Life and Times of the Sharp Family

One of my absolute favorite things about Heaven's Little Helpers day care/preschool is the fact that my good buddy and co-teacher extraordinare, Mr. Messer , sends his kids there too.  In fact, his kids line up almost perfectly with mine.  His oldest son, James, is just one year older than Breslin.  His daughter, Mia, is a couple of months older than Dharia.  Mary, the baby, was born a mere 10 days after AJ.  The girls, especially, are close to their Messer counterparts.  Lately, when I pick up the girls and ask them who they played with, AJ says, "Maywie!"  Just see for yourself! I am so glad that my girls have friends at daycare.  I think it's even cooler that they belong to a family which I happen to be a big fan of.  I love that little tiny AJ has homegirls already.  Somehow, it makes not being with them during the day a little easier to take. Thank God that AJ loves Mary! Lord, thank you that my girls have friends in the Messer girls.  Thank you for givin

I don't know why we had a two hour delay this morning, but I'm happy we did.  It was a delightful little surprise. I forgot what it was like to drive to school in the daylight!  It made a huge difference in my attitude and outlook the rest of the day, I must say. Thank God for a two-hour delay! Lord, thank you for giving us the opporunity to take it a bit easier this morning.  Thank you for the chance to relax a little and to enjoy an excellent start to the day.  In your name I pray, Amen.

The Rad-Mag is a bike trainer.  It essentially turns your road bike into an indoor, stationary bike so that you can ride your bike inside on days where the wind is cold and the roads are covered in snow. I wasn't looking forward to riding a bike indoors, where the scenery never changes.  So, naturally, I was surprised to find myself rather enjoying working up a sweat on my first go with the trainer this morning.  While it was true that the scenery didn't change, it was also true that I got to hang out with my family while I rode.  I talked to Breslin about the alphabet and watched AJ dance.  Dharia just sat on the couch and played with the iPad, so I didn't really miss anything there, but I still got to look at her pretty face, scrunched in concentration. One of the things that makes triathlon training so difficult is the fact that it means long hours away from my family.  Today I am thankful that I have one way to get around that.  Thank God for the Rad-Mag! Lord, t

After my third gymnastics meet in four days, it was nice to spend the evening at home with my family. The best part was watching Breslin and Dharia play monsters. Monsters is a game that they made up tonight. The game involves: running, chasing, hiding, SCREAMING, tickling, and lots and lots of laughing. Breslin and Dharia played Monsters for a solid two hours. It was a great night. Lord, thank you for a nice and wild night at home with my family.

This is the shirt I am wearing right now.  I got it a couple of years ago when Colby and I visited Cleveland so that I could run the Cleveland Triathlon, a few short months after having AJ.  Cleveland was (suprisingly) a wonderful, fun place to visit.  I saw this t-shirt in the store next to Progressive Field after watching an Indians game and fell in love.  Unfortunately, the only size they had was extra large.  Depressed, I came home to Albion without my Cleveland shirt. At Christmas, my darling husband surprised me with a package containing one very orange Cleveland t-shirt, size small.  He had found it online in the months following the trip and ordered it immediately.  It is soft and cozy and never fails to make me crack a smile.  I was really hoping to get Western's student section to get their t-shirts made to look like this, only with "Parma" in the middle instead of Cleveland.  Like usual in these sorts of instances, they did not listen to me.  But, for now,

We have a new pizza joint in Albion: Gina's Pizza. It is located about a half mile from our house in an old bank. Tonight we got a chance to go their for pizza after school. The pizza was great, and the time together was even better. Lord, thanks for giving the opportunity to spend the evening eating dinner out tonight.

In addition to being without my van, I have been without deodorant for the past couple of weeks.  Don't worry, don't worry.  I did wear deodorant.  Just not my own. Every morning I would come down and use some of Colby's deodorant.  Then, I would walk around all day wondering why I smelled like a guy. This week, Colby picked up some deodorant for me at Meijer.  I walked around today wondering what smelled so good. It was me. :) Thank God for my own deodorant! Lord, thank you for small pleasures in life, like deodorant that doesn't make me smell like a man.  In your name I pray, Amen.

