Toddlers and Teenagers.

I stepped out of church this morning with my three-year-old. We were knee-deep in a power struggle and the volume had escalated enough to warrant a cool-down session in the foyer.

I sat down in a chair and calmly explained to Jack that if he could sit on my lap quietly for two minutes, we could return to the chapel to sit with our family.

He wasn’t having it. We ended up outside the building to minimize witnesses to the tantrum that was unfolding. Quickly.

On my way out, a friend remarked, “Be strong, mama. I was there once.” I laughed out loud, thinking to myself. Yeah, me too.

In fact, I’ve been there for 16 years (almost without interruption), my dear. She was trying to be supportive, and I appreciated the gesture. But I couldn’t help but find the humor in a mom who is two years younger than me reminding me to “be strong”.

You see, this toddler thing. I’ve got it down. Sure, I was inconvenienced that I was missing my 14-year-old’s talk because the 3-year-old thought it would be a good time for a meltdown.

But I was calm. Collected. Just biding my time until the kid decided being inside the chapel was better than being outside. Which he did within minutes. And I was barely ruffled.

Yep, I’ve done toddlers five times over and while I don’t claim to be an expert, I’m wise enough to not lose my head over an ordinary tantrum. There’ll be another one tomorrow, after all.

It’s the teenager thing that’s got my head spinning.

Boy, oh boy.

If you ever wanted to feel like a fish out of water, try raising a teenager. Or two or three.

Raising teenagers means that sometimes you feel like a human punching bag.

Other days you’re left scratching your head at the idiocy of these creatures who sure look like adults (and think they’re adults) but are anything but.

Some of them are master manipulators, appealing to the side of you that wants to be the nice guy by saying, “everyone else’s parents let them do this. Or that.”. It’s the oldest teenage trick in the book but it still hurts.

They keep you up late at night, then claim to be too tired to go to school the next morning. They eat you out of house and home, expect you to run them to and from multiple activities almost every day of the week.

Teenagers possess an uncanny tunnel vision that persuades them that everyone else in the world is tuned into their every failure or moment of awkwardness. While failing to consider that others feel the exact same way.

Teens bite the hand that feeds them and place a higher value on the opinions of pretty much everyone they don’t call mom or dad.

It can be brutal.

I have friends who LOVE raising teenagers. (At least that’s what they say on their social media accounts, so I suspect it’s partly for show). Or they’re just remarkably gifted in ways that it would seem I am not.

And while I adore my teenagers I can’t say I have wrapped my head around how to shape them into the amazing humans they can become. I can barely come up for air right now.

The other day Lily (one of my teenagers, who was a very “spirited” toddler and preschooler) remarked that she felt sorry for me for how difficult they (meaning she and her sisters) were as little kids. She doesn’t know how I did it.

Neither can I. But here’s the thing. Difficult children become difficult teenagers. And they’re much bigger. And less open to suggestion (and threats, for that matter).

And yet, just like the tiny babies I cradled lovingly as infants, they are full of greatness. In fact, they’re closer to it than ever before.

I sometimes feel like the little blue engine in The Little Engine that Could when she says:

“I’m not really big. I’ve never even been over the mountain. But, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.”

Actually, I’m not always convinced I can. And though I would go back to having unruly preschoolers in a heartbeat, I don’t exactly have a choice. So I guess I’ll just plow through in my inadequacy until I get over this mountain.

See you on the other side.

Top ways to save money on one income.

Sacrificing one income to stay at home with your children can be as affordable as working (and, in my opinion, much more satisfying). Those first few years before they enter school play a vital role in their development. As a parent, being at home with them, particularly in those early years can be not only emotionally-rewarding, but financially sound.

If you want to stay at home with your children and are unsure that you can make it work within a budget, this post is for you.

I’ve been at home with my kids since the day my oldest was born over 16 years ago. Our family has swelled to seven (five kids) since then and I have not earned a single dime in that time.

