Color Blind

So tomorrow I am chaperoning Anaya's class to the International Civil Rights Museum and I can tell you that I definitely dreading the conversation I know will result. Up until this point my child has been color blind, all people while they may appear different all were equal in her eyes. And I actually appreciated and even envied the innocence that she viewed the world with.

However, tomorrow I will have to explain to my black child why people who look just like her white teacher  and white classmates did not treat people who looked like her with the same level of dignity that they treated each other with. How do you explain to a 7 year old "White people used to hate black people, and we built a whole museum because of it.... oh but they don't hate you now so don't change your opinion of your white teacher or your white classmates".

Needless to say I definitely don't think this is an age appropriate field trip because I now have to walk the fine line on educating her about the struggles of our ancestors, without badly tarnishing the innocence she views people with. If I am too passive then she will miss the lesson and our ancestors will have struggled in vain because our next generation will have missed the point of why they struggled and what they stood for. Too aggressive and I turn her into what our ancestors fought so hard to abolish, which is hatred based on skin color. I have to trust my 7 year old to not only learn but fully comprehend a very grown up lesson that I honestly don't know that she is ready to learn.

I am sure many of us remember watching Roots or Rosewood in school and afterwards I distinctly remember a deep sense of hatred for any and all white people, simply because I was given a lesson that my childhood mind wasn't ready to learn. I pray she handles it better than I did.

In case your wondering here is the link for the museum:
http://www.sitinmovement.org/

Feeling Crabby

So I haven't had a second to post anything, between running around with the girls and homework (normal stuff). However, the past few days have been dominated with hermit crab drama. As you know my youngest took right to a hermit crab named "Pinky" given by a friend of mine, whose name I wont say but I assure you I am thinking mean things about...LOL.

As I mentioned previously Pinky couldn't live alone so we bought a second hermit crab and named him "Brain". Brain was purchased on 8/31/12, he was significantly smaller than Pinky but the two seemed to get along just fine. So I was a little concerned to find that Pinky had completely buried him in sand on Tuesday, no big deal I thought, they dig in nature so he should be able to get himself out, but just to be on the safe side I unburied him. I thought that was the end of it.... boy was I wrong. I check on the pair last night and found Pinky to be in good spirits, Brain however was limp and rather lifeless... just as I was ready to call time of death however he twitched.

I turned to my old reliable friend Google and came to the conclusion he must be molting and that's why he appeared limp.... wrong. My husband came home a short while later and checked on the pair... and when he picked up Brain's shell a lifeless body came falling out of it. Luckily for us all of my children were sleep. Neither my husband or myself is good with handling dead things... so the very first task was the arguing of who was going to remove the dead thing from the tank so Pinky being the scavenger he is wouldn't eat it. I lost that argument and ended up scooping it out with a plastic spoon (plastic so it could immediately be thrown away LOL).

So today I informed my youngest who stays home with me that I had taken Pinky to the petstore for a new shell and we would be picking him up today. She was naturally excited about a trip to the petstore and didnt give my lie a second thought. I take her to Petsmart and we pick up Brain 2.0, I ask her if she like Brains new shell she tells me she loves it Yay Mommy right? Wrong... I noticed that when Brain 2.0 was put in the little cup to go home they didnt put anything in with it, this struck me as odd because the original Brain had been sent home in a wet paper towel, but the guy assured me that the paper towel really wasn't necessary. I picked up Brain 2.0 at 1:30 then immediately went to go get the other girls from school.

I typically arrive at the girls school roughly 30 minutes before they are dismissed so I can take my youngest to the playground. Now ideally I would have had time to drop Brain 2.0 off at home, but because this mornings doctors appointment ran long I was pressed for time. So I decided to switch Brain 2.0 to a shoe box that happened to be in my car (don't ask me why there was an empty shoe box in my car because I really don't know) and take him to the playground with us. Now hermit crabs need to have constant humidity between 70% and 80%, well it happened to be preparing to thunderstorm so the conditions were certainly ideal. I picked up the girls as usual and headed to drop something off at my mothers which was on my way home, within blocks of my house I hear a clicking noise and automatically assume there is something wrong with my car. So I reach to turn the radio off and I happen to notice that something is in the container with Brain 2.0. That something turned out to be 3 of his 6 legs... smh his official time of death 3:13pm... not even two whole hours.

