Snow Day #3… Will my children ever return to school?

My children are LOVING the fact that they are missing school tomorrow for the third day in a row this week due to snow. They have enjoyed being home, eating everything in sight, taking turns playing outside, watching Netflix, cleaning their room, completing their chores and being lazy in between!

The snow here is still pretty high and the temps are still pretty low. The reason for the children not going to school today (Tuesday) is because of the temperatures not rising above freezing until late. This causes the buses to stall while trying to crank and puts the driver and the passengers in danger because of the ice on the roads.

School tomorrow (Wednesday) was canceled because of the same issues but more dangerous ice because there was some melting happening but the temperatures for tomorrow will be the same as before.

Wednesday is usually my day off in the week and I typically spend it by completing homework, working from home and cleaning my house. I try to tackle all of this while my children are at school so that I can breeze through my work without distractions. Tomorrow will be a different story. I am not sure how I will be able to get all of that done with my children being here expecting me to cook their every meal. (Note to self, start teaching the children how to fix small things. This will be beneficial to you later!)

For the past 3 weeks I have been trying to have a conference with my middle child’s teacher. The first and second week she canceled due to health reasons. Tomorrow we will not be able to meet either since school has been canceled.

I hope that tomorrow we get a phone call and the children will be able to attend school on Thursday! My children will be sad and it will be bittersweet for me.

Snow Days

Ever been snowed in with your children? Ever been asked a MILLION times if they can go outside? Ever felt like THROWING them out in the snow and letting them stay until they couldn’t take it anymore?

That is exactly how I felt these last few days with my children being cooped up in the house. They want to go outside but don’t want to stay longer than 3 minutes when they get out there.

What happened to children over the years? I remember when I was a child, I would beg to go outside in the snow and would stay so long my parents would tell us it was time to come back inside. My brother and I would always make snow angels, build snowmen, have snowball fights, build forts to hide behind and ALWAYS asked for snow cream when it snowed. Children nowadays, do not explore the world like we did. I guess we have technology to thank for that.

While being stuck at home with my children, I told them to get dressed and I was going outside with them. We get outside and they are running from me because they KNEW I was going to chase them with a handful of snow. My son, was lying on the ground attempting to make a snow angel when I walked close to him with a big snowball in my hands asking him if he wanted me to drop it on him. Before he could answer, it had already hit his body and he had no time to react before more snowballs were hitting him. My girls had it easy. I did not have to do much to them. Their legs are so short that the snow prevented them from running. The faster they ran, the more they tripped losing balance and falling face first in the snow.

Mother nature was my side with this one.

I won the snow fight that we had, even though they worked together to knock me over in the snow and got snow all in my boots, my hair and my mouth!

BBG.. Beauty, Brains and Glasses

Years ago when I was in middle school, I noticed that my vision wasn’t where I thought it should be. I was having a hard time seeing the board in math class. I couldn’t wait to tell my Mom when I got home so she could try to fix it like she did everything else.  I rush off of the bus, running to the house to open the door just to scream to her that I can’t see the board while in math class. My mom told me that I should ask the teacher if I can be moved closer to the board so that I am able to see. The next day, I get to Math class and I have a small talk with my teacher. I tell her that I am having a hard time seeing and that when she writes in red marker, it makes it even harder for me to see. Mrs. Hess responds saying that she will take what I said into consideration and will move me closer to the front of the class. Mrs. Hess did as she promised and moved me up 2 rows in the class. A week goes by and it really did not help me at all. I go back home to tell my mom that I have been moved closer to the board and I STILL can not see.

I get to school the very next day and I tell the teacher that I can not see from where she placed me this time. She mentions to me that she will have to call my mother to see if she can just set an appointment up so that I can get my eyes checked. From where I was sitting, I should have been able to see the board but I couldn’t. Mrs. Hess pulled me to the side and then had me to call my mother. I heard her say,

“Mrs. Watson, this is Mrs. Hess from Knox Middle. I am calling you to inform you that I have moved Aleshya twice in my classroom so that she is able to see the board but she is still having a hard time. Is there any way that you can make arrangements to see if she is really having a hard time?”

My mom: “Oh my! She has been coming home to tell me that she could not see and that you have moved her from the back of the class to the middle because of it. I really did not take her seriously since she has ALWAYS been a fan of wearing glasses. I will call to set up an appointment for her and will get back with you. Thank you so much for calling me!”

My teacher hangs up the phone and gives me a hug saying that my Mom was making an appointment for me and for me to just be patient.

I get home and my mom is waiting on me. She is giving me the mother look. The look of seriousness.

“Aleshya, why didn’t you tell me that you really could not see? I thought you were playing. Your appointment is coming up so be ready. Make sure that you tell them what you really can and can not see. Do not fake it because you will have to keep those glasses.”

Me: “Ok Mommy. I will be honest!”

We head to the appointment and the doctor was very nice. He begins to help me with the letters on the wall. I really could not see them. I begin to tell him which side was better.. option one or two. We finish the exam and the doctor looks at my mom saying “Aleshya will need glasses. Her vision is very poor. She will need to wear them around the clock  because she is having a hard time reading letters that are too far away.”