In our case, the phrase “a penny saved is a penny earned” plays the greatest role in making having a stay-at-home parent affordable. Besides saving thousands of dollars in child care costs, justifying a stay-at-home parent for financial reasons can be accomplished in many ways.

Here are my top tips for saving money as a stay-at-home parent.

1. Don’t pay someone else to do something you can do yourself.

I have taught nine years of preschool to my children. (Amount saved: $1000/year)

Each and every haircut my husband gets is at my hands. My kids get one professional cut per year (if they’re lucky).

Amount saved: $500/year, give or take.

I have taught approximately four years of piano to each of my kids. Had I enlisted an outside teacher, it would have cost $250/month on the low end for my four daughters and $500/month on the high end.

Amount saved: $3-6000/year.

My husband and I perform most minor fixes/maintenance on our home and landscaping.

I never knew how much home repairs/updates cost when you pay someone else to do them until we did a major remodel on our home last year. We thought maybe we’d just wrap up the final touches ourselves but after 7 months of living in chaos, we were ready to be done. So we hired out the painting. It was several thousand dollars. We could have done it for under $500 (the cost of materials).

Having done many repairs over the years, we’ve saved thousands of dollars.

Consider your skills, your time, and your budget and figure out which tasks you can perform that others might pay someone else to do. If you lack confidence, YouTube is always your friend.

2. Don’t feel like you have to fork out cash to look put-together for a bunch of littles.

The global beauty industry is worth almost $600 billion. That’s just cosmetics. To make us look prettier. Think about that for a second.

I know moms who claim that they are better moms when they put on their “face”. I think that’s fine for them but I’m just not buying it.

My kids don’t care how I look and neither should I. I figure I can learn to love myself without spending my kids’ college funds on my appearance. Harsh? Yeah maybe. I’m not opposed to makeup, just overspending on makeup.

As for clothes, since there’s no set dress code when you work from home, feel free to dress the part. A few great outfits never hurt anyone, but you can do it on the cheap. Same goes for the kids. Graciously accept hand-me-downs, shop at thrift stores, and wait to buy until end-of-season clearance rolls around to keep costs low.

3. Save on food by making most everything at home. Better yet, from scratch.

Talk to anyone who’s ever pulled themselves out of debt in a hurry. The first thing they cut: eating out. Because it’s totally unnecessary. And it costs an arm and a leg.

Cooking from scratch just makes sense for stay-at-home parents. It’s cheaper, it’s healthier, and it is delicious. We eat out pretty much only for birthdays and on vacation and I estimate it saves us $500/month for our family of seven. At least.

If you’re feeling really ambitious, baking your own bread, rolls, and making your own snacks (or refraining from buying them in the first place) will ease your grocery bill, as well.

Take, for example, this glorious garlic naan I made with my own two hands. Know how much this would cost at the grocery store? I don’t. Because I’ve never bought it. Besides, does the store-bought naan look this good?

Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Loving leftovers makes a difference too.

4. Cars are depreciating assets. Don’t waste money buying the fastest and most furious.

A car is simply a mechanism to get from point A to point B. Yes, a reliable car is a must. A fancy one is not.

My husband and I pay cash for used cars, repair them as needed, and run them into the ground. We capitalize on all those people who buy new cars that depreciate the moment they drive off the lot.

Think of it this way. If you buy a brand-new, fully-loaded Chevy Suburban, you’ll pay about $60,000, easy. We bought ours (9 years old) for about $7500 six years ago. We’ve put about $5000-7000 into it since then (new tires, mechanical fixes, oil changes, etc.). Which means we’ve spent about $2500 per year to drive it.

We’d have to drive the hypothetical brand-new Suburban at least 24 years (or more, because of inevitable maintenance and repairs) to match the under $2500/year cost. Plus, at $60,000, there’s a good chance we’d have to finance it. Add in interest, and it looks like we’ve saved ourselves a healthy chunk of cash.

On a larger scale: don’t finance anything but your house. Seriously. Paying interest is like burning money. Avoid it at all costs.