So now I am in the car with all of my children, my youngest has already told them a riveting story of how Mommy took Brain to the petstore and got him a new shell so they are all expecting this big reveal and I am literally less than 5 minutes from my house. So I did the only thing I knew to do, turned towards the petstore and announced "Oh no, Brain broke his shell again!". Thinking to myself this hermit crab is worth roughly $5, a gallon of gas is almost $4 and I know I have used more than a gallon of gas, my gas is more valuable than this hermit crab. However as my mother put it, some things are priceless... and my children's happiness is definitely one of them.

I arrive back to the petstore, and of course all the same people are on duty and remember me and now I have to start the task of having a conversation about replacing my dead hermit crab in front of my nosy children who are quite smart. Luckily the lady at Petsmart was an excellent actress and caught on quickly.

I am finally back home with Brain 3.0 and you would think that was the end of my day, because Lord knows that was more than enough excitement.... that would be too like right I suppose. So I placing Brain 3.0 in the tank with Pinky, they are much closer in size and since I have the tank open I start tiding it up a bit while waiting to see if the two will fight or anything else random they may do. With me standing just steps away Tiana my 5 year old takes the glass lid for the tank, and decides to stand on it. Smh, it shattered naturally. So now I need yet another trip to the petstore because I cant regulate the humidity in the tank without a lid... but this time I said "That's it and that's all... twice in one day is my limit". I am hoping I can regulate their humidity without it until I get a moment to go back, otherwise I can legitimately walk away saying I tried.

Back to School Week

Talk about a hectic week, not only was this week the older three girls first week at a brand new school we also celebrated my little sisters 17th birthday. My oldest started 2nd grade, I also have a 1st grader and a Kindergartner who are all settling in nicely in their new school. They, like mommy are still trying to adjust to getting up at six am again. (Not my favorite part of the day) While everything on the academic side seems to be going well they have started early this year on making me dread school.

On Thursday Kymora my 1st grader came home and proudly proclaimed to her father "Look Daddy I have Boobs!" while grabbing the flat area her boobs will one day inhabit.... I dont think the word mortified properly sums it up. Her daddy was equally shocked and promptly told her to hush, only for her to announce "No really look" and it was as if she had been watching a girls gone wild marathon, in one swift motion she lifts her shirt and flashes her father like she wanted him to throw Mardi Gras beads. Definitely not one of my finest motherhood moments.... all I knew to do was put her shirt back down and ask her who had taught her that? She of course had no answer but I am pretty sure this is the doing of one of her new "friends" who is a little too grown. I would really not like to re-visit the "boob" topic for the next few years.... please and thank you.... and im sure my husband agrees with me.

On Friday we went to the Pet store to get supplies for our newest animal acquisition... a hermit crab named Pinky that was given to my youngest child by a friend of mine. Now when you see hermit crabs in the pet store you dont typically give them much thought, or at least I never had because they seem like such a ridiculously easy animal to care for... No walking or training required, just drop in some food and water from time to time and go on about your day. This I discovered after actually getting one is the furthest thing from the truth, in fact they are probably the most difficult of all of my animals to care for... and I currently own 2 Siberian Huskies, 1 cockatiel, 1 parakeet and a cat. For something so small it really does need a lot of stuff... It has to have 2 water bowls, one for salt water and the other for fresh water, somewhere to climb, somewhere to dig, somewhere to hide, an extra shell choice and a companion because apparently they get lonely. So to add to Pinky we bought a smaller hermit crab and named him Brain.

We later went to dinner to celebrate my little sisters 17th birthday, we went to a Japanese Steakhouse by the name of Arigatos, by far one of my favorite restaurants. We start the meal off with a salad covered in lots of ranch dressing... and of course my children just had to eat it with their training chop sticks. While most of the food made it to their mouths, the same cant be said for the ranch dressing, it ended up on their clothing... as well as my mothers clothing. My always dramatic Tiana initially pretended to be afraid of the fire which flares up during the preparation of the food, but she ended up enjoying the night more than any of the others. And while my husband and I had an excellent meal, with the bill for us being triple digits I definitely plan to leave them home for our next trip there because I am sure they would have been equally excited about McDonalds, and I would have saved $60. All and all it was a great day though.

Quiet Time

So I finally have a second to sit down, I am going to try to keep this blog up to date with my day to day life, coupled with some product review, tips I find that make my day go smoother, fun field trips, hair styles and whatever interesting or funny thing my children have done recently.

