Ella bridged from being a Daisy Girl Scout to a Brownie Girl Scout.  She is extremely proud of this  and the fact that her first overnight camp will be this summer.

Meg went to sixth grade camp.  She climbed the Alpine tower and is planning on zip-lining this summer.  Adventure awaits her for sure.

Mita is furiously making plans for becoming a sixth grader that include playing soccer and the cello.  She will have to be at school at 7:30am next year, and while she thinks it is no big deal, I am dreading getting her up that early!

Enu, in Fourth grade, hit the jackpot for field trip years and has been busy running around the state visiting Amish Country (not a real country mind you), the high school FFA ( a different world) and has plans to visit the State House soon.  She is ready to rule the intermediate school next year in the fifth grade with NO other sisters to bug her.

Goodbye 2011-2012 school year. May we have a long, long summer full of fun times, empty afternoons reading in the shade and popsicles. Lots of popsicles.

Sunburned from camp!

She choose recycling as her topic.  She learned about recycling jeans into insulation for homes and part of her project is to collect denim to send to the Cotton From Blue To Green program.  She almost has 100 pairs.  She has gone to  several Girl Scout meetings to teach the girls about her project, and to do a craft with them using old jeans (cup cozyies).  Working on her speaking skills she presented her project and asked for sponsorship money to two groups of adults and her own troop.  She toured a local recycling plant to learn how plastic is recycled, and also planned a “Fashionable Recycling” event for the our community.  Meg has taken this very seriously and knows that earning her Silver Award and eventually her Gold Award will help her get college scholarships.  She does think this far ahead on her own. It’s genetic she is a mini-hubby.

She held her event today.  A very busy day for our community with baseball, prom,and  a local festival.  Her turnout was not what she had hoped for.  My heart ached for her.  She held her chin up, taught the kids (mostly her helpers) and the adults about her project, played games, made bracelets and then came home and went to her room for a while.

She didn’t cry, complain or whine, but she wouldn’t talk to me either. I told her that today was a success. She planned, organized, brought together volunteers, got door prizes and hosted a wonderful learning event.  Today was a success.  I hope through her disappointment that she can see what she has accomplished and take some learning lessons from it and move on.

Her project is not quite done, she has a few more hours to go and more jeans to collect.  She will finish though. She will probably also turn a lot of today’s work into a fair project so the work will not be in vain.

I cannot be more proud of my girl. Living the disappointment and successes of your children is a roller coaster ride.  I want to jump in. I want to fix things. I want it all to be rainbows and unicorn farts (a favorite saying of my girls).  I also am glad to know that while disappointment is rough, that learning how to deal with the disappointments in life when you are young makes you a tougher more tenacious person. 

My Meg is going to set the world on fire, just wait and see.

Meg (said almost thirteen year old) has a blog. She started it not quite a year ago and reviews books, movies and a few random posts. She is an obsessive reader, likes to write and is currently writing her first novel, which I find amazing, I know I am a her mom, but it is amazing.  From time to time though she gets writers block and for some reason thinks it is my responsibility to help her through it.  This conversation just happened this morning:

Meg:  Mom, I don’t know what to write for my next blog. Tell me what to write. (Read in a whiny voice).

Mom: Write about Earth Day, write about your Silver Award project.

Meg:  I’ve tried and I cannot. I’ve tried and tried.

Mom:  Just start writing and throw out your first paragraph, a lot of writers do that.

Meg: I can’t, tell me what to write! (whiney voice is louder and more annoying)

Mom: (Watching a TV commercial about cars) Write about how you feel when you start daddy’s car in the morning. It could be a good father’s day gift for him.

Meg:  (Silence)

Mom:  (….ah silence)

This is what she came up with When I Start The Car.  I think she did a great job sharing her emotions and I am very happy that I was able to help her out for once. Maybe now she’ll listen to me sooner, but I doubt it.