5. Travel on a budget.

My husband eats lunch occasionally with a co-worker who was a DINK (Dual Income No Kids) for at least 15 years before diving in and having kids. He and his wife were both engineers so, while not over-the-top wealthy, this gave them time to save a pretty great nest egg before throwing it all away on their children. 😉

I don’t recommend this course, for a number of reasons, but it does seem to ensure financial stability if one actually saves his/her earnings before starting a family. But that’s beside the point.

What I really want to say is, this co-worker relayed in conversation a recent vacation their family took. It cost them five figures. For their family of four. I don’t know that it was overly extravagant, but it indicates just how much travel can bust your budget without even trying.

I could write a whole post about how to save money on travel. My top three money-savers are this: Don’t fly, drive instead. Stay with family/friends or camp. Limit eating out. Like, a lot.

My kids know that lunch on road trips pretty much means mom whipping up sandwiches and passing them back from the passenger seat. They don’t even complain about the monotony anymore. It’s just what we do. And it saves us a ton of cash. PB&J for the win.

Though we’ve not yet left the continental U.S., our family has enjoyed at least one trip each year. We set a budget and we stick to it.

Our most recent trip cost us under $1500 for 10 days. The most expensive portion of the trip was the one day we spent at Universal Studios. But we could afford it because there were days where we spent next to nothing. It’s all about balance. Well, that and sharing a single butterbeer because buying one for each of us at 8 bucks a pop is a rip-off.

It’s difficult to quantify the exact amount we’ve saved over the years. But I rest assured that my efforts to save have yielded close to what I may have earned in the time I’ve stayed home to raise my kids.

Maybe. Maybe not.

Either way, staying at home with my kids was never about money. Sacrificing one income requires discipline, but is well worth it. And anyone can do it. Just remember: a penny saved is a penny earned.

Mother’s Co-op Preschool, a dying breed?

When my oldest daughter had just turned three, I invited everyone I knew who also had a three-year-old to come over for an information meeting on a mother’s co-op preschool I wanted to organize. There were at least 15 moms (and their kids) there.

I introduced the curriculum I hoped to use, discussed what it would entail, and got five of the moms on board to teach Joy School with me that year. Every year for the next eight, I managed to generate enough interest in a mother’s co-op preschool to put each of my four daughters through two years (each) of Joy School.

Something has changed between then and now. It’s not just that I have fewer friends with preschoolers. (Although that’s true).

I met with five moms a couple of weeks ago, who expressed minimal interest in pursuing Joy School with me. The top concern preventing them from throwing their hats in the ring is the amount of time required to prepare and carry out lessons.

The moms who voice these concerns also have their child enrolled in traditional preschool two days a week. Joy School would be in addition to that. So, really, their child would be away from them four mornings a week except for the occasional week where they would teach Joy School. Which takes only 3 hours of prep. Every 5-6 weeks.

I’m frustrated. I’ve never considered traditional preschool as an option.  I figure, I pass my kids off to the public school system for 13 years. I’m not in a hurry to get them out the door any sooner.

But I am definitely in the minority. Even among mothers who don’t work outside the home. And I’m having a hard time understanding why.

Why are we willing to fork out cash for someone else to teach our kids at ages 3-5? Is it because we can? Is it so we can catch a break? Is it because we believe someone else could do it better?

I really would like to understand where others are coming from. Because I personally am unwilling to pay someone over a thousand dollars (for nine months) to do something that I could almost as easily do myself.

I acknowledge that each of us pays others to do things that we could do ourselves.  I recently paid someone to paint interior columns and trim in my house because I just wanted to be done with my remodel.  I could have done it myself.  But I decided that avoiding the hassle of having to was worth paying someone else to do it.

I am reticent to do that with preschool for a number of reasons.  Partly because I’m cheap and partly because I enjoy teaching my children in general, particularly at this adorable age and stage.  And even if I didn’t like it, I would still do it because I do tons of things I don’t really like for the sake of my children.  Camping, anyone?