Tonight on a whim, I decided to willingly go back to school to watch the home varsity basketball game. I took both Breslin and Dharia with me. We had a great time. The game was not crowded at all, so we had an entire set of bleachers to ourselves for the kids to crawl and jump around on while eating $10 worth of concession stand fare. At halftime, the Western Athletic Boosters sponsor a half-court shot. For a dollar, you can embarrass yourself by trying to hurl a basketball at a hoop a mile away in front of a thousand people. As it got going, Dharia looked at me with those big brown eyes and said, "Mommy, can I do it?"  I gave her a dollar and said, "Go for it!" Wouldn't you know it, that girl called my bluff and marched proudly onto the court to give the workers her dollar!  They led her 2 feet from the hoop and let the crowd oooh and ahhh over her as she thrust the ball a mere 6 inches in the air.  It was pretty cute, but not as cute as when she asked fo

The van has been out of commission for the past 10 days or so due to a problem in the steering column/ignition/who really gives a crap, it's broken. I feel lucky to have "back up" vehicles...so much as it can be said for vehicles that are secondary to a 1999 Dodge Caravan bought on eBay. But, today was the first day in a while that I was able to take the kids to and from school in the van, and I have to admit that I have missed that hunk of junk.  September 2008: A picture of my sad face the day we finally gave in and bought our minivan...on eBay  Its cavernous depths were better at drowning out the wailing cries I hear almost daily on the way to daycare than the Saturn, and I didn't have to worry about finding a parking spot that allowed me to freely open the suicide doors, either. The vast empty interior made getting kids strapped into car seats almost seem easy. The heavy bulk under my hands made me feel safe and significant on the road.  And somebody mu

I wore the same PJs all day. I only took them off once so that I could take a bath. I then put them immediately back on. If you don't think that rocks, I'm not sure that you and I are on the same wavelength, because I think that is something to be truly thankful for. Thank God for a pajama record! Lord, thank you for a restful day that did not necessitate wearing real clothes. Thank you for the opportunity to relax and spend time sleeping and being with my family. In your name I pray, Amen.

This has been a crazy week. Tonight, I am thankful for Sunday. I'm thankful that I have nothing I have to do tomorrow except hang out with my family. Lord, thank you for guiding me through this week. Thanks for providing me with a day of rest. In your name I pray, Amen.

Today was Snowfest at Western High School.  We started the day by introducing our candidates for king and queen to the student body at the formal assembly.  In the auditorium, we set the stage with snow and white lights to go with our "Chillin' in the Arctic" theme.  After the assembly, we showed the lip dub videos that each class made for their competition.  You can see them here.  They go in order of staff, freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors.  The lip dub was definitely a hit with the students, who could talk of little else after it was shown on the big screen.  Seriously, if you watch this, make sure that you watch the seniors' video, which is last...it's worth it, trust me. Then, in the afternoon, we had our pep assembly, which featured a lot of fun and silly games, like this one, led by a member of each class.  It was refreshing and uplifting to see a huge percentage of students participating with their classmates and having fun while at school.

I was riding home from Plymouth Canton on Tuesday with my friend Linda, who I consider my judging mentor.  My former high school gymnastics coach offers to drive many of the nights we have meets together, and we have a lot of fun chatting on the way to the meet and home.  It certainly made the ride home a lot less terrible having a good friend in the seat next to me.  As we sat in traffic, she pulled about 20 burnt CDs from her center console.  She chose one at random and inserted it into her CD player.  What followed was a great mix of edgy alternative music with a few fun pop songs sprinkled in.  I asked her what the CD was for and she told me that as a middle school PE teacher, she gets sick of listening to the same songs over and over again during class.  So, roughly once a month she buys a new set of songs from iTunes and burns a new CD for the kids to run to, or to listen to during plyometrics, or for background during volleyball drills.  I was raving about her taste in music

Today I got to wear my winter hat all day because it was "Winter Wear" day for spirit week.  I am totally a hat person, so it's a treat for me to be able to wear one during the school day.  Every time I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror, I thought to my self, "Oh, yeah!  I am wearing a cute hat!" It made me happy.  On a related note, it was also "Ugly Sweater" day, so some of the kids chose to do that instead of their winter gear.  The sweaters that made appearances were cracking me up all day.  Thank God for my winter hat! God, thank you for the opportunity to mix things up this week.  Thank you for a day to laugh and to to enjoy wearing one of my favorite accessories.  In your name I pray, Amen.