My mom immediately begins to feel bad. She says that if she would have understood what I was trying to tell her in the beginning, I would have already had my glasses.

Years pass and I ditch glasses for contacts. I fall in love with contacts and feel like I am able to look my natural way without glasses and no one will ever know that my vision is really poor.

More years pass and I now have children. My two girls get their yearly physical done and the doctor insists that I get their eyes checked. Not once did I question them. I knew that if the doctor is saying that my children need glasses, I was going to go the extra mile to give them what they need.

I make the appointment and they BOTH needed glasses!!! WOW! My sweet precious girls have their mothers beauty, brains and need for glasses! The only difference between my girls and I is that I have to wear corrective lenses 24/7 and my girls only need to wear their glasses when they are in school or when they are doing work.

Now that my girls have glasses, they don’t want them. They weren’t a fan of them before getting them either.

Too Good to Be True

For the past 2 days, there has been major snow fall in our area. In North Carolina, the smallest snow will shut the state down. Well this weekend, we received up to 15 inches in the piedmont region. Sounds great, right? Well…

With that much snow here in the North Carolina, we tend to get crazy. We rush out to the stores to get bread, milk and the necessities. I bet you are wondering why we rush to get milk.. If the power goes out, we can stick our milk out in the snow and life can continue on. The children can still have their cereal in the morning and they will be happy!

The schools called canceling class for the children on Sunday night. My children were happy to say the least. On Monday night, the called canceling class for Tuesday. Again, my children were excited.  I, however, had the privilege of having Monday off as well to be with my children at home, throwing them in the snow and just enjoying the time spent with them, When I got the call stating that school was cancelled for my children, I began to get my hopes up because I was thinking that I would have yet ANOTHER day at home with them. Boy was I WRONG!

My job calls saying that we will operate on a two hour delay, which means we will open at 8:30am but staff needs to report at 8:00. My hours for work is usually 8:00 anyway.  I still have to wake up regular time in order to report to work. I won’t even get to experience the two hour delay. Ugh!

I knew this would be too good to be true. Adulting is hard! I just wanna be lazy and sleep.

 

College, Work, Social and Love Life

I am a person that wants to have it all. I want to go to school, work, have a social life and be in love at the same time. I want to be successful at doing them all as well. I want my work life to be productive where I can bring less work home, I want to enjoy my home life without distractions from school or work. I want to be in love where I can be me and feel loved and appreciated because of it. I want a social life where I can go out with my friends that I talk to on a daily basis but don’t ever see.

When you want great things in life, you sometimes have to put a lot of desires on hold. I am learning that I have to focus on one thing at a time in order for me to be completely happy. I can not focus on everything at once. That is where I disappoint myself. I want happiness from everything instead of seeing it in one thing and celebrating that.

With that being said, I am focusing on finishing school and making sure that I am doing my best at that. When I have completed my degree, I can focus on the next part of happiness that I am wiling to achieve.

I just want overall happiness in self and all the above areas. That is my ultimate goal!

A price to pay

For as long as I can remember, I have gotten my hair braided and let it stay for a while. I usually let my own hair breathe and wait to get my hair braided in the summer time. This gave me 10 weeks to not do my hair and to let it grow. I recently got my hair braided  around Halloween and I loved it. It was tight but it looked good on me. The second night of having it, I could not sleep. I tossed and turned because the extra hair made my head itch so bad. I contemplating taking it out because the sensation was becoming unbearable. I get pass the itch and the night and I fall in love with the braids all over again.

Weeks pass and I am able to do more with the braids. I can now put half up, wear them in a bun and even wear my hair all the way down. The braids start to become a part of me and I start to get a lot of compliments from them.

Well, here is where the story takes a turn…

On Friday night, (December 7th, 2018) I decided to have my girls help me take my braids out. I began to cut them to reduce the time of unraveling them. Once they were cut, I taught my girls how to take them out. They enjoyed “playing”  in my hair while I used their little hands to help me with the dreadful process.  It took us less than an hour to take all of the braids out and I was shocked at how quick it went.

That night, I decided to again let my hair breathe before washing it. BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER!!  I should have combed my hair out, washed it and the waited to rewash it on Saturday. Due to me waiting and sleeping in the hair that I thought was “cute” I delayed the process of treating my hair. I regret that decision 100%.

I begin to wash my hair last night around 9:30 while I was in the shower. I thought it would be a breeze and I can just wash, condition it and let it go. Oh how I was wrong. I lather up shampoo in my hair and begin to  massage it through. I immediately feel tangles in my hair. I told myself that it would just wash out when I wash the shampoo out. I was my hair with shampoo 3 times and the tangles do not release but become tighter with each wash. I rinse the shampoo out and then add a TON of conditioner. I add so much conditioner that my hair went from black and brown ombre to all yellow! I begin to comb my hair with a wide tooth comb while in the shower to see if that would release the tangles….. It did not. I start panicking now. I get out the shower to start combing out my hair. I notice that I have this huge ass knot in my hair that I am seriously thinking about cutting out. I work on getting the knot out and I was finally successful around 12;10am!