I finally finished homework time after spending several minutes trying to convince Kymora that she didn't need to draw lines on line paper. I am pretty sure this is one of those "any excuse to use my ruler moments". I managed to catch Anaya up on a weeks worth of math homework, since somehow her math hasn't actually made it home since Monday.

I however have managed to do absolutely none of my own homework. I spent my homework time spending quality time with my husband who is home from work sick today. I love that after all this time we still enjoy just being in each others company. You know you have found your lover (not just someone you love because in my opinion love is about finding the person God sent to love your soul) when you can sit in a room and quietly watch tv and say nothing and still walk away like you had the deepest conversation. Oh well, that just means I will have to put in a little extra homework effort tomorrow.

I am off to read a bed time story... here is tonights book


Or if you dont have the time to read to your kids they even have this one on video on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cOT4T2jDho

Tiana's Birthday

My 3rd oldest daughter Tiana turned 5 last weekend and she is by far my most difficult child to plan a party for. She really isn't into toys or theme parks, the only thing she is truly into is cats.... specifically tigers. So this past weekend I took her to the T.I.G.E.R. exhibit in Myrtle Beach.

(http://www.myrtlebeachsafari.com/lowbandwidth/main.html)

Where for $79 you can have your picture taken with a tiger cub, which was my 5 year old's dream come true. (Short of actually having her own tiger that is)

 However since she couldn't take one home we made sure she had one she could snuggle up with at home. Thanks Melissa & Doug (http://www.melissaanddoug.com/)

A little about me

So I have been told on numerous occasions "I don't know how you do it", or "You need a camera crew to follow you just being you", but recently I was told I should start a blog so here I am... blogging. My name is Porsche and I am a 27 year old married mother of 4 girls.

Anaya who is 7

Kymora who is 6 

 Tiana just turned 5 on the 26th

 And Taliya is the baby of the group, she is 3 and will be 4 in January.

Here they all are on the first day of school.

So I guess I can start this first post off by telling you why I am so busy (as if having 4 kids wasnt reason enough). A typical day for me goes something like this

• 6:15am Wake up and pick out the girls clothes for the day
• 6:20am Wake up girls 
• 7:00am Start my first leg of my very long commute to their school. My children attend a Magnet School in High Point NC which is roughly 25 miles away. Its a 30 minute drive for me each way which brings my total time just taking the children to and from school 2 hours and adds 100 miles to my car everyday. *smh*
• 8:20am is when I usually return home and during this time I am typically making breakfast for Taliya who stays home with me or trying to sneak a couple moments of sleep in. 
• 9:00am is in theory when my work day starts (its in theory because I have been out with pneumonia for awhile), I work from home for a cable company. However, since I have been home sick I take this time to prepare Taliya for kindergarten. Its never too early to start learning
• 1:00pm I need to be leaving out to pick up the girls from school. I arrive about an hour early to their school because its located right next to a park so this way I can take Taliya to the playground (we usually bring a bag lunch and picnic in the park) and walk a couple laps around the walking trail while waiting to pick the girls up. 
• 2:30pm is when the girls are dismissed from school
• 3:00pm is when I typically arrive back home and give the girls a snack. I try to get some of my own homework done, that doesn't always happen for a variety of reasons. I am currently a senior at North Carolina A&T majoring in Business Economics. 
• 4:00pm I start my housework for the day which typically includes at least 2 loads of laundry, washing the dishes because I am unfortunate enough to live in a house with no dishwasher, sweeping/ mopping the floors and supervising the girls cleaning their playroom and bedroom
• 5:00pm I start dinner, since I am not working (if I had been then I would have started it at 4) and when I am working this is the start of the second half of my shift. 
• 6:00pm is homework hour for the girls, since they attend a magnet school each child typically has between 30 minutes to an hour of homework each night
• 7:00p, starts bath time. Rather than bathe them individually which would take way too much water, or as a group which I used to when they were smaller bath time is divided into 2 30 minute baths where each girl takes turns choosing their bath partner
• 8:00pm starts bedtime, the girls are allowed to watch 30 minutes of TV so they can settle themselves into bed. My husband usually gets home from work around this time. 
• 8:30pm is lights out for the girls
• 9:00pm would be when I finished my workday
• 9:30-11:00 is when I try to spend quiet time with my husband... this time varies based on what homework I actually got accomplished earlier in the day though. 
• 12:00am is typically when I crawl into bed. 

That was exhausting just typing it.