Some days it feels like I will never make it home. Today, was one of those days. After school I judged a gymnastics meet in  Canton that ran late. On the way home I had to stop for an accident on the highway and a train a few miles from home. I am thankful that I made it home. Lord, thank you for getting me home safe. Help me to to sleep well tonight so that I am not too tired tomorrow.

Tonight I'm thankful that God loves me in spite of me. I feel like a royal screw up today.  You know what it's like to have one of those days where you are convinced that every. single. thing. you did was wrong? Where you second guessed every decision you made? Where you thought that even your tone of voice might have sent a message other than what you intended? Where in retrospect, it probably would have been better for everyone if you had just stayed in bed? No? Screw you. Just kidding. Kind of. But isn't it nice to know that no matter what my failures today, real or imagined, God loves me not for who I am but in spite of who I am? Even in my biggest screw ups, He isn't or judgmental, but loving and forgiving. It reminds me of that old hymn, "The Love of God", that I love so much, because it shows how huge God's love is for me (and for you, too!). Thank you, God, for loving me in spite of me! Lord, thank you for yo

Tonight, I am thankful for our Flip video camera.  We got it just before Dharia was born and I am convinced that I would never take any videos without it.  It's about the size of a cell phone, so it can easily go into a pocket or be thrown into my purse. Since I usually have it, it's no big deal to whip it out to take a short video whatever the situation.  Since it plugs directly into a USB port onto our computer, it's super easy to upload video. It even comes with the software on the camera so that you can use it with any computer, not just yours at home. I was talking with the kids today about when they were babies (which Dharia loves to hear about and Breslin HATES to hear about), and then I was able to show them examples from our video archives.  They loved seeing themselves (even Breslin) and it struck me that I our videos significantly outnumbered our photos . It's really no wonder.  The Flip is such a great way to re-live those every day moments that you would

This is the sign that Breslin made at Grandma's house to hang on the door of his room. Lord, thank your for Breslin, and the funny and silly things that he does. Help us to love and guide him.

Kim is my buddy at school and my fellow student council advisor.  Man, is she awesome.  I love her sense of humor, her enthusiasm, and her ability to get things done.  In short, she rocks.  She definitely makes school a better place for me to be.  These weeks of homecoming and Snowfest can be ridiculously crazy.  But, I have a great time hanging out with her and strategizing together.  And she's an amazing teacher, too.  Tonight, I am so thankful for her friendship.  Even though it' s Friday and I'm so happy to be home from school I actually find myself missing her and looking forward to the time I'll talk to her next. Thank God for Kim! Lord, thank you for my teammate and friend.  Please bless our week together as we try to plan and execute Snowfest.  Help me to be as much of a blessing to her as she is to me.  In your name I pray, Amen.

We are gearing up for Snowfest at Western High School.  Next week, things will get interesting as we take on the "Chillin' in the Arctic" festivities, including a formal assembly in the auditorium, pep assembly in the gym, halftime presentation at the home basketball game, and formal dance. One thing I'm especially excited about is this year's class competition.  We decided to go a little different this year.  Instead of decorating a hallway or making a banner we will be doing class "lip dubs".  Each class will make a lip dub and submitting it for the entire student body to watch at the formal assembly next Friday morning.  Then, teachers will judge each video and present the winners at the pep assembly in the afternoon. What's a lip dub, you ask?  Well, put simply, it's a video where people lip sync to a dubbed audio track.  I am in the process of making a video to show the students tomorrow that shows the general concept and shows an exampl

