Out of the Box Saturday

It's been a few weeks since I've posted an Out of the Box Saturday. Here I am - posting one.

This time it's not about anything new though. It's more about using music as a teaching tool for your children.

I asked Mica why he doesn't play with a kid he played with all the time last year? His response was, "He's annoying." When I asked him to elaborate, he told me the kid gets really needy by wanting things and says, "Give-me, give-me, give-me." Now I know kids are kids. They change who they play with, and have different tastes in what they play with often. BUT it seemed these two kids were attached at the hip last year. I know his family. Yes they are different than we are, but they are super nice! I'm not here to push friendships on my kids. I do however want them to learn to not be judging. How Mica described his friend is a lot like we see him. Mica's always been our more needy child.

I told Travis to play Michael Jackson's song Man in the Mirror for Mica to listen to. Lucky for us they have a version online that has the words.

Then Travis decided to play Eric Clapton's song Before You Accuse Me.

I never thought about the fact that both songs done by completely different artists have such similar meanings.

The important thing was that Mica understood our point. A lot can be explained through music! Find a song that ties into a lesson that can be learned.

I explained to Mica that I would never choose to hang out with anyone at work outside of work, in fact at times they push my buttons. I vent to outside people, and don't really stoop to whatever it is that they did or said to bother me. More than anything I try to find comedy in things like the stacks of folders. I'm most certainly not perfect, and we shouldn't expect that others are. We never know what kind of day the person is having that is rubbing us the wrong way.

Did you ever think to turn on a song to teach someone a lessen in life?

What artist do you like to listen to more Michael Jackson, or Eric Clapton?  They are so different. It's kind of like comparing apples to oranges. I think I'd have to go with Michael Jackson overall. Yes he died a creepy death, and was most certainly problematic towards the end of his life, BUT he made some great music in his time. Eric Clapton is one of those artists to me that can only be listened to when I'm in a mellow mood. He is a great storyteller, and can stand alone with his guitar to play some wonderful songs. Michael had ground breaking dance moves, and was always testing the waters to try out something new.

Random Tid Bits

1. We have 2 old TVs. You know ones with antennas, and they look like a box. We'll watch movies and shows on them until they die. Travis and I are not ones that have to have the next best thing. I know the picture would be way more amazing if it was on a flat screen. I have to be honest...I don't care. 


2. When I went through conformation when I was younger my mom asked me what I wanted? I said, "A rosary!" She said, "But we're not Catholic!" I was raised to be Lutheran. There isn't that much of a difference between Catholics and Lutherans I was told. My cousin's are Catholic. I can tell you their communion is different. Lutherans go up and have a shot glass of wine, and a wafer. The Catholic church I went to had everyone drinking out of the same glass. Catholics had communion much earlier in age than Lutherans. Catholics kneel at times; Lutherans never kneel. Catholics pray to Mary more, Lutherans pray to God and Jesus only. Catholics confess their sins to a Priest, Lutherans confess their sins in prayer. Catholics have Nuns; Lutherans do not. The biggest difference in my mind was the rosary. I wanted one! I was envious of the rosary. I said to my mom, "I know Lutherans don't have the rosary, but they are so artistically interesting!" I never got a rosary. :(
   
   

   

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3. Travis played Macho Man on New Years Eve. Mica loves the song! Isaak and I are sick of hearing him sing it. Every time one of us is online he wants to watch the video. He's so silly!
   
   
   
   
   
4. Our boys are all about fighting this break. Not real fighting, but Lightsaber fighting, wrestling, K-Nex K-Force gun battles in the hallway, boxing, and so on. It's their way of playing. They do all of it with grins on their faces, and laughter coming out of their mouths. I have to admit it's funny watching them. When I'm in the kitchen, and I hear it I want to yell out, "STOP IT NOW!" No one has gotten hurt yet!
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Isaak found a book of good behavior coupons in his dresser that I won many moons ago from this blog. The boys have been all about them this week. Each morning for 3 days Isaak's said, "Don't forget about the coupons Mom." On Monday they had to help Grandma clean out her fridge to earn Kindle time. :)

Mica Has New Swag

One of the things that Mica got for Christmas is a PUMA shirt. Isaak got something similar. 
 
I have to admit, when my mom showed me the shirts she got the boys I was thinking, They certainly look like my sister Terra's choice. No offense, but we have different tastes in clothing. Sports, brands splashed on shirts is not my thing at all.

I thought about it, and figured that the boys may have different tastes than I do. 

Sure enough they loved the shirts! 

Much of the time I pull the kid's shirts out of their closet, throw them their clothes and say, "Get dressed please." Since we've been on break, Mica's been trying to wear his PUMA shirt very often.