The moms who have politely declined my invitation to join a Joy School group are moms I admire.  They expend enormous amounts of time at home and in our community for the sake of their children (and others’).  I fully respect their right to determine where to place their energies as benefits their family most.

I just wish that more of them would choose Joy School.  Where are my mother’s co-op peeps?  Are we a dying breed?  And what can I do to appeal to moms who are on the fence?

After nine years of teaching my kids preschool, the thousands of dollars I’ve saved, and the fun memories associated with doing so, I can’t imagine doing anything else.  Add to that the fact that Jack’s special needs force me to question whether enrolling him in a class of up to 12 other rambunctious 3-4 year-olds would be prudent.

I just can’t stomach it.  So here’s to embarking on a Joy School recruitment campaign for the summer.  Wish me luck.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. April, of course.

April kicked off with a bang when Jack for his first infusion of zolendronic acid. This medication differs from the one Jack has been receiving since he was three months old in that each infusion lasts only about 1 hour from start to finish.

Compared with the three-day four-hour infusions that have become normal for us, this was a piece of cake. Not to mention, he only receives them twice a year (as opposed to the 3 times a year schedule of pamidronate he was on). Yay for Jack (and his very busy mother, too)!

Next up was my birthday-a chocolate affair, naturally. Not pictured: Tim (taking the picture), Anna (who, as I remember, napped through the whole celebration). My gift was season tickets to our local Shakespeare Festival-a summer favorite for me.

My loved ones provided a pizza dinner and I somehow got away with a nap. What more could a girl ask for?

Next up was Anna’s birthday party. We couldn’t very we’ll schedule it during spring break when many friends were out of town. So the day after my birthday, we carted all these awesome kids off for an escape room adventure, then back to our house for food and games.

I enjoyed seeing that Anna’s friend groups are varied-that she is anything BUT clique-ish. I also loved to watch these kids, who knew each other but didn’t really know each other get along so fabulously.

They ate us out of house and home and made a ton of noise downstairs. Thank heaven for that bonus room we added last year so we weren’t relegated to our bedrooms during the party.

I signed Tim up to chaperone Lily’s choir trip. He had the day off (it was Good Friday) and he had nothing better to do (ha!) so Lily had the pleasure of having her dad take her phone away at bedtime at the hotel. But she also had her dad there to buy her meals and the cold medicine she so desperately needed to survive the trip.

When she got back we took her to the doctor and she was diagnosed with a double ear infection. Yikes.

While they were gone we dyed Easter eggs. We probably did some other stuff, but since I neither have pictures to document it nor the memory to recall any details from over a month ago, this will do.

Our Easter egg hunt this year bucked tradition by happening inside the house. Owing to the fact that our yard was destroyed by our remodel and our patio and landscaping currently non-existent, we figured the interior of our abode a more hospitable location.

As usual, we hid their baskets in plain sight (meaning not behind closed doors) and we still managed to stump Lily. She clocked in at about 10 minutes of searching before finding hers.

The eggs were not quite so elusive. They were everywhere-so that even Jack could feel success in his efforts. It never ceases to amaze me how a simple Easter egg hunt never gets old for kids. Like ever.

Jack started swimming lessons, I taught Joy School once or twice, and Rachel won second place in the soccer ball throw (discus) in the Elementary City Track Meet.

Not an all-inclusive list-but that pretty much sums up our April.

What’s in a name?

Names are kind of a big deal to me.

As a young girl, I loved seeing the name plaques my parents hung on the walls of our home.  Each plaque featured our first names in calligraphy, with its meaning and a related verse of scripture beneath.

I appreciated knowing I was named after my mother’s dearest childhood friend, and that “Susie” meant “beautiful one”.  I committed to live up to my namesake and embody the characteristics that my name depicted.  

It didn’t hurt my teenage ego to know that my name meant “beautiful”, that’s for sure.

We selected each of our children’s names carefully, owing to my personal experience of feeling tied to my name.  Once I found out my firstborn was a girl, I spent her last five months in utero calling her by name in the hopes that my husband would agree with my selection.  

