I Think I'll Be Alright Without These...

This little island home has treated us well for the past four years - I'm not going to lie.  There have been inconveniences, sure, but they came with a much longer list of blessings.  I am really hard-pressed to find much that I won't miss about Okinawa.  Most of what I won't miss has to do with fear of being bitten and dying, as a matter of fact.  Like, I won't miss this "pet" we had for a few weeks: 



 

 

I surely won't miss the Habu, which produces the necessity to carry a flashlight with you at all times after sunset, and the fear of coming across one's path as we stumble home from the Officers' Club:

 

I won't miss bathrooms that I cannot figure out.  Really - what's the bowl for?  And why isn't the sprayer over the tub?

 

I won't miss dinner that looks like this:

 

I won't miss sweeping these up off the floor of my living room in February and March.  Yes, really.

 

Snails that are bigger than a Chili's cup...not gonna miss that.

 

 

I will not miss this phase of my twins' life.  I know you all say "you're gonna miss this - it goes by fast...blah, blah, blah..." but parenting has been HARD these past 3.5 years and I'm glad to be past the baby and toddler phases.  Plus, as it happens with twins, I actually remember very little due to being in survival mode, so there isn't much to "miss"...

 

I won't miss shopping at the BX for clothing and shoes.  I won't miss the slow speed limits.  I won't miss trying to hang things in concrete walls and the lack of storage in these houses.  Or the mold that grows everywhere.  I won't miss postal shipping nightmares and I won't miss that one drink puts me over the legal driving limit.  I think I'll be alright without these things.  The list of things I'll miss is going to be much longer.

Tattoos and Tornados

Today, we drove past a tattoo studio and Adam asked me if I thought they had Sponge Bob tattoos in there.  I said that the people who worked in those places were artists and that they could draw pretty much anything, so I thought they could handle SB, but I didn't think he would want that particular tattoo when he was actually old enough to get one - which, by the way, he thinks is 87 years old because he has basically no concept of age and when he asked if that's how long he had to wait, I simply said yes.  I mean, I can't very well tell him he's not allowed to ever get a tattoo because that would make me a hypocrite.  But 87 seems fair-ish.  Anyway, then he told me a story from a book he had been reading - Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules - where Roderick's parents gave him some money to buy a book so he could study and make a 100 on a test.  But, instead, Roderick took that money and "got himself a tattoo with the name of his band."  I asked him what Roderick's parents thought about that and he said "Well, the Dad just frowned, and the Mom had a tornado on her head." 

I imagine that in the cartoon world, I frequently have tornadoes over my head.

Back to School...Sort Of

Well, as quickly as Summer came, it went.  Prior to it's start, I had visions of lounging on the beach and savoring every last ray of sun before it was time to move on to our next home (by the way, that's Washington D.C.).  I think we did a decent job of beachcombing this summer.  I can't complain about the tan or the loot.  I'm happy by the sea.  This will be a hard place to leave, for sure.  But we aren't talking about that yet because it's too bittersweet...School.  We're talking about school.  Here's the scoop:

Adam is in the middle of week 3 of homeschooling.  So far, it's going OK.  Just OK.  The first week was great.  He was enthusiastic and I was excited and everything went smoothly.  By the end of the second week, however, I was pretty sure I had made a huge mistake.  He was distracted all the time, argued with everything I said, complained about all the writing, and he actually had the nerve to ask me "How do you know?" when I was explaining how to write a cursive "r".  Me: "BECAUSE I'VE BEEN WRITING IN CURSIVE FOR NEARLY 30 YEARS!  I THINK I KNOW HOW TO WRITE AN R!"  I'm pretty sure his teacher at school would have never screamed at him like that, so I'm a total fraud...but I'm also pretty sure he would have never asked her that.  This week is going a little better, now that the twins have started school and we've worked out a plan.  Today, he actually took an Arithmetic test and did his Bible, Writing and Reading lessons at Starbuck's!  He has taken a few tests already and has made 100's on them all.  It's tough to give him a test and not be able to help him, though!  He seems to get irritated when I just re-read the directions more slowly...I'm not worried.  We got this.  It's second grade, right?  How much can I possibly screw him up?

 

 

 

 

Audie and Anaya started back to preschool, too!  They are attending the same Christian school that they attended last year, so they're comfortable there.  They go to school three days a week, so that's a step up from last year.  They love it.  And their class is full of all their friends from either last year's class or church or the neighborhood.  That teacher has her work cut out for her!  It's good for them, though, and they are doing so well.  They both learned how to write their names this summer at home, so when I asked them what they did the first day, Anaya said (preceded, of course, by her little lip smack) "Um, we just had to draw some lines.  But that was so easy, so I just wrote my name."  Audie said he colored triangles, then Anaya said they also went to chapel and sang the "B-I-B-L-E" and Audie said no, they didn't, and an argument broke out and the discussion was over.  Well, at least I get a four hour break, right?

 

This Summer's Lesson

 

My Mom has made several gentle comments lately about the fact that I haven't blogged in a while.  Well, there's a reason - or, I thought there was.  I just didn't feel like anything was blog-worthy.  Everything has just been so normal lately - well, our version of normal, maybe.  Well, miserable, actually.  So why would I want to blog that?  After some thought, I realized, though, that this is exactly what this blog was meant to be about - our day to day life.  It's just that lately my day to day life is not very enjoyable.  Here's a peek inside my life right now...