He said, "I'm so happy I got this shirt! I now how swag in my wardrobe." When I think of swag, I think of classy. Like a swag walk would be graceful. Men's clothing: Swag would be suspenders, and a fedora.

I've also heard of swag being cool merchandise. In the blogging world swag would be things you get to review, or extra crap stuff you get at conferences. His shirt must be cool merchandise.

Swagging it Up!

I Met an Old Lady

A little old lady stopped me in Natural Grocers to tell me that she just LOVES Isaak's name. I said, "Thank you!"

She then asked me my other child's name? I told her it was Mica.

She wanted to know their middle names as well, so I told her those as well.

She said, "Oh I just love biblical names! My grand kids have Biblical names. One of my kids goes on mission trips."

I didn't have the heart to tell her that Mica was named after a mineral. Yep Travis likes rocks, arrowheads, and stuff like that.

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Mica flecks are also used in paint to make it shimmery. We both like to paint, so all the more fitting. 

M|I|C|A is also an art college: Maryland Institute College of Art. I never did understand why Institute and Collage were in the same name, but I like that it's an art college.

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It's also a fancy ski resort in Canada. I learned this when I was up 1/2 the night with Mica when he was a baby. I fell asleep on the couch, and woke up to a program about Mica Heliskiing. You can only get there with a jet. I've never been skiing. With my weak ankles I'd probably fall on my face! It looks neat, and fun though! Certainly interesting to watch the show.

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The biggest reason we didn't spell Mica as Micah is because we had a friend in college that's name is Micah. He was nice, but certainly not ambitious. He was into drugs, and was a pretty dirty guy. We didn't want college friends thinking that we named our son after him.

I got the spelling for Isaak's name off of the singer Chris Isaak.

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If you don't know, Chris Isaak sings the sexy song Wicked Game, and Baby Did A Bad, Bad Thing. I'm not a huge fan on him per say. I like his songs, but I've never seen him in concert, and only know 2 of his songs. I just liked the way his last name was spelled.

I also like Isaak spelled like Izac. Called Zac for short. We already had a Mica Zachary, so that was out. We thought about Jaxon for Isaak's first name, but Mica and Jaxon sounded like Michael Jackson. Isaak it was. We call him Zeek, Zeeky, Zeeker, and I's. 

People might think of this for our children's names: 

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I never thought about Mike and Ike until after we had Mica and Isaak. We don't call them Mike or Ike.

With the older lady in Natural Grocers I just nodded, smiled, chatted briefly with her some more, and went on my way. I never told her that the boy's names are not Biblical in our minds. She seemed so pleased that they had Biblical names. Why ruin the moment for her?

When you think about it a lot of boys names are biblical: Sam, Paul, James, John, Jacob, Caleb, Charles, William, and so on. It's only recently that other names were used: Carter, Graham, Jace, Hunter, Mason, and so on.
 
We've gotten stopped at times about our boy's names being Biblical. I wonder if more common place boy's names that are in the Bible get connected in a religious context? There isn't anything wrong with that. I'm just curious.

WW: Cuddle Time {Linky}

My boys like to cuddle, but only with me. They have pretty different personalities.

Mica's independent for the most part, likes to read, needs his quiet time, enjoys movies, learns about actors, and builds with Legos.

Isaak wishes he could stay little the rest of his life, he enjoys being around other people, his feelings get hurt easily, he's into crafts, sort of likes Legos, he likes numbers, and is always making things.

One day Travis and I were trying to figure out retirement plans. We left the 2 in the living room to watch a flick.

I came out, and here's what they looked like:

Usually when Isaak sees me he flinches, and messes up the photo. Not this time.

I heard a few coworkers say that only their girls like to cuddle. Boys on the other hand can't sit still enough to cuddle. This is not true with my two!

 

Sneaky

There's someone that works at my work that is a clean, organized freak. We're talking - if a desk is out of line she has a student worker line them up. I could tell the student worker thought her demands in lining up desks was ridiculous based on his facial expression. I'm really good at reading people.

Last week I got a call from Mrs. Clean Freak: Alissa can you come into the 1st year classroom for a minute? 

I was thinking: Is this really necessary? Seriously I had many more things I could be doing than telling her why the desks weren't lined up just so.

I went into the classroom and Mrs. Clean Freak said: Alissa you teach in here more than other teachers do. Can you tell me why so and so moved their desk?

I was thinking: Because he wanted to. He's an American and an adult. Last I checked he's free to do what he wants.

I said: He's color blind. He really couldn't work productively in my Color and Design Theory class without help. He also was by a few girls. The guy likes to hang out with other guys. The color blind thing was a much better reason to move.

Mrs. Clean Freak said: Do you know why the students moved that table back there? Pointing to a table.

I said: Nope! If it bothers you move it back, otherwise just leave it.