 It is times like these that make me think she may be ready to dip her toe in the tumultuous ocean of social media.  Not because writing a good blog makes you savvy to the ways of Facebook, but because she has demonstrated that she can share her feelings effectively to the world (or me).  She writes, she proofreads, she edits. 

She recently sent a text that hurt her friend’s feelings. We were able to talk about how texting and emails don’t show the emotions that your voice does.  You cannot say somethings with a text. It’s just not done. A painful lesson, but on a smaller scale thankfully.  I cannot help but mourn for the girls who have texted much worse to people such as inappropriate pictures.  Our children have the whole world in their hands, literally. The power they have is daunting, yet we seem to let them treat it way too lightly.

To many I may be over thinking the social media thing. I may seem obsessive or over-protective with my kids. I cannot help but be careful with my girls though.  Social media is the way of the world.  Bosses are checking your Facebook page.  Colleges are tracking your movements.  Your social media footprint follows you much like your credit score, and  you have to protect it.  On top of that you have crazy people trying to meet with your children in hotel rooms (we have one of those down the street).

 I hope when Meg clicks post on Facebook she looks at her post not as a brief update on what she is doing after school, but as a little piece of her that she is sharing with the world. I hope she can look at it objectively and think “Does the world need to know this about me?” “Is this a safe thing to share?” “Would I share this with a stadium full of people?”  “Is this fair to other people?” “Will it hurt someone’s feelings?”  That is a lot of questions to go through someone’s mind, but with time and practice I think we can learn to take a double  look at our contributions to the world. Even if they are only 140 characters or a pin.

I’ve read enough book series turned movie franchises to know that it is impossible to put everything from the book on the screen. The movies would be five hours long. I would still pay to see it, but apparently the movie people don’t know how die-hard readers can be!  The Hunger Games the movie was close enough to the book to please me. I can excuse the few missing characters, though I miss them.

If you have not read the books and only seen the movie the way Katniss gets her Mockingjay pin is not correct, and it loses some of its value I think in how she obtained it.  In the books Cinna is one of my favorite characters, he is very flamboyant, yet supportive.  The movie Cinna is certainly supportive, kind and him and Katniss work well together, but he was lacking in some of his charm.  Except for his eyeshadow, he wasn’t that WOW as he was in the book.

What I loved about the movie. Woody Harrelson as Haymitch was great, I enjoyed his portrayal.  Katniss was the Katniss from the books,  I think she nailed it.  Peeta was perfect, Gale had a small part in this first film, but I feel he is going to be perfect in this role.  I hate the whole Team Gale/Team Peeta thing. This is about Katniss!  She is not a prize to be won, she is a stand alone person.  Trying to tell this to my giggly girls is aggravating.

The violence in the movie was PG-13 for sure.  It was really hard to watch children kill children. The books can be hard to read, but as I am a visual person, it was hard to watch.  I questioned letting Mita and Meg see it on the screen.  They had read the books, I’ve tried to discuss the issues with them as they read them. I still don’t know if they get the entire picture, but I feel they are on the right track.  I would be hesitant to allow a young tween/teen see this film if they hadn’t read the books and started digesting the whole fight to the death theme of the books.  I don’t think murder should be glorified.

The theme of The Hunger Games being a reality TV show is very important for this upcoming generation especially.  It shows how real live human beings can be turned into mearly characters to play with. Watching the behind the scenes people come up with dogs, fires and darkness to add to the games appeal is reprehensible and yet it rings a bit to close to home.  Reality TV is not reality. We see people turn into diva monsters all the time for a few minutes of cheap fame.  A great discussion starter with the kids about the realities of reality TV and how human lives should not be treated lightly.

I  encourage parents to read this series if they have kids reading or watching them! If you want to learn more about them Scholastic has a great site to check out.  Have you read the books and seen the movie?  Did you allow your tweens or teens to see the movie? What are your thoughts.

Here is Meg’s blog about the movie. Notice how much time she spends on Peet and Gale! Arghh!