This summer, lost in delusional selfish thoughts of sleeping late and lounging on the beach, I made the critical error of not enrolling my kids in any summer camps/school/programs.  I foolishly thought that it would be fun to spend our last summer here on Okinawa exploring and being beach bums.  So, as my reward, I have spent every day of the summer with my children.  Every.  Single.  Day. 

I have been awoken by one of them each day at 6:30 a.m., asking if it's time for breakfast (often after being awaken repeatedly in the middle of the night because someone wet the bed/saw a ghost/saw a bug/heard a noise/had to go potty/had a nightmare/had a tummy ache/fell out of bed/needed to be covered up...).  Upon my shooing them out of my room, one of them returns approximately every 5 minutes, asking, until I finally peel myself out of bed and give them food after they have each rudely shouted their "order" at me.  No, really...if I, in my sleep-deprived state, deliver the wrong flavor cereal in front of them, they say "This isn't what I ordered!" 

Two days ago, I was awoken to one of them shouting that another one had peed all over the bathroom floor.  Every Mom's dream to wake up to.  After a firm talk about making it to the potty, I was sure said child understood...but, alas, I was cleaning poop out of their underwear later, 5 minutes after they had yelled at me to wipe their bottom.  What?  And this was right after they had jumped off the couch and knocked over about 10 picture frames on a table, breaking several.

Anaya drew on the fridge (mind you, which we don't own) with a black Sharpie marker.  Magic Eraser didn't work.

At the start of summer, I established a curriculum to sit down with them and do a little lesson everyday.  Bible, Writing and Spanish.  I knew it might be tough since I was dealing with two very different ages and skill levels, but I was optimistic.  Silly me.  We started strong the first two days, only to have Adam complain about not getting a coloring sheet on the third day, the twins scream and cry when they weren't the first one to repeat the Spanish word after me, and pout or cry if I made them trace and write the letter "C" instead of the letter "Y," which they apparently needed to trace to save their life that day.  Let me wrap this up by informing you that we only made it to the letter "J" before I had to knock off the lessons due to lack of patience.  There simply isn't enough in the world for that. 

Adam left a stick of gum in the pocket of his shorts, which went in the wash...then the dryer...Magic Eraser didn't work.  Nothing worked.  And we don't own that dryer, either.

I make time to take Adam to extra karate classes, only to have him flail his arms like a ragdoll when he's supposed to be performing certain strikes, ignoring Sensei's instructions, and smirking at me, ignoring my glares and pointing finger.  What a waste of time and money.  Not to mention embarrassing.

With some sort of delusional belief that they would actually listen to me, and having given them a very severe warning with descriptions of acceptable and unacceptable behavior, I took them with me to a "kid-friendly" meeting at a woman's house I barely know.  Within 2 minutes of arriving, they had broken every rule I had given them, spilled orange juice in the living room and wiped chocolate (from a chocolate muffin I had instructed them not to touch) on an upholstered chair.  They interrupted the meeting every 30 seconds and did not help clean up the house.  Embarrassing is, again, the most accurate word here.

They scream and fight and cry and tattle and complain and argue and lie about everything.  Everything.  I am so tired of them that I could sell them.  Really, I love my kids - I would never really actually give them away.  Really.  But, really.  Really?  I don't know...I just hate that lately I feel like I yell more than anything and I constantly live on the edge of fury.  This summer has been the hardest time for me here, without a doubt.  I have felt the fun and the life being sucked out of me and it's a sad, terrible feeling. 

So you know what I've learned this summer?  First, I definitely learned to always sign them up for something in the summer.  Always.  Also, I've learned that I'm over being a stay-at-home Mom.  This doesn't mean that I don't appreciate that I had the option of being a SAHM - I am very blessed to have been allowed to opportunity.  But, similarly to snow skiing, it isn't for me.  Not everyone is cut out for it.  I think I can love them better - and, possibly they me - if we have a great big break during the day, so once we're moved and settled, I'll definitely be job-hunting.  Of course, this realization comes to me now, two weeks after I have hit "submit" on my order of homeschool curriculum.  That's right!  I'm homeschooling Adam this year!  WTH?  It's a sacrifice decision - since we'll be moving in the middle of the fall semester and would prefer not to rush off to the next school, but be allowed some time to visit family, it made sense.  It was the best decision for the family.  But, I'll tell you what - there isn't a day that goes by that I don't ask myself "What was I thinking?"  The only saving grace is that the twins will be in preschool, so it should make things a little easier.

So, in case you thought it was all rainbows and unicorns around the Dayton house, you can rest assured it most definitely is not.  It is more like mud puddles and dragons.  Please don't misunderstand - I always count my blessings and I certainly realize that my family is incredibly blessed.  But, at the same time, we all face our own challenges and I certainly believe that the good Lord does not put before us any obstacle we cannot overcome.  I survive believing that there is purpose in this struggle.  What that purpose is, God only knows.  In the meantime, I continue to pray to Him and ask Him for guidance and strength, stamina, patience, and love, so that I can overcome this struggle.  After all, this too shall pass, right?  But until it passes, we're going to need more wine.