The Cunningham Family: Around Here: Week 37 2025

{September 7-13th}

The twins' coworker Andy
(See below for the story)

An ode to teenage Shelly

Carly's Class

Loving... how creative Carly is. Mainly with her food lately. She makes sandwiches and snacks that look so fun and appetizing. But she also got creative in the bathtub this week as she figured out how to make bubbles with her hands. They're huge! Love that girl!

Laughing... at an old reference in The Baby-Sitters Club book we're reading- a public pay phone. The girls were searching their pockets for change to pay for a phone call. Isn't it funny- we all used a pay phone for the last time and didn't know it was the last time.

Grateful... for a neighbor who shares the bounty of her garden with me. Garden fresh tomatoes in summer simply can't be beat. And getting to enjoy her gourde arbor while gathering said tomatoes was icing on the cake.

Subbing... all week in kindergarten, which is tough. Kindergartners at the beginning of the year are like wild horses. They are not yet broken in. Hah! You tie a lot of shoes and answer a lot of questions and redirect misbehavior. It's exhausting. For the teacher and the students. One of my kiddos this week got so tired one afternoon he started talking to me in Spanish after speaking in English all day. I finally had to stop him and say, "Hey buddy, you're telling me something in Spanish, but Mrs. Cunningham doesn't know Spanish. Can you try again in English?" Bless his exhausted little heart. Hah!

Melting... when the AC wasn't working in one of the kindergarten portables I was subbing in. It got up to 78 degrees, and let me tell you, that feels like 100 when you're trying to manage the chaos of 16 five-year-olds learning how to do school.

Capturing... pictures of my children sleeping. Out of respect, I won't share the boys' sleeping pics, but gosh... why are our children so beautiful in sleep? The twins becoming seniors (gulp) is almost like time is going backwards. I find myself wanting to take pictures of them doing everything like I did when they were babies. "Here is Logan eating lasagna." "Here is Jack walking to the car." "Here are the twins sitting on the couch watching a show." I just want to scoop up all these memories and store them away.

Emailing... the boys' 21 collective teachers (3 boys, 7 teachers each) to make sure they were aware of the boys' 504 plans and to reach out and ask them to let me know if they have any questions or concerns. Not every teacher responded (which I totally understand!) but many did, which was so heartwarming. I truly believe that parents and teachers work best when we are a team. I feel that way both as a parent, and as a teacher.

Ordering... more jeans for Wyatt, who used to only wear cozy sweat pants, but branched out to jeans this year during back-to-school shopping. He's so cute!

Helping... Carly order her K-Pop Demon Hunters poster and t-shirt with her money. She can't wait for them to come!

Feeling... a pull to write more. It was actually inspired by a show I watched about the evangelical movement/purity movement of the 90's on Amazon Prime. Shiny Happy People Season 2: A Teenage Holy War. Hopefully I can share some of that soon.

Blown away... by Carly reading an entire article in my National Geographic magazine and being able to give me a synopsis of what she read. It was about a girl with highly incurable seizures and the treatment one doctor thought might work. There were SO many huge words in the article, I couldn't believe she could read it. She continually impresses me.

Identifying... with Carly's need to stop whatever she's doing to write down the song lyrics she thinks of as soon as they come to her. I always think, "I'll remember what I'm thinking"... and I never remember. So she's smart to stop and jot it down.

Shocked... by the death of Charlie Kirk. I may not have agreed with him politically or morally, but no one should be murdered for practicing free speech. My boys were all reeling as well.

Finding... one of my kids doing something that really rocked me. I have to be honest, it made me wonder if I really love my kids unconditionally. I wrestled with that for a while and reached the conclusion that I do love them unconditionally, but I don't like their choices unconditionally. And that's okay. I also realized that I can have boundaries around certain behaviors. It has been months (four months now?) of battling, and when I tell you I am tired, it doesn't even scratch the surface. I am weary in my soul. I am tired of fighting and arguing and doling out consequences. I am tired of bribing and begging and crying. I'm just tired. At one point this week, I rolled up to the high school parking lot in my pajamas, driving up and down the rows to find my kiddo who was not where he was supposed to be. My other kids said it was diabolical. That was peak parenting, I believe. We're in the "find out" stage of "F*** around & find out".

Constantly... unlocking new hard levels of parenting, specifically with the twins. They think it is their job to ~~baby-sit~~ watch each other and Josh & I are having to constantly remind them that they are not their brothers' keeper. They only have to worry about themselves and let us do the parenting for their twin. It's a unique challenge and a battle that I might never win. They are part of each other and will naturally look out for one another their whole lives, I believe. I just need to make sure that they know that's not our expectation of them.

Making... myself a new screensaver for my phone with our new family pictures and a Mel Robbins quote that is helping me take life one day at a time. "No matter what happens today, I can handle it." It's really empowering and it's helping me feel peaceful despite what insane roller coaster the kids may be on.

Watching... Unknown Number: The High School Catfish and feeling shocked and gutted by who it was. If you haven't seen it, it's disturbing, but you also can't look away. It's on Netflix.

Loving... watching Carly as she opened the Barbie bride my mom ordered for her. She was an old fashion barbie (sooo classy and beautiful, with red lips and red nails) in the most beautiful dress. Carly swapped the dress for a different outfit so she could use the wedding dress for one of her K-Pop Demon Hunter characters. The Barbie came with a bouquet, a garter, a veil and the cutest shoes. So fun! Thanks Nanny!!!

Parenting... through some hard shit this week and finding lots of reminders that you just gotta keep showing up. So that's what I'm doing. Tired? Show up. Frustrated? Show up. Sad? Angry? At a loss? Show up anyway. Thanks to this tough week, though, Josh and I mapped out privileges and consequences the kids can earn depending on their behavior at school. We are hopeful this will motivate them to make the right choices (which will lead to driving and curfew privileges) and discourage the wrong choices (loss of phones and friend time). Honestly most of the time I feel like I'm out here trail blazing, just 1000% making it up as I go.

Happy... for Wyatt as his RC car came. It's the cutest truck and he loves it!!!

Cracking up... as the twins' work truck broke down and they had to use my van for bounce house deliveries, with their coworker Andy sitting in Carly's booster seat. Haha! I don't know how they got it all to fit, but they did!

Indulging... in some self care on Saturday after a long-ass week. I took a nap and almost read We All Want Impossible Things in one sitting. It was exactly what I needed.

Curious... how chores work for your family? Do you give allowance? Or is it just part of living at your house? Do you grant privileges or give consequences if your kids don't do their chores in a timely manner? I'd love to hear what works for you.

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