This comes from "Momastery", a blog you can find here . The author writes: "Mothers always whisper to their babies how special, how beautiful, how brilliant they are, how there has never been another baby in the history of the world as perfect as they are. I certainly whispered all these same things to my babies. Chase took them with a grain of salt, like most babies do. I’m sure he thought “Aw. So cute. Mom’s in love.” Tish, on the other hand, believed every word I said. When Tish heard me whisper these things into her teeny ear, her reaction was: “ YES. Exactly as I suspected . It seems I am some sort of GODDESS. Fan .damn .TASTIC.” And no one has been able to convince her otherwise since." --Here's a pause in the action to ask you if this reminds you of anyone that frequently appears on this blog?  But, I digress.  The story continues. -- "I’d like to offer an example. Several months ago my preschoolers were doing a project involving mounds of gli

I put Breslin to bed tonight, and I'm thankful the opportunity to spend some quality time with him and to learn one of his games, which he called "Upper Case ABC Animals" and "Lower Case ABC Animals", respectively. I don't honestly know what the upper and lower case designations had to do with anything, but the basic premise of the game was to alternate naming animals that started with each successive letter of the alphabet.  We did the upper case animals first and the lower case animals second.  Believe me, certain letters were very difficult to do by the time we got to the second round.  It didn't help that Breslin was getting a little loopy and dissolving into giggles everytime that we named an animal that he thought sounded funny.  He must have laughed for a solid minute after he said "hedgehog", I swear.  I enjoyed learning some of the new animals he's learned lately, too.  For example, for the upper case "U" he chose "

I stayed home from school today.  Again. When I woke up this morning, I was in so much pain that I couldn't stand up for more than a minute without having to sit or lie down.  It was weird, and scary.  I'm not trying to complain here, honestly, or make you feel bad for me.  I just want to explain where I'm coming from.   I'm usually pretty tough, but I couldn't be today and no amount of pain medicine did anything to help.  I was just plain miserable. Taking a hot bath really seemed to help me feel better, so I spent most of the day either laying in my bed or in a hot bath.  It was a multiple bath day.  If it wasn't for the pain, it would have been just my kind of day. I was thinking about how much hot water I had used throughout the day today, and I know there are some people who can't count on having hot water.  I was so grateful for alleviation of my symptoms that I felt it was worth mentioning that I feel blessed to have the means to take several ho

I have watched Breslin and Dharia save countless imaginary, invisible people or animals tonight as an unlikely pair of superheroes.  Their capes are blankets, which I have tied and re-tied about eight gazillion times.  But it was all worth it to see them using their imaginations and working together. One of my absolute favorite things about my kids getting older is having the opportunity to watch them play together.  Dharia so desperately wants to be around Breslin and will pretty much do whatever she can to get him to play with her.  It's sweet.  AJ just wants to be a part of it, so even though the older two left her in the dust during their play, she was content to have her own blanket tied about her neck and to whisper "Superman!" while proudly following them around as best she could.  I love to see the bond that is already forming between them and  I wonder how close they will be growing up.  Will Dharia stick up for Breslin in high school?  Will Breslin help Dhari

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to be able to play at least two songs on the guitar.  This would require actually practicing said guitar, which I haven't done in 2012. Until today.  I got the guitar out, tuned it up, sat down, and got to work while AJ watched with rapt attention. I am a total rookie.  I can't do much of anything.  My fingers hurt from the strings and my hands get tired almost immediately. But, I think if I keep working at it in 15 minute spurts, I should be able to get stronger and better.  I'm just happy that I was able to start today. Thank God for some guitar practice! Lord, thank you for giving me the opportunity to practice my guitar today.  Please provide me with more opportunities and the motivation to continue with this practice.  Help me to stick with it and see improvement.  In your name I pray, Amen.

I took Dharia with me to the boys' basketball game tonight against Albion in her sparkly silver Tom's shoes, jeggings, and athletic grey Western hooded sweatshirt.  She was more interested in the concession stand than in anything else and kept wanting to go nab Twizzlers and lollipops during the game.  As she sat on my lap, she pointed to the letters on my Western t-shirt and correctly identified each and every one.  The she looked at me and said, "Mommy, that spells Western!" I gaped at her with a smile and laugh-shouted, "You're such a smart cookie!" With tears in her eyes, she replied, "I'm not a cookie!" Confused, I said, "Well, what are you then?" As though it were a painfully obvious fact that I was ignorant not to see, she said, "I'm a kitty !" Thank God for my smart kitty! Dear God, thank you for my bright daughter.  Thank you for her spunky attitude, her ability to feel emotion so keenly, and her

