Sons

Yesterday I talked a good deal about mothers and daughters. I have decided today to talk about my son. My son is an active twelve year old. He is in some excellerated learning classes at school but this year we have had issues with him and his school work. I believe truthfully that it is because he is in a new school. I also believe that most of his teachers just couldn't begin to care how well he does or not. Every year I inform his teachers that if you don't keep him busy and engage his attention from the get go then you will have problems with him being bored. My son gets his classwork done quickly and then finds things to do that often times result in him being in trouble.

He was involved in boyscouts for the last year or so and rapidly moved from a scout through two different rankings and became a patrol leader. Then some things happened that made him unhappy with his scouting experience and he chose to leave the troop. At this point in time we are considering it a break for a few months and giving him the opportunity to return. I want him to understand that not everything in life is fun and there is hard work involved to achieve your goals. I think the scouting experience was good for this lesson, but it is also supposed to be fun and he was just coming away from it angry.

He loves computers and technology. Give him access to the internet and he is happy. He likes to go and research things that interest him. He will look up things that catch his eye that he wants to know more about. He likes math and understands a lot more of it at a glance then I do as an adult reading the text over and over again. He has always grasped mathmatical concepts easily, doing multiplication while he was in kindergarten. His question to me about halfway through kindergarten was "mom what does 3 times 3 mean?" and I said, it is like you have 3 groups of 3. From that point forward I never had to explain multiplication. He knew that it was just a quicker form of addition. He actually taught his older sister her times tables.

He is an artist and cartoonist. I have some cartoons he has created that are imaginative and funny. While he hates to write a composition, he can write a cartoon board easily that gets the whole story across in just 9 panels.

I am proud of the son that I have raised so far. I anticipate that I will have more problems as he enters his teens and fights for his independence. I believe that the values I have instilled in him already will help us get through the tough years ahead.

the play

Tonight my daughter was in a production at school. There were two performances today and I attended the second one. She did her part well and I was pleased to see that her hard work had paid off for her. There were a lot of performers in this show and many of them did a good job and many of them did an ok job. You could tell who worked hard and who slacked off but this was a school production that was done with limitted space and limitted rehearsal time. I don't critisize except to say that there were some that could have worked a little harder on their lines and cues.

My daughter informed me after the performance was over that during the first show of the day she fell off the riser and knocked over the set. While I am sure it would have been humorous to have seen, she was totally embarrassed and cried at the end of the performance. She told me she was so thankful that the first show was not well attended. The second show went much better. I told her to think of the first show as their dress rehearsal since their original dress rehearsal and first schedualled show had been cancelled due to a death in the director's family. I think that helped a little with the disappointment she felt.

She is enjoying being in the theater and while this was not really the way I would have chosen for her to perform, I keep in mind that at least she is willing to get out on stage in front of people. I hope she continues with her acting and continues to enjoy what she is doing.

She has performed in two community theater productions and has learned a great deal from them. While this is a good thing, it is at the same time a bit frustrating for her to work with others that haven't learned the same methods or acting rules that she has learned. She benefits as well from a mother that was involved in theater while in high school.

This play was a funny one and the kids did a fairly good job on it. I look forward to seeing further productions at a later date and really look forward to her high school productions.

feeding the kids

Over the years I have fed several children including my own. I have seen children eat..... a variety of manners and favorites. I have seen the dainty and or picky eaters. I have seen the children that will eat whatever is put in front of them. I have always had just one rule in my house when it comes to eating.... You don't have to like it but you do have to at least taste it. I won't be upset if you don't like it but please at least try a bit before you tell me you don't like something I have taken the time to cook.

Tonight I watched in amazement as my daughter's boyfriend ate his dinner. He was well mannered and at well of the meal he had ordered at the restaurant. My preteen son, only a few months younger than this other young man, at a good portion of his own dinner but was not able to finish it. Lisa's boyfriend proceded to finish my son's dinner. Mind you I was glad to see that the food was not wasted and I am in no means upset that he ate it, I was just sitting there in amazement at the amount of food this young man consumed. I am sure that he could have eaten even more had there been more to eat. Dinner would have cost me the same either way and the food was actually all eaten which is not always the case when we go to a restaurant.