He didn’t know what hit him.  By the time I was pregnant with our third daughter, he knew the drill. So he put his foot down, saying, “I get to name this one”.  Thankfully, I agreed with him.

We didn’t find out the gender with our fourth.  So although we had a name picked out for each gender (Adam and Eve, interestingly enough), we failed to put the time into choosing a middle name.  

Consequently, we left the hospital giving her a biblical name (as we’d done with the others) and all was well.  Until we figured out that if we’d given her my mother’s name as her middle name, her initials would spell out her first name.  Eve Valerie Egbert.

Not willing to pass up such cleverness, we forked our the cash and went to court for an official name change. 

That’s how important names are to me.

All of our kids names are rich with meaning. Each child shares a name with either a parent or grandparent.  We gave them names of our favorite Bible heroes as well.  Hopefully, the stories between these characters in scripture and family members will inspire each of them as their knowledge of them grows.

To enrich my kids’ understanding of their names, I designed a few plaques of my own.  Not like the handwritten calligraphy ones of my childhood.  Graphic design, in true 21st century style.

Today I framed and put them on display.  

Instead of a bare wall on the landing, now we have a reason to pause and reflect on the meaning behind each of our names.  I caught each of my kids doing just that after they arrived home from school today.

I hope the trend continues.

When taking a “mental health day” just isn’t enough.

Several months ago I was chatting with a friend whose daughter had stayed home from school the day before. I asked, “Was she sick?”

“No, she just needed a mental health day,” was the reply.

Apparently, her daughter had been pushing herself too hard, not getting enough sleep and it all came to a head one night when she burst into tears at the slightest provocation. Thus warranting a “mental health day” as per mom’s orders.

Which basically meant she got to sleep in, go to brunch with mom, catch up on homework, take a nap, have a Diet Coke or two – whatever pampering was necessary to declare her good as new and send her back to school the next day.

Earlier in the school year, another friend was asking about each of my daughters. After mentioning that one of them was struggling with depression, she suggested that I pull her out of school every couple of weeks for a “mental health outing” of her choice.

After all, when her daughter was in junior high/high school, that’s what she did to mitigate the usual teenage drama. They’d spend one or two hours together shopping, getting pedicures or grabbing a bite to eat, all in an effort to get away from it all.

And all was fixed. Wham. Bam.

So tell me then. What do you do when your daughter never wants to get out of bed? When everyday life is too much to handle? When the frequency of meltdowns would warrant enough “mental health days” to make her a school dropout within a few weeks?

What to do when your best attempts to encourage your child to develop healthy habits are seen as pushy? How do you respond when despite facilitating numerous doctor and therapy appointments your kid’s attempts to implement the strategies learned there are minimal at best?

Where is the line between encouraging and enabling? Between supporting and coddling? At what point do you decide to let your child self-destruct? It’s exhausting trying to motivate another person to fulfill his/her obligations. Especially when she resents you for it anyway.

This is what depression looks like. It can’t be resolved by taking a mental health day, nor will a shopping spree or pedicure manage to make a sizable dent.

Depression clouds even the brightest of minds to believe that they are worthless. It convinces even the most talented individuals to lose hope in the future, to dwell on the mistakes of the past, to make mountains out of molehills.

And no amount of parental talk therapy can convince them otherwise.

They simply can’t see the forest for the trees. As a parent, it is heartbreaking to see and frustrating to deal with. So exasperating that one out of ten times, I lose patience with her, negating every step in the right direction we’ve made up to that point.

To be fair, my depressed daughter is incredibly high-functioning under the circumstances. She keeps plugging away, even though many days feel like an emotional marathon to her.

She is grounded in a belief that heavenly parents have a plan for her. That is huge.

She knows in her head that the world isn’t a horrible place altogether, despite the pit in her stomach that makes it seem so.

She pushes through the hard days, (albeit scowling) because she knows that to do otherwise would be giving in.

She navigates the inevitable disappointments of teenage life with a distorted view attributable to her brain chemistry. But she still keeps at it.