Lately, my two oldest children have been like an extra two pairs of hands.  I realized today that they are finally at the age where I can ask them to help me with things, do favors for me, or be gophers for me ... without feeling stupid for thinking they might actually do it. It hit me when I was up to my elbows in bath water trying to get AJ clean after a spaghetti dinner.  I didn't have a cup to use for washing her hair.  Dharia and Breslin were in the room next door, playing.  Without even thinking, I called for Dharia.  She came bouncing in and asked, "Yes, Mom?" I pleaded, "Can you please go in the kitchen and ask daddy to get two cups for you for AJ's bath and then bring them to me?" "Sure, Mom!" she beamed. I was skeptical, but 30 seconds later, she was back, bearing two plastic cups.  She gave them to me and then leaned over for a kiss. One of the most difficult parts of my day is getting my three kids out of the van when we get h

The big kids put on their new dinosaur shirts that they got from Grandpa and Grandma for Christmas.  When you cross the arms in front of your chest, it looks like the dinosaur is about to bite you. For added effect, you can waggle your arms up and down to make it appear as though the dinosaur's jaws are opening and closing.  Clothing for you, terror for them.  Kind of like wearing Spandex in front of other people. Consequently, since 6:15 am, AJ has been roaring (growling? grunting?) like a dinosaur.  At home, in the car, when I picked her up from daycare, and now as I type this, she has let her approval for the shirts be known in what doesn't sound normal coming from such a small body. But,  it makes me laugh.  This morning, I was bumming pretty hard about having to get up and do the whole school thing all over again until AJ let loose with her first growl.  I couldn't stop giggling all the way to daycare as she sat in the back and roared.  My whole day was better be

This long day is finally over. Almost.  Just gotta get this post done, then I can relax.  Or maybe just pass out. The first day back to school after a long break is never easy.  There's this aching, raw sense of guilt that I always have about leaving my kids.  I'm tired and grouchy, having been used to sleeping in a bit and wearing sweatpants half the day.  I miss hanging out with who I consider to be the coolest people in the world. Today's first day back was beastly and frightening for a couple of reasons.  The first being that because of my surgery the week before break, I had a sub in my room for a few days which means I returned to a disaster of gigantic proportions.  The room is always a mess when I come back and the kids have no idea what they were supposed to do.  Add that to the fact that they forgot everything they learned about chemistry in the two weeks they were gone and you start to get depressed and overwhelmed.  How does one lesson plan for the first day

Bres is five today. A little sad, yes.  Five seems big.  And old.  And like a real kid. But how amazing his five years have been!  I feel so fortunate to be his mom today.  I feel so lucky for these five years that I have gotten to know and love the amazing person that he is.  I am so happy that I get to see how he grows and who he becomes as he gets older. I can remember every detail of his birth.  He was our only one and only child...at least for a little while.  Bringing him home was thrilling and terrifying all in one.  As he is our first, every new experience is wrought with uncertainty.  But Breslin makes things easy on us, that's for sure.  He is so good-natured and well-behaved that we haven't really had any trouble.  He makes parenting seem easy. We didn't make a big huge deal of his birthday, because, honestly, that's not Bres's style.  Instead, we spent a lot of quiet time as a family, where we let him play his Leapster and alphabet apps on his da

It's January 1st.  I was supposed to have to go back to school tomorrow, but fortunately, it's against the law.  Apparently, if a holiday falls on a Sunday, then, by law, students cannot attend school on that Monday. So, our official school calendar had to be changed so that school resumed not on Monday, January 2nd, as originally planned, but on Tuesday, January 3rd. Who knew? I'm so glad that going to school tomorrow is against the law.  Now I get one more morning to sleep in, one more day to hang out with my kids, one more workout to do whatever time of day I choose, and one more day to avoid lesson planning. Thank God that going to school tomorrow is against the law! Lord, thank you for one more day of Christmas break.  Please help me to enjoy it to the fullest and to make the most of the time I have been given with my family.  Please give me strength to face the school week ahead.  In your name I pray, Amen.