Mrs. Clean Freak paused as if she didn't know how to handle this one, and said to the student worker: Move that table back, and align the desks. All while the student worker stood there looking completing baffled.

I left the room.

Later I get another call from Mrs. Clean Freak: Alissa can you come into the 3rd year classroom?

I was thinking: OMG really?!?!

I said: Ok.

Mrs. Clean Freak said: Those are your folders. We don't like them there. Meaning she doesn't like them there. Can you move them?

I grabbed the folders that I use for that class only to take them back to my office. Each folder belongs to a different student. I put their work in the folders. When I knew she was gone I went right back into that classroom to hide them in a different spot. I felt like a kid that was told to clean their room, but shoved everything under their bed. Seriously though...it's a classroom. If I need things in there, they are going to stay in there. I only have so much room in my office.

Here's where the folders were:

Totally out of sight from tours!

Here's where I hid them:

You don't see them. Do you? Mrs. Clean Freak apparently hasn't seen them either. At least she hasn't said so. They are by the printers that no one uses. We have 2 more printers in a different spot that everyone uses. How about we remove the unused printers, and keep the folders that are used?!

Why is it that something as little as this - can get on my nerves more than some thing big? I just think some people need to choose their battles more. This isn't a battle I would have chose to fight. The students folders stay!

What are Some New Year’s Resolutions You’ve Had in the Past?

This is a question from the blog A Life Examined.

So...What are Some New Year’s Resolutions You’ve Had in the Past?

I found this question to be hard. I make goals, but not really New Year's Resolutions.

Last year I decided that when I am checking out at a store, if a person comes up behind me, and only has say 5 items - I'm going to let them go in front of me. People love it when I do that. Why? Because I generally have a lot in my cart. The only time I don't do this is when I'm shopping on my lunch break because I'm in a hurry to get back to work.

I made it a goal to slow down, leave myself more time with driving. That sort of worked. It seems that no matter how early I wake up Isaak and Travis still run slow. Mica and I are more morning people. Mica gets up, dressed, makes coffee... Isaak gets dressed slow, and they both eat breakfast slow. I'm the type that eats a bite, and will get up to do my makeup between bites if I need to. It's frustrating that they are so slow. I want to be that drill sergeant that says, "Ok 5 push-ups and a bite to eat!" Ha! Isaak picks the worst times to go to the bathroom to! I'll be ready to go, and Isaak has to go number 2. It makes me want to scream.

I sort of wanted to call cashiers by their name when I'm checking out. I have to be honest, it feels a little creepy. They look at me funny when I say their name. Maybe I'll take that back up, maybe I won't.

My goal for 2016 is to clean up often and paint more. A girl came to our house for New Years Eve. She wants me to paint 30 pieces for a spot that she curates. Travis laughed. He doesn't think it's possible. I'm going to try. So far I've painted 1/2 a piece. I have an underpainting done. No details. It's a teepee with a cityscape at the bottom. It's about white man taking over Native Americans. I work with mixed media. This start of a painting is acrylic, fabric, pencil shavings, and will have vinyl triangles, thread, and toothpicks. More of the painting is already done, since I took pictures. 

Happy New Year!

I've been kind of slow with blogging lately. I took off time last week, so the boys could get some time at home to play with their new toys, and have lazy days. On those days I don't think we got dressed until noon. We ran around in our pjs pants and t-shirts. It was wonderful. I cleaned and cleaned to. Areas that typically don't get dusted a lot are now dusted.

We had a dance party on New Years Eve. The whole idea was to have kids come over, and parents could go out if they'd like. We had 2 disco light balls running, loud music, things cleared out in the living rooms so the kids could have room to dance, snack type foods, desserts, and sparkling juice. 

In total we had 5 adults, and 11 kids. I know we all ate way too much, but had a blast. I loved how my nephew Edison danced the whole time. Watching 1 year olds dance is so cute!

One of Isaak's friends (I have gotten permission to post his picture online. His mom posts pictures of Isaak at times to.)

I'm not one for making lots of New Years Resolutions, but I do like to set goals that I started before the New Year happened. Last year I made the goal to give myself more time to get places. This year I want to save more money for retirement, clean the house more, paint more, and have some blog updates that I have been working on.  

Questions For You: 

1. If you have a blog, who do you get your hosting from? I'll just say it, I'm a dumb ass person when it comes to that. I really don't know what I'm doing. It scares me to set up hosting. I started this blog as a modern day baby book back in the day. I never knew it would lead to friends, reviews, and an outlet to express myself. I have a new "look" started, and as much as I've gotten comments on the name of this blog, I have to change it. I have a new name to! 


2. Do you set New Years Resolutions? 

 Happy New Year! I hope 2016 is better than 2015 for everyone!