Some parents worry about their kids getting into an elite college(some will even pay good money to make sure they do).

Other parents spend insane amounts of time supporting their kids as athletes, or instrumentalists, or actors, all in the hopes that they achieve their highest potential.

This parent just wants her kid to be happy. She has more talent in her little finger than most people acquire after a lifetime of effort. If only her head would let her believe it.

PSA: If you are the parent of a depressed teenager, know you are not alone. Teenage depression is on the rise. We’re still figuring it out in our home, obviously, but here are a few places to start, if you’re wondering what has worked for us.

  1. Resist the urge to blame yourself and your parenting. Let’s be honest, we all have sucky parenting moments. Those parenting fails cannot be considered in a vacuum. If all parents zeroed in on only our worst moments as the most influential, every kid in the world would have cause for depression. Instead, move forward in the knowledge that this child was born into your family, and you have unique gifts to help them through their struggles.
  2. Listen. Need I say more? Depressed kids don’t need to hear how faulty their thinking is. At least not at first. Some of the things they say may shock you. Listen first. Then wait until the right moment to give advice.
  3. Work with your doctor to find the right course of treatment. Do not rule out certain forms of treatment (like medication) because of your own ideology.
  4. Therapy helps. Kids need to talk. They need to know they’ve got someone in their corner (besides their parents). It doesn’t hurt when that person has a fancy degree behind their name that says “I am qualified to treat this ailment.” Even if a therapist simply repeats what you as a parent have said over and over again, I guarantee it will be like your child is hearing it for the first time. Don’t be offended by that. Just be grateful they heard it.
  5. Don’t treat mental health like an ugly secret. If you tiptoe around the issue, it perpetuates the stigma. Having said that, it is important to be sensitive to your child’s need for privacy regarding the issue. It is her/his decision whether or not to be open about it. In fact, I invited my daughter to read this post and approve it before publishing. She agrees that openness helps others know they are not alone. And that is priceless for a person struggling with depression.

February and March Recap – the shamefully abbreviated version.

Besides a birthday party and a scout dinner during February, I had the pleasure of two art lessons in my elementary schoolers’ classes, two Joy School (preschool) lessons at my house, and about 20 basketball games between Rachel and Eve.

Add to that a major choir concert for Lily (for which I got to provide piano accompaniment) and a choir dinner show for Anna (for which I got to make two desserts to be auctioned off-guess what one of them was? You got it. Peanut butter chocolate cheesecake.)

Whoever said life was busy with five kids? Understatement of the year.

Fortunately for me, I actually enjoy Rachel’s games , Eve’s are entertaining as all get out, and it’s safe to say I love my kids’ choral events. All good things. Nonetheless, exhausting.

Cool teacher award goes to me for letting the kids jump on the couch and ottoman.
They look like they’re falling asleep but I can assure they’re as jazzed about Joy School as ever.
At the free throw line – take one.
2nd take – ready and engaged.
Band concert.
Rachel’s awesome basketball team this season.
Oh yeah, and then there was that time that I won the Wicked lottery and got 13th row seats for $25 a pop. Highlight of my year.

Due to Rachel’s foot injury in her basketball tournament (and my major burnout) we decided to cancel our spring break trip to Arches National Park. Considering that the weather in Boise was forecast to be considerably warmer than in Moab, it turned out to be a wise decision. So much for heading south.

We all worked on homework and projects, putting us in a better position to face our spring with optimism and enjoyment. Sometimes being boring pays off.

We also marked Anna’s 16th birthday at home for the first time in a long time. Her birthday inevitably falls on spring break so her celebration usually consists of a store-bought treat scarfed down in a hotel somewhere out of town. One year, she actually spent her birthday flying to Japan and missed all but two hours of it, owing to the difference in time zone.

This year, Tim got to treat her to brunch at our favorite breakfast joint (her first “date”) and we all showered her with love, presents, and her chosen birthday dessert – fruit pizza. This year has been a tough one for Anna and I think a low-key, mostly family celebration was just what the doctor ordered.