My oldest daughter, Meg, does think it is somwhere she needs to go. Hmm. Now I have to do that parenting thing and not the dictatorship thing that comes to naturally and makes my life that much more easy.  Meg will be the magic 13 this October and is already being strategic about getting onto Facebook as 13 is the legal age to have a Facebook account.  I will repeat, Facebook allows you to have an account when you are 13. I repeated that because many parents don’t know this or don’t care about this rule.  I recently learned that everyday Facebook kicks off around 100,000 underage kids.  It irritates me that parents allow and encourage their kids to break the rules.  Go ahead, teach your kids that rules don’t apply to them, we need more entitled kids in this world (sarcasm).

I have noticed that many of Meg’s friends are on Facebook (underage) and even have open to the public accounts. Not even the basics of safety have been undertaken.  That scares me.  Are we just ignorant as a society or in total denial that bad things can happen to our children?

Okay, back to my own house. I know  my kids will be exposed to social media at some point,  Actually they are already on Yoursphere network.  I love Yoursphere and have tried to get Meg’s friends on it so they can talk and be social online together in a safe place, but it didn’t take. The kids were already on Facebook.  I even recommended it to the middle school principle and PTO as a fundraiser and a solution to the social media problem at the school.  No go.  This at a school that at the orientation spent the majority of the time talking about “mean girls” and social media problems that they were having with behavior.

At a recent Girl Scout event they offered a Hip Pop session for parents/leaders covering social media basics.  The one thing I really took away is that we want our kids to be innovators of social media/computer not just consumers.  Meaning we want our kids to learn and create things not just stare at a screen. He suggested that we get our kids blogging, making movies, even writing apps.  I was pleased that Meg already fits in this category with her blog.

To sum up this all over the place post, I am working towards a plan to raise media savy kids who are productive in our techy climate.  I will share my plans and ask many questions on this quest.

I have a headache already. Why can’t they just stay little and be happy with a few places?

Don’t forget to enter my St. Patrick’s Day giveaway! Ends March 11, 2012

Nine years ago Hubby surprised me with a seven-day cruise to the Western Caribbean.   When I say surprised, I mean total shocker. We hadn’t talked about it or anything, I just opened up my Valentines card and there it was.  Lovely man, I know.

Nine years ago I only had one little one. Meg was about three.  I was still perfect mom. You know what I mean, I did it all right and I could tell anyone how to raise a perfect kid.  Meg was a dream child in so many ways and I attributed it to me. Hubby too. But Me.

I was a wreck about leaving her. I was sure we would die on the plane and not be around to enjoy watching her grow up. I was positive that a week with her grandmas would spoil my perfect child.  So I did what every perfect mom would do and I created a pamphlet, yes a pamphlet, for the grandmas.  The title of the pamphlet was: How to Raise A Meg.  Really, that is what I called it.

The trip came and went, all was well.  Apparently my perfect child at one point jumped up on the counter and called my father in law a “lily-livered-codfish”. I, of course, thought that she was a genius for reciting  Peter Pan (a personal favorite) but my father in law wasn’t impressed!  She did fine and was not spoiled forever, we lived to see her again and the pamphlet was forgotten.

Until last night.  Going through old pictures, by mom showed it to me at our Super Bowl get together.  Oh my gracious. How embarrassed was  I?  Reading this pamphlet was eye-opening. I must have been an obnoxious bitch of a mom at that time.  I am able to laugh at myself, but it was enlightening to see how condescending I was back then.  At least I hope it was back then.

We are leaving for Hawaii on Sunday.  When I say we I mean, Hubby and I. That lovely man did it again and surprised me on my birthday last year.   The kids are staying  home   mostly with my mom.  My mom in law and my sister-in-law on deck to help out as needed.  I’ve called in a few favors to help with the picking up and dropping off that is needed with school age kids.  There will be no pamphlets this time around as I do not have the time to make four of them, nor is there room on a piece of paper to explain all the craziness in my head that is parenting.  I do have a schedule made out, a menu planned, general rules for the girls and the necessary permissions for my mom, dad and mom in law to take care of the kids.