I am not used to watching teenage boys eat. I had one brother while growing up and he ate what was put in front of him but was a picky kid so he didn't eat at home much. My son is small. He is not really a picky eater but tends to eat a lot of small meals throughout the day. I guess that is why I don't notice what he eats. I think the next time we take teenagers to dinner though I will pick an all you can eat buffet and let them eat and graze to their hearts content. =)

Daughters and Mothers

The picture above is of my mother and my grandmother on my mother's front porch.

I am a daughter. As a young woman, I many times resented my mother's presence in my life. I didn't understand what she was trying to teach me. I didn't appreciate what I viewed as her interference in the way I lived. I wanted her to leave me alone. I couldn't understand why she chose to do things the way that she did.
I am a mother. As a woman approaching middle age, with a teenage daughter of my own, I understand more of the things my mother attempted to teach me when I was a teenager. I understand the rules she had for our lifes and the reasons behind those rules. I can appreciate the love that she put into trying to keep me safe and more of the reasons for many of the things she did.
My teenage daughter is rapidly approaching young womanhood. She is thirteen years old and looks and acts much older. She is modest, pure, emotional, honest, and sweet. She is a trustworthy young lady. I have set rules for her. She has a young man in her life who is a good boy. To help them continue to be good young people, they are allowed to see each other at school and church functions and also to have "dates" that include parental supervision. She knows she will not be allowed to have a date without adult supervision until she is fifteen. She is agreeable to that as is her young man. I am proud of her for the choices she has made in her life so far and hope and pray that she continues in the ways she has already chosen.
I am frightened for her at times with this worldly place we live in. With the dangers that abound and seem to be there to trip our children up. I am encouraged by her many times as I see her set her goals in life and work towards them. At thirteen years old she has already chosen a career she wants and studies hard to be able to make that career path a possibility. She has chosen two colleges that she is debating about attending. One is here in GA and one is in PA where her grandparents live. She knows what is involved in her being able to go to college but since her career choice requires college she will continue to work hard towards that goal.
As a daughter I am proud of my mother. I love her and hope that as an adult I can give her the respect that I now understand she really deserved all along.
As a mother, I hope that I am teaching my daughter in the ways she should follow. I hope that I am honoring my mother and my grandmother as I attempt to pass on knowledge to my daughter. As a mother I hope my daughter is proud of me now and if she is not that she will be proud and understanding later, when she is a mother herself.

Introducing myself

I just wanted to introduce you to Irishlady..... that is myself. I am a 39 year old mother of two. I have a husband of 16 years. I am originally from East Hampton, NY but have been gone from there for the 16 years I have been married.

I think that I am an interesting person but I tend to be very serious. I will endeavor to make this blog enjoyable to read but since I have a bit of a quirky sense of humor it may not make a lot of sense sometimes.

I am a crafter. I like to quilt, cross stitch, crochet, embroider, and quill. I have a big tendancy to give away what I make. I have been doing various crafts since I was 6 years old and I have very few items in my home that I have kept. My mother on the other hand has many of the items I have stitched for her over the years as does my mother in law. They proudly display them for all to see. As a crafter I like to pass that knowledge on to my children. I have attempted to teach them these "forgotten" arts that seem to pass by the wayside as manufactures make them with machines. My daughter has learned to crochet and she makes blankets of her own.

I am a product of a large family and have many siblings. We fought and laughed and loved and cried together. As a child I resented being the oldest of 5. As an adult many times I feel a little left out when we all try to get together. I know that it is me but the rest of them seem closer to each other than I feel with them. It isn't easy to feel that way but I recognise that I am the one that chose to seperate from them for many years and now it is a time of rebuilding.

I currently live in Georgia in the HEAT of the country. I love this state and have no plans to move back north where it snows and I was miserably cold all the time.

Anyway, that is the run down on me. I will introduce you to new things about me as life allows and I write about it.