Is This Normal?
The chaos that is the KerbersArchive for fall
Ahh…I love me some Thanksgiving
Last Thanksgiving I wrote about how thankful I am for all of the blessings in my life…and at the top of that list of blessings sit my loving husband and wonderful kids. So this year I thought I should probably change it up a little bit for my Thanksgiving post. Unfortunately, I can’t even pretend that I am thankful for anything more than Dave, Emma & Ben. They truly make my heart full and my life complete.
I hope that anyone who reads this blog has the same kind of happiness I feel on a daily basis. Sure, the kids make me crazy sometimes, and Dave and I bicker more than I’d like, but my life is truly filled with three monumental blessings.
I hope that I can always remember how lucky I am when the little stuff gets in the way.
I truly am thankful, but not just on this Thanksgiving night.
- I am thankful when I have to get up in the middle of the night to someone yelling, “MOMMY!”
- I am thankful when I and trying to get dinner on the table and someone’s at my side begging for attention.
- I am thankful when I’m the only one who can stop the fights, the fits, or the tears.
- I am thankful for the arms thrown around me every day for giant hugs.
- I am thankful for the millions of smiles and giggles that fill up this house.
- I am thankful that I get to hear, “I love you” absolutely every day of the year.
I’ll say it again…Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. I hope you stay thankful all year, too.
Early shopping
I have never been an early Christmas shopper. I like shopping when I’m in the Christmas spirit. And it super annoys me when people skip over Thanksgiving…my favorite holiday of the year. But this year, since we’re leaving for Florida on the 18th, I feel more urgency and stress surrounding our holidays. So this afternoon Dave and I started shopping for the kids. We went to Farm & Fleet with the intention of simply browsing and getting ideas, but we ended up getting several gifts for the kids that we think they will love. We also got a few gifts for some friends, and more importantly, we got organized. That helped me calm down a lot. Later, while grocery shopping, I even picked up some stocking stuffers! Me…buying stocking stuffers in November…when it’s still fall outside and our Christmas lights, while already hung due to nice weather, will not be turned on until the day after Thanksgiving. Unheard of!
I still hate shopping early, and I did miss shopping while being caught up in the spirit of the holidays. But you gotta do what you gotta do, and if being ready to leave on December 18th means I have to shop early, I’ll gladly do it.
Gloomy, dreary, rainy, and blah
Today was truly the most gray and depressing day I can remember in a very long time. It was either pouring rain or misty and foggy the entire day and I swear it looked like it was 4:30 in the afternoon at 8:00 am.
On the way home from Danielle’s this afternoon I said to Ben, “Boy, it sure is gloomy outside today.”
“What does gloomy mean?” Ben asked.
I said, “Buddy, look out your window right now…you see how gray and rainy and sad it looks outside?”
“Yeah,” he said, “And it looks really WET.”
“Right,” I said. “THAT’s what gloomy means.”
“Mama,” he said (lately he often refers to me as Mama for some unknown reason), “I think I like sunny days more than gloomy days.”
“Me too,” I said.
Truer words have never been spoken. I usually suffer from some seasonal depression in February and/or March, but it’s never started this early before. I hope we see some more sun very soon because this grayness is really starting to get to me. I love working in a room that has a wall full of windows, but with weather like this, it can also be tough to handle watching it all day!
Another warm Saturday=neighborhood fun
It was gorgeous outside again today, which is crazy considering it’s November. But we certainly took advantage of it, and we spent almost the entire afternoon outside playing. In the summer, we play outside almost every night with our neighborhood friends. But those days are becoming fewer and far between, so it was great to spend so much time with them again.
The biggest attraction today was sidewalk chalk. All of the kids were totally into it. They drew words, they scribbled big sections of colors, and they drew pictures. I even joined in, because let’s face it…there’s not much better than drawing with sidewalk chalk on a warm fall afternoon. The kids were all covered with chalk, and it was a really awesome afternoon. Hopefully this warm weather will hold on so we can stretch fall out a little bit longer.
Happy Veteren’s Day
I don’t have any close relatives who served in the armed forces except my Uncle Tom, who served in the Army in the early to mid 60s (getting out before the Viet Nam conflict began) and my brother-in-law Rod, who served in the Navy mid to late 80s (not exactly the most dangerous time in our military history). Even though the military hasn’t personaly touched my life very much, I still appreciate it and it’s awesome history more than I can imagine. Today, there are young women and men throwing themselves into harms way constantly in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I do hope they feel the appreciation of our entire nation.
To the millions of of soldiers, airmen, sailors, and marines who have served America in the last 233 years, I say thank you. Thank you for the dedication, for the sacrifice, and for the bravery you have shown. Happy Veteren’s Day, everyone.
The “last” class
Tuesday nights are y ISU class nights. Typically at this point of the semester, I am ready to be done with my class. You know how it is…no matter how great the semester has gone, there’s always that point when you’re just ready to be done with it all. Right now, I think a big part of that feeling is because I got way behind in my grading, so I had to spend a lot of time last weekend catching up on that. Not fun. I was looking forward to this class for one reason and one reason only; technically, this is my last class of the semester. We really have three more weeks, but two of them will be filled with student presentations, and the third will be the take-home final exam.