I was devastated with the results. It felt as if I had combed all of my hair out. My scalp was sore, my hair was rough, my ends were horrible and I was not pleased with my hair after taking the braids out and combing it out.

The price I paid to get my hair braided and losing tons of hair from it were not the same. I will seriously think long and hard before I get braids again.

Thanksgiving

This year, I was privileged to host our family dinner at my house. That means I was responsible for all of the cooking and ensuring that everyones needs were met. Prior to hosting our dinner, one of my daughters got sick. This made me nervous because I was having family over for Thanksgiving and I was wondering if all of her “germs” would be gone by then.  Thankfully, they were and she just have fever that lasted a day and a half.

Wednesday comes and I am trying to prepare the desserts for Thanksgiving. I have my girls to help with the cakes and the pies and ask that they help me with the small things. They agree and were such a great help.

I can remember my childhood being the same way. I was always in the kitchen with my mother or my grandmother when they were cooking. That is how I learned how to cook. I always wanted to know how to make certain foods and what all it took to actually cook. I also remember being in the kitchen while the food was coming out of the oven and being able to be the taste tester. This was a very important job as a child!

Thanksgiving comes and I wake up to finish preparing our dinner. The house is clean and everyone is feeling good. The children are playing and everyone is smiling, having a great time. This made me happy because all of my family was at my house and it made Thanksgiving amazing!

We fix our plates and sit down at the table. We say grace and begin to eat. Everyone eats until they can’t eat anymore. As a family, we normally play games after dinner and then we put the Christmas Tree up before everyone leaves the house. This is another tradition that we have.

Before we can get the Christmas tree up, a child of mine runs a fever. I felt like I was done with having sick children over the holidays. I just couldn’t win. I nurse her back to somewhat health and send her to bed. She didn’t make it long before we ended up at the ER to make sure she was okay.

This years Thanksgiving will definitely be one to remember. Earlier in the year, my girls were sick at the same time with Flu like symptoms. This reminded me of that time and how worried I was because of their temps. I just hope and pray that when Christmas comes around, they are in better health and can fully enjoy their holiday.

 

Texting

Are you a texter or a talker?

I had this conversation earlier in the week with a friend and we determined that our friendship needs to communicated via talking. We have a hard time understanding how each others text messages are intended which can cause confusion when we see each other in person. We are also newly friends so the connection and bond that friends normally have, hasn’t grown yet. With time, I am sure that we will be able to text and get away from talking directly on the phone. We just have to understand each other on a different level before we are able to text every thing.

I am a HUGE texter. I prefer to text than to talk. I have a very busy life and texting helps me still be involved with my friends and not have to talk to them on the phone. Plus, texting can but does not have to be immediate feedback. Texting allows you to respond when the time is right for you. You can ask simple questions that does not need a full conversation around it. If I am confused about what the person is trying to tell me via text THEN I will call to get clarity on it.

Talking on the phone, even with the new technology advances, is inconvenient to me. It is not private and sometimes can come off rude depending on where you are. Lets say you’re in the doctors office. You get a phone call from your best friend with a personal issue. You KNOW you have to take this call so you answer anyway. There is a sign posted stating no cell phone conversations in lobby. You begin your conversation with your friend and it gets heated! You begin to laugh hysterically. You think that you are alone in this conversation but everyone in the doctors office hears what you are saying. To me that is not the time or place to answer the phone. I have been in a office where this happened. I wanted to tell the lady so bad to hang up and text her friend. This was her way of communicating to her friend in their own way.

If this situation was handled via text, no one would have heard the conversation and the patients in the office would not have been disturbed.

When you are out in public, do you text or do you talk? Something to think about even though I already text, it made me understand and validate my reasoning because of it.

Being Free… Self Care

Have you ever had the house to yourself and you found yourself wondering how weird it is to have a nice and quiet house? I live a very busy life and I hardly ever have the house alone. When I do have the opportunity to be alone, I usually spend it sleeping, completing chores or doing homework. This morning after my morning nap, yes I still naps, I decided to allow Pandora or Apple Music take my worries away. I connected my bluetooth speaker and the first app I came to was Apple Music. I scroll through my songs and I create a new playlist. I turn the volume up on my speaker and I let the loud music work on me. While I was dancing, singing and attempting my millionth private concert, I begin to feel the worries of the world become less stressful. I walk to the kitchen to fix me the biggest bowl of cereal I  could find. I eat my cereal back in the bed, with my music   loud as in I’m having a house party.

I get myself worked up to shower and head out to make the decisions of the day… To be the responsible adult and pay bills. Because of the music catering to my soul, I was able to venture out in the world with a smile!

Nothing compares to taking care of you. Self care is important. I was able to do just that today by only playing my music extremely loud and focusing on myself for just a little bit.

I felt free, refreshed, energized and happy!

When was the last time you felt this way?

Annual Christmas Parade

 

Listen to “Home 2.m4a” from Lemons or lemonade on Anchor: https://anchor.fm/aleshya/episodes/Annual-Christmas-Parade-e2ifk1/Home-2-m4a-a6cqip

Please take the time to listen to my very first podcast! Excuse my hoarse voice.

Hope you enjoy!