Leonardo Da Vinci One-Point Perspective – Elementary Art Lesson

Teaching about Leonardo Da Vinci to fourth-graders presents the perfect opportunity to practice portraits (Mona Lisa?). However, since I am one of three teachers in my daughter’s fourth grade class, and between the three of us we have done a combined total of three portrait lessons so far this academic year, I figured I would forego another one in favor of a lesson on linear perspective.

Da Vinci’s Last Supper provides a perfect example of one-point perspective, so naturally we studied it as our guide. My only problem came in deciding on a project they could tackle (and be proud of) in just under an hour. Tall order.

This was my first drawing. I threw in the towel after realizing that there was no way a bunch of ten-year-olds could complete any semblance of what had taken me half an hour to create (and it was unfinished, not to mention).

My second. Slightly easier. But only slightly.

So I settled on the field of tulips. Easy in terms of drawing. Plus, they got to add color. Definite win.

We first read Mike Venezia’s book on Leonardo Da Vinci.

  • Using a ruler, mark the edges of your paper at each inch.
  • Draw a horizon line somewhere in the top third.
  • Draw lines from your vanishing point to several marks along the edge of your page (below the horizon line)
  • Draw objects (houses, trees, windmills, etc.) along your horizon line.
  • Color the objects in with black sharpie.
  • Use watercolor pencils to draw tulips in each section.
  • Shade lightly over each section of tulips in the same color.
  • Use water and a brush to blend the pencil on the page.

Here’s a Powerpoint explaining the lesson in detail:

Leonardo Da Vinci One Point PerspectiveDownload

Elementary Art Night 2019

Art Night has kind of been a big deal every year for the last nine in our family. I would describe my relationship with Art Night as a love/hate one.

I can remember one year-it was the year all four of my daughters attended elementary school and I taught art in each of their classes. I spent pretty much every waking hour at the school, draping the walls with black gallery wrap, mounting, labeling and then hanging every stinkin’ piece of artwork. (Can you sense the fatigue?)

I arrived home that Friday night, sick (literally) and tired. I sent my husband out the door with the kiddos so they could revel in pride over their masterpieces. Without me. I’d seen enough.

I’m sure most art teachers at our school feel similarly. We love our kids so we volunteer to teach art in their classes (which is the fun part, of course). Then Art Night rolls around and the prep is so exhausting we end up cursing the day we ever agreed to such a thing.

Except…the children. Our beloved children. Art Night is the single event at our school that highlights the work of every single student at the elementary. That’s pretty darn awesome.

So I keep going back for more. Year after year. After blasted year.

In fact, this year I enjoyed the added pleasure of being in charge of the whole thing. Lucky me!

Truly, it was a joy. And here’s why:

  1. I had an amazing team of volunteers. I simply gave them individual assignments and they ran with them.
  2. I maintain an attitude that if people want to complain about how I run things, they can do it next time. I don’t get paid a dime for what I do, which doesn’t mean I do a crappy job, but it does take a lot of the pressure off of everything having to be perfect, you know?
  3. The school have us the red light on a couple of “traditions” that, in the past, characterized Art Night. (Wrapping the hallways in black paper and serving food). This was a bit of a downer for some, BUT, it freed up a lot of time to do other things to spice up Art Night.

So what went well? The Doodle Wall was a big hit, student music performances generated a lot of participation, the art auction earned a healthy chunk of cash.

We also had a photo op (using Munch’s “The Scream”), lined the walls with posters of works by the masters and quotes by other famous artists, and each member of the Art Night “committee” wore awesome aprons so everyone knew of whom they could ask questions.

We also have the most amazing art teachers a school could ask for. Our kids are getting regular art instruction from some of the very best.

What went wrong? Well, Tim ended up having to travel to Michigan for the weekend for his grandpa’s funeral. It was, of course a wonderful occasion for him to visit with family, but it definitely made an already busy/stressful weekend into a one-woman show.

Even that turned out to be a blessing because without my slave labor, all my friends kicked it up a notch and saved the day by supporting me every step of the way.