Tonight, though, really turned out to be an exceptional class. The newly hired ISU Library Program Supervisor sat in on class, and it seemed like she really enjoyed it. She was making all kinds of positive comments to me, and she added a lot to the class discussion. Afterwards she told me that she loved my teaching style and said that she could tell that I had a lot of expertise in the field. What a great thing to hear from someone in that position! I know that at this point in my career I should know that I’m a good teacher, but it’s always so wonderful to have that reinforced by someone completely unbiased.
It always surprises me to see how much I get out of teaching this class. I hope that the opportunity to teach more of them does come, because I really do love it.
Ahhhh…
Today was seriously one of the laziest, most relaxing days we’ve had in a very long time, and I enjoyed it very much. Since we set the clocks back an hour last night, the kids were of course up super early, but we all laid around in bed watching cartoons for about 45 minutes before technically starting our day by getting up and ready for church.
After church, we came home and did very little the rest of the day. Both of the kids had a lot of fun working in their new Halloween coloring books from Aunt Theresa, and Ben worked especially hard on some sticker puzzles she gave him. Emma had a three-hour nap, which was desperately needed, and Daddy got a short nap in for himself, too. I enjoyed watching the Bears game without interruption for once. It was great, and they even looked good and won! We had a couple of battles over wanting more candy, but Ben didn’t beg for it too much, so I was happy with that.
It was one of those days where Dave and I look at each other, smile and say, “This is the good stuff, Honey.” The kids were in good moods and had fun playing with each other. The crying was at an all-time low, I think. Ok, sure, Emma did fall off the back of the couch downstairs, got a big lump on her head and cried really hard for a few minutes, but hey, no day is completely perfect, right? Overall, there wasn’t a ton of chaos in the house, and we all spent some really enjoyable time just chillin’ out together.
Halloween fun
The weather made us nervous all week, but luckily it pretty much cooperated in order for us to have a very fun Halloween night. It was a tad bit chilly, but thankfully the rain finally stopped.
We started the night with pizza, and Grandma & Grandpa Kerber joined us first. Then Aunt Theresa came, and finally Auntie M, Salina, and Bella rounded out our group. It didn’t take anyone long to finish eating…the anticipation of trick-or-treating was on the forefront of everyone’s mind. 
So after we ate we changed into our costumes (which luckily were big enough to leave room for a couple of extra layers underneath) and headed out. Ben the panther, Emma the lion and Bella as Magenta the dog made up our costumed group. 
Since Auntie M and Salina both came with us, the adults outnumbered the kids for once, which is never a bad thing!
We started down the street and the kids were into it right away. Emma had not napped this afternoon, so after only a couple of houses, she was getting droopy and was pretty far behind.
But Ben was very patient with both of the little girls. He would wait out on the sidewalk and I can’t remember him complaining once. After about 40 minutes of trick-or-treating both of the girls were ready to head in. Neither of them really knew what any of the candy was in the first place, and they were pooped from walking. Plus, Bella had other stops to make, so Auntie M and Salina were off.
Ben, however, was still ready to go. So Dave took him around one more block. Needless to say, his pumpkin was very heavy by the time they got home a half hour later. He was so excited about some of the things in there. It was too funny. By this time Grandma & Grandpa had gone home, but Aunt Theresa still had a bag of goodies for the kids. They both loved opening these, and we had to have just one more treat before bed.
Both kids had so much fun trick-or-treating. 
We ran into almost all of our neighborhood friends and saw some pretty cool Halloween houses. While Halloween is certainly not my favorite holiday, I have to admit that a smile came to my face on more than one occasion tonight. There’s not much more you can ask than that.
Oh wait, icing on the cake…the Illini football team beat Michigan tonight, too! Woo HOO!!
Off to ISLMA
As I type this, the car is packed and I’m ready to head to Springfield for the annual Illinois School Library Media Association (ISLMA) conference. While I’ve attended the conference several years in the past, this year is different. For the first time, I’m presenting at ISLMA. Friday and Saturday are filled with what we call concurrent sessions. That means there are like 7 or 8 different sessions going on at once, and conference attendees can choose whichever one he or she feels will be the most interesting and beneficial. My colleague Ellen (who is one of the media specialists at West, the other high school in our district) and I are presenting together, and it’s the very first session of the conference. We’re anxious and very excited to see how many people we get for ours.
As always, there is some guilt attached to leaving the kids and Dave for a couple of days. But this time it seems like I’m handling it a little better than usual. Maybe that’s because I’m actually going to be working while I’m gone instead of just playing with my friends. I’m looking forward to seeing some old friends there, but it’s so much m ore about networking and getting some fresh ideas for the IMC.
Wish me luck with this new professional endeavor. Maybe this will become something I do every fall…like teaching the ISU class did.
We just can’t wait!
Today when I picked Ben up from preschool, the first thing he said to me was, “Mommy, next time we come to preschool it’s our pumpkin party!” There was so much excitement in his voice, and he had one o f the biggest smiles I had ever seen. So I decided that we should try on our costumes tonight to make sure that everything was all set. As soon as I got the coats on each kid, they were crawling all over the floor roaring (that would be Emma the lion) and rawring (from Ben the panther) all over the place. It was hilarious.
While I’m not the biggest fan of Halloween, it is definitely fun to anticipate something with the kids. While Ems is still not really sure what’s going to happen Saturday night, Ben remembers it well and is just so psyched for the big event. Let’s hope that Mother Nature cooperates with us so we can have all the fun we think we will!