So the good news is that I am no longer, neurotic mom.  Or maybe it’s not that I’m no longer neurotic, it’s just that I don’t have time or energy to be. Hmmm.

As they get older and the achievements are more out of the hygiene realm, watching them grow, learn and become who they are meant to become is nothing less than miraculous.  I have found that every morning they come out of their rooms one step closer to adulthood and it makes me want a pause button in some ways and an applause button in other ways.

Where did Meg, long-legs Meg, get her confidence?  Both Hubby and I didn’t have great self-confidence growing up, yet she is strong, solid and humble in her self.  I’ve had teachers and other adults tell me how kind she is and how she isn’t a braggart in her accomplishments.

Mita. My dear Mita has blossomed into a young woman (seriously, have you seen her?!). She is quiet and works so hard. She is reading up a storm and is a straight A student. Straight A’s for a child who four years ago knew no English!   Her room is her castle and she loves to clean it and take pride in her appearance. The outfits she puts together dazzle and are stunning. How does she make sweats look glamorous?!  Her heart. Her heart has had more sorrow than many have had in a lifetime, and yet she is healing.  She gives me spontaneous hugs and I love yous. She calls me Mommy sometimes.  I love to just stare at her. She doesn’t like that so much though!

Enu. Enu is the child who is teaching me patience and perseverance.   She is growing by leaps and bound physically and emotionally.  She is finding herself slowly, but it is happening. She is great with young kids and as of right now she is helping me watch my niece. She will be a great babysitter in just a few years. Her smile is contagious, and she really is quite funny.  It will be great to watch her harness her energy in the years to come.

Elle.  Elle is my elfin fairy for sure.  She is now seven and  I look at what Meg was like at seven and they are so different yet alike.  Elle is becoming very funny, almost a dry sense of humor in some ways. Her comebacks make Hubby and I look at each other and smile. She can take care of herself  just fine in a pack of four sisters!  She still plays with toys, which makes me sooooo  happy.  For Christmas she got an iPod and a Lalaloopsy doll and she will walk around playing with both at the same time.  She still cuddles which makes me think she will always be a cuddler! Yeah!  My baby reads. My. Baby. Reads.

Watching my girls grow is truly a pure delight.  I am overwhelmed with how fast everything is going. Meg is talking about college (of course she has always talked about college, but now I picture it happening!).  Hubby and I find ourselves talking about a third car for the girls to share.

I know that talking about your kids growing up is a well-worn topic. I’ve heard for years how it goes by quickly.  It makes me ache that this is so true but at the same time I love, love, love watching them learn, grow and burst into the world.  If I have anything to do with how wonderful these children are it is my greatest honor in life.  My work is done, everything else is a bonus.

Meg and Hubby

Can you tell that I am a proud mama from the title of this post? Meg has started her own blog reviewing books, DVDs and other things important to her.

I give you MegsMumboJumbo! Check it out and leave her some love!

Thanks to @FireMom for working out all the techy stuff!

So once all the decorations were up (the kids did an awesome job by the way, it is great to have kids who are old enough to actually help with things!) we sat down and I read the letters.  They were simple questions like:

What was your favorite song in 2010?

What was your favorite movie in 2010?

What do you remember most about 2010:

What do you hope happens in 2011?

It turns out that none of the girls’ predictions came true, Elle doesn’t have long hair and Mita didn’t get to go to Washington State.  We did make it to Chuck E. Cheese as Elle had hoped for and Meg did get to perform more in 2011 between her choir and being in Children’s Letters to God.  Enu did not get to spend the night for a week at her friends house, but she did  start doing her hair better!

A nice moment for us. I think this year I will add a few more question and have Hubby and I do one to.  I am going to add this to our Advent activities (Oh yeah, haven’t started planning those yet either.)

I wonder if I will forget next year?  Maybe I should go back and see if I blogged about my idea?  Echinacea anyone?