heart just stopped and I was like "AHHHH!"  One of the moms said she'd take some pictures of Meg for me and send them to me, so hopefully she'll remember and send some along. 

May is a busy, busy month ... tomorrow night is her final dance class.  They'll review the dances, have a small party and get some kind of award.  Thursday we're going to some kind of preakness balloon festival Sadao heard about on the radio, Friday evening is her dance rehearsal and Saturday is her recital. 

We plan to come home and take a siesta Sunday after church - ALL AFTERNOON.  haha